Spoilers Coda: Book 3: Oblivion's Gate by David Mack Review Thread

Well, I did say this...

Though an 80-year-old Kirk delivering a flying leg kick to a Naga would be hilarious!

 

I was thinking more of his iconic speeches. plus 80 isn’t old in the Trek universe. Picard is that age

 

I don't think Kirk, even at the height of his rhetorical prowess, would be able to talk the Devidians into self-destructing.

 

Interesting.

The Dark Veil does describe a Titan that has ponts of similarity and points of difference with litverse Titan. Riker is captaining and is alongside Troi, Vale is his XO and Keru is on the bridge; however, key personnel are also different, and the litverse's mission of exploration was apparently cancelled owing to the Romulan crisis. This fits, I think, with a pattern of subtle differences between Prime and the litverse eventually building up into something big as the 2370s progressed.

One of the smaller differences seems to be with Troi. There is no obvious evidence that she suffered the reproductive health issues that she did in the early Titan books and in Destiny, between the existence of Thad born around 2380 and the apparently unplanned conception of Kestra some years later. Perhaps the Prime timeline is one where her health issues were not only recognized earlier but were actually treatable.

 

I'm guessing that (1) you haven't finished, and (2) you'll decide your hypotheses hold up fairly well by the time you do.

 

For those who might be interested in a glimpse behind the curtain, into the creative process behind Oblivion’s Gate and the Coda trilogy as a whole, I offer this new exclusive interview of yours truly, conducted by Paul Semel.

 

"RISK... is what this universe is all about! That's why we're IN HER!"

EDIT: maybe if we ask real nice we can have the flying Naga kick added to the next printing of the Kirk Fu Manual

 

Seems to me that the Devidians' combination of parasitism on and contempt for other sentients is a good metaphor for institutional racism.

And for Trumpism.

 

That part about giving some suggestions to the Prodigy team, was Rok-Tahk's species being named Brikar one of those?

 

I mean more of his speeches to rally up the crew.

 

Possibly.

 

Less than 20 minutes to go

 

I'm going to do something I almost never do--read the very last part first. I don't think I can handle reading this one blind. (Then, I can go back and read the second one.)

 

I think the ending is at the start.

I’m 55 pages in and I don’t like where this is going. If only they knew how godawful the Prime universe is. They wouldn’t be so willing to sacrifice everything to save it. I would just let it burn.
Hopefully there is more to it and that isn’t the case. Saying it’s after First Contact is interesting. Does that mean Insurrection and Nemesis aren’t canon?

 

No, it's saying that the longer they spend moving away from First Contact, the more likely it is that minor differences in the timelines will become major differences. Both timelines had versions of Insurrection and Nemesis, possibly even identical versions — but that as they continued forward in time, the variations between the different timelines became more pronounced.

 

I loved Riker’s conversation to the President and Akaar. That was hilarious. Riker channelling his inner Eric Cartman.
Just finished Part 1. The Defiant going to the Borg timeline should be fun. We haven’t seen that universe since Engines of Destiny so that should be interesting to see what’s different.

 

Hm, didn’t Mirror Picard know Mirror Wesley? Or am I confusing MU stories?

 

From Q&A? Probably another variation of the MU.

 

Maybe. Or maybe what was shown there is one possible timeline.

 

DS9 and Voyager also seem to have had the same experiences in the two timelines.