Spoilers Catching up on the last 4 years of TrekLit
- Thread starter Thrawn
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^Wow, thank you so much for that very complimentary review. I needed some cheering up, and this helps.
Could you do me a favor and repost that review on Amazon, if you haven't already? The more reviews our books get there, the higher they rank in Amazon's search algorithms, or something like that. And this review is a keeper, I think.
I'll definitely put a review on Amazon, though since that's under my real name, I'll write one that's different (still glowing, I promise!) at some point over the next few days.
I wasn't, no - I'm still interested in those books, but they'll be for a later catch-up. I felt like this was already quite a project :-)
I read The Buried Age back when it first came out, and loved it.
The Enterprise War
The short version of this one is that I really liked the setup but found the ending pretty disappointing.
More specifically, the first two thirds of this are wonderful, just as much fun as Miller’s prior Absent Enemies and Takedown and the big action sequences in Prey. The big battle in the middle where everything goes wrong is a particular delight – the emergence of the Rengru is that perfect both-surprising-and-inevitable thing, and the disaster afterwards is great. Stuff like having everyone live in the saucer upside down for a few months shows a creativity with the confines of the storytelling that’s fun; the sort of thing that would be incredibly hard to do in a show but is fun to imagine in a novel. Miller’s writing is confident and cinematic – all this is easy to envision. I also, in theory, like the Boundless/Rengru fight – a nice Trekky example of alienness reading as hostility. By about the two thirds mark I was totally sold on some spunky, fun Star Trek fighting against overwhelming odds and moralizing.
After that, though, the only thing that works for me is Spock’s stuff which we basically knew already. Aside from that, this is just sort of... dumb? Which kind of makes it appropriate for a tie-in to Discovery, unfortunately. It has a lot of the same problems. The overall situation is interesting, but not especially well thought out. The ultimate answers just strain credibility for me, I guess? That in HUNDREDS OF YEARS no one would have ever become bonded with a Rengru and been like "uh, this isn't what you think..." It almost happens a few time in the narrative itself! Also, the resolution is almost Star Trekky in a good way except that in execution no one actually decides anything or risks anything. The whole story is a bunch of misunderstandings leading to Una bonding with the creature then just fixing everything. Once that happens, the rest is a foregone conclusion. It makes a bunch of ongoing arcs sort of end pointlessly. Like, Connolly’s development is really awkward as a result. In the context of the book, his whole plan doesn’t matter at all once Pike takes over, so that feels like a waste of time, and in the context of the show it's even more uncomfortable and sort of tragic since he keeps pushing himself further but ends up on the path to dying in Disco 2x01. And aside from Connolly and Spock’s pre-Disco development, the only character with an arc is Galajian. That arc comes the closest to being something really good about this book but also falls short in the end. The whole thing is a bit too much of a caricature and he’s not different enough at the end to who he was at the beginning. Both times, the way he saves the day is with the idea.
And the whole thing at the end where Pike is just a dick for no reason to all the Boundless during the transit to the homeworld is just really off-putting. He has no reason to be superior; he has information they lack, that’s all. He could sensitively describe the situation and show them, but no, he’s excited to just be a condescending ass. I don’t think he has no reason to be mad, it’s just that a lot of Star Trek is supposed to be about moving beyond that kind of reaction. This doesn’t read as triumphant, it just reads as mean, rather similar to my problems with the final confrontation with the villain in Prey.
Pike, in this novel, oscillates between kind of aimless and depressed and this sort of weird triumphant vindictiveness, neither of which has anything to do with his Discovery characterization. It’s really odd. The weirdest part is that JJM builds a character arc for Pike, about him getting over a traumatic experience with a cave-in as a kid when a friend died, and even has the climax happen as Pike runs a bomb down into a cave, but doesn’t mention the cave-in during the sequence or give any emotional consequences at the end. I was all ready for an arc about him overcoming his fear and getting a new joy in life but: nothing. All the pieces, none of the follow through. Odd.
I still think that this basically works, overall, but just barely; the action is good, the overall plot makes sense for keeping the Enterprise away for so long and messing up Spock and putting the ship in the state where it breaks over a holo-transmission, and aside from Pike the characters are on point. He also does a lot of great continuity spackling to make a lot of different things play well together – various Pike adventures, contradictions between Disco and the Disco tie-ins, etc. But man does this whiff the ending. Weird; the ending was my favorite part of Prey.
Next up: I don't usually read the TOS novels (making an exception for anything with Christopher's name on it) so I'll be passing over The Antares Maelstrom, meaning Collateral Damage is up next. Very interested in the outcome of the Section 31 story.
The short version of this one is that I really liked the setup but found the ending pretty disappointing.
More specifically, the first two thirds of this are wonderful, just as much fun as Miller’s prior Absent Enemies and Takedown and the big action sequences in Prey. The big battle in the middle where everything goes wrong is a particular delight – the emergence of the Rengru is that perfect both-surprising-and-inevitable thing, and the disaster afterwards is great. Stuff like having everyone live in the saucer upside down for a few months shows a creativity with the confines of the storytelling that’s fun; the sort of thing that would be incredibly hard to do in a show but is fun to imagine in a novel. Miller’s writing is confident and cinematic – all this is easy to envision. I also, in theory, like the Boundless/Rengru fight – a nice Trekky example of alienness reading as hostility. By about the two thirds mark I was totally sold on some spunky, fun Star Trek fighting against overwhelming odds and moralizing.
After that, though, the only thing that works for me is Spock’s stuff which we basically knew already. Aside from that, this is just sort of... dumb? Which kind of makes it appropriate for a tie-in to Discovery, unfortunately. It has a lot of the same problems. The overall situation is interesting, but not especially well thought out. The ultimate answers just strain credibility for me, I guess? That in HUNDREDS OF YEARS no one would have ever become bonded with a Rengru and been like "uh, this isn't what you think..." It almost happens a few time in the narrative itself! Also, the resolution is almost Star Trekky in a good way except that in execution no one actually decides anything or risks anything. The whole story is a bunch of misunderstandings leading to Una bonding with the creature then just fixing everything. Once that happens, the rest is a foregone conclusion. It makes a bunch of ongoing arcs sort of end pointlessly. Like, Connolly’s development is really awkward as a result. In the context of the book, his whole plan doesn’t matter at all once Pike takes over, so that feels like a waste of time, and in the context of the show it's even more uncomfortable and sort of tragic since he keeps pushing himself further but ends up on the path to dying in Disco 2x01. And aside from Connolly and Spock’s pre-Disco development, the only character with an arc is Galajian. That arc comes the closest to being something really good about this book but also falls short in the end. The whole thing is a bit too much of a caricature and he’s not different enough at the end to who he was at the beginning. Both times, the way he saves the day is with the idea.
And the whole thing at the end where Pike is just a dick for no reason to all the Boundless during the transit to the homeworld is just really off-putting. He has no reason to be superior; he has information they lack, that’s all. He could sensitively describe the situation and show them, but no, he’s excited to just be a condescending ass. I don’t think he has no reason to be mad, it’s just that a lot of Star Trek is supposed to be about moving beyond that kind of reaction. This doesn’t read as triumphant, it just reads as mean, rather similar to my problems with the final confrontation with the villain in Prey.
Pike, in this novel, oscillates between kind of aimless and depressed and this sort of weird triumphant vindictiveness, neither of which has anything to do with his Discovery characterization. It’s really odd. The weirdest part is that JJM builds a character arc for Pike, about him getting over a traumatic experience with a cave-in as a kid when a friend died, and even has the climax happen as Pike runs a bomb down into a cave, but doesn’t mention the cave-in during the sequence or give any emotional consequences at the end. I was all ready for an arc about him overcoming his fear and getting a new joy in life but: nothing. All the pieces, none of the follow through. Odd.
I still think that this basically works, overall, but just barely; the action is good, the overall plot makes sense for keeping the Enterprise away for so long and messing up Spock and putting the ship in the state where it breaks over a holo-transmission, and aside from Pike the characters are on point. He also does a lot of great continuity spackling to make a lot of different things play well together – various Pike adventures, contradictions between Disco and the Disco tie-ins, etc. But man does this whiff the ending. Weird; the ending was my favorite part of Prey.
Next up: I don't usually read the TOS novels (making an exception for anything with Christopher's name on it) so I'll be passing over The Antares Maelstrom, meaning Collateral Damage is up next. Very interested in the outcome of the Section 31 story.
Something to keep in mind, and John will correct me if I'm wrong: he wrote this without having seen Anson Mount actually play Pike. So he was probably taking more cues from Jeffrey Hunter than he was Mount (with perhaps a bit of Bruce Greenwood thrown in). I mean, "kind of aimless and depressed and this sort of weird triumphant vindictiveness," is a perfect description of how Hunter played the role......
And yet I felt his version of Pike was compatible with Mount's portrayal.
It is the case the book was written with Hunter obviously having been seen, and Mount’s scripts in view — but most of the shows he appeared in were only available during the proofreading pass (where we did make adjustments).
I’ll never tell anyone their opinion is wrong — you paid your money — but I hope I never serve under a captain who makes nice with people who enslaved me for a year and made me fight. As Riker said when faced with the option of exploring the Borg Cube after what they did to his captain and Starfleet, “I don’t think so.”
I’ll never tell anyone their opinion is wrong — you paid your money — but I hope I never serve under a captain who makes nice with people who enslaved me for a year and made me fight. As Riker said when faced with the option of exploring the Borg Cube after what they did to his captain and Starfleet, “I don’t think so.”
^ Also a fair point.
For what it's worth - and I know it's worth very little; I would never expect a professional author to care much about what some dude on a messageboard thinks - the facility you've shown with action sequences and that same kind of moral fury makes me really excited to check out your Star Wars work at some point. As much as it left an odd flavor in my mouth in your Trek entries, it makes me think your Star Wars work must be absolutely badass. So you've made at least one more sale...
For what it's worth - and I know it's worth very little; I would never expect a professional author to care much about what some dude on a messageboard thinks - the facility you've shown with action sequences and that same kind of moral fury makes me really excited to check out your Star Wars work at some point. As much as it left an odd flavor in my mouth in your Trek entries, it makes me think your Star Wars work must be absolutely badass. So you've made at least one more sale...
Thanks — I generally stay out of review threads, but have appreciated the detail you’ve brought to your approach. And this was a point of characterization we did look closely at, so it’s worth discussing.
To put my thinking another way, understanding can resolve a dispute a lot faster than it can resolve feelings — thus Pike’s and Riker’s responses are in keeping with what we know about them. If they aren’t ideal for diplomatic relations or scientific advancement, they do reflect the devotion you want to see in someone responsible for a lot of personnel.
The Boundless’s problem, of course, is they never sought to understand — and between the long transformation period and their own fears, they were never likely to. (No Colonial Marine waits around to see what a chestburster might have to say!) Una’s experience was unique, both in terms of duration and whom she had around her, and that made all the difference.
In anything, there’s also always a question writers face of how widespread Roddenberry’s ideal vision of humanity is at various points in the timeline — my sense from TOS and, more proximately, Discovery, is it’s still very much a work in progress.
To put my thinking another way, understanding can resolve a dispute a lot faster than it can resolve feelings — thus Pike’s and Riker’s responses are in keeping with what we know about them. If they aren’t ideal for diplomatic relations or scientific advancement, they do reflect the devotion you want to see in someone responsible for a lot of personnel.
The Boundless’s problem, of course, is they never sought to understand — and between the long transformation period and their own fears, they were never likely to. (No Colonial Marine waits around to see what a chestburster might have to say!) Una’s experience was unique, both in terms of duration and whom she had around her, and that made all the difference.
In anything, there’s also always a question writers face of how widespread Roddenberry’s ideal vision of humanity is at various points in the timeline — my sense from TOS and, more proximately, Discovery, is it’s still very much a work in progress.
I'm really excited about that one. She's a great character, but Disco hasn't always been so awesome with the character work and I think there are some real missing pieces in her story that need to be addressed. Your Trek work has been outstanding so far at that kind of continuity work, and as you say, "badass" seems like a good fit too!
Collateral Damage
I'm 100% in favor of Star Trek's more questioning, darker tone that has risen in both the novels and the shows lately; I'm one of the people all in on Seven's darker turn and Starfleet's darker turn in Picard, for instance, and I find the Star Trek novels that stare true despair in the face some of the best, often the ones written by David Mack (Wildfire, Destiny, Reap the Whirlwind, even Control mostly). But this, weirdly and to my genuine surprise, features a vision of Starfleet that find genuinely distasteful.
It's not that everyone is struggling with Section 31's reveal and aftermath, but rather that everyone in this book seems really... incompetent and unpleasant? Particularly the women (which as a choice is a bit uncomfortable anyway) - both Smrhova and Louvois seem rampantly unprofessional, out of control as their emotions dictate their actions far beyond what I would expect from someone in either position. Smrhova spends most of the book actively interfering in the mission of an agent on the same side as she is, and everyone seems to act like that's totally fine, if not hilarious and admirable. And then, even worse, at the end Mack removes her agency and perspective and turns her into the punchline of a joke in Okona's favor, which I honestly found pretty deplorable. When Worf, at the end, contemplated her as XO, I was frankly baffled. Though Worf himself wasn't great here, also constantly fighting against SI for no reason other than a refusal to stop being involved in someone else's mission because he felt like it. Though SI wasn't great here either, accidentally almost destroying the Federation flagship... Nothing but incompetence and irrationality compounded over and over from all sides. I found it just uncomfortable to read. There wasn't anyone in that whole story I could really get behind; even Geordi, who might have the best character work here that he's had in a long time, still has a weird moment where he's considering saying Elfiki is insubordinate for doing something totally normal. In Picard's plotline, I at least found Picard and his lawyer admirable, but was so put off by Louvois that I didn't enjoy those sections either.
Don't get me wrong - I am *totally* happy to analyze the downsides, blind spots, and errors of the Federation. In broad strokes, both of the stories in this book are compelling, and to Mack's credit the resolution of the Nausicaan story is elegant and extremely well-done; that was maybe the only thing in the whole novel that felt to me like Star Trek. Worf is an excellent version of Worf for the first time all book long, and the story is god damn right that Starfleet should be ashamed of this, and also quite believable that it had made the mistake in the first place. And the question asked at Picard's trial is no less plausible or compelling. But if Louvois had been cool, completely professional, and dedicated to being as intense and aggressive as possible to either discover any real wrongdoing or to leave no doubt as to Picard's innocence I don't think that story would've lost any urgency and it would have felt like a real grown up instead of the unpleasant, somewhat hysterical character he rendered instead.
In the end, I'm really happy with, like, a fairly broad summary of what happens in this book, but in the particulars I found reading it uncomfortable. Not in the "I'm troubled by these serious questions" way, but rather the "these do not feel like the characters I know" way. It didn't feel like a deconstruction or interrogation of Star Trek, it just felt... wrong. A rare misfire for David Mack, whose work I generally think is quite exceptional.
Next up: Dead Endless. I know nothing about this book either; I have no idea what to expect!
I'm 100% in favor of Star Trek's more questioning, darker tone that has risen in both the novels and the shows lately; I'm one of the people all in on Seven's darker turn and Starfleet's darker turn in Picard, for instance, and I find the Star Trek novels that stare true despair in the face some of the best, often the ones written by David Mack (Wildfire, Destiny, Reap the Whirlwind, even Control mostly). But this, weirdly and to my genuine surprise, features a vision of Starfleet that find genuinely distasteful.
It's not that everyone is struggling with Section 31's reveal and aftermath, but rather that everyone in this book seems really... incompetent and unpleasant? Particularly the women (which as a choice is a bit uncomfortable anyway) - both Smrhova and Louvois seem rampantly unprofessional, out of control as their emotions dictate their actions far beyond what I would expect from someone in either position. Smrhova spends most of the book actively interfering in the mission of an agent on the same side as she is, and everyone seems to act like that's totally fine, if not hilarious and admirable. And then, even worse, at the end Mack removes her agency and perspective and turns her into the punchline of a joke in Okona's favor, which I honestly found pretty deplorable. When Worf, at the end, contemplated her as XO, I was frankly baffled. Though Worf himself wasn't great here, also constantly fighting against SI for no reason other than a refusal to stop being involved in someone else's mission because he felt like it. Though SI wasn't great here either, accidentally almost destroying the Federation flagship... Nothing but incompetence and irrationality compounded over and over from all sides. I found it just uncomfortable to read. There wasn't anyone in that whole story I could really get behind; even Geordi, who might have the best character work here that he's had in a long time, still has a weird moment where he's considering saying Elfiki is insubordinate for doing something totally normal. In Picard's plotline, I at least found Picard and his lawyer admirable, but was so put off by Louvois that I didn't enjoy those sections either.
Don't get me wrong - I am *totally* happy to analyze the downsides, blind spots, and errors of the Federation. In broad strokes, both of the stories in this book are compelling, and to Mack's credit the resolution of the Nausicaan story is elegant and extremely well-done; that was maybe the only thing in the whole novel that felt to me like Star Trek. Worf is an excellent version of Worf for the first time all book long, and the story is god damn right that Starfleet should be ashamed of this, and also quite believable that it had made the mistake in the first place. And the question asked at Picard's trial is no less plausible or compelling. But if Louvois had been cool, completely professional, and dedicated to being as intense and aggressive as possible to either discover any real wrongdoing or to leave no doubt as to Picard's innocence I don't think that story would've lost any urgency and it would have felt like a real grown up instead of the unpleasant, somewhat hysterical character he rendered instead.
In the end, I'm really happy with, like, a fairly broad summary of what happens in this book, but in the particulars I found reading it uncomfortable. Not in the "I'm troubled by these serious questions" way, but rather the "these do not feel like the characters I know" way. It didn't feel like a deconstruction or interrogation of Star Trek, it just felt... wrong. A rare misfire for David Mack, whose work I generally think is quite exceptional.
Next up: Dead Endless. I know nothing about this book either; I have no idea what to expect!
^I kind of saw the reaction of the Enterprise crew, and in particular Smrhova's reaction, as a reflection of current conflicts between various groups in police work. For instance, local/state police are frequently put off when the FBI gets involved in some investigation. And that's compounded by the attitude of 'need to know' so the various groups can't share information making it worse. And Smrhova is suspicious of Okona, I think to some extent for good reason. Is he really on our side, or is he just looking out for himself? Okona is a maverick, but I did like how David Mack put in a few cases where even he had limits. Like when Okona was willing to sacrifice himself rather than see a bunch of innocents perish. He may have ethical issues, but he's not totally immoral.
I do agree the last scene with Smrhova and Okona was a bit unfortunate. I know Mack was building up some sexual tension between the two. We see it a lot on TV where two people that hate each other end up in bed together---and sometimes its amusing because everyone but the two people can see what's going on. But it would have been nice if maybe Mack had surprised the readers a bit and didn't end things that way. Maybe instead have the two of them come to some mutual respect and shake hands before going their separate ways.
Louvois was generally unlikable and unrepentant. I think he was building on her passion for trying these types of cases and it was thrown in that she believed in Picard before that. But I agree, maybe Mack went a bit too far in that regard. I was kind of bothered that she (and Admiral Batanides for that matter) failed to see things from Picard's side at all. He really did prevent a war and there was no evidence he knew of Section 31s involvement, quite the contrary.
Picard truly had a no win situation on his hands. He made the best decision he could, and did what he could, and he picked the least bad option. Sometimes in any military organization that's all you can do. And it bothered me a bit that Louvois failed to even consider that. He did prevent a war that would have taken millions, or even billions of lives, and probably more because the Federation would have been in an even worse position during the Borg invasion not long after. I can understand her being disappointed in Picard to some extent. But to fail to see all the damage exposure would have caused lowers my opinion of the character even more.
The book was sort of the antithesis of where Picard is now in the show. In the book he will never be admiral (well, short of some major shift or event that makes it prudent in the litverse). And unlike the show, here we see Starfleet in the form of Admiral Akaar (and some others) actively helping Picard. In the show Starfleet has abandoned Picard. Here in this novel it is trying to help him. And it ends with optimism for the future. It's one thing I always liked about Star Trek. It's not utopian as some mistakenly think. There are problems, we make mistakes like any mortals do. But at the end of the day we are in a better place then where we started. That's one thing I liked about Collateral Damage. It ends with Picard, Starfleet and the Federation in a better place then where it started.
I do agree the last scene with Smrhova and Okona was a bit unfortunate. I know Mack was building up some sexual tension between the two. We see it a lot on TV where two people that hate each other end up in bed together---and sometimes its amusing because everyone but the two people can see what's going on. But it would have been nice if maybe Mack had surprised the readers a bit and didn't end things that way. Maybe instead have the two of them come to some mutual respect and shake hands before going their separate ways.
Louvois was generally unlikable and unrepentant. I think he was building on her passion for trying these types of cases and it was thrown in that she believed in Picard before that. But I agree, maybe Mack went a bit too far in that regard. I was kind of bothered that she (and Admiral Batanides for that matter) failed to see things from Picard's side at all. He really did prevent a war and there was no evidence he knew of Section 31s involvement, quite the contrary.
Picard truly had a no win situation on his hands. He made the best decision he could, and did what he could, and he picked the least bad option. Sometimes in any military organization that's all you can do. And it bothered me a bit that Louvois failed to even consider that. He did prevent a war that would have taken millions, or even billions of lives, and probably more because the Federation would have been in an even worse position during the Borg invasion not long after. I can understand her being disappointed in Picard to some extent. But to fail to see all the damage exposure would have caused lowers my opinion of the character even more.
The book was sort of the antithesis of where Picard is now in the show. In the book he will never be admiral (well, short of some major shift or event that makes it prudent in the litverse). And unlike the show, here we see Starfleet in the form of Admiral Akaar (and some others) actively helping Picard. In the show Starfleet has abandoned Picard. Here in this novel it is trying to help him. And it ends with optimism for the future. It's one thing I always liked about Star Trek. It's not utopian as some mistakenly think. There are problems, we make mistakes like any mortals do. But at the end of the day we are in a better place then where we started. That's one thing I liked about Collateral Damage. It ends with Picard, Starfleet and the Federation in a better place then where it started.
Dead Endless
Man, the first half of this one is trippy. The combination of the ways in which it is intentionally weird and unintentionally weird makes for a bizarre experience. Galanter's writing took a long time for me to get ahold of; it feels to me like his conversations between the Disco crew members only focus on the negative moments, making everything feel alienating and uncomfortable. And the conversations with Ephraim, while successfully in character and convincing, are still on one level way too obvious to merit that much wordcount (I'm a Star Trek fan; I totally get multiple realities as a concept) and on another level way too vague to merit them (all the specifics come in the second half of the novel). Either way, the first half is bogged down in truly odd attempts at casual conversation and truly odd attempts at… well, at being odd, but that don’t quite work for me.
But: once Culber and Stamets start sparking and they come up with the plan to re-quantum-shift the spores, the rest of the book works much better, and in the end gives us a fascinating understanding and contextualization for the Mycelial Plane that’s helpful (and that should’ve been on the show in the first place). Of particular note are the aliens having their own Prime Directive and humanity just barely qualifying, and the clarification that Ephraim gives other individuals the ability to come visit, which provides fodder for many possible explanations about why humanity (and everyone else) never goes back again. Perhaps Ephraim, to whom time is vague, just follows Stamets into the future and doesn’t realize the time skipped; perhaps Ephraim is waiting to see how this goes before trying another; perhaps he has in other universes; etc, etc. Plenty to play with there.
And I do think the love story is completely convincing - all of those scenes were strong!
So on balance: great. But it does take a while to get where it's going; I wonder if some wackier use of the premise (ie more alternate Discoveries) or some particular subplots for minor characters would've been worthy additions. In the end, this does what it needs to, if with some weird colors around the edges and a lack of compelling B-plots.
So I think I'm officially caught up now! I think I'll post my The Last Best Hope review in the other thread along with everyone else.
This has been a lot of fun, with some surprising highlights (I was *not* expecting The Captain's Oath to be such a beautiful thing) and some surprising lowlights (Hearts & Minds was just awful; Collateral Damage felt waaaaay off). I'm glad to be caught up, and whatever happens to the LitVerse going forward, it's been an excellent ride.
And look for a LitVerse flowchart update soon...
Man, the first half of this one is trippy. The combination of the ways in which it is intentionally weird and unintentionally weird makes for a bizarre experience. Galanter's writing took a long time for me to get ahold of; it feels to me like his conversations between the Disco crew members only focus on the negative moments, making everything feel alienating and uncomfortable. And the conversations with Ephraim, while successfully in character and convincing, are still on one level way too obvious to merit that much wordcount (I'm a Star Trek fan; I totally get multiple realities as a concept) and on another level way too vague to merit them (all the specifics come in the second half of the novel). Either way, the first half is bogged down in truly odd attempts at casual conversation and truly odd attempts at… well, at being odd, but that don’t quite work for me.
But: once Culber and Stamets start sparking and they come up with the plan to re-quantum-shift the spores, the rest of the book works much better, and in the end gives us a fascinating understanding and contextualization for the Mycelial Plane that’s helpful (and that should’ve been on the show in the first place). Of particular note are the aliens having their own Prime Directive and humanity just barely qualifying, and the clarification that Ephraim gives other individuals the ability to come visit, which provides fodder for many possible explanations about why humanity (and everyone else) never goes back again. Perhaps Ephraim, to whom time is vague, just follows Stamets into the future and doesn’t realize the time skipped; perhaps Ephraim is waiting to see how this goes before trying another; perhaps he has in other universes; etc, etc. Plenty to play with there.
And I do think the love story is completely convincing - all of those scenes were strong!
So on balance: great. But it does take a while to get where it's going; I wonder if some wackier use of the premise (ie more alternate Discoveries) or some particular subplots for minor characters would've been worthy additions. In the end, this does what it needs to, if with some weird colors around the edges and a lack of compelling B-plots.
So I think I'm officially caught up now! I think I'll post my The Last Best Hope review in the other thread along with everyone else.
This has been a lot of fun, with some surprising highlights (I was *not* expecting The Captain's Oath to be such a beautiful thing) and some surprising lowlights (Hearts & Minds was just awful; Collateral Damage felt waaaaay off). I'm glad to be caught up, and whatever happens to the LitVerse going forward, it's been an excellent ride.
And look for a LitVerse flowchart update soon...
I just got done reading Drastic Measures and I loved it.
Here is what I wrote about it on my Facebook page after reading it:
“Yesterday (in the wee morning hours, Monday morning), I finished reading “Drastic Measures” by Dayton Ward (2018), the second book in the series of “Star Trek: Discovery” tie-in novels.
I have to say that Dayton Ward is probably my favorite of the authors currently writing Star Trek novels (although, I have to admit that I’m only just now getting back into reading the Trek novels and am probably not familiar with many of the current writers’ work). In 2018, I read Ward’s “In History’s Shadow” (2013), a Star Trek original series (meaning Kirk, Spock, McCoy, etc.) novel and I thought that was really good.
I think he surpassed it in “Drastic Measures”, though. Ward has a gift for both engaging plots while at the same time knowing the familiar characters from the Star Trek tv shows and movies so well that they always are perfectly in character.
The plot of “Drastic Measures”, like the previous novel in the series that I also just recently read, David Mack’s “Desperate Hours”, takes place mostly in a time period prior to the start of the “Star Trek: Discovery” CBS All Access tv series (which itself is a prequel to the classic 1960s “Star Trek” series). The choice to set many of the novels before the tv series was because they were being written prior to any of the tv episodes coming out (and the first novel before the tv series had even started filming). Also, media tie-in authors generally don’t know what directions an in production tv series are going to take over the course of a season, so it’s usually safer to set one’s novels sometime prior to the then currently airing tv season.
“Drastic Measures” takes place ten years prior to the start of “Star Trek: Discovery”, and features two “Discovery” characters who don’t actually ever meet each on the tv series, Philippa Georgiou (later captain of the U.S.S. Shenzhou) and Gabriel Lorca (later captain of the U.S.S. Discovery; well, sorta).
Here, they are Lt. Lorca and Commander Georgiou. Lorca is stationed at a remote Starfleet outpost on a Federation colony planet, Tarsus IV. A disease suddenly and rapidly spreads throughout all of the crops and other food on Tarsus IV, putting the thousands of colonists there in danger of starving. Georgiou is reassigned to a ship being sent there to bring much needed supplies, medicine, and other aid to the colonists.
However, before Georgiou and the ship she has been temporarily assigned to can arrive, the desperation of the colonists (who do not knew that aid is only days away rather than the weeks or months they were first told) leads to the removal of the governor overseeing them and her replacement with a man named General Kodos.
Now, fans of the original 1960s “Star Trek” series are as already familiar with Tarsus IV and Kodos from the episode “The Conscience of the King”, in which we first learn of Captain Kirk’s own history as a teenager on Tarsus IV and of this same food crisis that happened when he and his family lived their. And we learn of the “Tarsus IV Massacre”, and the role that “Kodos the Executioner”, as he came to be called, played in causing it.
So, this novel, “Drastic Measures”, takes that original series Captain Kirk back story event and ties into it younger versions of Georgiou and Lorca from “Discovery”. Lorca is driven by intense personal grief to hunt down Kodos and his followers, who have fled the major city center to hide out in a nearby mountain range that interferes with sensors and other detection devices. Georgiou, who outranks him and is leading the recovery efforts, can tell that Lorca is too emotionally involved but still allows him to lead the search to bring Kodos to justice.
That’s all I think I’ll say, other than this was one of those books that I never really wanted to put down and would read long into the night. That alone gets it the rating I’m giving it on GoodReads, four stars out of five. I highly recommend this one for fans of “Star Trek: Discovery”, and also fans of the original “Star Trek”. As it takes place prior to “Discovery”, I don’t think it’s necessary to have seen “Discovery” to enjoy “Drastic Measures” (although it will probably make it a more satisfying read to already be familiar with the characters of Philippa Georgiou and Gabriel Lorca).“
I often find it funny how differently people can react to the same story or book or movie. From your issues you have stated you have with Dayton Ward’s novels, many of them don’t bother me. And what things you have found that you like about his writing must rank higher in my general enjoyment of a Star Trek novel than they do in yours.
For instance, it didn’t bother me in the least if characters don’t have “story arcs” in a given novel. Just that they sound/feel/behave like I feel they should based on the tv shows or movies and that the plot is interesting is usually enough for me.
Then, again, Star Trek novels are generally in the area of “comfort reads”, so they really only need to press certain buttons of line for me to enjoy them.
I’m getting back into Trek novels lately myself, after about ten years away. I’ve been struggling my way through Drastic Measures for a few weeks now, and finally finished it today. Thrawn’s review captures much of what I felt about the book, particularly the frustration of its being neither much of a Discovery novel nor an effective prequel to “The Conscience of the King.” I posted some of my own thoughts on Facebook here.
Next up for me is Fear Itself.
Next up for me is Fear Itself.
Im getting caught up on the last 15 years of treklit lol. at the time i was reading everything up to and including the Destiny trilogy. I kept buying the novels as they came out, so I have everything up to TNG: Collateral Damage. I just never got around to reading them. So now after the Picard season 1 ended, along with my recent re-watches of TNG/DS9/VOY, im back in the mood to read trek again. I have 50+ books on my plate to get through yet. I decided to do a re-read of the Destiny trilogy as a good jumping back-on point.
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