Spoilers Coda: Book 2: The Ashes of Tomorrow by James Swallow Review Thread
- Thread starter JoeZhang
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Just finished. Fuuuuuuck.
Dax.
Martok.
Nog.
Quark.
O’Brien.
The prophets.
The station (albeit, again, apparently).
Rio Grande.
Anyone else get the feeling the authors hate DS9?
Seriously, this was one intense book. Looking forward to the conclusion! Although I admit I’m not thrilled at the prospect of going to the mirror universe. Do we have to? I’ll give it a chance. They’ve not steered me wrong in this series yet.
Martok.
Nog.
Quark.
O’Brien.
The prophets.
The station (albeit, again, apparently).
Rio Grande.
Anyone else get the feeling the authors hate DS9?
Seriously, this was one intense book. Looking forward to the conclusion! Although I admit I’m not thrilled at the prospect of going to the mirror universe. Do we have to? I’ll give it a chance. They’ve not steered me wrong in this series yet.
Well.
All around a better story than part 1. Still some dragging at points, but mostly flowed pretty well. The character voices were truer a lot of the time.
I second the question about Odo. Last I read, he was stuck in the Alpha Quadrant because the Wormhole entrance had collapsed. Why would he not have returned to the Dominion with it working again? Instead he just became constable again? Also, when did he get the ability to convincingly shape-shift into other people? Did that happen at some point?
I did not expect to be weeping for Nog. Maybe it's because we will never get a new experience of Aron Eisenberg portraying him that made it all the more devastating. His thinking of the Starfleet delta, where he finally found a place to belong, and that his destiny was cut so short... tearing up again. Damnit
The other deaths were hard too. I kept wondering, when is Worf going to find out about Martok? Every one he loves dies tragically. I guess Alexander is going to get killed soon.
I thought the crazy Riker thing was a bad choice. It's kind of ruining him for me as the final hurrah of this version of him. I am sure he will be cured by the end (if he doesn't, it will be quite irritating). And I agree with another comment above: Titan's crew are coming off as being idiots. Vale is the only one who thinks he might be mind-controlled, and that was just for a second. Riker is clearly acting bonkers.
One thing I would have liked is Picard to be shown up. Riker may be out of his mind, but he has a point. Picard's arrogance is all over the place here. So self-assured that he was right. And of course he was because blah blah blah but the guy really needs to be knocked down a few pegs.
Frankly, Picard is really taking up too much story bandwidth here. He is one of the only legacy characters getting major focus in the current shows. We already have 10 more TV episodes of Jean-Luc Picard with more to come.
The culling of DS9 here does leave me wondering where the emotional core for the final book will be. There are still a few DS9 characters left, but as much as I love Odo, he feels very disconnected from the others (incl. Kira) at this point (I would have liked to see his reaction to Quark's death), and I have no sense of Bashir at all (no reaction to Chief O'Brien shown either). Titan will need to pull a lot (I imagine if NF or SCE/CoE get time, it will be limited) of that heft. The TV TNG cast itself is still actually all alive, but for whatever reason, I don't feel too much for most of them. Maybe some of the Voyager crew will show up.
I don't know that I care much about the mirror universe, but we'll see, I guess.
Addendum: Also, what was the point of Spock showing up? Seemed kind of pointless. Did he have an ongoing arc in the novels I never picked up on? Or was it just that Spock or McCoy or Scotty always has to randomly show up in a 24th century story.
All around a better story than part 1. Still some dragging at points, but mostly flowed pretty well. The character voices were truer a lot of the time.
I second the question about Odo. Last I read, he was stuck in the Alpha Quadrant because the Wormhole entrance had collapsed. Why would he not have returned to the Dominion with it working again? Instead he just became constable again? Also, when did he get the ability to convincingly shape-shift into other people? Did that happen at some point?
I did not expect to be weeping for Nog. Maybe it's because we will never get a new experience of Aron Eisenberg portraying him that made it all the more devastating. His thinking of the Starfleet delta, where he finally found a place to belong, and that his destiny was cut so short... tearing up again. Damnit
The other deaths were hard too. I kept wondering, when is Worf going to find out about Martok? Every one he loves dies tragically. I guess Alexander is going to get killed soon.
I thought the crazy Riker thing was a bad choice. It's kind of ruining him for me as the final hurrah of this version of him. I am sure he will be cured by the end (if he doesn't, it will be quite irritating). And I agree with another comment above: Titan's crew are coming off as being idiots. Vale is the only one who thinks he might be mind-controlled, and that was just for a second. Riker is clearly acting bonkers.
One thing I would have liked is Picard to be shown up. Riker may be out of his mind, but he has a point. Picard's arrogance is all over the place here. So self-assured that he was right. And of course he was because blah blah blah but the guy really needs to be knocked down a few pegs.
Frankly, Picard is really taking up too much story bandwidth here. He is one of the only legacy characters getting major focus in the current shows. We already have 10 more TV episodes of Jean-Luc Picard with more to come.
The culling of DS9 here does leave me wondering where the emotional core for the final book will be. There are still a few DS9 characters left, but as much as I love Odo, he feels very disconnected from the others (incl. Kira) at this point (I would have liked to see his reaction to Quark's death), and I have no sense of Bashir at all (no reaction to Chief O'Brien shown either). Titan will need to pull a lot (I imagine if NF or SCE/CoE get time, it will be limited) of that heft. The TV TNG cast itself is still actually all alive, but for whatever reason, I don't feel too much for most of them. Maybe some of the Voyager crew will show up.
I don't know that I care much about the mirror universe, but we'll see, I guess.
Addendum: Also, what was the point of Spock showing up? Seemed kind of pointless. Did he have an ongoing arc in the novels I never picked up on? Or was it just that Spock or McCoy or Scotty always has to randomly show up in a 24th century story.
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With this being set in 2387, the year of the Romulan super nova, and there having been multiple mentions of Devidians manipulating stars, my buest guess is we'll see Spock do the red matter thing next book. Or not. Who knows.
Just finished this after reading it over the course of the evening. The one thing that doesn't seem quite true to me is everyone just accepting Riker's rather extreme behavior. It seemed like Vale and Tuvok might intervene at some point but I suppose that can be forgiven with them being left in the dark about Picard's motivations.
Book 2 connected to me a little more than the previous one probably because it focused on so many more characters that I care about. The deaths seemed more impactful than Ezra's did initially. I still didn't believe she was truly dread until I was about half-way through this one.
Overall I'm really impressed now with how many loose ends are being woven into this finale. I'm excited for and also dreading finishing this story next month.
Book 2 connected to me a little more than the previous one probably because it focused on so many more characters that I care about. The deaths seemed more impactful than Ezra's did initially. I still didn't believe she was truly dread until I was about half-way through this one.
Overall I'm really impressed now with how many loose ends are being woven into this finale. I'm excited for and also dreading finishing this story next month.
I'm one hour in (in the audiobook, speed 1.2 :-)) and I'm happy it's said explicitly that new timelines result from each and every choice. I was wondering about that.
So the idea is, as basically every Star Trek story progresses, uncountable new timelines, and so uncountable new versions of the characters are created. We, typically, just see one of these branches.
I'd love to understand how to square this with the idea from the previous book that some of the branches are more fundamental than others. Picard has the choice to go left or right. In one branch he goes does one thing; in the other he chooses differently. If the one where he goes left is 'fundamental', does it mean there was a higher probability of him making that choice? [Whatever probability would mean in this context.] That he's somehow modally, meta-cosmically, drawn towards that choice? That the 'left' branch somehow 'exists' to a higher extent?...
So the idea is, as basically every Star Trek story progresses, uncountable new timelines, and so uncountable new versions of the characters are created. We, typically, just see one of these branches.
I'd love to understand how to square this with the idea from the previous book that some of the branches are more fundamental than others. Picard has the choice to go left or right. In one branch he goes does one thing; in the other he chooses differently. If the one where he goes left is 'fundamental', does it mean there was a higher probability of him making that choice? [Whatever probability would mean in this context.] That he's somehow modally, meta-cosmically, drawn towards that choice? That the 'left' branch somehow 'exists' to a higher extent?...
If I remember correctly, after Kira was lost inside the wormhole, at the end of "Raise the Dawn", Odo is offered transport back to the Dominion, via a slipstream vessel, but declines for a while. Eventually, he decides to return, at the end of "Ascendance", but then Kira returns from the wormhole.
In "The Long Mirage", Odo encounters a ship with Weyoun and other Dominion citizens seeking asylum in the Alpha Quadrant, then eventually reunites with Kira on Bajor.
That one hurt.
I thought it was pretty obvious that Tuvok and Vale were actively doing their best to aid Picard without giving themselves away. They keep slow-walking things when Riker demands decisive action, which looks a bit like idiotic incompetence (cf., Chapter 7), but there's a method to it that bounces to Picard's favor. I suspect that Paris and Torres got in touch with Tuvok and brought him up to speed, since Tuvok would have had the same experience they did with the "Year of Hell" that alamred them, and Tuvok brought Vale, his commanding officer, into his confidence. But Tuvok and Vale can do only so much to limit Riker's damage, which is why Picard reached out to Troi personally, and that wasn't something Tuvok and Vale could cover for without blowing their own cover.
Thanks. I forgot the exact circumstances and never read the latter.
Beyond Trek Podcast has an interview with James Swallow
https://anchor.fm/beyondtrekpodcast...-the-most-epic-epic-that-ever-epicked-e18suv2
https://anchor.fm/s/c6e8370/podcast...9-16/c8e35313-c262-93c2-7323-12ee52b759aa.mp3
https://anchor.fm/beyondtrekpodcast...-the-most-epic-epic-that-ever-epicked-e18suv2
https://anchor.fm/s/c6e8370/podcast...9-16/c8e35313-c262-93c2-7323-12ee52b759aa.mp3
In all honestly, I have a hard time seeing David Mack, who ended his Kelvinverse novel with a line that roughly ran, "Bones, I believe in love," ending a literary effort he has been a major part of for twenty years and has been a significant component of his career in such a fashion. I'm expecting a Return of the King ending, honestly -- sad, sentimental, and ultimately hopeful.I’m getting a feeling this will end like Mass Effect 3. A badly injured Picard will have to make a choice and he chooses poorly.
I saw 'transparisteel' which I don't think I'd seen used in Trek before too. (maybe it was book 1)
