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Spoilers Coda: Book 2: The Ashes of Tomorrow by James Swallow Review Thread

Rate Coda: Book 2: The Ashes of Tomorrow

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I was extremely impressed and pleased with The Ashes of Tomorrow. It gave me the feeling of The Last Jedi mixed with the very best type of Speculations stories from the Strange New Worlds anthologies. Characters who I wanted to see got their moments, from the expected (Picard and Sisko) to the unexpected (Pulaski). Seeing references to everything from The Brave and The Bold to The Missing felt quite satisfying to this longtime reader.

I trust Mack to do right by the Mirror Universe, especially considering how Rise Like Lions came out. If he can also include an AU Naraht (that lovable "Ensign Rock" in our Prime universe), I will cry happy tears.

Like others, I hope for a resolution to the Riker storyline that does right by his character. I am not sure what the plans are for Rene, but his stowing away did not seem to do much of consequence in The Ashes of Tomorrow beyond keeping the family together. That's important, sure, but I am hoping that much more will be done to end his current story arc in the finale.
 
I’m surprised O’Brien isn’t the last remaining character from this universe, in the most meta “O’Brien Must Suffer” reference.

Something that had never been fully teased out… how big is starfleet? And specifically, how is it that basically every captain knows every admiral? Go back to the tv show and you’ll always see captains pass a comment about this admiral or that being a windbag or an old pal etc etc. I know Picard is quite a long serving and senior officer, but still - the US military (by quick Google search) has about 600 flag officers, how you’d know more than a handful of them personally… but in starfleet, they all seem to be best chums (or not, in this particular case).
 
A little torn on how to rank this one. It’s significantly better than Moments Asunder— Swallow “gets” how to write something like this in a way Ward apparently didn’t— but there are still a lot of baffling decisions that cut against the total effect. I understand the argument for expanding the scope of the trilogy as it progresses, but I think it was an error to leave DS9 out of the first book: the portentous stuff from the first half of this book would have done a lot to liven up the sterile sequences of Naga attacks in Moments Asunder, and this book takes so long to get to the climax that its final sequences sometimes feel like extended outlines, stage-managing where the very large cast are but not giving the intensity of novelistic prose.

I understand that we’re doing a big goofy comic book crossover event here (for some reason), but was it really necessary to play the “lone group of rebellious heroes” card? The multiverse is already under threat— is it really that much more dramatic if we’re also disobeying orders? Starfleet Command being a bunch of clowns once again just made me roll my eyes, and as someone said upthread, the crew of the Titan look like chumps for not dealing more directly with the obviously-unhinged Riker. I’ll reserve final judgment on that whole plot strand for after the third book is released, though.

Thank God we finally had Wesley and Tom Paris in the same book; would have been a real shame for the litverse to end never having had a lame meta joke about Paris and Locarno.
 
Finally got/read my copy. As has been said loved that Wesley/Tom Paris bit. Actually teared up a bit during the memorial scene. And the body count, jeez. Felt like I was reading "Fallen Heroes" as if written by KRAD. And even though he wasn't in it obviously, James T. Kirk seemed to be just offstage metaphorically in a number of places. Riker is clearly suffering from the same kind of "bleed-through" as Worf was, but hasn't melded with Spock. And given what happened in the end, I half expected Q to show up and say: "Oh, that's what that looks like."
 
Elias Vaughn said:
Did Odo master the ability to make a perfect humanoid face at some point or is everyone on the Titan just half blind?
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Airmandan said:
He's always had the ability, he just chooses to stick with his normal form. We have seen him impersonate other people on screen.
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Not exactly. Odo's youthful (for his species) lack of experience in meant that he was too unskilled to impersonate other humanoids during 2369 to 2375 in the TV series. DS9 5.22 "Children of Time" showed what an alternate timeline Odo could accomplish after gaining more experience. Pocket Books Odo in 2376 finally demonstrated the acquisition of this skill in DS9 - Rising Son and DS9 - Unity.
 
Elias Vaughn said:
Did Odo master the ability to make a perfect humanoid face at some point or is everyone on the Titan just half blind?
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I assume he can now make a perfect humanoid face, although your joke about the Titan crew being half-blind could work might have some merit. Riker, in his unhinged state just goes off as though this clearly not Picard is in fact Picard, while Vale and the others have just given up with his mood swings of late and decide to just let things play out until it becomes painfully obvious to Riker that this isn't really Picard since he's not going to listen to them anyway.
Airmandan said:
He's always had the ability, he just chooses to stick with his normal form. We have seen him impersonate other people on screen.
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The only person Odo ever impersonated on screen was the Female Founder in the seventh season.
 
The Wormhole said:
I assume he can now make a perfect humanoid face, although your joke about the Titan crew being half-blind could work might have some merit. Riker, in his unhinged state just goes off as though this clearly not Picard is in fact Picard, while Vale and the others have just given up with his mood swings of late and decide to just let things play out until it becomes painfully obvious to Riker that this isn't really Picard since he's not going to listen to them anyway.

The only person Odo ever impersonated on screen was the Female Founder in the seventh season.
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That's what I thought, but didn't say so because I wasn't 100% sure.
 
I don't post here often, I'm more of a read only kind of guy. Plus, despite my love for Trek novels my retention for detail is poor and not up to traditional Trek fan standards, IMO. I'm more of a go with the flow reader who enjoys big moments, the emotional impact of decisions and just enjoys watchings things blow up.

With that said, this novel exceeded my expectations and left me thrilled and breathless in anticipation of the last litverse novel. Sorry David Mack, no pressure. This novel did such a good job of bringing back the DS9 crew in a mostly organic way that wasn't forced and gave almost everyone either a heroic or in character final moment that I'm stunned it could happen. As others have mentioned, the hardest thing about watching character you love grow and move on is the sense of loss of what made those original moments so special. I guess I'm less interested in how the litverse actually ends and more interested in "one last hurrah" with the crew I love. So big thanks to James Swallow and Dayton Ward for allowing these moments to be set up and happen. I also loved the callbacks to hijacking the ship, loved that the Klingon crew was given a quick shout out and pretty much anything Quark in this book. So much to love, so few words to say it.

There's always things I could nitpick. Gonzo Riker my biggest issue. If I was Vale I would have taken him out with a phaser at the end of the book without question. However, I'm still basking in the afterglow of a great novel and want to enjoy it while it lasts. Thanks to all involved who made it happen. It's been a great ride for the last few decades and I'm looking for one last ride about a month from now.
 
In someways, the Titan crew not reacting to Riker's behaviour is like as if they forgot Takedown ever happened. I know it gets a passing mention in the book, but at this point you would think all Starfleet senior officers would get evaluated everyday considering how often they come under the influence / strain of external forces.
 
Brendan Moody said:
I understand the argument for expanding the scope of the trilogy as it progresses, but I think it was an error to leave DS9 out of the first book.
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On further reflection I think the actual issue is not so much the amount of DS9 in book one as the amount of TNG in book two. This book is way more eventful for DS9 than for TNG— a third of the TV cast is killed off and major elements of the setting are destroyed versus, well, nothing— but the TNG characters get a lot of wheel-spinning page time with Riker as Wile E. Coyote and Picard as the Road Runner. I envision something where the TNG events in the first half of this book are compressed into Moments Asunder and Dax’s death, which is so offhand even by the standards of that book that I really thought it was a fakeout, is separated from the TNG storyline and moved into the opening of this book. Then the DS9 elements get room to breathe and TNG doesn’t enter this book until the characters arrive in the Bajor system. Swallow writes the DS9 characters fairly well, but there’s barely time for them to interact before everything goes to hell and they start dying off.
 
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