Spoilers Coda: Book 3: Oblivion's Gate by David Mack Review Thread
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I read the beginning, a traditional corridor battle, shaken up by the use of bridges instead of corridors. I realised that whilst I wanted to know how the litverse ended, I really didn’t want to read this book. So I skipped to the end, which I pretty much never do and… yeah.
Ultimately, the lit verse died long ago, and everything about why is exemplified in these last few violent whispers. I think I would rather we hadn’t got them, and yet it was inevitable.
Ultimately, the lit verse died long ago, and everything about why is exemplified in these last few violent whispers. I think I would rather we hadn’t got them, and yet it was inevitable.
It was a lot darker that I think people would have preferred. There was definitely a lack of the optimism that typically exemplified Star Trek of old. But I think given the context that’s understandable, it is the end of the universe after all. And our view of our world and our reality is a lot darker than it once was a decade or two ago. It’s only natural that our literature would mirror that.
Thanks, got it!
First Splinter timeline.
The late '60s were a pretty dark time too. Racial and social tensions were as fierce as they are today, war was raging in Vietnam, and people lived under the daily threat of nuclear annihilation. That darkness was the whole reason why Star Trek's optimism was so appealing and influential. It's at times like these that we need hope the most.
I wasn’t alive during that time so I can’t say anything about that. I do think that these book will turn some people off due to that lack of hope and optimism. No offense to you authors and your work, but this series isn’t something I’ll be re-reading all that often, I’d rather read some of the earlier works which weren’t so mired in despair.
Which is why I said it, so that you could learn something new. I wasn't alive then either (well, I was an infant for part of it), but the history is well-documented and can be learned by anyone with an open mind.
I wasn't involved with Coda in any way, so it's got nothing to do with me. And I think you missed what I was saying -- that optimistic fiction is valuable in dark times. We're in agreement about that. What made Star Trek special in its day was that, when so much other science fiction predicted a future of nuclear annihilation or crushing overpopulation or Orwellian fascism, ST showed humanity surviving, uniting, and thriving in the future. People already had a wealth of depressing fiction to fit the depressing times; ST made its mark by offering a more hopeful alternative.
IIRC the Greg Cox novella exploring the Borg in Glass Empires did feature a young Wesley as someone who Picard knew, as a sort of starport rat who ran errands for Picard.
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Glass_Empires
I think in the end this is a case of be careful what you wish for.
If you'd asked me when it was clear the litverse was going to be overwritten whether I wanted a recognised end then I'd probably have said yes but now I walk away wishing it hadn't happened.
A two or three book series with the Enterprise, Titan and DS9 teaming up against a threat tying up a few loose ends and then crusing off into the sunset with a positive/hopeful vibe would have been preferable. So Destiny basically.
The book itself is fine showing the authors skill at action sequences but overall not up to the standard of book 2 and maybe in the end the Devidians were too low key an opponent.
My main issues; the Riker stuff gets ever more tiresome, like book 1 the deaths are so relentless at times that you barely notice as they pass by and personally I don't have much interest in the mirror universe and this does nothing to change my mind.
Favourite moment, probably Beverly taking down another Borg Queen.
If you'd asked me when it was clear the litverse was going to be overwritten whether I wanted a recognised end then I'd probably have said yes but now I walk away wishing it hadn't happened.
A two or three book series with the Enterprise, Titan and DS9 teaming up against a threat tying up a few loose ends and then crusing off into the sunset with a positive/hopeful vibe would have been preferable. So Destiny basically.
The book itself is fine showing the authors skill at action sequences but overall not up to the standard of book 2 and maybe in the end the Devidians were too low key an opponent.
My main issues; the Riker stuff gets ever more tiresome, like book 1 the deaths are so relentless at times that you barely notice as they pass by and personally I don't have much interest in the mirror universe and this does nothing to change my mind.
Favourite moment, probably Beverly taking down another Borg Queen.
And ultimately, Coda is, in-universe, about hope, the unreasoning faith that we will find a way through this, in a time that is darker and more dystopian than the first season of Picard or the second season of Discovery, darker and more dystopian than Last Best Hope, and darker and more dystopian than has ever been seen in the ST multiverse.
I lived through the 1960s myself. At 59 years old (and for some reason possibly connected to the COVID Pandemic, I keep thinking I'm only 58), I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s. They were dark, but this is a time when, perhaps more than any other in American History (yes, even the Civil War), we really have (in the words of Walt Kelly's Pogo, "met the enemy, and he is us.
And yet there is hope in the darkness. Thanks in part to the brazenness of Trump, his supporters, and his puppet-masters, the institutionalized racism to which far too many of us (myself included) have been either blind or complicit is out in the open, where we can finally do something about it. Even some of the most vehement global warming deniers are now driving electric cars. COVID has become the cutting edge for immunization technologies, and the resulting lockdowns have become a cutting edge for work-from-home technologies.
I lived through the 1960s myself. At 59 years old (and for some reason possibly connected to the COVID Pandemic, I keep thinking I'm only 58), I grew up in the 1960s and 1970s. They were dark, but this is a time when, perhaps more than any other in American History (yes, even the Civil War), we really have (in the words of Walt Kelly's Pogo, "met the enemy, and he is us.
And yet there is hope in the darkness. Thanks in part to the brazenness of Trump, his supporters, and his puppet-masters, the institutionalized racism to which far too many of us (myself included) have been either blind or complicit is out in the open, where we can finally do something about it. Even some of the most vehement global warming deniers are now driving electric cars. COVID has become the cutting edge for immunization technologies, and the resulting lockdowns have become a cutting edge for work-from-home technologies.
Maybe I should read #3 before I ask about the point the PU and Litverse diverged?
First Contact.
In other older posts, I got the (mistaken) impression that the PU and Litverse were "identical" until after Nemesis?
Like what David Mack said, the further away the events from FC are, the more likely they will be different.
Geordi and Data tho...
Beyond Trek's interview with David Mack
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