Destiny Trilogy - Totally awesome (spoilers)

[theblitz]

Just finished the Destiny Trilogy and, as the thread title says, they were toally awesome.

I definitely did not see the "Origin of the Borgs" line coming until it (almost) explicitly said so.

I don't want to be a cy ...
Borg

At over 900 pages it was a little long. David Mack seems to like to describe things down to the minute details.
Nevertheless, it is a must read for all.
Completely changes the ST universe.

The only smallish problem I had was references to events in books I had not read. However, I managed to figure out what had happened and it didn't spoil the read.

Singular Destiny here I come!

 

[Reanok]

I'm rereading the Destiny trilogy it takes awhile to read through all 3 books.When it comes to the origins of the borg it's was a real suprising storyarc twist you totally didn't expect in this series of books.

 

[Slyvon]

Now that you've read Destiny and enjoyed it, does this make you want to go back and read the older novels? DS9, TNG, Titan, etc. I'm curious because with sci-fi I'm always going back to get a complete picture.

 

[theblitz]

Well, there is no DS9 for me to go back and read. Already read them all.
TNG was never my fav so I'll have to think about it.

 

[Relayer1]

I'd drifted away from Treklit after several decades of following. It was Destiny that reignited my interest and got me into the relaunch, but to be honest I am not a big fan of the Destiny story. I like Mr Macks stuff, in fact some of it is amongst my favourite Treklit, but Destinys origin/fate of the Borg is rather predictable and I found the Caeliar tedious.

Check out his Cold Equations trilogy. It's better...

 

[theblitz]

^^^
Funny you should say that.
I found that though the story was great Mack tended to over-describe everything.
Kinda reminds me of Peter Hamilton's style.

Sometimes you want more left to the imagination.

 

[zarkon]

I'm pretty cold on the Destiny trilogy.

Didn't like anything to do with the Caeliar & their story thread (especially deanna's behaviour), the aventine or the resolution of the conflict(would have preferred a "the return" style resolution that would have enabled the borg to have carried on, but in different factions that could have had big differences). Also I disliked the Thalaron conversation between geordi & picard. Geordi's side I get, but picard backing down given the situation felt pretty absurd and really broke me out of the story.

I loved the exploration through the subspace tunnels though, that was a lot of fun.

 

[Starbreaker]

I thought the Caeliar/Erika story was the best thing ever written in TrekLit. I know it's not the main crew going on random adventure 149, but it was Star Trek at the core.

 

[theblitz]

^^^
Yep. Me too.
And, at the risk of repeating myself, I thought the Borg tie-in was awesome.

It slight contradicts the Voy episode The Omega Directive. There Seven clearly states that the Borg have known of the Omega Particle only 229 years from the assimilation of species two six two whereas in the book it is implied that they have been searching for it forever.

 

[jpv2000]

Totally Awesome, indeed.

I only followed the Titan series before and since Destiny and absolutely loved it. I consider it the peak of the series and all Trek lit I have read in all my years.

My favorite arcs were, of course, Titan, followed by the Aventine and Erika arcs with the TNG arc coming in last, I've never cared much for Picard or any of the TNG crew besides Riker and Deanna.

 

[theblitz]

I have never read Titan books.
One of the reasons being that I have concentrated on the DS9R books. Nearly 30 books in a year - not bad.

Problem is, that I am not a great fan of TNG. Always found the characters to be a little too perfect.
DS9 is definitely more fun - especially Ezri(!). I know I am in the minority but as far as I am concerned Jadzia is not even in the same league.

 

[Jarvisimo]

^^ They are not perfect in the TNGR, at all. Partly because some of the early TNGR (Death in Winter, Resistance, Before Dishonour) are not really that good, but also because the later novels (maybe from Greater than the Sum, and especially since Destiny) have done good analytic work on these characters. Also you should check out the TNGR/Nemesis prologue series, if interested, a series called A Time to. In that, again, our aging heroes flaws are often front and centre, but it suffers in the early volumes from the evil admiral trope and some silly plotting. Just skip to A Time for to Kill (by David Mack, it's a perfect adventure story with flawed characters), carry on with A Time to Heal (which is an analogy for Iraq or the Balkans, if you wish to read it that way, again by Mack), and finish with A Time for War, A Time for Peace (by Keith DeCandido, not always the best writer, but often fun. I have my issues with the story since reading it, but it's a great first time read).

 

[Jarvisimo]

Totally needed to update this thread, because of it I reread Destiny.... I had forgotten how good the series is. This was the first time I managed a reread though since I read it in 2009. Oh so much of it remains so good - the Columbia story in particular, although Major Foyle felt a little too evil, a little too unexplained; the introduction of the Aventine (and somehow Bowers was more fun this time, less suddenly militaristic in my mind - perhaps because of the continuity of the more playful or emotional sides of him seen in Brinkmanship and A Ceremony of Losses as well as the DS9 relaunch); the 'death factory'; the Hirogen attack; the assault on the scout ship; the repeated 'last moments' of various screen and lit characters; and especially the greater racial complexity of the Federation (seen on all the ships, on Earth, and most of all on Deneva in Tuvok's son and his wife - that is something I really did not like in Losing the Peace [a novel I really enjoyed otherwise] was how human Deneva suddenly was, how segregated the Federation worlds were).

Some of it felt more problematic - the balance between what was focused on in the three TNG-era ships felt more off. I'm not sure I can substantiate that feeling, except that Titan felt like a Titan novel (with more POVs, more the signature Titan things like the counsellors, the more varied characters, and so on), the TNG element only really focused on Picard, Worf & Choudhoury and Kadohata (as well as proper Mack sub-characters like Guidice, with the same occuring for the Aventine), and the Aventine elements Ezri, Kedair and, to a much lesser extent, Dr Tarses. But this is a huge crossover, so of course the elements would be out of balance and the work on each ship was great, as well as with Bacco & Akaar and other cameos like Martok & the admirals.

 

[Romulan_spy]

If I had to imagine what a Star Trek Lord of the rings style epic movie trilogy on the big screen would look like, I think the Destiny trilogy, would fit the bill.

 

[Corran Horn]

Agreed - if they were to have ever made a giant crossover filmed miniseries this would've been great.

 

[E-DUB]

Been down with a bug this week so I re-read this series. "Epic" doesn't begin to describe it. Loved the nod to "Shawshank" at the end.

 

[Mr Light]

I just finished the Destiny trilogy! It was excellent! This is the kind of epic grandeur that I feel that old school Star Trek didn't really accomplish. I loved how vast and sweeping the story was, how it encorporated so many characters and managed to tie into about 30 different Trek episodes from all the series.

It felt like the series finale of the Star Trek universe! I never expected such an apocalyptic story to take place within main Trek continuity.

My only complaint is that WAY too much time is spent with the Columbia crew living with the Caeliar. I understand this is vital to the story and they're the ones that originate the Borg and defeat them... but there was just too many pages about them sitting around doing nothing while in captivity.

I did think the origin of the Borg was a really clever way to do it (even if I did see it coming a mile away).

I was a little disappointed that the Voyager cast was barely in it the final Borg story. Seven contributes nothing to the story and Voyager gets knocked off off-screen.

I just realized something. When the Caeliar send their signal to another galaxy and get blown up for it, and they surmise it's one of their future cities knocked into the past... we never learn anything more about that. That evil city is still out there.

Does anyone know the origins of this story? Who came up with it and what led to the decision to get rid of the Borg once and for all?

I'd love to see a list of every single continuity nod in this series:
transphasic torpedoes from VOY "Endgame". Thalarion weapon from ST Nemesis. Omega Molecule from VOY "Omega Directive". Hirogen from VOY Season Four. Caeliar build a Dyson sphere like in TNG "Relics". Erika Hernandez from ENT. the Galactic Barrier from TOS.

 

[DS9Continuing]

If I had to imagine what a Star Trek Lord of the rings style epic movie trilogy on the big screen would look like, I think the Destiny trilogy, would fit the bill.

Agreed - if they were to have ever made a giant crossover filmed miniseries this would've been great.

In my version of adapting this story, I turn it into a nine-episode arc across all four concurrent TV series - TNG, DS9, Voyager and Titan. So that's 36 episodes, equivalent to 27 hours of screen time. It incorporates all the material from Destiny itself, plus the Voyager material from Full Circle, the DS9 material from Rough Beasts of Empire, and additional material for the Klingons and actual DS9 (as opposed to Aventine).

My only complaint is that WAY too much time is spent with the Columbia crew living with the Caeliar. I understand this is vital to the story and they're the ones that originate the Borg and defeat them... but there was just too many pages about them sitting around doing nothing while in captivity.

I felt the same way - the Columbia portions of the book were my least favourite. But a lot of other people really love those bits. *shrug*

I was a little disappointed that the Voyager cast was barely in it the final Borg story. Seven contributes nothing to the story and Voyager gets knocked off off-screen.

As I said, Voyager's perspective on events is covered in Full Circle, and Sisko and Vaughn's in Rough Beasts. Ro, Kira, Bashir et al are still up for grabs (he says with an evil yet secretive grin).

.

 

[Mr Light]

Oooooh, so there's additional Borg War material in other novels? Cool!

 

[Christopher]

Oooooh, so there's additional Borg War material in other novels? Cool!

There are two chapters set during the Borg Invasion (it was far too one-sided to be called a war) in Full Circle. The first few chapters of Rough Beasts of Empire are during the Invasion and its immediate aftermath, though only one chapter depicts any of the fighting.