Does the TNG relaunch improve after Resistance?

[Dancing Doctor]

Thx. Are there spoilers in your review?

Probably.

It's been a while, but I would imagine that I "spoiled" Resistance.

AH. Ok. Can you nutshell for me (w/o big spoilers) why you didn`t like Resistance?

The plot is overly dramatic and maudlin, not to mention a bit of a recycle , the characterizations of several characters are very off/odd, and it just fell flat.

But it's nowhere near as bad as Before Dishonor.

 

[Thrawn]

Thx. Are there spoilers in your review?

Probably.

It's been a while, but I would imagine that I "spoiled" Resistance.

AH. Ok. Can you nutshell for me (w/o big spoilers) why you didn`t like Resistance?

It's just sort of lame. The plot is sort of a rehash of other Borg stories and the new characters don't really go anywhere.

Anything you really need will be summarized in Q&A and Before Dishonor, but if you're the kind of person that hates coming in partway into a story, you might want to read it just for completeness's sake. It's a tiny little book, you can probably read it in one sitting, if that helps.

And btw, I think Before Dishonor was awesome

 

[Dancing Doctor]

There's one constant in the Trek Lit world: Everyone has an opinion on Before Dishonor. And there aren't really any "in-betweens".

 

[Therin of Andor]

It's just sort of lame. The plot is sort of a rehash of other Borg stories and the new characters don't really go anywhere.

I've usually enjoyed JM Dillard ST novels, but I never got around to her ENT novel, due to a backlog of unread titles - and, after reading some scathing reviews, they made me put other ST books on top of the to-read pile.

I read "Resistance" about a year after everyone else, while on vacation. I did enjoy it, but could see what people were complaining about. It was a bit of a lottery which new characters would make it, and who'd get Borgified, and this trend was continued in the next few books. Characters who'd survived were not necessarily safe in the next book. People seemed reluctant to get attached to characters that might only last two books.

What worried me most about "Resistance", pre-reading, was that it was announced as a hardcover, to be followed by several MMPBs to create a longer story arc - and yet, quite suddenly, it was "demoted" to MMPB. Now, I can see this was a sensible move, because in the past readers have become very angry when an arc is made up of different dimensions and formats, but I kept hearing a little voice saying, "Not good enough for hardcover..."

MJF's "Death in Winter" had also come under criticism, for not being a compelling-enough hardcover - although I'd really enjoyed that one. But together, these books didn't get the post-NEM, so-called "TNG: Second Decade" novels off to a strong enough start.

 

[Janos]

It's just sort of lame. The plot is sort of a rehash of other Borg stories and the new characters don't really go anywhere.

Anything you really need will be summarized in Q&A and Before Dishonor, but if you're the kind of person that hates coming in partway into a story, you might want to read it just for completeness's sake. It's a tiny little book, you can probably read it in one sitting, if that helps.

And btw, I think Before Dishonor was awesome

I'm not a big follower of any series beyond NF, DS9, MU, and (hopefully) DTI (which has LOTS of potential). Other books, I don't mind basing on my usual criteria: back cover blurb interest, major status quo change, author I follow, etc.

And, PAD is on my authors list, so Before Dishonor is on my pile.

Valeris - Yes, there seems to be a mix of views here on Before Dishonor - all passionate.

Therin - seems like you and others didn't like Resistance. I'm content to leave my pre-Destiny pile as it is.

 

[neogothboy74]

I didn't like Resistance at all either. It was a quick read, but I thought it was poorly written. Some of the things that the characters do seem highly improbable...and the descriptions of the Borg in the book don't seem to mesh with what came before or after the book. I was annoyed through most of it.

I enjoyed 'Q & A', 'Before Dishonor', 'Greater Than The Sum' & the Destiny series far more than either 'Resistance' or 'Death in Winter'. I've not read much beyond that.

 

[sulfur]

I quite enjoyed Death in Winter, as it was a smaller, quieter book, and after the expanse of Nemesis, that was a nice little change. Q&A was my favourite book of the five pre-Destiny books, while Resistance and Before Dishonor didn't make too much of an impression on me. Greater than the Sum was a decent catch-up book that sorted everything out and prepared things for Destiny.

 

[Janos]

So, what did folks think of Resistance in particular? Seems to be setting up a new status quo for TNG since Riker and Troi head over to Titan.

Oh, that happened months before Resistance -- pretty much immediately after Death in Winter, in fact, in December 2379. Resistance takes place around four months later.

Which book is it where the new TNG core Enterprise team is formed? I understand Death in Winter is where Picard chooses his second-in-command, but I also read here that the rest of the "new" cast is solidified in Greater than the Sum. What does Resistance advance in terms of the new Enterprise crew set-up narrative?

 

[Christopher]

Which book is it where the new TNG core Enterprise team is formed? I understand Death in Winter is where Picard chooses his second-in-command, but I also read here that the rest of the "new" cast is solidified in Greater than the Sum. What does Resistance advance in terms of the new Enterprise crew set-up narrative?

Mainly, it introduces the character of Counselor T'Lana, who figures in the first several post-Nemesis TNG novels. And it shows B-4's transfer from the Enterprise to the Daystrom Institute, affirming that he's not a member of the crew, though that had already been established in Articles of the Federation (most of which is set later).

And Death in Winter has nothing to do with Picard picking his first officer. It's a Picard-Crusher novel in which Picard is mostly off the ship. That happened in A Time for War, A Time for Peace, and there's a thread in Resistance that follows up on it.

 

[JD]

I haven't read it, but I belive it introduces 3 new characters, only one of them makes it through to the end of the book, and then they are written out in Greater Than the Sum. Taurik is reintroduced in the A Time To books, Faur was introduced in Q & A and then Choudhury, Chen, Hegol, Elfiki are introduced in Greater Than the Sum. Rennan Konya originally was introduced as a security officer aboard the USS Da Vinci in the SCE/Corps of Engineers series and was moved over to the Enterprise and TNG in Greater than the Sum.
EDIT: Oops Chris beat me to it. And since he already mentioned her, the character I talked about from Resistance is T'Lana.

 

[Christopher]

I haven't read it, but I belive it introduces 3 new characters, only one of them makes it through to the end of the book, and then they are written out in Greater Than the Sum.

Well, technically, T'Lana's decision to leave the Enterprise was established in Before Dishonor. GTTS just appended a coda that was meant to offer her a chance at redemption.

Taurik is reintroduced in the A Time To books, Faur was introduced in Q & A and then Choudhury, Chen, Hegol, Elfiki are introduced in Greater Than the Sum.

To give credit where it's due, Choudhury and Elfiki were created by Dave Mack in the outline for Destiny, but I got the job of introducing and developing them in GTTS.

Rennan Konya originally was introduced as a security officer aboard the USS Da Vinci in the SCE/Corps of Engineers series and was moved over to the Enterprise and TNG in Greater than the Sum.

Yup. He and Ellec Krotine were the first recurring Trek Lit characters I created, in SCE: Aftermath, so when SCE/CoE ended, I took the opportunity to "reclaim" the characters in later novels, first putting Krotine aboard Titan and then moving Konya to the Enterprise.

 

[Janos]

Which book is it where the new TNG core Enterprise team is formed? I understand Death in Winter is where Picard chooses his second-in-command, but I also read here that the rest of the "new" cast is solidified in Greater than the Sum. What does Resistance advance in terms of the new Enterprise crew set-up narrative?

Mainly, it introduces the character of Counselor T'Lana, who figures in the first several post-Nemesis TNG novels. And it shows B-4's transfer from the Enterprise to the Daystrom Institute, affirming that he's not a member of the crew, though that had already been established in Articles of the Federation (most of which is set later).

And Death in Winter has nothing to do with Picard picking his first officer. It's a Picard-Crusher novel in which Picard is mostly off the ship. That happened in A Time for War, A Time for Peace, and there's a thread in Resistance that follows up on it.

Thanks. Also, I didn't mean that Death in Winter focuses on Picard choosing his second-in-command, but that's where I thought it occurred. Perhaps I am misremembering posts here. From the above, I now understand Krad's A Time for War, A Time for Peace is where Worf becomes #1, and it is your own Greater than the Sum that the bulk of the Enterprise's new crew is introduced. If that is the case, I have the books I need already that introduce key members of the crew. Cheers & thanks.

 

[JD]

Rennan Konya originally was introduced as a security officer aboard the USS Da Vinci in the SCE/Corps of Engineers series and was moved over to the Enterprise and TNG in Greater than the Sum.

Yup. He and Ellec Krotine were the first recurring Trek Lit characters I created, in SCE: Aftermath, so when SCE/CoE ended, I took the opportunity to "reclaim" the characters in later novels, first putting Krotine aboard Titan and then moving Konya to the Enterprise.

I didn't realize there was a former SCE character in Titan. So that makes three of them that have been absorbed into other series Krotine (SCE-Titan), Konya (SCE-TNG) and Conlon (SCE-VOY).

 

[Janos]

Is SCE over?

 

[Christopher]

Is SCE over?

The eBook series suspended publication years ago due to, I assume, poor sales. But there are still a number of installments not yet collected in trade paperback. Whether there's any interest in telling new stories once that's done remains to be seen.

 

[Janos]

Is SCE over?

The eBook series suspended publication years ago due to, I assume, poor sales. But there are still a number of installments not yet collected in trade paperback. Whether there's any interest in telling new stories once that's done remains to be seen.

Thanks. I imagine with SCE crew being incorporated in other books seems to indicate that further new SCE stories are unlikely?

 

[JD]

Actually, the crossover characters were all secondary, so the series could easily continue with the most of the major characters still intact. A Singular Destiny did establish that at least one of the major character has moved on, though.

 

[Christopher]

Actually, the crossover characters were all secondary, so the series could easily continue with the most of the major characters still intact.

Indeed -- the main reason I "transferred" Krotine to Titan was because hardly any other writers had used her in SCE/CoE and I wanted to give her a second chance.

 

[Destructor]

Hmm. I just started 'Resistance' last night after finishing Q&A. I know this has been asking a zillion times before, but it's a bit confusing... is there a correct 'chronological order' I should be reading the relaunch series in?

Like, should I be reading the first TTN book before I read Resistance, or does it not make much odds?

 

[JD]

Here's the post-Nemesis section of a list posted by Thrawn a while back

(Nemesis falls here)
TNG: Death In Winter - crew reorganization post-Nemesis
Titan: Taking Wing - first adventure of Riker's crew
Titan: The Red King
Articles Of The Federation - a year in the life of the Federation president
Titan: Orion's Hounds
TNG: Resistance
TNG: Q&A
TNG: Before Dishonor - these last three TNG books are unfortunately inconsistent; the only real weak point on the list
Titan: Sword Of Damocles
TNG: Greater Than The Sum
Destiny: Gods Of Night
Destiny: Mere Mortals
Destiny: Lost Souls - epic crossover trilogy about the Borg invasion, following 4 crews. AMAZING.
TNG: Losing The Peace
A Singular Destiny
VOY: Full Circle - re-relaunches VOY, starting after the Spirit Walk books and covering the next 3 years, through and past Destiny
VOY: Unworthy
Titan: Over A Torrent Sea
Titan: Synthesis
Typhon Pact miniseries - this just finished being published, and catches DS9 up to the rest of the 24th century books.