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The wormhole reopened during the last days of August 2385 in Revelation and Dust, but as of January 2386 (Disavowed), we still haven't gotten word about the Dominion making contact with the Federation through the reopened wormhole. Aren't they at least a little concerned about a very strategic transit route being active again?
Yes, there were two or so...but Laas is pretty sharp and pushy
And it was certainly DRG's conscious choice in Olympus Descending to show the Dominion as still fascistic, despite (or in tandem with) Odo's attempts to reform it.
Anyway, I really hope we see Laas and the Dominion again soon!
"Above Average." Una McCormack is one of my favorite TrekLit authors, but she usually focuses on stories predicated on tension resulting from the direct threat of political violence -- The Lotus Flower, Hollow Men, Brinkmanship, and The Crimson Shadow are all examples of this. Even The Never-Ending Sacrifice counts, since so much of the story was about the violence of Cardassian society during its 2370s upheavals.
So it was really nice to see Ms. McCormack writing a story that was primarily about Star Trek's other great themes, exploration and diplomacy! The story doesn't have as much tension as a result, but I'm okay with that. I think we needed a break after all the high-stakes stuff we've been getting in 24th Century lit. This was the DS9 equivalent of The Light Fantastic.
I thought it was pretty clear that the Athene Donald crew's primary goal during the standoff with the Chain was to resolve the issue diplomatically, without resort to violence. Add to this the fact that the Chain would probably have kicked both the Athene Donald's and the Defiant's asses if a firefight had broken out; that the Chain had complaints that might have been legitimate (since the Federation did not have any way to prove that the People of the Open Sky had not kidnapped those children); and that the Federation in general is not a society full of aggressive Dick Cheneys, and I think the decision not to launch the Defiant makes sense.
ETA: Of course, who knows? Maybe something happened to the Defiant between A Ceremony of Losses and The Missing, and its absence from The Missing is a subtle hint.
Yes! Even though it's clear that the DS9 line has been living on through books marketed under other logos, it was nice to see the words "STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE" at the top of the cover.
My only real irritation is that a bunch of stuff that DRG3 dropped in the first Fall book isn't even mentioned, which is fine I guess since we know he'll pick up on those threads in his book later this year, but back when Marco was running things there was a little more cohesion than that. It's weird to have big cliffhangers not be addressed at all in now three novels set on DS9 in a row (The Fall 3, Lust's Latinum, The Missing) before finally coming back around.
It really doesn't bother me. I mean, how often did DS9 the TV series drop really explosive events and then not follow up on them for episodes at a time? I mean, in "By Inferno's Light," Cardassia joins the Dominion and tries to blow up the Bajoran star, thereby directly attacking the fleets of four different sovereign states -- Bajor, the Federation, the Klingons, and the Romulans -- and nearly wipes out the Bajoran species... and nothing happens as a consequence until the season finale?
Also, I just understand and accept that this is a fictional series shared by several different authors who all want to tell different stories. I'm okay with one author going in one direction and another author in a different direction as long as the first gets back to his cliffhangers later on.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: One of these days, Una McCormack and David Mack should get into a "beautiful prose"-off.
few minor things which are observations rather than a critique:
* Is that a minor meta-criticism of how overbearing Star-fleet is in this fictional universe? - in that the mission is set up as civilian but that is walked further and further back over the course of the novel
Edit #2 for clarity: I believe the implication was that the Chain ship was following the People of the Open Sky to DS9, and that's how the Athene Donald stumbled upon them. Their homeworld seems like it's probably more distant. Alden seems to refer to them as being not from the Alpha Quadrant, so I would assume they're Gamma Quadrant.
If they're Beta Quadrant, I'd peg them as being anticoreward and at least as far away from the periphery of UFP-explored space as the Regency of the Carnelian Throne is (in the opposite direction). End Edit #2.
"Old Women Ought to Be Explorers." Coulda been the title of the book!
Also, I like how this continues McCormack's more overtly feminist slant on TrekLit. Don't get me wrong -- TrekLit is always feminist insofar as the authors believe in female equality. McCormack just goes one step further and sometimes does books where the protagonists are all women, which is something we don't always see. (Keith R.A. DeCandido's Articles of the Federation -- which is now almost ten years old!??! -- is the last one pre-McCormack I can think of where all the protagonists were female.)
I also really appreciated that almost all of the principle players in the story were women. That's a first (except, I suppose for Dark Passions, and the less said about that, the better).
Well, no, there was Articles back in '05. And McCormack has done this before, in Brinkmanship, where the primary characters -- Efheny, Ezri Dax, and Beverly Crusher -- were all female. Most of the supporting characters were female as well, including Corazame, Detrek, Ilka, Rusht, Heldon, and Alizome. And McCormack has given interviews where she's talked about how the Venette Convention was specifically designed to be a sort of "feminist utopia" like those found in feminist science fiction literature.
It's notable that most of the sympathetic powerful people in The Crimson Shadow were also female -- the Castellan, the constable, and the head of the constabulary. Aside from Picard, Garak is the only powerful character in that novel who is both sympathetic and male.
I did. Not only reflective, but also sometimes I wasn't sure who the "captain" actually was. Ro? Tanj? Sounded like Picard, be he wasn't in the story, so... I had doubts. But the farther it went, the more Picardish it was, and mentioning Rene just confirmed it.
It was established to be Picard on the very first page:
Una McCormack said:
This is as good a time as any to attempt to organize my thinking; not only because Beverly remains away but also because war is, at last, over, and it is my hope that Starfleet can, as a result, return to its primary mission of peaceful exploration.
Unless you know of any other captains with spouses named "Beverly" who are away, it seems kind of hard not to agree that this is Picard from the onset.
Seemed like a lot of quick transitions and we're told about subsequent conversations between characters instead of being shown them. I didn't have a problem with that it was just different than the norm.
That's characteristic of McCormack's writing style. I imagine it doesn't work for all people; I think some scenes in The Missing would have benefitted from being expanded a bit. But she has noted in her interviews that she has "the curse of brevity."
So, y'know, you got David R. George III (who is quite verbose) on one hand, and you got Una McCormack on the other. I suppose they balance each other out.
But I'm also finding that the characters are not acting in character: a lot of them seem to be very gung-ho in this book. Blackmer I find is not acting like the Blackmer that we've come to see over the last couple of books. At the end of Chapter 6?, when Blackmer asks when he can make an arrest, I just found that that line, just the way it was written, it was so out of left-field for the character, and it really made it feel like Blackmer was the Worf of Laurell K. Hamilton's Nightshade novel, where it felt like Worf was having trouble "holding his horses".
Well, Blackmer has always been a bit more gung-ho about security than other characters -- remember his suspicions of the crew members in Plagues of Night? And I thought the book made it very clear that this is also Blackmer in some ways overcompensating for the fact that the Federation President was assassinated on his watch.
Announced as a "Direct Sequel" to The Fall I was REALLY looking forward to this book. However, I was disappointed. I re-read the last Fall book to remember what had happened. This book in my opinion was NOT a sequel to the Fall. It mentioned nothing that happened in that story arc. To me it was a stand-alone DS9 book. Nothing more. I guess I will have to wait to see where Picard and crew are headed to.
It may have been intended to be a direct sequel when first outlined and announced; the muse can sometimes take authors in different directions when the writing actually occurs. But I can't find any reference to it being a "direct sequel" to The Fall on the back cover, so I think they dropped that angle in the marketing.
I for one refuse to be upset that an author wanted to tell me a different story than I wanted to read.
And given that the implication seems to be that the Chain and the People of the Open Sky were from the Gamma Quadrant (given Alden's "do you want this to be your introduction to the Alpha Quadrant?" line), I think it's safe to say that the events of The Missing hinge on the restoration of the Bajoran Wormhole.
I gave this book an average but I am generous. First off, I did not like Picard's logs in the beginning of each chapter. It was too disjointed.
Those logs have direct thematic relevance to the ideas being explored in the story. In particular, the issue of how different cultures perceive one-another, and might perceive one's own culture.
Someone mentioned that Ro was reading his logs. Ok, fine but how about a little scene to introduce that?
Why? I don't know where the "Ro was reading his logs" thing comes from; I think the narrative made it clear that these were logs Picard was recording for himself while Crusher was away. There's no need to link them in the plot; they're thematically linked and that's all the link they need.
I am hoping that this is the first and last we see of the Chain and the People Of the Open Sky.
I believe the implication was that the Chain operative was investigating Federation technology, to make sure the UFP was as primitive as it seemed. There is, of course, the possibility that the Chain might perceive the UFP as a potential threat if they find out the UFP has access of any amount to Shedai technology (which does still seem to be itself more advanced than Chain technology).
My only problem with the Shedai thing was that I thought The Fall made it clear that Beverly did not have any information on the Shedai meta-genome post-Paths of Disharmony. Maybe the zh'Tarash Administration has been loosening the classification on Shedai data post-Bashir's Miracle?
He was identified as the person who broke in, but then it was never said "why" he stole the data. As far as the Chain were concerned, that data was part of technology that was at, essentially, the level of children's toy's. Apparently Ailoi broke into sickbay for no reason!s.
I don't think there's any reason to think the Chain have technology more advanced than the Shedai. They seem like they're maybe 50-100 years more advanced than the UFP, but they don't come across as having the god-like technology of the Shedai.
So, yeah, I get the implication that Ailoi was breaking into Federation computer databases to assess whether the UFP was as primitive as it seemed or if it had any threatening secrets, especially since DS9 was harboring the People.
He was implied to be working for the Chain's equivalent of Section 31, and the Shedai meta-genome contain's information beyond the Federation's current science/technology. It's not much of a leap to assume that it may be the most interesting thing the Federation has that the Chain wants.
He was implied to be working for the Chain's equivalent of Section 31, and the Shedai meta-genome contain's information beyond the Federation's current science/technology. It's not much of a leap to assume that it may be the most interesting thing the Federation has that the Chain wants.
From what I could tell, the Chain considered the technological level of all the Alpha Quadrant powers to be at the level of pre-school toys, so why did Aioli's secret group not go after the Tholians for the Shedai genome.
2. We don't know if they know about the Tholians' link to the Shedai.
3. Alden speculates that the Chain had been aware of the UFP for some time prior to first contact with the Athene Donald. If this is the case, they may have become aware of Federation possession of the Shedai meta-genome through intercepted news reports (or intercepted encrypted Starfleet transmissions?) about Bashir's rogue mission to Andor.
4. Remember, they were chasing the People of the Open Sky, and became suspicious of the UFP for harboring them. If you're chasing the People, and there's this alien state harboring these dissidents you hate, then why wouldn't you also investigate those aliens harboring them while you're at it?
Plus, whether Aioli was truly working for a secretive group was never firmly established---it was mostly guesswork by everyone.
Yes, how dare a work of literature not spell out every mystery for you.
Plus it seemed as if his secret group had placed him in with the People to prevent Chain technology from falling into the wrong hands, not to steal new technology.
Why in the galaxy would such an agency not want both?
Plus I wasn't buying that Transworld beaming was above Federation technology. From what Spock (Prime) had said in the 2009 movie about Scotty (Prime) having invented transwarp beaming, and the Enterprise-D using near-warp beaming in the "Schizoid Man", and even transworld beaming in the TNG Season 7 episode with Daimon Bok, and even other groups using dimensional shift beaming, for the O'Brien and everyone to say that they never knew about it was extremely weak.
Your near-war comparison is nonsense; that has nothing to do with transwarp beaming. The only experiences the Federation is known to have with transwarp beaming in the Prime Timeline are the Bok incident and the Dukat Cult incident from "Covenant."
Saying that the UFP should already be super-familiar with this technology is like saying that you don't buy that the United States in 1910 would have trouble resisting an attack from a formation of F-117s.
I mean, yeah, they've invented airplanes and maybe have some early military aircraft coming up soon, but the difference between that technology and the advanced version of it represented by an F-117 is so monumental as to render what little experience they had with the technology relatively meaningless. Yeah, Scotty may have already invented transwarp beaming -- and mind you, we only know that he invented it some time before or during 2387, not that he's invented it already -- but that doesn't mean that Federation science is yet equipped to make it a reliable technology, nor that Federation sensors are able to detect advanced versions of the technology without informed tinkering.
The Fall: Revelation and Dust: 22 August 2385 - 1 September 2385
27 August 2385: Starbase Deep Space 9 is dedicated; Federation President Nanietta Bacco is assassinated
The Fall: The Crimson Shadow: 24 August 2385 - 4 September 2385
The Fall: A Ceremony of Losses: 31 August 2385 - 19 September 2385
The Fall: The Poisoned Chalice: 20 September 2385 - 12 October 2386
The Fall: Peaceable Kingdoms: 13 October 2385 - 27 October 2385
31 October 2385: Kellessar zh'Tarash is inaugurated as Federation President
TTN: Absent Enemies: November 2385
TNG: The Light Fantastic: November 2385
DS9: The Missing: Late November 2385
Section 31: Disavowed: January 2386
I'm not sure where to place DS9: Lust's Latinum Lost (And Found), as I haven't read it and Memory Beta just says 2385. Assuming that it takes place some time after the assassination but before the new year, I'd say it could go any time in November or December 2385, since Quark doesn't seem to do much in The Missing that could affect a Quark-centric story.
How does it relate to Sacraments of Fire , A Ceremony of Losses, Peaceable Kingdoms , and Takedown?
We know that Sacraments of Fire will apparently take place "days" after Bacco's assassination. Given that it's going to follow up on Altek's appearance at the end of Revelation and Dust, I would hypothesize that it will likely take place just prior to or concurrently with the first half of A Ceremony of Losses (which covered a longer period of time than the second half, and focused so exclusively on Bashir that it doesn't rule out other interesting things going on aboard DS9).
My hypothesis would be that Sacraments of Fire ends long before The Missing (and, I presume, TNG: Takedown) begins.
On Page 30, Corazame refers to the time since she left Ab-Tzenketh as "this past year." But Typhon Pact: Brinkmanship took place in November 2383--two years earlier. So either a Tzenkethi year is almost exactly two Earth years, or there's been a minor editing mistake.
Second possible mistake:
In conversation with Corazame on page 60, Alden refers to his having been on Bajor during the Cardassian Occupation, passing as a Bajoran. However, he is established to have been an upperclassman at the Academy during Ezri Tigan's time there (c. 2369/70-2373/2374); even if he graduated during Ezri's freshman year and we place Ezri's freshman year at its earliest possible point (given that she was apparently fresh out of the Academy when she was aboard the Destiny in 2374), that means the earliest possible year he could have graduated would be 2369 -- the same year the Occupation ended. Seems improbable to me that Starfleet Intelligence would have put an ensign fresh out of the Academy undercover on Bajor that year.
To be fair, this is based on the presumption that Ezri hadn't been out of the Academy for more than a year when she received the Dax symbiont. I suppose we could push her age back a few years -- though I was under the impression that Ezri was 27 when she became captain of the Aventine in 2381 (the same age as Picard when he became captain of the Stargazer), putting her birth year at 2354 and making her only 21 when she received the Dax symbiont.
Plus I wasn't buying that Transworld beaming was above Federation technology. From what Spock (Prime) had said in the 2009 movie about Scotty (Prime) having invented transwarp beaming, and the Enterprise-D using near-warp beaming in the "Schizoid Man", and even transworld beaming in the TNG Season 7 episode with Daimon Bok, and even other groups using dimensional shift beaming, for the O'Brien and everyone to say that they never knew about it was extremely weak.
Well in regards to Scotty Prime and transwarp beaming, the ending of TNG - Indistinguishable From Magic in 2383
has him conducting his very first field test of his transwarp beaming equation as a last-ditch halfhearted hope for survival in the face of his ship's imminent destruction. Everyone else believed that he died, but Spock noted Scotty's abilities as a miracle worker and therefore the possibility that he survived. Scotty still has until the Hobus Supernova of 2387 in the novels to reappear alive.
Still though, I would have liked The Missing to explain and reconcile "subspace beaming" with "transwarp beaming".
Plus I wasn't buying that Transworld beaming was above Federation technology. From what Spock (Prime) had said in the 2009 movie about Scotty (Prime) having invented transwarp beaming, and the Enterprise-D using near-warp beaming in the "Schizoid Man", and even transworld beaming in the TNG Season 7 episode with Daimon Bok, and even other groups using dimensional shift beaming, for the O'Brien and everyone to say that they never knew about it was extremely weak.
Well in regards to Scotty Prime and transwarp beaming, the ending of TNG - Indistinguishable From Magic in 2383
has him conducting his very first field test of his transwarp beaming equation as a last-ditch halfhearted hope for survival in the face of his ship's imminent destruction. Everyone else believed that he died, but Spock noted Scotty's abilities as a miracle worker and therefore the possibility that he survived. Scotty still has until the Hobus Supernova of 2387 in the novels to reappear alive.
Still though, I would have liked The Missing to explain and reconcile "subspace beaming" with "transwarp beaming".
I loved this story, but one thing has been bothering me. Where does it fall in the timeline? How does it relate to Sacraments of Fire , A Ceremony of Losses, Peaceable Kingdoms , and Takedown?
I understood that as the station is about a year old = about a year after Bacco assassination, so not shortly after "Peaceable Kingdoms" but much later.
I loved this story, but one thing has been bothering me. Where does it fall in the timeline? How does it relate to Sacraments of Fire , A Ceremony of Losses, Peaceable Kingdoms , and Takedown?
I understood that as the station is about a year old = about a year after Bacco assassination, so not shortly after "Peaceable Kingdoms" but much later.
Nope. The Historian's Note at the beginning makes it clear that The Missing takes place in November 2385, only about two months after Bacco's assassination.
Mind you, the station itself would by definition need to be older than its official opening, since constructing the thing took two years. So I'd take the "barely a year old" line as being a reference to how long people had been living aboard it even while it was still under construction, not as a reference to the time since the station was dedicated.
Nope. The Historian's Note at the beginning makes it clear that The Missing takes place in November 2385, only about two months after Bacco's assassination.
Mind you, the station itself would by definition need to be older than its official opening, since constructing the thing took two years. So I'd take the "barely a year old" line as being a reference to how long people had been living aboard it even while it was still under construction, not as a reference to the time since the station was dedicated.
I agree. I appreciated the lower stakes of this story, and the depiction of diplomatic and political activity as a matter of course rather than the province of crises and high-profile actions. We saw steps being made toward Cardassian-Romulan and even Federation-Tzenkethi reconciliation, a welcome suggestion of thawing TP/KA tensions, without the need to proceed beyond a pleasingly simple, low-key depiction of life aboard Federation facilities.
Also, I like how this continues McCormack's more overtly feminist slant on TrekLit. Don't get me wrong -- TrekLit is always feminist insofar as the authors believe in female equality. McCormack just goes one step further and sometimes does books where the protagonists are all women, which is something we don't always see. (Keith R.A. DeCandido's Articles of the Federation -- which is now almost ten years old!??! -- is the last one pre-McCormack I can think of where all the protagonists were female.)
To offer an opposing view, from someone whose opposition to feminism is well established, I find the creep of that ideology into Trek Lit to be a major disappointment. This has nothing to do with the sex of the protagonists - that doesn't matter in the slightest to me, and never has. But while you apparently hold a positive view of feminism in general, I most emphatically do not (I would strongly disagree both with your definition of feminism and with the assertion that Trek lit has ever been feminist in any capacity). As someone who finds feminism both reactionary and incompatible with the idealistic depiction of the United Federation of Planets, it's a great shame to see it begin to show influence - especially if female characters are going to start being viewed through its lens. The depiction of gender in the Federation in Trek lit has always pleased me, and I don't like seeing what to me is a big step backwards.
I read things like Trek lit to get away from ideologies like feminism, and have long appreciated Trek lit's relative immunity to it.
Not wanting to derail anything; just noting an opposing view.
And McCormack has given interviews where she's talked about how the Venette Convention was specifically designed to be a sort of "feminist utopia" like those found in feminist science fiction literature.
Even aside from my personal distaste of feminism, the very concept of an ideological utopia of any kind should send cold shivers down your spine. To illustrate, let's assume that I am describing a Nasatist utopia. You may know next to nothing about Nasatism, but already you know two very obvious and (if you have your wits about you) alarming things about this society I propose. First, it is Nasatist. Therefore its policies, its societal assumptions, the very means of thinking for those within it - as socialized from birth and reinforced continuously - are Nasatist in nature. All discourse is Nasatist, all means of relating to the world and to other people utilize Nasatist perceptual grids. If you are in any way non-Nasatist or anti-Nasatist, there is inherently no place for you here. Nor can you ever be welcome or understood other than as something entirely alien and disruptive. Second, and relating to this first conclusion, you know also that this society is Utopian. Because it is utopian, there is no aesthetic or ethical justification for non-Nasatism in any form; indeed, non-Nasatism is a detraction from that perfection. The absence - the obliteration - of anti-Nasatist and even neutral non-Nasatist thought and expression becomes a defining quality of that which is most positive. You are not Nasatist, so you are not welcome, and since this is a utopia, why would we want you? (There's a reason why utopian politics tend to lead to mass graves). The very idea of a challenge to Nasatism in my society is ludicrous; it is essentially impossible. It is a society defined entirely in terms of my inescapable political and societal control. You all even think in my terms, and no other. Oh, how easy it is to achieve peace! Just make sure everyone but yourself is dead...
A "feminist utopia" is nothing but a power fantasy of disturbing extremism, masquerading - in expectedly reactionary and traditionalist manner - as pleasantry. There's also the fact that the idea of feminist societies resembling the Venetans in any way is laughable in the extreme, at least for anyone dealing with reality and not certain feminists' own distorted self-image.
Personally, I find it bemusing and unfortunate that an author who writes with such eloquence about societies such as Cardassia and Tzenketh would align with feminists. Where the critical eye turns and does not turn is always illuminating. But that, of course, is simply my perspective.
Odo did wonder if the Dominion might not be better served by his absence, letting the Solid members develop, for better or for worse, on their own. I suppose Odo might assume that Laas will inevitably grow tied and disgusted of being asked to run the Solids' lives (He's never identified as a Founder, indeed he's still offended by the suggestion, so he unlikely thinks it's his purpose to control them).
I could easily see Laas telling the Vorta, "Do whatever the f**k you want, you wretched monoforms. Now, I'm going to spend the next three years as a rock. Don't disturb me". In practice, the Dominion would be near enough leaderless anyway.
I thought it was pretty clear that the Athene Donald crew's primary goal during the standoff with the Chain was to resolve the issue diplomatically, without resort to violence. Add to this the fact that the Chain would probably have kicked both the Athene Donald's and the Defiant's asses if a firefight had broken out; that the Chain had complaints that might have been legitimate (since the Federation did not have any way to prove that the People of the Open Sky had not kidnapped those children); and that the Federation in general is not a society full of aggressive Dick Cheneys, and I think the decision not to launch the Defiant makes sense.
ETA: Of course, who knows? Maybe something happened to the Defiant between A Ceremony of Losses and The Missing, and its absence from The Missing is a subtle hint.
Thanks, Sci, all of those explanations make sense.
Concerning the origin of the Chain, there was no reference of anyone traversing the wormhole. With the frequent mention of Alpha Quadrant, my assumption is as well that the Chain is from the unexplored portions of the Beta Quadrant.
I agree. I appreciated the lower stakes of this story, and the depiction of diplomatic and political activity as a matter of course rather than the province of crises and high-profile actions.
I like that insight -- a story about diplomacy as a fact of life rather than as a sign of crisis.
Odo did wonder if the Dominion might not be better served by his absence, letting the Solid members develop, for better or for worse, on their own. I suppose Odo might assume that Laas will inevitably grow tied and disgusted of being asked to run the Solids' lives (He's never identified as a Founder, indeed he's still offended by the suggestion, so he unlikely thinks it's his purpose to control them).
I could easily see Laas telling the Vorta, "Do whatever the f**k you want, you wretched monoforms. Now, I'm going to spend the next three years as a rock. Don't disturb me". In practice, the Dominion would be near enough leaderless anyway.
A fascinating possibility. I would tend to assume that in lieu of Odo or Laas, the Dominion would fall under the leadership of Weyoun 9. Weyoun 9, as of Raise the Dawn, seems to have developed and matured a great deal from the sycophantic Founder-worshippers and war criminals who constituted most of his predecessors; he seems more like Weyoun 6 than Weyouns 4, 5, 7, and 8. Hopefully he would lead the Dominion into a more progressive direction.
Re: Feminism.
I value our good relationship, Deranged Nasat, so I am only going to say this:
Feminism is the belief that men and women are, and ought to be, equal. Nothing more, nothing less. As a result, Star Trek is (when it isn't falling into the habits of female sexual objectification) a feminist work.
I don't know what exactly has led you to feel such hostility towards feminism, but I would suggest that you consider the possibility that you have been led to mis-attribute objectionable ideological stances to feminism.
As for Una McCormack's reference to the Venette Convention that it's modeled on "feminist utopias" from earlier science fiction literature -- I think it's important to remember that, in general, even the concept of a "[whatever] utopia" in literature often comes with connotations of, "Let's tear this down and see where the flaws are, even if it's great."
The DS9 TV series is a prime example of that. Yes, Star Trek can be read as a work of progressive utopianism -- not in the sense that the Federation is without flaws, but in the sense of the Federation as a working society whose practices represent significant improvements over reality. "Utopia" is often used in a broad context as meaning not literally Utopia, but as being something that is broadly superior in some manner to what we have today. Figurative vs. literal.
Considering that a significant theme of Typhon Pact: Brinkmanship was a contrast of the ways in which the Venette Convention was more advanced than the UFP and of the ways in which the Convention was flawed and far less advanced than the UFP -- especially its apparent inability-slash-unwillingness to cope with the realities of dishonest realpolitik in inter-state relations -- I would wager that McCormack was speaking in the figurative sense of the term "utopia" rather than the literal sense.
I value our good relationship, Deranged Nasat, so I am only going to say this:
Feminism is the belief that men and women are, and ought to be, equal. Nothing more, nothing less. As a result, Star Trek is (when it isn't falling into the habits of female sexual objectification) a feminist work.
I don't know what exactly has led you to feel such hostility towards feminism, but I would suggest that you consider the possibility that you have been led to mis-attribute objectionable ideological stances to feminism.
That's okay, Sci. All I can do is suggest something similar in reverse. This is not the time or place, of course, but I would say that you are the one who is misinformed.
Still, while I strongly disagree with your definition, by your standards I am feminist, so there's not really a conflict.
I'm certainly not one to let ideological differences get in the way of good relationships. Just so long as it's understood that my perspective here is considerably different.
Nope, I'm with you. I voted average but it was borderline, it could have been lower. I've been reading some of the old numbered TNG books lately and this one really had the feeling of being one of those, not one of the cool new books. It felt to me like every plot and suplot was not very compelling or even realistic and the resolutions were all some form of a deus ex machina.
The last 3 books I've read:
Acts of Contrition, 5 stars
Disavowed, 4 stars
Missing, 3 stars
I've just started Takedown, man, I hope that's not 2 star...
A deus ex machina is a particular storytelling trope in which a character or device intervenes at the finale to resolve the plot who had not been introduced earlier in the story. In criticism, most deus ex machina are viewed as creatively unsatisfying because the actions of the deus figure are viewed as arbitrary, since there is no build-up or prior indication of a desire/ability to intervene.
Nothing in Deep Space Nine: The Missing constitutes a deus ex machina. The People/Chain plot is not DEM -- this plot is resolved through detective work on the part of the Federation, and through Peter Alden's insight into the Chain's internal politics. The Romulan/Cardassian subplot is not resolved through DEM -- they are resolved through Captain Ro's deductive reasoning about the Romulans' intransigence. The Corazame/Peter subplot is not resolved through DEM -- it is resolved through Corazame's personal growth and newfound assertiveness.
I can understand finding the flashes of insight that helped resolve the Chain and Romulan/Cardassian subplots creatively unsatisfying. I don't agree, but I can understand it. But they are not deus ex machina.
In my mind the whole transphasic or what ever it's called beaming and having the murderer explode because because the beaming is unstable is the definition of deus ex machina. Maybe I'm wrong but that's how I see it. And the insights that caused the problem resolution may not be the definition of DSM but some of them seem to be to come out of no where.
To offer an opposing view, from someone whose opposition to feminism is well established, I find the creep of that ideology into Trek Lit to be a major disappointment. This has nothing to do with the sex of the protagonists - that doesn't matter in the slightest to me, and never has. But while you apparently hold a positive view of feminism in general, I most emphatically do not (I would strongly disagree both with your definition of feminism and with the assertion that Trek lit has ever been feminist in any capacity).
Feminism is the belief that men and women are, and ought to be, equal. Nothing more, nothing less. As a result, Star Trek is (when it isn't falling into the habits of female sexual objectification) a feminist work.
I don't know what exactly has led you to feel such hostility towards feminism, but I would suggest that you consider the possibility that you have been led to mis-attribute objectionable ideological stances to feminism.
That's okay, Sci. All I can do is suggest something similar in reverse. This is not the time or place, of course, but I would say that you are the one who is misinformed.
Nasat, like Sci, I value your contributions to this BBS quite a bit and think you're a generally intelligent clever person.
So please understand that I speak with respect when I say you are completely wrong about what feminism means and Sci is completely right. There is no "disagreement" here. Despite the best efforts of sexists the world over to turn it into a dirty word, feminism means precisely what Sci says: belief in women's equality with men and a desire to not downplay or trivialize the contributions of women to society.
Not only reflective, but also sometimes I wasn't sure who the "captain" actually was. Ro? Tanj? Sounded like Picard, be he wasn't in the story, so... I had doubts. But the farther it went, the more Picardish it was, and mentioning Rene just confirmed it.
