Re: DTI: The Collectors by Christopher L. Bennett Review Thread (Spoil
The first two DTI books were good, but this one is great.
Maybe it's because the first two had such a focus on stitching together all of the on-screen time travel of Trek (which was handled wonderfully, I should add), or giving some sense, meaning, and closure to the Temporal Cold War (in a satisfying way), but this ebook feels like the first "fully-fledged" DTI novel. It's like the Battlestar Galactica reboot: the opening mini-series was entertaining, but it wasn't until the first episode, "33," that the audience really got a sense of what the ongoing series would actually be like week-to-week.
If this is any indication of what a regularly scheduled DTI ebook series would be like, then I would like to join the queue right now for the next installment.
The story definitely gave me a Warehouse 13 vibe with the primary agents involved with the A-story and the supporting characters/agents hanging back at home and trying to offer support. That Ranjea and his partner spent their chapters wandering around the Vault, that's full of artifacts, while bantering and teasing one another in a very Claudia/Jinxs manner, just added to this impression. Mind you, this a complimentary comparison, since I was a fan of WH13 and, evidently, DTI works very well as a fun procedural.
The book itself was the perfect length; fast-paced, yet still FULL of ideas and concepts. I read this in one sitting, still felt sated from the experience of reading a complete story, and left happily eager for more stories with these characters. Not a bad entertainment value for the slim price of admission.
Christopher, your imagination seemed unbridled in your depiction of the future. Each page was loaded with interesting speculations on where Trek would lead in the centuries after the 24th, but they all felt like completely authentic and natural extensions of the technology and cultures that already exist in Trek. Brilliant stuff.
The substance of your story was clever and remarkable, but I would also like to point out that your writing style was superb in this. Your handling of the multiple versions of the same character scenes, the sharp dialogue between Dulmer, Lucsly, & Noi every time they interacted, the complicated action scenes, and, most of all, the healthy dose of humor that you managed to mine from these characters and situations.
Lucsly keeping his eyes closed in the future...the Borgasaurus not being able to assimilate someone because of his short arms...and I had to smile when I read the scene of Dulmer and Lucsly playing the "day-of-the-week" game in their detention cell. Of course, what a perfectly in-character thing for them to do.
Well done, all around.
