Spoilers ENT: Rise of the Federation: A Choice of Futures by C. L. Bennett Review Thread
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Re: ENT: A Choice of Futures by C. L. Bennett Review Thread (Spoilers!
I voted outstanding. It is far and away the best Enterprise era novel. CLB really captures these characters well and continues each of their stories in a very natural and believable way. Reed's personal story seemed like a nice little call back to E Squared.
I voted outstanding. It is far and away the best Enterprise era novel. CLB really captures these characters well and continues each of their stories in a very natural and believable way. Reed's personal story seemed like a nice little call back to E Squared.
It was also great to see Captain Shumar and the Essex play an important role in the story. It makes him something other than the guy who crashed his ship, ala TNG's Power Play.
Re: ENT: A Choice of Futures by C. L. Bennett Review Thread (Spoilers!
Just a heads-up in case anyone missed the announcement in the separate thread: the annotations for ROTF:ACOF are now up. They can be accessed from here:
http://home.fuse.net/ChristopherLBennett/Trekfiction.html#ROTF1
Just a heads-up in case anyone missed the announcement in the separate thread: the annotations for ROTF:ACOF are now up. They can be accessed from here:
http://home.fuse.net/ChristopherLBennett/Trekfiction.html#ROTF1
Re: ENT: A Choice of Futures by C. L. Bennett Review Thread (Spoilers!
Awesome! Glad to finally see them up. Thanks for taking the time to do these annotations for your books. They really provide an extra bit of depth to the reading experience.
Re: ENT: A Choice of Futures by C. L. Bennett Review Thread (Spoilers!
Well, I was going to save these for a bit later, since I still have a few days of revisions left on ROTF Book 2, but all my new stuff turned out to get released over the same 2-day span, so what was going to be an incremental site update blossomed into a more sweeping one, so I figured I should get the ACOF annotations done as part of it. What I didn't anticipate is that it'd take me nearly an entire day with very few breaks to do it. If I'd known that, I might have waited.
Well, I was going to save these for a bit later, since I still have a few days of revisions left on ROTF Book 2, but all my new stuff turned out to get released over the same 2-day span, so what was going to be an incremental site update blossomed into a more sweeping one, so I figured I should get the ACOF annotations done as part of it. What I didn't anticipate is that it'd take me nearly an entire day with very few breaks to do it. If I'd known that, I might have waited.
Re: ENT: A Choice of Futures by C. L. Bennett Review Thread (Spoilers!
Christopher thanks for putting up fhe annotations. I will get to them later today.
Christopher thanks for putting up fhe annotations. I will get to them later today.
Re: ENT: A Choice of Futures by C. L. Bennett Review Thread (Spoilers!
Thank you for the annotations. Some great insight, as usual.
Thank you for the annotations. Some great insight, as usual.
Re: ENT: A Choice of Futures by C. L. Bennett Review Thread (Spoilers!
Fortunate for your fans who didn't have to wait till uptime. Lucky us!
Fortunate for your fans who didn't have to wait till uptime. Lucky us!
Re: ENT: A Choice of Futures by C. L. Bennett Review Thread (Spoilers!
Christopher in the annotations 110 you mean Robert L. Forward's Dragon's Egg?
Christopher in the annotations 110 you mean Robert L. Forward's Dragon's Egg?
Re: ENT: A Choice of Futures by C. L. Bennett Review Thread (Spoilers!
^Oops! Thanks, fixed.
^Oops! Thanks, fixed.
Re: ENT: A Choice of Futures by C. L. Bennett Review Thread (Spoilers!
No problem Christopher.
No problem Christopher.
Re: ENT: A Choice of Futures by C. L. Bennett Review Thread (Spoilers!
Fascinating annotations, as usual. Thanks!
Fascinating annotations, as usual. Thanks!
Re: ENT: A Choice of Futures by C. L. Bennett Review Thread (Spoilers!
I'm curious: Are Starfleet officers in the 2260's paid? According to Voyager's "Dark Frontier", the moneyless "New World Economy" didn't take shape until the late 22nd century.
I'm curious: Are Starfleet officers in the 2260's paid? According to Voyager's "Dark Frontier", the moneyless "New World Economy" didn't take shape until the late 22nd century.
Re: ENT: A Choice of Futures by C. L. Bennett Review Thread (Spoilers!
Do you mean 2160s? There are a few references in TOS to Starfleet officers getting paid, so it stands to reason their predecessors a century earlier did too. The TOS economy was only "moneyless" in the sense that payment was in electronic credits, which is a system we're increasingly approaching today.
Do you mean 2160s? There are a few references in TOS to Starfleet officers getting paid, so it stands to reason their predecessors a century earlier did too. The TOS economy was only "moneyless" in the sense that payment was in electronic credits, which is a system we're increasingly approaching today.
Re: ENT: A Choice of Futures by C. L. Bennett Review Thread (Spoilers!
I realize there were references to money throughout The Original Series, but my impression was that STIV and Voyager intended to retcon them into oblivion and imply the supposedly greedless "we work to better ourselves" system Picard described in First Contact came into being post-ENT.
Yep, 2160's. My bad.
I realize there were references to money throughout The Original Series, but my impression was that STIV and Voyager intended to retcon them into oblivion and imply the supposedly greedless "we work to better ourselves" system Picard described in First Contact came into being post-ENT.
Re: ENT: A Choice of Futures by C. L. Bennett Review Thread (Spoilers!
^I don't think they thought it through that systematically. Inconsistencies happen in any franchise this large with so many different people interpreting it over so much time. But there's clear evidence of a credit system in use in TOS. Harry Mudd and Cyrano Jones would not make sense as characters if they didn't exist in a society with some form of wealth.
Besides, ST IV wasn't Roddenberry's work, and it predated TNG, so it's unlikely to have had any such ideological motivations. Personally I never took Kirk's "no money" line to mean anything but that he was accustomed to purely electronic credit transactions and thus didn't use paper money.
^I don't think they thought it through that systematically. Inconsistencies happen in any franchise this large with so many different people interpreting it over so much time. But there's clear evidence of a credit system in use in TOS. Harry Mudd and Cyrano Jones would not make sense as characters if they didn't exist in a society with some form of wealth.
Besides, ST IV wasn't Roddenberry's work, and it predated TNG, so it's unlikely to have had any such ideological motivations. Personally I never took Kirk's "no money" line to mean anything but that he was accustomed to purely electronic credit transactions and thus didn't use paper money.
Re: ENT: A Choice of Futures by C. L. Bennett Review Thread (Spoilers!
Well, CLB's books are very heavy on the 'understanding' theme.
Of course, such a solution is quite unrealistic, history-wise; indeed, it's far closer to a pipe dream than to a practical solution: in the vast majority of conflicts/wars throughout history, there was no misunderstanding between the combatants regarding the opposing side, their purpose, etc.
No 'understanding the other' was the key to peace - no one was a teddy bear hidden behind a ruthless appearance. In the best cases, the pragmatical calculus of the potential gain versus the risk involved in continuing the conflict led to peace.
Well, CLB's books are very heavy on the 'understanding' theme.
Of course, such a solution is quite unrealistic, history-wise; indeed, it's far closer to a pipe dream than to a practical solution: in the vast majority of conflicts/wars throughout history, there was no misunderstanding between the combatants regarding the opposing side, their purpose, etc.
No 'understanding the other' was the key to peace - no one was a teddy bear hidden behind a ruthless appearance. In the best cases, the pragmatical calculus of the potential gain versus the risk involved in continuing the conflict led to peace.
Re: ENT: A Choice of Futures by C. L. Bennett Review Thread (Spoilers!
Wow. Speaking as a student of history, I find that one of the most naive statements I've ever read. The entire Cold War was an enormous mutual misunderstanding. Both sides assumed the other side planned to invade them, and built up nuclear stockpiles in self-defense, which the other side interpreted as a buildup to invasion, so they built more weapons in self-defense, etc.
Heck, even allies misunderstand each other's cultures and priorities all the time. It's hard for people to recognize that other cultures and individuals define the world differently than they do. The history of human cross-cultural interaction is a history of mutual misunderstanding and confusion. Heck, individuals fall prey to silly misunderstandings and comedies/tragedies of errors all the time, so why would civilizations be any different?
Wow. Speaking as a student of history, I find that one of the most naive statements I've ever read. The entire Cold War was an enormous mutual misunderstanding. Both sides assumed the other side planned to invade them, and built up nuclear stockpiles in self-defense, which the other side interpreted as a buildup to invasion, so they built more weapons in self-defense, etc.Heck, even allies misunderstand each other's cultures and priorities all the time. It's hard for people to recognize that other cultures and individuals define the world differently than they do. The history of human cross-cultural interaction is a history of mutual misunderstanding and confusion. Heck, individuals fall prey to silly misunderstandings and comedies/tragedies of errors all the time, so why would civilizations be any different?
Re: ENT: A Choice of Futures by C. L. Bennett Review Thread (Spoilers!
That's the way I take ALL "no money" lines in Trek.
That's the way I take ALL "no money" lines in Trek.
