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Spoilers ENT: Rise of the Federation: Uncertain Logic by C. L. Bennett Review Thread

Rate Uncertain Logic.

  • Outstanding

    Votes: 28 41.2%

  • Above Average

    Votes: 31 45.6%

  • Average

    Votes: 6 8.8%

  • Below Average

    Votes: 2 2.9%

  • Poor

    Votes: 1 1.5%
  • Total voters
    68
I'm in no hurry to solve the transporter problem. If ENT's producers had had their way, they wouldn't have included transporters at all. I'm trying to respect that and keep their use to a minimum. It helps give the era a different feel from the TOS and TNG eras.
 
Most likely as a result of the fact that I read this between Part 1 and Part 2 of The Pilgrim's Progress, I have a certain heightened recognition of allegory, but a lot of the opus under discussion seems to parallel current political developments.
 
I voted "Above Average" rather than the "Outstanding" I typically give Christopher's books. That might have to do with reading the last half at the beach in St. Martin. The book was excellent, but the beach was spectacular!

Looking forward to the next one.
 
I had a question on my mind ever since the series started, but a always forgot to ask: Will we see Donna O'Neill again? She appeared in many books, and even had some character. I kinda liked her, and how she went in Archer's head from "Can I trust my ship to her?" to "Well, we sure could use her on this one if she wasn't sick!"
 
I have enough trouble juggling all the characters I'm already using. And honestly, I never got much of a sense of O'Neill's personality in the books, not enough to be confident writing her.
 
I really liked this one. Though I liked Tower of Babel, I enjoyed Uncertain Logic (and A Choice of Futures) a bit more. I didn't expect to be so engaged by the Vulcan storyline, so kudos to Christopher for making it so compelling. I also enjoyed the Pioneer/Ware portion and look forward to the mystery hopefully being solved in the next book (has a title been announced for that yet?). I also found the Deltan plot to pretty interesting as well.

I just have to say that Christopher is one of my favorite Star Trek authors, and although most of the current lineup of authors are pretty great, I tend to look forward to his work the most.
 
hbquikcomjamesl said:
BTW, is Zadok in any way an allusion to Zadok, the first High Priest of Solomon's Temple?
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Indirectly. He's named after an ancestor of mine, who was probably named after the Biblical figure. While working on this book, I was visiting relatives and I learned some things about the family's genealogy, including the existence of my forebear Zadok Alonzo Bennett. Apparently my clan was rather more religious prior to my grandfather's generation. I thought Zadok would be a great name for a Vulcan antagonist, so I replaced the name I'd come up with previously (I forget what that was).
 
Finally got around to finishing this! Really enjoyed it. I still think A Choice of Futures may be my favorite Rise of the Federation novel, but it only slightly edges out Uncertain Logic.

No need to repeat most of the things that have been articulated in this thread already- I am largely in agreement with all of it. Very nice change of pace from Tower of Babel but also very good at continuing to establish a tone for this era.

One thing I'm surprised no one has commented on yet (spoiler ahead):

I was pleased to see a brief reference to Mayweather experimenting romantically as a youngster with someone named "Juan," who is presumably male. Of course, many people "experiment" with same-sex relationships early in life and then later on settle into identifying as heterosexual, so we shouldn't read too much into this reference, vis à vis Mayweather's sexual orientation/preferences as an adult. But it's still a nice acknowledging touch of diversity on Christopher's part.

I'm trying to decide if Christopher is the first to do this (take a presumed-straight male character from canon and acknowledge non-heterosexual encounters in the past). Andrew J. Robinson (and to a lesser extent, Una McCormack) have done this with Garak, but there was on-screen precedent to suggest that.

Of course, there was all that Kirk/Spock slashy business way back when, but that was a little different.

Ah! Michael A. Martin established Admiral Krell as having a husband in one of the Romulan War books. It's a little bit of a cheat, because we really had no reason to presume either way about Krell's sexuality from his onscreen appearances, but still.

Others that I've forgotten?
 
Just read through your annotations, Christopher- glad to see that you actually referenced a pre-existing character for that purpose! That part went over my head... my knowledge of Enterprise is not as encyclopedic as my knowledge of Deep Space Nine or Next Generation.
 
Paper Moon said:
Just read through your annotations, Christopher- glad to see that you actually referenced a pre-existing character for that purpose!
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Well, when you grow up on a low-warp cargo ship that spends years in space between worlds and likely receives next to no outside visitors in that time, you're rather pressed for experimental matings, aren't you? Growing up like that, I'd be amazed if this sort of thing among young shipmates was uncommon.
 
Deranged Nasat said:
Paper Moon said:
Just read through your annotations, Christopher- glad to see that you actually referenced a pre-existing character for that purpose!
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Well, when you grow up on a low-warp cargo ship that spends years in space between worlds and likely receives next to no outside visitors in that time, you're rather pressed for experimental matings, aren't you? Growing up like that, I'd be amazed if this sort of thing among young shipmates was uncommon.
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Very true, definitely agreed. I had just forgotten that the referenced individual had, in fact, appeared onscreen.
 
I must have completely missed that little reference. Fantastic that you worked that in Christopher. Although I am heterosexual, I'm a strong supporter of the LGBT community, so when things like this are mentioned in TrekLit as being something very normal, it always brings a smile to my face. :)
 
Finished it today....I enjoyed the parts on Vulcan and involving the Ware/Pioneer plot, but the Deltan/Essex sections felt kind of shoehorned in and had no real connection to anything else. Plus I honestly didn't care for the entire concept in the last few books of the Orions being the 'shadowy masters' of the cabal trying to destabilize the Federation. But I've never cared for the Orions at all, so it's just my preference.

Normally I skip Vulcan-centric books since usually they just become dull to me, but the approach here was a good one. Although I did feel like V'Las' plot unraveled kind of quickly near the end all of a sudden. Before that he was smartly manipulating almost everyone in just the right way.

One thing I would like to see, since it has been pretty much ignored in post-TNG/DS9/VOY TrekLit, is whether or not the Federation had any contact post-2161 with the Xindi. Presumably their space is not THAT far away from the Federation. Having Pioneer or Endeavor go out to explore that part of space again could be interesting.

I've also liked some of the stuff in these books involving how all of the different races took different roles in the beginning of the Federation when it came to how they used their ships. With Earth doing the exploring, Andoria providing the military muscle, and the Tellarites doing whatever it is they do (which I forget but was probably mentioned).
 
LutherSloan said:
Finished it today....I enjoyed the parts on Vulcan and involving the Ware/Pioneer plot, but the Deltan/Essex sections felt kind of shoehorned in and had no real connection to anything else.
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Well, that's kind of literally true, since it's a subplot I cut out of Tower of Babel due to space limitations. But it does advance Devna's ongoing arc.


One thing I would like to see, since it has been pretty much ignored in post-TNG/DS9/VOY TrekLit, is whether or not the Federation had any contact post-2161 with the Xindi. Presumably their space is not THAT far away from the Federation. Having Pioneer or Endeavor go out to explore that part of space again could be interesting.
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Actually it was pretty darn far away. We know that NX-01 was 150 ly from Earth in "The Crossing" and "Horizon," so presumably they were farther out by "The Expanse." Given the log dates of March 21st in "Bounty" and April 24 when they reached home in "The Expanse," it took them no more than a month at warp 5 to cover those 150-plus light years. But it took them seven weeks at warp 5 to reach the Expanse, which puts it probably around 250-300 ly away. And it took them months more to reach the Xindi themselves, who were presumably significantly closer to the center of the 2000-light-year-wide Expanse. So New Xindus could easily be 500-600 light years away, if not more. (There is a line in "The Xindi" where one of the councillors says Earth is 50 ly away, but that's clearly an error. Or else a Xindi year is 10-12 Earth years long.)


I've also liked some of the stuff in these books involving how all of the different races took different roles in the beginning of the Federation when it came to how they used their ships. With Earth doing the exploring, Andoria providing the military muscle, and the Tellarites doing whatever it is they do (which I forget but was probably mentioned).
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The Tellarites mainly handle operational support and supply -- i.e. they're basically the merchant marine.
 
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