Spoilers ENT: To Brave the Storm by Michael A. Martin Review Thread

[Relayer1]

Re: Enterprise: The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm review thread

Well, got a bit sidetracked but just finished it - enjoyed it too. Could have been a bit longer and more detailed in places but that wasn't the authors decision.

I have a few questions though (I think we are safely past the 'Spoiler' period) :

How did Starfleet 'win' when it was just the Romulan Earth invasion fleet that was routed. We didn't 'beat' Nazi Germany at the end of The Battle Of Britain...

Why did Trip stay 'dead' (surely his friends and family knew) ? Was it to protect the deep cover Vulcan spy who presumably survived too.

Was she a Vulcan agent ? Why would she refuse to shoot Trip but then toss a bomb into his escape pod, and how did they both survive ?

In the 25 years later epilogue only Archer, Trip, T'Pol and Hoshi are mentioned as 'surviving' at that point. Does that mean the others are deceased ?

I'd assume Phlox had returned home and Malcolm would be Chief of Staff to President Archer. Travis must have crashed one too many spaceships...

With the Enterprise NX being decommissioned and next years calendar showing it being rebuilt with a new secondary hull, will it be recommissioned ?

We need answers - i.e. another novel...

 

[Lonemagpie]

Re: Enterprise: The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm review thread

How many of their NX Class ships does Starfleet actually lose by the end of the war?

Spoiler: To Brave the Storm

IIRC, Endeavour isn't mentioned at all in the second book, so unless it was destroyed, the four that were lost in "Beneath the Raptor's Wing" were the only four that were. If Endeavour was destroyed, that'd up the number to five and leave Enterprise the only one to survive the war.

The NX-07 Intrepid features heavily in "Indistinguishable From Magic", set partly in 2262.

But was believed to be, and officially recorded as being, a casualty of the war.

 

[James Cole]

Re: Enterprise: The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm review thread

I read TGTMD when it first came out, but decided to hold off on reading the rest of the ENT relaunch until the Romulan War "trilogy" was released. During the last two weeks I re-read TGTMD, which despite the convoluted ret-coning of "These Are The Voyages" (why 2155 instead of 2161?) was a good book when it wasn't annoying the freaking hell out of me with its out of place Rihansu-isms and constant need to use Romulan or Klingon language proper nouns. Coridan's fate was a shocking plot development that really worked well.

Kobayashi Maru was... just there. More annoying Rihansu-isms and fictional language proper nouns that always knocked me out of the narrative. I remember reading about half of an eBook version of this novel in 2008 but kinda giving up halfway through. You could get twice the story in half the space with some good editing, but I powered through this time. When getting to the actual Kobayashi Maru part the book really underperformed what should have been an awesome sequence.

The two Romulan War books themselves are shockingly bad. I finished To Brave the Storm today, which managed to be worse than "These Are The Voyages" which at least had a botched plausible deniability with its holodeck recreation. I realize behind the scenes two trade paperbacks were hacked down into a space 1/4 of what was originally planned, but this can't explain completely losing the plot with Sopek/Ch'iev, the other Vulcan machinations, or the incredibly rushed ending that just throws everything into the air-- what will the characters be doing now, Enterprise being retired, war over, birth of the Federation, Trip rescued off screen.

This series has to be the worst Star Trek books I have read in over ten years -- worse than Red Sector, Ship of the Line, Chainmail, the Christie Golden VGR relaunch. What a wasted opportunity. I hope in 5-10 years someone relaunches the post season 4 ENT storyline from scratch and fixes not only TATV but this botched mess too. This could have been epic.

 

[Christopher]

Re: Enterprise: The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm review thread

...the convoluted ret-coning of "These Are The Voyages" (why 2155 instead of 2161?)

Because TATV doesn't really make sense as a story set in 2161. The script, so I gather, was originally written to take place in 2155 but got hastily rewritten for a 2161 setting when the show was cancelled. And that introduced a number of anomalies. Why has nobody advanced in rank or position in six years? Why has Trip and T'Pol's relationship been in stasis for the same duration? Why is there no mention of the Earth-Romulan War? Why does Deanna say that the alliance established here is just the first step toward the Federation, rather than the actual formation of the Federation itself? The account as presented in the episode doesn't really hold together. It's a better fit to 2155 than it is to the alleged 2161 date. So The Good That Men Do explained those discrepancies by positing that the historical account, like the teleplay, had been adjusted to look like it happened in 2161 rather than the original setting of 2155.

 

[James Cole]

Re: Enterprise: The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm review thread

...the convoluted ret-coning of "These Are The Voyages" (why 2155 instead of 2161?)

Because TATV doesn't really make sense as a story set in 2161. The script, so I gather, was originally written to take place in 2155 but got hastily rewritten for a 2161 setting when the show was cancelled. And that introduced a number of anomalies. Why has nobody advanced in rank or position in six years? Why has Trip and T'Pol's relationship been in stasis for the same duration? Why is there no mention of the Earth-Romulan War? Why does Deanna say that the alliance established here is just the first step toward the Federation, rather than the actual formation of the Federation itself? The account as presented in the episode doesn't really hold together. It's a better fit to 2155 than it is to the alleged 2161 date. So The Good That Men Do explained those discrepancies by positing that the historical account, like the teleplay, had been adjusted to look like it happened in 2161 rather than the original setting of 2155.

True, TATV is a mess. But I just find it hard to believe that, short of a super computer worm and memory wipes of everyone who would have been studying the war, an amazing Section 31 conspiracy was able to alter the historical record of the ranks of Sato, Reed, and Mayweather, and insert Trip as the chief engineer for six years, just to provide deflection to when exactly he went undercover. Plus To Brave the Storm has Enterprise retired after the Battle of Cheron, while TATV has the ship active for almost another year! It's easy to fake someone's death -- but the whole need to make it fit 2155 rather than 2161 just adds so many additional complications. I think it's easier to believe that potentially Sato et al declined promotions to stay in their current positions (well, VGR didn't really promote people so precedent there) and that T'Pol was very private about her personal life, so that 200 years later the existing records may be ambiguous about her relationship.

Just have Trip fake his death in 2161 to deal with some issue with the Romulans after the end of the war (like the warp 7 project etc) and this becomes far less complicated.

No mention of E-R war -- got me. Could have just not come up. Troi's remark could just mean this is the first step toward the Federation we know today.

I guess I feel the 2161 evil is the lesser evil to the 2155 evil. Plus the 22nd century part of the ENT relaunch never explained why everything had to be doctored to push Trip's "death" forward until 2161.

I just wish the rest of the ENT relaunch had maintained the quality of TGTMD, complications and all.

 

[MatthiasRussell]

Re: Enterprise: The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm review thread

^Well, you're not alone. May people were disappointed with how the ENT books went considering they started out so promising. To me it wasn't problems with the plot but problems with the writing. I'm done reading anything by Michael Martin myself. I think ENT has a lot of potential if they just get a quality author in there.

But at present I'm like you Cal888, just as let down as I was after watching These Are The Voyages. It is like the ENT relaunch went full circle.

 

[James Cole]

Re: Enterprise: The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm review thread

^ Yeah, the writing too. Like, having a "poop" reference every 50 pages? Forgetting Gannet Brooks was a Starfleet Intelligence asset?

There are several good ideas here though to be fair:
-- Trip faking his death / TATV not being what it seemed

-- The need to cover up the Romulan/Vulcan connection that explains why no member of the general population saw a Romulan (and lived)

-- How Coridan became underpopulated and why the Draylaxians weren't a prominate species in the 23rd/24th centuries

-- The ECS Horizon contaminating Sigma Iotia's culture rather than a Starfleet ship

-- The origin of Chakotay's colony

But, um, aside from those, eesh.

 

[pookha]

Re: Enterprise: The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm review thread

...the convoluted ret-coning of "These Are The Voyages" (why 2155 instead of 2161?)

Because TATV doesn't really make sense as a story set in 2161. The script, so I gather, was originally written to take place in 2155 but got hastily rewritten for a 2161 setting when the show was cancelled. And that introduced a number of anomalies. Why has nobody advanced in rank or position in six years? Why has Trip and T'Pol's relationship been in stasis for the same duration? Why is there no mention of the Earth-Romulan War? Why does Deanna say that the alliance established here is just the first step toward the Federation, rather than the actual formation of the Federation itself? The account as presented in the episode doesn't really hold together. It's a better fit to 2155 than it is to the alleged 2161 date. So The Good That Men Do explained those discrepancies by positing that the historical account, like the teleplay, had been adjusted to look like it happened in 2161 rather than the original setting of 2155.

well tatv dosnt make sense in context of pegasus much less enterprise itself.
i just hope some future enterprise book throws it out by saying it was a hologram created while someone was drunk. in an effort to discredit riker by making it look like riker was playing around on the holodeck in midst of a crisis.

to me the big issue with the book is it really shows that this book is a compressed version of two. major plot lines are dropped,, major events are described as an after thought.big gaps between point a to b.

 

[F. King Daniel]

Re: Enterprise: The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm review thread

Personally, I wish the Enterprise novels had simply filled in the years between "Terra Prime" and "These Are the Voyages", ending with Trip's death being revealed as a fake.

Something other than one long, tedious war.

 

[JD]

Re: Enterprise: The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm review thread

Well, canon already established the war as having lasted from 2156-2160, so they didn't really have much a choice when it came to how long the war lasted. I guess there are ways they could have worked around it, but to me this seems like a situation where the simple way works best.

 

[Christopher]

Re: Enterprise: The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm review thread

Well, canon already established the war as having lasted from 2156-2160, so they didn't really have much a choice when it came to how long the war lasted.

No, it didn't. The Star Trek Chronology listed those as conjectural dates for the Earth-Romulan War, but there's absolutely nothing in canon that specifies those dates, unless you count the illegible screen graphic text Mike Sussman wrote for "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II." And we know that's actually not binding on the novels, since the novels have the war beginning in 2155, not '56.

 

[JD]

Re: Enterprise: The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm review thread

Oh, I just went by the dates on MA. I didn't realize that was where they came from.

 

[Sci]

Re: Enterprise: The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm review thread

But canon does specify that it was the Earth-Romulan War, not the Federation-Romulan War, and that the UFP was founded in 2161. So The Romulan War was obliged to take place between 2155 and 2161.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Re: Enterprise: The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm review thread

^ Must be a lot of fanon that got it wrong, though, and assumed that it was a Federation-Romulan War. The TOS Tech Manual does this (they give the text of the peace treaty, which clearly mentioned the Federation).

 

[F. King Daniel]

Re: Enterprise: The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm review thread

Oh, I just went by the dates on MA. I didn't realize that was where they came from.

IIRC, their "canon" sources are an illegable (or possibly unused) screengraphic from "In a Mirror, Darky" and a newspaper clipping from Picard's family album in Generations (also not visible on screen)

FWIW, the arborted Romulan war movie "Star Trek: The Beginning" had the Earth/Romulan war begin with a week long battle in Earth orbit, in August 2159.

 

[Fer]

Re: Enterprise: To Brave the Storm Review Thread (Spoilers)

Finally got to read it, rated it Above Average.

Just from skimming over the comments here, I see that almost everyone's complaint is the same... we want more! I feel like any chapter in this book could be expanded on in a full novel by itself. Maybe some of them will be some day.

That didn't really bother me per se, since I knew going into it that this was a book that was going to cover what two more trade paperbacks had originally intended to cover. It was wonderful seeing so many points come together. And I was surprised that this book went all the way up to the founding of the Federation; it's a much more satisfying ending than the TV series got.

 

[Saul]

Re: Enterprise: The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm review thread

^ Must be a lot of fanon that got it wrong, though, and assumed that it was a Federation-Romulan War. The TOS Tech Manual does this (they give the text of the peace treaty, which clearly mentioned the Federation).

Well the Star Trek Chronology seemed to state that it was Federation Vs Romulans and Starfleet was established after that... 'Enterprise' switched that around and Starfleet came first.

As for the Book. Well the First Romulan War Novel takes place over a year. Even if this was a trilogy it's still a bit of a squeeze. I got the impression that maybe, just maybe that if these books were successful we'd get a book for each year of the war. But frankly why not try to plan it out better from the beginning? I remember when it was first announced it was either going to be a single book on the war, two books or possible 3. Having the first book explore only the first year of the war would naturally put pressure on any sequel novel that needed to tell the story. Where as I thought Book 1 was too spread out Book 2 is too condensed. There are a lot of things I like about it and it covers the bases but it just doesn't come across as a big War storyline. It feels like a small scale War. The looming threat of the Romulans isn't felt so much.

 

[Christopher]

Re: Enterprise: The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm review thread

Well the Star Trek Chronology seemed to state that it was Federation Vs Romulans and Starfleet was established after that...

No, the Chronology makes a point of putting the war before the founding of the Federation in 2161. From its annotations for the 2156 entry on the start of the war:

The conflict was described as being between Earth and the Romulans, suggesting that the United Federation of Planets did not exist at this point.

'Enterprise' switched that around and Starfleet came first.

Not really, because the organization seen in Enterprise is the United Earth Starfleet, and the organization seen in the later series is the Federation Starfleet. "Starfleet" is actually a pretty generic name for a fleet of starships (its usage in science fiction predates Star Trek by decades, though it was rare before ST), so just because the two use the same label doesn't mean they're the same institution, any more than the Royal Navy and the United States Navy are the same.

But frankly why not try to plan it out better from the beginning? I remember when it was first announced it was either going to be a single book on the war, two books or possible 3.

First off, most of the planning process behind the books is not made public, so you shouldn't mistake the public's lack of knowledge of the plan for the absence of a plan. Second, just having a plan in place doesn't guarantee that reality will conform to it. Plans frequently have to be changed in the face of new circumstances or contingencies, and that's apparently what happened here.

 

[SiddFinch1]

Re: Enterprise: To Brave the Storm Review Thread (Spoilers!)

Just read recently. As many noted it felt rushed. One thing I don't recall.... how exactly was trip able to speak Vulcan and romulan and withstand more than a cursory exam? He was deep undercover not quick like kirk did or picard and data.

 

[T'Ressa Dax]

Re: Enterprise: To Brave the Storm Review Thread (Spoilers!)

Because he had a mini translator.