Greater Than the Sum

[Dick1979]

Over the weekend I decided to get back to reading the TNG relaunch series and picked up Greater Than the Sum. This is the first book I have read by Bennett and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. His writing style is very refreshing. The story’s progression and character development was top imo. I really liked that too much time was not spent on overly descriptive writing and non relevant info. Some writers can really write a book to death.

Thanks Chris for the great read.

 

[Christopher]

Thank you!

 

[The Grim Ghost]

Yeah, Greater Than the Sum and Q and A are both great reads. I think they were both a little overshadowed by Destiny (which is also great). Everyone should check them out if they haven't already.

With Resistance and Before Dishonor..your mileage may vary. They have their fans too though.

 

[Silent_Bob]

I actually preferred 'Before Dishonor' to 'Greater than the sum'. With 'Before Dishonour' i knew going in that since it was a Peter David book it would be a tad more outlandish than normal TNG but i quite enjoyed it.

'Greater than the Sum' on the otherhand, took me a while to get into. Im not sure how much is Bennetts writing and how much he was told to do, but T'yrssa Chen is quite possibly the most irritating character i have ever read. Everything she says and does reads like a poor New Frontier imitation.

The book really only drew me in once she took a bit of a back seat, with the revelation of the true nature of the Carbon planets. As it is the last Third of the book is good, the rest is mediocre in my opinion.

It still ranks above previous relaunch entries however, Picard didnt make ludicrous decisions about becoming Locutus, and the book actually features TNG characters unlike the Really-a-Stargazer book 'Death in Winter'.

 

[Christopher]

T'Ryssa was entirely my own creation, and I was going more for a Joss Whedon-type character (or just a CLB-type character -- there are aspects of her humor and attitude that pretty much just come from me) than anything to do with New Frontier.

The only things I was "told to do," or rather asked to do, were to resolve the dangling Einstein thread, to negate the efficacy of the anti-Borg weapon from Resistance, to have Picard and Crusher conceive a child, to write out T'Lana and Leybenzon (and kill one of them, my choice), to introduce Choudhury, and to conclude the book with the Borg invasion. How to do those things, and what overall story context to do them in, was left up to me.

Editors don't "tell" writers what to write. The whole reason they hire us is so we can come up with the story ideas. At most, they give us a few beats they want us to incorporate into our stories, but coming up with the stories and characters is what they pay us for.

 

[Paris]

'Greater than the Sum' on the otherhand, took me a while to get into. Im not sure how much is Bennetts writing and how much he was told to do, but T'yrssa Chen is quite possibly the most irritating character i have ever read. Everything she says and does reads like a poor New Frontier imitation.

I totally disagree. T'yrssa is one of favorite new trek characters (Dr. Kaz from the VOY-R and Lt.Choudhury are a close 2nd and 3rd). She's an emotional Vulcan who isn't evil or nutso, and her youth gives TNG a feeling of renewal. She helps make the post-nemesis books feel like the story is moving forward and not dwelling in the past. I liked GTTS so much that they inspired me to go out and buy CLB's Ex Machina and The Buried Age. My que runeth over....

 

[KRAD]

It still ranks above previous relaunch entries however, Picard didnt make ludicrous decisions about becoming Locutus, and the book actually features TNG characters unlike the Really-a-Stargazer book 'Death in Winter'.

Since you didn't mention it, and because I'm a raving egomaniac, where do you rank Q & A in all this?

 

[Thrawn]

'Greater than the Sum' on the otherhand, took me a while to get into. Im not sure how much is Bennetts writing and how much he was told to do, but T'yrssa Chen is quite possibly the most irritating character i have ever read. Everything she says and does reads like a poor New Frontier imitation.

I totally disagree. T'yrssa is one of favorite new trek characters (Dr. Kaz from the VOY-R and Lt.Choudhury are a close 2nd and 3rd). She's an emotional Vulcan who isn't evil or nutso, and her youth gives TNG a feeling of renewal. She helps make the post-nemesis books feel like the story is moving forward and not dwelling in the past. I liked GTTS so much that they inspired me to go out and buy CLB's Ex Machina and The Buried Age. My que runeth over....

Whereas I found Trys incredibly annoying, and Kaz generic. (I do agree about Choudhury, though).

IDIC, I suppose. It always amazes me how much fan opinions vary.

 

[Semah]

It still ranks above previous relaunch entries however, Picard didnt make ludicrous decisions about becoming Locutus, and the book actually features TNG characters unlike the Really-a-Stargazer book 'Death in Winter'.

Since you didn't mention it, and because I'm a raving egomaniac, where do you rank Q & A in all this?

For me, Q&A was a breath of fresh air after Resistance. Made me have to go and buy all the rest of your books off of Amazon. So enjoy the royalty check.

 

[DimesDan]

'Greater than the Sum' on the otherhand, took me a while to get into. Im not sure how much is Bennetts writing and how much he was told to do, but T'yrssa Chen is quite possibly the most irritating character i have ever read. Everything she says and does reads like a poor New Frontier imitation.

I totally disagree. T'yrssa is one of favorite new trek characters (Dr. Kaz from the VOY-R and Lt.Choudhury are a close 2nd and 3rd). She's an emotional Vulcan who isn't evil or nutso, and her youth gives TNG a feeling of renewal. She helps make the post-nemesis books feel like the story is moving forward and not dwelling in the past. I liked GTTS so much that they inspired me to go out and buy CLB's Ex Machina and The Buried Age. My que runeth over....

Whereas I found Trys incredibly annoying, and Kaz generic. (I do agree about Choudhury, though).

IDIC, I suppose. It always amazes me how much fan opinions vary.

I'm in the camp of liking Chen, she reminded me of a ver good friend I had at uni and even though I don't have a type physically, her personality was the type I like in a woman.

 

[Paris]

'Greater than the Sum' on the otherhand, took me a while to get into. Im not sure how much is Bennetts writing and how much he was told to do, but T'yrssa Chen is quite possibly the most irritating character i have ever read. Everything she says and does reads like a poor New Frontier imitation.

I totally disagree. T'yrssa is one of favorite new trek characters (Dr. Kaz from the VOY-R and Lt.Choudhury are a close 2nd and 3rd). She's an emotional Vulcan who isn't evil or nutso, and her youth gives TNG a feeling of renewal. She helps make the post-nemesis books feel like the story is moving forward and not dwelling in the past. I liked GTTS so much that they inspired me to go out and buy CLB's Ex Machina and The Buried Age. My que runeth over....

Whereas I found Trys incredibly annoying, and Kaz generic. (I do agree about Choudhury, though).

IDIC, I suppose. It always amazes me how much fan opinions vary.

Where you found her annoying, I found her to be youthful and bubbly, two attributes not ever really seen in a Vulcan. What is it about Kaz that you feel he is generic? He really hasn't been fleshed out that much. The fact that his last host was a Maquis made it feel as though he belongs with the Voyager crowd.

IDIC indeed

 

[Jean-Luc Picard]

I wasn't online here when I read "Greater Than The Sum", so I thought I'd stick my head in and give my praise too. I really enjoyed this novel, mainly because I loved T'Ryssa Chen (her Vulcan-human heritage gave her the chance to show off the human side of that equation, unlike Spock) and appreciated the originality of system-sized entity. Not to mention that Choudhury is a fantastic character, as well.

 

[PaulSimpson]

It still ranks above previous relaunch entries however, Picard didnt make ludicrous decisions about becoming Locutus, and the book actually features TNG characters unlike the Really-a-Stargazer book 'Death in Winter'.

Since you didn't mention it, and because I'm a raving egomaniac, where do you rank Q & A in all this?

For me, Q&A was a breath of fresh air after Resistance. Made me have to go and buy all the rest of your books off of Amazon. So enjoy the royalty check.

That cheer you hear is KRAD realising he can eat again this month

 

[The Grim Ghost]

T'Ryssa or someone like her was needed. The E-E crew can be such a bunch of duds and she helps to liven things up a bit.

 

[Paris]

T'Ryssa or someone like her was needed. The E-E crew can be such a bunch of duds and she helps to liven things up a bit.

Exactly! And her being the other side of the Vulcan-Human "coin" is what makes me like her so much. Don't get me wrong...I love the character of Spock, who doesn't. T'ryssa is the anti-Spock, and exploring what makes her tick is going to be a blast.

 

[T'Leisha]

Greater Than The Sum was probably one of the best books in the relaunch. I enjoyed it immensely, although Chen almost made me want to stop reading. I found her to be so irritating, and it just felt as though she didn't belong. And not in a good way! Every single annoying little thing she did made me cringe. Fortunately I'm a fairly forgiving person, and i didn't let it ruin my experience of the rest of the book. As much as she bugged me, it was still interesting to see the other side of the coin for once. I probably would have loved her if she'd been a New Frontier character, it's just that she didn't feel right for the Enterprise. TNG is my favourite Trek, and I guess I'm quite protective over it. I like the crew to fit nicely, and give me the same 'feel' that the show gave me. With Chen, this did not happen, and I tend to react adversely to too much change. Choudhury, on the other hand, made me smile. She seems to mesh perfectly. I really like her, she comes across as a sort of mix between Jadzia and Yar. I really get the TNG feel with her.
I also quite like how Kadohata was written in this book, I think that's the best I'm going to get for a character I absolutely loathe. I would definitely enjoy seeing her die in an even more horrific manner than Leybenzon did. I still hate her for wearing Data's visor that time. Unforgivable.

 

[captcalhoun]

i like Trys and like others have said, it's great to see a half-Vulcan embracing their human half.

 

[Christopher]

I wouldn't say Trys is embracing her human half. She rejects any species label. She's not trying to be human or Vulcan, just to be herself. True, there's a lot of human cultural influence evident in her behavior, but that's pretty much true Federationwide.

 

[adamczar]

Over the weekend I decided to get back to reading the TNG relaunch series and picked up Greater Than the Sum. This is the first book I have read by Bennett and I have to say that I really enjoyed it. His writing style is very refreshing. The story’s progression and character development was top imo. I really liked that too much time was not spent on overly descriptive writing and non relevant info. Some writers can really write a book to death.

Thanks Chris for the great read.

If you haven't already heard it enough, if you liked GTTS you have to pick up The Buried Age. One of the best stories I've read, for the reasons you listed.

 

[BryanSorensen]

I wouldn't say Trys is embracing her human half. She rejects any species label. She's not trying to be human or Vulcan, just to be herself. True, there's a lot of human cultural influence evident in her behavior, but that's pretty much true Federationwide.

I think that's what made her an original character for the novels and you did a great job with it. Most of the characters that were half breeds usually stuck with one; like Spock for example. It was nice to see a half Vulcan sorta break away from what they are.