David Mack is awesome, but he will never gain Captain Robau-like status for
destroying Picard's flute
Holy crap, David Mack is awesome.
- Thread starter Thrawn
- Start date
The book you're looking for is Tales of the Dominion War, an anthology of short stories. Dave's story is called "Twilight's Wrath."
Wow, how dense are you? Now, Thrawn has just read Twilights Wrath which is a short story part of the Tales of the Dominion War Anthology which has been out for a few years, he rather liked it and decided to say as such, do you understand now?
Star Trek: Tales of the Dominion War was a 2004 anthology edited by Keith R.A. DeCandido. It had stories by numerous different authors dealing with various events that occurred to various characters during the Dominion War. David Mack's contribution was a story called "Twilight's Wrath," depicting key events from Shinzon's Dominion War service (as alluded to in the film).
EDIT: Oops, beaten to it.
[shuts himself up.]
Deleted because I let my bad mood get the best of me. Sorry.
Deleted because I let my bad mood get the best of me. Sorry.
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[/QUOTE]Wow, how dense are you? Now, Thrawn has just read Twilights Wrath which is a short story part of the Tales of the Dominion War Anthology which has been out for a few years, he rather liked it and decided to say as such, do you understand now?[/QUOTE]
Ok, there was no need for the dense comment. I was simple confused as to what book you were talking about. A simple answer like the one from Dayton Ward, (thank you by the way Dayton Ward), would have been better.
Ok, there was no need for the dense comment. I was simple confused as to what book you were talking about. A simple answer like the one from Dayton Ward, (thank you by the way Dayton Ward), would have been better.
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Yes, but none of them are Ted Lilly.You know, he may be awesome, but he's not Chuck Norris/Admiral Adama/Captain Robau.^Hope so.
BTW...here's a question for David Mack:
When you do push-ups, sir, are you lifting yourself up...or are you pushing the world down?
Not much choice here.
The "Wow, how dense are you?" part was more than was necessary to convey your frustration.
Warning for flaming. Comments to PM.
Yes, but none of them are Ted Lilly.You know, he may be awesome, but he's not Chuck Norris/Admiral Adama/Captain Robau.^Hope so.
BTW...here's a question for David Mack:
When you do push-ups, sir, are you lifting yourself up...or are you pushing the world down?
Damn straight.
^ Now, now — it's not nice to make fun of people who stutter. They can't help it.
Um.
So, yesterday, I read "Waiting for G'Doh, or, How I Learned to Stop Moving and Hate People", from No Limits. And I think it was the funniest thing I've read so far in TrekLit; the woman next to me on the plane was getting annoyed at how hard I was laughing.
And just now I finished "Wildfire", and... well, I wasn't laughing. Closer to crying. SCE hasn't been my favorite series up to this point, and now all of a sudden it's... POWERFUL.
So, as every story continues to exceed my expectations, I decided this thread needed topping.
I'm curious though, David - how did Wildfire come about? Did you call up KRAD and just say "well, for my second professional fiction sale ever, I'd like to kill off half your beloved crew?" Seems like a huge (though intensely incredible) shift in tone for the series; it makes me curious how the decision was made to go with that story.
So, yesterday, I read "Waiting for G'Doh, or, How I Learned to Stop Moving and Hate People", from No Limits. And I think it was the funniest thing I've read so far in TrekLit; the woman next to me on the plane was getting annoyed at how hard I was laughing.
And just now I finished "Wildfire", and... well, I wasn't laughing. Closer to crying. SCE hasn't been my favorite series up to this point, and now all of a sudden it's... POWERFUL.
So, as every story continues to exceed my expectations, I decided this thread needed topping.
I'm curious though, David - how did Wildfire come about? Did you call up KRAD and just say "well, for my second professional fiction sale ever, I'd like to kill off half your beloved crew?" Seems like a huge (though intensely incredible) shift in tone for the series; it makes me curious how the decision was made to go with that story.
^ Wow. It's been a long time since I was asked about Wildfire ....
I pitched it as a disaster story that I had not seen in Star Trek up to that point — one with serious casualties and lasting repercussions. The editors — John Ordover and Keith DeCandido — liked the idea because it was something they could do in a literary-original series such as SCE that the shows/movies would not do, and which did not fit the tone of something like New Frontier.
My original pitch had roughly the same body count, but it cheated and gave one major character an "out" for the end of the story. As a condition of the sale, John and Keith asked me to change that so that the story becomes an all-out tragedy; the rationale was to "give death back its teeth" by showing readers that in the SCE series, not even the leads were safe. Consequently, the dramatic stakes of the series became elevated to new levels from that point forward.
Much of what underpins Wildfire are my own issues grappling with the notion of mortality, particularly in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on NYC, to which I had a front-row seat. At the time I pitched Wildfire (before 9/11), I'd intended to co-write it with Keith, as we had done on "Invincible." But after 9/11, I felt a deep need to tell Wildfire in my own words, and Keith encouraged me to make the leap into solo prose-fiction writing.
I pitched it as a disaster story that I had not seen in Star Trek up to that point — one with serious casualties and lasting repercussions. The editors — John Ordover and Keith DeCandido — liked the idea because it was something they could do in a literary-original series such as SCE that the shows/movies would not do, and which did not fit the tone of something like New Frontier.
My original pitch had roughly the same body count, but it cheated and gave one major character an "out" for the end of the story. As a condition of the sale, John and Keith asked me to change that so that the story becomes an all-out tragedy; the rationale was to "give death back its teeth" by showing readers that in the SCE series, not even the leads were safe. Consequently, the dramatic stakes of the series became elevated to new levels from that point forward.
Much of what underpins Wildfire are my own issues grappling with the notion of mortality, particularly in the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on NYC, to which I had a front-row seat. At the time I pitched Wildfire (before 9/11), I'd intended to co-write it with Keith, as we had done on "Invincible." But after 9/11, I felt a deep need to tell Wildfire in my own words, and Keith encouraged me to make the leap into solo prose-fiction writing.
Thanks for the background. And sorry it took me so long to get around to Wildfire, heh 
And I think that this kind of story, where things happen that are out of the control of the main characters in a lot of ways and everyone has to see what they can save, is really common in your work. I like it, I think it's something the Trek universe needs.
I mean, ask 100 fans what Star Trek means to them and you'll get 100 different answers, but for me Star Trek is fundamentally about smart people fixing things, and the viewpoint that necessarily underpins that - the problems in the world/universe can be fixed by smart people working hard. Racism? We can fix it. Greedy exploitation? Call the Federation; we'll fix it. Giant implacable enemies? We'll beat them. We just have to figure it out. And as an inner-city teacher working with students in rather hopeless situations, it's the perspective I have to have on life. My students come in an average of 8 grade levels behind where they should be in math. But if I'm smart enough, and work hard enough, I can fix it - I have to believe that, or I get nowhere.
But in order for that perspective on the world not to just be, for lack of a better phrase, intellectual escapism - a fantasy that doesn't seem real - I think you have to analyze what happens when that philosophy doesn't work. When you can't solve the problem, when it's too big. Or even, in this case, when solving it means some greater sacrifice than usual. There's no good, obvious answer to "what's important enough to fight for", but watching characters struggle with that has really made me think about the way I approach the most difficult problems in my line of work.
I can see why some people are angry at, for instance, the Destiny Trilogy, for things like having Picard basically give up at the climax of the story. But for me, watching these characters face the limits of their own worldview has helped me face the limits in mine. It's inspirational, in a weird way.
I think at this point you're pretty definitely my favorite writer. Thanks for taking chances on difficult stories like this. It's appreciated.
And I think that this kind of story, where things happen that are out of the control of the main characters in a lot of ways and everyone has to see what they can save, is really common in your work. I like it, I think it's something the Trek universe needs.
I mean, ask 100 fans what Star Trek means to them and you'll get 100 different answers, but for me Star Trek is fundamentally about smart people fixing things, and the viewpoint that necessarily underpins that - the problems in the world/universe can be fixed by smart people working hard. Racism? We can fix it. Greedy exploitation? Call the Federation; we'll fix it. Giant implacable enemies? We'll beat them. We just have to figure it out. And as an inner-city teacher working with students in rather hopeless situations, it's the perspective I have to have on life. My students come in an average of 8 grade levels behind where they should be in math. But if I'm smart enough, and work hard enough, I can fix it - I have to believe that, or I get nowhere.
But in order for that perspective on the world not to just be, for lack of a better phrase, intellectual escapism - a fantasy that doesn't seem real - I think you have to analyze what happens when that philosophy doesn't work. When you can't solve the problem, when it's too big. Or even, in this case, when solving it means some greater sacrifice than usual. There's no good, obvious answer to "what's important enough to fight for", but watching characters struggle with that has really made me think about the way I approach the most difficult problems in my line of work.
I can see why some people are angry at, for instance, the Destiny Trilogy, for things like having Picard basically give up at the climax of the story. But for me, watching these characters face the limits of their own worldview has helped me face the limits in mine. It's inspirational, in a weird way.
I think at this point you're pretty definitely my favorite writer. Thanks for taking chances on difficult stories like this. It's appreciated.
^ And thanks for this ego-boosting feedback. It's always gratifying to hear that one's work has resonated with someone else in a good way. 
^ And thanks for this ego-boosting feedback. It's always gratifying to hear that one's work has resonated with someone else in a good way.
It's years later and I'm still stunned by the ending. Most jarring and emotional of any in Trek lit besides your own 'Destiny' trilogy and Janos at the end of 'Stone and Anvil' which actually made me kinda misty.
i thought you just did Wildfire because you wanted to remake Starrship Down properly but i think you already disabused me of that idea a while back.
Wildfire makes me cry. few books have done that.
Wildfire makes me cry. few books have done that.
Wildfire made me cry as well. Even just remembering it.
Yeah, I'm enjoying Vanguard, Mack's got game.
