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Looking at some Enterprise novels...

Joel_Kirk

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Alright, I want to read Rosetta, being a Linda Park/Hoshi Sato fan; and I'm interested in Surak's Soul (since it's a short novel, and T'Pol is pretty cool).

Are these two recommended? How do they stand as Trek novels in terms of action and character?
 
Alright, I want to read Rosetta, being a Linda Park/Hoshi Sato fan; and I'm interested in Surak's Soul (since it's a short novel, and T'Pol is pretty cool).

Are these two recommended? How do they stand as Trek novels in terms of action and character?

I liked "Rosetta" quite a bit. It does a good job of demonstrating the pre-Federation political situation in the sectors between the later-Federation core and the Klingon Empire, if somewhat undermined by our never hearing of the starring community of civilizations again (I keep waiting for them to show up or be mentioned elsewhere. I imagine, based on their apparent location, that the Borg fleet got them in the end :(:lol:).

I loved the villain, who was always a delight, and Hoshi Sato was indeed handled quite well. I've always liked her character, and I was glad to see her take a leading role here. Travis Mayweather gets a subplot, too, which earned the book extra points :lol:. "Rosetta" was funny, had an intriguing mystery (if wrapped up a bit too quickly at the end), and if you like action, has enough to please, I think.

One sub-plot doesn't sit entirely comfortably with the post-finale books (if you read those) but there's almost nothing openly contradictory, and genuinely continuity is handled well, without overshadowing the story. If you're not a big continuity fan, though, don't worry because this book is a stand-alone. :)

I'm afraid I haven't read "Surak's Soul".:)
 
Alright, I want to read Rosetta, being a Linda Park/Hoshi Sato fan; and I'm interested in Surak's Soul (since it's a short novel, and T'Pol is pretty cool).

Are these two recommended? How do they stand as Trek novels in terms of action and character?

I liked "Rosetta" quite a bit. It does a good job of demonstrating the pre-Federation political situation in the sectors between the later-Federation core and the Klingon Empire, if somewhat undermined by our never hearing of the starring community of civilizations again (I keep waiting for them to show up or be mentioned elsewhere. I imagine, based on their apparent location, that the Borg fleet got them in the end :(:lol:).

I loved the villain, who was always a delight, and Hoshi Sato was indeed handled quite well. I've always liked her character, and I was glad to see her take a leading role here. Travis Mayweather gets a subplot, too, which earned the book extra points :lol:. "Rosetta" was funny, had an intriguing mystery (if wrapped up a bit too quickly at the end), and if you like action, has enough to please, I think.

One sub-plot doesn't sit entirely comfortably with the post-finale books (if you read those) but there's almost nothing openly contradictory, and genuinely continuity is handled well, without overshadowing the story. If you're not a big continuity fan, though, don't worry because this book is a stand-alone. :)

I'm afraid I haven't read "Surak's Soul".:)

Tks, dude!
 
I liked "Rosetta" quite a bit. It does a good job of demonstrating the pre-Federation political situation in the sectors between the later-Federation core and the Klingon Empire, if somewhat undermined by our never hearing of the starring community of civilizations again (I keep waiting for them to show up or be mentioned elsewhere. I imagine, based on their apparent location, that the Borg fleet got them in the end :(:lol:).

What I thought was clever was how it showed that community as being in decline, the implication being that it ceased to exist as a political entity and maybe got absorbed into other, later powers including the UFP. But that does leave the question of where the specific alien races established in the novel went.

One sub-plot doesn't sit entirely comfortably with the post-finale books (if you read those) but there's almost nothing openly contradictory, and genuinely continuity is handled well, without overshadowing the story. If you're not a big continuity fan, though, don't worry because this book is a stand-alone. :)

What's the inconsistency? (You can put it in a spoiler box.)
 
Are these two recommended? How do they stand as Trek novels in terms of action and character?

Haven't read "Surak's Soul", but it got slammed quite a bit when it first came out. Which surprised me, because Dillard is usually well-liked.

Although I've read some online criticism of "Rosetta", I loved it. Very much a Hoshi novel. There's a fascinating Andorian female featured throughout, who works closely with Hoshi to translate the book's McGuffin. The novel has a few great twists towards the end.
 
I liked "Rosetta" quite a bit. It does a good job of demonstrating the pre-Federation political situation in the sectors between the later-Federation core and the Klingon Empire, if somewhat undermined by our never hearing of the starring community of civilizations again (I keep waiting for them to show up or be mentioned elsewhere. I imagine, based on their apparent location, that the Borg fleet got them in the end :(:lol:).

What I thought was clever was how it showed that community as being in decline, the implication being that it ceased to exist as a political entity and maybe got absorbed into other, later powers including the UFP. But that does leave the question of where the specific alien races established in the novel went.

Indeed. I also wonder in particular, given the implications of the ending,
just how many of the TTC worlds winded up as part of the Klingon Empire
:)

One sub-plot doesn't sit entirely comfortably with the post-finale books (if you read those) but there's almost nothing openly contradictory, and genuinely continuity is handled well, without overshadowing the story. If you're not a big continuity fan, though, don't worry because this book is a stand-alone. :)

What's the inconsistency? (You can put it in a spoiler box.)

Well, it's nothing openly contradictory, and I can see several obvious arguments against the complaint, which I've acknowledged below, but I thought there was a possible inconsistency in portrayal of Archer's status within the Klingon Empire. In "Rosetta", there's still a massive price on his head and he is not viewed in any way favourably; he seems to be considered a mortal enemy- the reward money is even doubled again at the end- whereas in "Kobayashi Maru" he is hailed as somewhat respectable and even as an uneasy friend of the empire. The Chancellor, etc, treat him with reasonable respect due to his helping resolve the Levodian flu crisis.

Of course, I acknowledge the Klingon Empire is a very big and diverse place and that "political unity" has never really been one of its defining characteristics :lol:. I know we can probably justify it in terms of only certain Houses backing the bounty and the High Council as a whole ignoring it, maybe some Klingon worlds or leaders acknowledging Archer's aid and others fixated on past quarrels, or angry over the virus and cure's effects. Maybe only some Klingon nobles know the truth and others are too busy getting excited over feuds and blood-debts. That wouldn't be surprising given how divided Klingons are. So, I'm aware it's probably not really a problem, but in the absence (so far) of any overt link between the stories it just struck me as slightly uncomfortable.
 
^Well, Rosetta is somewhere between one and two months after "Affliction/Divergence," so it could simply be that
it took a while for the High Council to decide to revoke the bounty -- no doubt after a fair amount of debate.

Alternatively, Schalk could've been lying about the doubling of the bounty in order to screw with Archer.
 
Rosetta was a great novel. I've read a lot of Trek this year and Rosetta was among the best. I loved the political situation portrayed, the span of the novel, and the different subplots connected to on screen continuity. It was really good.
 
I really enjoyed Rosetta because alot of the stories theme is about new aliens (all of them) and they are well depicted. I've always loved novels where you can imagine the places and not just say "yep, seen that on TV". No imagination there.
I haven't had the chance to read Surak's Soul, so I can't say.
 
If you're a Hoshi fan you will definitely like this book it takes place after season 3 and we see that Hoshi has some doubts about her translating abilities after the events of what happened to her during the xindi arc.A nice look into her character. Surak's soul features a storyarc that Hoshi plays an important role into figuring out a mystery on an alien planet.
 
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