MU: Rise Like Lions by David Mack Review Thread (Spoilers!)

[WarsTrek1993]

Re: Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Rise Like Lions review thread (spoiler

I liked the first three Shat books very much, especially "The Return". His mirror stories started well but quickly became self-glorifying drivel. When I finished with Preserver, which made NO sense other than to mirror Shat's wife's death and his emotion, I was finished with Shatner fiction.


Something I found interesting about Lions is how well Mack wrote Neelix and Kes. I remember him saying he dislikes Neelix most out of the main Trek characters yet he made Neelix very courageous and gave him an honorable death.

Mirrors my opinion of the ShatVerse quite well. The first trilogy (Ashes of Eden, Return, Avenger) were pretty damn epic. Spectre was also awesome, Dark Victory was kinda meh, and Preserver was okay up until the end. (This last-minute change-at-heart thing is getting old, speaking about Mirror Kirk/Emperor Tiberius).
And Neelix was surprisingly well-written in Rise Like Lions. The destruction of Ferenginar was also a surprise.

 

[MatthiasRussell]

Re: Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Rise Like Lions review thread (spoiler

I'm sure some readers will end up saying all the death in Lions makes it another example of genocide porn. The grander the warfare and more destructive the weapons, the higher the death toll. Imagine how unimaginable 20th century mass deaths would be to peoples several hundred years ago.

 

[MatthiasRussell]

Re: Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Rise Like Lions review thread (spoiler

According to the Shat verse, didn't the universes diverge at First Contact? I remember something about a Lake Riker on the moon or something named for Riker. I remember watching the ENT Mirror opening and thinking "So much for the Shat universe."

 

[WarsTrek1993]

Re: Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Rise Like Lions review thread (spoiler

I'm sure some readers will end up saying all the death in Lions makes it another example of genocide porn. The grander the warfare and more destructive the weapons, the higher the death toll. Imagine how unimaginable 20th century mass deaths would be to peoples several hundred years ago.

The Mirror Universe is a brutal place, and Mack writes it quite well I think.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Re: Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Rise Like Lions review thread (spoiler

According to the Shat verse, didn't the universes diverge at First Contact?

Yep. In the Shat-MU, Zefram Cochrane warned people about the Borg threat (which he learned from Picard and co.) and encouraged them to militarize themselves against it.

 

[MatthiasRussell]

Re: Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Rise Like Lions review thread (spoiler

According to Archer, Cochrane warned people in the Prime Universe and they just thought he was a crazy drunk. See what alcohol did to contribute to a peaceful future.

Dooby dooby! Dooby dooby doo wha!

 

[JonLuck Pickerd]

Re: Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Rise Like Lions review thread (spoiler

I have a nother question, the name escapes me but the Nebula that Calhoun hides in on the Romulan-Klingon border sounds an awful lot like the highly volitile Azure Nebula, (it's called by a klingon name in Lions) but wasn't that nebula formed by the destruction of the Calier homeworld and the efforts of the MACOs from Columbia?

 

[Christopher]

Re: Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Rise Like Lions review thread (spoiler

I have a nother question, the name escapes me but the Nebula that Calhoun hides in on the Romulan-Klingon border sounds an awful lot like the highly volitile Azure Nebula, (it's called by a klingon name in Lions) but wasn't that nebula formed by the destruction of the Calier homeworld and the efforts of the MACOs from Columbia?

The destruction of the Caeliar homeworld was caused by an attack from an extragalactic power even more advanced than the Caeliar -- because it was

Spoiler: Destiny

their own distant descendants taking action to guarantee their own creation.

The MACOs did not cause the event to happen; they just had the bad luck to be there when it did. What the MACOs' actions caused was the destabilization of the subspace tunnels that the Caeliar tried to use to escape the supernova. Without their actions, more Caeliar would've survived, but the supernova would've still happened, because that wasn't their doing.

Anyway, who's to say the Mirror Columbia didn't discover the Caeliar? The actions of a Mirror-Universe crew would've been much the same as the actions of the MACOs in Destiny, I imagine.

 

[David Mack]

Re: Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Rise Like Lions review thread (spoiler

In the book it's called the Joch'chal Nebula. I seem to recall I meant for it to correspond to the Paulson Nebula depicted in Star Charts.

 

[Sci]

Re: Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Rise Like Lions review thread (spoiler

In the book it's called the Joch'chal Nebula. I seem to recall I meant for it to correspond to the Paulson Nebula depicted in Star Charts.

Which, IIRC, was the nebula in which the Enterprise hid in "The Best of Both Worlds, Part I."

 

[James R]

Re: Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Rise Like Lions review thread (spoiler

Downloaded the kindle version yesterday and finnished it today. Fantastic book.

 

[ToddCam]

Re: Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Rise Like Lions review thread (spoiler

Just started it. Not bad so far. But noticed something. It references Kes as a "young Ocampa." Since it is 2377, that means Kes is 7 years old, and the average Ocampa lifespan in 9. I believe in "Before and After" this was when they started putting on the aging makeup for her. She really should be an "older Ocampa" or "middle-aged Ocampa."

 

[Christopher]

Re: Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Rise Like Lions review thread (spoiler

Actually, in "Before and After" Kes didn't begin to show signs of aging until sometime within 6 months before her ninth birthday, so late '78 or early '79.

 

[ToddCam]

Re: Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Rise Like Lions review thread (spoiler

Well, I did say "I believe."

 

[MatthiasRussell]

Re: Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Rise Like Lions review thread (spoiler

As you keep reading, you'll see how she can still be so young. I was confuses at that point too.

 

[Ronald Held]

Re: Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Rise Like Lions review thread (spoiler

How overall advanced is the Memory Omega tech versus the Federation's at the same time?

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Re: Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Rise Like Lions review thread (spoiler

Those "few days" until I got the book turned into weeks. Slow shipping indeed. But it finally arrived, so once I'm done reading my latest non-Trek book, I'll dive in.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Re: Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Rise Like Lions review thread (spoiler

How overall advanced is the Memory Omega tech versus the Federation's at the same time?

Spoiler: About Memory Omega's tech

Well seeing as they have the ability to make wormholes so they can have a secret base outside of the galaxy and the federation can't, I'd say Omega is more advanced at this point.

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Re: Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Rise Like Lions review thread (spoiler

Just hit Part II and I'm loving it so far.

Tell me we're getting another one of these in the next 12 months...

Finished Rise Like Lions well into the early hours this morning. (Couldn't put it down last night)

I thought it was a great follow-up to the previous MU stories and ripe with potential for further exploration. Although I'd like to see more of how Memory Omega developed/acquired most of their tech. (Especially how exactly they perfected Genesis Tech and potentially how that relates to the Mirror Shedai and their equivalent of the Taurus Meta-Genome.

Hope this one sells well enough to garner further work in the mirror universe.

Have you read Sorrows of Empire and the Mirror Vangaurd story becuase I believe that about covers it.

 

[JD]

Re: Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Rise Like Lions review thread (spoiler

I just got a B&N gift card as a "Solstice" (she stopped celebrating Christmas, but still exchanges gifts) present, and this was one of my first purchases.