First off: To those who haven't read the Destiny trilogy, back away now, since there will no doubt be major SPOILERS in this thread (hell, in this post).
Now that that's out of the way... WOW.
Finished Lost Souls a couple of nights ago, and my goodness, am I impressed. Floored, really. By far the best Borg story to come out of any incarnation of Trek (well, Greater Than the Sum was awfully good too, hrm...), and more than that, just superbly written. The way everything slowly built and built and built, with little threads running between the various plotlines... then suddenly, without me really realizing it had happened, everything was solidly connected, moving toward the huge, epic events of the latter half of book III.
And the reveal of the origin of the Borg! That was pure brilliance. Took me by surprise, too; once we returned to the other city, with Kiona, Graylock, the MACOs, and the few Caeliar that survived the much rougher ride into the far past, I figured that SOMETHING would happen with them to really tie them into the main plot before the end of the story, but not THIS. That moment, when Greylock is fighting against Sedin, and he thinks "I won't become a cy- *huge line break*
-borg." Right there, I realized what we were seeing, what we were about to see, and I literally gasped. Once that scene was over, I had to put the book down for about ten minutes, while I paced around my apartment going "holyshitholyshitholyshitholyshit".
Such an awesome way to tie everything together, and a great concept for the origin of the Borg. And! Dunno if Mack had this in mind (actually, I rather doubt it), but being able to trace it all back to Sedin actually fixes what I always perceived as a flaw in the overall Borg story: the concept of a single Borg Queen (an idea I was NEVER all that happy with, dating back to First Contact). Makes a hell of a lot more sense now.
And the other head-spinning, "wait WHAT" (in a good way, that is) moment: when Hernandez says - of how the Caeliar will stop the Borg - that they are going to assimilate them. ASSIMILATE THE BORG! I love it!
The political stuff with Bacco was excellent, as were the scenes with Martok (though those were fairly brief, overall... but that's fine, the scenes got across what the needed to). And the character interactions were fantastic for the most part. And MY GOD does David Mack know how to depress you. From the final scenes with T'Lana, or zh'Thane, to Tuvok's son and his wife, to the sacrifice of the USS Ranger, to others that I'm probably forgetting at the moment... ouch, man.
Oh, and though (I assume, at least) the idea to have Ezri be a captain with her own ship wasn't entirely Mack's, Destiny is the first material I've read that has this version of Ezri in it, and I loved every minute of it. She's always been one of my favorite Trek characters, and to see her shine this way was wonderful (and he also managed to add a lot of depth to her character as a captain with scenes like the one between her and Bowers in the gym).
And given how much I disliked Enterprise, I was surprised to find how much I liked everything with the Columbia.
Weaknesses: the Titan... eh. I love Riker, but there is something about most of the crew that just leaves me feeling meh. I don't hate them, really (though Melora irritates the hell out of me, as she did in the actual DS9 episode), they just don't interest me the way the Enterprise or Aventine crew do. Still, the Titan stuff did get steadily better as the trilogy wore on. And of course, my "meh" attitude toward Titan isn't JUST a reflection on how they written BY Mack, since I had the same reaction to what I've read of the actual Titan series.
Other than that, there were really only two things: one was a severe over-abundance of exploding control consoles. Seriously, this is one Trek "tradition" that should never have been allowed to become as widespread as it has, and it makes me cringe every time. And for all the book's strengths, whenever the Enterprise or Aventine got into the tiniest scuffle, BAM! Console explosion, almost immediately.
The other was the whole Hirogen battle. This was, I felt, the weakest single chapter of the entire trilogy, by far. Not only did it feel like it was just added simply to chew up time, but I had a myriad of problems with the particulars of how the battle went (not the space battle, but once the Hirogen have boarded the Starfleet ships). I won't list them all now, because this post is already huge, but perhaps in a later post if this discussion gets going (and in the unlikely event that anyone actually expresses interest in hearing the specifics
).
All in all, though, the good in these books is so overwhelming that it nearly suffocates those flaws into complete irrelevance (pun intended). I dunno if David Mack ever reads or posts in these forums (as some of the TrekLit authors do), but just in case he does: great big kudos for writing the best Borg story, and one of the best Trek stories of any kind, that I've ever experienced.
Now that that's out of the way... WOW.
Finished Lost Souls a couple of nights ago, and my goodness, am I impressed. Floored, really. By far the best Borg story to come out of any incarnation of Trek (well, Greater Than the Sum was awfully good too, hrm...), and more than that, just superbly written. The way everything slowly built and built and built, with little threads running between the various plotlines... then suddenly, without me really realizing it had happened, everything was solidly connected, moving toward the huge, epic events of the latter half of book III.
And the reveal of the origin of the Borg! That was pure brilliance. Took me by surprise, too; once we returned to the other city, with Kiona, Graylock, the MACOs, and the few Caeliar that survived the much rougher ride into the far past, I figured that SOMETHING would happen with them to really tie them into the main plot before the end of the story, but not THIS. That moment, when Greylock is fighting against Sedin, and he thinks "I won't become a cy- *huge line break*
-borg." Right there, I realized what we were seeing, what we were about to see, and I literally gasped. Once that scene was over, I had to put the book down for about ten minutes, while I paced around my apartment going "holyshitholyshitholyshitholyshit".
Such an awesome way to tie everything together, and a great concept for the origin of the Borg. And! Dunno if Mack had this in mind (actually, I rather doubt it), but being able to trace it all back to Sedin actually fixes what I always perceived as a flaw in the overall Borg story: the concept of a single Borg Queen (an idea I was NEVER all that happy with, dating back to First Contact). Makes a hell of a lot more sense now. And the other head-spinning, "wait WHAT" (in a good way, that is) moment: when Hernandez says - of how the Caeliar will stop the Borg - that they are going to assimilate them. ASSIMILATE THE BORG! I love it!
The political stuff with Bacco was excellent, as were the scenes with Martok (though those were fairly brief, overall... but that's fine, the scenes got across what the needed to). And the character interactions were fantastic for the most part. And MY GOD does David Mack know how to depress you. From the final scenes with T'Lana, or zh'Thane, to Tuvok's son and his wife, to the sacrifice of the USS Ranger, to others that I'm probably forgetting at the moment... ouch, man.
Oh, and though (I assume, at least) the idea to have Ezri be a captain with her own ship wasn't entirely Mack's, Destiny is the first material I've read that has this version of Ezri in it, and I loved every minute of it. She's always been one of my favorite Trek characters, and to see her shine this way was wonderful (and he also managed to add a lot of depth to her character as a captain with scenes like the one between her and Bowers in the gym).
And given how much I disliked Enterprise, I was surprised to find how much I liked everything with the Columbia.
Weaknesses: the Titan... eh. I love Riker, but there is something about most of the crew that just leaves me feeling meh. I don't hate them, really (though Melora irritates the hell out of me, as she did in the actual DS9 episode), they just don't interest me the way the Enterprise or Aventine crew do. Still, the Titan stuff did get steadily better as the trilogy wore on. And of course, my "meh" attitude toward Titan isn't JUST a reflection on how they written BY Mack, since I had the same reaction to what I've read of the actual Titan series.
Other than that, there were really only two things: one was a severe over-abundance of exploding control consoles. Seriously, this is one Trek "tradition" that should never have been allowed to become as widespread as it has, and it makes me cringe every time. And for all the book's strengths, whenever the Enterprise or Aventine got into the tiniest scuffle, BAM! Console explosion, almost immediately.
The other was the whole Hirogen battle. This was, I felt, the weakest single chapter of the entire trilogy, by far. Not only did it feel like it was just added simply to chew up time, but I had a myriad of problems with the particulars of how the battle went (not the space battle, but once the Hirogen have boarded the Starfleet ships). I won't list them all now, because this post is already huge, but perhaps in a later post if this discussion gets going (and in the unlikely event that anyone actually expresses interest in hearing the specifics
). All in all, though, the good in these books is so overwhelming that it nearly suffocates those flaws into complete irrelevance (pun intended). I dunno if David Mack ever reads or posts in these forums (as some of the TrekLit authors do), but just in case he does: great big kudos for writing the best Borg story, and one of the best Trek stories of any kind, that I've ever experienced.
Man, I'm not sure if I've even read 165 BOOKS, of any kind! 
So eh... not sure if I'm gonna bother with Fearful Symmetry or The Soul Key. We'll see. My main interest right now, going forward, is definitely on stories about what happens to the Federation and those around them as they continue to move on after the events of Destiny. (The fact that this timeframe - the early-mid 2380's - comprises what would be my backstory/history for my own Trek story ideas, which are set in the 2390's, might have something to do with this). And I would LOVE an Aventine series. I'd pick that up in a heartbeat. 
