My review of "Kobayashi Maru" [SPOILERS!]

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I have just one question for the authors: Was it somehow a lot of fun to make the actual freighter Kobayashi Maru's crew the most disagreeable pricks in the galaxy? Especially the captain. Kojiro Vance seemed like a real...a real... (paraphrasing Kryten) ... a word has yet to be invented to describe how totally whatever-it-is Vance is. But he is one, and a total TOTAL one at that!

 

[DarKush]

Looking back over these reviews, it reminded me of something else I didn't like about the book.

Why is Valdore keeping Trip alive? He knows Trip is an enemy agent. Despite his engineering skill, how can he ever be sure that Trip will honestly complete the warp project? Why not just torture him for what he knows and dispose of him? Also, it's a little impossible to believe that there are no other Romulans that are equally as good or almost as good as Trip in the engineering department.

 

[DEWLine]

Known double-agents can be used for disinformation campaigns.

 

[Elemental]

Just finished this novel today! In the end, this novel contributed greatly to advancing the Enterprise plot and leaves great anticipation towards the forthcoming Romulan War books. The idea of the KM situation being an event during Enterprise's time was a very good one.

For the first time in ages, it feels like Mayweather's character development was advanced a bit, what with the destruction of his family's vessel and his new uncertainty of Archer's decision to abandon the KM. Archer making this decision should also have some lasting reprecussions and the fact that he had to base this decision on a message from Trip which he cannot reveal to his crew makes the decision all the more interesting.

Watching the political developments within the Coalition has also been enjoyable, although I do not understand why Earth would not reveal that Vulcan ships had been responsible for some of the attacks when this seems like it should clearly argue strongly towards the Romulans being responsible. This would take some of the suspicion off of the Klingons - one of the alien delegate's argument for still not trusting the Klingons weren't involved was that no other alien race's ships seemed to be involved, for heaven's sakes! Sure, there has been some mistrust towards the Vulcans in almost all the other Coalition members, but in this case, it seems a bit ludicrous to take this as a sign the Vulcans are involved instead of being another convincing factor towards it being the Romulans.


Now, just a few gripes if I may. I found this novel moved incredibly slow until the last 8 chapters or so. Once it got to this point, things really took off, but it was sometimes a chore getting to this point.

I have just one question for the authors: Was it somehow a lot of fun to make the actual freighter Kobayashi Maru's crew the most disagreeable pricks in the galaxy? Especially the captain. Kojiro Vance seemed like a real...a real... (paraphrasing Kryten) ... a word has yet to be invented to describe how totally whatever-it-is Vance is. But he is one, and a total TOTAL one at that!

I have to agree with this. The loss of the KM would have felt like a greater tragedy if some of these characters weren't made to be so disgusting. Chapter 39 in particular stands out in my mind for all the wrong reasons:

Kojiro Vance traced the swell of the woman's dusky-hued hip as she slumbered, his fingertip travelling over the exquisite area he had so recently ravished.

only to be topped by:

Yawning, he clambered over his plaything and padded naked toward the shower, absentmindedly scratching his groin as he walked.

I'm sorry, but of what possible literary benefit is this? I realize some authors like to take advantage of Star Trek novels' non-visual storytelling to describe some things in greater detail than would be allowed on TV, but this is just plain repulsive. The only function this served was to lower my opinions of the authors. Well done, boys. Of less revulsion but equal surprise, this was also the first Star Trek novel I've read to actually use the word "fuck". Not too sure why that one was necessary either.

Anyways, fortunately there were more positives than negatives. Hopefully, The Romulan War will endeavour to be a bit more tasteful.

 

[Elemental]

I bought this Ent book not knowing if I'd enjoy it (this is the first ENT novel I read, though I've probably read 100+ of the other novels and all the DS9R and TNGR books)

That's too bad, because I have read all the ENT novels to date (with the exception of KM), and for the most part I've found them to be very good. One, (I believe it was called "Rosetta") had a terrific story once you got past the author's sloppy writing style.

The only complaint I have so far with the ENT relaunch is it's entire premise: I'm sorry, but I just don't see Trip Tucker as a "secret agent." Nowhere in the four years of ENT did he give me that impression.

This was one positive aspect of this novel I forgot to comment on. I thought this novel actually did a good job of showcasing how Trip working undercover was beginning to have its effects on him. Killing the Romulan by shooting him in the back and then his introspection about it afterwards was well done.

 

[Andy Mangels]

Elemental - glad some of it worked for you, and sorry some of it didn't.

Mike handled a lot of the Vance stuff (not all of it) and the decision to make him a bit of a dodgy character was made because not everyone can be saints. As I recall, we even wanted our readers to be a bit conflicted about them, not unlike some political arguments (i.e. "We respect them as people, but we don't approve of their behavior, so we'll make life-changing decisions based on that"). Of course that would be the reader's perception, not necessarily what anyone IN the book was making decisions based upon...

 

[Elemental]

Thanks for the explanation, Andy. It's always interesting to hear authors' thought process from the time of their writing. IIRC The Romulan War is written solely by Michael Martin. Am I correct? Do you have any upcoming Trek novels?

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Elemental - glad some of it worked for you, and sorry some of it didn't.

Mike handled a lot of the Vance stuff (not all of it) and the decision to make him a bit of a dodgy character was made because not everyone can be saints. As I recall, we even wanted our readers to be a bit conflicted about them, not unlike some political arguments (i.e. "We respect them as people, but we don't approve of their behavior, so we'll make life-changing decisions based on that"). Of course that would be the reader's perception, not necessarily what anyone IN the book was making decisions based upon...

I really appreciated your making Vance a rather unpleasant character. If you'll excuse my heavy-handedness here , it reinforced the notion that people matter- and their deaths are a loss to people in general- whether they're pleasant or not. Having all victims be "nice" is to assume some sort of hierarchy of worth when it comes to who matters. I'm thinking now of "Babylon Five" and the Narns. The Narns spent most of that show's first season scheming and plotting and generally being the "villains" of the piece, but second season made sure their conquest by the Centauri was perceived as a terrible and shocking series of events. It was nice that the loss of Kobayashi Maru weighed so heavily on Archer- and seemingly all of Starfleet- regardless of how pleasant Vance was.

 

[Andy Mangels]

Thanks for the explanation, Andy. It's always interesting to hear authors' thought process from the time of their writing. IIRC The Romulan War is written solely by Michael Martin. Am I correct? Do you have any upcoming Trek novels?

Mike is writing that one solo.

I have no contracts at this time for any future Trek work, either in book or comic book form. That may change at any day, but currently there's nothing.

I am writing a comic book for BlueWater based on a William Shatner concept, however. And talked with him for an hour or so a few weeks back. That was fun!

 

[EmperorKalan]

Also, a book called Chicago Gangs of the Twenties (a typo for Chicago Mobs of the Twenties) was seen on the bookshelf in Travis's room on ECS Horizon in the episode "Horizon," making it pretty clear that that was intended to be the ship that visited Iotia. The novel was simply following the show's precedent.

I don't know that we can take that as any more "clearly intended" than we can consider ships equipped with some of the things that have appeared in okudagrams over the years (Nomad probes, airplanes, etc.)

And while it's never stated whether the Horizon was a Starfleet or civilian ship, but it was stated that the Sigma Iotia system was in "the outer reaches of the galaxy". That's where I have trouble buying the idea of Travis' Horizon being the one mentioned in APotA: if a (slow) ship like the ECS Horizon was able to visit there without years-long travel times, it's a bit of a stretch that there was no follow-up to their contact with the Iotians for a hundred years.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I really appreciated your making Vance a rather unpleasant character. If you'll excuse my heavy-handedness here , it reinforced the notion that people matter- and their deaths are a loss to people in general- whether they're pleasant or not. Having all victims be "nice" is to assume some sort of hierarchy of worth when it comes to who matters.

Then again, you don't want to make your victims so abhorrent that readers start actually wanting them to die...

And while it's never stated whether the Horizon was a Starfleet or civilian ship, but it was stated that the Sigma Iotia system was in "the outer reaches of the galaxy". That's where I have trouble buying the idea of Travis' Horizon being the one mentioned in APotA: if a (slow) ship like the ECS Horizon was able to visit there without years-long travel times, it's a bit of a stretch that there was no follow-up to their contact with the Iotians for a hundred years.

TOS made rather liberal use of phrases like "outer reaches of the galaxy". Sometimes it seems that this was done without regard for how long a distance that actually is. Okay, maybe that's where Iotia was, but perhaps so is most of Federation space.

 

[EmperorKalan]

And while it's never stated whether the Horizon was a Starfleet or civilian ship, but it was stated that the Sigma Iotia system was in "the outer reaches of the galaxy". That's where I have trouble buying the idea of Travis' Horizon being the one mentioned in APotA: if a (slow) ship like the ECS Horizon was able to visit there without years-long travel times, it's a bit of a stretch that there was no follow-up to their contact with the Iotians for a hundred years.

TOS made rather liberal use of phrases like "outer reaches of the galaxy". Sometimes it seems that this was done without regard for how long a distance that actually is. Okay, maybe that's where Iotia was, but perhaps so is most of Federation space.

...Not that ENT didn't also suffer from bouts of such disregard **cough**deuterium mining**/cough**, but that's not my main point. What I was getting at is that anyplace a slow freighter like the ECS Horizon could have reached in the timeframe implied in KM would be well within the sphere of development, expansion, and exploration of the Federation over the course of the following century, whereas in APotA -- even allowing for erroneous terminology -- the strong implication is tha Iotia is "way out in the boonies", far enough from Federation space that they haven't had any offworld visits for a century after the Horizon (or at least none significant enough for the Iotians to mention, nor which filed any reports with Starfleet).

 

[Rush Limborg]

Recall that Horizon's subspace radio was shot by the "Klingon Ships", and so they could not send a message to Starfleet--and thus had to compensate by sending out the black-box. Starfleet presumably didn't find it until shortly before APotA.

(On a side note, Kirk didn't want to have to give to Oxmyx the long, complicated explanation for why Starfleet didn't respond 'till now, so he just said, "Well, they didn't have subspace radio then..." and left it at that. It was more of a need-to-know thing as far as Oxmyx was concerned.)

Anyway, this indicates that, for whatever reason, Starfleet chose not to explore the region of Sigma Iotia untill APotA. What that reason is, remains to be seen--and no doubt, will be explained eventually.

So, Andy--out of curiosity, why aren't you working with Mike on the next one?

 

[Christopher]

What I was getting at is that anyplace a slow freighter like the ECS Horizon could have reached in the timeframe implied in KM would be well within the sphere of development, expansion, and exploration of the Federation over the course of the following century, whereas in APotA -- even allowing for erroneous terminology -- the strong implication is tha Iotia is "way out in the boonies", far enough from Federation space that they haven't had any offworld visits for a century after the Horizon (or at least none significant enough for the Iotians to mention, nor which filed any reports with Starfleet).

Expansion into space wouldn't be perfectly spherical. There are something like 15,000 star systems within just 100 light-years of Earth. It would take centuries just to visit them all. It's not improbable that a world relatively close to us could be visited only once and then ignored for a century while the Federation's attention was focused elsewhere. Space is just that huge.

And yes, "A Piece of the Action" meant to imply that Iotia was "in the boonies," but this story required a different interpretation. This is all made up. The facts aren't carved in stone, they're plot devices to serve the stories being told. If a new story needs things interpreted differently in order to work, then so be it, so long as it isn't a blatant or irreconcilable contradiction. It's certainly been done enough times already.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

If a new story needs things interpreted differently in order to work, then so be it, so long as it isn't a blatant or irreconcilable contradiction. It's certainly been done enough times already.

Besides, I for one find reconciling or working out differing interpretations to be fun. It adds another dimension to the stories.

 

[EmperorKalan]

Expansion into space wouldn't be perfectly spherical. There are something like 15,000 star systems within just 100 light-years of Earth. It would take centuries just to visit them all. It's not improbable that a world relatively close to us could be visited only once and then ignored for a century while the Federation's attention was focused elsewhere. Space is just that huge.

Real astrography vs. Trek astrography is a whole 'nother ball of wax, one being far more malleable than the other. Personally, I pretty much "reconcile" the differences by divorcing the two*, and as long as the Trek astrography seems to be in the right ballpark with what they've established, I don't bother squawking. Here, though, (IMHO) the events involving the ECS Horizon are taking place too close to trafficed areas (of the 2150's, much less later) on too short a timescale. It's just not passing the order of magnitude test for me.

*Which is not to imply that Trek can't handle real astronomy and science (and "hard" science fiction extrapolating from it), as you yourself have amply demonstrated in Over a Torrent Sea, Orion's Hounds, The Buried Age, etc. Just amazing work in all of them. And a pleasure to read, so thank you.

And yes, "A Piece of the Action" meant to imply that Iotia was "in the boonies," but this story required a different interpretation. This is all made up. The facts aren't carved in stone, they're plot devices to serve the stories being told. If a new story needs things interpreted differently in order to work, then so be it, so long as it isn't a blatant or irreconcilable contradiction. It's certainly been done enough times already.

That's the crux of it: for that part of the story to work it needed to reinterpret things in a manner that didn't work for me, and so those points didn't work for me. And why did it "need" it in the first place? There was nothing essential to the novel about visiting Iotia, it was all after-the-fact exposition to establish what the Horiozon was doing at that point, so any number of ports of call would have sufficed. It was only "needed" if you fore-ordained that the ECS Horizon was the ship mentioned in APotA and you needed to squeeze in the visit somehow because you were going to blow the ship up a few pages later. Remove the fore-ordination, and the need evaporates.

Which is the long-winded way of saying "It didn't work for me, I didn't buy it." (the plot point, that is. Paid for the novel.) And there was a lot of that in Kobayashi Maru. Which is disappointing, because I like the broader strokes of where this is going. But there were a bunch of these smaller (and to me, unnecessary) details that kept derailing the story for me.

Your milage may (and likely did) vary.

 

[JD]

I think you mixed up a couple of the Titan books there, Taking Wing is the first book by the M&M duo, Christopher's other Titan book was Orion's Hounds.

 

[Christopher]

^That, plus it's Over a Torrent Sea, not Under.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^That, plus it's Over a Torrent Sea, not Under.

"Unger, didn't you serve under Oveur in Starfleet?"
"Not directly. Technically, Dunn was under Oveur and I was under Dunn."
"So Dunn, you were under Oveur and over Unger?"

 

[Rush Limborg]