Strangely coincidental, I couldn't get the theme song for St. Elsewhere out of my head the other night, despite the fact it's been off the air for 20 years now and I haven't seen or really even thought about it since then.
My SCE reviews
- Thread starter JD
- Start date
Strangely coincidental, I couldn't get the theme song for St. Elsewhere out of my head the other night, despite the fact it's been off the air for 20 years now and I haven't seen or really even thought about it since then.
Interphase Pt. 1
I finished Interphase a couple days ago. I had trouble getting into it at first... I had to try and enjoy the story as a story without thinking about contradictions with the portrayal of the Tholians or the Defiant in the mirror universe. At first, it wasn't working for me. I think the fact that I still don't know much about the episode that involved the Defiant may have been a stumbling block for me. Everything I know has been cobbled together the Sundered or this book. But once Scotty showed up on the scene, none of that mattered, and I was sucked completely into the story.
I continue to enjoy slowly getting to know the characters. I especially appreciated any scenes with Duffy, and thought the writers did a very good job with showing us who Duffy was, building on his earlier small appearances. I also felt like this was the first time I got a real sense of Gold as a character. He'd seemed likeable, and a nice guy before, but it feels like now we're getting into the meat of who he is.
At the top of my head, that means Soloman, Gomez, Stevens and now Gold and Duffy have gotten fairly in-depth Character exploration. I really want to learn more about and see more of Corsi. She's the one that seems the most one-note to me so far, and I'd like to see her fleshed out.
I'm also really curious about Doctor Lense, and the holographic doctor. I know from reading a book description somewhere that something important happens with the holographic doctor, but even before I read that, it felt to me like the scenes with Doctor Lense and the EMH were building to something.
All in all, I enjoyed it, but mostly for the characters. I find the plot interesting, and it carried me along fine, but I don't find myself too worried about the Da Vinci crew on the Defiant, and am not that interested in the solution to the mystery. On the other hand, I really want to find out how Duffy will react to command, and how Duffy and Gomez's relationship will be furthered in the story. I expect that if I was more familiar with the Defiant, and the Original Series episode that was the seed for this story, that this wouldn't be the case.
---
My library is missing a LOT of the S.C.E books, so I decided I'd better go out and buy some. I was originally planning on using my library up to Breakdowns, and buying Aftermath and onwards. But my library didn't have Miracle Workers, or anything up to Aftermath on catalogue. And neither 'Some Assembly Required' or 'No Surrender' seemed available at any bookstore in Toronto, with the print editions on Amazon going for more money then I was wanting to pay, with shipping added in.
So, I decided to bite the bullet and skip those two, but buy the rest of the early books. There was one bookstore in Toronto that had Miracle Workers, and every other S.C.E paberback (except Some Assembly and No Surrender) in stock, so I went downtown to pick them up. There's a used bookstore RIGHT next to the big store, so on a whim I went inside. They had Some Assembly Required for $4, and Voyages of the Imagination for $10, so I snagged 'em both. I bought the rest of the S.C.E books up to and including Aftermath, so now I'm only missing 'No Surrender.' I'm very happy with my purchases, and I know I'm not going to run out of anything to read on my bus trip now. I've got 3 trades and around 10 Star Trek novels to read, as well as various non-Trek non fiction books I'm taking with me.
Original list:
Burning House
Orion's Hounds
Buried Age
Glass Empires (already completed Age of the Empress, and halfway through Sorrows of Empire)
Obsidian Alliances
Day of the Vipers (200 pages in)
As of today:
Miracle Workers
Some Assembly Required
Foundations
Wildfire
Breakdowns
Aftermath
I hope it won't be too much of a hiccup, skipping No Surrender for now. I definitely plan on reading it at some point, I just can't get a hold of it at the moment.
-----
Turns out I'm an idiot. I'm 17 pages into Interphase Pt. 2, and I now *really* want to find out how the crew's going to figure this out.
I finished Interphase a couple days ago. I had trouble getting into it at first... I had to try and enjoy the story as a story without thinking about contradictions with the portrayal of the Tholians or the Defiant in the mirror universe. At first, it wasn't working for me. I think the fact that I still don't know much about the episode that involved the Defiant may have been a stumbling block for me. Everything I know has been cobbled together the Sundered or this book. But once Scotty showed up on the scene, none of that mattered, and I was sucked completely into the story.
I continue to enjoy slowly getting to know the characters. I especially appreciated any scenes with Duffy, and thought the writers did a very good job with showing us who Duffy was, building on his earlier small appearances. I also felt like this was the first time I got a real sense of Gold as a character. He'd seemed likeable, and a nice guy before, but it feels like now we're getting into the meat of who he is.
At the top of my head, that means Soloman, Gomez, Stevens and now Gold and Duffy have gotten fairly in-depth Character exploration. I really want to learn more about and see more of Corsi. She's the one that seems the most one-note to me so far, and I'd like to see her fleshed out.
I'm also really curious about Doctor Lense, and the holographic doctor. I know from reading a book description somewhere that something important happens with the holographic doctor, but even before I read that, it felt to me like the scenes with Doctor Lense and the EMH were building to something.
All in all, I enjoyed it, but mostly for the characters. I find the plot interesting, and it carried me along fine, but I don't find myself too worried about the Da Vinci crew on the Defiant, and am not that interested in the solution to the mystery. On the other hand, I really want to find out how Duffy will react to command, and how Duffy and Gomez's relationship will be furthered in the story. I expect that if I was more familiar with the Defiant, and the Original Series episode that was the seed for this story, that this wouldn't be the case.
---
You're very welcome! I'm hoping that my journey through S.C.E from the beginning will help bring back lots of good memories for both the readers and the writers. And in regards to my dilemma, I had a VERY fruitful shopping trip today.Thanks so much for the kind words.
It's funny, Fatal Error was one of my first Trek stories. By that time, I had already written Perchance to Dream and Diplomatic Implausibility, but only the former had been published. And honestly, it's been ages since I even thought about the story. I'm glad it's still getting such a good reaction seven-and-a-half years later.
So thanks!
And worry not, 110 isn't going anywhere.....
My library is missing a LOT of the S.C.E books, so I decided I'd better go out and buy some. I was originally planning on using my library up to Breakdowns, and buying Aftermath and onwards. But my library didn't have Miracle Workers, or anything up to Aftermath on catalogue. And neither 'Some Assembly Required' or 'No Surrender' seemed available at any bookstore in Toronto, with the print editions on Amazon going for more money then I was wanting to pay, with shipping added in.
So, I decided to bite the bullet and skip those two, but buy the rest of the early books. There was one bookstore in Toronto that had Miracle Workers, and every other S.C.E paberback (except Some Assembly and No Surrender) in stock, so I went downtown to pick them up. There's a used bookstore RIGHT next to the big store, so on a whim I went inside. They had Some Assembly Required for $4, and Voyages of the Imagination for $10, so I snagged 'em both. I bought the rest of the S.C.E books up to and including Aftermath, so now I'm only missing 'No Surrender.' I'm very happy with my purchases, and I know I'm not going to run out of anything to read on my bus trip now. I've got 3 trades and around 10 Star Trek novels to read, as well as various non-Trek non fiction books I'm taking with me.
Original list:
Burning House
Orion's Hounds
Buried Age
Glass Empires (already completed Age of the Empress, and halfway through Sorrows of Empire)
Obsidian Alliances
Day of the Vipers (200 pages in)
As of today:
Miracle Workers
Some Assembly Required
Foundations
Wildfire
Breakdowns
Aftermath
I hope it won't be too much of a hiccup, skipping No Surrender for now. I definitely plan on reading it at some point, I just can't get a hold of it at the moment.
-----
Turns out I'm an idiot. I'm 17 pages into Interphase Pt. 2, and I now *really* want to find out how the crew's going to figure this out.
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Re: Interphase Pt. 1
Trust me, you will get to learn lots about Corsi and Lense as the series goes on.
FWIW, one of the major Lense stories is in No Surrender: Oaths by Glenn Hauman.
I finished Here There Be Monsters last night, and I really enjoyed it. It had great character moments, a lot of humor (my favorites being the blue paint and pretty much any time Gomez and Duffy were talking), and an interesting problem for the SCE team to solve. I really enjoyed the main plot again this time around, I especially liked the stuff with "the monsters", from their first appearances all the way through . I especially liked the twist about who/what they were, and while I did somewhat think one part of it was a posability, I had not clue about the second. I was also pretty happy with the way that problem was resolved in the end, it was definitely not the ending I expected before I got to said twist. My biggest problem with the last story was that I really wanted to see more character stuff, but luckily that was not the case here, we got quite a bit of it this time around, and because of this I am really starting to fall in love with all of the characters, I'm especially starting to like Gomez, Duffy, Corsi, Stevens, and Blue. I must admit that I am very curious to see what is going to happen between Stevens and Corsi in the future, because obviously their not together meant alot more to her than she will admit. I'm especially curious because I know that one of the post-Wildfire books sees them visiting her father together. On the Gomez-Duffy relationship is almost hard to read knowing how it all ends.
My rating 9/10.
My rating 9/10.
I've read.... let's see... 4 more SCE stories since my last review. Let's see if I can keep them straight in my head. Since I did read them all at once, I might mix up some of the events, so please forgive me in advance.
Interphase pt. 2: It took me a bit to get back in the story, but once I was back in there, I liked it quite a bit. I found the parts with Captain Gold contemplating killing Soloman particularly creepy. I remember reading the sentence, and getting about halfway through, and remember this sense of unease permeating my stomach as what Gold was thinking was slowly getting creepier and more violent. It's definitely the part of the story that sticks out the most for me, and what will stay with me the longest.
Cold Fusion: What fun! I really like how even the security guards are becoming familiar, and that I'm slowly getting to know them as well. They're definitely more than your typical red shirts. I liked the new aliens, and I like how the series makes it clear that there's more tasks that the Corps completes than just what we see in the books. I'm glad to see more of Corsi, and to see more sides of her. It was also neat to see some details of what happened before Abyss getting fleshed out. I remember reading Abyss, and wanting to know the story of how the core was brought to DS9, and voila! Here it is!
Invincible: I really, really liked the format of this one. The contrast of Shelby's personal and professional logs were used to very good effect, as well as the occasional letters from other characters. I did feel like the explanation of the threat was a bit bizarre, and I would have liked to know a bit more about them, but the rest of the story was strong enough that this wasn't a stumbling block for me.
More importantly for me, on a personal note, reading this story, especially the ending where Gomez decides that she IS going to push forward in her relationship with Duffy has helped me to mentally go past the point of no return in making a decision in my own life. I haven't done it yet, but I've been hemming and hawing in my head, and well, until I go ahead and actually do something about it, I won't ACTUALLY be past the point of no return, but if and when I do it, I'll be able to point at this story (and one sentence in particular) as what pushed me to do it. (And whatever the outcome, I'll know we'll both get a huge kick out of reading this post once I do it...)
The Riddled Post: This one was getting mixed reviews further up this thread, so I had lower expectations going in. I ended up liking it a lot. Similarly to how I appreciated references to non-recorded adventures of the S.C.E, I also enjoyed having a story where there's a mystery, it's investigated, and it's solved. It would seem over the top to me if every single adventure of the S.C.E was fraught with danger and dying crew. Especially after the constant tragedies of Invincible, it was nice to have a lower key mystery that managed to keep me very curious, but had a very logical solution.
Well JD, one more story and I'll be completely caught up to you. As of The Riddled Post, I'm into stories that are completely new to me. (Though honestly I'd so thoroughly forgotten the other ones since I'd read them that it felt like I was reading them for the first time, especially once I was into Miracle Workers.)
Now that I'm 8-9 stories in - depending on how you count Invincible - I can say I'm very glad I've gotten into the series, and not at all feeling trepidation over the fact that I've sunk a large amount of money into this series without actually having read much of it.
I'm enjoying the engineering puzzles much more then I thought I would; I love the effort that's being put into consistent characterization. (Connected to that, I love the sort-of-but-not-really serialized aspect of it. There isn't a big epic storyline tying it together a la DS9, or Vanguard, but the story of the Da Vinci is very, very continual, and is definitely bringing me back eagerly to each new story.); Finally, and I think this will definitely increase as the series continues, I like how I'm being introduced to new writers that I haven't read before. So far, I think it's only Rosenberg that's new to me, but there are a lot of writers coming up whose names I don't recognize. I'm looking forward to the mix of writers I like a lot with the ones which are -at least to me- unknowns.
Interphase pt. 2: It took me a bit to get back in the story, but once I was back in there, I liked it quite a bit. I found the parts with Captain Gold contemplating killing Soloman particularly creepy. I remember reading the sentence, and getting about halfway through, and remember this sense of unease permeating my stomach as what Gold was thinking was slowly getting creepier and more violent. It's definitely the part of the story that sticks out the most for me, and what will stay with me the longest.
Cold Fusion: What fun! I really like how even the security guards are becoming familiar, and that I'm slowly getting to know them as well. They're definitely more than your typical red shirts. I liked the new aliens, and I like how the series makes it clear that there's more tasks that the Corps completes than just what we see in the books. I'm glad to see more of Corsi, and to see more sides of her. It was also neat to see some details of what happened before Abyss getting fleshed out. I remember reading Abyss, and wanting to know the story of how the core was brought to DS9, and voila! Here it is!
Invincible: I really, really liked the format of this one. The contrast of Shelby's personal and professional logs were used to very good effect, as well as the occasional letters from other characters. I did feel like the explanation of the threat was a bit bizarre, and I would have liked to know a bit more about them, but the rest of the story was strong enough that this wasn't a stumbling block for me.
More importantly for me, on a personal note, reading this story, especially the ending where Gomez decides that she IS going to push forward in her relationship with Duffy has helped me to mentally go past the point of no return in making a decision in my own life. I haven't done it yet, but I've been hemming and hawing in my head, and well, until I go ahead and actually do something about it, I won't ACTUALLY be past the point of no return, but if and when I do it, I'll be able to point at this story (and one sentence in particular) as what pushed me to do it. (And whatever the outcome, I'll know we'll both get a huge kick out of reading this post once I do it...)
The Riddled Post: This one was getting mixed reviews further up this thread, so I had lower expectations going in. I ended up liking it a lot. Similarly to how I appreciated references to non-recorded adventures of the S.C.E, I also enjoyed having a story where there's a mystery, it's investigated, and it's solved. It would seem over the top to me if every single adventure of the S.C.E was fraught with danger and dying crew. Especially after the constant tragedies of Invincible, it was nice to have a lower key mystery that managed to keep me very curious, but had a very logical solution.
Well JD, one more story and I'll be completely caught up to you. As of The Riddled Post, I'm into stories that are completely new to me. (Though honestly I'd so thoroughly forgotten the other ones since I'd read them that it felt like I was reading them for the first time, especially once I was into Miracle Workers.)
Now that I'm 8-9 stories in - depending on how you count Invincible - I can say I'm very glad I've gotten into the series, and not at all feeling trepidation over the fact that I've sunk a large amount of money into this series without actually having read much of it.
I'm enjoying the engineering puzzles much more then I thought I would; I love the effort that's being put into consistent characterization. (Connected to that, I love the sort-of-but-not-really serialized aspect of it. There isn't a big epic storyline tying it together a la DS9, or Vanguard, but the story of the Da Vinci is very, very continual, and is definitely bringing me back eagerly to each new story.); Finally, and I think this will definitely increase as the series continues, I like how I'm being introduced to new writers that I haven't read before. So far, I think it's only Rosenberg that's new to me, but there are a lot of writers coming up whose names I don't recognize. I'm looking forward to the mix of writers I like a lot with the ones which are -at least to me- unknowns.
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That's quite deliberate, believe me. And that will remain a hallmark of the series all the way through.
Pssssst! You mean Gomez!
Congrats, and good luck to you.
And I gotta say, it's stuff like this that reminds me of one of the great joys of writing.
Again, that's deliberate. The idea is to provide continuity without over-serialization. The stories are standalone; the character arcs are continuous. I think that's the best way to keep people coming back.
Keep in mind also that, of the writers of the stories you've read, the only ones who were firmly established when the eBooks were first published in 2000-2001 were Dean Wesley Smith and Christie Golden. Fatal Error, Interphase, and Invincible were all published before I, Dave, or Dayton and Kevin had had any Trek novels published.
And the pleasant surprise of it was, that the newbies' stories actually were the slightly stronger ones of the first bunch of S.C.E. novellas.
Oh, yes, that bit was just perfectly done, and does go straight for the reader's gut. I think I liked that scene even better than the Defiant's triumphant homecoming (but then, I'm a sick bastard).
I have to be honest and admit that I'd completely forgotten about that part, and it made me realize just how long it's been since we wrote Interphase. Gosh dern, reading these reviews is bringing back all sorts of memories; back at the beginning of it all for me, when it was still fun and hope gleamed in my eye.
You know, before KRAD and other editors crushed my soul beneath their boot. Ah....good times.
I know what you mean. It's been almost (gak) eight years since I wrote Fatal Error, and seven since Cold Fusion, Invincible, and Here There Be Monsters.
Actually, all we did was put you and Dilmore together, and then nature took its course...........
You'll probably pass me up too, because I'm taking a short break while I finish Forged in Fire and read Day of the Vipers, but don't worry, as soon as I finish Day I'll get right back to SCE.
It's been a while, but I think I'll keep trying to chug through these little reviews.
'Here there be Monsters'
I liked this one. It was neat being brought back to the whole Gateway saga, and it felt good to finally read it. It's been on the list for a while. I really enjoyed the tenseness of the scenes of the citizens of the planet interacting with the 'monsters' for the first time. I remember particularly when the little girl was interacting with the 'monster', and I wasn't sure if the monsters were friendly or not. I was hoping they were, but as the little girl was approaching it, I wasn't sure if it was going to play with her, or try to communicate with her, or rip her throat out the next second. I felt the moment played out very well.
The one bit that confuses me involves that moment as well. Was the monster that interacted with the little girl the criminal? Because that's what I remember from the physical descriptions of the aliens, but I thought that the alien with the little girl seemed like one of the benevolent ones...
Ambush.
I should have done this a bit sooner after reading them... I don't remember Ambush all that well... I didn't read it in one sitting the way I had with the others. This is going back to the long 3 day bus trip I had, and I think at this point, I was hitting Star Trek book fatigue. I had read 5 ST books on the way there, 2 during the trip, and 2 on the way back before hitting Ambush. I remember really enjoying the characters of the colonists, and feeling quite concerned about their survival, but found it hard to get through the action sequences and transforming the tech... though thinking back, I enjoyed those too. I think I was just a bit oversaturated with Star Trek books at that point.
Some Assembly Required.
I don't remember this one at all... So lemme find a plot synopsis and see if that jogs the memory...
Oh yes! I loved this one! Can't believe I forgot what it was about. I really enjoyed figuring out the culture, and the exploration of art and the imagination. It was a fun read.
Next up would have been the 'No Surrender' collection, which I haven't been able to find anywhere. Next up after *that* would have been Foundations, but I left that in British Columbia, so I moved on to Wildfire.
Enigma Ship.
I liked the gimmicky mystery of this one, and all the encounters in the holo-ship. Other than the turtle, not much is really sticking out in my memory though... At least, I think there was a giant turtle...
War Stories.
Another one where not much is really sticking out... I really must have read too much in too short of a time. I think I was also wanting to get to Wildfire, because I'd heard so much about it, and ended up pushing through the stories before it too hard, when it would've been better to give the books a little breather. I enjoyed the return of Overseer Biron, and I look forward to seeing him more in future stories.
Wildfire.
I loved this... it was... it hurt. Not just the Duffy thing, but earlier in the thread I talked about really enjoying getting to know the lower deck officers, and how there seemed to be good consistency and character to the whole crew, not just the main guys. So that everyone started dropping like flies, it was like... oh... I'm not going to get to know anything more about that character, and man... that door shut, and all those guys died, and crap... I really liked her. And the final Duffy sequence, and the misunderstanding with the alien entity thing... I don't remember all the details and whys and wherefores of what happened, but I really remember the emotional resonance, and the constant gut punches of the story. It put me into a real downer... and it's as far as I've read in the series so far, so I don't know what happens next. I own Breakdowns, but whenever I pick it up to read it, I just... haven't felt in the mood for it. I'm sure I'll get to it soon.
It feels good to be caught up in my little capsule reviews. I'm definitely going to write further ones much sooner after I've read the stories.
'Here there be Monsters'
I liked this one. It was neat being brought back to the whole Gateway saga, and it felt good to finally read it. It's been on the list for a while. I really enjoyed the tenseness of the scenes of the citizens of the planet interacting with the 'monsters' for the first time. I remember particularly when the little girl was interacting with the 'monster', and I wasn't sure if the monsters were friendly or not. I was hoping they were, but as the little girl was approaching it, I wasn't sure if it was going to play with her, or try to communicate with her, or rip her throat out the next second. I felt the moment played out very well.
The one bit that confuses me involves that moment as well. Was the monster that interacted with the little girl the criminal? Because that's what I remember from the physical descriptions of the aliens, but I thought that the alien with the little girl seemed like one of the benevolent ones...
Ambush.
I should have done this a bit sooner after reading them... I don't remember Ambush all that well... I didn't read it in one sitting the way I had with the others. This is going back to the long 3 day bus trip I had, and I think at this point, I was hitting Star Trek book fatigue. I had read 5 ST books on the way there, 2 during the trip, and 2 on the way back before hitting Ambush. I remember really enjoying the characters of the colonists, and feeling quite concerned about their survival, but found it hard to get through the action sequences and transforming the tech... though thinking back, I enjoyed those too. I think I was just a bit oversaturated with Star Trek books at that point.
Some Assembly Required.
I don't remember this one at all... So lemme find a plot synopsis and see if that jogs the memory...
Oh yes! I loved this one! Can't believe I forgot what it was about. I really enjoyed figuring out the culture, and the exploration of art and the imagination. It was a fun read.
Next up would have been the 'No Surrender' collection, which I haven't been able to find anywhere. Next up after *that* would have been Foundations, but I left that in British Columbia, so I moved on to Wildfire.
Enigma Ship.
I liked the gimmicky mystery of this one, and all the encounters in the holo-ship. Other than the turtle, not much is really sticking out in my memory though... At least, I think there was a giant turtle...
War Stories.
Another one where not much is really sticking out... I really must have read too much in too short of a time. I think I was also wanting to get to Wildfire, because I'd heard so much about it, and ended up pushing through the stories before it too hard, when it would've been better to give the books a little breather. I enjoyed the return of Overseer Biron, and I look forward to seeing him more in future stories.
Wildfire.
I loved this... it was... it hurt. Not just the Duffy thing, but earlier in the thread I talked about really enjoying getting to know the lower deck officers, and how there seemed to be good consistency and character to the whole crew, not just the main guys. So that everyone started dropping like flies, it was like... oh... I'm not going to get to know anything more about that character, and man... that door shut, and all those guys died, and crap... I really liked her. And the final Duffy sequence, and the misunderstanding with the alien entity thing... I don't remember all the details and whys and wherefores of what happened, but I really remember the emotional resonance, and the constant gut punches of the story. It put me into a real downer... and it's as far as I've read in the series so far, so I don't know what happens next. I own Breakdowns, but whenever I pick it up to read it, I just... haven't felt in the mood for it. I'm sure I'll get to it soon.
It feels good to be caught up in my little capsule reviews. I'm definitely going to write further ones much sooner after I've read the stories.
Benny, thanks for your kind words about Wildfire. I'm really glad to hear that you enjoyed it, and that it resonated for you as I'd intended. Keep reading those SCE tales — things will get better (though some healing journeys have to take place first in Breakdowns). You have many more fine adventures and new characters awaiting you.
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