• Welcome! The TrekBBS is the number one place to chat about Star Trek with like-minded fans.
    If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

New Description for Seize the Fire

JD

Fleet Admiral
Admiral
Simon & Schuster just put up a new, more detailed description for the Titan Typhon Pact book, Seize the Fire.
SEIZE THE FIRE

Shortly after revealing its union with the Federation's newest adversary—a coalition of galactic powers known as the Typhon Pact—the Gorn Hegemony suffers an ecological disaster that destroys the hatchery world of their critically important warrior caste. Fortunately, the Gorn had already been investigating traces of an ancient but powerful "quick terraforming" technology left behind by a long-vanished civilization. This technology, should it prove controllable, promises to restore their delicate biological and social status quo. But when a Gorn soldier prepares to use the technology to reshape the planet Hranrar into a new warrior-caste spawning ground, threatening to extinguish the native Hranrarii, he draws the unwanted attention of a mad Gorn trooper determined to bring the military caste into dominance.
Meanwhile, as the U.S.S. Titan embarks upon a search for this potent technology in the hope of using it to heal the wounds the Federation sustained during the recent Borg crisis, Captain Riker must balance his responsibility for his crew's safety against the welfare of the Hranrarii and his duty to the Prime Directive. With a menacing Typhon Pact fleet nipping at his heels, Riker must not only stop the Gorn warriors but also plumb the secrets of an ancient terraforming artifact. But of everyone serving aboard Titan, Commander Tuvok may be the only one who understands how dangerous such planet-altering technology can be, even when used with the best of intentions. . . .
 
That's what you'd think, but Tuvok really shouldn't be old enough to remember much about that time. Hmmm...now that I think about it, maybe he could be, but he would have probably been a teenager around then.

On the other hand, Tuvok's age has always been variously portrayed, so anything's probably possible.
 
He was on the Excelsior a few years later during the time of Star Trek VI, so it's not impossible, continuity-wise.
 
See? Titan's still about long-distance exploration of strange alien stuff, even in the Typhon Pact miniseries. Thought so.
 
I did too. I'm pretty sure we'd even been told as much by Michael Martin or one of the editors, in the past.
 
Hanging around the Gorn, a species that we met in TOS doesn't seem to be "long distance exploration". Get them way out there, away from the trappings of TOS, TNG, DS9 & VOY. Out on the frontier. One ship, exploring.
 
Last edited:
Because it would be like Magellan just happening to bump into another European explorer in the Pacific except on a much, much larger scale.
 
Because it would be like Magellan just happening to bump into another European explorer in the Pacific except on a much, much larger scale.

Who cares? It'll make for a good story. The Federation doesn't usually run into other explorers from their neighborhood; after 40 years and hundreds of stories, one where they do isn't that bad.
 
Not sure if it's worth a separate thread, so I post it here, since this thread is about news from S&S:

It seems like the next New Frontier novel Blind Man's Bluff has been pushed back again. Both S&S and Amazon have an April release date listed now.
 
Because it would be like Magellan just happening to bump into another European explorer in the Pacific except on a much, much larger scale.

Not really. Read the description again. Both Titan and the Gorn explorers are looking for the same thing. Thus it stands to reason that they'd follow the same leads and end up in the same places.
 
Because it would be like Magellan just happening to bump into another European explorer in the Pacific except on a much, much larger scale.

Not really. Read the description again. Both Titan and the Gorn explorers are looking for the same thing. Thus it stands to reason that they'd follow the same leads and end up in the same places.

Yes, but space is big. Really big. Really, really big. Also, I want to see Titan exploring, not running errands. If they do find what they are looking for it stands to reason that they'd be returning what they found to the Federation. Even if it's information that they can send back to Starfleet they're still tied into the whole big story. I want them to be way past the frontier exploring. Be Magellan out in the Pacific, not bopping around the Mediterranean.

It's a continuation of the recovery from Destiny. More reminders of the death and destruction.To me, that's a problem with the consolidated timeline. It's like a spin off from a big comic book event. It may not be a part of the main story but it's got the big EVENT banner splashed across the top of the cover.

From the back cover of Synthesis - "The Starship Titan continues on her outward voyage of discovery. Ranging farther and farther from Federation space, Captain William Riker and the crew look forward to living Starfleet’s mission: seeking out new life, discovering new civilizations."

This necessity to tie every TNG era series into the "Next Big Crossover" is getting old already. Let each series find it's own way, it's own voice without having to serve the "BIG PLOT".
 
Yes, but space is big. Really big. Really, really big.

Yes, but that's misleading, because it's mostly really, really empty. The stuff that people would want is concentrated in much smaller portions of space, and thus the likelihood that different groups looking for the same sorts of thing would run across each other is commensurately greater.

Besides, how many Trek episodes have involved two civilizations happening to end up in the same place without planning it? How about "Friday's Child" or "The Apple?" The Enterprise just happens to show up at a planet at the same time the Klingons are also there. It's just a fact of life that coincidental meetings happen disproportionately often in fiction, because if they didn't happen, there'd be no story to tell. Just call it a selection bias. Fiction selects for unusual occurrences. The cases where nothing unusual happens just don't get depicted. So naturally the probability distribution's gonna be skewed.



Also, I want to see Titan exploring, not running errands. If they do find what they are looking for it stands to reason that they'd be returning what they found to the Federation. Even if it's information that they can send back to Starfleet they're still tied into the whole big story. I want them to be way past the frontier exploring. Be Magellan out in the Pacific, not bopping around the Mediterranean.

Titan's done plenty of exploring in the past two books, and it will do more after this book. This is a special event. It's one book. What's so horrible about mixing up the format from time to time?

And yes, this may be an "errand," but it's an errand that involves searching for something unknown. Also known as, oh, what's the word... exploring. Exploration doesn't just mean wandering around aimlessly. Exploration is something that's done for a purpose, specifically the purpose of finding things that are useful for your civilization to know about or possess. Which can be new scientific insights, or new works of literature or art, or exotic foods, or expanded astropolitical knowledge, or alliances with alien powers, or useful resources or technologies.

The great explorers of the past have always been motivated by the desire to bring benefits back home. Magellan didn't circumnavigate the globe just to say he could; he was charged with the mission of finding a new commercial route to the East Indies so that Spain could compete in the spice trade with Portugal. There's no fundamental dichotomy between the marvels of exploration and the pragmatic pursuit of material gain.


It's a continuation of the recovery from Destiny. More reminders of the death and destruction.

It's rather cynical to look at the process of recovery and regrowth and be reminded only of the destruction that's being recovered from. Tragedy is always part of life, but we recover from it. I just lost my father a few weeks ago. That tragedy is going to be part of my life from now on, and there are always going to be things that remind me of it, and there are always going to be times when I have to talk about it or deal with its aftereffects. But that doesn't mean I'm going to be wallowing in misery for the rest of my life. I had a lot of support from family and others who helped me through it, and I'm moving forward from it, living my life. I've actually renewed ties with family members I'd grown too isolated from, and I'm motivated now to make some other positive changes in my life. My father's death is part of the background of my life now, and it will always hurt, but that doesn't mean its effects on my future have to be negative.

You can't pretend that tragedy doesn't exist, but you shouldn't obsess on a tragedy that's over with. Life goes on. That doesn't mean you never mention the tragedy again; it means you acknowledge it and don't let it overcome you.

So no, this is not just a continuation of the death and destruction. This is the next thing, a different story, a story of rebuilding and renewal. The destruction is just the backstory. Star Trek literature is moving on, accepting the past but moving toward the future. If you're unable to see beyond the devastation of Destiny, that's your issue, not the books' issue.


This necessity to tie every TNG era series into the "Next Big Crossover" is getting old already. Let each series find it's own way, it's own voice without having to serve the "BIG PLOT".

This is a business. Destiny sold well, and the publisher wanted another crossover series. So blame the audience.
 
kkozoriz - would it have been as objectionable if Titan had encountered the Gorn randomly, and the book hadn't been called Typhon Pact?
 
If you are not already a member then please register an account and join in the discussion!

Sign up / Register


Back
Top