The SCE series had an Iotian member of Starfleet, but I don't know if Iotia was referred to there as a member world (not a requirement for Starfleet membership, cf. Worf, Ro, etc.).
Spoilers PIC: Rogue Elements by John Jackson Miller Review Thread
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The SCE series had an Iotian member of Starfleet, but I don't know if Iotia was referred to there as a member world (not a requirement for Starfleet membership, cf. Worf, Ro, etc.).
Having just watched the season premier of season 2 shortly after reading this book I think it really helped me believe where Rios is in season 2.
With what we saw of him in Season 1 and having only watched it once I think I’d have struggled. Having spent more time with him here helped.
With what we saw of him in Season 1 and having only watched it once I think I’d have struggled. Having spent more time with him here helped.
I voted Outstanding. Really captured Rios's voice, I thought. And it was legitimately funny.
I think part of what I liked about this is that Rios had no intention of becoming Han Solo but Raffi kind of pushed him into it, which fits Raffi's well-intentioned but awful results.
One question I do have, though, is, "WAS Rios trying to steal the ship in the beginning?"
Amusingly, George R.R. Martin once drew a comparison between feudal society and gangsters. I had the interesting idea the Iotians were actually Medieval in nature by the time the Horizon arrived and they saw things like "Bosses", gangsters, and so on through the lens of a society that was already based on organized violence, protection money, and so on but combined with 1920s technology as well as services. Which, to me, makes a lot more sense than if they'd been completely different.
I admit I had to wonder how the Federation is going to react to being told they were going to receive tribute from a Pre-Warp society.
I admit I was surprised to have seen that as an element in the book and so strong in the book. After all, I would have thought that it seemed sanitizing the actual culture. However, I think it was an interesting twist by the end as we see how cultures interpret things for their own way versus being blindly immitative.
One question I do have, though, is, "WAS Rios trying to steal the ship in the beginning?"
Amusingly, George R.R. Martin once drew a comparison between feudal society and gangsters. I had the interesting idea the Iotians were actually Medieval in nature by the time the Horizon arrived and they saw things like "Bosses", gangsters, and so on through the lens of a society that was already based on organized violence, protection money, and so on but combined with 1920s technology as well as services. Which, to me, makes a lot more sense than if they'd been completely different.
I admit I had to wonder how the Federation is going to react to being told they were going to receive tribute from a Pre-Warp society.
I admit I was surprised to have seen that as an element in the book and so strong in the book. After all, I would have thought that it seemed sanitizing the actual culture. However, I think it was an interesting twist by the end as we see how cultures interpret things for their own way versus being blindly immitative.
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I just finished the audiobook last night. And, yeah, it felt like there were more endings than in Peter Jackson's "Return of the King".
It felt like an entire 10-episode streaming series novelized into a single book. Episodic and, kinda, endless. This confirms my decision to step away from Treklit. It's simply not being written with me in mind any more. I don't begrudge people who enjoy it their pleasure, but I'm not having fun with 140,000-word Star Trek novels any longer.
It felt like an entire 10-episode streaming series novelized into a single book. Episodic and, kinda, endless. This confirms my decision to step away from Treklit. It's simply not being written with me in mind any more. I don't begrudge people who enjoy it their pleasure, but I'm not having fun with 140,000-word Star Trek novels any longer.
In the Eaglemoss/Hero Collector fan group on Facebook, user Chris Newstead posted a version of La Sirena from the novels!
Facebook link (post may not be public): https://www.facebook.com/groups/eaglemossstartrekfangroup/permalink/3469098323413486/
Which one is it?
Cross-posted from the “Picture the Novelverse” thread. Link: https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/picture-the-novelverse-characters-ships-and-more.223738/page-36
Facebook link (post may not be public): https://www.facebook.com/groups/eaglemossstartrekfangroup/permalink/3469098323413486/
Which one is it?
Chris Newstead said:
Cross-posted from the “Picture the Novelverse” thread. Link: https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/picture-the-novelverse-characters-ships-and-more.223738/page-36
I finished reading last night the “Star Trek: Picard” novel, Rogue Elements (2021), by John Jackson Miller. It is the third tie-in novel to that particular series.
Like with the previous two (The Last Best Hope and The Dark Veil), Rogue Elements is another prequel novel taking place entirely prior to the events of the first season of “Picard”.
This one focuses on the character of Cristóbal Rios right as he is acquiring his cargo freighter, La Sirena.
He is immediately in debt to the previous owner, though, and has to pay them off. Those owners just happen to be Iotians, from the same planet that Captain Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise discovered a century earlier that had patterned their entire civilization on a book about the Prohibition era mobs of Earth’s history. Which makes this more of a Star Trek the original series sequel in many ways than a Picard prequel (although we do get scenes of Rios communicating with Raffi, another “Picard” character, and Jackson does indeed fit bits of Jean-Luc Picard into the novel as well, even though Rios and Picard don’t actually meet until in the streaming tv series).
But then there are also TNG elements (a particularly nasty nemesis from a very memorable episode of TNG is a major character here), and there are also call backs to Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
I’m not going to go into any more detail than that here so as not to give away everything. I will say that I enjoyed this novel a lot. Aside from the very ending being a tad bit contrived (where Miller brings all of the various plot threads together and reveals what’s really been going on), this is a real fun read. Miller weaves the TOS and TNG callbacks in expertly and, more importantly, manages to make Rios a much more interesting character than we saw most of the time on the actual “Star Trek: Picard” series. Enough so that I’d actually like to see another Captain Rios novel by Miller (although that’s very unlikely at this point).
I gave Rogue Elements four out of five stars on GoodReads.
My next two Star Trek novels that I plan on reading are also by Miller. His “Star Trek: Discovery” novel, The Enterprise War (2019), which shows up what Captain Pike and the Enterprise were doing during the Federation-Klingon war in “Discovery” season one, and the first “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” novel, The High Country, which just came out this year. So, I’m on a bit of a John Jackson Miller marathon here.
— David Young
Like with the previous two (The Last Best Hope and The Dark Veil), Rogue Elements is another prequel novel taking place entirely prior to the events of the first season of “Picard”.
This one focuses on the character of Cristóbal Rios right as he is acquiring his cargo freighter, La Sirena.
He is immediately in debt to the previous owner, though, and has to pay them off. Those owners just happen to be Iotians, from the same planet that Captain Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise discovered a century earlier that had patterned their entire civilization on a book about the Prohibition era mobs of Earth’s history. Which makes this more of a Star Trek the original series sequel in many ways than a Picard prequel (although we do get scenes of Rios communicating with Raffi, another “Picard” character, and Jackson does indeed fit bits of Jean-Luc Picard into the novel as well, even though Rios and Picard don’t actually meet until in the streaming tv series).
But then there are also TNG elements (a particularly nasty nemesis from a very memorable episode of TNG is a major character here), and there are also call backs to Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.
I’m not going to go into any more detail than that here so as not to give away everything. I will say that I enjoyed this novel a lot. Aside from the very ending being a tad bit contrived (where Miller brings all of the various plot threads together and reveals what’s really been going on), this is a real fun read. Miller weaves the TOS and TNG callbacks in expertly and, more importantly, manages to make Rios a much more interesting character than we saw most of the time on the actual “Star Trek: Picard” series. Enough so that I’d actually like to see another Captain Rios novel by Miller (although that’s very unlikely at this point).
I gave Rogue Elements four out of five stars on GoodReads.
My next two Star Trek novels that I plan on reading are also by Miller. His “Star Trek: Discovery” novel, The Enterprise War (2019), which shows up what Captain Pike and the Enterprise were doing during the Federation-Klingon war in “Discovery” season one, and the first “Star Trek: Strange New Worlds” novel, The High Country, which just came out this year. So, I’m on a bit of a John Jackson Miller marathon here.
— David Young
God I loved this book! I wish it could have been longer. I fell in love with all the characters! The twists and turns kept me guessing! I love mr millers writing style and really loved the call backs. After reading the high country and this one I think I have an another favorite writer!
