Spoilers PIC: The Last Best Hope by Una McCormack Review Thread
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I just took it as her naivety and respect that she gains from glorifying Maddox and finally getting into a relationship with him, it is kinda annoying but it fits with the kind of character she is I feel.
It felt very regressive to me. Like something out of a book written 20 or 40 years ago. Jurarti seems smart and on the ball in Picard no so much in TLBH.
I finished the novel today. I suppose I should preface the review by saying that I haven't watched Picard yet, and I don't know if I will. I was very disappointed by the ending of Discovery's second season (and, to a lesser extent, the way they ended the first season), and I've decided that I'll wait to hear how PIC goes before I spend time on it, rather than jump into the show when the new Trek shows have a better-than-chance rate of frustrating me. However, I'm generally very satisfied with the novels, so I'm still reading the tie-ins for the new shows, which I'm sure is exactly what CBS's trans-media strategy for Star Trek was aiming for.
Anywho, having waited for more than ten years for a novel telling the story of the destruction of Romulus, there's an element of the monkey's paw here. Rather than building on the post-TV Trek world I've become familiar with and treating the events of ST09 as a culminating (or at least climactic) event, LBH is a prelude to something of a fallen world, and sets up a sense of melancholy in its opening pages. Not the framing story with Monsieur Picard stewing on his vineyard, but during his goodbyes with the crew of the Enterprise, where he (relatably, but disappointingly) chickens out of asking Beverly to stay with him, personally or professionally. It was hard not to see this and the novelverse as two parallel tracks, and the canon Picard is set on a tragic path (in the classical sense, his fate being rooted in his flaws) all but immediately. In LBH, Picard repeatedly wonders if he could've done more; looking at it thematically, starting from his shyness with Beverly and LaForge having to volunteer to join his mission rather than Picard recruiting him, I'd say the answer is "probably." It's a far more passive Picard we meet here than I'm used to, a little more like the TNG stereotype of "The alien ship is firing on us, senior staff to the Conference Lounge" than the more dynamic Picard I've been seeing in the books for the past fifteen years (and we can stretch that all the way back to the TNG movies).
The novel being preface rather than climax also means it ends fairly abruptly, having raised a lot of questions (about the Synths, Maddox's breakthrough, the cause of the nova, what exactly the Romulans were doing instead of evacuating their people) that are presumably plot threads intended for the show, and glossing over some other points entirely. For instance, the ethics of even nonsentient synthetic labor, aside from Picard's somewhat blithe assumption that the attack with an inevitable robotic uprising in response to their servitude, when "A Measure of a Man" specifically raised the point that the most logical motivation of mass-producing androids would be for slave labor. Quest's early agitation for a Synth in every home seemed to be the primrose path towards exactly what Picard feared; get Synthetic laborers in the door by insisting they aren't sentient, then when a sentient version is invented, everyone is so inured to/dependent upon Synth labor, no one cares that they've crossed the line from mechanisms to slaves. Maybe that's exactly what PIC is setting up as the motivation behind the attack on Mars, but it seems odd neither Picard nor LaForge would see it coming. It also felt odd that the Red Matter was totally absent from the story. I can see how it might be omitted for seeming like a pat resolution, but in the world of the story, I can see a way for it to earn as much drama as it disposes of; Quest's faction boosting for a magic bullet technological solution rather than a bunch of hard work (continuing the climate change allegory), the fact that, while it can't save Romulus permanently (or at all, as it turned out), the Red Matter arresting the nova and reducing the blast range could cause even more frustration on all sides, since the only worlds that were successfully evacuated are the ones that ended up being saved from danger entirely. And, at least, it could've let the novel end with a bit of a win, or even an element of finality by walking all the way up to the explosion rather than stopping with the Synth attack, as if that were what the novel was building to the whole time (which it can't have been, because we can't learn anything about it, because it's a major mystery of the show). Honestly, it feels like an overcorrection from Desperate Hours; it was assumed the show wouldn't touch Spock or the Enterprise directly, and it was safe to use them in the books, and that turned out to be wrong, and now, since Spock's story from ST09 is so juicy, it's being left in case the show wants to handle it, despite that being unfeasible, to say the least.
I have to agree with the notes that Jurarti and Maddox's relationship seemed very odd. That may be because it was entirely from Maddox's perspective, and he had tunnel-vision about his work, and barely seemed to recognize he was in a relationship, never mind any indication whether he was in love or not. If we'd seen him through Jurarti's eyes more, it might've seemed less abrupt. The scene between them at the cafe in the wake of the attack had enough surreal detail that I started to suspect it's based on a real-life anecdote. Or maybe all Parisian waiters are like that, and the stereotypes are true.
The real-world allegories were unpleasant, but these are unpleasant times. The border worlds that aren't taking in Romulan refugees being much more concerned about them than the ones where the Romulans were actually going, Quest's repeated insistence that she wasn't a monster advocating the Romulans should be left to die while she was monstrously advocating that the Romulans should be left to die, the higher-ups on all sides insisting on treating the situation as status quo rather than realistically engaging with the fact that there wouldn't be a Romulan Empire as a political entity by the turn of the decade, Romulan Donald Trump with his big house full of gaudy art and his declaration that the only channel allowed in his province was Romulan Fox News... I see the argument that Star Trek should engage with and reflect the current situation, but I think that was a lot more satisfying when they went to the Computerized Cold War Planet one week and solved the Cold War, and then the Nuclear Proliferation Machine was rampaging through the galaxy the next week and they put a stop to that, and so on, rather than having the Federation react in a manner as craven as disappointing as our current governments, when one would at least hope that a centuries-long tradition of benevolence, being on a total-war footing within living memory, and the Romulans having been on their side in that same war would make it at least a little easier to muster the political and popular will for a humanitarian response to an unprecedented catastrophe.
All that's not to say I didn't enjoy the novel, but I feel like it was hamstrung by being, well, a tie-in. It very much felt like something ancillary rather than a complete story.
Anywho, having waited for more than ten years for a novel telling the story of the destruction of Romulus, there's an element of the monkey's paw here. Rather than building on the post-TV Trek world I've become familiar with and treating the events of ST09 as a culminating (or at least climactic) event, LBH is a prelude to something of a fallen world, and sets up a sense of melancholy in its opening pages. Not the framing story with Monsieur Picard stewing on his vineyard, but during his goodbyes with the crew of the Enterprise, where he (relatably, but disappointingly) chickens out of asking Beverly to stay with him, personally or professionally. It was hard not to see this and the novelverse as two parallel tracks, and the canon Picard is set on a tragic path (in the classical sense, his fate being rooted in his flaws) all but immediately. In LBH, Picard repeatedly wonders if he could've done more; looking at it thematically, starting from his shyness with Beverly and LaForge having to volunteer to join his mission rather than Picard recruiting him, I'd say the answer is "probably." It's a far more passive Picard we meet here than I'm used to, a little more like the TNG stereotype of "The alien ship is firing on us, senior staff to the Conference Lounge" than the more dynamic Picard I've been seeing in the books for the past fifteen years (and we can stretch that all the way back to the TNG movies).
The novel being preface rather than climax also means it ends fairly abruptly, having raised a lot of questions (about the Synths, Maddox's breakthrough, the cause of the nova, what exactly the Romulans were doing instead of evacuating their people) that are presumably plot threads intended for the show, and glossing over some other points entirely. For instance, the ethics of even nonsentient synthetic labor, aside from Picard's somewhat blithe assumption that the attack with an inevitable robotic uprising in response to their servitude, when "A Measure of a Man" specifically raised the point that the most logical motivation of mass-producing androids would be for slave labor. Quest's early agitation for a Synth in every home seemed to be the primrose path towards exactly what Picard feared; get Synthetic laborers in the door by insisting they aren't sentient, then when a sentient version is invented, everyone is so inured to/dependent upon Synth labor, no one cares that they've crossed the line from mechanisms to slaves. Maybe that's exactly what PIC is setting up as the motivation behind the attack on Mars, but it seems odd neither Picard nor LaForge would see it coming. It also felt odd that the Red Matter was totally absent from the story. I can see how it might be omitted for seeming like a pat resolution, but in the world of the story, I can see a way for it to earn as much drama as it disposes of; Quest's faction boosting for a magic bullet technological solution rather than a bunch of hard work (continuing the climate change allegory), the fact that, while it can't save Romulus permanently (or at all, as it turned out), the Red Matter arresting the nova and reducing the blast range could cause even more frustration on all sides, since the only worlds that were successfully evacuated are the ones that ended up being saved from danger entirely. And, at least, it could've let the novel end with a bit of a win, or even an element of finality by walking all the way up to the explosion rather than stopping with the Synth attack, as if that were what the novel was building to the whole time (which it can't have been, because we can't learn anything about it, because it's a major mystery of the show). Honestly, it feels like an overcorrection from Desperate Hours; it was assumed the show wouldn't touch Spock or the Enterprise directly, and it was safe to use them in the books, and that turned out to be wrong, and now, since Spock's story from ST09 is so juicy, it's being left in case the show wants to handle it, despite that being unfeasible, to say the least.
I have to agree with the notes that Jurarti and Maddox's relationship seemed very odd. That may be because it was entirely from Maddox's perspective, and he had tunnel-vision about his work, and barely seemed to recognize he was in a relationship, never mind any indication whether he was in love or not. If we'd seen him through Jurarti's eyes more, it might've seemed less abrupt. The scene between them at the cafe in the wake of the attack had enough surreal detail that I started to suspect it's based on a real-life anecdote. Or maybe all Parisian waiters are like that, and the stereotypes are true.
The real-world allegories were unpleasant, but these are unpleasant times. The border worlds that aren't taking in Romulan refugees being much more concerned about them than the ones where the Romulans were actually going, Quest's repeated insistence that she wasn't a monster advocating the Romulans should be left to die while she was monstrously advocating that the Romulans should be left to die, the higher-ups on all sides insisting on treating the situation as status quo rather than realistically engaging with the fact that there wouldn't be a Romulan Empire as a political entity by the turn of the decade, Romulan Donald Trump with his big house full of gaudy art and his declaration that the only channel allowed in his province was Romulan Fox News... I see the argument that Star Trek should engage with and reflect the current situation, but I think that was a lot more satisfying when they went to the Computerized Cold War Planet one week and solved the Cold War, and then the Nuclear Proliferation Machine was rampaging through the galaxy the next week and they put a stop to that, and so on, rather than having the Federation react in a manner as craven as disappointing as our current governments, when one would at least hope that a centuries-long tradition of benevolence, being on a total-war footing within living memory, and the Romulans having been on their side in that same war would make it at least a little easier to muster the political and popular will for a humanitarian response to an unprecedented catastrophe.
All that's not to say I didn't enjoy the novel, but I feel like it was hamstrung by being, well, a tie-in. It very much felt like something ancillary rather than a complete story.
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It is hard at this junction to work out what is "true" in regards to the tie-in literature and what is simply a tie-in writer filling gaps with incomplete knowledge.
The tie-in material has Picard captain the USS Verity - this is never mentioned on screen (so far). Neither is anything every given to support that Raffie was his first officer (rather than say an aide).
That's pretty much the only problem I had with the book. I was wondering why she was written that way.
I love this book. Especially the parts about the Romulans and their culture and mythology.
Beside the Rihannsu books, we never had such an indepth look at them. It's amazing and wonderful, how much we learn about them in this book.
It's a must read for every fan of the Romulans imho.
Beside the Rihannsu books, we never had such an indepth look at them. It's amazing and wonderful, how much we learn about them in this book.
It's a must read for every fan of the Romulans imho.
For what it's worth, I find the two shows very different in tone and style, and while Discovery had a mix of very satisfying elements and deeply frustrating elements, Picard is more consistently satisfying so far.
So do Picard and Beverly never become an item at all? That would move the divergence point back to Death in Winter, at least for TNG novels.
Fans today worry far too much about whether a story will be contradicted in the future. Every science fiction story (except alternate history) will eventually be contradicted by the passage of time and progress, so it's not worth worrying about. And even canon is no guarantee against contradiction -- just ask early Data who had emotions and used contractions, or the early first-season TOS crew that worked for Earth instead of some Federation, or the first-season DS9 wormhole aliens who had no comprehension of corporeal life rather than having regularly meddled in it like Judeo-Christian deities. So just enjoy the stories for what they are. If they're compatible with canon right now, just let them be compatible and don't let possible futures trample on your enjoyment of the present. These aren't study materials for a history test. It doesn't matter if they ultimately turn out to be the "right" answers. Even canon is just faking it anyway.
Based on what I'm seeing in the novel so far, the story actually never quite directly rules out a previous recent relationship either (I should be finishing it soon). If they were still in their post-Death in Winter relationship at least up through the events of Resistance (which is set in April 2380, the year before the beginning of this novel), I'm thinking that maybe the cumulative weight of events (including Picard getting re-assimilated and nearly court-martialed) made them decide to simply call things off either later in 2380 or '81, followed by Picard getting summoned to Earth, learning of the supernova, getting promoted to the Admiralty, culminating in his and Beverly's conversation in the book where he informs her that he won't be returning to the Enterprise.
(Indeed, how that particular conversation reads feels plausibly similar to a couple of workplace-breakups I've had, where you have to keep on working together but also keep things civil afterwards, if one wants to interpret it that way.)
Of course, if anyone who's already finished the book wants to clarify things here, please do so -- I've got my fingers crossed that we can still keep both Death in Winter and Resistance (Q&A is sort of an independent thing of its own), especially since the latter story leads to Worf assuming the first-officer position aboard the Enterprise (followed by probably the shortest XO-stint in history when Admiral Bordman suddenly promotes him to his first official captaincy in The Last Best Hope).
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That scene had the hyperreality that I remember from 9/11. No cafes in my history, but even in Charlottetown PE Province House closed down, and I was wandering around the UPEI campus with everyone else just responding and watching and wondering.
I do see what you mean, and i understand your critiques. That said, I do think that TOS was pretty much as blatant about a lot of its analogies as it could. The 1960s was the decade of Herman Kahn; the Eminiars and Vendikars calculating how many people would die of those strikes and opting to save infrastructure over lives hits. Others inspired by Cold War themes were similarly on point.
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One of the elements of the Rihannsu novels that I liked was the relationship between Senator H'daen tr'Khellian and Arrhae ir-Mnaehna tr'Khellian, née Starfleet anthropologist Terise Haleakala-LoBrutto. The senator was consistently painted as a noble man, as someone who was honourable and who resisted the pressures of dishonourable Rihannsu, as someone who treated his subordinates fairly and who cared for the people he represented.
I really did wonder if Vejuro was, to some extent, a callback and critique of this.
It should go without saying that, with a Romulan elite that at best delayed full evacuations until it was too late, it stands deeply discredited. I am not at all surprised to learn that a Romulan Free State exists. I just wonder how many heads of aristocrats and the like got lopped off first.
I really did wonder if Vejuro was, to some extent, a callback and critique of this.
Senator Kurrem is a powerful man, the most recent dynast to rule over his Vulnab District, but he is a monster. Had Senator H'daen tr'Khellian been warned that Eisn was about to explode, I think that he would have done everything possible to try to evacuate everyone to safety. The response of Kurrem is diametrically opposite, to deny the reality of the news and to insist on his right to keep his people bound to him, ignorant and exposed to catastrophe.
His guard, Mojula, also reminds me in some ways of Arrhae, as the person who helped him administer his district and protected his home. She is willing to learn, and does try to compensate for her master's failures. The response of Kurrem is to murder her, after hinting that the two had a more problematic relationship that H'daen and Arrhae ever did.
If this is a callback and critique, it makes sense. H'daen tr'Khellian is probably a best case scenario in any authoritarian government, as someone who does care for the people he leads and who does want to protect them. What if you are not so lucky as to get him? What if you get a Kurrem who would prefer that you burn with him rather than be evacuated to safety and escape his control?
His guard, Mojula, also reminds me in some ways of Arrhae, as the person who helped him administer his district and protected his home. She is willing to learn, and does try to compensate for her master's failures. The response of Kurrem is to murder her, after hinting that the two had a more problematic relationship that H'daen and Arrhae ever did.
If this is a callback and critique, it makes sense. H'daen tr'Khellian is probably a best case scenario in any authoritarian government, as someone who does care for the people he leads and who does want to protect them. What if you are not so lucky as to get him? What if you get a Kurrem who would prefer that you burn with him rather than be evacuated to safety and escape his control?
It should go without saying that, with a Romulan elite that at best delayed full evacuations until it was too late, it stands deeply discredited. I am not at all surprised to learn that a Romulan Free State exists. I just wonder how many heads of aristocrats and the like got lopped off first.
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I wonder if there were Nuremberg like trials for crimes against sentient beings for the elite who ran while the rest burned?
Harrumph. So now Hobus = Eisn. Raises the stakes of the supernova that created the Abramsverse. Wondering if the Jellyfish will show up at some point in the present opus, or when PIC comes out on DVD . . . .
Picard’s internal monologue during an early scene where he debates inviting her to join the rescue armada and can’t get the question out includes the line “He had never quite summoned up his courage, when it came to Beverly Crusher.” The tone of the scene pretty clearly suggests they’ve never become more than friends. But it doesn’t say that in so many words. You could probably reconcile it with, say, a tentative relationship where Picard ultimately couldn’t bring himself to commit.
Not sure if anyone else suggested it, but maybe she is manipulating him. Their first meeting in the coffee shop, she pushes him do his own research in addition Georgie's stuff hard. Maybe there is an agenda there?
Picard's speech when they embark is my favorite part so far. Starfleet's greatest mission, the most honest, most heartfelt, and most necessary of tasks. To offer our neighbors, in their hour of need, the unconditional hand of friendship. There is no higher duty than the preservation of life. Not for plaudits or medals or gratitude, but because it is the right thing to do. I really wanna hear Stewart speak these lines!
I have noticed another potential "Easter egg" tying to the relaunches. The recovery effort on Cardassia was mentioned twice now in the book and appears consistent with the DS9 relaunches.
That's probably not surprising. McCormack has written DS9 novels that take place on Cardassia so I'm not surprised it might show up. And it fits with how the Federation does things.
But it's something
.
That's probably not surprising. McCormack has written DS9 novels that take place on Cardassia so I'm not surprised it might show up. And it fits with how the Federation does things.
But it's something
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