I just finished re-reading First Frontier by Diane Carey and Dr. James L. Kirkland.
As is the case with many sci-fi Geeks I am also a dino geek. And a story based on the idea that at least one group of dinosaur may have evolved advanced intelligence if not for extinction was instantly fascinating. And now in the time honored tradition of teh intertubes I am going to share my thoughts with you. BTW if you hate spoilers read no further because given the age of this book I'm not really inclined to use the spoiler thingy.
Now then in no particular order...
1: Could Carey be one of the best writers for Kirk ever?
Seriously. At first her portrayal of Kirk came off almost fellatory. But he's not really presented as without flaws. More that he's shown as being bigger and stronger than his flaws. What I found really interesting was that from Carey we may be getting a picture of what a new generation of Alpha Male could be like. Because on the one hand Kirk has all the drive and even swagger of your typical present day Alpha Male type. But there is none of the blatant misogyny and homophobia so common with many Alphas today. Kirk is quite comfortable in being openly (as openly as the ships captain can be) concerned for and appreciative of Spock. This is not someone who needs to run others down to build himself up.
2: It's a small nit to pick but can you get from the stone age to the nuclear age without fossil fuels?
One of the central conceits of the novel is that a group of sauroids from within Federation space go back in time and stop the extinction of Earth's dinosaurs. As a result one particular group of dinosaurs evolves into being of advanced intelligent, makes civilization, gets to the nuclear age and they blow themselves back to the stone age over and over again.
So since the first round of this is shown as happening well before humans had originally evolved and what not I'm wondering if there would have been time for there to be fossil fuels and could a society get from the "stone age" to the nuclear age without fossil fuels being a part of that development.
3: Carey manages to really get an important part of Trek philosophy that many miss.
A great many people focus on the ideas shown and espoused in Next Gen, and they obsess over the idea that there's "no money" "no crime" "no want" etc. And they presume that it means that there's also no personal responsibility.
But rather on the contrary by the 23rd century one is expected to take even more responsibility for oneself and really this continues into the 24th.
There's a great moment towards the end of the book where a character from the altered universe is trying to blame his cultures choices on what the sauroids did to change time and Kirk gives him an earful telling him that he and his culture still chose war over peace.
This speech got me to thinking that really all of Trek as Liberal and Progressive as it is, at the same time does not have a lot of patience or sympathy for people who want to palm off their choices as someone elses fault.
4: Are editorial misses common with Carey books, with that era of Treklit, or is it just a coincidence?
In a recent thread I mentioned Ship of the Line another of her books and one which has a missed piece of incorrectness that really should have been caught. Towards the end of Frontier there is another miss. Now mind it's not huge but it was still glaring enough that the little computer in my brain went. *GLiTcH* The Enterprise has been in orbit above the planet which houses The Guardian of Forever. Kirk and company go through to Earth in the deep past. At one point the Enterprise is referenced as seeing the Earth and the Moon. I'm guessing this was a mistake that got missed. But given that it's the second one I can think of for one author I was left to wonder if the problem was just "one of those things"? Or was there a reason, such as was Carey one who ran close to her deadlines given editors less time to check over her stuff? Or was the editing just a little less on point during that time period (mid 90's)?
5: Is Distant Origin a coincidence or an homage?
There is a Voyager episode called Distant Origin which involves a race of sauroids in the Delta Quadrant who believe they have been placed on their planet by divine providence and are incredibly arrogant and dismissive of the work of their scientists and then it gets discovered that they started out as dinosaurs on earth, and given the similarities I can't help but wonder if there wasn't some awareness of the story already.
6: Best book to give someone who likes Trek but has never read the books?
hmm. Actually I think I will start a new thread with that question (not specific to FF but more general). But I think this book may be in the running. Everyone is in character. It has all the stuff that makes Trek great. And it is also very self contained but at the same time it feels more... hmm? significant I think is the best word I can come up with, than a lot of the stand alone Trek novels of the era.
Anyway that's some of my random thoughts. I'm curious to hear anyone elses.
As is the case with many sci-fi Geeks I am also a dino geek. And a story based on the idea that at least one group of dinosaur may have evolved advanced intelligence if not for extinction was instantly fascinating. And now in the time honored tradition of teh intertubes I am going to share my thoughts with you. BTW if you hate spoilers read no further because given the age of this book I'm not really inclined to use the spoiler thingy.
Now then in no particular order...
1: Could Carey be one of the best writers for Kirk ever?
Seriously. At first her portrayal of Kirk came off almost fellatory. But he's not really presented as without flaws. More that he's shown as being bigger and stronger than his flaws. What I found really interesting was that from Carey we may be getting a picture of what a new generation of Alpha Male could be like. Because on the one hand Kirk has all the drive and even swagger of your typical present day Alpha Male type. But there is none of the blatant misogyny and homophobia so common with many Alphas today. Kirk is quite comfortable in being openly (as openly as the ships captain can be) concerned for and appreciative of Spock. This is not someone who needs to run others down to build himself up.
2: It's a small nit to pick but can you get from the stone age to the nuclear age without fossil fuels?
One of the central conceits of the novel is that a group of sauroids from within Federation space go back in time and stop the extinction of Earth's dinosaurs. As a result one particular group of dinosaurs evolves into being of advanced intelligent, makes civilization, gets to the nuclear age and they blow themselves back to the stone age over and over again.
So since the first round of this is shown as happening well before humans had originally evolved and what not I'm wondering if there would have been time for there to be fossil fuels and could a society get from the "stone age" to the nuclear age without fossil fuels being a part of that development.
3: Carey manages to really get an important part of Trek philosophy that many miss.
A great many people focus on the ideas shown and espoused in Next Gen, and they obsess over the idea that there's "no money" "no crime" "no want" etc. And they presume that it means that there's also no personal responsibility.
But rather on the contrary by the 23rd century one is expected to take even more responsibility for oneself and really this continues into the 24th.
There's a great moment towards the end of the book where a character from the altered universe is trying to blame his cultures choices on what the sauroids did to change time and Kirk gives him an earful telling him that he and his culture still chose war over peace.
This speech got me to thinking that really all of Trek as Liberal and Progressive as it is, at the same time does not have a lot of patience or sympathy for people who want to palm off their choices as someone elses fault.
4: Are editorial misses common with Carey books, with that era of Treklit, or is it just a coincidence?
In a recent thread I mentioned Ship of the Line another of her books and one which has a missed piece of incorrectness that really should have been caught. Towards the end of Frontier there is another miss. Now mind it's not huge but it was still glaring enough that the little computer in my brain went. *GLiTcH* The Enterprise has been in orbit above the planet which houses The Guardian of Forever. Kirk and company go through to Earth in the deep past. At one point the Enterprise is referenced as seeing the Earth and the Moon. I'm guessing this was a mistake that got missed. But given that it's the second one I can think of for one author I was left to wonder if the problem was just "one of those things"? Or was there a reason, such as was Carey one who ran close to her deadlines given editors less time to check over her stuff? Or was the editing just a little less on point during that time period (mid 90's)?
5: Is Distant Origin a coincidence or an homage?
There is a Voyager episode called Distant Origin which involves a race of sauroids in the Delta Quadrant who believe they have been placed on their planet by divine providence and are incredibly arrogant and dismissive of the work of their scientists and then it gets discovered that they started out as dinosaurs on earth, and given the similarities I can't help but wonder if there wasn't some awareness of the story already.
6: Best book to give someone who likes Trek but has never read the books?
hmm. Actually I think I will start a new thread with that question (not specific to FF but more general). But I think this book may be in the running. Everyone is in character. It has all the stuff that makes Trek great. And it is also very self contained but at the same time it feels more... hmm? significant I think is the best word I can come up with, than a lot of the stand alone Trek novels of the era.
Anyway that's some of my random thoughts. I'm curious to hear anyone elses.
. My reason was that I couldn't really get into her "New Earth" stuff, but in all truth, I haven't really read enough of her stuff to share the politics complaint. I'm more familiar with the current crop of talented writers handling our books 
