Resistance, Q & A

[Starbreaker]

Resistance:

A huge step up from Death in Winter, but still nothing original at all. I've see Unimatrix Zero and First Contact.

Lio Battaglia & Sarah Nave - Why introduce these interesting characters if you're just going to kill them off?

I don't buy Picard wanting to be Locutus again without even thinking about it.

Janeway makes another pointless cameo.

Overall, a very quick read that I was not that impressed with. Sure, it's the Borg and it's entertaining, but it's 300 pages of nothing memorable.

Q & A:

Okay, KRAD, I know you're reading this, but I'm not going to go easy on you.

Really liked the interactions with Q and the rest of the characters. For that matter, I really enjoyed the interactions between all the characters. Very natural dialogue all around.

Miranda Kadohata and Leybenzon are phenomenal characters. I instantly connected with them.

All the various Enterprises at the climax of the novel were great. Some very inventive variations as well as good uses of previously established ones.

Another Janeway name drop, but that's okay. I hear she actually gets something to do besides bitch in the next book.

But... the ending feels like a cheat. Nothing really progresses. It feels like it's on a grand scale, but then it ends up not being.

These first three anniversary books just leave me a little disappointed. Every book has had recaps of previous episodes and movies. I already know what happened in those. I'm looking for something new...

 

[Thrawn]

Your feelings mirror my own almost exactly. I actually liked Before Dishonor though, so who knows, you might as well.

Be warned though - the Leybenzon and Kadohata in Before Dishonor are clearly not the same characters KRAD established. Some real author-editor-author communication problems there. (Not blaming anyone in particular, but it's really noticeable.)

 

[Therin of Andor]

Every book has had recaps of previous episodes and movies. I already know what happened in those. I'm looking for something new...

Every ST tie-in novel is someone's first ever exposure to ST. The books can't assume they're always preaching to avid completists with photographic memories.

 

[DarKush]

I really liked Resistance. I thought it was fast paced and well written and Nave and Lio grew on me. I agree with you that it didn't make much sense to introduce these characters only to kill them off, but I guess that was perhaps the point, to add some unpredictability to the affair. Like how First Contact did with Lt. Hawk.

Alas, I didn't care for Q & A. I thought KRAD got Q perfectly, but I didn't quite understand what the book was about, and I didn't care for the new characters all that much. I liked T'Lana well enough but I thought Kadohata was boring and Leybenzon was bland. I agree with a previous poster that Before Dishonor takes the new characters on a different course than was established in Q & A, so be prepared for that.

 

[Starbreaker]

Every book has had recaps of previous episodes and movies. I already know what happened in those. I'm looking for something new...

Every ST tie-in novel is someone's first ever exposure to ST. The books can't assume they're always preaching to avid completists with photographic memories.

I'm not a completist by any means, but I know the basics. There is literally a novelization of the dream scene in First Contact at the beginning of Resistance. That was completely unnecessary.

A "hey remember when we fought the Borg" line or two is fine, but there's a limit.

It still wasn't as bad as Death in Winter though... a several page synopsis of Sub Rosa.

 

[T'Ressa Dax]

Yes well some of us haven't seen Sub Rosa in years and appreciated the reminder.... <G>

 

[Stevil2001]

I doubt anyone appreciates being reminded of "Sub Rosa".

 

[T'Ressa Dax]

Hm, not going to argue that...in that case maybe the reminder of what was being referred to could have been shorter.

 

[Starbreaker]

It could have been eliminated altogether in my opinion, but then it would have been a novelette.

I'm halfway through Before Dishonor now. It's actually pretty exciting. I'm going to read this and Greater Than the Sum and then get back to you guys...

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

BD is great. Greater Than the Sum is pretty damn good. It suffers from bad pacing in the first half though. Every time the story starts to get interesting the author brings it to a sudden stop to give us an essay on this or that. He should have trimmed that stuff to preserve his pacing which is excellent in the second half. He does a good job tying all the Borg backstories together and I credit him for that. He also created a wonderful non-traditional Vulcan in T'Rryssa Chen. I can't believe a guy I don't really get along with has created a girl I would totally go out with! What does that say about me?

 

[chelly]

I think of all the new characters she is the one I liked the most. T'lana is the one I hated the most, well and Leybenzon.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

I was confused about T'lana. I thought for sure she was going to be a love interest for Worf and then POOF she's gone. WTF?

 

[Thrawn]

That happened with a lot of stuff in those first few books. Leybenzon, also, was a great character under KRAD, an asshole under PAD, a moron and an asshole under Christopher, and then dead. That was much more a WTF for me than T'Lana.

But whatever. After Losing The Peace, I think there's a family there I'm interested in following. I'm looking forward to Dayton's TNG Typhon Pact entry.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

I didn't read Q&A so I didn't know there was anything more to Leybenzon than moron and asshole.

 

[Thrawn]

I was WAY more excited for him, after his first appearance, than I was for Elfiki, Choudhury, or T'Ryssa. But that potential got eliminated with great haste.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

Elfiki is kind of a nothing. Choudhury is an exciting and interesting new character. I absolutely adore T'Ryssa. Miranda is also an interesting character. I hated her guts in BD but Christopher did redeem her in GttS. I take it there was more to her in Q&A than there was in BD?

 

[Thrawn]

Yeah. She was great in Q&A.

 

[Starbreaker]

I didn't read Q&A so I didn't know there was anything more to Leybenzon than moron and asshole.

He and Miranda are very compelling characters in Q&A. All of a sudden they're mutineers... weird stuff.

I'm guessing all of these characters are going to be gone soon. I'm going to need some stability in these novels before too long.

 

[JD]

Elfiki is kind of a nothing.

Yeah, but what little we have had with her has been pretty good, especially her practical jokes with Trys. So I'm really hoping somebody will develop her more in the future.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

I'm only up to GttS so I don't even have the practical jokes to reflect on. I'll probably read the Destiny trilogy soon but right now I'm reading Engines of Destiny. To be honest I'm pretty Borged out right now.