I'm split on this one.
On the one hand, I loved the espionage and the adventure. Julian Bashir is one of my favorite Star Trek characters, third to only Elim Garak and Data, so I was thrilled to have an engaging story with all three of them (as well as the wonderful Sarina Douglas and Lal). I'm also a sucker for planet hopping and this novel had it in spades.
On the other hand, I didn't like certain revelations about Section 31. As soon as the story established that an artificial super intelligence was created in the mid-22nd century and was clearly the basis for Section 31's intelligence and surveillance network, I immediately predicted that not only Control was Uraei, that it was deliberately manipulating the events to actually have itself killed (for reasons I didn't determine). And I guessed that around page 27. I'm not trying to be boastful. If anything, I'm disappointed. Not that I was able to predict that plotline, but because that kind of story about an all-knowing, all-powerful artificial intelligence that successfully manipulates everything around it just bores me. It takes away the free will of the events and actions of the history of Star Trek, or at least the
many events that we're told about. The idea that Federation was, at least on small level, manipulated into existence by Uraei instead of naturally developing on its own is especially bothersome.
I'm also torn because thematically, the nature of privacy surveillance, especially in this day and age, is a potent and relevant topic. The parallels to
Person of Interest (deliberate or not) also resonated with me to the point that I unintentionally cast Michael Emerson as Ikerson and Amy Acker as Lenore (not fair to David Mack, I know, but it happened). So early on in the book, I was cautiously enjoying this aspect of the story, right until it revealed that Section 31 didn't come about on its own and took over Uraei, but instead Uraei created Section 31 as a means to operate in the physical world.
I preferred the idea of Section 31 coming to fruition because a group of people decided that for "the betterment of the Federation," a secret organization needed to operate outside of the confines of the system and the law. I know to an extent that's still what we got, but this comes back to the whole free will issue. I further realize I'm projecting my own expectations for the story onto the novel and I know it's not fair to criticize the story based on those expectations, but those developments still bother me.
This all being said, the execution of these revelations and their implications are well written. I just don't like them. Well, one exception: I did like subversion of the typical "Who is the shadowy figure?" trope as someone we know, even if the answer seemed obvious to me.
I loved thrill of the chase and seeing how the good guys will win at the end of the day, no matter the cost. I seem to be one of the few people loved Sarina and enjoyed her romance with Julian, so naturally I was devastated by her death and Julian's paralleled catatonic state as that payment. I further hope that future novels will follow-up on the implications of Section 31's fall, how its existence affected the very nature of the Federation, and what fallout occurs regarding those revelations and other specific scandals. I particularly hope we see how this affects Picard (I was a little disappointed we didn't get to see Data's reaction, presuming he didn't know already), which would mean I would need to finally read the
A Time to... books.
And now it dawns on me that I've been here before: I likewise didn't like certain aspects of the
Destiny trilogy, particularly regarding the Borg's origin. I enjoyed much of the action of the books but I didn't like the core aspect leading up to that revelation. Instead, I've found myself much preferring the
aftermath of the
Destiny trilogy and how the following books handled those issues. I likewise hope for the same regarding
Control.
Not David Mack's fault, but I found myself feeling guilty about never reading any of the
A Time... books (except the first two), particularly his entries and KRAD's. I've known most of the details for years now, thanks to other novels and Memory Beta, but I felt like I missed out on some emotional beats with Ozla Graniv (and to a lesser extent, Lagan Serra and L'Haan). They worked within the confines of the story, but I knew I was missing just a little bit of that extra punch.
One particular quote stood out to me during Nyrok Turan's talk about how an ASI could shape reality:
"Change the contents of private conversations as they happen without the participants realizing they've been deceived."
That's a prospect that I have never considered. Since the dawn of instant messaging, be it via phones or computers, we've unquestioningly trusted that the messages we've received have been 100% accurate. And in reality, we have no reason to not to. But now the possibility of those messages could be wrong, could be altered without either party knowing is stuck in my mind. The level of trust that could be destroyed by such an action would be grave. The idea that something like that could happen is insidious (and not the good kind like root beer and the Federation).
Lastly, I loved the reference to
Orphan Black with Helena Maslany as a nonexistent Starfleet commander responsible for clandestine orders.
