Shards and Shadows review thread (SPOILERS)
- Thread starter KRAD
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My copy finally arrived earlier this week, and I read through it pretty quick.
Nobunaga
This one reminded me of TNGs Frame of Mind, what with all the mindgames and the constantly shifting scenery. Reading it, I felt just as confused and lost as Trip, which, hopefully, was the intended effect.
The downside is, that its quite short and we don't learn much new about the overall continuity.
Basically, it amounts to Archers Clone defecting to the rebells, taking Nobunaga with him.
That being said, I liked it.
Ill Winds
Like LutherSloan, I had the problem that I didn't know the characters. Unfortunately, part of what I like about the MU is seeing known characters in a different light and setting.
Apart from that, I found IW to be an ok read.
The Greater Good
Good ideas, but the characters and the tone of some of the scenes just didn't do it for me. Kirk was allright, although I had hoped for a better exploration of his character and motivations. At least he was written consistently with what little we saw of him in Mirror, Mirror.
Marlena, however, was quite a disappointment. Her "Yeah, whatever"-attitude seemed out of character to me. The "Oops"-moment didn't help either.
It just didn't do the character as established in Mirror, Mirror and especially Sorrows of the Empire justice.
I had always guessed the Tantalus device to be the MU-version of the Tantalus-field, so no actual surprises there.
The Black Flag
Easily one of my favourites of the bunch. And thats saying something, considering, I've never read any Vanguard novels (which means it suffers a similar problem as Ill Winds).
The fast pace, the grim tone (no doubt inspired by some nice old-fashioned pirate stories) and the action more than made up for characters unknown to me.
I'm looking foward to James Swallows Titan novel.
The Traitor
Liked it except for the ending. I really don't understand the need to have both Guinan and Picard be shapeshifting aliens. Surely there would have been a way to solve the story using their real counterparts.
The Sacred Chalice
Also an entertaining read, that made quite interesting use of the strong telepathic abilities that Betazoids possess.
Loved the Ressikan flute and the callbacks to The Inner Light (one of my favourite TNG episodes).
Bitter Fruit
"Kes, would you like to help, too? It would mean leaving Memory Omega for a short while." I don't remember Tuvok ever talking like this. The way its phrased just strikes me as odd.
And thats basically my main problem with this short story. I just can't hear these characters talk at all.
Compare that to Destiny: Mere Mortals, where Nan Bacco negotiates with Garak. When I read that, it felt like listening to Andrew J. Robinson again.
Doesn't happen here, which is unfortunate.
Nevertheless, I liked everything else. The look into B'Elannas psyche was both disturbing and fascinating.
Family Matters
Definitely an interesting way to tell the story. And it ties in with the Memory Omega Plot, as we find out later. Liked it.
I only wish, I'd read any Gorkon books.
Homecoming
Great quippy dialogues, especially at the beginning. Reminded me of Joss Whedons writing. Hell, the entire story had a certain Firefly-vibe going on.
Thumbs up.
I presume, the mention of 50k Romulans being the last survivors of Romulus was a deliberate nod to BSG?
Terrible Beauty
I haven't read about MU-Keiko before, so I found this story quite gripping. I really didn't know what she was up to until Tasha showed up. The end was a bit confusing to me, as I didn't get what exactly she had done with Terrok Nor.
Did she sabotage the longrange sensors, in order to rally them up and make sure they were ready to fight?
Empathy
Loved how Cristopher twisted the usual conventions of making the characters the opposite of their original counterparts by having Riker be one of the villains and Jaza the good guy.
Ree seemed pretty much the same to me, only that some darker parts of him were emphasized given the situation he was in. Wasn't there a conversation about hunting willing prey in Orions Hounds as well?
I was surprised at how gruesome and bloody this tale was, considering Christopher usually writes more "peaceful" stuff. Especially Vales fate felt like a gut punch.
Also loved the MU-take on Will and "Deannas" relationship and the twist on the "I intend to live forever"-line from Generations.
For Want of a Nail
This story reminded me a lot of the Splinter Cell games, and I found it equally exciting. An Infiltrator equipped with some fancy hightech gadgets, an operator sort of in his head, a mission objective that is turned on its head in the middle of the operation, just exchange K'Ehleyr with Sam Fisher and there you are.
All of that is mixed with the graphic Mackian violence, that I've come to love and the (for the MU) appropriate amount of doublecrossing and betrayal.
Overall a good book. A few great stories, some good and a few ones less good. But I have to say that I liked it better when there were only three stories per book, since a lot of them here were suffering from one problem.
The buildup was somewhat slow andtheneverythinghappenedallatoncetheend.
Now on to A Singular Destiny. Hopefully, it'll be delivered during the next few days.
Nobunaga
This one reminded me of TNGs Frame of Mind, what with all the mindgames and the constantly shifting scenery. Reading it, I felt just as confused and lost as Trip, which, hopefully, was the intended effect.
The downside is, that its quite short and we don't learn much new about the overall continuity.
Basically, it amounts to Archers Clone defecting to the rebells, taking Nobunaga with him.
That being said, I liked it.
Ill Winds
Like LutherSloan, I had the problem that I didn't know the characters. Unfortunately, part of what I like about the MU is seeing known characters in a different light and setting.
Apart from that, I found IW to be an ok read.
The Greater Good
Good ideas, but the characters and the tone of some of the scenes just didn't do it for me. Kirk was allright, although I had hoped for a better exploration of his character and motivations. At least he was written consistently with what little we saw of him in Mirror, Mirror.
Marlena, however, was quite a disappointment. Her "Yeah, whatever"-attitude seemed out of character to me. The "Oops"-moment didn't help either.
It just didn't do the character as established in Mirror, Mirror and especially Sorrows of the Empire justice.
I had always guessed the Tantalus device to be the MU-version of the Tantalus-field, so no actual surprises there.
The Black Flag
Easily one of my favourites of the bunch. And thats saying something, considering, I've never read any Vanguard novels (which means it suffers a similar problem as Ill Winds).
The fast pace, the grim tone (no doubt inspired by some nice old-fashioned pirate stories) and the action more than made up for characters unknown to me.
I'm looking foward to James Swallows Titan novel.
The Traitor
Liked it except for the ending. I really don't understand the need to have both Guinan and Picard be shapeshifting aliens. Surely there would have been a way to solve the story using their real counterparts.
The Sacred Chalice
Also an entertaining read, that made quite interesting use of the strong telepathic abilities that Betazoids possess.
Loved the Ressikan flute and the callbacks to The Inner Light (one of my favourite TNG episodes).
Bitter Fruit
"Kes, would you like to help, too? It would mean leaving Memory Omega for a short while." I don't remember Tuvok ever talking like this. The way its phrased just strikes me as odd.
And thats basically my main problem with this short story. I just can't hear these characters talk at all.
Compare that to Destiny: Mere Mortals, where Nan Bacco negotiates with Garak. When I read that, it felt like listening to Andrew J. Robinson again.
Doesn't happen here, which is unfortunate.
Nevertheless, I liked everything else. The look into B'Elannas psyche was both disturbing and fascinating.
Family Matters
Definitely an interesting way to tell the story. And it ties in with the Memory Omega Plot, as we find out later. Liked it.
I only wish, I'd read any Gorkon books.
Homecoming
Great quippy dialogues, especially at the beginning. Reminded me of Joss Whedons writing. Hell, the entire story had a certain Firefly-vibe going on.
Thumbs up.
I presume, the mention of 50k Romulans being the last survivors of Romulus was a deliberate nod to BSG?
Terrible Beauty
I haven't read about MU-Keiko before, so I found this story quite gripping. I really didn't know what she was up to until Tasha showed up. The end was a bit confusing to me, as I didn't get what exactly she had done with Terrok Nor.
Did she sabotage the longrange sensors, in order to rally them up and make sure they were ready to fight?
Empathy
Loved how Cristopher twisted the usual conventions of making the characters the opposite of their original counterparts by having Riker be one of the villains and Jaza the good guy.
Ree seemed pretty much the same to me, only that some darker parts of him were emphasized given the situation he was in. Wasn't there a conversation about hunting willing prey in Orions Hounds as well?
I was surprised at how gruesome and bloody this tale was, considering Christopher usually writes more "peaceful" stuff. Especially Vales fate felt like a gut punch.
Also loved the MU-take on Will and "Deannas" relationship and the twist on the "I intend to live forever"-line from Generations.
For Want of a Nail
This story reminded me a lot of the Splinter Cell games, and I found it equally exciting. An Infiltrator equipped with some fancy hightech gadgets, an operator sort of in his head, a mission objective that is turned on its head in the middle of the operation, just exchange K'Ehleyr with Sam Fisher and there you are.
All of that is mixed with the graphic Mackian violence, that I've come to love and the (for the MU) appropriate amount of doublecrossing and betrayal.
Overall a good book. A few great stories, some good and a few ones less good. But I have to say that I liked it better when there were only three stories per book, since a lot of them here were suffering from one problem.
The buildup was somewhat slow andtheneverythinghappenedallatoncetheend.
Now on to A Singular Destiny. Hopefully, it'll be delivered during the next few days.
Last edited:
Glad you liked it.
Yes, and this was an elaboration on the same idea, basically.
Well, the idea was to tell a tragic story, to ruminate on the consequences of a lack of empathy. Besides, it is the Mirror Universe, so excess seemed appropriate.
That's exactly what she did. Sabotaged the sensors in order to light a fire under the resistance to help them get ready for the battles to come.
Thanks for your comments!
My favorite stories in this anthology are "The Greater Good," "The Black Flag," "The Sacred Chalice," and "Homecoming." The other stories are all at least decent, but they either use characters I am not as interested in or have a high setup/payoff ratio that often accompanies short story collections.
^ Geordi was born blind, so he would have probably been killed at birth in the MU (he would not have been useful to the Alliance).
Is there a mirror Vaughn? I don't remember hearing about him anywhere, but I was wondering how come he hasn't shown up. Maybe he wouldn't have survived to the same age, but he could have been in the late-TOS-era stories.
(Of course, I haven't actually read S & S yet, so I may be blathering unnecessarily.)
(Of course, I haven't actually read S & S yet, so I may be blathering unnecessarily.)
I guess you know this already, since you posted in that thread, but he said it here on the TrekBBS:
No, the reason there's no mirror SCE story is because we intended to do it as an eBook -- then the line got put on hiatus, but by then I'd already committed to "Family Matters," and then the anthology was delayed, and it was a whole big mess.Is the only reason there's no Mirror SCE story, because of the situation with the E-books? I guess I don't see the connection. This is the MU, after all...
If I had it to do all over again, I'd probably have gone with the SCE story instead, but the timing conspired against all of us. *sigh*
Oh, no actually I had forgotten that he said that much about it. I just thought that maybe if the story was already written, or outlined or something that it might still pop up in some form.
I guess you know this already, since you posted in that thread, but he said it here on the TrekBBS:
No, the reason there's no mirror SCE story is because we intended to do it as an eBook -- then the line got put on hiatus, but by then I'd already committed to "Family Matters," and then the anthology was delayed, and it was a whole big mess.Is the only reason there's no Mirror SCE story, because of the situation with the E-books? I guess I don't see the connection. This is the MU, after all...
If I had it to do all over again, I'd probably have gone with the SCE story instead, but the timing conspired against all of us. *sigh*
Well, I guess we could always hope that they do another anthology. I would just love to see what the mirror versions of the SCE characters.
I love MU T'Pol's line of being a rebel and running the government are mutually exclusive. That's like Dick Cheney being in Al Qaeda.
Oh yeah, this reminds me I finished The Sacred Chalice the other day, and I liked it. It was well written, with some interesting new characters in the MU versions of Deann and Lwaxana. It also introduced alot of very intersting stuff to the ongoing MU Saga,
I really hope we get to see some sort of a follow up to this eventually. 8/10
with the surviving Betazoids going into hiding, and now with Picard going off with Deanna.
I guess you know this already, since you posted in that thread, but he said it here on the TrekBBS:
No, the reason there's no mirror SCE story is because we intended to do it as an eBook -- then the line got put on hiatus, but by then I'd already committed to "Family Matters," and then the anthology was delayed, and it was a whole big mess.Is the only reason there's no Mirror SCE story, because of the situation with the E-books? I guess I don't see the connection. This is the MU, after all...
If I had it to do all over again, I'd probably have gone with the SCE story instead, but the timing conspired against all of us. *sigh*
Well, I guess there's at least two possible things left to do in any 'fourth MU volume', then:
Mirror SCE, Mirror Elias Vaughn
I asked that already - everyone ignored me.
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