SKRS #1: Second Nature by David Mack Review Thread (Spoilers!)

^ Not actively, it's the default setting when making a new poll. The older review thread polls used it too (or kept it unchanged from the defaults, I mean), so I didn't really see a reason to change it. I guess it gives people a choice in whether they want to make their vote public or not. In this case I'm curious ...

 

At least they had a strong (if negative) reaction.

 

A good point, in that it's much better than apathy.

 

It's here.

I'm out tonight, so I only have time to glance at it, but already I see Saurians, Kaferians, Arkenites and Humans all adapting to living alongside each other. Between that and the exploration angle, it seems as much Titan as Vanguard. Is this our TOS Titan to Vanguard's TOS DS9?

I'll post some detailed thoughts soon enough.

 

I hope my book comes on Tuesday this one book I've been waiting along time to finally be able to read it. I really have liked the Vanguard books and the Endeavour crew in the books I've read the last few weeks.

 

Mine has not shipped yet.

 

Got my copy today !

Switching from Amazon (UK) saved me a 4 week wait !

 

My kindle pre-order downloaded today. Very much looking forward to making a start on this book this evening.

 

Amazon shows my pre-order copy 'out for delivery'...which means I'll have it in about an hour!!

Pretty excited!

 

Finished it today, loved it! Fast paced, good writing. Some characters could use a bit more depth, but it is only the first novel in the series, you can't expect everyone to be layered straight away.

Spoiler: Endeavour....

Felt there was a quick tease to everything not being right as rain on Endeavour, with some tensions perhaps between Khatami and Stano. Perhaps not everyone has recovered from the Battle Of Vanguard just yet..... Also, Kang comment about Khatami and the look in her eyes, doesn't completely mesh with the slightly more peacefull Khatami I remember from Vanguard, but I could just be reading to much into that.

But yeah, good stuff!!!!

 

I was thinking it was next week (last tuesday of the month etc) and the paper copies had come even earlier than usual so it was a pleasant surprise to see it pop up this morning.

I've just got a bit more of the book I'm currently reading so I should be making a start on this tomorrow.

 

Part of why I also consider it "good stuff".

Consequences...

 

Spoiler: There's one novel I'm reminded of ...

Stephen King's Carrie, anyone? This is definitely the story of a teenage girl facing terrible prospects from her peers who, when provoked, finds out that she has awesome world-changing powers of destruction.

(Keep in mind that I quite like Carrie the novel. Also keep in mind that Mack's novel is fundamentally different from Carrie in many respects, not only because the inclusion of multiple different protagonists with very different backgrounds, but because the fate of Nimur and the Timol is much more dire. Carrie "merely" faced issues of adolescence and young adulthood, while Nimur faced her death and the Timol species are on the verge of extinction.)

I rather liked the novel. It does feel like an adventure-of-the-week done well in novelistic format. The Klingons have certainly gotten themselves into trouble on this world! (Also, the Shedai were moral monsters, apparently.)

 

Spoiler: Second Nature

And the Tholians weren't the sole victims of the Shedai, apparently.

 

I really liked this. It was a nice change of pace from the heavier political focus of Vanguard and the 24th Century Pact era, and it did indeed feel "pulpy" - in the best possible way. It was a fast-moving adventure that was simply great fun, and there was a real joy for exploration and discovery, which gave it depth as well. The characters were fun, and it was nice to just get in there and tell an adventure story. A real out-on-the-frontier exploratory piece, with a 23rd Century edge that the more stately 24th Century exploration stories, e.g. Titan, don't have. I think this series will fill its own niche in the lineup quite nicely.

As someone who likes having the Trek 'verse fleshed out wherever possible, I was pleased that we got further insight into the Arkenites and the Kaferians, two of the under-utilized allied species. Trek has so many established races that, really, we don't need to keep making new ones without cause, when there are already so many to choose from.

Speaking of the new race (for which there was cause, naturally), the Tomol were a good addition to the setting. Their plight was very engaging; Nimur can hardly be called villainous for not wanting to give up her baby and then kill herself at 17, of course, and the whole matter is just so unfair that she can't help but be a protagonist as well as the villain. Nimur's arguments with Kerlo were also very good, because not only is everything Nimur saying reasonable (despite also often very wrong, sadly), but whether Kerlo's simple resistance to her arguments shows him to be truly noble or just sadly indoctrinated, as Nimur now sees him, is up to us to decide (it's both, really). "Yes, well done, Kerlo, you think everyone should die because it's for the greater good. Have a cookie, you good boy, you". Nimur's frustration is again entirely understandable, even as she can't help but demonstrate through what she's become why Kerlo's right. This is common to Mack's work, though; one of the things I like about his books is his skill at creating situations that are difficult for everyone, that demand moral and practical decisions but don't have any easy answers. Which makes them primarily about character and how people respond to hard situations.

I felt sorry for the Priestess, Ysan.

I also really liked the character of Tormog, whose life is apparently one long theatrical sigh as he's pushed around, ignored and/or despised by everyone. Please don't kill him!

I think this one's hard to grade, because it's a consistently positive experience and a great read, but the very fact that it delivers a fast-paced, engaging adventure so well means that it doesn't have the same impact as some other Trek books. So I'll say, for me it was Above Average, but if you ignore my preferences as a reader and judge it on what it was trying to do, I'd say it was Outstanding. A well-judged start to this new series, whether it's entirely your thing or not.

I look forward to seeing Captain Khatami and her crew getting the same attention as Terrell's people in the next book.

 

Spoiler: Other comparisons

Perhaps inevitably, given my fondness for the series, it makes me think of Babylon 5, near the end of the final season when Lyta Alexander has had enough of everyone and basically decides she's going to do what she wants now, because why not? She has super-powers, so who's going to stop her? The great thing about it is that you're rooting both for her and for her "friends" (if that word still applies) as they act to stop her. It's the same here, really: part of me is rooting for Nimur because her situation is just so unfair.

 

I got my book today I can't wait to start reading it and the further adventures of Captain Khatasi and her crew.

 

I just loved the opening scene aboard the Sagittarius with Razka, Theriault, and Nizsk.

 

I just got my copy. Expecting to start this weekend.

 

Spoiler: One more parallel.

For that matter, there is The Dark Phoenix Saga, as an exploration of a young woman who finds herself in command of cosmic powers she is ultimately unable to control.

The major difference is that unlike any iteration of Jean Grey, Numir never has these powers under control. Arguably, the Dark Phoenix was quite evitable: if Mastermind hadn't set to drive the physical avatar of the feared cosmic force that burned away what didn't work into hallucinatory insanity, the Phoenix Force would probably have been able to impersonate Jean Grey indefinitely. Later developments in Marvel lore underline the point, with Jean Grey herself managing to control the Phoenix with the help of her friends, the Phoenix Five in the Avengers vs. X-Men era only going off the rails after repeated attacks by the Avengers, and--to my mind, critically--a Rachel Grey-Summers who grew to adulthood in a post-apocalyptic future timeline where everyone she loved had been murdered managing the Phoenix, too. It's difficult, but it can be done.

In this story, however, there seems to be no possibility of any of the mature Tomol behaving responsibly. The deep awareness of and control over the universe that mature Tomol appear to enjoy seems to come in every case with pretty terrible sadism.

If the pre-Arethusa Tomol had anything like the power of Nimur and her cohort and a technological civilization of note, they would easily have been a major threat to the Shedai. What the Shedai seem to have done to them is a tragedy, especially if I'm correct in remembering the text state that the Tomol have had to kill themselves at earlier and earlier stages.

(This also leaves me wondering what solution will be possible. I don't think that Federation medical intervention to repair the Shedai-inflicted damage will be likely. The potential to weaponize the Tomol traits, meanwhile, would attract the Klingons even if the Tomol were able to avoid the murderous violence that came with their maturity.)