So I just finished A Time to be Born

[label]

Progress update. 1/4 of the way through Love tonight......muuuuuch better start. Not nearly as much meandering through past events or recappiniess as the first four books. This book opens solidly (albeit with Janeway whom I really don't care for) and gets right into the action.

Looking forward to the rest of Love tomorrow provided I can find the time!

 

[label]

Finally wrapped up A Time To Love..........life is keeping me busier than I'd like right now. A Time to Love was a marked improvement over the first 4 books of the series. The book can be a little choppy in places with the context switching that happens, but I've enjoyed the story, the mystery, change of pace from the last 4..........quite enjoyable and looking forward to Time To Hate. Hoping there's not cop out answer to what's going on down there on the planet with some magic reset button that makes everyone happy and at peace.

 

[JB2005]

Spoiler: What you just said...

Well...not magic...

 

[Dancing Doctor]

Finally wrapped up A Time To Love..........life is keeping me busier than I'd like right now. A Time to Love was a marked improvement over the first 4 books of the series. The book can be a little choppy in places with the context switching that happens, but I've enjoyed the story, the mystery, change of pace from the last 4..........quite enjoyable and looking forward to Time To Hate. Hoping there's not cop out answer to what's going on down there on the planet with some magic reset button that makes everyone happy and at peace.

I hope I don't ruin the expectation for you, but there is absolutely not a perfect solution.

 

[label]

I hope I don't ruin the expectation for you, but there is absolutely not a perfect solution.

That's actually quite encouraging. I'm always afraid in stories like this where things appear to go well beyond the point of no return threshold only to be yanked from that apparent abyss back to a place where virtually nothing happened.

 

[Dancing Doctor]

I hope I don't ruin the expectation for you, but there is absolutely not a perfect solution.

That's actually quite encouraging. I'm always afraid in stories like this where things appear to go well beyond the point of no return threshold only to be yanked from that apparent abyss back to a place where virtually nothing happened.

That's one of the best things about Hate, in my opinion, and in stories like this in general. Where, sometimes (and this may or may not apply to the specific book in question, as YMMV and your interpretation may be different) no matter how hard you try, sometimes you try to roll the hard 6, and end up snake eyes.

 

[seigezunt]

Okay, I'm about halfway through, and it's okay, but some of the writing is very distracting. Like how he refers to the character's species often on the second reference. So it's "the android said," "the human responded."

Picard is also coming off much more aggro than I remember from the show. Chalk it up to the war, I guess.

 

[timothy]

after finishing articles of the federation which I thought was great . I will go head and read the four gensis books and then a time to series. then resistance .

 

[Dancing Doctor]

Okay, I'm about halfway through, and it's okay, but some of the writing is very distracting. Like how he refers to the character's species often on the second reference. So it's "the android said," "the human responded."

Yeah, that can get kinda awkward.

Picard is also coming off much more aggro than I remember from the show. Chalk it up to the war, I guess.

Well, that and all the crap he's had to deal with over the past couple months too, probably.

 

[label]

Brief Update: So, Real Life has been kicking me in the butt and I've not had nearly enough time to enjoy Time To Hate.....I'm about 65% of the way through the book and have really enjoyed it so far. Seems like we've spent a lot of time on the problem down on the planet, but at least it's not another asteroid/space junkyard with an unknown alien presence like the last 4 books.

 

[label]

So I finally finished Time To Hate. All in all, I really liked it. There was perhaps a bit too much time going through the same scenario throughout the two books - mindless, angry crowds out of control and enterprise crew trying to intercede putting them at great risk - but there was also enough other stuff to break up the repetitive nature of those encounters. Will and his father coming to an uneasy understanding was nice and his father sacrificing himself was well done. Especially interesting were the Troi/Riker, and Crusher/Picard stuff. It's beyond time Troi/Riker got married and I genuinely don't have a clue why Picard is not pulling the trigger with Crusher. The only part that was filler was the La Forge supply chain thing.....I understood it broke up the action and provided a B (or C) storyline, but it wasn't a very interesting one.

All in all I'd say this was the best of the series to date. Also, it appears the Federation president is looking to drug populations into being combatants to use in wars against their enemies? Nice. Has a real Section 31 type of vibe to it which I always enjoyed on DS9.

 

[Dancing Doctor]

All in all I'd say this was the best of the series to date. Also, it appears the Federation president is looking to drug populations into being combatants to use in wars against their enemies? Nice. Has a real Section 31 type of vibe to it which I always enjoyed on DS9.

Not the Federation President, but his Chief of Staff, Koll Azernal. Specifically, the plan is to "drug" (really, it's the way the two are supposed to be) the Bader and Dorset populations on Delta Sigma IV.

I think the last line was eerily awesome.

"Because there's always another war."

Anyway, if you thought Love/Hate were good, fasten your seatbelts, because you're about to enter Kill/Heal.

 

[Sakrysta]

^Yeah, I'm looking forward to his reaction to the rest of the series. (Look for me! )

 

[Dancing Doctor]

This is going to be good.

I sense much discussion in the future.

 

[label]

So I finished Time To Kill. Virtually read it in one sitting it was so compelling!

That's how it's done. That book picked right up from the start and never let go. The characters were well written, the dialog stayed interesting, it never lapsed into overly long, introspective monologues or get bogged down in referencing past events as the previous books did. The pacing, action, tension.......all very well done.

I loved the section 31 one stuff and the layers of intrigue. I was amazed at how almost everything Picard had to do to avert the disaster happened and thought for sure a few Klingon ships that could not be overridden or rogue cannons would have upped the ante even more until some last minute heroics from someone saved the day.

I'd give it a 4.8/5 stars......almost perfect. As much as I enjoyed the pacing and action, I think the book would have benefited from just a bit more "world-building" but given how much of that type of dialog we got in the previous books, the reaction to have very little was understandable. Also missing was some of the more intellectual dialog that we're used to getting with most Trek episodes, but seriously, after the previous books this was a welcome change of pace.

Not sure how Mack will beat "Time To Kill" but looking forward to finding out.

 

[Thrawn]

Let me tell you seriously: A Time To Kill is easily David Mack's worst Trek work. You ain't seen nothin' yet.

 

[label]

Let me tell you seriously: A Time To Kill is easily David Mack's worst Trek work. You ain't seen nothin' yet.

You're kidding.....wow. That's very good news. I'm 3 chapters into Time to Heal and so far it's quite good. Very haunting opening with the Tezwan singer lamenting the plight of his country and then jumping to his suicide....very powerful imagery indeed.

 

[JD]

You haven't read Destiny yet, have you? Or Vanguard? Like Thrawn said, ATK is fairly low on the scale of David Mack awsomeness.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I love this book series due to the creation of one of my favorite Trek Lit characters...Christine Vale.

 

[label]

You haven't read Destiny yet, have you? Or Vanguard? Like Thrawn said, ATK is fairly low on the scale of David Mack awsomeness.

No. I'm a relative newbie to Trek Lit. Before I started "A Time To" I had read exactly 3 Trek books before now. (Prime Directive, Q-Squared and Best Destiny). I have seen all of TNG (many times over), DS9 (many times) all the movies, the first 3 seasons of Voyager and about 1/2 a seasons of Enterprise so I'm more or less up to speed on cannon stuff, but never found the time to get into Trek books before now. I gotta say, I'm really enjoying them so far.

However, I'm starting to think I missed out by not reading some of the previous books first though. "To Heal" has references to a war on Betazed that I know nothing about - including a "hero" who is confronting President Zife about his aid being sent to Tezwa. There's references to a Genesis Wave storyline in several of the books that I know nothing about other than I've researched it and found the trilogy put out some time ago.

In any case, I'm pysched about getting caught up and getting to more of Mack's books as well as the Titan series and really looking forward to the DS9 relaunch as that was my favorite series.