Some thoughts on Losing the Peace (spoilers for the book obviously)

[William Leisner]

Re: Some thoughts on Losing the Peace (spoilers for the book obviously

I loved ASD, but I think that LtP should have been published when ASD was, and vice versa.

unfortunately, that would have meant I would have had six fewer months to write it. And since I was only given four months from contract to deadline (and no red matter), that might have caused some problems. But I'm glad you enjoyed it, later rather than sooner!

 

[Sci]

Re: Some thoughts on Losing the Peace (spoilers for the book obviously

I loved ASD, but I think that LtP should have been published when ASD was, and vice versa.

unfortunately, that would have meant I would have had six fewer months to write it. And since I was only given four months from contract to deadline (and no red matter), that might have caused some problems.

*nods* I figured that it was a publication schedule thing.

But I still think that, dramatically, it works better to see what dire straits the Federation is in in Losing the Peace before moving on to see the rise of the Typhon Pact in A Singular Destiny.

But I'm glad you enjoyed it, later rather than sooner!

 

[nx1701g]

Re: Some thoughts on Losing the Peace (spoilers for the book obviously

"Then there was one last reference I have to admit kept me smiling: Picard and Kirk's conversation in Generations was revisited."
I thought that was signficant enough to go to the DVD and view that scene with Kirk and Picard.

I did exactly that actually but watched the entire film.

 

[AN_D_K]

Re: Some thoughts on Losing the Peace (spoilers for the book obviously

I'm curious as to why you feel like this. Granted, the TNG-post NEM line has had its growing pains, and yes, this book, on top of everything else, leads into the Typhon Pact. But it sounds like you're saying you're not enjoying these books on their own merits, because of the ongoing narrative elements. Is that a fair interpretation, or am I misunderstanding?

Yeah, that's pretty much it.

As I already mentioned, it ruined Greater than the Sum for me. Half of the book was the stuff I love to read as I'm a fan of Bennett, as many people here are, but half of the book had to spend time dealing with the the book before it. Another crew shake-up, characters apologising all over the place for being out of character, and dealing with the baddy from the last book that seemed out of place outside of PAD's writing.

The books need to have some consistancy running through them and that tends to be done by the crew, the way they interact, etc. Things that are nice to follow but don't confuse if you're approaching the book seperate from those that came before. Otherwise it's just stuff happening to people I care nothing about and the series doesn't have it's own personality. But the recent TNG books just haven't had the stability to do this with the crew being chopped and changed (sometimes literally) and even the characters from the TV series not really clicking into place until Losing the Peace.

This book gives me hope that the revolving door is now shut for a while and all the pieces are in place for some interesting one-off stories.

 

[LaBarre]

Re: Some thoughts on Losing the Peace (spoilers for the book obviously

^I wish it were true that now that "all the pieces are in place" we can look forward to "some interesting one-off stories," but if I understand correctly from my reading of the boards here, we won't see the TNG crew in print again for another 12 months, and then only because of their entry into the Typhon Pact mini-series.

Oh for the good old days of regular TNG novels published throughout each year.

Economies of scale are such a bugger!

 

[Pegaritaville]

Re: Some thoughts on Losing the Peace (spoilers for the book obviously

I really enjoyed Losing the Peace- started the book yesterday and kept reading until the end. Loved both the storylines and how all of the characters were written. I hadn't connected with some of the newer characters before, but here they really started to come to life (so to speak).

I got a kick out of name Osseo Bemidji for the Pacifica's Secretary of Interplanetary Affairs. Kind of fitting to name him after two cities in the "Land of 10,000 Lakes".

 

[William Leisner]

Re: Some thoughts on Losing the Peace (spoilers for the book obviously

I got a kick out of name Osseo Bemidji for the Pacifica's Secretary of Interplanetary Affairs. Kind of fitting to name him after two cities in the "Land of 10,000 Lakes".

*snicker* Ever since I moved to Minnesota and heard the name "Bemidji", I thought it would be great as an alien name or race. In fact, most of the Selkies in the book have Minnesota-inspired names.

Spoiler: those names, if anyone cares

Uthdel Evelth's name is from the cities of Duluth and Eveleth, and Minha is from Minnehaha Falls State Park, where I initially wrote his first scene.

 

[DeeEss57]

Re: Some thoughts on Losing the Peace (spoilers for the book obviously

I got a kick out of name Osseo Bemidji for the Pacifica's Secretary of Interplanetary Affairs. Kind of fitting to name him after two cities in the "Land of 10,000 Lakes".

*snicker* Ever since I moved to Minnesota and heard the name "Bemidji", I thought it would be great as an alien name or race. In fact, most of the Selkies in the book have Minnesota-inspired names.

As a fellow Minnesotan, I want to thank you for bringing a smile to my face when I read those names. It was unexpected, but really cool to see that.

And, by the way, I've named one of my WoW toons after Bemidji, two after my hometown of Duluth, one after Father Hennepin, and one after the great state of Minnesota! We have great alien-sounding names here!



DES

 

[Pegaritaville]

Re: Some thoughts on Losing the Peace (spoilers for the book obviously

I got a kick out of name Osseo Bemidji for the Pacifica's Secretary of Interplanetary Affairs. Kind of fitting to name him after two cities in the "Land of 10,000 Lakes".

*snicker* Ever since I moved to Minnesota and heard the name "Bemidji", I thought it would be great as an alien name or race. In fact, most of the Selkies in the book have Minnesota-inspired names.

Spoiler: those names, if anyone cares

Uthdel Evelth's name is from the cities of Duluth and Eveleth, and Minha is from Minnehaha Falls State Park, where I initially wrote his first scene.

Cool. I wondered about the other names. Didn't catch the anagram, but the others kind of popped out. I decided I was reading too much into it, though, since the spelling was off on one and the other wasn't an actual place name.

 

[ronny]

Re: Some thoughts on Losing the Peace (spoilers for the book obviously

I thought Losing the Peace was a great book. Up until now my feelings about the TNGr were that it was authors I like a lot but the resulting books were not what I thought were their best work but this book breaks that streak. Leisner had written my favorite Myriad Universes book and now he's written my favorite TNGr book.

 

[JD]

Re: Some thoughts on Losing the Peace (spoilers for the book obviously

I got a kick out of name Osseo Bemidji for the Pacifica's Secretary of Interplanetary Affairs. Kind of fitting to name him after two cities in the "Land of 10,000 Lakes".

*snicker* Ever since I moved to Minnesota and heard the name "Bemidji", I thought it would be great as an alien name or race. In fact, most of the Selkies in the book have Minnesota-inspired names.

Spoiler: those names, if anyone cares

Uthdel Evelth's name is from the cities of Duluth and Eveleth, and Minha is from Minnehaha Falls State Park, where I initially wrote his first scene.

Wow, you guys actually have cool names. Most of ours are from other places, like Glendale, and Peoria, or just weird like Dead Skunk Creek, Bloody Bason, Table Mesa, or Tonto Verde. For those of you who don't speak Spanish the last two are translated to English as Table Table, and Stupid Green.

 

[Man of Steel]

Re: Some thoughts on Losing the Peace (spoilers for the book obviously

Does anyone know what planet Worf and Picard are on as seen on the cover?

I think Deneva but I'm not sure.

 

[Taran'atar]

Re: Some thoughts on Losing the Peace (spoilers for the book obviously

Off the big themes for a moment, may I say that I loved what you did redecorating the Captain's Ready Room.

Although I was sad and somewhat perplexed that the Ressikan flute was one of the losses from Mack's destruction.

Considering that the only times we ever saw or read about the flute after Picard's experience on Kataan in The Inner Light placed it in his quarters - Lessons, Starship Mine, and then in the books, last seen when he was on the floor playing away in Destiny, until Beverly busts him - what the hell was he doing with the flute in Ready Room?

I've just re-read the last words of that paragraph and can see where this might go.

Nevertheless, trying to keep it clean, I'm intrigued as to why you decided to do that?

You say you were sad when you read the flute was lost. Well, that's why I did it. To provoke a reaction. To show that he lost a lot.

And flutes are quite portable, and can go many, many places you wouldn't expect them to go...

Hi! First Post from a longtime lurker

Having just re-read the Destiny Trilogy during the last weekend, I noticed a continuity error regarding the flute. When LaForge came to confront Picard about the Thallaron Weapon in his quarters in "Lost Souls" (p354), he sees Picard holding the flute. This occurred after the fire in the ready room, so it could not have been destroyed in it!

But I agree with you, it did provoke the same reaction in me too. The flute has always been one of my favorite pieces of TNG "inter-episode-continuity", so I was quite sad to see it go…

And I want to say, that I really enjoyed reading your book! It was the first of yours I read, and I look forward to more!

 

[LaBarre]

Re: Some thoughts on Losing the Peace (spoilers for the book obviously

^Excellent sleuthing on your part, Taran'atar. So I can now feel more hopeful that that the flute is safe.

Speaking of continuity issues, GTTS has Picard and Crusher honeymooning at the LaBarre estate, but in LTP, we are told that while Marie (Picard's sister-in-law) was the first to send congratulations on their wedding, it is only now that Crusher and Marie meet for the first time. Considering that LaBarre is Marie's home, I wonder why she wouldn't have thought to at least meet and greet the newlyweds at home the first time round.

 

[Paris]

Re: Some thoughts on Losing the Peace (spoilers for the book obviously

^I just finished the book, and I must say, I loved it ! I absolutely loved the Destiny trilogy and the war with the Borg, but I, like so many others, am ready for some non-war stories. Losing the Peace is exactly what I was looking for. I agree that reading it before ASD would have been nice, but LtP fits here quite well. I liked how it mentions the Titan off exploring and the Project Full Circle fleet heading for the DQ.

At the end, I was hoping Picard would finally accept promotion. I don't want to see him off the Enterprise, and if being an Admiral would force him off, then best to leave him a captain and on the ship he loves. Although, with just about every other captain in Starfleet deferring to his judgement, even when they've been sent to arrest him, making him a commodore and having him stay aboard the E-E, would probably make the most sense. I think it would be cool if they even mentioned how the rank had disappeared until they reinstated it specifically for Picard. No one seems to be better at marshaling multiple ships to do what he believes is most neccessary .

I also really enjoyed the further character development of Chen and Choudhury. I love these two, and I hope they stay part of the E-E's senior staff for a very long time. I never really seemed to like Kadohata all that much. My dislike can probably be attributed to her participation in the mutiny in Before Dishonor, and i'm not sad to see her leave the team. I'm really curious to see who the new second officer will be...

Great job, Mr. Leisner . Here's hoping that we get tons more trek-lit from you in the future, especially more TNG-R books .

 

[Christopher]

Re: Some thoughts on Losing the Peace (spoilers for the book obviously

Speaking of continuity issues, GTTS has Picard and Crusher honeymooning at the LaBarre estate, but in LTP, we are told that while Marie (Picard's sister-in-law) was the first to send congratulations on their wedding, it is only now that Crusher and Marie meet for the first time. Considering that LaBarre is Marie's home, I wonder why she wouldn't have thought to at least meet and greet the newlyweds at home the first time round.

Maybe Marie was away from home during their honeymoon and couldn't get back?

 

[Paris]

Re: Some thoughts on Losing the Peace (spoilers for the book obviously

^Maybe she was on a wine tour in another part of the world or another planet all together . Maybe she was pimping Chateau Picard on Mars . Picard and Crusher probably only got a week or two for their honeymoon, and there's no saying Marie didn't leave the Chateau before they got there, in order to give them some privacy. They do talk about how Marie and Beverly had been corresponding for awhile. Maybe they were okay putting off the face-to-face until a later time...

 

[justcorbly]

Re: Some thoughts on Losing the Peace (spoilers for the book obviously

Seven of Nine spoiler...
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
I'll just add that she makes an appearance in the book and is in no better emotional shape than she was last time we saw her. She's a big dangling To Be Resolved.

 

[William Leisner]

Re: Some thoughts on Losing the Peace (spoilers for the book obviously

Having just re-read the Destiny Trilogy during the last weekend, I noticed a continuity error regarding the flute. When LaForge came to confront Picard about the Thallaron Weapon in his quarters in "Lost Souls" (p354), he sees Picard holding the flute. This occurred after the fire in the ready room, so it could not have been destroyed in it!

Umm... uhhhh... Picard replicated another flute to play for relaxation after the fire! Yeah, that's it.

Speaking of continuity issues, GTTS has Picard and Crusher honeymooning at the LaBarre estate, but in LTP, we are told that while Marie (Picard's sister-in-law) was the first to send congratulations on their wedding, it is only now that Crusher and Marie meet for the first time. Considering that LaBarre is Marie's home, I wonder why she wouldn't have thought to at least meet and greet the newlyweds at home the first time round.

She was at a wine tasting. On Sherman's Planet. That's the ticket.

And gee, nobody's yet pointed out the discrepancy between ASD and the LtP epilogue that I put such effort into preparing to handwave away...

 

[justcorbly]

Re: Some thoughts on Losing the Peace (spoilers for the book obviously

The books need to have some consistancy running through them and that tends to be done by the crew, the way they interact, etc. Things that are nice to follow but don't confuse if you're approaching the book seperate from those that came before. Otherwise it's just stuff happening to people I care nothing about .

I gotta disagree. Maybe I misunderstand, but when people say something like "Things that are nice to follow..." I wonder if they are really saying they want characterization cut to a minimum and the narrative to focus on action, action, action. Characterization isn't nice to follow fluff.

Authors need to be faithful to the established characterization of the established characters, but they need to create the new characters out of whole cloth. As readers, it's fair for us to decide which of those new characters work and which don't, but I don't find them distracting in any form.

Whether new or old characters, stuff happens to people, stuff that effects them deeply. Worf is certainly not the Worf of season one TNG. The authors are showing us a Picard who is behaving like a man in his seventies, and they are depicting the Picard-Crusher marriage in a realistic way. Dax is perhaps the most obvious example of an established character who has undergone significant development. Etc., etc.

Something like the Crusher flashbacks in LTP allow me to increase my understanding of that character, and provide a basis for her behavior in the novel.

Rather than bother me, all of that makes Trek compelling for me. The stories are rooted in the choices made by the characters.