Spoilers PIC: The Last Best Hope by Una McCormack Review Thread
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Waiting for the download...
Babylon 5 got it from a message Abraham Lincoln sent to the U.S. Congress, which is directly quoted in one episode of B5.
It may have been used in other places as well, of course.
More specifically, from the closing lines of his annual letter to Congress in December 1862 (the equivalent of the modern State of the Union address -- the Constitution just says the President has to report to Congress on the state of the Union, it doesn't say how). It was a month before he signed the Emancipation Proclamation banning slavery. Lincoln in turn was paraphrasing Thomas Jefferson, who called the United States "the world's best hope" in his first inaugural address.
https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/11/30/last-best-hope/
A version of the phrase appears in the sixth TOS movie, TUC. McCoy talking about being desperate to save Gorkon because he was "The last, best hope for peace in the Galaxy," during the trial scene.
I have read The Last Best Hope; Canadian bookstores did get it early.
I am still responding to it. It is a very good book; it is also a very sad book.
In a lot of ways, this book does remind me of The Crimson Shadow. That book saw Picard witness a civilization that was pulling itself together after catastrophe even as the Federation teetered on the brink of something.
And The Last Best Hope? Things do not go so well.
This is an excellent first novel for the Picard series, one wholly deserving its sale as a hardcover and one that deserves to be read by as wide a readership as possible. It goes into wonderful detail about what happened before 2389, introducing us to old changed characters and to new ones. (Raffi is memorable: Meet her here, first, before you see her on TV.)
I just have to caution people that this is not a happy novel.
I am still responding to it. It is a very good book; it is also a very sad book.
In a lot of ways, this book does remind me of The Crimson Shadow. That book saw Picard witness a civilization that was pulling itself together after catastrophe even as the Federation teetered on the brink of something.
And The Last Best Hope? Things do not go so well.
This is an excellent first novel for the Picard series, one wholly deserving its sale as a hardcover and one that deserves to be read by as wide a readership as possible. It goes into wonderful detail about what happened before 2389, introducing us to old changed characters and to new ones. (Raffi is memorable: Meet her here, first, before you see her on TV.)
I just have to caution people that this is not a happy novel.
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I just checked... it's out in one store near me. It's not either of the large standalone ones either, it's the last remaining mall-based Coles we have.
Really looking forward to this one. I didn't realize it was hitting stores already... I may have to sneak out tomorrow to try to pick it up. (I was out yesterday... if I had known it was in stores, I would have made sure to grab it then!)
Is this true in the U.S.? Because it certainly doesn't seem to be true here: the retail price is C$34.00, whereas the TPs have been C$22.00, and the MMPBs used to be C$10.99. (TBH, the price is the part I'm not looking forward to.)
Technically comic readers will have already met her, she made her first appearance in the Picard: Countdown comic miniseries.
Is Raffi the only new Picard character who appears in the book?
We learn a lot more about her. Suffice it to say that civilizations are not the only things which get broken.
Agnes Jurati does appear at length. Geordi LaForge is, after Picard himself, the major TNG character who makes the most appearances. We see a lot of Kirsten Clancy, the insight we are given into her making her anger with Picard that much more comprehensible.
And, one other old character who appears at length?
Bruce Maddox.
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Yup -- U.S. Amazon is currently selling it for $11.95, and B&N has it for $17.50 at the moment (which will likely go down somewhat the closer we get to release-day).
The one where I spotted it on the racks used to be a Coles and is now an !ndigoSpirit location. 
And despite the official publication date of record being later this month (February 2020), every store in Ottawa in the !ndigo/Chapters/Coles/Prospero chain has stock on the premises and logged into their catalogue terminals as I write this.
Independent retailers will, I expect, be able to get copies fairly quickly upon request.
And despite the official publication date of record being later this month (February 2020), every store in Ottawa in the !ndigo/Chapters/Coles/Prospero chain has stock on the premises and logged into their catalogue terminals as I write this.
Independent retailers will, I expect, be able to get copies fairly quickly upon request.
"Last Best Hope." Sounds like a ST/B5 crossover.
The show already explained that. It was in order to spearhead the Romulan evacuation effort.
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