Struggling to read "The Romulan War"

[Sci]

As a reader - my personal preference is for stories that don't touch on things I can read about in the Huffington Post/New York Times/The Daily Beast.

When I read about an idealized future, I enjoy seeing the unity of races and species working together against common threats not policing themselves, or looking to root out corruption... When corruption of that type is fictionalized, it is like a easily removed cancer. The reader or viewer can be reassured that everything is all right, and will be all right in the idealized future.

But don't stories like that just re-enforce the problem? If you retreat into the fantasy that there can be a society in which you don't have to be on guard for that kind of corruption, isn't that just another way of avoiding accepting the fact that the problem always recurs, no matter what, and must always be fought against?

I think the most Star Trek-ianly inspirational episodes are the ones that acknowledge that these problems will always recur but insist that they can be fought.

 

[Zane Gray]

Here's something I hate about The Romulan War - the damn small print! I picked up a copy of the mass market paperback and the small print size combined with faint ink drove me crazy. I really prefer the trade paperback size for these longer books. I wish To Brave the Storm had a trade size option. Has anyone complained to Pocket about this?

 

[Christopher]

^We don't know yet what the print size will be for To Brave the Storm. If it's been written with MMPB in mind, there's no reason to expect the print would be as small as that of an MMPB reprint of a TPB.

 

[Reanok]

Here's something I hate about The Romulan War - the damn small print! I picked up a copy of the mass market paperback and the small print size combined with faint ink drove me crazy. I really prefer the trade paperback size for these longer books. I wish To Brave the Storm had a trade size option. Has anyone complained to Pocket about this?

Zane I agree the print is often way too small to read and the ink comes off all over your hands way too often or smears the words on the next page and makes it difficult to read some the of the sentences blur together and you can't make it out what it says.I wish the next book was a trade paperback. i really wish Pocket books would use larger print for their newer books it would be nice to read books without the text being way too small makes it difficult to read for along period of time.and please use different printing ink for your books that doesn't come off on your hands and smear on the other pages too please.

 

[Cap'n Crunch]

<snip> the ink comes off all over your hands way too often or smears the words on the next page and makes it difficult to read <snip>

That's odd, I've never had that problem.

 

[DimesDan]

<snip> the ink comes off all over your hands way too often or smears the words on the next page and makes it difficult to read <snip>

That's odd, I've never had that problem.

It occasionally occurs with the daily newspaper I buy, but not often.

As for books, neither of what Reanok mentioned has ever occurred when I've been reading.

Regarding the original subject of this thread, given my past experience with books written by Martin (and Mangels when they've been writing together) coupled with my disinterest with the time period, I have no intention of reading any of the post finale Enterprise novels.

 

[Relayer1]

About 120 pages in and enjoying it. Not bored and having no problems so far...

 

[Relayer1]

Not had too much reading time recently but just got to page 296 - nice touch re the retro design of the next class of ships. Could only be uglier if they paint the consoles bright orange...

 

[Jedi_Master]

I still have not finished it. Sitting on the bottom of a rather high stack of books.

 

[MatthiasRussell]

^ Yes. Forget the non fiction and read those NF novels!

 

[Reanok]

I like the Enterprise books.The Titan novels are a good series to read.

 

[Relayer1]

About 2/3 of the way through now, but still enjoying it.

It's not the shallow action packed thrill fest it may have been - it's a lot more considered than that. The background, changing perspectives and digressions are keeping it interesting !

I have a couple of issues however (spoilers) -

How come during the 5(?) years since Enterprise was launched they have only produced a handful of other NX's ?

If warp 5 drive and weapons can be retrofitted into other ship classes, what's the point of the NX's anyway ?

Why (if they can take NX class drive and weapons) do Daedalus class ships take 1/3 of the time to build that NX's do ?

Would it really be down to a helmsman (Mayweather) to point out that as it had already been established that Earth ships were more resistant to Romulan telecapture than Andorian (plus Tellarite and Vulcan) ships, Earth ships should take point ? Mayweathers Captain and Shran should be Court Martialed !

 

[Relayer1]

About 2/3 of the way through now, but still enjoying it.

It's not the shallow action packed thrill fest it may have been - it's a lot more considered than that. The background, changing perspectives and digressions are keeping it interesting !

I have a couple of issues however (spoilers) -

How come during the 5(?) years since Enterprise was launched they have only produced a handful of other NX's ?

If warp 5 drive and weapons can be retrofitted into other ship classes, what's the point of the NX's anyway ?

Why (if they can take NX class drive and weapons) do Daedalus class ships take 1/3 of the time to build that NX's do ?

Would it really be down to a helmsman (Mayweather) to point out that as it had already been established that Earth ships were more resistant to Romulan telecapture than Andorian (plus Tellarite and Vulcan) ships, Earth ships should take point ? Mayweathers Captain and Shran should be Court Martialed !

Well, finished it ! Enjoyed it too - I liked the broad sweep of it rather than it being a tight focus on Archer / The Enterprise.

Anyone got any answers to the above points ?

 

[Christopher]

How come during the 5(?) years since Enterprise was launched they have only produced a handful of other NX's ?

The "X" stands for "experimental." These aren't ships they can just churn out on an assembly line; they're too new, and far more complex than anything else Earth Starfleet at the time was equipped to build. According to "The Expanse," it took about 2 years to build NX-02 Columbia. The process would presumably get faster with subsequent ships, but still, it would've understandably taken a while.

If warp 5 drive and weapons can be retrofitted into other ship classes, what's the point of the NX's anyway ?

I don't see how the "weapons" part applies, since the NX class was not designed with heavy weapons in mind and had to be retrofitted with them later on. As for the drive, the NX class was a testbed for the new experimental Warp 5 engine, and once it proved viable there, Starfleet presumably figured out how to retrofit other ships with it, or at least figured out how to modify other ships' drive systems to achieve warp 5.

Why (if they can take NX class drive and weapons) do Daedalus class ships take 1/3 of the time to build that NX's do ?

Because they're simpler ships to build and there's more of an established infrastructure for building them. Come on, it's not like the ships are just drives, weapons, and nothing else.

 

[Relayer1]

How come during the 5(?) years since Enterprise was launched they have only produced a handful of other NX's ?

The "X" stands for "experimental." These aren't ships they can just churn out on an assembly line; they're too new, and far more complex than anything else Earth Starfleet at the time was equipped to build. According to "The Expanse," it took about 2 years to build NX-02 Columbia. The process would presumably get faster with subsequent ships, but still, it would've understandably taken a while.

If warp 5 drive and weapons can be retrofitted into other ship classes, what's the point of the NX's anyway ?

I don't see how the "weapons" part applies, since the NX class was not designed with heavy weapons in mind and had to be retrofitted with them later on. As for the drive, the NX class was a testbed for the new experimental Warp 5 engine, and once it proved viable there, Starfleet presumably figured out how to retrofit other ships with it, or at least figured out how to modify other ships' drive systems to achieve warp 5.

Why (if they can take NX class drive and weapons) do Daedalus class ships take 1/3 of the time to build that NX's do ?

Because they're simpler ships to build and there's more of an established infrastructure for building them. Come on, it's not like the ships are just drives, weapons, and nothing else.

I can see points 1 and 2, but I had always thought of the ships as being tp some extent modular, so life support, sensors, weapons etc. could be relatively easily upgraded. I am probably alone in this...

I'm starting to rely on you Christopher !

 

[DonIago]

I would agree with the modularity point to some degree if, as noted, the E-X hadn't been an experiment to begin with. In TNG we see a lot of Excelsior-class ships hopping around, but in TSFS there's the one and only and its crowning glory ultimately doesn't even work out.

Let's also keep in mind that presumably much of the tech available to make ships relatively quickly by the time of TNG didn't even exist around the time of ENT. Daedalus class ships are presumably less of an issue because, as noted, they're simpler and smaller.

 

[Timo]

The "X" stands for "experimental."

Might as well stand for eXperimental... Which is a mission class Starfleet doesn't appear to have in quantity.

Most of the ships in the book are explicated as Daedalus class vessels, butthe prologue also makes mention of the Intrepid class, apparently referring to the design represented by starship Intrepid in "The Expanse" (and "Twilight"). The reference is not grammatically or contextually formulated to be of a single-ship class... And then there are the lifting body combatants from the same episode(s).

So, the few otherwise unidentified ships in the book ought to be free game. The Cooper, Maryland, Montgomery and Tripoli might just as well represent competent combat types built long before the war!

Timo Saloniemi