I just finished the 34th Rule audiobook (took smoe finding, too- was not available on iTunes for some reason?). I thought it was... good, but there were some sections that stretched credulity for me a bit. The worst, for me, was the early scene between Sisko and Quark where Sisko essentially brushes off the incredible racism of the new Bajoran law outlawing Ferengi from the system- Sisko even says: "I'm not your friend, Quark." Can we really believe that Sisko would say these things after the conversation they had had at the end of S2? (I got the impression this story took place in S4 as Worf was present but the Dominion had not yet allied with Cardassia). It just came off as incredibly harsh. I get that they aren't friends, but for some reason I couldn't 'believe' that conversation, which really damaged the rest of the book for me. However, discounting that one scene, I thought the rest was pretty believable and quite good- would have made a good episode.
^What did you think of the follow-up scene on the holodeck where Sisko, with Jake's helps, confronts the possibility of his prejudice towards Ferengi? Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
I've never actually heard the audiobook of The 34th Rule, but when Armin received the script for it, it upset him. He called me and told me that the heart of the novel had been removed, and even suggested that he shouldn't do the reading. I told him that while I appreciated him wanting to safeguard my work, I had no problem at all with him reading the abridged version of The 34th Rule for the audiobook. For me, the audiobook really isn't the novel, merely an approximation of the novel. Perhaps if you read the book in its entirety, the scene that bothered you would prove less troublesome.
David, your avatar: was that going to be the cover to the unreleased Crucible omnibus? And there's plenty of it as applies to Star Trek, too. Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman
Yes, it was. (An uncropped black-and-white version can be seen inside the cover of Troublesome Minds.)
Yeah, that was to have been the cover of the Crucible hardcover. I didn't actually intend to have it end up as my avatar, and there must be some glitch in the board software to have allowed me to load it, as its size sits well beyond the limits for such objects. I wanted to post the cover where it had been mentioned in another thread, but I have no online link to it. In attempting to find some other way of posting it, I accidentally ended up with it as my avatar. I guess I'd better replace it with a pic of an appropriate size.
This one? http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/Crucible http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/File:Crucible_omnibus.jpg
no. at first I thought it was a version of the movie poster, and then I realise the word "crucible" at the bottom right corner. It was really pretty, love the colour scheme, very different from the individual books.
Thank you for this answer, I will do just that. I would also be fascinated to hear more about the process you and AS went through to collaborate on this project- how did it come about? What was the collaboration like? Were you happy with the final project? I'm sorry to hear that the audiobook was ill-served as I am a big fan of them (I listen to them while running). If you have already answered these questions in another place please redirect, but it'd be wonderful to hear more about how this book came together, as I consider it one of the more significant DS9 novels.
The one time I met Armin, I went on and on about how well he nailed Rom's voice on the 34th Rule audio, but he said he just had a cold when he recorded it. Since the idea for the book had originated as an episode pitch, I figured maybe the abridged audio would be a "truer version" of what the DS9 episode might have been, but he said that wasn't the case and he had no input into the audio script
I finished the audiobook last night. Shimmerman performed Zek's and Rom's voices so well that I wondered if Wallace Shawn and Max Grodenchik made cameos.