His books are the hardest(maybe slowest?) to read, because I have to stop and think about the technical details and cross references.
The Buried Age: My thoughts
- Thread starter JD
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^^Well, I take that as a compliment. Not much point in fiction that doesn't challenge you and make you think.
It was intended to be a complement, not a critcism.
I just finished reading this book about an hour ago. I really enjoyed it. Possible spoilers in the next paragraph...
The only thing I found a little odd about it was the Stargazer part at the beginning. In the episode "The Battle" Picard almost made little of the Battle of Maxia, and even laughed a little when he heard it put so dramatically. If I recall correctly, he said something to the effect of "Yeah there was a trial and I was cleared of wrongdoing" and he said it just as a matter of fact. The way it was drug out in the book and the whole shame and guilt he felt after losing the ship, it just doesn't seem like he would have acted that way in the episode. Does that make any sense?
Anyway, I literally laughed out loud about the whole speckle thing left on his body because it reminded me of something from my youth.
I was planning on doing on of my famous Youtube reviews of this book tomorrow. Good work.
ETA...now that I'm here...what was the help from Tristan on this board that you got that was mentioned in the Acknowledgments?
The only thing I found a little odd about it was the Stargazer part at the beginning. In the episode "The Battle" Picard almost made little of the Battle of Maxia, and even laughed a little when he heard it put so dramatically. If I recall correctly, he said something to the effect of "Yeah there was a trial and I was cleared of wrongdoing" and he said it just as a matter of fact. The way it was drug out in the book and the whole shame and guilt he felt after losing the ship, it just doesn't seem like he would have acted that way in the episode. Does that make any sense?
Anyway, I literally laughed out loud about the whole speckle thing left on his body because it reminded me of something from my youth.
I was planning on doing on of my famous Youtube reviews of this book tomorrow. Good work.
ETA...now that I'm here...what was the help from Tristan on this board that you got that was mentioned in the Acknowledgments?
Well, he didn't recognize what Bok meant by "Battle of Maxia" because the system was actually named Maxia Zeta. Maxia would've been the constellation it was in, so just saying "Battle of Maxia" wasn't specific enough. It's like saying "the Battle of Europe."
I don't think he laughed, though; he resisted Bok's characterization of it as a glorious victory because he saw no glory or victory in having had to abandon his ship or to completely destroy an enemy rather than finding a diplomatic way out. He avoided thinking about it because it was a memory that brought him shame and sorrow.
In "The Battle," there was no mention whatsoever of a trial or hearing. The court-martial was introduced in "The Measure of a Man," and that episode made it clear that there was a lot of bad blood between Picard and Philippa as a result of what had happened in that trial. My depiction of the court-martial was based on a deleted passage from the script for that episode. It's discussed in my annotations:
http://home.fuse.net/ChristopherLBennett/BuriedAgeAnnot.html
I needed to know whether the Dr. Langford mentioned in "Rascals" was male or female (the script and Memory Alpha disagreed), so I asked on the board if someone with the DVDs could check that out for me. Tristan was the one who promptly came up with the answer.
Very well, then. And thanks for that link it's very informative.
Finished The Buried Age last night and I have to say it's fantastic. Does for Picard what Margaret Wander Bonanno did for Pike.
I only have one question. Since there are references to Enterprise, Deep Space Nine and Voyager, shouldn't the title page have:
"Based on Star Trek(R) and Star Trek: The Next Generation created by Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine created by Rick Berman and Michael Piller, Star Trek: Voyager created by Rick Berman, Michael Piller & Jeri Taylor, and Star Trek: Enterprise created by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga"?
I only have one question. Since there are references to Enterprise, Deep Space Nine and Voyager, shouldn't the title page have:
"Based on Star Trek(R) and Star Trek: The Next Generation created by Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine created by Rick Berman and Michael Piller, Star Trek: Voyager created by Rick Berman, Michael Piller & Jeri Taylor, and Star Trek: Enterprise created by Rick Berman and Brannon Braga"?
Thank you! High praise indeed.
As for the title-page question, that's outside my purview. I would guess that the "based on" credit depends on the main plot and characters of a story, not every passing reference to another series. I mean, when Bashir guest-starred on TNG, they didn't amend the opening titles to include the creator credits for DS9.
Besides, DS9, VGR, and ENT have all included the "Based upon Star Trek Created by Gene Roddenberry" credit in their titles, so maybe they're all covered under that credit, in a way.
Hey all. First time post. Read The Buried Age over the weekend. Having enjoyed Orion's Hounds, I was eager to get to the Buried Age.
I really enjoyed it. I love finding out where the characters I've known all my life have come from. My mind went sort of fuzzy during the long science-y parts, but that's a risk I take reading Star Trek. The novel dragged a bit, I believe, when focusing on the Ariel character. She's interesting, I suppose, but not a lot different from other "mysterious beautiful female alien" characters we've seen. But the book overall was very entertaining, and Picard's characterization seemed so dead on.
Couple points: Has it ever been established why there was no Enterprise for twenty years? I kept expecting some throwaway line, but never saw it. Also, and this is nitpicky, but I believe in the first part, Picard mentions Valderrama as the Stargazer's science officer in the 2340s or '50s, when if I do recall, she left the Stargazer during Picard's first year after claiming another crewperson's idea as her own and was replaced by Mr. Death Wish (the Kandilkari).
Anyway, just thought I'd share.
-Wes.
I really enjoyed it. I love finding out where the characters I've known all my life have come from. My mind went sort of fuzzy during the long science-y parts, but that's a risk I take reading Star Trek. The novel dragged a bit, I believe, when focusing on the Ariel character. She's interesting, I suppose, but not a lot different from other "mysterious beautiful female alien" characters we've seen. But the book overall was very entertaining, and Picard's characterization seemed so dead on.
Couple points: Has it ever been established why there was no Enterprise for twenty years? I kept expecting some throwaway line, but never saw it. Also, and this is nitpicky, but I believe in the first part, Picard mentions Valderrama as the Stargazer's science officer in the 2340s or '50s, when if I do recall, she left the Stargazer during Picard's first year after claiming another crewperson's idea as her own and was replaced by Mr. Death Wish (the Kandilkari).
Anyway, just thought I'd share.
-Wes.
Perhaps some kind of period of mourning or as long as tact would allow. Until we learn the 1701-B's fate, the loss of the 1701-C would be the first Enterprise lost with all hands.
One thing that always stood out to me when I was younger reading the old TNG Manual: the book theorized that the frame for the Enterprise-D was laid about the same time as the C's loss and that it took that long just to build it. I suppose they could have always intended for that ship to become the Enterprise, no matter what happened to its predecessor.
Welcome!
Glad to hear it mostly worked for you.
I don't see why it needs to be explained. Ship names come and go. Sure, Enterprise is a name with a lot of history and tradition behind it, but that doesn't mean it's somehow obligatory to have a ship of that name in service at all times. And although the name Enterprise looms large in the perceptions of Trek fans, I don't see any one ship being so overwhelmingly special from the perspective of people actually living in the Trek universe, working in a Starfleet where there are hundreds of other ships that no doubt have had similarly illustrious careers.
Err, it was her cousin, Al Valderrama?
I finished the book last night, and I absolutely loved it. Christopher is fast becoming my favorite Trek author. The Buried Age equals Orion's Hounds both in terms of great stories for my favorite Trek characters, and in terms of fascinating concepts, be they real science or science fiction.
I enjoyed the charater reasons behind Picard's aloofness during the early TNG years and Data's naievity about basic figures of speech. Speaking of Data, the sections written from his point of view were really well done, especially the list of everything he was thinking about during a brief pause in his conversation with Ariel. I think the various cameos worked just fine, even Janeway's
. Janeway in book form comes across much better than the motivation-of-the-week Janeway from the series, but that's more an overall Voyager problem than anything to do with the novel.
One explanation about Janeway's VOY behavior which came across as a bit heavy handed, though, was her instant declaration after the botched opening of the Proserpina bubble that she would place an alien species' needs ahead of her own needs should a similar situation ever come up again. I didn't quite believe that the young Janeway would make such a broad declaration that quickly, and it sort of came across as a connection to the series for the connection's sake, rather than an organic part of the story being told.
The idea behind the platycauds and their way of life being based on the stasis bubble was great, and reminded me of all the cool lifeforms from Orion's Hounds. The "blackholes as permanent information storage zones" concept came across very well. And I can't get enough of the real physics and astronomy detail that goes into your work, Christopher. I love every little bit of scientific description, and this book had me especially hooked on the Uncertainty Principle aspects of the stasis bubbles.
Overall thanks for a great read, and I'm definitely looking forward to Greater than the Sum. Now that I think of it, I believe I have Ex Machina somewhere, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I'd say it's just been bumped to the top of my list!
P.S. The best line in the book was definitely the bit about Picard not minding a few more "cyborg implants."
And one side question: How do you pronounce "Giriaenn?" I was thinking of it as a soft "zh" g sound a la the French "je," but I'd like to know how you pronounced it while writing it.
I enjoyed the charater reasons behind Picard's aloofness during the early TNG years and Data's naievity about basic figures of speech. Speaking of Data, the sections written from his point of view were really well done, especially the list of everything he was thinking about during a brief pause in his conversation with Ariel. I think the various cameos worked just fine, even Janeway's
. Janeway in book form comes across much better than the motivation-of-the-week Janeway from the series, but that's more an overall Voyager problem than anything to do with the novel.One explanation about Janeway's VOY behavior which came across as a bit heavy handed, though, was her instant declaration after the botched opening of the Proserpina bubble that she would place an alien species' needs ahead of her own needs should a similar situation ever come up again. I didn't quite believe that the young Janeway would make such a broad declaration that quickly, and it sort of came across as a connection to the series for the connection's sake, rather than an organic part of the story being told.
The idea behind the platycauds and their way of life being based on the stasis bubble was great, and reminded me of all the cool lifeforms from Orion's Hounds. The "blackholes as permanent information storage zones" concept came across very well. And I can't get enough of the real physics and astronomy detail that goes into your work, Christopher. I love every little bit of scientific description, and this book had me especially hooked on the Uncertainty Principle aspects of the stasis bubbles.
Overall thanks for a great read, and I'm definitely looking forward to Greater than the Sum. Now that I think of it, I believe I have Ex Machina somewhere, but haven't gotten around to it yet. I'd say it's just been bumped to the top of my list!
P.S. The best line in the book was definitely the bit about Picard not minding a few more "cyborg implants."
And one side question: How do you pronounce "Giriaenn?" I was thinking of it as a soft "zh" g sound a la the French "je," but I'd like to know how you pronounced it while writing it.
Wow, thanks! Great to hear.
Yeah, that felt a little contrived to me too, admittedly.
Glad you liked them. Sometimes I think that non-sentient alien life gets too short a shrift in science fiction.
That's refreshing to hear, since that's the aspect that's gotten the most criticism from others.
P.S. The best line in the book was definitely the bit about Picard not minding a few more "cyborg implants."
Plenty of irony in my diet...
I tend to hear it with a hard G, sort of "gear-ee-ain," but your version sounds nice too. I deliberately left it up to the reader, in part because I wasn't entirely sure which one I preferred.
Just finished the book this morning: yet another great job by Christopher! Congrats! I love the way it sets up so much of TNG and even Voyager's Janeway without hitting you over the head. Great characterizations, especially in showing us how Picard came to be the Picard of "Farpoint."
^^Thanks!
One more thing I forgot to mention...my interest in TNG has been renewed in a big way after this book. I actually watched "The Measure of a Man" just yesterday, and it sure worked great (better than usual, being one of TNG's finest by itself) with the first part of The Buried Age fresh in my mind! Too bad we never saw Louvois again, episodic TNG never showed us their dinner together.
^^Good to hear!
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I have been meaning to post my thoughts on the book but never seem to get around to it! I am not much for writing full reviews.
I finished last week and I truly loved it! I have not read many Trek novels so maybe this does not mean much but - This has been by far my favorite one.
Picard has always been my favorite Star Trek character. I have long been hoping someone would explore this period of his life. But it was much more than merely "filling in the gaps". I was throughly engrossed with the story of Ariel and her people as well.
So thank you Christhoper! I very much enjoyed
Ex Machina as well.
One question - "Because U will always be behind me"
I seriously laughed out load at that! How long have you had that explaination for Q's name? Its just PERFECT.
I finished last week and I truly loved it! I have not read many Trek novels so maybe this does not mean much but - This has been by far my favorite one.
Picard has always been my favorite Star Trek character. I have long been hoping someone would explore this period of his life. But it was much more than merely "filling in the gaps". I was throughly engrossed with the story of Ariel and her people as well.
So thank you Christhoper! I very much enjoyed
Ex Machina as well.
One question - "Because U will always be behind me"
I seriously laughed out load at that! How long have you had that explaination for Q's name? Its just PERFECT.
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