The Destiny Trilogy (spoliers, obviously)

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I have just finished it, couldn't put it down and for once actually had all three in a row to read. Just some random thoughts here:

1. The portrayal of the Columbia's crews fate in Axiom, the looooong days and deadness of never going home was SO well done. I had tears in my eyes at each death out of the 4 left in the end. I really felt the time, the pain of adjustments, the evolution of their captivity.. really wonderful stuff. New ground for Trek lit IMHO.

2. Normally the end of the Galaxy scenarios are anathema to me. The bigger the drama the more I'm bored. But this worked and it left us with a changed federation that I assume will be part of ensuing novels. At varying stages in the trilogy I feared a reset was in the offing.. thank you this never happened!

3. The origin of the Borg was FANTASTIC. It explained that nagging annoyance of the Borg being so obsessed with humans, earth, Picard. Here I was thinking it was just lame human-centric writing which was the cause of that! I love the duality of the Borg/Caeliar.

4. I want to know, very badly, what happens to the Borg next. Will they be offered freedom as individuals should they choose to leave the gestalt? I also will miss the old Borg a bit.

5. Only negative comment: the pregnancy stories bored me to death. Not a fan of either character though, maybe if it was Seven of Nine's pregnancy I would have cared. However I didn't like all that angst and conflict over the pregnancies between the spouses, too emo for me.

Thank you David Mack for many hours of very happy reading!

 

[shanejayell]

If you liked this, pick up KRAD's A Singular Destiny. There's some very interesting follow up there.

I still wanna know what's up with Seven aka Annika. I assume I have to wait for the Voyager books?

 

[Julio Angel Ortiz]

Great trilogy. I totally disagree with #5, though. I felt Troi's pregnancy drama in Gods of Night made for some of the most heart-wrenching moments in the trilogy. I have two children, though, so maybe I have a different perspective.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

I have children too. I did care about Troi a bit as it progressed but I've never been a fan of TNG characters overall. Picard's whining about his fears over becoming a father was just blechy IMO. Grow up dude!

Hey I hope their offspring are really interesting people and we end up with future set novels about them giving us a glimpse of the Federation in 40 years time. Star Wars did it.

And yes I will be buying A Singular Destiny as soon as it hits Australian shelves. IOW, when the boat gets here. KRAD is my swoonworthy author, I cannot wait!

 

[David Mack]

Thanks for your comments; I'm glad you enjoyed the trilogy for the most part, even if a few of the individual story arcs didn't work for you. As other posters have noted, definitely pick up Keith's book A Singular Destiny to see how the political situation develops after the crisis ends, and then be on the lookout for Kirsten Beyer's epic Voyager novel, Full Circle, coming in April.

 

[Snaploud]

I agree with many of the above comments. The over-all story arc was great, and I loved the new characters. Unfortunately, most of the TNG/Titan characters felt off somehow (especially with the pregnancy storyline). Over-all, I give the trilogy a 3.5/4 (meaning better than most trek but still not a contender for my favorites list).

 

[LutherSloan]

One incident of the Borg post-Destiny is explained in A Singular Destiny.

 

[RonG]

I have just finished it, couldn't put it down and for once actually had all three in a row to read. Just some random thoughts here:

1. The portrayal of the Columbia's crews fate in Axiom, the looooong days and deadness of never going home was SO well done. I had tears in my eyes at each death out of the 4 left in the end. I really felt the time, the pain of adjustments, the evolution of their captivity.. really wonderful stuff. New ground for Trek lit IMHO.

Indeed. I expected the Columbia part to be the least interesting to me, but it had perhaps the greatest emotional "punch". Kudos to Mack

2. Normally the end of the Galaxy scenarios are anathema to me. The bigger the drama the more I'm bored. But this worked and it left us with a changed federation that I assume will be part of ensuing novels. At varying stages in the trilogy I feared a reset was in the offing.. thank you this never happened!

gonna have to agree yet again! Galactic-level threats are either not that exciting (you know it's gonna be okay), or worse (IMO) - reduced to dealing with natural phenomena and/or beings that inadvertedly cause harm... here, Mack had a credible threat - years in the making - with actual malevolence and best of all, managed to solve it all in a true Trek way!

5. Only negative comment: the pregnancy stories bored me to death. Not a fan of either character though, maybe if it was Seven of Nine's pregnancy I would have cared. However I didn't like all that angst and conflict over the pregnancies between the spouses, too emo for me.

Here, I disagree - as I thought the pregnancy(ies) were used literally (to humanize our heroes and the drama) and symbolically, both to great effect!

 

[Admiral_Young]

I enjoyed the trilogy...having been a fan of the character Erica Hernandez from her few appearances in Enterprise Destiny gave me a greater respect and admiration for her character and the trials and tribulations that the Columbia crew went through. The only small thing that bothered me was there wasn't any scene where I thought she might've researched what happened to Jonathon Archer...it would have been irrelevant to the story at hand which is why it probably wasn't even thought of but I thought it would have been nice anyways. I want to see a picture of her in the Post FC uniforms now...

 

[David Mack]

The only small thing that bothered me was there wasn't any scene where I thought she might've researched what happened to Jonathon Archer...it would have been irrelevant to the story at hand which is why it probably wasn't even thought of but I thought it would have been nice anyways.

Actually, there was such a scene.

Spoiler: Destiny, Book II: Mere Mortals

In book two, Mere Mortals, page 362, Hernandez uses Caeliar technology to hack into databases on Earth and reads up on Archer's post-war bio. She was about to make contact with him when the Caeliar disrupted her link to Earth.

 

[Infern0]

I agree about the pregnancy stuff I was like BOOOOOORING. The rest was awesome though

 

[Ktrek]

Is the dislike of the pregnancy subplots a male dislike or what? I can't say I altogether disliked the pregnancies but I do think it was a little over-the-top (read contrived) for Picard/Crusher and Riker/Troi to be going through it at the same time. I would probably have preferred just a Riker/Troi story in this regard. The incident with Dr. Ree was a hoot and one of my favorite parts in the trilogy. I know that David was working with some cards that he was dealt so I can live with what is.

Kevin

 

[BillJ]

Is the dislike of the pregnancy subplots a male dislike or what? I can't say I altogether disliked the pregnancies but I do think it was a little over-the-top (read contrived) for Picard/Crusher and Riker/Troi to be going through it at the same time. I would probably have preferred just a Riker/Troi story in this regard. The incident with Dr. Ree was a hoot and one of my favorite parts in the trilogy. I know that David was working with some cards that he was dealt so I can live with what is.

Kevin

I thought the dual pregnancies was kind of over the top. But the Caeliar stuff was all good.

 

[captcalhoun]

i'm a bloke and i didn't have any problem with the pregnancy stuff

 

[Hardin]

oh, good, a single thread to proclaim my undying love for Destiny, which I've just finished as well. I don't think there was a single thing I didn't love about it. All I kept thinking was "I wish this was the next movie" though it would take at least a full tv season to do the storylines justice.

The best part for me by far is the new galaxy that emerges at the end of all the mayhem. I think this is as close to the "Fall of the Federation" scenario as it could reasonably ever go. It made the Dominion War look like a skirmish and its aftermath everyday's trouble. As Picard says: Everything's changed. And 24th century Trek is all new again. On top of everything else, I think this huge shake-up was a very smart thing to do by Pocket Books.

 

[David Mack]

^ Thank you, Hardin. I'm glad you enjoyed the trilogy, and that you like the overall direction of the new Star Trek fiction.

 

[captcalhoun]

i agree with Hardin 110%

 

[Admiral_Young]

Okay I haven't read the second book yet because for some weird reason my library ordered the first and third books and not the second. I thought that basically would give me the gist of the story and I would wait patiently for the second to come out...now I need to read that book.

The pregnancies I didn't really have a problem with...both an outgrowth of Riker and Picard dealing with their new families. I was kind of hoping for a nice ceremony for Beverly and Jean-Luc's wedding and I understand that probably wasn't possible due to the growing Borg hostilities prior to Destiny. I didn't really find them drawn out.

Another thing that I got a big kick out of was seeing Ezri in command of her own ship and interacting with Picard and Riker.

I do have a question for you David and this might have been brought before many times but since I don't go through every single thread on this fourm you'll have to excuse my possible ignorance, perhaps KRAD or one of the other editor/authors can comment on this as well, why was the Voyager crew excluded from Destiny? The only two that had significant impact were Seven and Tuvok. There was a mention of Voyager being damaged in the third book and Chakotay injured...is this because of developments that will be touched upon in Full Circle?

 

[DimesDan]

perhaps KRAD or one of the other editor/authors can comment on this as well, why was the Voyager crew excluded from Destiny? The only two that had significant impact were Seven and Tuvok. There was a mention of Voyager being damaged in the third book and Chakotay injured...is this because of developments that will be touched upon in Full Circle?

You've got it in one; the reason why Voyager didn't play a more prominent role in Destiny was because Full Circle encompasses her crew's adventures after the Spirit Walk Duology until sometime after Destiny. As for Voyager not being mentioned, I'm sure there were a few mentions of her, mainly that the crew were salvaging parts from the destroyed ships in the Azure Nebula an that Chakotay was in a coma. But other than that, not much was mentioned.

By the way, I'm not a writer, but as no one had answered this question and it's been said before a few times, I thought I'd answer it anyway.

 

[Sci]

Is the dislike of the pregnancy subplots a male dislike or what? I can't say I altogether disliked the pregnancies but I do think it was a little over-the-top (read contrived) for Picard/Crusher and Riker/Troi to be going through it at the same time. I would probably have preferred just a Riker/Troi story in this regard. The incident with Dr. Ree was a hoot and one of my favorite parts in the trilogy. I know that David was working with some cards that he was dealt so I can live with what is.

Kevin

I thought the dual pregnancies was kind of over the top. But the Caeliar stuff was all good.

I'm not sure why anyone would find two pregnancies "over the top." I mean, that sort of thing happens in real life. My mother and her best friend both happened to be pregnant at the same time, for instance.

Secondly, it's important to keep in mind that the Troi and Beverly pregnancies were both the culminations of independent storylines. Troi's originated from her and Will's decision to have a child at the end of Orion's Hounds, published in 2006, whilst Beverly's pregnancy was an outgrowth of the relationship between Jean-Luc and Beverly as it developed in the TNG Relaunch, specifically 2008's Greater Than the Sum. It's not like these two were set up to have pregnancies at the same time as some sort of cutsey development -- it just so happened that both relationship arcs developed that way.