The Romulan War: Beneath the Raptor's Wing - Discuss (SPOILERS)

[Christopher]

Firstly, there wasn't actually much of the book centred on the Enterprise itself. I think there was more of a word count for Trip's activities than Mayweather's, T'Pol's and the Enterprise's combined.

I think that's the way it should be. This is an epic story spanning the whole of known space at the time. It would be too narrow a focus if it were strictly about the NX-01 crew. It's not an Enterprise novel in the sense that it's about NX-01, period; it's an Enterprise novel in the sense that it follows many characters established over the course of the television series of that name -- Hernandez, Shran, Soval, T'Pau, Kuvak, Samuels, Gral, Thoris, Gannet Brooks, Valdore, etc. -- and explores the roles they played in this sweeping historical event.

With the Andorian and Tellarite ships pulling out because they're taking heavy losses, and the Vulcans already having pulled out, it's clear why it is referred to as the Earth-Romulan war, but why is United Earth so eager to form up the Federation after this if we know our "allies" can't be trusted to have our backs? I can only guess that they finally help us drive the Romulans back and all is forgiven.

This book only covers the first year of the war. There are five years left before the UFP is founded. And remember, just five years before this, the Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites were at each other's throats and none of them had any use for humans. So things can change a lot in that time.

 

[BrotherBenny]

^True enough.

And I am interested to see where we go from here, I just wish I didn't have to wait so long.

 

[Garm Bel Iblis]

I finished it rather quickly, may have to read it again. was surprised by the small amount of NX-01 crew, hell they spend 7 months getting back to Earth just to make the story span most of the first year of the war.

 

[21Spike65]

I finished it rather quickly, may have to read it again. was surprised by the small amount of NX-01 crew, hell they spend 7 months getting back to Earth just to make the story span most of the first year of the war.

It actually makes sense if you look at a map of the Star Trek universe. Tarod, pretty much where the NX-01 starts the book, is at the coreward side of the 24th century Romulan border, while the rest of the book takes place in the general vicinity of Earth and the surrounding space. By my estimate (with a rough visible estimate of a 2D map), it would have taken only slightly longer for Enterprise to travel from Earth to Haakona, clear on the other side of Romulan space. It would have been far more unrealistic if they had gotten back to Earth quickly (though stranger things have happened).

Alternatively, I've heard someone say that a ship moves as fast as the plot needs it to, so you can take this as just another example that works in reverse of most (taking more time instead of less).

 

[Thrawn]

It actually makes sense if you look at a map of the Star Trek universe. Tarod, pretty much where the NX-01 starts the book, is at the coreward side of the 24th century Romulan border, while the rest of the book takes place in the general vicinity of Earth and the surrounding space. By my estimate (with a rough visible estimate of a 2D map), it would have taken only slightly longer for Enterprise to travel from Earth to Haakona, clear on the other side of Romulan space. It would have been far more unrealistic if they had gotten back to Earth quickly (though stranger things have happened).

Ok. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but if I recall correctly, wasn't Archer on Earth at the end of The Good That Men Do? And then from there, got all the way out to the Kobayashi Maru site during KM? KM only covered like 3 months, so why does it take them 7 months to get back at the same speed?

I don't think a mistake that ridiculous would've been made without someone catching it, so what am I mis-remembering?

 

[21Spike65]

^That thought occurred to me as well. I haven't gone back to KM and TGTMD to really see how long it took the Enterprise to get between those two points, but I also got the impression that it took them a lot longer to get back than it took them to get there in the first place.

A quick look at strictly the dates says that The Good That Men Do ends on March 21, 2155 and Kobayashi Maru ends on July 25, 2155, a period of just over 4 months. If our memories are right and they traveled between Earth and Tarod in that time, it would be inconsistent for them to take 7 months to travel the same distance. **shrugs** That side trip to Vulcan and the matriarch planet must have taken longer than we thought.

 

[BrotherBenny]

^That thought occurred to me as well. I haven't gone back to KM and TGTMD to really see how long it took the Enterprise to get between those two points, but I also got the impression that it took them a lot longer to get back than it took them to get there in the first place.

A quick look at strictly the dates says that The Good That Men Do ends on March 21, 2155 and Kobayashi Maru ends on July 25, 2155, a period of just over 4 months. If our memories are right and they traveled between Earth and Tarod in that time, it would be inconsistent for them to take 7 months to travel the same distance. **shrugs** That side trip to Vulcan and the matriarch planet must have taken longer than we thought.

But the Enterprise did stop off a number of times en route, assisting with various evacuation plans and such, which could easily have taken significant time. I would however like to see the full timeline of the book and the battles within it to see just what happened and when.

 

[Freman]

I have a quick question.. What is the Canadian price for this book? the one that's stamped on the book. Not online prices.

Somebody I know is going to Wpg today, and told me they'd pick this up for me, so I wanna know how much to give them.

 

[Steve Roby]

Cover price is $21.

 

[Freman]

Cover price is $21.

Cool. Thanks, Steve.

 

[Vastator]

Sorry for bumping this back, just been reading the book and thought it better to use the existing thread rather then make a new one. Looks interesting so far.

Not sure if its just me but I see a lot of RPG references in the book which I liked. There is the mention of the D'ravsai by T'Voras at one point which I believe is from the FASA books (as far as I know, could be wrong there) and also Valdore quoting something that I remember from the LUG RPG Romulan Sourcebook which was "The honor of the Praetor is the honor of the Empire" or something like that. Personally, I liked those being added.

 

[Nerroth]

I'm not overly thrilled about the overall concept of how the war is being fought - not least with the use of the capture technology - but the story works well enough so far.


I do feel that it's a bit of a shame regarding one aspect of the NX-class, though.

Spoiler: Names

Naming them after American orbiters is no surprise, but I was kind of disappointed that they happened to run out of NX hulls to give names to just as they used them all already. As I noted in an earlier thread, I would have loved to see an additional ship of the line be named Buran...

...but then, I guess the spirit of the Buran (and its almost-but-not-quite-finished sister Ptichka) was echoed in the fate some of these newer NX-class ships end up suffering.

Oh, irony. You never do like staying away.

 

[Cybersnark]

Finished the book a few weeks ago, just now got around to commenting.

I quite enjoyed it. The Ent-to-TOS tech transition (ooh, alliteration) was a cool idea --it's certainly not like designers making bad stylistic decisions is in any way unusual (I've echoed Tobin's chillingly accurate "what could they possibly do to make it worse" sentiments more times than I'd care to remember ).

As for Enterprise's unusually long voyage home, I just figured Archer was dragging his feet accidentally-on-purpose. He clearly didn't want to return home and lose T'Pol, and may have been hoping orders would change.

There was a war for Martian independence mentioned, I believe. I wonder what was supposed to be so evil about the Earth government that compelled Mars to take up arms against it?

To paraphrase Serenity: they meddle. They're in Mars' faces and in their heads, telling them what to do, what to think, how to live. They meddle.

 

[Christopher]

As for Enterprise's unusually long voyage home, I just figured Archer was dragging his feet accidentally-on-purpose. He clearly didn't want to return home and lose T'Pol, and may have been hoping orders would change.

Except that it was actually a plot point that the ship had been driving its engines to the maximum for months on end and they were on the verge of blowing out. More likely it's what someone else suggested -- they were kept busy helping out various ships and outposts in need along the way, so it slowed them down.

 

[DEWLine]

I'll say it again: I'd be deeply appreciative of revised maps. One might be tasked to track NX-01's movements during the 2155-'56 timeframe, perhaps?

 

[Deranged Nasat]

I'll say it again: I'd be deeply appreciative of revised maps. One might be tasked to track NX-01's movements during the 2155-'56 timeframe, perhaps?

There appears to be some confusion. Tezel-Oroko is, in "A Time to Kill/Heal", located near the Archanis Sector, though in an out of the way region of the Federation/Klingon border. Yet "Kobayashi Maru" places it near Psi Octanis and Gamma Hydrae, coreward of Romulan territory. This fits with the Tarod IX incident (Tarod is on the way back to the Coalition core worlds from that region), but why they get to Cygnet "down" rimward near the edge of the (unexplored) Taurus Reach before arriving at Vulcan or Earth I'm not sure on. Still, if they were taking an odd route round for whatever reason, it might explain why it took them so long to get back.

Good book, by the way. I enjoyed it greatly, and will post more soon.

 

[Ronald Held]

I thought that the explanation for The Ent-to-TOS tech transition was good, if you assume Earth was fearful of Romulan highjackings for decades afterwards.

 

[21Spike65]

^Hmm...so they took the scenic route, but they did it as fast as they could...

Er...the (^) now applies to two posts ago...

 

[Reanok]

I really liked the new Enterprise novel. Has there been any news about when the next novel of The Romulan war is going to be released yet?

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

There was a war for Martian independence mentioned, I believe. I wonder what was supposed to be so evil about the Earth government that compelled Mars to take up arms against it?

To paraphrase Serenity: they meddle. They're in Mars' faces and in their heads, telling them what to do, what to think, how to live. They meddle.

As has already been pointed out, Mars fought for independence, but United Earth had not yet been established. So whoever was meddling, it wasn't Earth, as a whole.

Or, as I also said earlier, maybe there wasn't any meddling, and Mars was just being a dick.