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

[David Brennon]

I have a digital copy on my Sony PRS 505 eBook Reader... it turns out at 1047 pages. I am looking forward to diving into this one. I'm thinking a Romulan War Era Sim may be in order after I finish this book up... hmm... anyone interested in crewing up the NX-03 Challenger or A Daedalus class ship?

 

[JD]

^ From the wording it does look like they are older than the NX class since they lack the warp 5 engine. They were never mentioned on ENT but I figured they were to be the warp 7 ships launched after Enterprise was retired. I know that both the year they came into the fleet & the name were never official but I thought somewhere it said they were launched after the war.

Regardless I'm liking the book & hope the rest of the war is covered someday.

What makes you think it wouldn't be?

 

[Reanok]

Spoiler: Enterprise book spoilers

I like the fact you have alot of discussion about the Romulans attacks the fact they talk about it taking too long to build the NX class of ships and the fact they'll have to find a way to protect Starfleet ships from enemy attcks from ther teleprescence units.Nice to see soval and T'Pau discuss the situation that Soval thought Vulcan should help earth and it's allies and T'Pau disagrees that Earth should stand on it's on. The vulcans are afraid about their reaction if others knew they and the Romulans are related.

I really like what I've read in this book so far.This book really explores alot of diffrent impacts the Romulan war is taking on all the charactersine one way or another.

 

[Sci]

34 pages into it so far and I have two thoughts:

1. Someone's going to complain about the idea of the United Earth Starfleet having an orbital space dock named after President Obama, but I think it's completely reasonable of Mister Martin to include that detail. Barack Obama is a historic President -- the first African-American President of the United States. Whatever else he does, that's something he'll always be remembered for, and it certainly ranks up there with accomplishments that we've seen ships and stations named for in Star Trek in the past.

2. On page 34, T'Pau is referred to by the title of "Administrator," implying that she holds the same office that V'Las held, yet Kobayashi Maru had established that she held the office of First Minister of the Confederacy of Vulcan. Further, the Vulcan High Command is referenced earlier in the book, yet "Awakening" had established that the Vulcan High Command had been dissolved, something confirmed when Kobayashi Maru established that the Vulcan head of government was now First Minister rather than Administrator. What's up with this apparent continuity glitch?

 

[Ronald Held]

Well, it is a hefty tome.....

 

[Reanok]

It certainly is a hefty book with alot going on with the events of the Romulan war and nice character moments we get to see certain events are unfolding on several different worlds.This story is taking alot of unexpected twists and turns.

 

[CaptainDonovin]

^ From the wording it does look like they are older than the NX class since they lack the warp 5 engine. They were never mentioned on ENT but I figured they were to be the warp 7 ships launched after Enterprise was retired. I know that both the year they came into the fleet & the name were never official but I thought somewhere it said they were launched after the war.

Regardless I'm liking the book & hope the rest of the war is covered someday.

What makes you think it wouldn't be?

I thought I read here somewhere that the Romulan War was to be a trilogy but was cut to BTRW instead. That & I can't remember if ENT is on the schedual for next year either, the big thing in '10 is the Typhon Pact & Post Trek XI books I think.

Someone refresh my memory circuits please.

 

[ialfan]

I just finished the book today and it was awesome. I find very little to fault with it besides Hoshi not getting a promotion and being a little confused as to Valdore's status at the end. I loved the length and it really feels like at best we go the first part of a trilogy. I hate that there isn't an Enterprise book for next year because it will really suck to go two years before the continuation. The Daedelus class being older than the NX shocked me but I can go with it. It was nice to finally see some crew change also. I feel pity for the NX class though. So tragic.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Actually, the fact that the Daedalus pre-dates the NX was established in Last Full Measure.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Regardless I'm liking the book & hope the rest of the war is covered someday.

What makes you think it wouldn't be?

Because this one doesn't, and no future ones have been announced. They may one day be, but until they *are*, it's meaningless.

 

[Elias Vaughn]

I'm on the fence about buying the book (not really an Enterprise guy), but I was wondering, does this book deal with the Columbia's post-Destiny fate at all? Maybe Archer getting all sad or something?

 

[Sci]

I'm on the fence about buying the book (not really an Enterprise guy), but I was wondering, does this book deal with the Columbia's post-Destiny fate at all?

I'm only a few chapters into it, but I can tell you that the disappearance of Columbia does play a part in the book, at least in the prologue. But most of the book is set before Columbia disappeared.

Spoiler: Destiny

I would point out that I'm not entirely certain how it would deal with Columbia's post-Destiny fate, since its fate was to have its crew vaporized and be sucked across the galaxy to a desert in the Delta Quadrant... Not really much more to say about its fate!

 

[Hartzilla2007]

Actually, the fact that the Daedalus pre-dates the NX was established in Last Full Measure.

That and I figured that the Daedalus that was in the Daedalus dulogy was the first ship of this class and occurding to that story it was built some time before Enterprise was.

 

[David Brennon]

I have to say that I am not really satisfied with the ending.

 

[Kchunda]

^ Thanks for keeping it spoiler-free. . . I'm only on Chapter 33 or so, so I still got a way to go!

 

[Procutus]

It certainly is a hefty book with alot going on with the events of the Romulan war and nice character moments we get to see certain events are unfolding on several different worlds.This story is taking alot of unexpected twists and turns.

This is good to hear. Still trying to get my hands on a copy, as Borders hadn't received it yet the other night when I went. Going to try again this afternoon.

 

[JD]

^ From the wording it does look like they are older than the NX class since they lack the warp 5 engine. They were never mentioned on ENT but I figured they were to be the warp 7 ships launched after Enterprise was retired. I know that both the year they came into the fleet & the name were never official but I thought somewhere it said they were launched after the war.

Regardless I'm liking the book & hope the rest of the war is covered someday.

What makes you think it wouldn't be?

I thought I read here somewhere that the Romulan War was to be a trilogy but was cut to BTRW instead. That & I can't remember if ENT is on the schedual for next year either, the big thing in '10 is the Typhon Pact & Post Trek XI books I think.

Someone refresh my memory circuits please.

Well, I'm pretty sure it's been described as the first book to cover the War and based on what I've heard this book doesn't end the war yet, and I doubt very much that the entire war won't be covered. I think they also added the third title for the same reason.

 

[Christopher]

I thought I read here somewhere that the Romulan War was to be a trilogy but was cut to BTRW instead.

That's a common misperception. It was never solidly planned to be a trilogy; that was just a possibility that was hinted at early on when it hadn't even been decided yet what its format would be. So nothing was "cut." And BTRW is just the first book to chronicle the Romulan War, and it ends with something of a cliffhanger. It's clearly not meant to be the only book about the war.

That & I can't remember if ENT is on the schedual for next year either, the big thing in '10 is the Typhon Pact & Post Trek XI books I think.

The behind-the-scenes planning in the editorial department is always well ahead of what's actually been announced to the public. And there are always variations in the schedule from year to year. 2010 is loaded with TOS and Abramsverse because it's Pocket's first real opportunity to tie into the movie. But 2011 is the 10th anniversary of Enterprise, so it's logical to assume there will be a greater ENT focus that year.



I just finished the book, and I thought it did an intriguing job of bridging ENT and TOS continuities, showing how one led into the other.

Spoiler: Beneath the Raptor's Wing

It explains (implicitly) why the war is later known as the Earth-Romulan War rather than the Coalition-Romulan War. It explains (implicitly) why Starfleet's 23rd-century vessels look like a hybrid of the NX and Daedalus classes. It explains the use to which "primitive atomic weapons" were put during the war, and even contains a nod to the fan theory about Romulan ships lacking warp drive (by having the Romulans use a combined attack where warp carriers deliver impulse-capable fighters to stymie the Coalitions warp-detection grids). And there are clever reconciliations for some smaller continuity details as well. It explains what became of Surak's katra and why it didn't seem to be around in later times. The weapon the Haakonans use against the Romulans strikes me as perhaps being the basis for the Romulans' plasma weapon a century later. There's even an acknowledgment of "Wolf in the Fold"'s mention of Redjac's murders at Heliopolis at Alpha Eridani II in 2156, complete with reconciliation of how Alpha Eridani, aka Achernar, can have a human-named city in 2156 yet be a major Romulan world in the 24th-century novels. And we get to see the fate of several members of the Stiles family, driving home why Lt. Stiles carries such a strong grudge a century later.

I'm even wondering if Mike Martin is laying groundwork to reconcile this with some earlier works of fiction set in this era that were contradicted by ENT. There's mention of Tobin Dax and Skon, which makes me wonder if he's setting up some reinterpretation of Tobin's Lives of Dax story that explains away the story's inconsistencies with ENT (the transporter breakthrough not occurring until 2159, the Romulans not using warp drive). And the increased use of Daedalus-class ships and the attrition of NX-class ships seems like it might be an attempt to reconcile ENT with Starfleet: Year One.

I'm generally not a fan of war stories, but this book doesn't really focus much on the combat; it's more about the politics, the cultures, the personal journeys, the history of this long-discussed but never-depicted era. And so I found it fascinating to see this story told at last.

 

[Ronald Held]

How many books are planned to be dedicated to the Romulan War.

 

[Thrawn]

^ We don't know. But clearly more than one.