The Sky's The Limit Spoilers

[Reanok]

I got my book in the mail Saturday and I've read the first story Meet With Triumph and Disaster by Micheal Schuster & Steve Mollman. I really liked the story showing the tour of the Enterprise we get to see Captain Halloway leading the tour of the Enterprise with Starfleet Admiral Quinn,Satie and a xindi scientist named Modin. We find out about that there were 2 different accidents on Enterprise and the difficulties it caused during the construction of Enterprise and the toll it takes on the captain.I liked this story it was nice look at events before Enterprise was launched. The Second Story Acts of Compassion by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dillmore is a Beverly Crusher & Tasha Yar story and I really enjoyed what I've read of the story so far. I liked how these two women interacted in the story so far and a medical emergency that deals with the Cardassians. I don't want to give too much away but this story makes me wish we'd had more stories with Crusher & yar working together like this I like Ildona Duret the Cardassian Doctor he was in a tough situation in the story.I'll post more about this story after I finish reading it.

 

[MichaelS]

Reanok said:
Steve Mollman

*coughmollmanncough*

I really liked the story showing the tour of the Enterprise we get to see Captain Halloway leading the tour of the Enterprise with Starfleet Admiral Quinn,Satie and a xindi scientist named Modin. We find out about that there were 2 different accidents on Enterprise and the difficulties it caused during the construction of Enterprise and the toll it takes on the captain.I liked this story it was nice look at events before Enterprise was launched.

Thank you for the comments! We're glad you liked it. I have one correction to make, though: the Xindi's name is Magodin, and she's the Minister for Science and Space Exploration.

It was our intention to feature the ship itself to a certain extent, so the tour was an integral part of the story almost from the start.

 

[2of1million]

AHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! You lucky duck you alreay got the book. I have been waiting and waiting. It is not out yet here, but hopefully sometime this week, as books usually come out a week early.(Chapters says it comes out on the 16th) Thanks for the review!!!

 

[Turtletrekker]

IIRC, this is the first non-ENT appearance of a Xindi, isn't it? I'd be interested in learning more about the status of the Xindi in hte 23rd/24th centuries.

I seem to recall one of the authors here mentioning that they stuck a Xindi into a 24th century book and that it got nixed by TPTB. Of course, I think ENT wasstill running at the time.

 

[Reanok]

In the story there's a very brief mention that Magodin comes from the planet New Xindus. I find it an intriguing mention in the story and hope we'll see the Xindi featured in other books, will have more information about what happened to them after the spheres were destroyed in the Expanse.

 

[JD]

So does that mean that they did join the Federation then? I know it said that they did somewhere in one of Ent's visit's to the furute. Ah just check MA and it was Anzati Prime, which I actually don't think I've seen yet.

 

[Stevil2001]

Turtletrekker said:
I seem to recall one of the authors here mentioning that they stuck a Xindi into a 24th century book and that it got nixed by TPTB. Of course, I think ENT wasstill running at the time.

Christopher tried to slip a Suliban character into Aftermath, actually.

 

[Christopher]

JD said:
So does that mean that they did join the Federation then? I know it said that they did somewhere in one of Ent's visit's to the furute.

Just because there's a Xindi individual serving as a Federation minister doesn't mean the Xindi as a whole joined the Federation. After all, we've seen at least one person (Worf) who was a Federation ambassador without his homeworld being a Federation member, and we've seen a number of people from non-member worlds serving in Starfleet (Worf, Nog, various Bajorans).


And Steve's right -- I did get my Suliban character from Aftermath nixed. And I've never understood why, frankly, because ENT itself established that the Suliban were a nomadic people scattered across numerous worlds and assimilated into various cultures. They were far from a monolithic bloc. So having a Suliban individual in the UFP in the 24th century should've had no chance of contradicting anything ENT might've revealed about the fate of the Suliban Cabal, because there were plenty of Suliban populations with no connection to the Cabal at all.

 

[8of5]

Something I was reading recently, maybe The Red King, mentioned the Suliban, saying some of them had settled on Tiburon.

 

[Turtletrekker]

Steve Mollmann said:

Turtletrekker said:
I seem to recall one of the authors here mentioning that they stuck a Xindi into a 24th century book and that it got nixed by TPTB. Of course, I think ENT wasstill running at the time.

Christopher tried to slip a Suliban character into Aftermath, actually.

Christopher said:
And Steve's right -- I did get my Suliban character from Aftermath nixed.

That is what I was remembering.

 

[KRAD]

And Steve's right -- I did get my Suliban character from Aftermath nixed. And I've never understood why, frankly, because ENT itself established that the Suliban were a nomadic people scattered across numerous worlds and assimilated into various cultures.

I thought I explained this at the time. 1) The Suliban were an ongoing concern of an ongoing series, specifically with regards to a Temporal Cold War, the kind of thing that could be subject to major changes to timelines and such, and I didn't want to risk a fourth-season reveal that the Suliban were retroactively wiped out as a species during the TCW. 2) The character wasn't important enough to be worth the risk.

 

[JD]

Christopher said:

JD said:
So does that mean that they did join the Federation then? I know it said that they did somewhere in one of Ent's visit's to the furute.

Just because there's a Xindi individual serving as a Federation minister doesn't mean the Xindi as a whole joined the Federation. After all, we've seen at least one person (Worf) who was a Federation ambassador without his homeworld being a Federation member, and we've seen a number of people from non-member worlds serving in Starfleet (Worf, Nog, various Bajorans).

Yeah, I guess that would work. I just figured that if they were getting a tour of the new Federation flagship, they must be fairly high up in the UFP higherarchy(sp), and IMO someone that important would most likely be from a member world. But I should probably wait till I actually read the story before I take a final stance on the issue.

 

[Christopher]

JD said:
Yeah, I guess that would work. I just figured that if they were getting a tour of the new Federation flagship, they must be fairly high up in the UFP higherarchy(sp), and IMO someone that important would most likely be from a member world.

Madeleine Albright was born in Czechoslovakia, which was not a member of the United States of America, but that didn't preclude her from becoming Secretary of State of the United States (although it did exclude her from the line of presidential succession). Where someone is "from" is not a singular question -- people can be born one place and then become citizens of another place. Albright was born in Prague but was "from" Denver from age 11 onward. So just because an individual Xindi is prominent in the government, that says nothing about the political affiliation of the Xindi as a whole. The Xindi could be an immigrant, a naturalized citizen of Earth or Deneva or Tellar or somewhere.

The problem is that Trek, like most mass-media science fiction, usually treats species identity, national identity, and cultural identity as one and the same thing. Almost every human character is from Earth, every Vulcan character is from Vulcan, every Klingon character is from Qo'noS, etc. You never see an Andorian who was raised on Earth and named Frank, or a human who was born on Denobula, thinks of herself as Denobulan, and became a minister in the First Denobulan Church. The concept of immigration or cultural assimilation is virtually ignored. (We did see such a character in Susan Wright's The Best and the Brightest, an Earth-born alien with a human name and personality, but he was an exception to the rule.)

Which is why I wanted to include a Suliban in Aftermath, actually. I hate that kind of racial essentialism in science fiction, the prevalence of attitudes about aliens that would be obvious racial stereotyping if applied to humans. So I was really glad when ENT acknowledged that Suliban are not a monolithic culture, but a people who have divided and assimilated into numerous cultures. I wanted to follow up on that. I guess my timing was just wrong.

 

[Larki_Toran]

OT: And we are very proud of Madeleine!

 

[Reanok]

Just a few more comments about some of the other stories Red Shift by Richard C White is a Pulaski Story and we get to see why she acts impulsive and why it gets her into alot of Trouble in this story. She was training her Medical staff for emeergencies and at first it causes problems withe the command staff and it turns out she did the right thing but went about in the wrong manner. There's a scene in ten forward where Weasley and Pulaski have a conversation about why she's so rude to data and the other crewmembers both of them say the wrong thing Guinan chatises them for it.Geordi talks with Kate about being prepared for emergencies he has an idea he wats to work on.The Enterprise is boarded by space pirates who ship breaches the Enterprise and they steal their technology they have to have security and mediacal help rescue the injured crewmwmbers in engineering. The come up with a way for stopping the pirates and they end up coming up with new trainning regimens for the crew. And Pulaski comes to an understanding that thanks to Guinan that she needs to interact with the crew she needs to stop being so hardheaded and more co operative. I also liked Among the clouds a Geordi Story, Where we get to see his inative to help an Alien race and he needs all of his experience as an engineer to help him deal a crisis. I really liked the unique Alien lifeforms described in this story .Thinking of You by Greg Cox is a story with Reginald Barclay and Ro Laren & Lxwana Troi. I really enjoyed seeing Barclay & Ro working as a team with Lxwana to get out of a sticky situation. I don't wantto give this story away but there are alot of but there are nice character moments for Barclay as he saves the day with help from Ro and Lxwana. I really have enjoyed reading all these stories so far. And want to tell all the authors thank you for all these great stories.

 

[Richard White]

As you should be.


BTW, Dobre' den. Jak se mate?

 

[Richard White]

Thanks for the kind words.

I enjoyed getting to write this story, especially since it forced me to get to know Pulaski better. She wasn't my favorite character when I first watched the series, but I think there's a lot of depth in her character that could be plumbed for stories in the future.

 

[Larki_Toran]

Richard White said:
BTW, Dobre' den. Jak se mate?

Mam se dobre, dekuji! (I'm fine, thank you!)

Man, this is cool

 

[Scott Pearson]

Reanok said:I also liked Among the clouds a Geordi Story, Where we get to see his inative to help an Alien race and he needs all of his experience as an engineer to help him deal a crisis. I really liked the unique Alien lifeforms described in this story . . . And want to tell all the authors thank you for all these great stories.

Thanks! And you're welcome. As I mentioned in my bio/acknowledgments in The Sky's the Limit, the alien animals in "Among the Clouds" were inspired by the speculations of Carl Sagan and Edwin Salpeter--back in the late seventies they imagined what kind of life there could be in the clouds of Jupiter. I was in junior high at the time, but those ideas just caught my attention and stayed in my mind for thirty years until I was able to use them in Star Trek . . . I also think Sagan used his Jovian creatures in an episode of Cosmos.

 

[Richard White]

Larki_Toran said:

Richard White said:
BTW, Dobre' den. Jak se mate?

Mam se dobre, dekuji! (I'm fine, thank you!)

Man, this is cool

I knew studying Czech and Slovak back in 1994 was going to come in handy one of these days. :thumbsup: