The Struggle Within- Worth It?

[JRoss]

I'm genuinely asking folks' opinions on whether or not I should buy TSW. I haven't had a whole lot of time for reading lately, but I read the first page on Google Books. I noticed a severely terse narrative, that actually felt as if it were missing something. The first page felt as if it covered what would have been a few pages in a novel-length work. That seeming over-economy of words left me without the desire to read the rest.

Now I'm jonesing for Treklit, and I'm wondering if I should go ahead and pick up TSW or not? Thoughts, please?

 

[Kertrats47]

I really enjoyed The Struggle Within, personally. One of the highlights of the Typhon Pact series. You're right in that it is somewhat terse, but it kind of provides a cool effect in that it feels like an actual episode of a tv series. I wrote a review of it on my blog (click here) in which I cited the length as one of the negatives. If I were to write that review today, I'd probably go a little easier on it. While it did feel rushed at times, it was still a hell of a story.

 

[CaptainDonovin]

Agreed, great story. It's one of the stories I'm glad I got a kindle for.

 

[Fer]

I absolutely feel that it's worth it. The shorter e-book format made it really feel like a modern TNG episode, and it's an all-around good read.

 

[T'Ressa Dax]

It is a great story. Give it a chance! Shorter stories do have to try to compress things a bit more than novels is all.

 

[JRoss]

Picked it up today. Reading it now. Hung up on the "basically griffins" comment. I have read the previous Typhon Pact books, but other than that no other work featuring the Kinshaya besides the FASA Klingon RPG module. The Kinshaya there look like this:

That's nothing like a griffin. I guess that since so much time has passed since that work was written and that the only image of them was in the FASA book (the image I posted here is a colorized version of the line drawing appearing in the FASA book). As John M. Ford created the Kinshaya for The Final Reflection and had apparently consulted the FASA author on the Klingon module, I just assumed that the above image was the more-or-less "official" Kinshaya look. Can anyone link me to anything depicting the "current" Kinshaya look?

 

[JRoss]

Halfway through the story some Kinshaya fight. They're described as advancing rampant, which any heraldry buff will recognize as a term meaning standing on hind feet, arms out in front. You've likely seen bears or lions in this pose on family coats of arms. The Bennett family crest features three lions rampant, and I couldn't help wonder if Christopher used the term as a reference to his own family?

 

[Therin of Andor]

had apparently consulted the FASA author on the Klingon module...

IIRC, John M Ford was the consult for the authors of the FASA sourcebook.

And it looks sufficiently like a griffin to me. Would you want to hang around long enough to do a more accurate sketch?

The Bennett family crest features three lions rampant...

But, after hours, they can be seen lion around.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

My family crest has pigeons on it. They might be doves, I suppose, but they're grey...

If I were writing about Kinshaya, would they fight by pooping on one another from atop buildings?

 

[Christopher]

Halfway through the story some Kinshaya fight. They're described as advancing rampant, which any heraldry buff will recognize as a term meaning standing on hind feet, arms out in front. You've likely seen bears or lions in this pose on family coats of arms. The Bennett family crest features three lions rampant, and I couldn't help wonder if Christopher used the term as a reference to his own family?

No, it was just the right word to use for their stance at that moment. I hadn't actually known that about the Bennett crest. I have an old rubber stamp with the crest on it, but I was never really convinced it was genuine, and it was too small for me to make out the lions, and I haven't thought about it in years.

 

[Therin of Andor]

My family crest has pigeons on it...

If I were writing about Kinshaya, would they fight by pooping on one another from atop buildings?

Not if they were stool pigeons.

I have an old rubber stamp with the crest on it, but I was never really convinced it was genuine, and it was too small for me to make out the lions...

A fine lion?

 

[JRoss]

Thought that it was a long shot, Christopher. I just loved the wording of that scene, though. Anyhoo, I'm enjoying this story very much so far, and I'd recommend it highly.

 

[rfmcdpei]

I enjoyed it. It was a fun read, engaging with the Kinshaya (and secondarily the Talarians and Tzenkethi) and the Typhon Pact and interesting political ideas.

 

[JRoss]

I was most happy with seeing the Talarians again. I've had this idea for a story featuring them going around in my head for eons. Liking the Kinshaya, too, but I find that they seem a little too human in their culture, and the Tzenkethi as presented in TrekLit so far (I've only read the TP books featuring them) don't really seem like the kind of beings to give Ben Sisko nightmares.

 

[JRoss]

Oh, and yeah, I loved this book.

 

[CNash]

I very much enjoyed The Struggle Within; its brevity wasn't a problem, and made me pine for the days of the regular SCE e-Book releases. I'd love a limited series of Typhon Pact novellas, released as e-Books.

I will admit to liking the Kinshaya chapters more than the Talarian ones, but only because the Kinshaya seemed like they would be very interesting as members of the TP, and I was disappointed when they didn't get any representation in the four main TP novels. (And partially because I had to be reminded of who the Talarians were - Trek has too many alien races beginning with T and ending -ian... )

 

[ICW]

It's very much worth it. Enjoyable story, well written, etc...

 

[JRoss]

You know, my problem with the first one or two pages, that all of a sudden we have Picard and these folks on the transporter with little explanation (that "a young man he was glad to see" line was awkward to me), was invalidated by the long paragraphs of exposition almost immediately following.

 

[Christopher]

^Well, yeah, that's what exposition is for. Tons of stories and scenes are written that way, first showing a thing and then explaining it afterward. And tons of Star Trek episodes have begun with someone beaming aboard and then having expository dialogue. So I don't see why you'd find that unusual.

 

[JRoss]

It's just that I was reading the first page of the Google ebook to see if I wanted to read it. I got hung up on those first few paragraphs, as it just felt as if the whole book would be stilted, telling in half or fewer the normal number of pages a story normally padded out to a considerably longer page count. Just turned me off at first. Glad I came back to it.