Thoughts on the "A Time To..." Series?

[Dr. Crusher]

I was just curious what some readers may have thought about the "A Time To..." series. I literally leapfrogged over it and went straight into the post-Nemesis novels, but if there are important elements that will feature in other post-Nemesis books in this series, I'd like to read it.

Generally, what did readers think of it? Are there some novels better than others in this series? Most importantly, is it a worthwhile read overall?

 

[bfollowell]

I was just curious what some readers may have thought about the "A Time To..." series. I literally leapfrogged over it and went straight into the post-Nemesis novels, but if there are important elements that will feature in other post-Nemesis books in this series, I'd like to read it.

Generally, what did readers think of it? Are there some novels better than others in this series? Most importantly, is it a worthwhile read overall?

Having just finished these they are all pretty fresh. I really enjoyed them all but the final three were my favorites. They were very fast-paced and high action.

I don't think you could go wrong with any of these but, if you're thinking of reading them, you should probably read them in order, at least those of them that you read.

Enjoy.

- Byron

 

[ryan123450]

I read them all, and though the first two duologies weren't that great, I'm glad I read them all. The final three are 'can't miss' stuff though. Definitely read the final one.

 

[Steve Roby]

I literally leapfrogged over it

Video or it didn't happen. It wouldn't be hard to do, necessarily, I just don't believe you literally did that.

As for the books, it's only the last three that really tie into a lot of what comes after, but don't let that stop you from reading the second and third duologies eventually. They're good, solid stories that probably would have been more popular as standalones than as part of a long arc.

 

[DrBashir]

It was a great series right up to the point that Picard...

Spoiler: BIG spoiler. Do not read before reading all the books

participated in a coup against the president of the Federation. Major disappointment in the character for me.

 

[Destructor]

They do get a bit samey- I remember someone in here made an interesting jibe where they described one of the novels as: "The Enterprise encounters a civilization with a world-threatening problem and something is preventing the use of transporters, so they have to use shuttles to ferry people around, and an unknown threat hampers operations." - effectively describing three of the novels! I enjoyed them, but in general post-relaunch has been better. The two continues DO intertwine though, so events from the former series will be referenced in the latter.

 

[JD]

It was a great series right up to the point that Picard...

Spoiler: BIG spoiler. Do not read before reading all the books

participated in a coup against the president of the Federation. Major disappointment in the character for me.

Spoiler: Last three A Time To... book MAJOR SPOILERS

Really? So you think they should have left Zife in office? I couldn't possibly disagree more, they did what needed to be done in that situation. I mean they couldn't leave him in office after what he did, and they couldn't remove him publicly, without pissing of the Klingons. Now, just remember that Picard and co. had nothing to do with him being murdered, that was only 31.

 

[Dr. Crusher]

It was a great series right up to the point that Picard...

Spoiler: BIG spoiler. Do not read before reading all the books

participated in a coup against the president of the Federation. Major disappointment in the character for me.

I'm going to have to "hold that thought" on this because I don't want to wreck the story/stories in this series, Bashir. I'm going to try and see if my will power will hold out...

 

[DrBashir]

It was a great series right up to the point that Picard...

Spoiler: BIG spoiler. Do not read before reading all the books

participated in a coup against the president of the Federation. Major disappointment in the character for me.

Spoiler: Last three A Time To... book MAJOR SPOILERS

Really? So you think they should have left Zife in office? I couldn't possibly disagree more, they did what needed to be done in that situation. I mean they couldn't leave him in office after what he did, and they couldn't remove him publicly, without pissing of the Klingons. Now, just remember that Picard and co. had nothing to do with him being murdered, that was only 31.

Spoiler: MAJOR spoilers!!! DO NOT READ UNIL YOU"RE DONE ALL BOOKS!!! I MEAN IT!!!

Yeah, because covering up a democratically elected leader being secretly removed from office and later killed along with two other people is exactly the sort of thing that Picard would find totally acceptable. When your government makes a mistake they should stand up for it and take their punishment. There is no guarantee that the Klingons would go to war. They might even find it honorable that you're making the perpetrators pay for their crimes. Martok is a reasonable man and Worf has his ear and is a member of his hosue. Now, if it were Gowron I could see your point.

Letting people get away with essentially staging a coup and murdering three people isn't the sort of thing that the Federation should stand for.

If you do it once, the second time is even easier...

 

[Julio Angel Ortiz]

Never got beyond the first 2 books, which I found extremely "meh". I found the concept of Starfleet being so quick to jump on Picard and blame him for the "disaster" (and the lengths they go with him)- as well as the idea that people would like to see the Enterprise crew brought down a peg- hard to swallow. I've been meaning to read a few of the follow-up books (in particular Mack's and Ward / Dilmore's), but haven't gotten there yet.

 

[JD]

It was a great series right up to the point that Picard...

Spoiler: BIG spoiler. Do not read before reading all the books

participated in a coup against the president of the Federation. Major disappointment in the character for me.

Spoiler: Last three A Time To... book MAJOR SPOILERS

Really? So you think they should have left Zife in office? I couldn't possibly disagree more, they did what needed to be done in that situation. I mean they couldn't leave him in office after what he did, and they couldn't remove him publicly, without pissing of the Klingons. Now, just remember that Picard and co. had nothing to do with him being murdered, that was only 31.

Spoiler: MAJOR spoilers!!! DO NOT READ UNIL YOU"RE DONE ALL BOOKS!!! I MEAN IT!!!

Yeah, because covering up a democratically elected leader being secretly removed from office and later killed along with two other people is exactly the sort of thing that Picard would find totally acceptable. When your government makes a mistake they should stand up for it and take their punishment. There is no guarantee that the Klingons would go to war. They might even find it honorable that you're making the perpetrators pay for their crimes. Martok is a reasonable man and Worf has his ear and is a member of his hosue. Now, if it were Gowron I could see your point.

Letting people get away with essentially staging a coup and murdering three people isn't the sort of thing that the Federation should stand for.

If you do it once, the second time is even easier...

Spoiler: What he said

I thought Picard and his allies thought he was just was shipped off to out of the way planet, or something? I didn't think they knew he was murdered. I thought he was murdered after Picard and co. had finished with the situation.

 

[DrBashir]

Spoiler: Last three A Time To... book MAJOR SPOILERS

Really? So you think they should have left Zife in office? I couldn't possibly disagree more, they did what needed to be done in that situation. I mean they couldn't leave him in office after what he did, and they couldn't remove him publicly, without pissing of the Klingons. Now, just remember that Picard and co. had nothing to do with him being murdered, that was only 31.

Spoiler: MAJOR spoilers!!! DO NOT READ UNIL YOU"RE DONE ALL BOOKS!!! I MEAN IT!!!

Yeah, because covering up a democratically elected leader being secretly removed from office and later killed along with two other people is exactly the sort of thing that Picard would find totally acceptable. When your government makes a mistake they should stand up for it and take their punishment. There is no guarantee that the Klingons would go to war. They might even find it honorable that you're making the perpetrators pay for their crimes. Martok is a reasonable man and Worf has his ear and is a member of his hosue. Now, if it were Gowron I could see your point.

Letting people get away with essentially staging a coup and murdering three people isn't the sort of thing that the Federation should stand for.

If you do it once, the second time is even easier...

Spoiler: What he said

I thought Picard and his allies thought he was just was shipped off to out of the way planet, or something? I didn't think they knew he was murdered. I thought he was murdered after Picard and co. had finished with the situation.

Spoiler: More Spoilers. Don`t read, yadda, yada, REALLY MEAN IT.

That is correct. Only Ross was actually in on the murders. He, however, also walked away scott free. As a matter of fact he`s retired. He doesn`t even have to go to work in the morning. You`d think that more than one person would notice the disapperance of three high ranking government officials including a former president.

 

[captcalhoun]

they did. if you read Articles of the Federation, that came up.

 

[DrBashir]

they did. if you read Articles of the Federation, that came up.

Spoiler: Even more spoilers! Same warning apply! Don`t ruin it!!

I meant people outside of the government. One reporter from Trill figured out something was going on and agreed to sit on the story as long as Ross stepped down. For Bacco to have suspicions about what happened and not take action is criminal. If someone had assasinated G. W. Bush do you really think that Obama wouldn`t have it investigated and procecute those responsible?

If someone held a gun to Bush`s head and forced him to resign do you really think nobody would try to find out what really was going on even if a different party was in power?

 

[bfollowell]

Spoiler: Question about these spoilers!

OK, I'm confused here. I just finished these books and am about 80% through Death in Winter. At no point do I recall reading that Zife and company were murdered. I remember reading that Zife didn't realize they'd never be seen again but I just figured that meant Section 31 was locking them away somewhere where they'd never see the light of day again. By the end of the series everything started running together but I can't believe I missed something that huge. Where exactly does it say they were murdered? I'm just curious about what I missed.

 

[bfollowell]

Spoiler: Question about these spoilers!

OK, I'm confused here. I just finished these books and am about 80% through Death in Winter. At no point do I recall reading that Zife and company were murdered. I remember reading that Zife didn't realize they'd never be seen again but I just figured that meant Section 31 was locking them away somewhere where they'd never see the light of day again. By the end of the series everything started running together but I can't believe I missed something that huge. Where exactly does it say they were murdered? I'm just curious about what I missed.

Spoiler: Nevermind...

Nevermind. I went back and looked at the last little bit of A Time to Heal and reread the section about Zife ^ company walking down the corridor and about Zife being clueless and maybe the killing blow wouldn't hurt as much and meeting their fate at the merciless hands of Section 31. I remember reading that part but I guess I completely glossed over that part and had it in my head that they were going into some sort of secret exile/custody or something.

 

[Steve Roby]

Never got beyond the first 2 books, which I found extremely "meh". I found the concept of Starfleet being so quick to jump on Picard and blame him for the "disaster" (and the lengths they go with him)- as well as the idea that people would like to see the Enterprise crew brought down a peg- hard to swallow. I've been meaning to read a few of the follow-up books (in particular Mack's and Ward / Dilmore's), but haven't gotten there yet.

IMHO, the other seven books are to the first two as many good things are to a couple of very unsatisfactory things. They have to work with the Picard issue, but at least they don't read like they were run through google translate a few times, nor do they have SF elements as unconvincing as the first two had. The first two books are like the worst first season TNG episodes. They're over reasonably quickly and you know there's much better stuff ahead.

(FWIW, I liked a lot of Vornholt's earlier books, but these two... No.)

 

[label]

Like others, I thought the series started off pretty poorly (especially the first 2-3) but got gradually better and by the time the series ended, were really quite excellent. I'm glad I read them, but I wouldn't ever re-read any of them but perhaps that last 2-3........

 

[Ethros]

I was really into Trek books at the time these came out, but I never really got into them. As far I could see the "point" of them was to show us what happened in between Insurrection and Nemesis

I've seen those films. Here is what happened to the characters in between...

Picard- nothing
La Forge- nothing
Data- nothing
Crusher- nothing
Riker & Troi- Continued their relationship which was reignited in IX and decided to get married. And he finally accepts an offer for his own command
Wesley- returned from the Traveler


The only other thing is the Worf situation, and frankly I never saw that as much of a problem. So I didn't get why they need nine books to tell us all this.

Maybe they should nine more books, set between Season 1 and 2, explaining the reason why Riker decided to grow a beard!!



* as for Crusher leaving at the end for Starfleet Medical, is that even still in the movie? That's only in deleted scenes anyway isn't it?

 

[Nerys Ghemor]

they did. if you read Articles of the Federation, that came up.

Spoiler: Even more spoilers! Same warning apply! Don`t ruin it!!

I meant people outside of the government. One reporter from Trill figured out something was going on and agreed to sit on the story as long as Ross stepped down. For Bacco to have suspicions about what happened and not take action is criminal. If someone had assasinated G. W. Bush do you really think that Obama wouldn`t have it investigated and procecute those responsible?

If someone held a gun to Bush`s head and forced him to resign do you really think nobody would try to find out what really was going on even if a different party was in power?

Spoiler: A big assumption

You assume that the emphasis here was on the rule of law, which was a big if.

But I love that you pointed out that particular parallel, because that's what turned me off about those books: given when they came out, they were a sick, paper-thin excuse of a Bush assassination fantasy. Somebody wanted to whack Bush and wrote Zife as a way to do it. Very tacky. I was similarly offended by a fanfic I read once that involved killing Obama. It's disgusting.