Titan Orion's Hounds

[Vic Sixx]

Since the other Titan thread is gone, I wanted to pass along a few thoughts on Orion's Hounds. I just finished "Orion's Hounds". By Chris, and I gotta say I liked it. It was a pretty good adventure once it got going. It was pretty heavy on the techno-babble but I understand that was part of the story he was telling.

Those Christiline Entities make for some pretty big mean dogs to have in your front yard.

Poor Tuvok doesn't come off very well at all here, he really gets beat up, psychologically speaking. It seems like they brought him along on these books just to torture the poor guy. Only a shadow of what he used to be. With Troi here there doesn't seem to be a point in keeping on Titan.

One minor point, the characterization of Riker comes off too much like Picard, I always figured he would be more Kirk-like, more emotional. But that's just my take on it, maybe not. This could just as easily be a Picard story without the Troi romance bits of course.

Tezwa was referenced a bit again and I still don't know what that is.

But to wrap it up, I like Orion's Hounds, and I liked Red King, not so much Taking Wing. Once O.H. got going it turned into a grand adventure, and like I said I liked it. Chris, this was a good job.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Vic Sixx said:

One minor point, the characterization of Riker comes off too much like Picard, I always figured he would be more Kirk-like, more emotional. But that's just my take on it, maybe not. This could just as easily be a Picard story without the Troi romance bits of course.

IIRC, Riker's arc in this book (I no longer have my copies of the Titan series, having given them to a friend) was that he was finding his command style. He starts off emulating Picard and giving himself distance from his crew, but eventually learns to trust his own sensibilities.

 

[captcalhoun]

Tezwa is an M-class planet located in the Tezel-Oroko system on the UFP-klingon border, but is a neutral world, home to a species of bipedal humanoids apparently evolved from avian stock.

 

[Christopher]

Thanks for the comments!

 

[Julio Angel Ortiz]

middyseafort said:

Vic Sixx said:

One minor point, the characterization of Riker comes off too much like Picard, I always figured he would be more Kirk-like, more emotional. But that's just my take on it, maybe not. This could just as easily be a Picard story without the Troi romance bits of course.

IIRC, Riker's arc in this book (I no longer have my copies of the Titan series, having given them to a friend) was that he was finding his command style. He starts off emulating Picard and giving himself distance from his crew, but eventually learns to trust his own sensibilities.

If I'm not mistaken, that's more in Taking Wing, because he felt he was being "watched" by Admiral Akaar on Titan's first mission, but comes to grow into his command style (commented on by Troi and Akaar).

 

[KRAD]

Tezwa is an M-class planet located in the Tezel-Oroko system on the UFP-klingon border, but is a neutral world, home to a species of bipedal humanoids apparently evolved from avian stock.

And during civil unrest on that world, Riker was taken prisoner by one of the factions and held captive in a tiny hole in the ground for several weeks.

This all happened in the novels A Time to Kill and A Time to Heal by David Mack, part of the nine-book miniseries that chronicled the year leading up to Nemesis. It was at the end of the latter book that Riker made the decision to accept the captaincy of Titan.

 

[Mike Farley]

After finishing THE BURIED AGE I had to pick up ORION'S HOUNDS too and enjoyed it almost as much. Christopher is fast working his way to the top of my favorite Trek authors list.

Sometimes Trek is political, sometimes it's straight action/adventure. In Christopher's case his Trek fiction tends to the more SCIENCE fiction-y aspects (while not skimping on action or politics). I always feel like I'm learning something. Even if it's a a made-up ecology, it feels like it's a workable ecology. I picture you with reams of notes, only a small portion of which make it onto the page.

Guess I'll check out WATCHERS ON THE WALLS next since I'm abandoning NECROSCOPE due to painfully bad writing.

Any non-tie in work coming, Christopher?

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Julio Angel Ortiz said:

middyseafort said:

Vic Sixx said:

One minor point, the characterization of Riker comes off too much like Picard, I always figured he would be more Kirk-like, more emotional. But that's just my take on it, maybe not. This could just as easily be a Picard story without the Troi romance bits of course.

IIRC, Riker's arc in this book (I no longer have my copies of the Titan series, having given them to a friend) was that he was finding his command style. He starts off emulating Picard and giving himself distance from his crew, but eventually learns to trust his own sensibilities.

If I'm not mistaken, that's more in Taking Wing, because he felt he was being "watched" by Admiral Akaar on Titan's first mission, but comes to grow into his command style (commented on by Troi and Akaar).

Was it TW or OH that had the flashback to Captain DeSoto and the infamous refusal to let his CO beam down? Of course, since I passed the books on so a friend could enjoy them, I can't look it up.

 

[Christopher]

Mike Farley said:
After finishing THE BURIED AGE I had to pick up ORION'S HOUNDS too and enjoyed it almost as much. Christopher is fast working his way to the top of my favorite Trek authors list.

Aww, shucks. Thank you!

Sometimes Trek is political, sometimes it's straight action/adventure. In Christopher's case his Trek fiction tends to the more SCIENCE fiction-y aspects (while not skimping on action or politics). I always feel like I'm learning something.

That's one of the nicest things anyone's ever said about my work. I learned a lot about science from hard SF prose fiction growing up, and I've always felt SF was a great vehicle for teaching science in an entertaining way. I always try to live up to that in my writing.

Even if it's a a made-up ecology, it feels like it's a workable ecology. I picture you with reams of notes, only a small portion of which make it onto the page.

Yep, that'd be fairly accurate.

Any non-tie in work coming, Christopher?

I hope so. I've got a couple of stories I'm trying to sell, as well as an original novel, but the novel needs some more work (it's too long and needs the pacing tightened up) before I can put it back on the market.

 

[Julio Angel Ortiz]

middyseafort said:

Julio Angel Ortiz said:

middyseafort said:

Vic Sixx said:

One minor point, the characterization of Riker comes off too much like Picard, I always figured he would be more Kirk-like, more emotional. But that's just my take on it, maybe not. This could just as easily be a Picard story without the Troi romance bits of course.

IIRC, Riker's arc in this book (I no longer have my copies of the Titan series, having given them to a friend) was that he was finding his command style. He starts off emulating Picard and giving himself distance from his crew, but eventually learns to trust his own sensibilities.

If I'm not mistaken, that's more in Taking Wing, because he felt he was being "watched" by Admiral Akaar on Titan's first mission, but comes to grow into his command style (commented on by Troi and Akaar).

Was it TW or OH that had the flashback to Captain DeSoto and the infamous refusal to let his CO beam down? Of course, since I passed the books on so a friend could enjoy them, I can't look it up.

Orion's Hounds has Riker remembering Captain DeSoto giving him some advice regarding captaincy shortly after Riker was promoted to full commander. I don't recall a flashback regarding Riker not allowing DeSoto to beam down, though. That was mentioned (again, IIRC) in the TNG episode "The Pegasus".

 

[Christopher]

^^That's right -- the Riker/DeSoto flashback in OH is unrelated to the incident where Riker refused to let DeSoto beam down. That incident is alluded to briefly in The Buried Age, though.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

^Thanks!

 

[LiChiu]

I am currently reading this one and so far I like it best out of the series. It seems to explore the various alien characters more than the others. I must admit I love the premise of the titan novels in having a ship with such a diverse crew. I think they would make good movies.

 

[LightningStorm]

I too am currently reading this (about a 100 pages left to go), and I agree so far with the sentiments about it being the best of the three so far.

A couple of observations so far:

There is a LOT of sex in this book. And not at all in a lewd or bad way. It is in fact quite creative and interesting seeing sex play such an integral part of relationships and life in the Trek universe without at all being overbearing or gratuitous. I'd venture to say it's even refreshing to see such a realistic and non-taboo view of it.

I also like very much the execution of the diversity issues among the crew, especially that of the carnivores, herbivores, and omnivores.

 

[Christopher]

^^Thanks for the comments, both of you! LS, I'm particularly flattered by your comments about my portrayal of sexuality.

 

[tenmei]

I have to say that it's a shame they killed Nidani Ledrah off in Taking Wing as I think she would've been a great character to continue to use through the series and would have been an interesting character to explore in this novel specifically.

 

[captcalhoun]

best bit in OH is the bit about Vale's hair dye appearing bright pink to those blessed with UV vision.

 

[Christopher]

captcalhoun said:
best bit in OH is the bit about Vale's hair dye appearing bright pink to those blessed with UV vision.

I never said "bright pink" -- pink is a visible-light color, after all, so the word wouldn't apply to a color perceived in the UV band. What I said was that "it appeared a downright ghastly shade to those crew members who saw in ultraviolet."

 

[LiChiu]

Christopher said:

captcalhoun said:
best bit in OH is the bit about Vale's hair dye appearing bright pink to those blessed with UV vision.

I never said "bright pink" -- pink is a visible-light color, after all, so the word wouldn't apply to a color perceived in the UV band. What I said was that "it appeared a downright ghastly shade to those crew members who saw in ultraviolet."

By the way, I liked how you had them going into unexplored space around the gum nebula about 450-500 lys away. I always wondered how far out starfleet has explored barring accidental trips to far off corners of space.

 

[Christopher]

^^Well, it varies. Titan's route in OH ranges from about 550-750 light-years away over the course of the book. The Buried Age takes Picard about 800 ly or so from Earth in two different directions. Mintaka from "Who Watches the Watchers?" is about 900 ly away. Deneb is believed to be somewhere between 1600-3200 ly away, so Farpoint Station was aptly named.

The problem is that various Trek shows have used known star names at random without considering distances (and indeed many of their distances were not known at the time). We have to assume that some regions of space allow faster travel than others, explaining why some outlying regions have been more visited than other nearer regions. Or it could be simply that the more distant regions have attracted more attention due to the cosmic phenomena out their way.