Spoilers TNG: Hearts and Minds by Dayton Ward Review Thread

[Defcon]

TNG: Hearts and Minds by Dayton Ward (May 30th 2017)

STAR TREK - THE NEXT GENERATION

Hearts and Minds
Dayton Ward
May 30th 2017







Blurb
An electrifying thriller from the New York Times bestselling author in the Star Trek: The Next Generation universe.

2031: United States Air Force fighter jets shoot down an unidentified spacecraft and take its crew into custody. Soon, it’s learned that the ship is one of several dispatched across space by an alien species, the Eizand, to search for a new home before their own world becomes uninhabitable. Fearing extraterrestrial invasion, government and military agencies which for more than eighty years have operated in secret swing into action, charged with protecting humanity no matter the cost...

2386: Continuing their exploration of the Odyssean Pass, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the Starship Enterprise discover what they at first believe is a previously uncharted world, with a civilization still recovering from the effects of global nuclear war. An astonishing priority message from Starfleet Command warns that there’s more to this planet than meets the eye, and Picard soon realizes that the mysteries of this world may well weave through centuries of undisclosed human history...


About the Author
Dayton Ward is the New York Times bestselling author of the science fiction novels The Last World War, Counterstrike: The Last World War—Book II, and The Genesis Protocol, and the Star Trek novels Legacies: Purgatory’s Key, Elusive Salvation, Armageddon’s Arrow, The Fall: Peaceable Kingdom, Seekers: Point of Divergence (with Kevin Dilmore), From History’s Shadow, That Which Divides, In the Name of Honor, Open Secrets, and Paths of Disharmony. He lives in Kansas City, Missouri, with his wife and daughters. Visit him on the web at DaytonWard.com.


An audio excerpt is available on soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/simonschuster/hearts-and-minds-audiobook

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Fearing extraterrestrial invasion, government and military agencies which for more than eighty years have operated in secret swing into action, charged with protecting humanity no matter the cost...

Hmm. Do they dress in black suits, and carry neuralizers?

 

[Dayton Ward]

Maybe.

 

[Oz Trekkie]

Looking forward to this one. I will be interested to see if there is any fallout from Control for the crew of the Enterprise or if being so far out in the Odyssean Pass shelters them from the potential repercussions.

 

[Enterprise1701]

Hmm. Do they dress in black suits, and carry neuralizers?

 

[Ronald Held]

Book appearS this Tuesday?

 

[ClayinCA]

I would have thought the Tuesday after, since the suggested release date is the 30th.

 

[CaffeineAddict]

Maybe.

Do I need to read From History's Shadow before this one?

 

[TheUsualSuspect]

It's a sequel to both From History's Shadow and Elusive Salvation.

 

[Jinn]

(Which are both great...)

 

[Defcon]

It's a sequel to both From History's Shadow and Elusive Salvation.

To be precise (from a post by Dayton on his blog today since he got his author copies):

As I’ve mentioned before, Hearts and Minds isn’t a direct sequel to From History’s Shadow or Elusive Salvation. That said, there’s definitely a lot of connective tissue.

https://daytonward.wordpress.com/2017/05/18/the-book-fairy-brought-presents-from-the-final-frontier/

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

Hmm. Lots of connective tissue tends to make for a tough chew, unless it's been turned to gelatin by lots of cooking under wet heat.

 

[DimesDan]

Hmm. Lots of connective tissue tends to make for a tough chew, unless it's been turned to gelatin by lots of cooking under wet heat.

And if this was a discussion about cooking and not a fictional story, you may have a point.

 

[Jarvisimo]

Will this novel have any fallout from Control, or is that a future TNG novel? At some point the fact that Picard (as well as Admiral Riker surely) was(/were) involved in an event in which the Federation President and two senior officials were assassinated must come to a head.

 

[tomswift2002]

Just picked up the book.

As to the events of Control, I hope we get some follow up. Of course with the blurb saying Picard is on the outer edges of the Federation it may not impact him as soon.

Edit: Just read the Historian's Note: "Hearts and Minds" takes place just before "Control". So I guess we'll still have to wait to see any fall out "Control".

 

[Enterprise1701]

Will this novel have any fallout from Control, or is that a future TNG novel? At some point the fact that Picard (as well as Admiral Riker surely) was(/were) involved in an event in which the Federation President and two senior officials were assassinated must come to a head.

Why would you expect that? Control is set in late 2386. Hearts and Minds is surely set in either early or mid 2386 following Armageddon's Arrow, the Prey trilogy, and Headlong Flight.

 

[Jarvisimo]

Why would you expect that? Control is set in late 2386. Hearts and Minds is surely set in either early or mid 2386 following Armageddon's Arrow, the Prey trilogy, and Headlong Flight.

Because I had thought David Mack had said there would be an influence on the TNG line, and currently, this is the only TNG book on the horizon, right?

But I can see from the timeframe how it doesn't work then.

EDIT - it is here, in this podcast interview with Mack, from about 30 minutes., where he says Dayton has to deal with stuff post-Control.

 

[Dayton Ward]

Oh.

*THAT'S* what his email was about.

 

[tomswift2002]

Why would you expect that? Control is set in late 2386. Hearts and Minds is surely set in either early or mid 2386 following Armageddon's Arrow, the Prey trilogy, and Headlong Flight.

From what I can tell the narrative goes "Armageddon's Arrow", the "Prey" trilogy, "Headlong Flight", "Hearts And Minds" and then "Control". "Hearts and Minds" seems to be taking place within a week to a month before "Control", so it is very tight to "Control's" timeframe.

 

[Jarvisimo]

Oh.

*THAT'S* what his email was about.