Spoilers TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic by McIntee Review Thread

[Relayer1]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

those are some lovely comments, Fer, and I'm glad you liked it.

Now I just have to hope to do some more!

Any news on those pitches ? We could do with some more Enterprise.

Have you considered DS9, maybe O'Brien and Garak ? There's a real gap in the market there...

 

[Lonemagpie]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

those are some lovely comments, Fer, and I'm glad you liked it.

Now I just have to hope to do some more!

Any news on those pitches ? We could do with some more Enterprise.

It's not the season for news! I've never seen news about pitches to big publishers between, like, November and February...

Have you considered DS9, maybe O'Brien and Garak ? There's a real gap in the market there...

I'd love to do DS9, but really don't know at the moment where in its timeline to place a pitch for it. Would they allow a story placed during the show's run, for example? Mind you, I could ask the same about Enterprise, and the story I pitched for that is aimed for sometime in season 1 or 2...

 

[Relayer1]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

those are some lovely comments, Fer, and I'm glad you liked it.

Now I just have to hope to do some more!

Any news on those pitches ? We could do with some more Enterprise.

It's not the season for news! I've never seen news about pitches to big publishers between, like, November and February...

Have you considered DS9, maybe O'Brien and Garak ? There's a real gap in the market there...

I'd love to do DS9, but really don't know at the moment where in its timeline to place a pitch for it. Would they allow a story placed during the show's run, for example? Mind you, I could ask the same about Enterprise, and the story I pitched for that is aimed for sometime in season 1 or 2...

Well, the lack of anything post the Romulan War planned for Enterprise or for the infamous '5 year gap' in DS9 on the schedules at the moment, suggests these.

Comments by other authors suggest that there may not be some sort of an overarching masterplan for these eras so it might be worth giving it a go !

I hope you get one for this Christmas - I'd like to see one by this time next year !

 

[Christopher]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

...the infamous '5 year gap' in DS9...

Which is actually only 4 years and 1 month... or 3 years and 1 month if you count "Reservoir Ferengi."

 

[Lonemagpie]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

Any news on those pitches ? We could do with some more Enterprise.

It's not the season for news! I've never seen news about pitches to big publishers between, like, November and February...

Have you considered DS9, maybe O'Brien and Garak ? There's a real gap in the market there...

I'd love to do DS9, but really don't know at the moment where in its timeline to place a pitch for it. Would they allow a story placed during the show's run, for example? Mind you, I could ask the same about Enterprise, and the story I pitched for that is aimed for sometime in season 1 or 2...

Well, the lack of anything post the Romulan War planned for Enterprise or for the infamous '5 year gap' in DS9 on the schedules at the moment, suggests these.

Comments by other authors suggest that there may not be some sort of an overarching masterplan for these eras so it might be worth giving it a go !

I hope you get one for this Christmas - I'd like to see one by this time next year !

2012 will be commissioned-up by now. The next round of commissioning (for 2013) will probably be sort of March-May, just based on previous stories, so one can but hope and keep pitching...

 

[Relayer1]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

It's not the season for news! I've never seen news about pitches to big publishers between, like, November and February...

I'd love to do DS9, but really don't know at the moment where in its timeline to place a pitch for it. Would they allow a story placed during the show's run, for example? Mind you, I could ask the same about Enterprise, and the story I pitched for that is aimed for sometime in season 1 or 2...

Well, the lack of anything post the Romulan War planned for Enterprise or for the infamous '5 year gap' in DS9 on the schedules at the moment, suggests these.

Comments by other authors suggest that there may not be some sort of an overarching masterplan for these eras so it might be worth giving it a go !

I hope you get one for this Christmas - I'd like to see one by this time next year !

2012 will be commissioned-up by now. The next round of commissioning (for 2013) will probably be sort of March-May, just based on previous stories, so one can but hope and keep pitching...

Well, good luck. You have my suggestions - if they come off, a signed copy would be appreciated !

 

[Relayer1]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

Been thinking - post Romulan war, Enterprise NX is decomissioned, yet is apparently rebuilt with a new 2ndry hull as per the new Ships of the Line calendar. Recomissioned ?

There's a bunch of other plot threads too - see the Brave The Storm Review thread...

 

[captcalhoun]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

the calenders aren't in continuity to the novels

 

[Lonemagpie]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

the calenders aren't in continuity to the novels

Though the Romulan ship in the second half is the one from the 2011 calendar!

But NX-01 doesn't appear anyway.

 

[MatthiasRussell]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

When Geordi touched the Challenger's engines was it like touching Leah, or was that only true of the Enterprise?

 

[MattWallace]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

the calenders aren't in continuity to the novels

The idea for Destiny came about due to the picture in the calendar of a crashed NX class ship on a desert planet. It all grew from that image.

 

[Christopher]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

the calenders aren't in continuity to the novels

The idea for Destiny came about due to the picture in the calendar of a crashed NX class ship on a desert planet. It all grew from that image.

You're both right. The calendar images and the novels aren't obliged to be consistent with each other, but neither are they forbidden to be. Some calendar images contradict the novels, but there's nothing preventing a novelist from drawing inspiration from a calendar image.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

When Geordi touched the Challenger's engines was it like touching Leah, or was that only true of the Enterprise?

Since on Challenger he could just touch her, I doubt the thought occurred to him...

 

[USS Triumphant]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

Just finished IFM, and with all respect to Lonemagpie and the others who expressed opinions here, I am having serious trouble understanding the positive outcome of the polling for this book. I mean, don't get me wrong - I read the whole thing, which means there were some good things about it. Mostly the epic levels of fanwankery - which, ironically, were also a good bit of the book's problem, because there was too much and some of it was done really badly.

I don't want to spoil the book for others to cite examples, so I will just cite two that epitomize what I see as problematical, while trying to be as unspoiler-y for anyone who hasn't read the book as possible:

1. Nog, in speaking of whom his father married, describes Leeta as "some Dabo girl". Leeta hasn't been a Dabo girl and has been married to his father for 9 years at this point, and is also effectively something akin to the king's consort for the Grand Nagus of his entire race! Are we to believe that Nog's perspective on Leeta has not changed at all due to any of that?

2. The Romulan Star Empire is, well, an empire - and yet, out of all of the probably at least tens of billions of inhabitants of that empire, one specific individual (you know who I'm talking about if you've read the book) just happens to end up involved in the book's goings-on? Really? REALLY?! Even though the ship they were on ended up there at random and out of control, while the (non-fan-service) character specifically introduced to actually have a reason to be there doesn't even show up? REALLY?

It was a fun read, I'll give it that. But it is WAY too fan-wankish to take seriously, and, the first book I have read in quite some time to make me stop reading in the middle of a page, pull the book back, and roll my eyes at the wall in front of me, because of something that happened in it.

 

[Paper Moon]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

1. Nog, in speaking of whom his father married, describes Leeta as "some Dabo girl". Leeta hasn't been a Dabo girl and has been married to his father for 9 years at this point, and is also effectively something akin to the king's consort for the Grand Nagus of his entire race! Are we to believe that Nog's perspective on Leeta has not changed at all due to any of that?

I am biased, because I really liked this novel, (hint for anyone following this newbie's posts: I've liked almost every Star Trek novel I've read, though some have aged better than others), but could you remind me of when this event occurred? Because it sounds like it was Nog just generally trying to minimize his parents' importance

Spoiler: Nog and Rom

like he does by trying to keep his father's status a secret.

Also, when it comes down to it, wasn't Leeta ultimately just "some Dabo girl" in terms of what the rest of society saw her as? (And therefore how Nog would depict her to a stranger?) Aside from some activism on Ferenginar (which I somehow get the sense Nog would feel a little... awkward discussing. Although I suppose we don't really know too much about Nog's politics, now that I think about it...), I don't know of any major contributions Leeta made that would give Nog something else to describe her with.

And it could just be that he was emphasizing her humble beginnings.

Of course, I'm drawing on a single memory from a while ago, and I could be misinterpreting USS Triumphant's quote entirely...

Spoiler: the possible origin of the quote in question

Is this indeed from the conversation Nog has with Qat'qa about his parents in which it comes out that Rom is Nagus?

 

[MatthiasRussell]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

I thought it was a little thick with cameos and it read like a fan's tribute to TNG at first, like an attempt to jam in as many side characters as possible, but I quickly came to highly approve of the story. It was also great when you consider it was Magpie's first trek novel. The story of the second half was exceptionally creative and original, don't you think Triumphant? It was nice to have a book focused so much on exploration and the unknown.

Also, Triumphant, do you think it was any thicker with cameos and "fan wank" than the movies or even some episodes?

 

[Lonemagpie]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

It's thick with cameos cos that's what the brief was, to make up for it being on a standalone ship...

Nog is trying to downplay his family.

And the reason it's rated so highly is simply a lot of other people liked it. They're allowed to like it, USS Triumphant's allowed to not like it... it's just the way things go. (Also, there seems to be a lot of perception that being a fun standalone after a run of more downbeat arc-stories is a good thing, at least on the grounds of a change being as good as a rest...)

 

[Lonemagpie]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

2. The Romulan Star Empire is, well, an empire - and yet, out of all of the probably at least tens of billions of inhabitants of that empire, one specific individual (you know who I'm talking about if you've read the book) just happens to end up involved in the book's goings-on? Really? REALLY?! Even though the ship they were on ended up there at random and out of control, while the (non-fan-service) character specifically introduced to actually have a reason to be there doesn't even show up? REALLY?

There's actually a behind-the-scenes reason for that - specifically some hasty rewriting at the proof stage when somebody noticed they'd approved something they shouldn't have cos it clashed with another book in the pipeline. Originally the character in question had been following the Challenger's mission for a considerable time...

But absolutely it's a fan's tribute to TNG - albeit a fan who's been a pro writer for many years. Maybe it's filled with fanwank, but, hey, wouldn't you?

 

[Relayer1]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

As per an earlier conversation, it turns out that pretty much EVERYTHING I didn't like about IFM was beyond the authors control. Eliminating those issues, it was a pretty good read.

I did think Geordies previous romantic interest got a bit of a raw deal though...

 

[JD]

Re: Star Trek: TNG: Indistinguishable From Magic Review Thread

Yeah, but at least he got to romantic interests in two books in a role. I think that's more action than he got in TNG.