My memory is crap and it's been a few weeks since I read this, but couldn't the details of the next phase of the plan depend on which of those six made it back? There's no reason for the bad guy to assume they all would survive the first phase of the plan.
But since they just gave them another 6 comms targets, why bother breaking it up, then? Just give everyone more from the start. And then with the second package, it was clear there was no 3rd, so they knew to rebel. You don't tell the pawns you are done until you're ready to dump them, should have had a pretend 3rd set even if it was just to wipe them. The plan didn't get more intensive, or move to another phase, they just got more targets of the same type, with the same instructions.
Picked this up yesterday. Very good read, though the ending was bit disappointing. Spoiler: Endgame I liked the "preparation for a fight with an unknown force" theory they postulated as the reason the cytherians boosted them rather more then the married grumps resolution we got But other then that I loved it. Hyper Riker was insanely good fun.
Is this book super rare for some reason? I usually get each ST book as it comes out, and I missed this one because I've never seen a copy of it for sale anywhere. I was in Toronto this weekend, and I thought I'd be able to pick it up there, but there doesn't seem to be a copy in stock anywhere in the GTA. I guess I'll have to get it off amazon.
I think so! I had to go the Amazon route for this one. Even now, almost two months after release, I still haven't seen it on the shelves anywhere in Ottawa, even though the two releases after it (a TOS book and and ENT book) are on the shelves in stores all over the area. Weird
I finally got my copy of Takedown. I've only read 5 chapters Bratorious is someone everybody dislikes the he's a jerk. I like the fact the Aventine crew gets more charcter development in this book. Poor Riker being fed with with boring diplomatic meetings and writing reports to star fleet.I feel sorry for him. Being a Starfleet Admiral sucks sometimes.
I finished reading Takedown this morning I really liked this book.I hope John Miller will write another Star trek novel in the future.
Bretorius is great. He's like a New Frontier character who wandered into the "mainstream" novels. Gul Re'jal put it best earlier in the thread: even as a genius he's a total moron.
When I was reading about Riker avoiding Troi after the summit, I could have sworn it had something to do with season 3's "Allegiance." I was pleasantly surprised to be proven wrong.
Can't wait to read this one. John has written some awesome Star Wars novels, and I was hoping to see him take a shot at Star Trek someday. Sometimes dreams do come true.
I don't think you will be disappointed! He did a great job and it was fun to talk to him about it on Literary Treks. He's such a nice guy.
I'm only a little late to the party this time. This was one of the fastest paced Trek books I've read in a long time. For the first 2/3rds, it moves at lightning speed. Unfortunately, it comes to a screeching halt near the end. I enjoyed most of it except for the Romulan subplot. I also don't know about naming this a TNG book considering 95% of it takes place on the Aventine. I don't judge a book by its cover, but it seems like a marketing ploy.
This is older but I am behind and just finished it. I really enjoyed it. The reveal of the Cytherians was a surprise and the lower stakes and lighter tone was refreshing. I also enjoyed the peak into the hospital for people who have been mentally compromised by aliens etc. Like the DTI I like when creators take a look at how societies might deal with wacky Sci Fi concepts. It was fun. Slight gripe that I had: while the Senator and Nerla were entertaining characters, they didn't feel very Alien. Nerla especially. But that was a minor problem.
Finally got around to this one. It was a nice quick read, an interesting tale. I was afraid it'd be a violent military-thriller sort of thing, but I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of bloodshed and the fact that, despite all the shooting and blowing things up, it was really more about problem-solving and puzzle-cracking than fighting. And I loved the true Federation benevolence toward the end, in things like Riker offering to help the very people who'd made him their puppet, and the reveal of Simus and the Romaine Center. The Center was a nifty idea. Everybody's saying they thought Bretorius was fun, but I liked Derla better. I imagined her lines delivered with a really jaded, smart-alecky, eye-rolling sort of tone -- I think it was Alicia Witt's voice I heard in my head. Oh, trust me, I've made continuity mistakes. Embarrassingly, I tend to make them about my own creations. I just discovered that I referred to the Vomnin state as the Consortium in Orion's Hounds and the Confederacy in Watching the Clock. Fortunately, Hounds also mentions that the Vomnin species has more than one nation (since I hate the way Trek tends to treat species and political identity as automatically congruent), so it should be easy enough to retcon them as two separate powers. Then there was my second Hub story in Analog, where I referred to a returning alien species by the wrong name. Worse, it was a throwaway alien name from one of my Trek novels. I finally fixed that in the e-book collection. Well, "first name" is the wrong term since it's actually second, but yes, Den is his given name, Hegol his surname. He should be Counselor Hegol. Also, Takedown described him as young, but I conceived him as more middle-aged; when I introduced him in Greater Than the Sum, I envisioned him along the lines of Stanley Kamel in Monk. But it's hard to keep track of all those details. It's up to the editor and proofreaders and such to keep it all straight, but there's just so much Trek Lit continuity now that it must be increasingly hard to remember it all. John is working in the new Star Wars continuity, though, isn't he? When I met him at Shore Leave last month, IIRC, one of the books he had on sale at Meet the Pros was the prequel to Star Wars Rebels, the one telling the backstory of the Kanan and Hera characters. Rebooting the continuity doesn't require changing the authors. After all, part of the job of tie-in authors is to adapt to what our employers ask of us. I figure that Geordi's leave in The Light Fantastic takes place between the Enterprise being assigned to an exploration mission at the end of Peacable Kingdoms (late October) and the Enterprise attempting to begin that mission at the start of Takedown (late November). Makes sense that there'd be a bit of downtime to prepare the ship and crew for such an undertaking. Granted, Takedown does suggest that the E-E was already some distance out when it was called back to deal with the comm array, but that's easily enough overlooked for the sake of reconciling the timing. Anyway, it's interesting to have three books (these and The Missing) jammed into November '85. They really are trying to slow down the pace of the novels now, it seems. It's more about the characters than the ships, I'd say. This is primarily a Riker-Picard story, and it's a followup to a TNG episode. Although it does have a broad focus rivaling books like Destiny -- also featuring Enterprise, Titan, and Aventine -- so it could've easily been just under a general Star Trek heading.
Well enjoyed book! Glad to hear JJM will be signed on for an upcoming trilogy. Can't wait for the E-E to get out there and do some exploring. Cheers.l all.
I saw this comment on a Podcast site; does anyone know which DS9 novel they also referring to? . He mentions that in Takedown, he references events that occurred in a Deep Space Nine novel that pre-dated Destiny and wonders by doing so if it gives credence to other things that happen in that novel and in the series. http://www.gandtshow.com/g-t-show-supplemental-log-john-jackson-miller/