TOS: Foul Deeds Will Rise by Greg Cox Review Thread (Spoilers!)

[CorporalCaptain]

I finished this last week.

The lack of surveillance bothered me too, and the lack of automatic logs from things like doors opening and closing. Even though such security measures could no doubt be believably circumvented, I think that the story would have benefited from giving appropriate nods in these directions, given our present-day expectations for the future, just the same.

Those aspects aside, I really enjoyed the characters. Lenore was a very believable extrapolation. I could picture her, and all of the characters, in my mind's eye saying and doing these things, which is certainly one of the things I'm looking for in TrekLit.

I also liked the themes of forgiveness of others and of living with one's own past mistakes and crimes. One of the things missing from televised Trek canon is an interesting selection of seriously flawed characters that can be counted among the protagonists. You've got people like Paris, Barclay, and arguably Seven, but they're not in Lenore's league when it comes to being flawed, not even Seven or at least not in the same way. Revisiting Lenore was, for me, just what the doctor ordered, so to speak.

The Horta character Jorgaht, though minor, was also quite entertaining. I thought that the rescue plan was cool. Hats off for Debra Banks too.

I thought that the idea behind how the murders were committed was—surveillance issues aside—interesting. Gast being hardcore enough to run herself through the transporter to do that makes her an intriguing character.

Was it revealed how the two Gasts decided which half did which part of the mission? I don't recall mention of that. My largest complaint there, such as it is, is that the whodunit angle prevented us from getting inside Gasts' heads at that point in the story, because that probably would have been very interesting.

All in all, above average.

Thanks, Greg Cox!

 

[Kilana2]

I have just started "Foul Deeds" and me thinks I should polish up my Shakespeare knowledge.

 

[Christopher]

^You mean, "Brush Up Your Shakespeare"?

 

[Kilana2]

^You mean, "Brush Up Your Shakespeare"?

Indeed.

It turns out to be a "wild-goose chase"

 

[Deranged Nasat]

^You mean, "Brush Up Your Shakespeare"?

I must admit I laughed when Foo-Foo threw Kermit's picture on the floor.

Oh, right, Shakespeare...

When I was at university, I read the complete works of Shakespeare. Did you know that he wrote quite a bit? Did you know that? I believe that if he had written even one more sonnet I would have died of toxic Bard overdose. I do love Shakespeare, but even he needs to be taken in sensible quantities.

 

[Christopher]

I grew up in a house with a 2-volume Complete Works on the shelves, and I still have both that and Riverside. I keep meaning to someday read through the whole thing, but I've never gotten around to it. Partly because I feel that the plays are better experienced in performance than in text alone. The BBC produced the complete works in the '80s, and all of those are on video -- another thing I keep meaning to check out someday.

 

[Kilana2]

^You mean, "Brush Up Your Shakespeare"?

I must admit I laughed when Foo-Foo threw Kermit's picture on the floor.

Oh, right, Shakespeare...

When I was at university, I read the complete works of Shakespeare. Did you know that he wrote quite a bit? Did you know that? I believe that if he had written even one more sonnet I would have died of toxic Bard overdose. I do love Shakespeare, but even he needs to be taken in sensible quantities.

I remember Steve Urkel and Laura of Family Matters performing a Shakespeare play, messing it up and destroying the scenery in the end .

Macbeth was enough for me.
John Maddens Shakespear in Love. And that´s it. I wonder, if Christopher ever had a writer´s block like Master Shakespeare.

"And here, poor fool, I stand once more, no wiser than I was before", so I stick with Goethe´s Faust, as German is my first language. But reading all of Goethe and Schillers works would be overkill.

I guess, ST and Shakespeare, that´s a topic which they have gone over and over. There are even lectures about it.

 

[Greg Cox]

I find it helps to at least familiarize yourself with the texts before seeing them performed, so that you're not struggling to make sense of the exposition and basic relationships at the same time that you're first watching the play. You don't need to memorize the plays, but it helps to understand the gist of things, so that even if some obscure bit of Elizabeth dialogue goes over your head you still understand what's going on.

But, yes, actually watching the plays performed also goes a long way toward making sense of the archaic language. If two young lovers are clasping hands and gazing soulfully into each other's eyes, the intent of the dialogue is pretty clear even if it's in iambic pentameter!

 

[Christopher]

^Although I think it depends on the actors' interpretation. Some actors are good at getting to the underlying meaning of Shakespeare's words, in a way that adds clarity to the often alien verbiage, while others just recite the words without really interpreting the emotions or personal motivations behind them. For all that William Shatner's spoken-word album The Transformed Man gets mocked, I think his reading of Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy on that album is just about the best I've ever heard, because he conveyed the underlying emotions of the lines in a way that really helped me understand their meaning. Conversely, Kenneth Branagh in his Hamlet feature film just ran through all the soliloquies in a monotone without any interpretation at all.

 

[Greg Cox]

I find that the ear adjusts to the Elizabeth dialogue as the play goes on. It can be disorientating and off-putting at first, but once you get into it . . . .

Certainly, that was my experience watching the recent Joss Whedon version of "Much Ado About Nothing."

Regarding Foul Deeds, dare I admit that I went through Bartlett's Book of Familiar Quotations---and Cliff's Notes on "The Tempest"--to make up a list of good Shakespearean lines to use as needed? I had them written down on a legal pad next to my keyboard when writing the book.

I think I used pretty much every quote on the list!

 

[ConRefit79]

This was an enjoyable read. It was nice to see Kirk learned from khan the need to reflect on his past. I was disappointed with the reveal of how the bad guys did what they did on Enterprise. Seems like something a fan production would do.

 

[Enterprise1701]

It was nice to see Kirk learned from kahn the need to reflect on his past.

That's *Khan.

 

[ConRefit79]

It was nice to see Kirk learned from kahn the need to reflect on his past.

That's *Khan.

I fat fingered that one on the phone.

 

[Kilana2]

I find it helps to at least familiarize yourself with the texts before seeing them performed, so that you're not struggling to make sense of the exposition and basic relationships at the same time that you're first watching the play. You don't need to memorize the plays, but it helps to understand the gist of things, so that even if some obscure bit of Elizabeth dialogue goes over your head you still understand what's going on.

But, yes, actually watching the plays performed also goes a long way toward making sense of the archaic language. If two young lovers are clasping hands and gazing soulfully into each other's eyes, the intent of the dialogue is pretty clear even if it's in iambic pentameter!

Luckily, Shakespeare was part of the curriculum in my English advanced courses. And I´m familiar with 16th century England (and France, for that matter, I read a lot of Catherine of Medici). Historical knowledge is helpful for some of the plays.
A long time ago I have seen a German rendering of “The Tempest” and I can hardly remember anything, but I have found a proper translation.
Anyway, I´ll get along well and keep on reading.
(I´m currently being tortured with Shakespeare quotes in the Cross Cult Forum, people keep themselves busy while waiting for the German Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan novels to be published )

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

When I was in high school, the drama department did As You Like It.

As a western.

And it worked. Surprisingly well. It struck me as what might have happened if the residents of Dodge City or Tombstone were to put on a production.

 

[Greg Cox]

When I was in high school, the drama department did As You Like It.

As a western.

And it worked. Surprisingly well. It struck me as what might have happened if the residents of Dodge City or Tombstone were to put on a production.

I once saw "A Midsummer Night's Dream" staged as a fifties high school musical, complete with period songs like "Why must I be a teenager in love?"

It worked very well--and brought whole new meaning to the line, "Let us ROCK the ground on which these sleepers lie!"

 

[JD]

It is kind of amazing how well Shakespeare can work in totally different contexts like that. Hell, my favorite Shakespeare movie is Baz Lurhman's Romeo + Juliet, which is another great example of that.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

My favorite Shakespeare movie is Forbidden Planet.

 

[Kilana2]

It is kind of amazing how well Shakespeare can work in totally different contexts like that. Hell, my favorite Shakespeare movie is Baz Lurhman's Romeo + Juliet, which is another great example of that.

My favorite movie is, I mentioned it before, Shakespeare in Love: Joseph Fiennes is quite convincing as Shakespeare, although a bit too handsome, suffering from a writer´s block and finding a muse in Lady Viola. I felt pity with her when she had to marry this smarmy Wessex (Colin Firth in another great role).

Picard mentioned something about having played the nurse in one of Shakespeare´s plays. I´m well aware that in original plays female roles were played by boyish men. I´d like to see Picard as nurse .

 

[Kilana2]

I´m still busy with Foul deeds and like it so far. Lenore Karidian as actress and reading your novel Greg, makes me wonder if you are familiar with Erving Goffman, canadian sociologist (and for a time Professor at the University of Pennsylvania) and his works "The presentation of Self in everyday life"? It´s what came to mind when I read about Lenore. I guess I have to brush up on this, too. Goffman was part of my Sociolgy studies.