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Spoilers TOS: Legacies: Book 1: Captain to Captain by Greg Cox Review Thread

Rate Legacies: Book 1: Captain to Captain

  • Outstanding

    Votes: 27 46.6%
  • Above Average

    Votes: 19 32.8%
  • Average

    Votes: 7 12.1%
  • Below Average

    Votes: 4 6.9%
  • Poor

    Votes: 1 1.7%

  • Total voters
    58
a question, Mr. Cox. Now that i've finished the novel, i can't figure out when the scene on the cover takes place. Ugh, maybe my imagination just isn't what it once was. It doesn't match the surface of Usildar in my brain.
 
^ I'm obviously not Greg Cox, but I would guess the cover is just symbolic.

They never had a standard shuttle down on Usildar, anyway, IIRC. Number One's ship was quite different, and Kirk and Spock beamed down.
 
Exactly. It's not a literal scene from the novel, but it does have Kirk, Spock, and Number One on the surface of an alien planet in front of alien fortress, which gets the general idea across.

True story: an early version of the cover featured McCoy instead of Spock, but we corrected it in order to be more accurate to the book--and since, without giving too much away, Spock plays a much bigger role in the book than McCoy does.
 
Exactly. It's not a literal scene from the novel, but it does have Kirk, Spock, and Number One on the surface of an alien planet in front of alien fortress, which gets the general idea across.

True story: an early version of the cover featured McCoy instead of Spock, but we corrected it in order to be more accurate to the book--and since, without giving too much away, Spock plays a much bigger role in the book than McCoy does.
Ah ok. And yes, good call switching Mccoy for spock on the cover. Off topic, I pictured Scarlett Johansson as yoEman bates.
 
Exactly. It's not a literal scene from the novel, but it does have Kirk, Spock, and Number One on the surface of an alien planet in front of alien fortress, which gets the general idea across.

Alien fortress? I thought it was just a cliff.
 
a question, Mr. Cox. Now that i've finished the novel, i can't figure out when the scene on the cover takes place. Ugh, maybe my imagination just isn't what it once was. It doesn't match the surface of Usildar in my brain.
If you're having trouble reconciling Book 1's cover with its contents, wait until you get to Book 2…
 
Good Lord, and I'm pretty sure I've been reading it for at least most of that time. I remember the Michael Palin suggestion and your own casting of David Warner (which I think was a genius stroke). Greg, as someone who loves those Diane Carey Robert April novels, I'm really glad you're keeping consistent with April's character as established there. It's nice to see that era further explored, period.

A question, though: was there any particular reason you did not decide to stay in-continuity with Vulcan's Glory, in which Scotty joined the Enterprise crew at about the same time as Spock?

I've loved and grew up with Diane Carey's Robert April novels, mainly Final Frontier in particular. I like the crew she establishes there, Florida, Claw Saneway, and Sarah; and of course Robert April. Because home video was in it's early days, and a lot of the old Star Trek wasn't readily available, Pike's captaincy and crew wasn't on my radar, so Robert April's Enterprise crew took Pike's place at that right moment, when we become fascinated about what came before Kirk and company. Pike is definitely great, too, it's just a timing thing, when I came to the Final Frontier novel.

I was excited by this book because of the prospect of seeing glimpses of that first crew of Enterprise and Robert April. Putting Number One in with that company feels strange, though, kind of how Scotty being a member of Pike's crew seems strange to others (the DC annual Pike story made me feel at home with the idea of more crew overlap between captains, but new ideas sometimes take a little adjustment). I can't see Scotty joining Pike's Enterprise around the same time that Spock did, but maybe very close to the end of Pike's tenure, sure.

I'm okay with Spock and Kirk meeting at the academy in the new movies, but it doesn't feel right for the original continuity. I can see them meeting in passing, or maybe participating in a meeting where they interact in a formal way and get an impression of each other, but beyond that, I think I prefer to imagine that they meet either when Kirk takes over the Enterprise, or on a deep space mission where both their ships work together, and they become acquainted in that way. I like the story for how Kirk and McCoy meet in Crisis on Centaurus, for example.
 
Putting Number One in with that company feels strange, though, kind of how Scotty being a member of Pike's crew seems strange to others (the DC annual Pike story made me feel at home with the idea of more crew overlap between captains, but new ideas sometimes take a little adjustment).
Although in this particular case, Greg was likely maintaining continuity with John Byrne's various IDW comic series over the years (Star Trek: Crew, Romulans: Schism, etc.) which showed Number One joining April's crew not long out out of the Academy, later getting promoted to Commodore and commanding the USS Yorktown, et al.
 
I'm loving all the fun references to past adventures by April's Enterprise, like the stilt-walking species and Lieutenant Emmett's seeming transformation. The Trekverse can feel so small sometimes when we limit the scope to just the few crews we've seen on-screen. I love when a new crew is introduced and they feel like a unit that has experienced some things, and have had adventures on par with any other crew. I would love a whole series of novels to be set during April's captaincy...

And I want to know what Emmett turned into lol.
 
I finished this book . I voted outstanding. I really the scenes of the book on the Enterprise with Robert April's crew. The story was fast paced exciting and full of suprises I didn't expect especially at the of the book. I can't wait to see What happens in the next written by David Mack.:bolian::D
 
Mr. Mack' s books often have a high body count in deaths.
Maybe Spock snd Kirk met briefly in prime Academy but neither thought it significant at the time?
 
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