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Spoilers TOS: Lost to Eternity by Greg Cox Review Thread

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Okay, I've pre-ordered my copy so I should get it on August 1st on release date. Haven't read any Star Trek books this year so this will be a nice change of pace. Just Star Wars, One Piece and Dragon Ball mostly.
 
Greg, I have two questions: did you write each era straight through first, or did you write it in the manner it appears, going back and forth?

Second question occurred to me this morning and it seems so obvious that I'm probably wrong: is Fortier's character based on D.B. Cooper? I realized the whole space-jacking felt very similar to the Cooper case, right down to the way he made his exit from the ship.
 
Greg, I have two questions: did you write each era straight through first, or did you write it in the manner it appears, going back and forth?

Second question occurred to me this morning and it seems so obvious that I'm probably wrong: is Fortier's character based on D.B. Cooper? I realized the whole space-jacking felt very similar to the Cooper case, right down to the way he made his exit from the ship.

Bingo. You're right on both counts.

I wrote each of three plotlines straight through, in order to maintain momentum and not have to mentally shift gears every chapter. I wrote the 2024 plotline first, then the 2260s plotline, then the movie era plotline, and finally, after they were all written, I faced the challenge of interweaving them. Many charts and index cards were required.

And, yes, I very much had D. B. Cooper in mind with regards to the space-jacking. Bio fact: I was eleven years old and living just down the road from Sea-Tac Airport when that all went down back in 1971. Needless to say, it made a big impression on me as a kid, happening as it did right in my own backyard.

(Not the first time I've gone to this well, btw. Cooper was a major character in one of my 4400 novels years ago.)
 
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I've read 8 chapters so far I really like the Saavik story arc taking place 7 years after The Search of Spock and her reaction about what happened to David Marcus being her friend and his death and how it affected her and Kirk loosing his son and dealing with the Klingons and Romulans .This is great story telling. I'm so glad we finally get to see more fall out of the events from this movie and Star trek 4.:bolian:
 
Not very far into it. Something about the bloggers bothers me. Mr Cox can answer, whether they use current tech from our Earth, or something better. Is their relationship platonic?
 
Not very far into it. Something about the bloggers bothers me. Mr Cox can answer, whether they use current tech from our Earth, or something better. Is their relationship platonic?

On the platonic thing: I confess, I went back and forth on that right up to the final draft, before FINALLY settling on platonic roommates and friends. In the end, I decided that this book was big and complicated enough without including the ups and downs of a romantic relationship as well.

But, yes, I seriously considered making Melinda and Dennis a couple, right up to practically the last minute.

As for the tech, it's not supposed to be futuristic. The 2024 of the book is meant to be the same 2024 outside our windows today -- aside from the fact that some time-travelers from the future snatched a couple of humpback whales back in the eighties :)
 
And so far, from where I am in the text ("burner phone"), it could be anywhere from purely platonic, to purely romantic, to something in between (e.g., "friends with benefits"). And I wouldn't exactly refer to podcasters as bloggers.
 
index cards
So, the Gerrold Method.

On the character of Halley (and I don't want the author to answer this, at least not right away) the sort of Deep Throat analog. Was he someone we should know? An agent of the villain whose purpose was simply to feed the podcasters the next piece of the puzzle? Or a total "Red Herring"?
 
Hmm. We find that out quickly enough. Although I'm not clear on which one he is.

At first, I was a little puzzled that we went to the Palace of Fine Arts, and there was nary a mention of the Exploratorium . . . then I realized, OH, YES, it's set in THIS year, 2024, and they'd moved out and relocated to Piers 15 and 17 over a decade ago.
 
Hmm. We find that out quickly enough. Although I'm not clear on which one he is.

At first, I was a little puzzled that we went to the Palace of Fine Arts, and there was nary a mention of the Exploratorium . . . then I realized, OH, YES, it's set in THIS year, 2024, and they'd moved out and relocated to Piers 15 and 17 over a decade ago.

I confess I was surprised to discover, when researching for this book, that the naval base in Alameda, featured so prominently in the movie, isn't there anymore.
 
Oh, it's still there. It's just no longer an active naval base. It's an abandoned naval base. The USS Hornet is now docked there. And there's now a ferry dock, in Seaplane Lagoon. And there's an awful lot of what you typically find on abandoned military bases: lots and lots of really rough pavement. During my 2023 visit to the Hornet, I found some of it the hard way, crossing a street. Fortunately, the motorist figured that running me over would be rude, and stopped, and a couple of passersby helped me pick myself up, but it ruined the display screen on my camera, and chewed up a fair chunk of my hide, as well: when I finally made it to the admission counter aboard the Hornet, the second thing out of my mouth was a request for a first-aid kit. Right after the traditional "Permission to step aboard."

That evening, I'd planned on dinner at the House of Prime Rib. That turned into an evening spent waiting for my thankfully minor injury to be examined in an emergency room, followed by a sandwich from a 7-Eleven.
 
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