Spoilers TOS: The Antares Maelstrom by Greg Cox Review Thread

And for my fellow e-book readers, that version is due out on Tuesday.

 

Was at Barnes and Noble this morning, saw it on the shelf and used my birthday gift card to purchase it. I'm going to start it once I finish 'The Captain's Oath'. I will say that the one thing I find disappointing is that it looks like all future Star Trek releases are going to be in the 'oversize' format from now on. That's going to be an extra $4-6 out of my pocket from now on even with 10% off and any coupons that I might have.

 

Are we actually talking about this neighbourhood?

http://galaxymap.org/gaia/tgas/map3...et=hot_iso_30_bright_iso_70_isosurface_labels

 

^Your link centers on the Kaus Australis complex. Try this one:

http://galaxymap.org/gaia/tgas/map3...et=hot_iso_30_bright_iso_70_isosurface_labels

 

Just spotted the book at our local B&N, a few days ahead of the official pub date.

 

Maybe I should look in a local B&N before ordering from Amazon?

 

Wow, two new Trek novels in the same month. It takes me back to my youth. But now I'm done reading it, and it'll never happen again, until it does.

There's one particular thing I wanted to kick off talking about;

Spoiler: George Tilton

I was kind of hoping to get more out of the station manager, George Tilton, based on one tantalizing detail, the model of the Shenzhou in his office. There have been a couple Discovery references so far in the books of prior series, but I think this is the first where it was folded into the narrative rather than being a let's-call-it "Madlibs" reference where a name or detail is slipped in where any other would've fit just as well (like Picard including Gerogiou in a list of historical explorers he'd read about as a kid).

The just-slightly underplayed mention of the model made me curious; Was Tilton involved in the war? Did he lose someone special at the Binaries? He mentions taking the job at the space station specifically because it'd be low-key. We later find out that he worked at a shipyard during the war, which was a bit less front-line than I was expecting, but I wasn't sure if it'd be elaborated on at all, just left as an implication.

 

^ I wondered about this myself too.

 

Will get to this book after I finish the Enterprise war.

 

Got it on audible. Really enjoying this book. The characterizations of the big three are all spot on, and I enjoyed the way a frontier world was fleshed out. Favorite easter egg:

Spoiler: spoiler

that model of the Shenzou.

 

Got it pre-ordered. Should receive it by the 22nd.
Hope it's good.

 

That's a better eye-ball judgement than I had.
"Messy" doesn't begin to describe the neighbourhood around Antares, does it?

 

It's one end of the largest star-formation corridor in this neck of the galactic woods, so yeah, it's pretty active.

 

*looks at the Sco-Cen Association article on Wikipedia*
Rho Ophiuchi, Pipe Nebula, Barnard 68, the Coalsack..."active" is a good word there.

 

Completely enjoyed it. One of my vanishingly rare "Outstanding" ratings.

Interesting, actually having Landon and Palmer featured. Always nice to meet forgotten characters, and find that they're not quite so forgettable.

 

I confess: Landon is in the book because Celeste Yarnall passed away while I was writing it. Seemed like a fitting way to pay my respects.

Palmer is there simply because I needed Uhura elsewhere.

 

Hmm. I wonder if "nabbia tea" has any connection thereto.

 

What in the world is that? I can't find any hits for it on Google.

Anyway, Khan was paraphrasing Moby Dick -- in this case, Ahab's line "I'll chase him round Good Hope, and round the Horn, and round the Norway maelstrom, and round perdition's flames before I give him up!" ("He tasks me" and Khan's final "From Hell's heart..." speech are also Ahab quotes.) But it's unclear where Bennett or Meyers or Sowards or whoever got "Nibia" from. It sounds like it's meant to sound like Nubia or Libya or something like that.

For years, before I learned it was spelled "Nibia," I could swear Khan had said "the moons of Nebir." I still think that's a cooler name.

 

It's an alien tea that figures in the plot. I just made up the word.