Spoilers TOS: The Captain's Oath by Christopher L. Bennett Review Thread

Re: the name of another floating city:
Every time I hear of Aristophanes' The Birds, I immediately think of a 1972 episode of The Odd Couple, in which Oscar (Jack Klugman) and Felix (Tony Randall) made an appearance, partnered with each other, on the old Password game show (with guest stars Allen Ludden and Betty White as themselves).

 

From context, I'm guessing that Felix used "Aristophanes" as a clue for the password "birds" and Oscar was stumped? I saw something very similar happen in real life on a Celebrity Password episode in the '80s or so, in which the password was "whirlpool" and M*A*S*H's William Christopher totally stumped his teammate with the clue "Charybdis."

 

Exactly. And then, after a heated argument about how ridiculous a clue it was (and let's face it, he also wrote The Wasps and The Frogs [which got alluded to in "Plato's Stepchildren"], among other plays), Oscar growled out "Aristophanes," and Felix, after a moment's thought, correctly guessed "ridiculous."

 

This book showed up in the mail today. I'm a few chapters in before i had to head back to work.

 

Ordered my copy through B&N, and should be here soon, according to what the website's telling me.

 

Got my copy and have just started. About 50 pages in

 

Hmm. It would seem that I just cast the very first vote on this one.

"Above Average." It would have been "Outstanding" except for one small matter: I found it a little hard to keep the parallel plot threads in different eras straight.

And I can count the "Outstanding" ratings I've given on one hand, with fingers left over.

 

I got my book yesterday. I'm looking forward to reading another Captain Kirk story before he commanded the Enterprise.

 

Started today. 40+ pages in.

 

It’s finally out and I should be getting it later today. I’m sure it will be good since Christopher always brings his a game to his Trek novels.

 

Christopher mentioned in a recent interview that he was indeed playing it deliberately vague with describing the uniforms worn by the various characters in the novel (due to the recent "Discovery-factor"), allowing us to visualize things however we please while reading:

https://treksphere.com/interviews/the-christopher-l-bennett-interview/

 

I started this book last night and I really like story so far.I really like the Andorian Science officer Sherev on the Sacajewa she's a great character.

 

Just as I always picture Kirk as William Shatner, I always picture the pre-TOS era as having the ribbed collar uniforms from "The Cage" and "WNMHGB." I don't expect that to ever change.

 

I admit, I had to smile over the cleverness of having one of the few times a uniform is described in the book, it's a science officer talking about their blue uniform, because either way, they would be wearing blue because all those outfits are blue. If we imagine them wearing a Disco uniform, of course it's blue. If they're wearing a Cage/WNMHGB uniform they're still wearing blue because as a science officer, blue is their department colour.

 

That is literally exactly what I was thinking when I wrote that.

 

My copy finally came in the mail. Looking forward to reading it.

This will actually be the first book I'll read by Christopher since I joined TrekBBS. I'll of course post my own thoughts about it like I do most of the books I read. But I expect I'll enjoy it as it's been years since a book was published that I didn't care for.

And I always love books that take place during critical periods. In this case Kirk's first command and early days on the Enterprise. It's the same reason I loved Lost Era books, Lost Years novels, and books that take place during periods of time not covered in canon.

I believe this is the first novel to describe Kirk's taking command of the Enterprise since Enterprise: The First Adventure. I already expressed my disappointment with that story including during my recent re-reading of it. Other books have flirted with Kirk's first year of command, My Brother's Keeper: Enterprise was probably one that got the closest to taking it on but even that book avoided tackling it directly. I'm looking forward to reading a novel that I imagine is consistent with Where No Man Has Gone Before.

As I do with most modern books I actually read the acknowledgments first, as it gives some insight into where an author got their inspiration and some sources for their information. I was sorry to read Christopher was having some financial difficulties for a time. Sometimes we forget authors don't exactly have a steady weekly salary. Makes me feel bad about complaining about the cost of trades (though I was always careful not to say I didn't think the authors were worth their pay--only that it was just a such a sudden increase at one time).

 

One thing I noticed in my recent re-read of E:The First Adventure is McIntyre did describe the uniforms and it was clear it was the normal series uniform (with the black collar) even though the inside cover showed Kirk/Spock/McCoy in pilot uniforms.

Gives credence to the idea that she was ignoring elements of WNMHGB (though keeping some elements). I'm excited to get to read an origin story more consistent with the pilots. It feels like an important untold story is finally being told in book-format.

 

Treksphere has posted a very flattering review:

https://treksphere.com/book-reviews/review-exploring-kirks-first-command-in-the-captains-oath

 

It's amazing the impact Discovery series has already had on me. I keep picturing interiors of Kirk''s ship in 2261 matching the looks of the starfleet look in Discovery. Hell, I even keep picturing Kirk in the Discovery uniform.