Since Zero's backstory (at least leading up to arrival on Tars Lamora) is completely unknown...we have no idea.
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Spoilers TOS: The Higher Frontier, by Christopher L. Bennett - review thread
- Thread starter Cyfa
- Start date
@Garak234 , I assume you mean The Higher Frontier, as in your other thread? As far as I know, @Christopher hasn't written any New Frontier (and I checked the author list for No Limits just to be sure).
That being said, these two specific questions do not really need to be their own individual threads, so I am going to move them both into the discussion thread for the book. (I will probably also edit part of this thread's title into the body of the post for clarity, since the first half of the question is in the title.)
That being said, these two specific questions do not really need to be their own individual threads, so I am going to move them both into the discussion thread for the book. (I will probably also edit part of this thread's title into the body of the post for clarity, since the first half of the question is in the title.)
They probably don't. I think Zero said recently that they came from a hive mind, and I don't think that's how I portrayed the Medusans, though I guess with telepathic species, they could be individuals and a hive of sorts at the same time. And the Medusans in my book are a fairly wide-ranging civilization, so they could have variants and offshoots. There's nothing totally irreconcilable yet, but it's probably only a matter of time.
I don't fully understand the phrasing of the second question. Psions, as I defined them, are naturally occurring subatomic particles that mediate psionic interactions similarly to how electrons and photons are involved in electromagnetic interactions. You can't "manufacture" subatomic particles. But there is some precedent in Star Trek for technologies that can harness and manipulate psionic energy, such as the Stone of Gol in "Gambit," or presumably Vulcan katric arks or the Arretians' containment globes in "Return to Tomorrow."
What's a Zero?
(Besides the mathematical concept, the Beetle Bailey character, and the late Mr. Mostel.)
(Besides the mathematical concept, the Beetle Bailey character, and the late Mr. Mostel.)
Zero is the Medusan character on Star Trek: Prodigy. And I keep wanting to call them Echo, because they're incorporeal and non-binary, like the digital intelligence Echo from my Tangent Knights audiobook trilogy.
O . . . . . . k.
Zero is what the Medusan character is called by other characters in ST: Prodigy, having to do with his role in the introductory story. The character may have their own name that has not been revealed yet. I like seeing that the Medusans have been appearing in ST fiction again.
They seem content to answer to Zero, and in today's episode, the Diviner addressed them as Zero rather than Prisoner Zero.
Really, there's no reason that an incorporeal being with no mouth or vocal tract would have a name made of phonetic sounds pronounceable to humans. Giving the TOS Medusan the name Kollos made as little sense as defining him as male. I like the approach with Zero better. Whatever identifier they use for themself probably doesn't have a sound; at most, the meaning might be translated into English and used as a name.
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I finally got round to reading the novel after Covid delayed my holidays. I enjoyed it tremendously. As ever, there were some great call-backs to TOS as well as Christopher's earlier novels and characters and it was hard to fathom where the story was going to end up with move and counter move to keep me guessing.
Only two slight disappointments:
1. I loved Miranda as the only TOS female character to tell all the men hitting on her to stfu, so I was a tiny bit disheartened to see her drift towards a more traditional love interest role, albeit with trauma, secrets, and divided loyalties.
2. No Rand! I bang the drum for Rand's inclusion as part of the ensemble and I'm always a bit disappointed if she doesn't at least get a cameo in a TOS novel but in a story where a chunk of the plot is about shielding against transporter incursion, I was surprised to see the ship's transporter chielf completely absent from all discussions. In particular, I would have liked to see her involved in the scene where Sulu, Uhura, and Chekov discuss their future plans, especially given that she maintains her friendship with Sulu far into the future.
But overall, it was a really fun read. A little piece of me died every time one of the background characters from Ex Machina met a terrible end. :_-(
Only two slight disappointments:
1. I loved Miranda as the only TOS female character to tell all the men hitting on her to stfu, so I was a tiny bit disheartened to see her drift towards a more traditional love interest role, albeit with trauma, secrets, and divided loyalties.
2. No Rand! I bang the drum for Rand's inclusion as part of the ensemble and I'm always a bit disappointed if she doesn't at least get a cameo in a TOS novel but in a story where a chunk of the plot is about shielding against transporter incursion, I was surprised to see the ship's transporter chielf completely absent from all discussions. In particular, I would have liked to see her involved in the scene where Sulu, Uhura, and Chekov discuss their future plans, especially given that she maintains her friendship with Sulu far into the future.
But overall, it was a really fun read. A little piece of me died every time one of the background characters from Ex Machina met a terrible end. :_-(
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Yes, they came out while that continuity was still active.
Just posted my review on TrekLit.com.
Definitely enjoyed this one. I love the explanations we get for some of the more out there bits of Star Trek continuity, such as the idea of human "espers" as well as a follow-up on Dr. Miranda Jones and Kollos.
Definitely enjoyed this one. I love the explanations we get for some of the more out there bits of Star Trek continuity, such as the idea of human "espers" as well as a follow-up on Dr. Miranda Jones and Kollos.
Thanks for the flattering review!
I thought this book was really good. Gave it 4/5.
Presumably you could manufacture pseudo-particles and collectives though - as in a condensate or superconductor (likely also in the so-called 'magnatomic' devices of the Franz Joseph tech era, perhaps) and get a fairly similar effect, however?
That would then probably require overlapping fields to somehow maintain, interact with and transfer between (perhaps using kironide and other exotic elements to further bridge gaps...)
Anyway - forgive me: that was largely just a bit of speculative essaying.
Much about collective field theory tends to slip by me from time to time.
Nearly finished with this one! I appreciated the taking up of the 'New Humans' thread from the TMP novelization, especially. The standout for me was the characterization of Clark Terrel. I always liked his character, and I thought this writing (combined with the performance of the audiobook narrator) really worked to brink him to life and give us a look at him in his glory days. And as expected of a Christopher Bennet novel, it is a grand unifier of various disparate concepts that brings in many references and elements and unites them in a single cohesive narrative. The new characters are engaging, and the vision it spins as a tapestry going on behind the scenes of TOS is compelling and unique.
The only downsides? The phrase 'without my consent' was so overused that I started laughing out loud every time it was said- it felt a little setting-breaking, and just a little too frequently invoked (particularly in the back half). And being a 'bridging the films' book, it can feel a little meandering in the middle- more focused on the bridging narrative than anything relevant to its own plot. But by the end, that all seems to have pretty well evened out.
Overall, I enjoyed the setting of Ex Machina a bit better, but I think this is the superior novel plot and original-character-wise. Looking forward to finishing it tomorrow!
The only downsides? The phrase 'without my consent' was so overused that I started laughing out loud every time it was said- it felt a little setting-breaking, and just a little too frequently invoked (particularly in the back half). And being a 'bridging the films' book, it can feel a little meandering in the middle- more focused on the bridging narrative than anything relevant to its own plot. But by the end, that all seems to have pretty well evened out.
Overall, I enjoyed the setting of Ex Machina a bit better, but I think this is the superior novel plot and original-character-wise. Looking forward to finishing it tomorrow!
...Which I did. The material therein made no substantive change to what I had already said. :-)
Having read the annotations, I missed the Kamen Rider influence. In spite of being a big Sentai and daikaiju film fan, Kamen Rider (and Ultraman) remain large gaps within my experience of that genre. However, a number of my friends in the Godzilla fan community would be all over this; I shall have to recommend this novel to them!
Having read the annotations, I missed the Kamen Rider influence. In spite of being a big Sentai and daikaiju film fan, Kamen Rider (and Ultraman) remain large gaps within my experience of that genre. However, a number of my friends in the Godzilla fan community would be all over this; I shall have to recommend this novel to them!
Most of Ultraman is available, though unfortunately only a few Kamen Rider series have gotten an official US release. Hopefully that will change with Toei's new global push. The new season Kamen Rider Zeztz, premiering in less than two weeks, will be the first one to be simulcast in North America like Ultraman is. It hasn't yet been announced where it will stream, though.