Spoilers TTN: Synthesis by James Swallow Review Thread

[Julio Angel Ortiz]

I received a call Thursday from a local bookstore that my copy of Synthesis had arrived. I picked up yesterday and finished it today. I have posted a review over at my site:

http://voxbomb.net/post/215892702

In short: A great addition by Swallow to the series. SecondGen White-Blue turned out to be one of my favorite characters in the book, and the Sentry Coalition turned out to be a very well-developed race. Plenty of high-concepts here mixed in with action and character drama. Very nicely done, and fits in perfectly with Titan's mission statement for exploration.

Thoughts?

 

[RikerLover]

Re: Star Trek: Titan - Synthesis: Discuss / Grade <SPOILERS>

I'm waiting patientlyfor my copy. If it's like the last few Trek novels, my local B&N will probably have it on Thursday or Friday of this week.

 

[fleetcaptain]

Re: Star Trek: Titan - Synthesis: Discuss / Grade <SPOILERS>

Hopefully they will cause my local B&N didn't even have copies of the Romulan War yet on friday. It finally arrived yesterday.

 

[Man of Steel]

Re: Star Trek: Titan - Synthesis: Discuss / Grade <SPOILERS>

I think this is the first time a Trek book came out immediately after another one.

 

[Julio Angel Ortiz]

Re: Star Trek: Titan - Synthesis: Discuss / Grade <SPOILERS>

I think this is the first time a Trek book came out immediately after another one.

You mean after Unworthy? Wasn't it the standard month?

 

[Man of Steel]

Re: Star Trek: Titan - Synthesis: Discuss / Grade <SPOILERS>

I think this is the first time a Trek book came out immediately after another one.

You mean after Unworthy? Wasn't it the standard month?

Well Romulan war just came out on Monday.

 

[Julio Angel Ortiz]

Re: Star Trek: Titan - Synthesis: Discuss / Grade <SPOILERS>

I think this is the first time a Trek book came out immediately after another one.

You mean after Unworthy? Wasn't it the standard month?

Well Romulan war just came out on Monday.

Ah, that's a trade, though, right? I think it can vary when they come out per their release date- could be a few weeks before or after. It's pretty cool for the hardcore fan that it came so soon to Synthesis though.

 

[Man of Steel]

Re: Star Trek: Titan - Synthesis: Discuss / Grade <SPOILERS>

Wish it was like that all the time though

 

[Manisphere]

Re: Star Trek: Titan - Synthesis: Discuss / Grade <SPOILERS>

I'm waiting with a fair amount of anticipation for this book to ship from Chapters. I just liked the sound of the plot.

Interesting to see one vote for excellent and one for poor. Trek fans are even more splintered taste wise than SW fans.

Great review, Julio. However, I would like to know why it got the poor vote.

 

[Julio Angel Ortiz]

Re: Star Trek: Titan - Synthesis: Discuss / Grade <SPOILERS>

Great review, Julio. However, I would like to know why it got the poor vote.

Thanks for the compliment on the review. And I didn't give the book a poor vote; I was the first one to vote and I gave it the "Excellent". I have no idea who gave the Poor rating, but was surprised.

 

[Manisphere]

Re: Star Trek: Titan - Synthesis: Discuss / Grade <SPOILERS>

Great review, Julio. However, I would like to know why it got the poor vote.

Thanks for the compliment on the review. And I didn't give the book a poor vote; I was the first one to vote and I gave it the "Excellent". I have no idea who gave the Poor rating, but was surprised.

Perhaps I worded my sentence improperly. Clearly you gave it the excellent based on your review.

 

[ronny]

Re: Star Trek: Titan - Synthesis: Discuss / Grade <SPOILERS>

Great review, Julio. However, I would like to know why it got the poor vote.

Thanks for the compliment on the review. And I didn't give the book a poor vote; I was the first one to vote and I gave it the "Excellent". I have no idea who gave the Poor rating, but was surprised.

Perhaps I worded my sentence improperly. Clearly you gave it the excellent based on your review.

Polls can be set up so we can see how people voted. I'm not sure how it's done but here are the results for Unworthy.

http://www.trekbbs.com/poll.php?do=showresults&pollid=3659

 

[Rosalind]

Re: Star Trek: Titan - Synthesis: Discuss / Grade <SPOILERS>

it's one of the options you can select when posting a poll. personally, when it comes to grading polls, I prefer to tick that option, it stops people voting 'poor' before an episode, or a book, comes out.

 

[Jim Gamma]

Re: Star Trek: Titan - Synthesis: Discuss / Grade <SPOILERS>

I have this and The Romulan War on pre-order with Book Depository; they're usually pretty good, and have stuff in at the same time as the US. Alas, they've not got either of them in yet... usually by now they've at least sent a "Your pre-order is in" e-mail...

I blame the Royal Mail.

 

[Judith Sisko]

Re: Star Trek: Titan - Synthesis: Discuss / Grade <SPOILERS>

Excellent book! Has replaced "Orion's Hounds" as my favorite Titan novel.

Will try to explain in more detail later.

 

[Manisphere]

Re: Star Trek: Titan - Synthesis: Discuss / Grade <SPOILERS>

Dang. Mine didn't ship yet. I'm not sure why Star Wars books ship two weeks early from Chapters but Trek isn't even shipping on time. Amazon has had it in stock for over a week. Last time I use Chapters.

 

[Ayelbourne]

Re: Star Trek: Titan - Synthesis: Discuss / Grade <SPOILERS>

Overall a pretty good book and an enjoyable read.
I got a kick out of all those little references to other Sci-Fi Franchises, like leafs on the wind, moons that are not moons but space stations, or machine ghosts.

Just two things that I didn't like.

1. I'm generally not a fan of technobabble solutions, especially when they are used in crucial situations. So the dekyon field solution during the attack on Titan bugged me.

2. I would have preferred if the Titan avatar had remained on board instead of White-Blue. Nothing against White-Blue, I liked it, but I think having Titan become an actual character to develop would have held more potential.

 

[Judith Sisko]

Re: Star Trek: Titan - Synthesis: Discuss / Grade <SPOILERS>

but I think having Titan become an actual character to develop would have held more potential.

I thought of this possibility, too, but:

A. it's too reminiscent of "Andromeda"

B. the avatar was necessary for the Synthesis (hence, the book's title)

 

[JD]

Re: Star Trek: Titan - Synthesis: Discuss / Grade <SPOILERS>

but I think having Titan become an actual character to develop would have held more potential.

I thought of this possibility, too, but:

A. it's too reminiscent of "Andromeda"

B. the avatar was necessary for the Synthesis (hence, the book's title)

Not to mention New Frontier and Morgan Primus.

 

[Julio Angel Ortiz]

Re: Star Trek: Titan - Synthesis: Discuss / Grade <SPOILERS>

but I think having Titan become an actual character to develop would have held more potential.

I thought of this possibility, too, but:

A. it's too reminiscent of "Andromeda"

B. the avatar was necessary for the Synthesis (hence, the book's title)

Not to mention New Frontier and Morgan Primus.

Yeah, this was a concern of mine when Titan first showed up... but I figured I'd let it ride out and see. I wound up happy with the results.