Vendetta

[Nardpuncher]

I got Vendetta 19 years ago today!

I remember riding my bike up to the local mall looking for it and didn't find it at first in the Trek section...then found it under D for David.

I had so much fun reading that book! It was only about 7 or 8 months since Best of Both Worlds and the Borg were not completely used up yet.
This book provided! It would have worked as a movie because it gave you enough of the space battles you'd want ( I recall there were 3 Borg cubes in the book) and still have a great story.

 

[F. King Daniel]

I loved Vendetta. Big and epic, and with the bizarre mental image of a Borgified Ferengi.

I wasn't expecting Before Dishonor to be a sequel all these years later!

I also much prefered Vendetta's version of warp 10 to the version in "Threshold".

 

[stonester1]

I loved Vendetta. Big and epic, and with the bizarre mental image of a Borgified Ferengi.

I wasn't expecting Before Dishonor to be a sequel all these years later!

I also much prefered Vendetta's version of warp 10 to the version in "Threshold".

Agreed!

 

[chelly]

I remember reading the book and enjoying it. I will have to hunt for it on the shelves and re reading it.

 

[Christopher]

I also much prefered Vendetta's version of warp 10 to the version in "Threshold".

They're the same thing. They both follow the lead of the Sternbach/Okuda warp scale developed for TNG, in which "warp 10" is a label for infinite velocity. Vendetta showed acceleration toward "warp 10" for what it was -- it would take an infinite amount of time to reach infinite speed by acceleration alone, so the "journey" toward warp 10 is an unending one. (Although PAD took considerable poetic license with how that actually manifested itself.) "Threshold" bypassed that problem without explanation (though a passing reference to "quantum warp theory" suggests some kind of quantum leap to an infinite velocity state), and dealt with the effect of reaching infinite speed. Travel time is distance divided by speed, and any number divided by infinity is zero. So at infinite speed, you would cover the distance between any two points, every two points, in zero time, and thus would be at every point in the universe at the same time.

There is, however, nothing in the mathematics of infinity about evolving into salamanders.

 

[RonG]

Vendetta was my first-ever Trek novel, and still a favorite!

In fact, I think I may have seen BOBW *after* reading Vendetta, and it didn't bother me one bit

 

[F. King Daniel]

Christopher: "Threshold" reached warp 10. Vendetta didn't. Thus: NOT THE SAME.

M'kay?

There was brief speculation about Delcara's fate in Before Dishonor. Something vaguly clever sounding involving time, speed and distance.

 

[Christopher]

You referred to their "versions" of warp 10. That phrasing suggests they defined the concept of warp 10 differently, which they did not. If you don't want me to misunderstand you, then take more care to avoid misleading word choices. The only way I can know what you mean is by what you say.

 

[Nardpuncher]

Christopher: "Threshold" reached warp 10. Vendetta didn't. Thus: NOT THE SAME.

M'kay?

There was brief speculation about Delcara's fate in Before Dishonor. Something vaguly clever sounding involving time, speed and distance.

You're right, as it was an asymptotic curve. Delcara got to warp 9.999999999999999999999999999998 whatever but going to 10 is impossible.

 

[garoo1980]

I bought it when it was released and finally reread it about 3 years ago. Its still pretty awesome. True some of the Borg stuff in there has happened in the series since it was published, you have put yourself in the TNG season 4 timeframe, but its a really good book.

 

[Warp Coil]

Vendetta was my first Trek novel. I can't remember exactly when I first read it - sometime in '92, I think. I love it. I've kept it for all these years but never re-read it. Then, when I realized that Before Dishonor was a follow-up, I had to go back and check it out. Still holds up well, all these years later, despite a few continuity issues with the Borg.

 

[BolianAuthor]

Vendetta was the first Trek novel I ever read cover-to-cover in one sitting, and was and still is my favorite Trek novel. I still credit it with being the biggest inspiration for me to start writing my own stuff.

I just loved how the story flowed, and how the characters were depicted... Peter David used humor sparingly, but when he did, he made it work for the scenes in which he used it. And my favorite scene in the whole book has to be when the Tholians enter the picture, and use their famed web on the Doomsday Machine... I've always considered one of Peter David's strong points to be that he can flawlessly merge parts of TOS and TNG together, to tell a great story.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

^^

TOS elements in TNG?

I feel I have to read Vendetta now.

 

[timelord1010]

Vendetta would have made a great movie. It could have been a movie trilogy. You have Guinan's people rescued in Generations, then First Contact, and finish up with Vendetta. Oh well, another missed opportunity.

 

[BolianAuthor]

^

Aye, it totally would have made an awesome TNG movie. It was cinematic in its scope, and would have made a great big screen follow-up to BoBW.

 

[Nardpuncher]

I'm sure I'm not the only one that will sometimes have some line by Picard or Q or Gunan in my head and be baffled as to which episode it's from only later to remember it was something written by Peter David.
He really knew how to write for each character.

In Vendetta the story flowed like a movie also, with minor action scenes scattered through the book with a huge finish.

 

[Sci]

One of the things that strikes me about Vendetta is how it manages to be much more serious than most of Peter David's later works, but does so without falling into over-the-top melodrama the way Before Dishonor does.

 

[Gojirob]

Just the thought-through notion of 'Just what was the Doomsday Machine built to fight anyway' played a major role in my own would-be magnum opus fic.

That aside, Vendetta was just a huge story, when pro-noveling was in its prime. I think the last one I read involved Voyager and a barter culture that kept getting the better of them.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Vendetta was just a huge story, when pro-noveling was in its prime.

Attempting to be in its prime. Who knows what we would have got if Richard Arnold's memos hadn't thwarted the original plans of the authors of "Metamorphosis", "Vendetta", "A Flag Full of Stars", "The Eyes of the Beholders" and many others...

 

[publiusr]

I would love to see artwork of the super Doomsday machine. Here is hoping someone does artwork for ships seen only in novels.