What's wrong with A Time to Be Born & Die?

[Therin of Andor]

I thought the first two books were enjoyable. Certainly there were better books in the series, but I thought they were both solid. For me the characterizations were spot on and I could easily picture the characters saying their lines. So I don't think their the disasters some have made them out to be.

I'm with you. I enjoyed seeing Wesley the Traveler back, and I had no problem with Colleen Cabot - she'd hardly be the first person to let her professionalism slip when she falls in love. I liked never being sure if she was intended to be a new regular (knowing that Picard would eventually be in need of a new counselor), a recurring guest or a red herring.

My only (slight) annoyance was the total lack of faith the admiralty had in Picard. Not too many of them were prepared to go into bat for a man who'd proven his loyalty many times over. But then, the books were supposed to make us frustrated, and sympathize with Starfleet's treatment of Picard and Data.

 

[Tirius]

^^^
I kind of figured that the lack of faith the admiralty showed towards Picard was somewhat natural. He's had a long prestegious career, and has chosen to follow his conscience over his orders on a number of occasions. That's bound to have made him a few enemies in the admiralty. I did enjoy how Necheyev came to his defense despite the number of clashes they've had over the years. She might be a bit tough at times, but I find her generally fair in her judgments. It felt quite in character for her to be appaled by the notion of turning Picard into a scapegoat.

For the rest of the duology, I must admit that I didn't like the Cabot/Wesley romance that much (it felt a bit forced to me), but I thoroughly enjoyed the setting of the Rashanar battle site and the Ontailians. That roughly matches what I thought of Vornholt's Dominion War duology too: I liked the slightly spooky atmosphere created during the crossing of the Badlands, but had my problems with the Ro/Lavelle romance.

 

[Divine]

So far, I'm feeling like captcalhoun and liking Born/Die more than Sow/Harvest. Even with the issues with Cabot and Wesley, the book did pull me in a keep me reading. It set up a lot of questions that I wanted answers to. I'm 100 pages into Harvest and it seems to be taking too long to get to what is really going on and I'm starting to not care. The first 100 pages of Harvest have been a little boring because of 2 reasons. First, it's spending way too much time regurgitating what happened in Sow. Second, we are now reading about another rescue attempt but we already read about one in Sow so it's kind of boring to go through it a second time. But I'm hoping it will now pick up and finish strong.

 

[Trent Roman]

The problem with evaluating the A Time To Series... is whether to do so on the basis of individual books or duologies. Some, like the first two and David Mack's entries, are sufficiently distinct from one another that it is easy to say one was good and another not (although in Mack's case, both were kick-ass). On the other hand, Sow/Harvest and Love/Hate suffer from the Split-Book Syndrome that afflicted many of the duologies of the previous years; however they might have been designed, they feel like one story split in half. So, IMHO, individually Sow or Harvest is better than the weirdness of Die, but collectively is probably the weakest of the duologies in the series (sorry Dayton), slow, low-impact and just generally pedestrian. And yes, the recap-a-thon in Harvest annoyed me, too.

Fictitiously yours, Trent Roman

 

[Dancing Doctor]

I enjoyed all of the A Time to... novels, but even with that being said, there were some that I had to really will myself to fully finish.

Be Born/Die were "okay", in that while they didn't suck, I wouldn't rush to nominate them the best, either. I enjoyed the Rashanar Battle Site, and thought that the ghost ship was sufficiently creepy enough to read on. And the way it explained how the Battle of Rashanar unfolded was interesting. On the other hand, I really had a problem taking the Ontailians seriously, and with the way Picard was offered up to them as a political sacrifice only to have them disrespect the Federation in Articles just bugged me. I thought that the Medusan Commodore was an interesting addition, as was Nechayev being Picard's defense attorney. Honestly, she's my favorite admiral and I was thrilled to see that she got a significant role in A Time to....

I read the series out of order (going Harvest, Hate, War/Peace, Kill, Heal, Be Born, Die, Sow), which might affect the way I perceived it.

 

[Divine]

I made it another 50p into harvest and starfleet was right, Picard should be sent to a mental hospital.

Spoiler: Harvest

In short, Data wakes up, tells Picard of a great idea he came up with to speed up the terraforming process. Since Picard and Data are best buddies and the "simulations" say it will be ok, Picards gives the go ahead 5 min later. What a colossal blunder. How about we actually go to the planet and do some real tests first....an atmospheric sample perhaps? Or better yet, theres this whole terraforming division of Starfleet. Maybe we should run this past them? Or better, let them handle it? But no, Picard is so obsessed about redeeming himself that he'll do anything.

This is the first Trek book I've read so far that has made me a little burnt.

 

[Christopher]

I read the series out of order (going Harvest, Hate, War/Peace, Kill, Heal, Be Born, Die, Sow)

So all you need is Love.

 

[Dayton Ward]

I made it another 50p into harvest and starfleet was right, Picard should be sent to a mental hospital.

...

This is the first Trek book I've read so far that has made me a little burnt.

Well, if/when you read a little more, you'll discover that all is not as it seems at first blush.

 

[Dancing Doctor]

I read the series out of order (going Harvest, Hate, War/Peace, Kill, Heal, Be Born, Die, Sow)

So all you need is Love.

D'oh!

I read Love about the same time as Die

 

[Divine]

I made it another 50p into harvest and starfleet was right, Picard should be sent to a mental hospital.

...

This is the first Trek book I've read so far that has made me a little burnt.

Well, if/when you read a little more, you'll discover that all is not as it seems at first blush.

Tonight, must find out what happens still. Maybe I should finish before jumping to conclusions

 

[Christopher]

I read Love about the same time as Die

Sounds like a Tim Burton film...

 

[rafterman1701]

I dislike it because the whole book is full of our characters acting like stumbling buffoons who are disliked and distrusted by the brass. All to make them seem like the underdogs. Really weak stuff with a poor appearance by Wesley.

 

[Dancing Doctor]

I read Love about the same time as Die

Sounds like a Tim Burton film...

I can't remember if it the order went Love/Die or Die/Love...either way, it's very Burtonesque.

Looking back on my perceptions of the A Time to... series, it starts out above average with Be Born/Die, goes down a little with Sow, rises with Harvest, wobbles up and down with Love, inclines with Hate, and then it's all uphill from Kill, peaking with Heal and remaining level with War/Peace

 

[Christopher]

Looking back on my perceptions of the A Time to... series, it starts out above average with Be Born/Die, goes down a little with Sow, rises with Harvest, wobbles up and down with Love, inclines with Hate, and then it's all uphill from Kill, peaking with Heal and remaining level with War/Peace

I think that with a little effort, I could find a pun in every one of those descriptions. I'm willing to believe that you're brilliant and planned it that way.

 

[Dancing Doctor]

Um, yes...it was all completely planned... *shifty eyes*