Your favorite Vanguard characters

[Kilana2]

After postponing Vanguard for years I finally started to acquire the novels because I was curious about anoter off-screen ST series and it was highly recommended.
What kept me from reading it in the first place was a bad editing of the German translation. I admit, they have improved their editing over the years.
My second reservation: I wasn´t sure if I´m able to get myself involved with new character.
I have finished Vanguard 3. Nr. 4 and 5 are waiting for me and I´m planning to read the rest of the novels in the next several month.
There are several characters who stick out for me: Reyes, Desai, Tim Pennington, Cervantes Quinn and Jetanien.....

But my favorite character so far is T´Prynn. I have heard that David Mack has received unfair critics about her being romantically involved with the female Klingon spy. That´s her private life and I respect that she is attracted to females. Because of the Katra of her former fiancé she is deeply troubled and fights his influence in her head.

I´m anxious to read more about her. And I´d like to thank the Vanguard authors for creating such a complex character .

So what Vanguard characters do you like best?

 

[Captain Clark Terrell]

Vanguard: Desai, Pennington, Quinn, Reyes

USS Endeavour: Khatami, Klisiewicz, Leone, Stano

USS Sagittarius: McClellan, Terrell

--Sran

 

[David Mack]

What kept me from reading it in the first place was a bad editing of the German translation. I admit, they have improved their editing over the years.

I'm sorry to hear this. Because I don't speak German, I wasn't sure how good the translations and editing were on those editions. I always worry that my English-specific idioms will get lost in translation.

There are several characters who stick out for me: Reyes, Desai, Tim Pennington, Cervantes Quinn and Jetanien.....

But my favorite character so far is T´Prynn. I have heard that David Mack has received unfair critics about her being romantically involved with the female Klingon spy. That´s her private life and I respect that she is attracted to females. Because of the Katra of her former fiancé she is deeply troubled and fights his influence in her head.

I've never made any secret of the fact that T'Prynn was my favorite character in the Vanguard saga. I didn't create her, per se — she first appeared in a flashback scene in the DS9 Mission Gamma novel Lesser Evil — but I developed most of her backstory in Harbinger and Reap the Whirlwind.

As for her sexuality...

Spoiler: T'Prynn, Vanguard Books 4 and 5

There was speculation among some readers that it was caused by her being possessed by the katra of her dead fiancé, but in the later books I made it clear that she was gay by nature, and it was her desire not to be forced into a heterosexual marriage that led her to challenge Sten for her freedom (thereby setting that whole tragic sequence of events into motion).

I´m anxious to read more about her. And I´d like to thank the Vanguard authors for creating such a complex character .

Thanks for sharing this — it's always gratifying to hear from readers who become as attached to my characters as I do.

 

[Kilana2]

As I said, the editing of the Cross Cult novels improved over time. And as I read also novels in English I can say there are novels with bad editing, too. Dafydd ab Hughs Rebels trilogy is full or content errors, whereas the story itself is not bad per se.

Christian Humberg and all the other translators do a great job with translating the novels, hats off!

There are things that can´t be translated literally and must be adapted. There are novels I have read both in English and German and I prefer the original one.

As someone with a university degree in sociology I´m fine with reading English texts, novels, scientific papers. As Greg Cox mentioned in another thread, the important thing is to get the gist of the matter. By reading his Foul deeds he made me rewatch the TOS Kodos episode in English.

Back to Vanguard: I´m spoiler resistent, otherwise I it would be the wrong place here for me. I even looked up what happened to the station. I shouldn´t have done that, but I will continue reading nonetheless.

 

[aventinelover]

I always like Quinn. Spoilers ahead..... From the incredibly low point he started in, to getting sober, working for (off the books) and with Starfleet, some of his backstory slowly coming out, falling in love, losing it all and then his final redemption was fun and fascinating to be a part of. I was sorry to see him disappear the way he did at the end, but still, the way it happened let me think he went off to another quadrant to get in trouble in and hopefully fall in love again. I always pictured Tim Thomerson (Trancers, Dollman) as the perfect guy to play him.

 

[Claudia]

Reyes is my favourite character - or rather the one I like most.

The most complex character maybe is T'Prynn, however. I especially enjoyed her interaction with the other characters books #4+.

And @ Kilana:

Why not read all the books in English? They are way cheaper than the translations if you buy online (which is kind of strange, honestly - 7 Euros for the original novel, 13 for the tranlation?!?), and I can't imagine that you'd have any troubles reading them given your posts here.

 

[Kilana2]

Reyes is my favourite character - or rather the one I like most.

The most complex character maybe is T'Prynn, however. I especially enjoyed her interaction with the other characters books #4+.

And @ Kilana:

Why not read all the books in English? They are way cheaper than the translations if you buy online (which is kind of strange, honestly - 7 Euros for the original novel, 13 for the tranlation?!?), and I can't imagine that you'd have any troubles reading them given your posts here.

I have the first five Vanguard novels in German, number 4 and 5 still to read. I may as well resort to the English novels when it comes to Nr. 7. Cross Cult took several ST novels out of stock, the Vanguard novels among them. Nr. 7 is currently unavailable. First I want to read all the Vanguard novels, then I decide about "Seekers".

Ebooks are not an option. I don´t read ebooks at the moment. As for the future I will see. On the other hand I don´t want to miss out ebooks like "Lust´s Latinum lost and Found" or Christopher´s DTI ebook novella.

I know that the originals are cheaper. But Cross Cult has sometimes new Covers, nicely designed by Martin Frei.

 

[Masao]

It has to be Ambassador Jetanien. Because he's some kind of giant turtle with, perhaps, a shiny frame around his head, he always caused my mind go on an imaginary adventure. What human actor provided his character?

 

[Christopher]

^The Vanguard bible didn't offer a specific actor template for Jetanien, as far as I recall. For myself, I've always imagined him speaking with Roscoe Lee Browne's voice.

 

[Kilana2]

^The Vanguard bible didn't offer a specific actor template for Jetanien, as far as I recall. For myself, I've always imagined him speaking with Roscoe Lee Browne's voice.

That name rang a bell. Wasn´t he BOX in Logan´s Run?

 

[Paris]

My favorite Vanguard characters were Tim Pennington, Cervantes Quinn, Diego Reyes, Ming Xiong and T'Prynn. I also really liked Terrell and Mike Ilucci on Sagitarrius

 

[Christopher]

^The Vanguard bible didn't offer a specific actor template for Jetanien, as far as I recall. For myself, I've always imagined him speaking with Roscoe Lee Browne's voice.

That name rang a bell. Wasn´t he BOX in Logan´s Run?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roscoe_Lee_Browne

An accomplished actor of the stage and screen with a grand, Shakespearean delivery. He was also the voice of Kingpin in the '90s Spider-Man animated series.

 

[David Mack]

It has to be Ambassador Jetanien. Because he's some kind of giant turtle with, perhaps, a shiny frame around his head, he always caused my mind go on an imaginary adventure. What human actor provided his character?

I've always imagined him having the voice of Liam Neeson.

 

[Mage]

It has to be Ambassador Jetanien. Because he's some kind of giant turtle with, perhaps, a shiny frame around his head, he always caused my mind go on an imaginary adventure. What human actor provided his character?

I've always imagined him having the voice of Liam Neeson.

Damn, didn't see that coming. Now I picture him talking like Rob Roy.

There really isn't a character in Vanguard I didn't like. And if I didn't like them, it was because they were supposed to be disliked.
The team behind these novels really did a great job in making humans human, and the aliens intriguing.

 

[Kilana2]

^The Vanguard bible didn't offer a specific actor template for Jetanien, as far as I recall. For myself, I've always imagined him speaking with Roscoe Lee Browne's voice.

That name rang a bell. Wasn´t he BOX in Logan´s Run?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roscoe_Lee_Browne

An accomplished actor of the stage and screen with a grand, Shakespearean delivery. He was also the voice of Kingpin in the '90s Spider-Man animated series.

Ah, I was right. Nice to see the face behind the name. He isn´t recognizable as Box in Logan´s run, contrary to Sir Peter Ustinov.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Speaking of Jetanien, I think he comes into his own in the second half of the series. He's a perfectly good character from the start, but I found that Nimbusian Jetanien was more engaging than Vanguardian Jetanien.

(I really appreciate how the series was willing to move characters forward and change the existing dynamics. By the time that all three members of the Vanguard Ruling Triumvirate have moved on, and it becomes clear that they're not coming back, at least not to fill that role again, I was quite impressed).

 

[borgboy]

T'Prynn is my favorite character too. I loved her strength and personality, her history and troubles. That she was also a well developed gay lead character was a real plus for me as a gay man.

And this may seem weird but I kind of identified with her for having her dead fiancee in her head. I was in a really bad relationship for awhile, he was abusive including verbally, and it took awhile for me to get his "voice" out of my head if that makes sense.

 

[Kilana2]

T'Prynn is my favorite character too. I loved her strength and personality, her history and troubles. That she was also a well developed gay lead character was a real plus for me as a gay man.

And this may seem weird but I kind of identified with her for having her dead fiancee in her head. I was in a really bad relationship for awhile, he was abusive including verbally, and it took awhile for me to get his "voice" out of my head if that makes sense.

What fascinates me about T´Prynn is, that despite her troubles she keeps on fighting her Ex mentally and she is stubborn in her own right. Giving in is not an option. I have recently finished Vanguard 3. That´s when T´Prynn had her breakdown.

 

[David Mack]

T'Prynn is my favorite character too. I loved her strength and personality, her history and troubles. That she was also a well developed gay lead character was a real plus for me as a gay man.

This is also part of why she's my favorite (followed closely by Cervantes Quinn). She's a gay woman, but that's only one small facet of who she is, and it's far from the most important — and it's not what really drives her.

In the saga's first few books, she's compelled by pain and paranoia to pursue the goals of "national security." Later, freed of some of her demons, she is motivated by a need to atone for her past actions and better herself as a person through noble action.

And this may seem weird but I kind of identified with her for having her dead fiancee in her head. I was in a really bad relationship for awhile, he was abusive including verbally, and it took awhile for me to get his "voice" out of my head if that makes sense.

That was the idea, to take the idea of being haunted by one's past relationships and make it literal rather than figurative.

What fascinates me about T´Prynn is, that despite her troubles she keeps on fighting her Ex mentally and she is stubborn in her own right. Giving in is not an option. I have recently finished Vanguard 3. That´s when T´Prynn had her breakdown.

That was a painful scene for me to write. I got deep inside her head and made myself really feel those moments while I wrote them. It was an intense couple of nights' work.

 

[Kilana2]

What fascinates me about T´Prynn is, that despite her troubles she keeps on fighting her Ex mentally and she is stubborn in her own right. Giving in is not an option. I have recently finished Vanguard 3. That´s when T´Prynn had her breakdown.

That was a painful scene for me to write. I got deep inside her head and made myself really feel those moments while I wrote them. It was an intense couple of nights' work.

Thanks for sharing these moments with us.