Destiny: Gods of Night

[Starbreaker]

Mere Mortals is my new favorite Trek book. Wow.

So, now it's

1. Destiny: Mere Mortals
2. Mission Gamma: Twilight
3. Millennium Trilogy
4. Fire Ship
5. Behind Enemy Lines / Tunnel Through the Stars

Off to read Lost Souls now!

 

[Garm Bel Iblis]

make room for number one on the list.

Capt Bateson: "Once more unto the breach!"

 

[Starbreaker]

Is book three that good? Do I need to skip work tomorrow?

 

[TerraUnam]

Yes, it is that good. Damn good. It's an emotional roller-coaster and there's a lot to the Hernandez story in there, so it's worth re-reading on its own to savour the finer points.

I find Mere Mortals to be depressing, very good, emotionally laden, but depressing. It can wear you out before you get to Lost Souls.

 

[Starbreaker]

I've finally hit a slow part in Lost Souls. They're about to get Erika into position as the Borg Queen and I am just having trouble reading about these characters I don't care about!

 

[Thrawn]

That's the part with the Aventine crew, and Kedair leading the invasion of the sphere, yes? That was actually one of my favorite parts; Kedair was one of my favorite new characters in the trilogy.

Yet again demonstrating that you can't please everyone

 

[Starbreaker]

That's the part with the Aventine crew, and Kedair leading the invasion of the sphere, yes? That was actually one of my favorite parts; Kedair was one of my favorite new characters in the trilogy.

Yet again demonstrating that you can't please everyone

No, you can't. That Hirogen stuff was top notch. I don't think it's the author's fault. I've just read too many Borg in close quarter combat chapters this month.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

The Hernandez/Caeliar stuff in that book is just so incredible, isn't it?

Indeed....

I like they way they enhanced Hernandez....

 

[Myasishchev]

This book just isn't good.

I know the words are transposed on accident, but that sums up how I felt about it.

(Hernandez and Inyx and Titan and Bacco parts excepted, because those were great. All the rest seemed to be filler, almost deliberately so at parts, like the fight with the Hirogen. As a Titan one-shot it would have been truly excellent... but 1200 pages were 800 too many.)

 

[TerraUnam]

Whereas I thought the Hirogen battles were the worst part of the trilogy, but Hernandez' Change was a superb piece of writing. To each his own.

 

[Thrawn]

This book just isn't good.

I know the words are transposed on accident, but that sums up how I felt about it.

(Hernandez and Inyx and Titan and Bacco parts excepted, because those were great. All the rest seemed to be filler, almost deliberately so at parts, like the fight with the Hirogen. As a Titan one-shot it would have been truly excellent... but 1200 pages were 800 too many.)

Whereas I thought that the Bacco stuff, though followed up on in A Singular Destiny well, was a whole giant blind alley that wasn't really necessary within the trilogy, and that the Titan stuff was often tonally inappropriate (especially Troi's pregnancy)...whereas anything that happened aboard the Aventine had my rapt attention.

Ultimately, I think it's pretty exciting that there was such a variety of flavors and storylines; something to appeal to everyone. I even read somewhere someone really irritated with how long all the Hernandez stuff took, and who kept wanting to get back to the crews he knew and cared about.

I'm not sure I'd be comfortable calling anything in the trilogy "filler", based on the other reviews I've seen of people responding strongly to pieces I personally disliked.

 

[Myasishchev]

Even if you were entertained by it (which is fine), I think characterizing the Hirogen stuff as filler is totally appropriate.

See, I liked the Bacco stuff because it actually gave a god's-eye-view of the destruction, which was necessary to the piece.

 

[Thrawn]

I recall David Mack, at one point, posting that the Hirogen stuff was specifically designed to provide inspiration for tactics used in the next action sequence, in Lost Souls. It's been over a year since I read either the books or his post, so I don't remember the details very much, but I remember it making sense at the time.

Could he have done that another way? Sure, probably. But I still feel like "filler" is the wrong word to use; I don't think anything in there was designed to just add pages. It was all thought out and included for a reason.

 

[Starbreaker]

This book just isn't good.

I know the words are transposed on accident, but that sums up how I felt about it.

I actually did that on purpose...

 

[TerraUnam]

Picky point: Maybe I'm just being sensitive, but why make two of the first three Borg drones Canadian?

OK, I am Canadian, but does that serve any purpose other than getting to make a few cold weather jokes and tossing in a couple of sacres?

Or just having fun with Canadians a la Eddington?

 

[Starbreaker]

Read the last half of the book in one sitting this morning (and half of Losing the Peace).

Trys Chen and Erika Hernandez in the same scene = comic genius. I could just imagine her getting on Erika's every last nerve.

Also... what was that about Bateson throwing "bad grammar" at the Borg? Groan...

The epilogue is fantastic. What a great end to a great trilogy. I did kinda get choked up a couple of times. I still think the middle book is best, but his was a fitting conclusion.

 

[Thrawn]

Sweet, glad you liked it. Losing The Peace is pretty great too, ain't it?

 

[Starbreaker]

So far. I'm probably going to read this and A Singular Destiny and that will probably be it for ST for a while.

 

[TerraUnam]

Losing the Peace is a great book. Chen comes into her own there. I look forward to her next appearance (hopefully) in Paths of Disharmony.

Besides, won't that book be the due date for Baby Picard or is Beverly Crusher going to have one epic pregnancy?

 

[JD]

What makes you think that the next book will have the Picard/Crusher baby being born?