Star Trek: First Frontier (#75) by Diane Carey & Dr. James Kirkland

[marlboro]

Sorry I’d have to disagree with you. That quote about the Enterprise, that’s like another author saying that a human character came from a long pedigree of heroes (like policemen, firemen or knights).

And the showroom girls clip, I think I’ve read worst in David R.George III’s long and wordy novels.

As for the clipped quote, it was a poor Tom Swifty.

I thought a Tom Swifty had to be a pun? I don't have the balls to disagree about the definition of the term "Tom Swifty" with a guy named Tom Swift, I reply testily.

I don't have a problem with occasionally anthropomorphising the ship, but the way she does it in the example sentence is terrible. "She clung to her reputation." She did so with "dispassion." I mean, I guess it's accurate, seeing as how an inanimate object isn't likely to display a lot of passion , but come on.

And don't even get me started on that " cheap wig" bit.

PS I agree with you about DRG's prolix writing style. Despite that, he has written some very good books, imo.

 

[Damian]

In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have cluttered up your positive review thread with my generalized complaints about the author.

I only made it through the first three chapters of "First Frontier. It may have a great plot, and it may not contain any of Carey's infatuation with 18th century sailing. What it does have is sentences like this:

The Enterprise clung to her reputation. Strong and defiant, able to take those body blows with dispassion, she shot toward the accretion disk even as it ripped the giant star’s gorgeous inferno off like a cheap wig.

And this:

No matter the doctor’s low voice, no matter the distracting and horrific beauty of the great star showing its spectra like a dance hall girl flashing her petticoats before them, the words somehow carried.

And needless said-bookisms like this:

“We wouldn’t want to tamper with somebody’s sunshine,” Kirk clipped

I don't think the word clipped can be used like that. Even if it could be, and even if you insist on finding alternatives to simply saying "he said", I'm pretty sure you could find a word that fit better.

The first half of the book is a bit more Diane Careyish, for lack of a better term. But it gets much better as the story gets going. I always love alternate timeline stories and I really started getting into it once they realize something is horribly wrong. It gets even better when they have to travel millions of years in the past to try to fix it. So I'd definitely recommend maybe giving it a second look as the story becomes much better the further into it you get.

It's also an engaging story because this time, unlike many other times, they need to make sure the asteroid hits Earth. Usually in Star Trek stories they have to work to prevent such disasters, but this time, they need to make sure it happens. And it's a bit chilling to realize that in the alternate timeline intelligent dinosaurs evolved, but were a hostile species and were stuck in a destructive loop where they'd develop a civilization only to annihilate themselves and it starts all over again, over and over again. Also chilling to me at least is when they realize there's no crater in the Gulf of Mexico/South America (which is their first sign of the cause). What happened millions of years ago? All stuff that kept me engaged.

 

[Christopher]

It's also an engaging story because this time, unlike many other times, they need to make sure the asteroid hits Earth. Usually in Star Trek stories they have to work to prevent such disasters, but this time, they need to make sure it happens.

That's not so rare in Trek -- there are plenty of time travel stories about making sure a bad thing happened on schedule for the good of the future. In "The City on the Edge of Forever," they had to make sure Edith Keeler died. In "Yesterday's Enterprise," they had to send the Enterprise-C back to its destruction. In "Past Tense," they had to make sure Gabriel Bell was martyred in the Bell Riots. On a smaller scale, in "Tapestry," Picard had to decide to let his younger self get stabbed by a Nausicaan after all. And in "Children of Time," the Defiant crew were willing to let a disaster befall them for the sake of their time-displaced descendants, and when that was prevented, it was questionable whether it was a good thing.

 

[Damian]

That's not so rare in Trek -- there are plenty of time travel stories about making sure a bad thing happened on schedule for the good of the future. In "The City on the Edge of Forever," they had to make sure Edith Keeler died. In "Yesterday's Enterprise," they had to send the Enterprise-C back to its destruction. In "Past Tense," they had to make sure Gabriel Bell was martyred in the Bell Riots. On a smaller scale, in "Tapestry," Picard had to decide to let his younger self get stabbed by a Nausicaan after all. And in "Children of Time," the Defiant crew were willing to let a disaster befall them for the sake of their time-displaced descendants, and when that was prevented, it was questionable whether it was a good thing.

Yeah, true, I was thinking from an immense scale. Usually they would have missions where they would try to prevent such a massive disaster (ala "Deja Q" for instance). This was one of the few times where they had to allow a massive disaster that would cause a mass extinction event actually occur.

 

[marlboro]

The first half of the book is a bit more Diane Careyish, for lack of a better term. But it gets much better as the story gets going. I

I'll give it another shot.

 

[Reanok]

I read this book years ago .It took me forever to finish reading it. It was okay but not one I ever wanted to reread again.