Admiral_Young said:
Not to suck up to Christorpher or anything...but dude you're becoming fast my favourite new Trek novelist! The books I've read from you so far are by far one of the most entertaining and detailed composistions I've read. You're right up there with KRAD and Peter David as far as I'm concerned.
Aw, shucks.
Thank you very much.
Then into the years after where Picard has taken up his love of archelogy (which is what I personally thought he would've done after that nicident) and studying ancient civilizations (are you a lisenter of the radio program Coast To Coast AM by any chance Christorpher becuase if you're not, some of the ideas you explore in this novel are discussed with experts and guests in the feilds you cover almost on a nightly basis)
Not familiar with that show, no.
and comes across Ariel. I almost predicted what would happen with Ariel and Picard...knowing Picard's personality during "Farpoint" and the first few seasons. Something must've happen to shut him down emotionally.
That's what I was going for. First we saw Picard as this reserved, aloof figure, but then we kept meeting all these old friends and old flames of his, so I figured he must've been more gregarious in his youth. So I decided to take sort of a
Young Sherlock Holmes approach and depict the events that turned him into the man we knew.
I almost thought that you were going to give a nod to the "Encounter at Farpoint" novelization and reveal that Ariel's real name was the Celeste woman mentiioned in the first chapter, that was maybe the only disapointment I had with this plot.
I considered having her "nickname" be Celeste instead of Ariel, but Gerrold's description of the Picard/Celeste backstory was too different from what I had in mind. Also, Ariel was just too perfect a name.
Another nitpick...was Picard's encounter with some of his senior officers before they meet on the Enterprise. I can understand the arguemenet that he might be familar with some of them (like Tasha and Data for instance) but Deanna seems too much...but still you handled it brillantly and it didn't come off as fanboyish.
Given what an aloof and reserved person Picard is, I figured he had to have known Deanna previously and learned to trust her. He never would've opened up to her the way he did if she'd been someone assigned to him sight unseen.
Also, quoting from my annotations:
Is there evidence that Deanna and Picard knew each other before TNG? In "We'll Always Have Paris," Deanna mentions to Picard that he has a tendency to bottle up personal issues. But at that point, we hadn't seen him dealing with any personal issues, unless you count his discomfort with the Crushers in the first couple of episodes.
Was Captain Holloway an invention of yours?
Thomas Holloway was the captain of the
Enterprise in the alternate timeline seen in "Tapestry." I was asked to incorporate him in TBA so that it would be consistent with another upcoming project.
The scenes between Giri and Q at the end were marvelous...oh as was the inclusion of Janeway...it sort of explains their good nature towards each other in Nemesis!!!
Which actually didn't occur to me at the time, but afterwards, I realized it fit.
Don't worry, the Pocket folks are keeping me pretty busy. Hopefully I'll be able to say more after Shore Leave.
