FatherRob said:
Janeway's appearance alone was enough.
The lines fell flat, there was no reason that Janeway had to be there. There was nothing distinct (save for the part about Mark) that really struck me as Janeway-esque... and I didn't see a reason for the diversion.
I needed a Starfleet science officer at that point, and since it was a prominent character, I wanted it to be someone familiar. Janeway was the only established character I could think of who was a science officer in 2359.
I could have sworn that Elias Vaughn got mentioned at least once.
Alluded to twice, but I didn't think your complaint extended to passing mentions of a character's name. Anyway, he's already been established as a longtime friend of Picard's, so it makes sense that he'd come up from time to time.
Karapleedeez was a very welcome addition, and had a substantially meaningful role... but the sheer number of people... not all of them had to be involved in the aspects of Picard's life discussed in TBA.
Maybe not, but that's a matter of taste. As I saw it, given how many old friends of Picard's we met over the course of the series, it would've been kind of redundant to leave them out and add even more old friends and colleagues we'd never heard of. And I wanted to give more weight to these old friendships than just the single isolated appearances we got onscreen.
Also, as I discuss on my site, I was aware of the difficulties of telling a prequel story, knowing that its events would not be alluded to in the series that followed. Part of the reason I put in so many continuity ties is so that it would feel as though these events had followups in TNG itself -- in this case, that Picard's friendships with these characters had their basis at least partly in the events of the book.
I dunno, I didn't really take Janeway being all that friendly... no more so than any other Admiral that called to badger Picard (for example, Admiral Blackwell in "The Pegasus"). If Picard and Janeway had exchanged any dialouge of substance in Nemesis then I could understand it...
The novel
Homecoming portrayed Picard and Janeway as being on warm, familiar terms at the time
Voyager returned to the Alpha Quadrant. I was tying in to that as well. But I guess you don't like ties to other novel series -- to each his own.
The Universe is big. No need to make it artifically small.
I think it would be a lot more artificial if none of the old friends and colleagues Picard was established to have in TNG had appeared at any point during the nine years prior.
I guess my problem is that it seems that it was four or five years of playing Ahab and the Whale, and then getting rewarded for that. I don't work for Starfleet, but I would have had Picard's ass on a spit pretty quickly. He did seem comprimised, first with Quinn, then with Hanson. He wasn't fit for command in his state(s) and should never have been given the Enterprise.
The length and focus of the novel didn't leave me room to do more than allude to all the deft diplomatic and strategic work he did while serving under Admiral Hanson. Yes, he was personally obsessed with pursuing the Manraloth, but for three years he had no leads to follow and kept occupied doing the other work Hanson assigned him. To him, those things felt like distractions from his real purpose, but he still did them well and Starfleet appreciated his accomplishments. (And if any of my colleagues ever wanted to do a novel exploring those three years between Parts III and IV, I'd be interested to see that.)
I almost started a tally chart... composers, directors, etc... but that would have been kinda silly... right.
Didn't I kinda do that on my annotations page?
ronny said:
I rather enjoyed the book and wasn't put off by the references... I like the story and writing and would give it thumbs up.
Thank you!
But yeah, thought BA was good and am looking forward to Christopher's TNG novel which I believe is coming out next year.
Yep, August '08. Which means there's a chance it might debut at Shore Leave. Well, assuming I get it done on time...
Arpy said:
FWIW, I too thought Janeway's appearance was in keeping with the Treklit's Small-Universe Syndrome. At least it was just her in this one, but IMHO it shouldn't have been her.
Well, sorry, but I like Janeway. Not the Janeway of later seasons, maybe, but the early Janeway developed by Jeri Taylor and Michael Piller, definitely.
I knew I heard the name "Karapleedeez" before! Wasn't she supposed to be Greek?
Some have speculated that based on the way the name sounded. Canonically, all that's known is that Onna Karapleedeez was a noted Starfleet captain of unknown sex and species who died in late 2364.
Christopher, throw in a Greek in your next work and we'll call it even.
Well, there is a character whose mother is named Antigone.
Though one thing that did bother me was Ariel's "ascension" at the end. I didn't buy that "metamorphosing" into an incorporeal life-form was as quick and easy a process as that. Some of her contemporaries managed the process, okay, but it didn't work for me it being as easy as her wanting it to happen.
It wasn't. She'd already set the process in motion some time before -- this was just its culmination. The scene took place over three weeks after she and her fellows made the decision to ascend/transcend/sublime/whatever.
For precedent, consult TNG's "Transfigurations" or VGR's "The Gift," both of which show the final transition to incorporeality taking place in moments.
On the up-side, none of the production crew names meant a thing to me, and half of the "little people" I didn't remember but appreciated them being there later. And, again, it wouldn't have worked if there weren't enough new characters to fill out the universe. Kudos using a "Korolev Class" ship for this very reason.
Actually, the Korolev Class comes from an onstage Okudagram and the
ST Encyclopedia:
http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Korolev_class
Although the vessel name
USS Puttkamer was my own coinage, after the NASA engineer who was the science advisor for ST:TMP.
