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Titan: Over a Torrent Sea blurb

Christopher

Writer
Admiral
The full cover blurb for Over a Torrent Sea is now online at my website, as is my usual behind-the-scenes, non-spoiler discussion of its origins:

http://home.fuse.net/ChristopherLBennett/Trekfiction.html#OaTS

For those too lazy to click the link ;) , here's the blurb:

As the Federation recovers from the devastating events of Star Trek: Destiny, Captain William Riker and the crew of the U.S.S. Titan are ordered to resume their deep-space assignment, reaffirming Starfleet's core principles of peaceful exploration. But even far from home on a mission of hope, the scars of the recent cataclysm remain with them as they slowly rebuild their lives.

The planet Droplet is a world made mostly of water without a speck of solid ground. Life should not exist here, yet it thrives. Aili Lavena, Titan's aquatic navigator, spearheads the exploration of this mysterious world, facing the dangers of the vast, wild ocean. When one native species proves to be sentient, Lavena finds herself immersed in a delicate contact situation, and Riker is called away from Deanna Troi at a critical moment in their marriage.

But when good intentions bring calamity, Lavena and Riker are cut off from the crew and feared lost. Troi must face a life-changing event without her husband, while the crew must brave the crushing pressures of the deep to undo the global chaos they have triggered. Stranded with her injured captain, Lavena must win the trust of the beings who control their fate -- but the price for Riker's survival may be the loss of everything he holds dear.
 
Just finished A Singular Destiny last night, and I'm already jonesing for this one! Christopher, any chance you'll have copies at NYCC, or is it too early for that?
 
Also, cute name for a planet made of water :bolian:
I actually have an issue with that. I love the premise and the hard SF theory is great, but I think a more Greek/Latin-based name would be better-suited, like Hydros or something, or a nod to a film/tv show that the writers love using as in-jokes. That said, I hope that the sentient species have a name for their world which is adopted.

I'm looking forward to OATS.
 
All the Greek and Latin names for water worlds are probably already used up by 2381.

Believe me, it wasn't easy to settle on a name for this world. I've always been partial to Thalassa -- Greek for "the sea" -- but that's a name with existing Trek baggage, as well as being the name of the water world in Arthur C. Clarke's The Songs of Distant Earth.

I originally thought of "Droplet" back when I was thinking of making it a world like the Monean ocean in VGR: "Thirty Days" but naturally occurring. It would've been a good fit for that. But that turned out to be physically impossible. It doesn't work quite as well for this, but I like it anyway. Real scientists don't limit themselves to stuffy, classical names for things; there's a lot of whimsy in their work. Just look at the silly names that the Mars rover teams give to the rocks in the rovers' photos. Titan's crew are out there because they enjoy exploring. It's fun to them. And I wanted this to be a fun book, a lighter adventure after the grimness of Destiny. Besides, the possessive for "Droplet" is "Dropletian," which I think is cool.

Just be glad I never published the original novel this was based on. The planet there had islands with names like This Island Earth, Gilligan's Island, Isle Be in Scotland, Nomanisan Island, the Christopher Reef, the Omar Sha Reef, and the No Trouble Atoll.
 
I'm looking very much forward to this. My brother-in-law preordered it as my christmas gift. (I got him turned on to the Titan books when they first started coming out.)
 
I realize I'm assuming a lot, and blurb writers don't always nail this anyway, but I suppose it was too much to ask for the baby to just be goddamn born on a normal day not in the middle of a crisis?

I'm annoyed at how many shows seem to make the birth of the one baby happen to occur at the same time as a deadly outbreak, or cosmic string collision, or transporter failure, or Sudden Unexpected Starship Duplication, or whatever. It's so meaningless; either the baby lives, or the baby dies, and that'd be true of complications even if there weren't a giant shitstorm of plot convenience swirling around it.

End rant. (And obligatory disclaimers; my own opinion, maybe I'm totally wrong about the story, maybe I'm right but I'll love it anyway, etc etc. Just going on first reaction here; this is always something that's bugged me.)
 
Nomanisan Island is the island in Pixar's The Incredibles...

A latecomer. The same joke was used (spelled Nomanissan Island) in an episode of PBS's Mathnet series back in 1987. That's where I got it from when I wrote the original spec novel back in the '90s.


I'm annoyed at how many shows seem to make the birth of the one baby happen to occur at the same time as a deadly outbreak, or cosmic string collision, or transporter failure, or Sudden Unexpected Starship Duplication, or whatever. It's so meaningless; either the baby lives, or the baby dies, and that'd be true of complications even if there weren't a giant shitstorm of plot convenience swirling around it.

End rant. (And obligatory disclaimers; my own opinion, maybe I'm totally wrong about the story, maybe I'm right but I'll love it anyway, etc etc. Just going on first reaction here; this is always something that's bugged me.)

I'd say you're pretty much wrong about the story. You'll see. ;)
 
Nomanisan Island is the island in Pixar's The Incredibles...

A latecomer. The same joke was used (spelled Nomanissan Island) in an episode of PBS's Mathnet series back in 1987. That's where I got it from when I wrote the original spec novel back in the '90s.


I'm annoyed at how many shows seem to make the birth of the one baby happen to occur at the same time as a deadly outbreak, or cosmic string collision, or transporter failure, or Sudden Unexpected Starship Duplication, or whatever. It's so meaningless; either the baby lives, or the baby dies, and that'd be true of complications even if there weren't a giant shitstorm of plot convenience swirling around it.

End rant. (And obligatory disclaimers; my own opinion, maybe I'm totally wrong about the story, maybe I'm right but I'll love it anyway, etc etc. Just going on first reaction here; this is always something that's bugged me.)

I'd say you're pretty much wrong about the story. You'll see. ;)
Well, aside from a few elements in GTTS, I've deeply adored every novel of yours I've read so far, so I'm willing to trust you on this.

Everything else, at least, sounds fascinating, and it'll be great to see Aili out in front.
 
The book has a beautiful cover and an intriguing blurb. That`s a promising combination and definitely a book I am looking forward to!
 
I actually have an issue with that. I love the premise and the hard SF theory is great, but I think a more Greek/Latin-based name would be better-suited, like Hydros or something, or a nod to a film/tv show that the writers love using as in-jokes. That said, I hope that the sentient species have a name for their world which is adopted.

Hydros is the name of the oceanic planet featured in Robert Silverberg's 1991 LitSF novel, The Face of the Waters. :)

TGT
 
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