Spoilers TOS: The Face of the Unknown by Christopher L. Bennett Review Thread
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I wasn't sure how I'd feel about this one. On the one hand, it's about what I consider the least interesting iteration of Star Trek during the least interesting time period. On the other hand, the premise on the back cover sounded really good; I've always found the First Federation intriguing, largely because we know so little about them and what we do know is so weird. In the end, I thought it was great.
Further thoughts:
Further thoughts:
* I could have done without Kirk's romance. I don't think it added much to the book and, piled on top of the Spock/Nisu romance already present, it overweighed the story a bit and came off too coincidental.
* There was a smidge too much proselytizing. More specifically, too much of the same proselytizing. I don't have issues with Star Trek characters delivering speeches in general and I agree strongly with this particular message, but here it got to a point where I felt the characters were starting to repeat themselves and each other, making the same arguments, just using different phrasing.
I'm thinking in particular of the scene where the Linnik Triumvir held everyone at gunpoint. That discussion seemed to go on way too long, and it probably would have been a lot stronger if it was pithier. If they kept bringing up *new* points or angles, it'd be one thing, but I'm not sure they did... Mind you, I found it nothing less than riveting the whole time I was reading it, so it can't have been that bad. But that was when I had the suspense of "what happens next" pushing me on; if I re-read this book some years down the line, I suspect this would be the chapter I find myself skimming through.
* Surprisingly, the Linnik ended up being the least interesting of the four major Web species to me. At least if you judge "interesting" by how much you'd like to see more of them. The other three have great hooks (race of restless travelers, ursine engineers!), but the Linnik, physical appearance notwithstanding, don't seem to be an especially distinctive culture.
Though I did really like the Fesarius crew. I like the push-pull they have going on, with Balok's progressiveness on one side and their innate timidity on the other. They only appear briefly, but there's a strong sense of that in what little we see.
* Koust was the surprise break-out character, far as I'm concerned. I was expecting another generic "belligerent alien warrior" type when he first showed up, but he ended up being something much more interesting. Granted, I thought his moment epiphany was too abrupt and drastic. Still, he had some of my favorite scenes.
* Everything with the Web of Worlds was top-notch world-building. The imagery of the Enterprise diving down and slowly realizing what it had stumbled upon... genuine sense of wonder.
* There was a smidge too much proselytizing. More specifically, too much of the same proselytizing. I don't have issues with Star Trek characters delivering speeches in general and I agree strongly with this particular message, but here it got to a point where I felt the characters were starting to repeat themselves and each other, making the same arguments, just using different phrasing.
I'm thinking in particular of the scene where the Linnik Triumvir held everyone at gunpoint. That discussion seemed to go on way too long, and it probably would have been a lot stronger if it was pithier. If they kept bringing up *new* points or angles, it'd be one thing, but I'm not sure they did... Mind you, I found it nothing less than riveting the whole time I was reading it, so it can't have been that bad. But that was when I had the suspense of "what happens next" pushing me on; if I re-read this book some years down the line, I suspect this would be the chapter I find myself skimming through.
* Surprisingly, the Linnik ended up being the least interesting of the four major Web species to me. At least if you judge "interesting" by how much you'd like to see more of them. The other three have great hooks (race of restless travelers, ursine engineers!), but the Linnik, physical appearance notwithstanding, don't seem to be an especially distinctive culture.
Though I did really like the Fesarius crew. I like the push-pull they have going on, with Balok's progressiveness on one side and their innate timidity on the other. They only appear briefly, but there's a strong sense of that in what little we see.
* Koust was the surprise break-out character, far as I'm concerned. I was expecting another generic "belligerent alien warrior" type when he first showed up, but he ended up being something much more interesting. Granted, I thought his moment epiphany was too abrupt and drastic. Still, he had some of my favorite scenes.
* Everything with the Web of Worlds was top-notch world-building. The imagery of the Enterprise diving down and slowly realizing what it had stumbled upon... genuine sense of wonder.
^Thanks for the comments! You may have a point about the Kirk/Aranow thing not being strictly necessary, but I had a lot of fun writing Aranow. (And Koust too.)
As for the Linnik, for what it's worth, not standing out is kind of their main survival strategy.
As for the Linnik, for what it's worth, not standing out is kind of their main survival strategy.
Quick question for Christopher (and one I meant to ask yesterday, but got busy and forgot to):
In the novel, when Sulu and Chekov are skydiving and discussing Chekov taking a possible leave of absence from the Enterprise, Sulu mentions that he took an extended leave around one year prior to the novel's events. Was this a reference to the Sulu-character being absent from nine second-season TOS episodes (due to George Takei filming The Green Berets), or was this just more of a throwaway-type allusion to something that came up in the character's life afterward, but that we never actually saw depicted onscreen or in a book?
In the novel, when Sulu and Chekov are skydiving and discussing Chekov taking a possible leave of absence from the Enterprise, Sulu mentions that he took an extended leave around one year prior to the novel's events. Was this a reference to the Sulu-character being absent from nine second-season TOS episodes (due to George Takei filming The Green Berets), or was this just more of a throwaway-type allusion to something that came up in the character's life afterward, but that we never actually saw depicted onscreen or in a book?
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I haven't read any of the spoilers here, but I did read Christopher's commentary/behind-the-scenes posted on his site. When I read the blurb for Faces of the Unknown, it reminded me so much of the teaser synopsis for Seek a Newer World. Making the assumption that Greg Cox's Seven of Nine/TOS crossover novel was a similar TOS counterpart/echo of his own lost Kelvin-universe novel, I'm glad that some aspects of those lost novels are still manifesting in Trek lit (and doubly glad that they are TOS, which feels most appropriate, if it can't be a Kelvin-universe storyline, TOS feels like the next best thing).
The quote at the beginning is was quite a revelation. For some reason a line from the Star Trek Beyond movie jumped out at me, but for reasons I couldn't understand. It's been a while since I've seen the relevant episode, but it's cool to now understand better the connection. It's not my favorite episode, but the concept of the First Federation is something that I've been curious about, so Face of the Unknown sounds really interesting.
The quote at the beginning is was quite a revelation. For some reason a line from the Star Trek Beyond movie jumped out at me, but for reasons I couldn't understand. It's been a while since I've seen the relevant episode, but it's cool to now understand better the connection. It's not my favorite episode, but the concept of the First Federation is something that I've been curious about, so Face of the Unknown sounds really interesting.
The former.
In fact, this was a callback to a bit from my debut novel Ex Machina, where I explained Chekov's absence from TAS as an extended leave motivated by a desire to get a second chance with Irina Galliulin. This was meant to show the beginning of that, although I had to tweak it a bit to reconcile it with The Latter Fire (well, I didn't have to, since continuity between TOS novels isn't mandatory, but I chose to). And the idea that Sulu had been on an extended leave in season 2 had occurred to me before (or I'd seen it proposed somewhere that I don't remember), so this seemed like a good place to mention it.
Yeah, I had a bit of a thrill when I saw Star Trek Beyond and heard Kelvin-Kirk paraphrase the "Corbomite Maneuver" quote that I'd already chosen as this book's epigraph.
Very cool -- thanks. I'd been planning to re-read Ex Machina soon one of these days, too, so it looks like I might actually push that "up" a bit on my schedule, now.
(I always pronounced it "BOO'oy").
They asked me to provide a pronunciation guide; hopefully my phonetic spellings conveyed my intent correctly. I actually realized that I wasn't sure how I wanted "Aranow" to be pronounced -- was the first syllable "air" or "are," and was the last syllable "know" or "now"? I think I went with the one that sounded like "arrow," befitting her swiftness.
How would that sound?
Oh, of course. I should've seen that. Hmm, that almost works, since it sounds a bit like "I ran off."
I haven't read the book yet, so I don't know what you say about the character there, but my first instinct is to pronounce it "air-a-now".
Liked it. Well paced, good story. Guess I missed a development or two, as remember Kirk making a move at the end being unexpected/random on my part. Had some Ringworld vibes to it, with the web of worlds, habitats worlds, immense scales, and got some puppeteer vibes from the linnik. Maybe it was my mind seeking similarities, but it was something that occurred to me. Not a bad thing at all, just had a similar feel in parts.
I liked the story, and going back to follow up this episode.
I liked the story, and going back to follow up this episode.
I'm about 1/3 of the way through. Really liking the portrayal of the First Federation's culture and history. The only thing that could make this book vetter is if Christopher had been able to set in during the post-TMP timeframe as I think he originally wanted. Or even on the Enterprise-A.
Just curious as to what you think that would have changed or added. Personally don't see how it would have been much different. You'd have had a somewhat colder Spock and would have skipped that emotional insight/bonding/romance angle (depending on how post-TMP, I guess), some continuity-dropping would have been different (Chekov wouldn't be about to go to Security training, no Arex or M'Ress at the end), and picture on the front cover would be different. How else does the timeframe even play into the story?
You'd have an older, more mature ambassador, but then it's somewhat more troubling that he's made no progress in 20 years or whatever. In 3 years, it's explainable as the culture being cautious, his needing experience/tempering, etc. If he was still there and not making progress after 20 years, he'd be a dejected joke at best, or have long since been replaced in reality. Timeframe was about right for a follow-up, allowing the situation to breathe but not get too stale in-universe.
It could have been changed (or like you're guessing, changed back) without it being a deal breaker for sure, just needs some tweaks to work in either timeframe. I just am missing what you're seeing as an improvement because it would be set later. Other than being able to pin it on the timeline in a more open period rather than saying it's another 5YM story, I guess. Since there's about 100 years' worth of events already in book form for the 5YM, I don't have any trouble flexing in another good story, though. As long as they all more or less fit within the overall narrative, I don't need them to stitch together to form an airtight story as a whole.
