Engaging, engrossing, entertaining. W/ spoilers

[Patricia Sokol]

David et al. – I enjoyed BFA very much. As I wrote in a previous post, I am not a huge Maya fan, but my major beef is now – for the time being – moot. My impressions below; would be interested to know if they are what you intended. Again, there may be spoilers included.

SPOILERS

The story – Well written and conceived, sent me to the dictionary or Google a couple of times. very visual. My initial frustration with Psychons finding Alpha in the expanse of the Universe was assuaged by the explanation of the circumstances. Nice plots devices and twists. Couple of typos, one bad grammatical mistake (the only one that drives me buggy; I had a very strict English teacher in high school), one noticed error (p 251 – Helena a pilot…?)

The Universe – Not a really nice place. Fiefdoms on a grander scale. Can’t we all just get along?

The Korth – Ungainly;had a hard time visualizing. The grizzly bear analogy helped. Another Korth Cluster disregards the Patricians protection guarantee? Or something worse? I’m thinking the latter. They seem – in the end – to be honorable, in the way that military is respectful. There are rules to engagement.

Psychons – Genetic tendencies towards delusion of grandeur. Seems to be a “Y”-chromosome-linked trait. Playing field now leveled. Still attractive to the Dorcons? Or, was their attractiveness related to their biological advantage.

Marek/Koenig – Birds of a feather with respect to a sense of responsibility for the crew. Trail of destruction left behind Alpha in the fight for survival (Piri, Darians, Space Brain, Eye of Triton, Psychon – sort of – Dione,Sunim). Marek and the rest haven’t made many friends, either (Norvons, Korth, Xinthl ?). Them vs. us; kill or be killed.

[Patricia Sokol]

More thoughts, on the characters this time.

SPOILERS

Koenig – Seems a little autocratic. Would have thought he’d be even more suspicious of the Psychons after Mentor. Sympathy after encountering the Dorcons? What’s the time between Survival and BFA? Seems to dwell on Victor as much as he did Sam and Tessa. Feels down on himself because of this? Lots of over-all personal conflict for a person whose feelings run deep, as we are led to believe Koenig is. He’s passionate. If the choice were between Alpha/moon and Helena, which would it be? MM back? Nifty – better office. Prepared for what’s ahead? Ultimately, probably, yes, because of his humanity.
Maya – Another kick or two in the gut for the lady. Set-up for regret in the near future? Little uncomfortable with her having a child and yet being torn between two suitors, but ultimately, she is not. It will be interesting to see how she uses the little box she receives at the end. Gabron seems mentally stable, if loyal to a fault. Will need counseling.
Tony – Still don’t like him; not enough gravitas. Too insecure to be head of security. Glad his beer wasn’t relegated to another punchline for a joke. Sorry – can’t be objective about this guy.
Helena – Largely relegated to the background. Would like to see her and Koenig in more heated policy discussions, or at least pillow talk. They did try to suck her brain, after all. Personality is enforced calm. Glad the pretense is over and they are living together. Always associated her with Lady Jessica in Dune series, having the ear of the guy in charge. Kill herself? Never.
Kano – Way cool. How did he die? Addiction to AI hook-up? Suicide after not recognizing self? Nah. Maybe I just missed it. Will have to go back and see if I can find clues.
Carter – Arse-kicking cowboy. Gotta love him. Revenge is sweet.
Secondary characters – Well used for color. Best line in the book- Koenig to Yasko when she contacts him about incoherent sensor readings – “Neither’s your message.” Considering the grief her character has gotten over the years, this made me smile.
Fate of the Alphans – For the world is hollow and I have touched the sky? Guess we need to wait and see.

[Anonymous]

Well, that was fun!

There’s a lot to take in in this book — developments for some key characters, for Alpha itself, and the beginning of a new year three status quo. All of that and a lot of action, a lot of references to past episodes (reminding again of how poor my memory of some episodes really is), and some good character work. David McIntee has delivered one of the highlights of the line thus far.

The books are clearly going to make dramatic changes to the series status quo. If we can talk about Year Three (I’m not crazy about Season 8, which some Star Trek fans call the Deep Space Nine books set after the finale), it’ll be as different from Year Two as that was from Year One.

I’m definitely curious to see where this is all going, and I hope the momentum can be sustained. I don’t want another long wait between books after Omega comes out.

[Dex]

SPOILERS

What I liked:

Main Mission and cookies B)
Just say no to metamorphing :woohoo:

And how Kano died?
He took his addiction to “Jacking-On” to the extreem.

Dex

[Mateo Latosa]

Please remember to add the word SPOILERS and a good length of spoiler space when discussing the novels if your posts reveal plot points.

THANKS!

[Author]

Posts