ENT novel: The Romulan War

[Asso]

Mmm... just had a look at the cover: a Tellarite, T'Pau (good), Archer in the middle, confident (means HERO), next to him T'Pol (looking a bit distant, but totally being a good first officer) and Shran (good). No Trip. Doesn't look we are getting any TnT in this book, but they can suprise me.

Mh...I'm distrustful.

[Reanok]

The new list of Startrek books has been listed for 2010 and Enterprise isn't going to have any new books coming out next year. Not until 2011 or 2012. Pockect books is listing a bunch of Tos books and 4 reboot movie novels. and the post TNG Nemesis books I don't care at for all the post apocalyptic borg books are way too dark and depressing. Typhon expanse a warsaw pact miniseries with the badguys trying to upsurp their claim. I don't like the direction the TNG era books are taking.When it comes to characters and storylines either.

[Linda]

I am now reading The Romulan War. Gave it to myself as a Yule present when I had a little money left over after shopping for the grandkids. I am almost half way through it and I am enjoying it more than the other ENT books I have read. Anybody else reading it now? I would love to discuss it with someone.

[Aquarius]

I got it but it'll be a while before I get to read it. I never read The Good That Men Do, so I just recently started that one, then will probably re-read Kobyashi Maru as a refresher before beginning The Romulan War.

[Ludmila]

I am now reading The Romulan War. I am almost half way through it and I am enjoying it more than the other ENT books I have read. Anybody else reading it now? I would love to discuss it with someone.

I am glad, Linda, that you share my opinion about this book.
We have 19 pages of the discussion in the thread "Enterprise: The Romulan War":
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1253

[Reanok]

I really liked this book alot it was areally good novel.I really like what Martin did with Trip& T'Pol's relationship storyline.The deeper exploration of their feelings for one another was dealt with in this book.

[Linda]

Oh, I missed that other thread. Thanks for posting a link, Ludmila. I will print the thread off and read it as soon as I can, then put my thoughts together and bring them to the thread. Aquarius, I hope you get through those books soon. I don't remember liking them as much as this one, but I should review them so I can discuss them in relation to The Romulan War since it is sequel. Reanok, I don't think I got to Trip and T'Pol much yet in the book. Everything about the politics, the fears of people over the Romulan incursions, the battle scenes - it seems more real, grips me more, than the other books. Maybe I should finish the book before I read any more stories on Triaxian Silk so I don't get the characters or story plots confused.

[Reanok]

The political intrigue on Earth, Vulcan, and Romulous makes the book more complex and complicated when it comes to events during the Romulan war. Trip gets alot of great stuff to do in this book .I was pleased to see how well his character was used in this book when he arrives on Vulcan alot of suprises are in store for Trip .

[Linda]

I finished The Romulan War, and like others have said in the other thread on it, I am glad that Trip and T’Pol’s relationship as a couple has been confirmed. I too, wish we had more on them in the book, but what we got is heading in the right direction. Hopefully the author will build on that in the next book. I may have to reread this book to remember the details of the story when the next book comes out.

One think, kind of picky, but irritating, is that some officers on Enterprise are still ensigns. It has been four years and with their experience, they should have been promoted long ago. In fact, their levels of responsibility from the first episode in the first year of Enterprise were higher than ensign level to begin with. This is also a problem on the Voyager series. The ensigns on that ship should have gotten field promotions by the end of the first year.

Honeybee said in the other thread that she like to see Archer assist T’Pau in documenting things about Surak. I agree! That Archer felt the destruction of Surak’s katra gives Honeybee’s idea credence. Maybe the author has a web site where we could leave ideas? Anyway, I was mad about the destruction of the katra until I thought about it and see that it is logical. From TOS on, no mention of the existence of the katra is made. And, it is a good plot point to give reason for Vulcan to want to re-isolate from alien influence. That the Romulans were responsible for this act is logical because it was because of Surak that they left the planet in the first place.

WarpGirl said she would be bummed out if the relaunch books went into the Abrams AU. I hope not too, but I don’t see that they would get up to that point in time anyway. I am at least hoping they continue up to the point were the Federation is formed from the alliance.

Some people said they skimmed through the book except for the Trip and T’Pol scenes. I don’t understand why they do that, because if I buy a book I like to read the whole thing. I like all of Star Trek – all the series and movies though there are some specific episodes in the series which I dislike. I enjoyed the battle scenes and Gannet Brooks reporting from the front. And I did not count up the scenes to see which character had more. Also I liked the way the author put in references to other Trek episodes. I think I got most of them. It shows that Martin has studied Trek to be more consistent with it.

It is good that Aikiweezie told us that at a convention Braga admits the abomination episode was a mistake. I wish that he could have had a chance to rectify that by writing for season 5 of Enterprise where it is mentioned that the holodeck scenario was just a made up fantasy to help Ryker deal with a problem! I am still hoping for an ENT movie or mini series where this could be done, but I doubt it will ever happen. Braga did write some good ST in other series and he did create ENT to begin with or we never would have had the series. (ducking the dead cats and other things being thrown at me now)

What I am looking forward to in the next book is Kuvak telling Trip “Hey buddy, I’m trying to help you! Stop sandbagging me! And I think T’Pau knows about Kuvak’s activities but can’t condone them though she would not try to stop them. I’d love to see scenes showing her conflicted over this. I like Kuvak as a character and I was even looking to see if Martin would pick up on my idea of Kuvak being Kov’s father. I put that in my stories on Soval’s Annex and several other fan fic writers picked up on this idea to use in their stories. It just seemed…a logical assumption.

I always wanted Archer to straighten out and become a good captain, as Zane Gray also wanted him to be. There were ENT episodes where he was. But through the whole of ENT he just made too many mistakes that I thought a good captain would not make. Still, I am glad he is portrayed better in the books.

While I am not too interested in all the spook activities and counter activities to the point where you don’t really know who is on what side, I do like to see some intrigue in the story.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and certainly am looking forward to the next one.

[Ludmila]

Thank you, Linda, for your thought-out review. I agree with your opinion in whole and replaying gradually on some parts in my post editing it.

Maybe the author has a web site where we could leave ideas?

Michael A. Martin did not leave the link at any site in his notes, so I suppose he does not use that way communication with his readers. But I saw that the publisher has a message board for readers:
http://community.simonandschuster.com/

For example, "Ideas for future Star Trek books by Christopher L Bennett"
http://forums.simonandschuster.com/topic.php?id=141404

I am not sure that the authors read those discussions, but you could try it.

One think, kind of picky, but irritating, is that some officers on Enterprise are still ensigns.

Maybe for writers (as for me sometimes) the character rank became the part of its name that they were forgetting to change them realistically.

Braga admits the abomination episode was a mistake. I wish that he could have had a chance to rectify that by writing for season 5 of Enterprise where it is mentioned that the holodeck scenario was just a made up fantasy to help Ryker deal with a problem!

I would enjoy the scene with Troi organized it.

[Asso]

Some people said they skimmed through the book except for the Trip and T’Pol scenes. I don’t understand why they do that, because if I buy a book I like to read the whole thing. I like all of Star Trek – all the series and movies though there are some specific episodes in the series which I dislike. I enjoyed the battle scenes and Gannet Brooks reporting from the front. And I did not count up the scenes to see which character had more. Also I liked the way the author put in references to other Trek episodes. I think I got most of them. It shows that Martin has studied Trek to be more consistent with it.

Definitely women are more persevering and more steady than men in their feelings and in their penchants.
StarTrek, the Original Series, was a constant companion of my young years,
Then, little by little, the interest waned and I didn't find many things really pleasurable in the other series (and, on the other hand, not even TOS was the same for me: TIME PASSES, THINGS CHANGE).
Enterprise? Petty and picayune for me,at the beginning.
Then, Trip and T'Pol began to show what they might be, and my interest found new vigour.
I don't want to explain why I fell in love with them, I simply want to clarify that for me all that surrounds them, it is just contour.
So, even if I tried to think otherwise, I found all the books slightly featureless, trivial.
But, considering what I said, it is clear that the cause is me, myself.
And, I swear, I will attempt to be more positive.

[Reanok]

Linda Micheal A. Martin has an authors page at Amazon.com and the page for The Enterprise book The Romulan war Beneath The Raptor's wing there's a board there to discuss the book. no discussion of the book has been posted there yet. But if you want to start one there's one available.