Date: 01 Jul 2010 12:38 Title: Chapter 13
Fascinating new technology in Dragonfly's displays and interface systems, a dramatic departure from the traditional 23rd and 24th century technology.
That was a nice conversation between Ariel and Seth, and it gives us (the readers) some terrific insights into what makes both these characters tick. Kudos to Seth for being man enough to admit his anxiety about their mission, being as Ariel is a ‘safe' person to confide in as she's not in his chain-of-command.
Also some great backstory on Santiago, which helps to make his character a bit more likeable. Yeah, the guy can be a jerk, but he's proven that he'll sacrifice for his friends and comrades when the chips are down.
Excellent character moments in this chapter.
Author's Response: My entire purpose for writing Reemergence (other than the fact that it was really fun) was to show that Star Trek has fallen behind current trends in science-fiction and technology. Touch display, tiny communicators, and talking communicators were all very cool in the 80's and 90's - but we have those now! Yes, Star Trek may have inspired it all, but what's left? Just nicer-looking phasers? Time to re-invent and re-inspire. I tried envisioning a computer display a little like 'Minority Report,' but having everyone on the bridge wave their hands around like maniacs seemed a little ridiculous. So I thought of the idea of using specialized lens that isolate the displays and controls to the user. I still see lots of bright and fancy displays for the bridge of a 25th century ship, but within reason. But back to the chapter at hand, yes, this is one of my favorites. I wanted a charming moment between Captain Seth and Commander Ariele (as a slight jab to Santiago) without going too overboard, and took the opportunity to provide a little character background.
Date: 01 Jul 2010 09:47 Title: Chapter 12
Wow, Santiago really went out of his way to undercut Seth's authority in front of his senior staff. This doesn't bode well for the mission if the two senior-most officers involved are already sniping at one another.
Nevertheless, orders are orders. Here's hoping Admiral Kim picked the best officer to lead the mission, but I've got a bad feeling...
Author's Response: The Seth/Santiago dynamic came from my experiences on Wallstreet where everybody is a cut-throat/stab-you-in-the-back/testosterone-driven a**hole (hence the ridiculous race). It made sense to make them Red Squad-ers, because they seem to have a similar dynamic. Whether characters like Seth and Santiago make sense in a Star Trek world may be questionable, but I decided that Star Trek would at least be an appropriate world to critique it. Not to spoil the ending, but don't expect everybody to be holding hands by the end of the book!
Date: 26 Jun 2010 12:35 Title: Chapter 11
Though I understand the competitive captain/crew/ship's honor angle, the decision of both Seth and Santiago to undertake this ‘challenge' smacks of egotism and immaturity. The Federation is in a dire situation, the quadrant is plagued with conflict and political instability, and here two newly-minted starship captains are essentially playing an elaborate game of king-of-the-mountain.
Heaven forbid any of their crew gets injured during this endeavor.
Have to say that the Aegis-mode modifications and the ship's ability to literally change shape is very cool, and is used to good effect in this chapter. The dragonfly mini-warp jump ability is equally innovative, but the fact that Seth was comfortable testing it under computer control in a potentially lethal asteroid field (again, for something as frivolous as a competition) again grates on my nerves.
The sudden appearance of the ice-squid only proves my point about how needlessly reckless this contest is. Seth could easily have been killed.
Thorn arrived just in the nick of time, and Dr. Min's little solution did the trick nicely. I wonder of Admiral Kim is going to read Seth and Santiago the riot act for pulling this little stunt?
Great chapter by the way... it really got me fired up.
Author's Response: It’s interesting that the two responses that I get from people reading this chapter are either: 1)‘That was really fun!’ (excitement); or, 2)‘I can’t believe they would do that to a new ship! That’s reckless!’ (boiling anger) Either way, I’m glad you got fired up. I added this chapter because I felt it was important for the crew to have some fun and get to know each other before heading off to a very serious mission. Even in darker times, I think it is ok for a crew to have a little fun (maybe a little too far in this case). You are spot on about Seth and Santiago reeking of immaturity. As I mentioned earlier, I modeled the captain of the Dragonfly after the Valiant in which Seth (and Santiago) is a Red Squad member who is young, arrogant, reckless, and has a lot of growing up to do. In TNG, we always heard of a ‘reckless’ Picard in his younger days but never really got a chance to see it. I think this is an interesting entry point for seeing how a captain develops – what experiences in youth lead him/her to become a great captain? In any case, it’s time now for the crew to get serious – their mission is coming up... (And thanks for caring about what happens to my characters!)
Date: 26 Jun 2010 09:15 Title: Chapter 10
Hurm... a challenge already, and Seth's just barely met his new crew? Not sure it's such a good idea to be undertaking a contest like this so soon... but Seth's honor as well as that of his ship and crew are now apparently at stake.
Ah, there's nothing like young, egotistical captains and their fragile egos to get the blood pumping! This should doubtless prove fascinating to watch.
Date: 26 Jun 2010 08:41 Title: Chapter 9
You've created another fascinating character in the form of Counselor Jenovia, whom you had me fooled into initially believing was an Orion. Her species sounds a lot like a cross between the Orions and the El-Aurians, and I'm sure she's going to make a worthy addition to the crew. I just share Seth's hesitancy to play poker with her. ;-)
So, Santiago's trying to poach from Seth's crew already? That's low, especially for an old friend, most especially when he's denegrating the Dragonfly in the process by boasting of the Excelsior's superiority.
Author's Response: Jenovia is one of my favorites among my invented characters. I was interested in having a sexy Orion-like character running around the ship, but I also wanted her to be very intelligent, in a way that was different than Min or LeCroy. Jenovia is someone who is very emotionally intelligent and has a very strong instinct for people; she probably understands human nature more than others, even though she’s of a different species. I first wrote the part about her playing poker with old Star Trek villains, and the idea for her abilities came from that. I think it’s pretty obvious that I was trying to mirror what Counselor Troi was able to do, but in a way that was unique and different.
Date: 25 Jun 2010 15:26 Title: Chapter 8
BX-12 sounds to be an ingenious experiment, providing all goes as planned. Dr. LeCroy is obviously eccentrically brilliant, which promises a whole host of problems for young Captain Seth. What happens when your genius but unstable engineer goes off half-cocked, or thinks he knows better than his wet-behind the ears captain?
Only time will tell...
You're laying the foundation for a terrific and unusual crew here. Nice work!
Author's Response: I’ve had plenty of experience dealing with individuals like LeCroy, people who are incredibly passionate about their work and care for little else. I can’t help but admire some of these types of personalities. My idea for LeCroy’s unusual look and demeanor came from Willie Wonka (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) and L (Deathnote), resulting in a look that I think exudes extreme nerdiness and brilliance. Our ideas for robotics and artificial intelligence have changed in the past fifty years. Just trying to program a silly robot to walk has been a gargantuan mountain to climb (top-down). The idea now is to try and get robots to learn how to walk on their own (bottom-up). There is a large push today to mimic in machines what we see in biology. BX-12 is a literal representation of that trend. In regards to the synthetic neurons, I’m just waiting for someone to start yelling: ‘but replicators can’t make living cells!’ More on that another day…
Date: 25 Jun 2010 05:39 Title: Chapter 7
Well, the doctor is certainly a different sort, being a fish-out-of-water human raised in Vulcan society. One question, though, you mentioned something about Min's being only one of a handful of Asian human doctors... any reason why that is? The narrative didn't seem to explain that.
Oh, geez... the doc's got some secret project going with the chief engineer? That doesn't bode well. ;)
Editorial note: you misspelled Vulcan as 'Vulcun' a couple of times in this chapter.
Author's Response: Dr. Edward Min came about from a mix of reasons: 1) I was interested in a character that was a twist on the Vulcans, without making him a half-breed/mix. In a way, I wanted a character that was the reverse of Spock; that is, to have a human that appreciated Vulcan values, versus a Vulcan that appreciated human values. 2) The Asian physician is such a strong stereotype - I just took it and ran with it. The 'rarity' really came from what we've already observed in the shows - we never saw an Asian physician as a major character (the writers were probably trying to avoid this stereotype). I didn't bother fully to explain it since it had little to do with the plot and I was already worried about the narrative being too descriptive. Generally speaking, Dr. Min came out of my desire to do a complete reversal and embrace the stereotype rather than shy away from it. (By the way, if it wasn't obvious already, I'm Asian - who was 'strongly encouraged' to become a doctor while growing up - I never did) And thanks for the editorial note - for some reason, 'Vulcun' didn't look wrong to me when I wrote the chapter! Shows how much I know...
Date: 23 Jun 2010 07:03 Title: Chapter 6
Okay, oh my God... what was that? Does Thorn do that to all of his new commanding officers, and how many have survived the experience? Damn, I hope Seth puts this nut-job off the ship at his first opportunity. Who the hell is he to be 'testing' his new captain/?
Wow, that pissed me off a little bit. Can you tell?
Author's Response: Haha...well, at least I got you all riled up!
Date: 22 Jun 2010 17:32 Title: Chapter 5
Yeah, bad guys keeping the truth from Starfleet, when the organization has already spilled blood on their behalf. Nice...
Hope these creeps get their comeuppance when the Dragonfly enters the equation.
Date: 22 Jun 2010 05:27 Title: Chapter 4
Some nice camaraderie between Seth and Santiago. It's nice to know Seth's got good friends, and that he's not alone in being promoted up through the ranks very quickly.
I'm pleased that the original Excelsior is still in service, and that she can still make a contribution to the defense of the Federation after more than a century. I've got a soft spot for 23rd century ships. ;)
Author's Response: Since throughout the entire novel I trumpet everything on the Dragonfly as ‘new new new!’ I felt it was really important to balance it all by adding something classic and familiar. I think that the Excelsior is a good ship to bring this feeling, since the ship spans both the TOS and TNG generations (I can’t seem to find any record of it being decommissioned or destroyed). The two ships will work side by side throughout most of the novel, so stay tuned!
Date: 22 Jun 2010 05:11 Title: Chapter 3
Seth gets a nice, media-friendly sendoff and settles into his new command. Nice that the admiral gave the speech and let Seth off the hook.
Excelsior, eh? This should prove interesting.
Date: 19 Jun 2010 11:58 Title: Chapter 2
Geez, no pressure! Seth's been made a 'provisional' captain by the sound of it... he screws up and he gets busted down to whatever more junior rank quenches the admiral's ire.
Twenty-eight is awfully young to be promoted to such an important position. Here's hoping the stress doesn't crack this newly minted captain.
Author's Response: Yes, twenty-eight is extremely young for a captain, but under the circumstances of the universe I set up (a more desperate Federation), I think it’s forgivable. I actually modeled the command structure of the Dragonfly after the Valiant on DS9, where the captain and the first officer (to be introduced) are very young and don’t yet know what the heck they’re doing. Should make for more adventurous missions, don't you think? Stay tuned!
Date: 19 Jun 2010 10:46 Title: Chapter 1
Interesting setup for your series... a far-flung post-Dominion War adventure in which even three decades later the after effects of that conflict are still being felt throughout the quadrant.
Author's Response: Thanks for the comments! I get a lot of questions about why my interpretation of the post-TNG universe is so dire. I had three reasons: 1) it’s a harsher and more realistic depiction of the Alpha Quadrant in light of very jarring events (i.e. the Dominion War and the destruction of Romulus); 2) I wanted to mimic the economic turmoil that we’re facing today; and 3) it’s a convenient way to press the “reset” button, so that we might re-think about what we know (or think we know) about the TNG universe. Personally, I’d be interested to see how our friends and foes emerge after a long period of silence and recouperation.
[Report This]Date: 21 May 2010 19:43 Title: Chapter 2
Another great character segment. I really like the length of your chapters. Nothing against those who make long chapters, but since I have to be quick when I read online, being at work and all, I like this length because I can be in and out and not have to remember where I left off...
Admiral Roth is worried about 'enemies'. I wonder who they will be???
Author's Response: Thanks for the comments! I'm sorry to say that some chapters are longer than others, but hopefully those will read more quickly...either way, I hope they maintain your interest!
Date: 21 May 2010 19:33 Title: Chapter 1
Great segement...I like how you quickly set the 'backstory' up. I like Roth, so far. Keep it up..
Author's Response: Thanks for the kind words...I'm glad you enjoy it. As you can see, I take quite a few liberties with the franchise in a way that makes sense to me. It just seemed like following the Dominion War, everybody went on their merry way as if nothing had happened. And then Romulus is later destroyed, which I think would REALLY mess things up. That would be like China blowing up in today's world. The world economy would collapse.
Date: 10 Apr 2010 08:36 Title: Prologue
A terrific opening segment, with vivid descriptions of Draloos V that makes it sound very much like Pandora from Avatar. A horrific end for Lt. Ray, and I’ll be very interested to find out how the trees managed to extract Ray from within his bio-hazard suit without physically breaching it.
Equal parts chilling and fascinating.
Author's Response: Definitely appreciate the comments! Unfortunately, I do make you go through a looooooooong intro of the new ship and characters (and I'm feeding it out slowly), but from what I'm told from my beta readers it really picks up in the later chapters. So my crew WILL make their way to Draloos V! Thanks for your patience and for your interest!
Date: 08 Apr 2010 20:49 Title: Prologue
Huh...wow. Great start. I have just subscribed to your website! Very professional looking site...keep up the great look!!! I will read more over on your site...
Rob
Author's Response: Thanks for the kind words and subscribing to my website! Plenty of more chapters to come...I hope you enjoy them.