"Desperate Hours"
Nov. 23rd, 2017 11:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivendellroseIt's only been a week since Discovery went to hiatus, and already I've resorted to reading fanfic of both the actual-fan and published varieties. I have random thoughts about the published one, the tie-in novel "Desperate Hours" by David Mack.
- Suddenly admirals decide who would be a good candidate for a ship's XO and declare by fiat that they're taking whoever that is on a trial basis? Since when the fuck was that a thing?
- Oh, look, and it's that same Admiral Anderson who later orders Captain Pike to blow the shit out of a Federation colony in order to destroy a ship that's threatening the colony. If this book doesn't end with Admiral Anderson being the real bad guy, something is seriously wrong.
- Apparently both Burnham and Saru have made it to this point in their careers without figuring out it's a bad idea to interrupt and directly contradict their captain while she's having a conversation with the governor of an imperiled colony. At least Burnham is smart enough to take a signal from Georgiou to keep her mouth shut, but the fact that it took that is... frankly both disturbing and ridiculous.
- This author thinks he has to introduce every Human character as "[name of city]-born." I mean... okay? (This trails off later. I'm not sure if it was because he caught himself, got bored of it, or just gave up on introducing people properly. Later on I kept finding new names with no description at all.)
- Physical descriptions are weirdly spotty. I realized around page 100 that I could not actually be certain that either Michelle Yeoh as Georgiou or Sonequa Martin-Green as Burnham had been cast yet when the book was written, because there are honest to god no physical descriptions of either of them. None. At all. We do have physical descriptions of Saru, though, and I'm pretty sure he took the time to describe Doctor Nambue, who we saw briefly in the pilot. And thank god he's found the time to mention that not one but two incidental female characters are "statuesque." Lord only knows what terrible misunderstandings might have occurred if he'd left that out.
- (Would I be this attuned to description of female characters if the author was a woman? Probably not. But it's something I watch with male authors. Largely to determine which ones I'm willing to read again and which I'm not. I will give this one credit for giving us a fairly equal number of female characters, though.)
- I'm not sure what was meant when someone talked about contacting the FCA (from context, probably something like the Federation Colonial Authority?), but what resulted for me was "Why is the Ferengi Commerce Authority involved in this?" Because Brunt, FCA, has permanently burned that acronym into my mind.
- I am super grumpy about the fact that the plot of this book hinges on making Burnham commit insubordination against Georgiou once again (or, in terms of the timeline, prior to the events of the pilot). This seems 100% unnecessary, and also to gut the striking emotional nature of her decision in the pilot.
- That said, I did cheer inside when Georgiou's response to Pike setting up to follow his orders and destroy the unknown ship and the colony as collateral damage was to immediately position the Shenzhou between Enterprise and the colony, and inform Pike that he'd have to go through her, her crew, and her ship in order to torpedo the colony. That's the Georgiou I love. ♥
- Georgiou's dialogue often seems a little... off? It doesn't sound right for her. Not sure what's going on there.
- Editor/writer gripe:
"Though not all ships of the line had incorporated the concept [of the ready room], many had, and they were proving to be increasingly popular with commanding officers throughout the service. Georgiou was one of them."
Georgiou is a ready room? Oh, you mean Georgiou is a commanding officer with whom the ready room is popular? Yeah... there's a problem here. Either the first or the second sentence needs to be revised.
- I find it hard to believe that Georgiou has a "aversion to games." And not just becausegaslightgallows and I have a shared headcanon that Georgiou not only loves gambling, but is blackballed from a few casinos for card-counting. Including at least one memorable time when she used Burnham as an accomplice. My point is, Georgiou didn't strike me as a woman who would dislike fun in just about any form. ...Also, he had her taking interest in a chess game earlier in the book.
- Author has a weird tic of saying that people lowered their chins. Everybody's got their tics, it just stood out to me.
- Update on page 117, we finally have the adjective "brown" for Burnham's skin. Okay, so this was written with the casting complete. Good to know.
- I appreciate that, according to the author, Bryan Fuller specifically asked him to write a book where Spock and Burnham interact. I still think that decision was somewhat dubious, and I definitely feel that the amount of time spent on Spock and Captain Pike detracts from the reason I bought the book, ie "Give me more of Georgiou and also Burnham."
- Speaking of Georgiou, the author has decided (or, god help us, taken from a series bible? I hope not...) that Georgiou kept her last name from her ex-husband Nikos, "retained" along with an antique turntable, "in the name of sentimentality." I disapprove. Also a strange amount of narrative time is lavished on the turntable. Georgiou listens to Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins. Okay, why not.
- (Asgaslightgallows pointed out, what kind of moron divorces Philippa Georgiou? Or even lets her divorce him?!)
- As I was drifting to sleep while reading page 225, I was jolted back to consciousness by spotting a crewman Tyler aboard the Enterprise under Pike's command. Tyler? Wait, do they mean...? They do not appear to, as I could find no description or first name to confirm the connection, and couldn't even determine whether the crewman was stationed at con or tactical. But it does make me wonder.
- For the record, this would be sliiightly odd since at the Battle of the Binary Stars Tyler was serving on the USS Yeager, and this book is set only a year before that. But it's already really odd that Burnham is being made the Shenzhou's first officer just a year before that, so... I don't know.
- Petty but kind of funny: at one point Georgiou looks "frazzled--a rare state for her. Locks of her black hair had come loose and now framed her face, which glistened with sweat." Left me wondering if at one point in production they had envisioned Georgiou with a latter-day version of Janeway's bun.
- According at least to book canon, Burnham's parents died because they'd intended to leave on a transport ship but tiny!Burnham wanted to see a supernova, so they stayed an extra day and were attacked that morning.
- And set-up for "Lethe," in which Spock has to mind-meld with Burnham in order to do a plotty thing and, after some angst about that, she reveals to him that she was actually dead for 3 minutes after an attack on a Vulcan learning center and Sarek saved her with a mind-meld. The book specifies that he does so at Amanda's passionate insistence. The book also states that Amanda transferred her love for Spock onto Burnham, since Sarek insisted Spock refuse her outward shows of affection. Man, Sarek really is the absolute worst, and I wish Amanda had divorced his sorry ass and taken both kids away back to Earth with her.
- Burnham's characterization throughout the book feels a little... spotty? She lurches back and forth between calculating Vulcan and impetuous Human who can't keep her mouth shut, and while some of that fits with canon, it winds up feeling a lot stranger and more uncertain here. She felt a lot younger here than she did in the pilot (more than just one year younger), and I found myself thinking that she really didn't feel like she was ready for that kind of responsibility. Her relationship with Georgiou also felt odd. Saru spends large parts of the book being envious of Burnham's mentor/mentee relationship with Georgiou, but there's little actual indication of that relationship on the pages in this book. Around halfway through Georgiou suddenly really misses Burnham's insights, but there was no real indication prior that she relied on them, and even the book admits that she only realizes that in Burnham's absence. That seems out of character with their relationship as it was portrayed in the pilot. The intimacy and love (regardless of your exact interpretation of that love) that we saw between them just wasn't evident here.
Summary: Whatever, I liked it, but it wasn't great. Gonna go try to work on some fanfic, now.
- Suddenly admirals decide who would be a good candidate for a ship's XO and declare by fiat that they're taking whoever that is on a trial basis? Since when the fuck was that a thing?
- Oh, look, and it's that same Admiral Anderson who later orders Captain Pike to blow the shit out of a Federation colony in order to destroy a ship that's threatening the colony. If this book doesn't end with Admiral Anderson being the real bad guy, something is seriously wrong.
- Apparently both Burnham and Saru have made it to this point in their careers without figuring out it's a bad idea to interrupt and directly contradict their captain while she's having a conversation with the governor of an imperiled colony. At least Burnham is smart enough to take a signal from Georgiou to keep her mouth shut, but the fact that it took that is... frankly both disturbing and ridiculous.
- This author thinks he has to introduce every Human character as "[name of city]-born." I mean... okay? (This trails off later. I'm not sure if it was because he caught himself, got bored of it, or just gave up on introducing people properly. Later on I kept finding new names with no description at all.)
- Physical descriptions are weirdly spotty. I realized around page 100 that I could not actually be certain that either Michelle Yeoh as Georgiou or Sonequa Martin-Green as Burnham had been cast yet when the book was written, because there are honest to god no physical descriptions of either of them. None. At all. We do have physical descriptions of Saru, though, and I'm pretty sure he took the time to describe Doctor Nambue, who we saw briefly in the pilot. And thank god he's found the time to mention that not one but two incidental female characters are "statuesque." Lord only knows what terrible misunderstandings might have occurred if he'd left that out.
- (Would I be this attuned to description of female characters if the author was a woman? Probably not. But it's something I watch with male authors. Largely to determine which ones I'm willing to read again and which I'm not. I will give this one credit for giving us a fairly equal number of female characters, though.)
- I'm not sure what was meant when someone talked about contacting the FCA (from context, probably something like the Federation Colonial Authority?), but what resulted for me was "Why is the Ferengi Commerce Authority involved in this?" Because Brunt, FCA, has permanently burned that acronym into my mind.
- I am super grumpy about the fact that the plot of this book hinges on making Burnham commit insubordination against Georgiou once again (or, in terms of the timeline, prior to the events of the pilot). This seems 100% unnecessary, and also to gut the striking emotional nature of her decision in the pilot.
- That said, I did cheer inside when Georgiou's response to Pike setting up to follow his orders and destroy the unknown ship and the colony as collateral damage was to immediately position the Shenzhou between Enterprise and the colony, and inform Pike that he'd have to go through her, her crew, and her ship in order to torpedo the colony. That's the Georgiou I love. ♥
- Georgiou's dialogue often seems a little... off? It doesn't sound right for her. Not sure what's going on there.
- Editor/writer gripe:
"Though not all ships of the line had incorporated the concept [of the ready room], many had, and they were proving to be increasingly popular with commanding officers throughout the service. Georgiou was one of them."
Georgiou is a ready room? Oh, you mean Georgiou is a commanding officer with whom the ready room is popular? Yeah... there's a problem here. Either the first or the second sentence needs to be revised.
- I find it hard to believe that Georgiou has a "aversion to games." And not just because
gaslightgallows and I have a shared headcanon that Georgiou not only loves gambling, but is blackballed from a few casinos for card-counting. Including at least one memorable time when she used Burnham as an accomplice. My point is, Georgiou didn't strike me as a woman who would dislike fun in just about any form. ...Also, he had her taking interest in a chess game earlier in the book. - Author has a weird tic of saying that people lowered their chins. Everybody's got their tics, it just stood out to me.
- Update on page 117, we finally have the adjective "brown" for Burnham's skin. Okay, so this was written with the casting complete. Good to know.
- I appreciate that, according to the author, Bryan Fuller specifically asked him to write a book where Spock and Burnham interact. I still think that decision was somewhat dubious, and I definitely feel that the amount of time spent on Spock and Captain Pike detracts from the reason I bought the book, ie "Give me more of Georgiou and also Burnham."
- Speaking of Georgiou, the author has decided (or, god help us, taken from a series bible? I hope not...) that Georgiou kept her last name from her ex-husband Nikos, "retained" along with an antique turntable, "in the name of sentimentality." I disapprove. Also a strange amount of narrative time is lavished on the turntable. Georgiou listens to Miles Davis and Sonny Rollins. Okay, why not.
- (As
gaslightgallows pointed out, what kind of moron divorces Philippa Georgiou? Or even lets her divorce him?!)- As I was drifting to sleep while reading page 225, I was jolted back to consciousness by spotting a crewman Tyler aboard the Enterprise under Pike's command. Tyler? Wait, do they mean...? They do not appear to, as I could find no description or first name to confirm the connection, and couldn't even determine whether the crewman was stationed at con or tactical. But it does make me wonder.
- For the record, this would be sliiightly odd since at the Battle of the Binary Stars Tyler was serving on the USS Yeager, and this book is set only a year before that. But it's already really odd that Burnham is being made the Shenzhou's first officer just a year before that, so... I don't know.
- Petty but kind of funny: at one point Georgiou looks "frazzled--a rare state for her. Locks of her black hair had come loose and now framed her face, which glistened with sweat." Left me wondering if at one point in production they had envisioned Georgiou with a latter-day version of Janeway's bun.
- According at least to book canon, Burnham's parents died because they'd intended to leave on a transport ship but tiny!Burnham wanted to see a supernova, so they stayed an extra day and were attacked that morning.
- And set-up for "Lethe," in which Spock has to mind-meld with Burnham in order to do a plotty thing and, after some angst about that, she reveals to him that she was actually dead for 3 minutes after an attack on a Vulcan learning center and Sarek saved her with a mind-meld. The book specifies that he does so at Amanda's passionate insistence. The book also states that Amanda transferred her love for Spock onto Burnham, since Sarek insisted Spock refuse her outward shows of affection. Man, Sarek really is the absolute worst, and I wish Amanda had divorced his sorry ass and taken both kids away back to Earth with her.
- Burnham's characterization throughout the book feels a little... spotty? She lurches back and forth between calculating Vulcan and impetuous Human who can't keep her mouth shut, and while some of that fits with canon, it winds up feeling a lot stranger and more uncertain here. She felt a lot younger here than she did in the pilot (more than just one year younger), and I found myself thinking that she really didn't feel like she was ready for that kind of responsibility. Her relationship with Georgiou also felt odd. Saru spends large parts of the book being envious of Burnham's mentor/mentee relationship with Georgiou, but there's little actual indication of that relationship on the pages in this book. Around halfway through Georgiou suddenly really misses Burnham's insights, but there was no real indication prior that she relied on them, and even the book admits that she only realizes that in Burnham's absence. That seems out of character with their relationship as it was portrayed in the pilot. The intimacy and love (regardless of your exact interpretation of that love) that we saw between them just wasn't evident here.
Summary: Whatever, I liked it, but it wasn't great. Gonna go try to work on some fanfic, now.
