Slightly overdue on the January review but here is my response to Boldly Reading challenge #5.
The Story for review and analysis is Their Finest Hour: Fire and Rain Part One & Two (aka A Hard Rain is Gonna Fall) by Funngunner.
So Admiral Jespah and Admiral MirandaFave Orders for the review can be viewed at: –
You can see mine and other various short reviews and the story here: –
http://www.adastrafanfic.com/reviews.php?type=ST&item=480
http://www.adastrafanfic.com/reviews.php?type=ST&item=508
You can see Admiral MF review in his Blog reply: –
http://mirandafave.adastrafanfic.net/2014/01/21/book-club-5/
The Author’s Q&A with Jespah can be viewed here: –
http://boldlyreading.com/2014/01/27/book-club-choice-5-author-q-a/
So anyway onto the Boldly Reading questions.
Q1. What were the climaxes of the stories?
A1. An interesting question to ask about this story.
I think you could potentially argue the each of the various different characters has a different climax. For me part one starts with the climax of both parts as J.J. Carmichael hit his field quarters but is unable to sleep due to the horrors that he has seen that day.
While for me part one does seem to reach it main climaxes with the United Earth Government give the order to going to its maximum alert status.
While part two, for me doesn’t feel to have a clear conclusion. The closest we get, for me is the moment when the rescued little girl is identified Penda Uhura to the cadets, the implication being that this is an ancestor to Nyota Uhura and thus the TOS/AOS timelines have being saved. However as the Author has already hint there is a part three in the works perhaps everything will fall together better when I get to read that.
Q2. Did they devolve to satisfactory conclusions?
A2. Part one yes, that in the face of an inevitable defeat, The Admiral finds a small silver lining that Academy resources have been used to pull together a disaster recover centre.
Part two despite being an excellent story with good description work of the tragedy, my answer would be no. It just felted a paragraph short for me. I think with the cadets fuel limit fast approaching they just don’t have the time to rescue all three people, and thus I felt it should of ending with showing the cadets facing up to that harsh truth of having to abandon at least one or two civilian to their fate. Thus explaining and fitting nicely with the part one open scene.
Q3. What happens right after the curtain comes down on the story?
A3. Well I fear that the Cadets will have to lack of fuel leave one or two of the civilians behind, which means that they might have to deal with a very distort little girl.
I do wonder how Starfleet command will respond to their own defensive failings and what the Cadets went through in their efforts to save lives in the aftermath. Plus the Media obvious negative reaction to their failings.
I like to see if Anne Ortega and her daughter do truly escape the horrors of Miami and what happens to then and the other surviving refugees as they try to rebuild their lives. As they do feel a very separate sub-plot and not linked back to the main cadet heroes plot arc.
Q4. Where would you take these characters next?
A4. Nowhere there are Funngunner Characters.
Now if I was going to write the next chapter I be looking at the disaster recover, how the civilians we’ve already seen on the ground react after surviving the attack but lose everything, how the cadets and their Starfleet seniors see their own efforts. I might focus on the Government priorities after the attack, do they put resources and time on planetary defenses, rebuilding or trying to build resources on Mars in case Earth doesn’t survive the next attack. i.e. another look at the United Earth Government executive inner working.
Due to IRL time shortage I’m not going to tackle the bonus question for once, due to it requires me to read another story.
So instead I want to touch on something that Admiral Miranda Fave said on Enterprise as a series and the Series 3 Xindi arc in his Blog.
“The (Enterprise) series did have a lot of flaws and miscalculations in its execution of elements, concepts and characters.”
A lot of flaws? I would say that is a harsh statement, it had no more flaws than TNG, DS9 or VOY when they were first launched. It biggest flaw can be drawn back to the Network rushing the show writers for a quick launch of the NX01 and so after the excellent Broken Bow opener we had a episode that could of come from TNG or VOY left over story pile. ENT suffering from being the youngest of the Trek Family Series and coming last to air.
“It (The Xindi Arc) attempted to tackle continuity and do the kind of storytelling seen in DS9′s Dominion War arc, especially its series culmination stories. Where DS9 was applauded for the approach ENT seemed to get short shrift.”
Now I would agree with Miranda Fave on this. I do think the ENT Xindi arc is the equal of DS9 Dominion War ARC. As someone said recently (I think it might of being either Gettysburg or Sorridum on the G&T Show) TNG had a weak two first seasons and didn’t get going till after it series three.
On the issue of raiding the Illyrian Vessel we seen Archer put into a dark place and force to made harsh decision, but ask your self honestly, to save Earth do you think in Archer position that Kirk, Sulu, Picard, Janeway or Sisko have done anything different? For me it was the same sort of choice as Sisko using Garek to trick the Romulans into joining the war against the Dominion.
Well those are my initials thoughts, overall I think this is an excellent piece of work that give some thing only seen a thirty second screen tragedy a proper examination and is well worth a read by all people who enjoy good science fiction.
Still as always constructive feedback is welcome.
Till next time, I’ll wish you all happy reading.
False Bill
All Images from Trekcore (http://www.trekcore.com/)