New Books- Avatar

[mbkrawler]

In reference to Shar's gender: Not only can examples be found in real life earth biology,there is also at least one example in science fiction- Alien Nation the series. The character, Albert, was a third sex necesary for George and Susan Franciso to concieve. As others have already said on this thread, if you stop looking at it from a purely human perspective, it's not that far fetched.

Cheers,

[Ineti]

A little late to the party I know, but I just finished rereading these books. They're really, really good, folks. Check them out, especially if you want to see a good version of what things are like in the Alpha Quadrant post-Dominion War.

If I run another Trek game, it'll be using elements from the DS9 relaunch.

[AslanC]

I found Avatar to be v ery enjoyable as well as Section 31. Nice stuff.

Man did I hate the Battle for Betazed. Ugh.

[Perrryyy]

Originally posted by qerlin
Goin' with you on this one, Aslan. Dumb.

OMG!

The planets are aligning!

Qerlin & Aslan actually agree on something!




(Please take that in the spirit it's intended guys!)

[JALU3]

When I start up my LUG ST RPG here in San Antonio come November or so I'll be sure to incorperate stuff from the ReLaunch as well . . . except for that entire Gateway bit. Never liked the ramifications of having ALL the gateways openned.

[AslanC]

Originally posted by Perrryyy
OMG!

The planets are aligning!

Qerlin & Aslan actually agree on something!




(Please take that in the spirit it's intended guys!)

No harm no foul, but that agreement was from sometimes last year if you look carefully.

[Perrryyy]

Originally posted by AslanC
No harm no foul, but that agreement was from sometimes last year if you look carefully.

True. I just didn't look hard enough.

[Siroth]

About Shar's gender, you really don't have to worry too much about it, because it's very minor part of the plot.

There are lots of points like that which looks at much like the author trying to establish something that may be used later as anything else. I read the books and noted Shar's thoughts, but didn't think much about it, and it certainly wasn't important to the story.

The significance of certain lost Orbs are far more important, as is the question of what exactly the Dominion is doing now that war is over. _If_ the war is over, that is...

At the end of the second novel there are a few new characters that we don't know much about. We find out more in the next novel, Abyss, so make sure you pick that up - it is definitely a worthy read! Yes, it's part of the Section 31 thing, but I haven't read the others and see no need to, so the books appear to be completely independent of each other. One of the authors of Abyss actually worked on the DS9 production staff and was heavily involved in the Section 31 episodes, so we get that story straight from the source! I highly recommend it and especially liked the ending and the use of Ro and a certain few new characters (you'll know who I'm talking about when you read it)...

Haven't gotten around to 'Demons of Air and Darkness' yet (but then that's part of that Gateways crossover-thing) or the Mission Gamma tetralogy, the first two novels of which have just come out ("Twilight" by David R. George III and "This Gray Spirit" by Heather Jarman). However, once Mission Gamma is over, S.D. Perry will return to writing the two subsequent novels "Rising Son" (due out in January 2003) and "Unity" (hardcover set to come out in April 2003). I'm looking forward to reading all of it because the relaunch seems to be very high quality, especially since "Abyss" was so good despite not having been written by the author of the "Avatar" novels.

[Balok]

Sexual dimorphism arose to support the exchange of genetic material, something that generally produces robust organisms by minimizing the liklihood of an organism being destroyed by a recessive gene. It increases the liklihood that the organism will have at least one good copy of the gene, since it gets 1/2 of each chromosome from each parent.

The problem I see with trimorphism and quadmorphism (admittedly my own terms) is that they're too complicated. Evolution tends to select for the simplest solution that solves a problem. So, trimorphism and quadmorphism are very unlikely tp arise.

Another big problem is the difficulty of finding partners. That problem gets harder and harder as the number of partners increases. Add layers of culture, emotional, and possibly religious baggage to this, and it gets worse.

And then there's the geometry of it. I'll leave it to the imagination , but I think the requirements would rival anything found in the Kama Sutra.

Finally, there's the issue of resources. Which of the sexes bears the child? Do the other sexes invest themselves into protecting their child, or into fertilizing the maximum number of child bearers?

I would honestly be quite surprised if even trimorphism evolved naturally, much less quadmorphism. The odds just seem long against it.

Of course, that's the hard science fiction approach, and Star Trek has never really been about hard science fiction. Still, a four-sexed species just rubs me the wrong way. I think I'll go with the "Among the Clans" approach, and assume that quads are a social convention, and that each quad contains two each of two sexes.

YMMV.

[Michael Barratt]

I just finished "Cathedral," the latest in the DS9 relaunch, and man! Great read.

Mangels and Martin are an awesome team - they did the "Rogue" book - the TNG Section 31 novel. Was awesome. Now this! The Andorian plot is kick-ass, the characterization of Ezri and Nog especially rocked. Ahh. Love 'em. *sniff*

(Spoilers abound here past this point.)
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(You were warned.)

I have a feeling the next "baddie" is going to be those little neck-tube squiggly take-over-your-body aliens we saw in DS9. Just from the way the end assassination was dealt - by a trill - and the thoughts that Dax was having in the pool. If you read the "Lives of Dax," one of the hosts dealt with those aliens at one point, and the symbiont seems to have buried the memory... until now. The whole "Get Ezri back to the Alpha Quadrant and warn 'em!" sense of the experience in the Cathedral has me wondering.

Ahhh, these are good. Any thoughts, folks? Don't forget to spoiler warn...

The Doc

[Dan Gurden]

Oddly I was surprised to find myself enjoying the episodic nature of the relaunch, with the books opener carrying directly from the previous book, and the cross continuity whether it be comic or novel...

Although having missed two parts so far (I wasn't impressed with 1 part of Gateways to by the 6 way finale in hardback and the paperback has not yet been released...), and I have missed the SCE crossovers... I did find myself wishing the episodic nature away occasionally...

But its DS9, I'll forgive it many things... And theres some nice characterisations in there, and some projected episodes that sound intriging...