Star Trek: Invasion! (the books..might be spoilerish)

[Tricky]

I just finished "The Soldiers of Fear', book 2 in the 4 book series.

Not bad. I like that the Furies try again. And the whole 'these are the creatures our myths were based on' angle is cool. But, from "The First Strike" to this book, the Furies have become...eviler? In the first book, they seemed almost sympathetic: their legends told that they used to live around here. They lost a war, and the winners dumped them off on the far side of the galaxy (Say hello to Janeway...actually, VOY is the 4th book). After much fighting, they evetually get their acts together and manage to get back to AQ.

After being told that we don't know anything about them, we eventually discover that we might have had contact with them. Their methods are similar to Druids, as are some of their words. This is where things get murky.

From what i gather from the blurbs about the later books (DS9,VOY), we discover that these guys were a 'demonic' force that ruled the galaxy through terror and violence. So, gone is the idea that maybe they arent bad, just misguided. Which for me, would make for a more dramatic story. Infact, I think the captain of the Fury ship is just slightly more over the top then Darth VAder or Dr. Doom. He seems to taunt his subordinates as much as Picard.

Oh, and that reminds me of another thing. The whole plot device for "Soldiers" was the 'fear ray' that they plan on useing to cow us into submission. Which sounds good, except that IT DOESN'T REALLY EVER WORK!?!?! No one important on the ENT ever gets too scared to do their jobs, and they eventually counteract the who thing. (I almost felt sorry for them....like those guys who built the Death Star and found it really was only good for getting Leia to talk)

So, did anyone else read the books? Thoughts? Suggestions?

[C5]

I've read the four books some time ago.
Overall, I liked the first one; it was an rather good TOS story, with a rather interesting opponent. I found the second one a bit sub-par, and I tend to agree with most of what you said about it.

On the whole, having a "myth from the past be in fact aliens" plot is a bit too old for my tastes, but it was rather nicely done in the first book. The second one is far less original with it, and rather predictible concerning what happens to Riker's friend.

I'll withhold my comments on the two next ones, unless you are interested in my spoiler-free opinion about them.

(BTW, thinking back on it, there's a 2nd season New Doctor Who episode that reminded me of these books...)

[Tricky]

Go ahead and comment, C5; I've already found some Wikipedia entries for the books. The Unclean is a race of insectoids? Is that true? But if the monsters from our legends are aliens, then shouldnt the angels and spirits from our legends also be aliens?

Are you thinking of the one with the Black hole, the Ood and a beast in the pit?

[C5]

On the books :
The Unclean are indeed insectoids, with some Borg-like assimilating abilities. The DS9 book is entirely about them, and so is a bit set apart from the other episodes as there is no mention on the Furies. IMHO, it's also the best book : the ennemies are really dangerous, and the DS9 crew has to deal with a very weird situation involving time travel (as it is revealed in the first pages of the book, and even on the blurb cover IIRC, I don't spoil too much).

The VOY book deals with the Furies again, and I found it the weakest of the series. Rather bad characterization, linear and very predictible story.

And yes, that's the episode. Maybe that's just because I imagined the Furies looking like the Beast in the Pit, too

[Tricky]

So, I'm just about done with Time's Enemy; I do like The Unclean: they are sorta parasitic and yet predatory. The whole absorb your enemy thing is cool.

[Cut]

So, I'm just about done with Time's Enemy; I do like The Unclean: they are sorta parasitic and yet predatory. The whole absorb your enemy thing is cool.

I have read the books, and can't remember...Gotta read 'em again sometime...

[Tricky]

Well, almost done with "The Final Fury": I can see why some people say that this VOY novel is the weakest link. Chakotay and Torres thoughts and dialog are so sterotype, with Chakotay comeing off like Tonto in space, while Torres sounds like every other klingon (although doesn't she hate being half Klingon on the show?) And they actually describe Janeway fixing her hair everytime she tries to come up with something.

There is some good stuff though: While I have trouble that Tuvok has "genetic memories" of the bad old days when the Furies ruled Vulcan (and some of the stuff they do reads like a long Lovecraft story I read about a manuscript found by some people in a burial mound detailing a guy who found a lost underground civilazation), I like that he has to struggle to keep his composure. And Nelix comes off as quite the Rogue in this one: he has 2 communicators and a phaser in his boots and actually takes out some snake-oid with some alien judo move. (Why wasn't the TV Nelix that cool?)

According to a Timeline I found, this story takes place just before "The 37's", which might have been a first or second season story; I don't remember. Maybe that's why everyone seems a little stand-offish and not sure of their places.

[Tricky]

Well, I finished it. One mini-series down. I'm pleased that I came up with an answer to the 'stop the invasion and wipe out 27 billion people' puzzle. And I never even went to the Academy!

So the Furies are gone (for now..... ), and Voyager lost yet another chance to get home, as well as someone who could have spoiled everything for them. And everything, as it always at the end of a major Trek crossover, is back to normal.

Hmmm....I wonder if a Fury would be an interesting character......?

[The Tatterdemalion King]

Go ahead and comment, C5; I've already found some Wikipedia entries for the books. The Unclean is a race of insectoids? Is that true? But if the monsters from our legends are aliens, then shouldnt the angels and spirits from our legends also be aliens?

Who mourns for...

[Tricky]

Well, they hint that the Greeks worshiped some of the Furies, so that would pull Apollo's race in, but the race that drove them out was definatly not humanoid: the Unclean are a race of wasp like creatures that dwell in space.

But while I liked them in the books (and no one in the books asked where they've been for several thousand years, and why then and the Furies both pop up at the same time....), I would have rather had 'god like' beings and 'creatures of light' drive them out.