joshEH
Senior HTF Member
Just finished the book. A real page-turner. And a freaking-huge spoiler/twist alert for the TV series:
I thought Lorca was great. As someone who thought Mirror Lorca was a bit underserved by how broadly-evil he was revealed to be in last week's episode, I liked that Prime Lorca was consistent with what we thought we knew about him. (Interesting touch that Lorca's fortune cookies actually had fortunes in them, something his counterpart apparently dispensed with. Either that, or Lorca started eating empty ones out of sentiment after everything that happened in the book). Georgiou was also well-served and consistent with what we know of her, especially underscoring her indefatigable optimism even in the face of enormous tragedy.
Speaking of, the actual Tarsus IV massacre was well done, as was the fallout. I've mentioned this before, but a lot of TOS episodes, especially, take place in the wake of horrific catastrophe, and when you look at the big picture, the Enterprise crew doesn't really save the day so much as mitigate the situation or, at best, prevent further destruction. Drastic Measures is one of those books that brings out the scale of stuff the show treated as backstory or stakes, which is exactly the sort of thing that cross-media storytelling is perfect for.
I thought the cameo by shitty teenage Jimmy Kirk was perfect, especially him turning on the charm with Georgiou. Though, come to think of it, it feels like there's a bit of a loose thread with Winona mentioning George is on a "secret" mission, after establishing that a Constitution-class starship's movements were being kept secret a few times earlier in the book, and then not actually bringing up that George was on the Enterprise at the end. I can see how it'd be superfluous to the Tarsus IV story, but my deleted-scene spidey-sense is tingling.
It's left ambiguous exactly how broken Lorca is at the end of the book. His anger is definitely close to the surface, similar to the way Mirror Lorca explained his behavior as trauma from the death of the Buran-crew, and Georgiou thinks, a little before DSC takes place, about how she doesn't know what became of him (beyond, apparently, that he made Captain). Of course, he does keep the one fortune-slip he chose as his guiding star the night of the massacre, so I guess that right there tells you everything you need to know about the difference about the Mirror Universe and our own.
So, let's get to the big twist, the thing that history will either regard as a weird blind-alley or an early sign that Star Trek isn't afraid of its own books anymore:
There's what can only be described as a "post-credits scene" (I'm trying to remember if there's ever been one in a Trek novel before, and I have a vague feeling there has been, if only as a disguised excerpt from the next book in a miniseries) where we get the bombshell revelation (though, technically, only heavily-implied and still deniable or easily retconnable) that Prime Lorca survived the destruction of the ISS Buran (assuming he transposed with his counterpart, à la "Mirror, Mirror"), and is being imprisoned but specifically kept alive by some mysterious party, likely a faction of Terrans.
I can only hope this is a specific tease for next season, and not just a breadcrumb thrown out as a potential plotline that may or may not be followed up on later by the TV show itself. But, if the former, this is pretty freaking huge.
Speaking of, the actual Tarsus IV massacre was well done, as was the fallout. I've mentioned this before, but a lot of TOS episodes, especially, take place in the wake of horrific catastrophe, and when you look at the big picture, the Enterprise crew doesn't really save the day so much as mitigate the situation or, at best, prevent further destruction. Drastic Measures is one of those books that brings out the scale of stuff the show treated as backstory or stakes, which is exactly the sort of thing that cross-media storytelling is perfect for.
I thought the cameo by shitty teenage Jimmy Kirk was perfect, especially him turning on the charm with Georgiou. Though, come to think of it, it feels like there's a bit of a loose thread with Winona mentioning George is on a "secret" mission, after establishing that a Constitution-class starship's movements were being kept secret a few times earlier in the book, and then not actually bringing up that George was on the Enterprise at the end. I can see how it'd be superfluous to the Tarsus IV story, but my deleted-scene spidey-sense is tingling.
It's left ambiguous exactly how broken Lorca is at the end of the book. His anger is definitely close to the surface, similar to the way Mirror Lorca explained his behavior as trauma from the death of the Buran-crew, and Georgiou thinks, a little before DSC takes place, about how she doesn't know what became of him (beyond, apparently, that he made Captain). Of course, he does keep the one fortune-slip he chose as his guiding star the night of the massacre, so I guess that right there tells you everything you need to know about the difference about the Mirror Universe and our own.
So, let's get to the big twist, the thing that history will either regard as a weird blind-alley or an early sign that Star Trek isn't afraid of its own books anymore:
There's what can only be described as a "post-credits scene" (I'm trying to remember if there's ever been one in a Trek novel before, and I have a vague feeling there has been, if only as a disguised excerpt from the next book in a miniseries) where we get the bombshell revelation (though, technically, only heavily-implied and still deniable or easily retconnable) that Prime Lorca survived the destruction of the ISS Buran (assuming he transposed with his counterpart, à la "Mirror, Mirror"), and is being imprisoned but specifically kept alive by some mysterious party, likely a faction of Terrans.
I can only hope this is a specific tease for next season, and not just a breadcrumb thrown out as a potential plotline that may or may not be followed up on later by the TV show itself. But, if the former, this is pretty freaking huge.
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