Book Club Meeting - SD 240010.18

[Gila Sadar]

Summary of the Discussion in Discord - Wednesday, 18th of October 2023.

 

1)      Have any of you read any of S.D. Perry’s other works?

No one has read any of S.D. Perry’s other works, though some titles seem familiar and interesting. Her track record of writing for established pop-culture IPs also works to her credit as a sign that she knows how to work within established canons, and thus can be trusted to do the source material justice.

2)      How do you feel about the section we’ve read?

The general consensus was that it functioned well as a ‘pilot episode’, with both ups and downs. The development of the general plot took backstage to establishing the setting and the characters, old as new, and while the author is perhaps a bit too ‘enamored with their thesaurus’ and tends to focus too much on internal observations, we are optimistic about where the story’ll take us.

• Was the inclusion of a timeline a good choice, do you think?

The timeline was – to some of us – the best part of the chapter, and was a solid way of ensuring that all readers start on the same page in terms of established canon.

• Do you think starting us off with Jake Sisko was the right jumping off point, or do you think we should’ve started elsewhere?

While our opinions on Jake Sisko as a character differed (HOW DARE THEE), we generally agreed that choosing to start the story with him in a separated location and introducing us to the Prylar prior to the event on DS9 was the right call.

3)      What do you think of the author’s decision to jump so frequently between characters this early in the story? Has it hurt the pacing of the mystery, or do you think it was a good idea, to get us acquainted with all the different characters?

Harking back to our opinion of the first three chapters as the ‘pilot episode’, we did agree that the plot didn’t progress very much at all, but this wasn’t necessarily a detriment to the book’s quality. Some parts of the early chapters (like Kira’s dream sequence) did feel like it could be omitted, or at least not take that much space, but in general, the opinion of the first couple of chapters were positive.

4)      What do you think of the newly introduced characters, and what’s your opinion on the deployment of Ro Laren on DS9?

Some of us (😉) were very happy to see Ro Laren again, and are excited to see how the tensions between Ro and the Starfleet Personnel, and Ro and Kira, pan out as the story progresses. The reception to the new characters was more lukewarm, with most of us not remembering their names, even if we had a vague recollection of who they were.

• Of the newly introduced characters, do you think any of them are ‘redshirts’ that will get killed off in the story? Of the newly introduced characters, who would you like to see take center stage for parts of the book?

The most common belief expressed during the meeting was that it was difficult to readily accept new characters because of the ‘redshirt’-syndrome, so we’d have to withhold judgment before fully accepting any of the new folks as proper characters in their own rights.

5)      With the title of the duology being ‘Avatar’, what do you think this signifies?

Gila Sadar has definitely been conditioned to believe all prophesized children evil. The fact that both books carry the moniker ‘Avatar’ – which is what the prophecy the Prylar hands to Jake ostensibly calls Sisko’s unborn child – indicates that, whatever the Avatar actually is, it is going to cause trouble on a larger scale. The use of a prophecy for the first major plot hook was a more divisive move amongst Book Club Members, as a few of us felt it was an overutilized plot device in DS9 to begin with, and it is a trite plot device when we all expect it to go misunderstood for the majority of the story. Nevertheless, theories ran rampant during the meeting, and we’re all invested to see just how wrong Jake’s original translation will turn out to be.

6)      Is the book easily readable? Is the pace with which we’ve decided to read suitable for everyone?

‘Easily readable’ is very much a subjective consideration, with a few of the members mentioning that the author’s overadherence to canon and the slow pace of the plot made the initial chapters a slog to get through, while others felt that the book was easy to get through. There was a unanimous agreement that the pace thus far feels suitable for the Book Club’s purposes, however, and as such, we felt comfortable setting a new quota for the next meeting.

 

Thanks to everyone who attended and made the first Book Club Meet-Up a success!! 🥰
For those who weren't able to attend the meeting, or have since recalled an observation or opinion that they weren't able to express during the meeting, feel free to use this thread to keep the conversation going!

I'll update the actual Book Club-thread with the new quota and the next Meet-Up date once they have been decided upon!