Invincible: Part 2

Star Trek SCE (ebooks) Novellas #8

by David Mack, Keith R.A. DeCandido

STARFLEET CORPS OF ENGINEERS Long believed to be just a Nalori myth, the "shii" has turned out to he devastatingly real The monster -- seemingly invulnerable, undeniably powerful, and completely rutbless -- as carved a swath through the Nalori construction project on the crystal planet of Sarindar. The project's supervisor, Commander Sonya Gomez, must find a way to stop the deadly creature before It destroys the entire project and its workers.

But when the truth behind the "shii" is revealed, Gomez realizes that even one of the S.C.E.'s top officers may not be able to solve every problem...

The exciting conclusion to the gripping, all-new two-pail adventure

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Fiction, Ebooks

95 pages, ebook

First published September 26, 2001

About the author

David Mack is the New York Times bestselling author of 39 novels of science-fiction, fantasy, and adventure, including the Star Trek Destiny and Cold Equations trilogies.

Beyond novels, Mack's writing credits span several media, including television (for produced episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine), games, and comic books.

Follow him on Twitter @davidalanmack or like his Facebook page.

Reviews

[Chad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Invincible was boring, not sure why, but it just didn't really capture me.

[Casey Pettitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Star Trek: S.C.E. #7-8: Invincible by David Mack and Keith R.A. DeCandido is an ambitious two-parter that stands out thanks to its unique storytelling format. Told largely through a series of log entries, personal reflections, and internal communications from Lieutenant Commander Sonia Gomez, the story offers a real-time, first-person immediacy that's rare in Trek fiction. It's a refreshing shift in perspective that deepens Gomez's character and gives the narrative a strong sense of urgency.

The premise — helping a planet overcome its hostile environmental effects to access dilithium, while facing a terrifying creature threat — is engaging and suspenseful in Part One. The alien mystery is well executed, and the tension stays high. Unfortunately, Part Two loses some steam. While it's a necessary continuation, the pacing drags, and the resolution, though solid, feels stretched. Still, the story arc as a whole delivers meaningful character growth for Gomez and an inventive twist on the usual S.C.E. formula.

[Michael T Bradley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Blah. Sadly, this book sees all the potential from the first book squandered. It's not a BAD ending, but my issues are plenty:

1) the solution to the problem of the monster shii (again, I'm not sure exactly where the division between 1 & 2 is, but I don't think it's a spoiler to say that a legendary, cruel version of a native beast, the shii, is murdering & decapitating people in the work camp) is ... meh. Like, it's a decent attempt at a Trek (or who) style resolution to a "monster," but when you take a step back, it's like, 'wait, what?' It seems overly contrived.
2) this civilization seems SO backwards, it's difficult to feel like they aren't just a pre-first contact race Starfleet is messing with. There's a brief flurry in the denouement to try to rectify this, but it's too little, too late.
3) About 80% of this book is first person from Sonya Gomez's POV. This answers my prayers for more focus on some of the cast. I'm good with the group dynamic, but because of the short length of the SCE stories, it's tough to get even one character beat in per book. So here, Sonya got nearly 150 pages all to herself. What do I know about her now? Uh ..... The one character I liked the most was Razka. He had fascinating feet of clay, and was by far the most interesting thing about the books. Sonya was ... like ... I feel like you could've replaced her with any other Starfleet member, basically, and it wouldn't have affected the plot at all. I learned nothing about her.


So while the book didn't FAIL, it definitely felt like a squandered opportunity. Still, short enough that I didn't mind it.

[Michel Siskoid Albert · Rating 3 out of 5]

The second part of Invincible is so action-packed as to be explicitly violent, with all but one of the guest characters killed with extreme prejudice. If the story had been told in one volume, their well-drawn profiles from Part I would have lent more weight to those deaths in Part II, though I can't really complain, having read them a week apart. If I'd waited two months for Part II though... The narration is again supplied by Gomez's logs and various letters, a great deal of it from Razka's pen. While Gomez completes a personal arc here, one that finally makes her accept Duffy's offer, Razka's is more extreme and complete - the coward who faces his fears and yet does not betray himself. It's the journey from coward to pacifist.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the second part of the story, this section was every bit as exciting as the first part (written by the same authors), only without the slow start. This novella does not stand alone. To appreciate it one has to read the first half first.

[Nicky2910 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Star Trek: S. C. E.: #7 + #8 Invincible by David Mack & Keith R. A. DeCandido Invincible is a rather unique story, spanning 2 e-novellas, because it's told entirely in the form of log entries and/or letters which takes some getting used to.
 
Basically it's about Gomez's solo-mission to a crystal planet in Nalori space to help establish a way to mine that planet's mineral ressources. She's faced with prejudices due to her being a Starfleet officer and a woman, and with legends about the place being cursed by giant monsters which turn out to be semi-true. It's an interesting experiment of story-telling. As a reader you get everything second hand, the description of the planet, the flora and fauna, and the events are told in retrospect - and it works for the most part.
 
I'm just not sure I really like Gomez, to be honest. Granted, she's competent, but she displays quite a superior attitude in this story, criticizing the Nalori for their backwater attitude and technological capabilities as well as the living conditions on the planet (What's so bad about living in a tent?). That's not to say that she's not factually right, but, as was the case with the other members of the SCE in Cold Fusion towards Nog, there's a certain arrogance that comes from being part of the cool genius-corps of engineers, that rankles. Not everyone is an idiot just because they don't belong to the SCE or Starfleet in general! Nog at least had the advantage to have the required knowledge about Empok Nor and therefore stand up to the SCE-members - which wasn't the case here. And I have to wait and see how that is going to play out in future stories because that could develop into a major turn-off for me.
 
Apart from that attitude-problem, this is a sort of a "coming of age"-story for Sonya Gomez that throws her into the deep end without a safety net (in the form of ready backup) and rearranges her priorities regarding her personal life. And even though the story's told mainly in Gomez's logentries, the supporting characters are surprisingly 3-dimensional (apart from their status as idiots, mind you). Interestingly, the Nalori return in the Vanguard-series in the form of Ganz's executioner Zett.
 
Overall, good story - with the mentionned superiority-complex issue.

[Lexxi Kitty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Invincible was split into two parts and sold as such as ebooks way back when. When the omnibus came out, they were merged together with no indication of where the split used to occur. Therefore I have rated the two parts roughly how I felt as I read the story.

The first part got a four star rating as the combined book appeared to be roughly four star quality story/writing/etc. While the second part got a three star rating because the fact that Commander Sonya Gomez kept making mistake after stupid mistake. This is probably the bloodiest Star Trek story I've read that didn't involve ships or planets exploding. But involved up close and personal death. By "monsters".

A lot of those deaths were because of the unusual situation, but how the nature of the planet caused scanners/tricorders to not really work as well as they should. The nature of the planet also made weapons mostly useless, except for sonic weapons. And the unexpected nature of being confronted by a predatory animal that looked like a larger version of a relatively mild and unthreatening creature. So some of the deaths can be put into that category: unexpected developments. Some, though, are definately in the category of: commanding officer, i.e., Sonya Gomez, kept making stupid decisions and mistakes. And then some of the deaths fall into the category of: the aliens under Gomez command are described as being rather stupid and superstitious. Especially when confronted by death.

Right. So. Overall story is something like 3.5. First part gets a 4 star rating, second gets a 3 star rating, combined: 3.5 average.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sonya Gomez has come a long way from the young, green ensign we saw in TNG's "Q Who" and "Samaritan Snare." Mack and DeCandido present her as a competent engineer who, while still experiencing a certain level of self-doubt, is very much up to the tasks before her. It was fun to follow her on this journey, although the log and transcript method of telling the story did tend to distract, especially towards the end.

Full review: http://treklit.blogspot.com/2013/11/i...

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gomez is still stuck on the jungle planet with a monster systematically killing off everybody by taking their heads. It's basically a survival story, and how can we kill this monster type story. A quick good read.

[John Kirk · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a decent story, although it didn't really have much to do with engineering.

[Stephen Robertson · Rating 2 out of 5]

same as pt 1 but less interesting. Same story as previous book but from another person's perspective.

[John Barclay · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good ending to a simple story. More of a tale of character development than an SCE story. Still, fun and fast and worth the read.