Review of
Rosetta
Published:
February 2006
Reviewer Rating:
Avg User Rating:
(2.87)
The Enterprise encounters an unknown alien ship that attacks them carefully to drive them out of an area it seems to be defending. Hoshi is unable to decipher the signal being broadcast from the ship meaning the crew cannot communicate with the aliens at all. After retreating, the Enterprise becomes somewhat embroiled in the politics of the Thelasian Confederacy and their ongoing conflict with the aliens. Archer and Hoshi will become instrumental in the conflict, but will either survive the experience?
I was looking forward to a story where Hoshi seeks to interface and communicate with an alien race and we really get to see her at work. I was hoping for something along the lines of the movie "Arrival" where we get to use many techniques and Hoshi's brilliance to bridge the communication gap. That's not what we get here. We mostly get Hoshi dealing with insecurities in the aftermath of her captivity by the Xindi and a lot of misdirection. In this storyline there are really a number of inconsistencies and some frustration over the entire resolution. I'm not sure I really bought into the idea of why the aliens couldn't communicate from early in the story. Seems it was just a convenience to build up to the confrontation near the end of the story. While we get a micon or two of development for Hoshi, it's mostly just her getting past what was done to her at the hands of the Xindi. And that's fine if it's put to rest after this.
The other plotline involves Archer and a heist, of sorts. The character pulling the con is kind of interesting in a mustache-twirling villain sort of way. His overall plot doesn't make much sense to me either and you could see the potential for his plans to fall apart even as they're being revealed. Archer doesn't benefit from any real development in this story either, so it's kind of a pointless journey.
The overarching theme of artificial intelligence is kind of interesting. There are some interesting concepts in here that provide the backbone of the entire story, but it's not really enough to be a real captivating idea. In general this book had a lot of potential, but sold it off in favor of simple ideas that resolved to easily.
Not horrible, but I just wanted more.
I was looking forward to a story where Hoshi seeks to interface and communicate with an alien race and we really get to see her at work. I was hoping for something along the lines of the movie "Arrival" where we get to use many techniques and Hoshi's brilliance to bridge the communication gap. That's not what we get here. We mostly get Hoshi dealing with insecurities in the aftermath of her captivity by the Xindi and a lot of misdirection. In this storyline there are really a number of inconsistencies and some frustration over the entire resolution. I'm not sure I really bought into the idea of why the aliens couldn't communicate from early in the story. Seems it was just a convenience to build up to the confrontation near the end of the story. While we get a micon or two of development for Hoshi, it's mostly just her getting past what was done to her at the hands of the Xindi. And that's fine if it's put to rest after this.
The other plotline involves Archer and a heist, of sorts. The character pulling the con is kind of interesting in a mustache-twirling villain sort of way. His overall plot doesn't make much sense to me either and you could see the potential for his plans to fall apart even as they're being revealed. Archer doesn't benefit from any real development in this story either, so it's kind of a pointless journey.
The overarching theme of artificial intelligence is kind of interesting. There are some interesting concepts in here that provide the backbone of the entire story, but it's not really enough to be a real captivating idea. In general this book had a lot of potential, but sold it off in favor of simple ideas that resolved to easily.
Not horrible, but I just wanted more.
