Fearful Symmetry is a Star Trek title that has been in the works for a long time, having been postponed at least twice. After I read about the premise, I was really excited to get my hands on this book and, needless to say, I was disappointed with all the delays. So now, finally, I was informed by Amazon that Fearful Symmetry was ready for shipping and I immediately went and ordered it. Being the kind of person who devours books in a matter of hours, I raced through it in most of the free time I had in the last two days… and I’m sort of speechless. What on Earth happened to the story?

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The “story”

I don’t really know where to start here… the story doesn’t really feel like a story, partly due to the fact that it is split into two seperate threads - neither of which seems to make much progress in terms of actual narrative. In the first half of the book, I mostly felt like I was reading a collection of references to previous novels, leaving the actual story itself rather thin. It feels like an intro or perhaps a “bridge” from the previous DS9 relaunch events to a new, bigger storyline that is yet to be written. Needless to say, it ends before it really begins, leaving the reader eager to turn the book around and find out what happens next…

… and leading to a major disappointment. The second half of the book does not continue where the first half left off. Instead it describes the back story of the main villain. This part of the book essentially provides even more explanations and background for the events referenced before, weaving itself nicely into the threads that had already been discussed in the first half of the book.

To sum it up: I spent the first couple of hours catching up with the events of several previous Star Trek novels and getting introduced to what could potentially be a very exciting storyline. Then I was whipped out of that excitement and transported back in time to experience the life of the main antagonist, ultimately leading to the events that cause her transformation into an evil, soulless bitch - which is quite entertaining. But then it’s over, leaving a whole bundle of loose ends before the plot really got anywhere. Essentially, I feel like I’ve been slapped in the face with the biggest and fattest “to be continued…” ever created.

Technique

This is made twice as bad by the fact that Fearful Symmetry is actually a very well written piece of literature. Despite the little percieved progress in the narrative, Olivia Woods somehow managed to build enough suspension to keep me wondering what will happen when the story continues. If it had been badly written, I would have been happy to forget about Fearful Symmetry and move on with my life. Instead I feel like I’ve been dragged right into a mid-season hiatus ala Battlestar Galactica.

Overall

Despite the fact that Fearful Symmetry does not seem to cover much narrative ground, I can’t help but admire the skill with which it was written. If only the book at been another 50% longer, taking the story to a point at which a cliffhanger would feel more natural, this book could have been truly excellent. As it stands, Fearful Symmetry feels like a 7.5 out of 10 for me. I just hope the sequel will provide the pay-off it needs.

So, providing there are no major setbacks, the next Star Trek feature film will be airing next may. Considering all that is known about the story and setting, I’m seriously beginning to wonder whether this film will try to “reset” the Star Trek franchise. Ever since “Enterprise” was cancelled after only four seasons, marking the beginning of an indefinite Star Trek TV hiatus, I’ve been wondering about what will become of our beloved Trek. Enterprise already broke away from many of the classic (some would say out-dated) Star Trek formulae which was quite refreshing, but somehow it didn’t really work too well. It seemed that the writers were trying too hard to flesh out the history of the Star Trek universe - adding major events, people, and even species that had, of course, never been mentioned before. By doing so they managed to alienate many hardcore fans - including myself.

As opposed to every other Star Trek series, which all took place more or less sequentially, Enterprise was set in the “past” (relatively speaking). The original Star Trek series and the first six feature films (with Kirk, Spock and the gang) were set in the late 23rd century. The Next Generation, Deep Space 9, Voyager and films 7 through 10 (with 7 being a kind of transition) were set in the mid to late 24th century. So it really came as a surprise when Enterprise was announced to be set in the 22nd century - a time which had been discussed in many episodes of Trek until that point. Trekkies such as myself already had a pretty good idea about what was supposed to happen in that time period. Still, the possibilities were there. I had expected them to go into detail about some known but minor species (such as the Breen), revisit events that had been mentioned in other series etc… being a true Star Trek fanboy, I looked forward to those moments of “Oh my god! That was mentioned in TNG episode 207! Awesome!!!”. Instead, we were bombarded with new species left , right and center. The Earth was threatened with destruction for an entire season by an incredibly powerful species that somehow never showed up before. Oh and, in one of those rare episodes that managed to acknowledge known events of the Star Trek universe, the Borg were encountered a good 200 years too early. Sure, I was disappointed when the series was cancelled, but somehow I knew it was for the best.

Now, we have Star Trek XI on the horizon. Yet another episode in the Star Trek saga that will attempt to rewrite (or at least add to) the known history of Trek. I find that my expectations are low. Although I hate to admit it, I truly believe that Star Trek has been chewed over and spat out so many times that it’s starting to go a bit stale. The Star Trek universe is simply too sterile for modern television. Just look at Battlestar Galactica - flawed personas, emotional tragedies, uncertain allegiances, main characters dying, and epic space battles inbetween… anything could happen. That’s part of what makes it interesting. Star Trek, on the other hand, has always been pretty much the opposite. Forehead alien of the week, nameless red-shirts dying to punctuate a dangerous situation, predictable characters with flawless personalities… it’s not just getting old - its been decomposing since back in the fucking 90s. The creators of Star Trek XI are painting on a pretty bleak canvas, so unless they decide to redefine Trek as we know it, this picture will most likely look pretty grey.

So, how could the Star Trek universe be resurrected to new glory? Simple: fuck it up real good. I don’t mean by retcon… I mean something like a new series set after the events of Star Trek X. Maybe even at the start of the 25th century. The situation after Nemesis is pretty good to mess around with. The entire galaxy appears to be safe, with all major enemies of the Federation either having become tentative allies or no longer posing a significant threat. What better setting to turn completely pear-shaped? If there ever is a new Star Trek series, I hope it’s set at that time, and I hope it comes with a healthy amount of grit to get people interested again. The mirror universe was always a refreshing source of variety, so why not throw that into the mix, like some kind of cross-over series?

As seen on Slashdot and along with a picture at the original source, a restaurant in China has apparently tried to use an online translation service to translate its name into English. Due to an apparrent error on the translation server and a glaring oversight by the people responsible at the restaurant, their name on the sign now reads: “Translate server error”. Perhaps these people should have at least tried to verify the results before they got that sign produced. I wonder if anyone has made them aware of their mistake?

Today I came home and she was already waiting for me… finally, the replacement for my shabby old standard beige case! I got this baby (Antec P182) based on a recommendation by my mate Sickboy, and I’ve got to say it’s definitely worth the rather steep price.

The P182 comes with three built-in 120mm fans, though they’re not exactly quiet ones. Fortunately, I ordered two Noctua 120mm fans along with it, so when money permits I’ll probably get the remaining stock fans replaced aswell.

One of the main things that drew me to this case is the placement of the power supply at the bottom of the case inside a special cage that decouples it, essentially eliminating any potential noise due to vibration. This comes with the added bonus of my PSU fan no longer getting blocked by the CPU fan (which used to be directly underneath it with literally no space inbetween). Now both CPU and PSU have way more air, which should drop my temps a notch or two.

The front of the case comes with some pretty cool dust filters that can be easily removed and washed. Considering how dusty my old case is, this should come in handy.

Speaking of dust, here’s my motherboard with the Zalman CNPS9700NT heatsink - which as gotten a bit clogged up over the past couple of months. I managed to get a decent amount of dust out of it but I guess it’s going to take a can of air to get it properly cleaned. Unfortunately, today being Sunday, I’ll have to leave that until next week.

All in all this baby is a pretty sweet one, though the stock fans are really starting to bug me. On low they are silent, but fail to generate any kind of significant throughput. On medium they are already pretty loud, and on high the frakkers are unbearably loud. I guess if temperatures ever rise to 50°C I’ll appreciate them. For now, I’ll just make do with medium until the rest of my Noctuas comes in to replace them.

But noisy fans aside, this case is pure sweetness.