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Should I read Diane Duane's "Rihannsu" books?
mhall85
Member Posts: 2,852 Arc User1
Shout out to apsciliara, who brought this up in another thread. 
And this is probably asking a biased crowd, LOL, but are these books good? I see there are five books...
And this is probably asking a biased crowd, LOL, but are these books good? I see there are five books...
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And I second the others: the historical information on the Sundering in "The Romulan Way" is very interesting, and I find it a lot more engaging than the story it is inserted into.
I also don't see "my" Romulans, or what I would expect after knowing them from the shows. Some elements, yes, but generally it is a separate (and sometimes even contradictory) worldbuilding to what we have seen on screen.
Still, IMHO it's a good read.
That being said, I may have to check these out.
I've kinda been interested in this book, too. The only DS9 novel I remember reading back in the day was Saratoga, and I don't remember much about it.
I'm very defensive about my beloved DS9.
"A Stitch in Time" aside, the post-DS9 DS9 books are wonderful up to "Warpath".
Isn't that the truth! Without wanting to drop spoilers, Starbase Deep Space 9 will never be the same again....!
Funny you mention that... the omnibus A Twist of Faith was also on my radar, and I believe that covers the first few books of the relaunch.
I've seen the covers of the newer books, so I see *something* happened to Terok Nor.
As for those who complain that this series isn't 'real Romulans', I just can't understand. The only other 'Romulans' are the one-dimensional two-legged scorpions we see represented in the later Trek - the only 'character development' there was to see how creatively they could stab you in the back.
--Red Annorax
I met Carolyn Seymour once, at a London Trek convention about 10 years ago. She had set out a stall in the corridor, away from the hustle and bustle of the main hall. Quietly, with no fuss. A smattering of people popped by for a signature, but I was absolutely awestruck. Taris/Toreth - two of my favourite characters in TNG (and a memorable moment in B5). I bought a photo of her, and in a quavering voice, asked her if she could sign it, which she did with a dazzling smile. I then said, "you're my favourite Romulan".
Pathetic.
If I'm honest, its because of Carolyn and Andreas Katsulas that made me a fan of Romulans and their portrayal, one-dimensional or not.
They aren't backstabbing in the books enough?
But more seriously, in the books they seem a rigid society, where which way you look seems to have a meaning, and must be absolutely proper for your position in that society or you're doomed. I didn't get that from any of the shows, neither TOS or later. And I do realise we had a chance to see the military setting - which was more relaxed than what I see in the book for civilians. O.o
I'm not completely happy how the Romulans are presented in "modern" Treklit (as in, TNG and post timeline), but I like their culture more than this rigid "know you place and don't breath too fast, because your positions doesn't allow it" setting.
But, as I said, I'm still reading, so my opinion may land in a rubbish bin soon
I'd do the same!
Toreth is my quintessential Romulan, just like Spock is my quintessential Vulcan
Started reading it, but got sidetracked. Thanks for the reminder.
I think ill get back to it tonight.
Oh, there was nothing one-dimensional about Andreas - I'm not sure he could *do* a flat character. Admittedly, he tried in "The Fugitive".
Heh, true, but at least there you get to see *why*, as opposed to the whole mustache-twirling cartoon evil-ness. I may not have liked [name redacted for spoilers], but Diane at least made me see his motives.
Not certain I agree here - I think this aspect was an expansion of comments made by Mark Lenard's Romulan Commander in 'Balance of Terror'. There was a lot about that character that echoed the bushido code, which makes the parallel to feudal Japanese culture.
Why the Klingons ended up morphing into Trek's samurai, I'll never get.
Just keep in mind, you are seeing Rihannsu society from a specific viewpoint in 'The Romulan Way'. There's good reason for that protagonist to see the society as very rigid and stratified. Afraid to elaborate here - I'd hate to spoil anything.
And I don't really see much FASA lore in Duane's work. But then, much as I loved playing FASA Trek, the Rom lore in there was ... less than stellar.
--Red Annorax
From the newer Trek novels, I didn't read many.
A Stitch in Time is a pretty good book. But when it comes to Cardassians, I really recommend the Neverending Sacrifice. It gives a lot of insights in the Cardassian society and also deals with Cardassian before, during and after the Dominion War.
I don't remember if I read the Rihannsu books. I read a lot of Diane Duane's books and I think I liked pretty much every one of them. Maybe the least liked might be the TNG Mirror story.
BUt generally speaking, I was always more a fan of the TOS novels. TNG or DS9 novels never seemed as good, which may be due to me knowing the characters so much better and many of the novels I read being written before the authors really understood the characters...
But then, I read up on Memory Beta on the Destiny stuff in the post TNG/DS9/VOY area, and think maybe the stories might get better on characterization (can't tell from Memory Beta), but the plot gets worse.
I used to quite enjoy DS9 novels, up to Warpath (as guljarol also mentioend), then it got lost along the way. However, my guilty secret is the DS9 "Millennium" Trilogy, with the War of the Prophets. It even has the Romulans playing the good guys! (of sorts).
Don't judge me!
Any chance for a screenshot?
When I get home from work, I'll see what I can do
Here we go
For me, the Romulans were defined by characters such as Letant, Tomalak, Taris, and Toreth (my favorite).
Nevermind the fact that the Rihannsu Romulans are a fleshed out, complete people, and not nearly one dimensional stage villains, like TomaLax.
If you think Tomalak was one-dimensional, you obviously haven't actually watched any episodes in which he actually appeared.
Toreth was great. One of the few times we saw a Romulan on the other side of the viewscreen. She played her character as a strong commander, while appearing just as 'normal' as anyone on the Starfleet side would. I felt Toreth allowed us to see that not all Romulans were the sideshow villains that the Tal'Shiar had us believe.
There needed to be something done, if the Romulans were to be expanded upon. Duane's works are lagely considered the leading source of Romulan lore. Definitely not canon, but some of the most prominent soft-canon available - or at the very least, some of the most well-developed lore. If Cryptic went off on their own route and ignored the Rihannsu series, I think there'd be a lot more complaints about the direction the Romulans in STO are going. Better to base off of existing credible works, rather than reinvent the wheel entirely.
I'm working my way through the books. Enjoying them so far.
That's your opinion, and nothing more.
If you think that, you clearly don't understand the concept of differing viewpoints.
TNG/DS9 gave plenty to work off of. There was plenty that could be reasonably extrapolated from what we saw on the shows, and more importantly, has been in numerous other works-most importantly other games. Making Romulan content that followed the shows rather than the books has never been a problem, nor has there ever been any controversy when they did so at the expense of Diane's books.
The status of Diane's books as the 'soft canon' holy writ on all things Romulan for all Romulan fans is far from fixed.
Heck, Gene himself supposedly had plenty of problems with them and tried to keep them from getting published.
The shows themselves also frequently contradict her books, as do other Trek books.
So pointing out that your hating TNG era Romulans is just your viewpoint, shows that I don't understand the concept of differing viewpoints? Okaaaay.....:rolleyes:
This is the key point. They couldn't just reinvent Romulans entirely. They needed something to work off of. And the TOS era Romulans as illustrated in Diane Duane's Rihannsu series are simply far more appealing to most people then the Romulan society shown in TNG. A race of survivors, fighting to reclaim their peoples heritage and honor is far more appealing than a race of unapologetic militarists, adhering to the phrase "Tutto nello Stato, niente al di fuori dello Stato, niente contro lo Stato." and wishing to ressurect the supremacy of their fallen police state.
Right. And and a good chunk of the cast of characters from TNG/DS9 are seen / referenced or have inspired things in STO. And the plotline of STO takes Nemesis as a starting point for the Romulan shakeup. References to a well-constructed and generally well-received book series isn't in itself a huge problem.
Rihhansu Romulans have a tenuous connection to TOS, but aside from that, have been basically ignored by the shows. For good reason, IMO.