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Due to scheduling, computer virus, being attacked by an angry morkie and other weirdness it has been quite awhile since I've done a pure Star Trek column. Considering I've got a bazillion of them in my box I think it is about time for another.
- Articles of Federation By Keith R.A. DeCandido:
One of the few remaining unexplored frontiers for Star Trek books is how Federation politics actually work. It's usually starship captains or starbase commanders getting into trouble. It often seems like the Federation Council and the President are making all sorts of decisions just to make the captain's life miserable. Then again- maybe not. The Post-series Star Trek books have been given a little more free reign. What you get here, at first anyway, is an episode of The West Wing with space aliens. Only there are fewer conversations in hallways and people throwing their jackets on top of chairs. It also does an excellent job of explaining why a lot of those bad decisions- at least from the point of view of Starfleet- might not be so bad for everyone else. Another great thing about this book is that 90% of the time it deals with book original characters but you hardly notice. In fact the few cameos by characters from the Star Trek canon almost seem like delightful intrusions into the story- used sparingly to create a sense of the great impact of President Bacco's actions.
Our next choice is a double sided flip book as mild homage to some of those cheap sci-fi paperbacks of the 50s and 60s.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine - Fearful Symmetry by Olivia Woods:
- Side A) This is the story which concerns the regular Deep Space Nine cast. It picks up almost exactly where Warpath left off. It grabs its subplots and just keeps on going. All the characters seemed spot on particularly Quark and the cameo by Garak. It reads very much like an episode of the series. Speaking of which he uses one of the few remaining loose ends of the television series. Whatever happened to Ilieana Ghemor. The answer is truly distrubing. Tying it into a plot involving the mirror universe- twisted, sick and oh so deliciously fun. There is another mystery in play as Sisko- returned from his days with the Profits- gives Commander Vaughn a secret mission that Kira can't be let in on.
- Side B) Ileina Ghemor - the real one not the mirror universe version - gets her story told. The middle act is a little cliched and predictable. However - it keeps a fast pace so it doesn't last long. Everything from the last few books becomes incredibly clear. Her motivation is truly relatable and understandable. This makes her one of Star Trek's best villains up there with Gul Dukat. Speaking of which - he appears in this story and has a lot to do with why things turned out so badly for her. It's also discovered that he might have been just as reviled by a majority of Cardassians as he was by the Bajorans. It in a very Joseph Campbell means of story telling - Ghemor's story has a lot of disturbing parallels to the life of Kira Nerys.
- Star Trek: Enterprise: Rossetta by Dave Stern:
Stern finally delivers his much anticipated Hoshi novel. However even in her own book her name get double inverted. However another strength of the book is that he finds a place to work in subplots for Enterprise's other almost forgotten characters- Travis Mayweather and Malcolm Reed. It takes a hit for a large number of typos. Some of that I blame on Stern taking on three books in an eight month period. He must have been clocking 25-30 pages of text a day. That's still no excuse for the letters 'red' disappearring from the word disapearred three times on a single page. There are also quite a few Star Trek anachronoisms. The Bynars were supposed to be a new encounter on Star Trek: The Next Generation yet they play an awfully big role in this story. Secondly most of the non-crew member characters seem to know about joined Trill. The Trill were an early Federation contact but the symbiotes were a closely guarded secret for a long time. However keeping the focus on Hoshi in such a way that she appears strong without losing that uncertainity about herself earns a few of those points back. Overall- I'd say it was low end good. It would have been great if not for the typos in the middle.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation - Resistance by J.M. Dillard:
If you can get past the idea that Jean Luc Picard would willingly become Locutus of Borg again - this book really works. The Borg have rebooted and only Picard is aware of it. None of the Admirals will listen. His new councilor tries to undermine his credibility and questions his sanity at every turn. He disobeys orders and goes to take them out. Very in character. The security chief going through a similar paralel plot with Doctor Crusher over the loss of a loved one does a bit to lessen the stupidity. Especially the differences
in how their stories end. The new councilor by the way - every third scene she's tends to be a retread. It gets a little monotonous. In the end - how you feel about this book comes down to if you can accept that mid book premise I mentioned earlier. As much as I wanted to - I think Picard would have found another way. It doesn't quite work for me. It's not the idea itself but the execution. It seems to exist for no other reason than to test Picard and Crusher's new relationship status quo.
And finally for this month, an anthology book:
- Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers - Breakdowns by Olivia Woods:
- A) Home Fires by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore: Since the start of the series there have been a lot of mysteries surrounding security chief Domenica Corsi and her family. Particularly on why her father was dead set against her joining Starfleet. War and Dilmore set out to answer these questions. The result serves to humanize what had once been a very stiff and two dimensional character. The weakness was involving at least one canon character- a young William Ross. Admittedly- little cameos by established characters can really help a story when done properly. However having the current head of Starfleet just happen to be the one involved in getting the character's uncle killed- even accidentally- is sort of pushing it. However given the nature of the mission- and DS9's implied connection between Ross and Section 31, which is something the novels have made a little less discreet- it almost works.
- B) Age of Unreason by Scott Ceincin: This is one of those SCE stories that has one small problem- it is a short story. It's a good McGuffin story about a device people use to bilocate. Again- it featured Carol Abramowitz, the SCE's resident culture whiz in a mostly uncharted alien culture. It's also a closed room mystery. However as a short story it didn't quite have enough space to develop any of them to their fullest extent. Ceincin could have illuminated some of the character moments near the end but that would have changed her entire reaction to the situation. This one should have been a double lengther but it wasn't. It's a real shame.
- C) Balance of Nature by Heather Jarman: You get to see P8 blue, the SCE's insectoid officer in her natural environment. Only to find out that her natural environment wants nothing to do with her because she has a mild genetic disorder that makes her less socialable than other insectoids. There is a series of natural disasters and as an engineer she naturally wants to help. The Nasat homeworld seems almost entirely alien. At least in that regard, this story is the best of the lot. Plus it's a character piece with social commentary and that is what good Star Trek is supposed to be.
- D) Breakdowns by Keith R.A. DeCandido: This story is pretty standard DeCandido. This is a good thing. Most of the characters are fleshed out. The characters seem real. Even in the darkest situations there are elements of humor and in its most humorous moments there are shades of darkness. This is the story of Gold and Gomez picking up the pieces after SCE: Wildfire. The story manages to pit both characters at odds with each other without making either one seem out of characters or completely in the right. We also get to see a lot of their civilian life which is not something Star Trek normally shows us.
The one problem I had with this book is that each story was a paragraph or two too long. The stories could have packed a little more punch to the gut if they let the story end just a little bit sooner on less clear cut points. Other than that, it was a fairly good read.
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