Thursday, June 23, 2011

My Enemy, My Ally

Star Trek #18: My Enemy, My Ally by Diane Duane
Rihannsu #1
Published July 1984
Read June 5th, 2011

Next book (Rihannsu): The Romulan Way

Previous book (The Original Series): Star Trek III: The Search for Spock
Next book (The Original Series): The Tears of the Singers


Click the cover to purchase My Enemy, My Ally at Amazon.com!

Spoilers ahead for My Enemy, My Ally!


From the back cover:
Ael t'Rllaillieu is a noble—and dangerous—Romulan commander. But when the Romulans kidnap Vulcans to genetically harness their mind power, Ael decides on treason.
Captain Kirk, her old enemy, joins her in a secret pact to destroy the research laboratory and free the captive Vulcans.
When the Romulans discover their plan, the Neutral Zone seethes with schemes and counter-schemes, sabotage and war!

About the novel:

Ael is a Romulan commander who is well-known to the crew of the Enterprise.  They have faced her and her ship, the Bloodwing, many times before.  However, when they encounter her this time, she surprises them with the news that she intends to work with Starfleet to destroy a secret Romulan laboratory.  Naturally, Captain Kirk and the other captains in the taskforce he commands are skeptical.  However, Kirk decides to trust Commander Ael and aid her.

For some time, the Romulans have been kidnapping Vulcans.  Commander Ael reveals the reason: Romulan scientists are using Vulcan neural tissue to research the possibility of introducing Vulcan psi-talents into Romulans.  Naturally, this is cause for alarm to the Federation, and Kirk makes destroying the laboratory a priority.  One of the ships of the taskforce, the USS Intrepid, is captured by the Romulans, raising the stakes significantly.  The Intrepid is crewed entirely by Vulcans, and her capture signals that the Romulans are stepping up their plans.  An elaborate plan is hatched whereby the Enterprise poses as a captured vessel to gain entry to Romulan space with the Bloodwing.  Everything seems to be going to plan when suddenly Ael's supposedly loyal son Tafv engineers a mutiny and takeover of the Enterprise.  Now the crews of Bloodwing and Enterprise must overcome staggering odds to complete their mission and defeat the traitors in their midst.

My thoughts:

 My Enemy, My Ally provides a very interesting insight into a culture that has traditionally gotten short shrift in Star Trek: the Romulans.  In this novel, we learn much about their culture and beliefs, and what drives them as a people.  Over the years, the Romulans have made interesting antagonists in the various Trek incarnations, but a deep study of them has been lacking.  Their beliefs and way of life are explored mostly through the character of Commander Ael t'Rllaillieu, a Romulan who decides that her government has gone too far in trying to replicate Vulcans' mental talents. Her belief that this is wrong is so strong that she is willing to throw away her career, and ultimately, her way of life in order to stop it. This makes her a very interesting character, in that Captain Kirk (and, by extension, the reader) doesn't know if he can trust her completely.

Novels are often able to take more liberties than television shows or movies. What the audience is presented with is not limited by a visual effects budget or the limitations of prosthetic makeup. Thus, we are introduced to a new crewmember aboard the Enterprise: Ensign Naraht, a Horta. You might remember a Horta as that silicone-based shaggy creature from the original series episode "Devil in the Dark." A Horta crewmember on the tv show or in a movie could only be either cheesy or simply impossible, but in a novel, both the writer and the reader is only limited by his or her imagination.

I found My Enemy, My Ally to be a great piece of writing and a lot of fun to read. The main characters are spot-on, and the new additions to the Enterprise crew as well as other new characters are introduced well and prove to be quite memorable. It is no wonder that this book spawned four sequels, the last of which was published in 2006. If My Enemy, My Ally is any indication of their quality, I look forward to reading them sometime in the future. 10/10.

 Also by Diane Duane:

Next review:
 Kirsten Beyer's latest Voyager novel, Children of the Storm.

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Thursday, June 16, 2011

Found in Korea

There's a great book store in Itaewon, Seoul called "What the Book?". Check out what I picked up there:




Looks like I've got some more reading ahead of me!
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Thursday, June 9, 2011

Unspoken Truth

Star Trek: Unspoken Truth by Margaret Wander Bonanno
Published April 2010
Read May 28th, 2011

Previous book (The Original Series): Inception
Next book (The Original Series): The Children of Kings

Click the cover to purchase Unspoken Truth at Amazon.com!

Spoilers ahead for Unspoken Truth!

From the back cover:

A social experiment was conceived. Its goal was to breed the best, the brightest, the most malleable and most loyal soldiers to ever serve. To this end, the Romulan Empire used its own children, blinded by the belief that anything that would bring glory to the praetor was justified. And when the winds of politics changed, these children were abandoned, left to die on a world so horrifying that it was dubbed—by those who dared to cling to life—Hellguard.

One wild child, Saavik, was rescued by Spock. He took the half-Vulcan, half-Romulan child home to his parents, knowing that if anyone could reach and rescue Saavik, it was them.

Now a Starfleet officer, Saavik has striven to honor her mentor and her Vulcan heritage. But recent events have shaken her. Left behind on Vulcan while the rest of the Enterprise crew goes to face court-martial for stealing and destroying their ship, the young science officer is adrift when two men from her past confront her. Tolek, another Hellguard survivor, tells Saavik that the survivors are being killed one-by-one and only they can discover who and why. The other, a Romulan who claims to be her father, swears it is the Vulcans who are eliminating the Hellguard survivors because they are an embarrassment to all of Vulcan, but that she has the power to stop it, by bringing down the Vulcan ambassador, Sarek.

Not knowing where to turn, not knowing whom to trust, Saavik must find her own answers, and discover who she truly is.

About the novel:

 Unspoken Truth chronicles the direction that Saavik’s life takes concurrent with and following the events of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.  After the HMS Bounty lifts off from Vulcan carrying the crew of the late Starship Enterprise to Earth to face trial, Saavik is contacted by an old friend and fellow survivor from Saavik’s former home, Hellguard.  This old friend, Tolek, informs Saavik of a plot to kill all of the survivors of Hellguard.  Several of them have been killed already and Tolek fears that he and Saavik may be next.  Saavik agrees to provide assistance through access to the Starfleet database and shortly leaves for her next assignment aboard the USS Chaffee.  While aboard the Chaffee, Saavik meets a Tiburonian scientist named Mikal.  Despite his eccentricity and emotionalism, Saavik is drawn to him and they become romantically involved.  The first half of the novel deals with their burgeoning relationship and the discovery and exploration of a planet that plays host to a species of intelligent “worms.”

The second half of Unspoken Truth begins when Saavik returns to Vulcan following the Chaffee’s mission.  Saavik discovers that Tolek has been killed, and Saavik begins a journey to discover the person or persons behind it.

My thoughts:

 Margaret Wander Bonanno is one of Trek Lit's premiere writers.  I can remember reading Strangers From the Sky as a child, thoroughly enjoying a unique and engrossing story that was well-told.  Unspoken Truth is interesting, competently written, and provides much-needed insight into a character that was sadly never fully explored in the on-screen Star Trek universe.  I've always been fascinated by Saavik, especially with what makes her different from the typical Vulcan.

Expanding on previous backgrounds written for Saavik including the original script for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Carolyn Clowes' novel The Pandora Principle, Unspoken Truth delves further into Saavik's past as a feral child on the abandoned Romulan colony Hellguard.  This begins to explain the emotionality displayed by Saavik in The Wrath of Khan, such as using expletives and crying at Spock's funeral.  Here we find out more about that past and how it has affected Saavik in her adult life.  This exploration was very welcome, as a void opens up in the character's life after Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.  After the Bounty departs and leaves her behind on Vulcan, what happened?  Where did Saavik go afterwards?  Unspoken Truth fills in that gap admirably.

The character of Mikal is a bit of a conundrum.  At the beginning of the book, I found him to generally be an insufferable ass.  However, as the book drew to a close, I found myself caring about him somewhat.  I still wouldn't say that I liked him per se, but I no longer loathed him.  I feel that a better job could have been done with his character.  Bonanno does link him and Saavik thanks to shared childhood suffering, but I feel that more could have been made of that connection.

One complaint I have is that the motivation for Saavik's actions is hidden from the reader until the very end of the novel.  Normally, this can be an effective stylistic choice.  However, in this instance, because the entire book is told from her perspective, it seems odd that the reader would remain unaware of why she was doing what she was doing until the end.  The revelation as to why Saavik was acting as she was came as a complete surprise to me, and rather than a pleasant one, it was quite jarring.  Another "unspoken truth," I suppose?

Finally, I am going to make a proclamation that may make me a pariah in the world of Trek-fandom.  I much preferred Robin Curtis' portrayal of Saavik in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home to that of Kirstie Alley in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.  Margaret Wander Bonanno would seem to agree with me, as she seems to have based the Saavik shown in Unspoken Truth more on Curtis than Alley.  Robin Curtis played Saavik as more mature and collected, but still with a hint of deep emotion just beneath the surface.  Her reading of the line, "Admiral.  David is dead." in Star Trek III never fails to get to me.  Many people say that she was too wooden and emotionless, but I think that that appraisal doesn't give Robin Curtis enough credit.



Kirstie Alley as Saavik...
... and Robin Curtis as Saavik.

Final thoughts:

Feeling a little disjointed and cheating in failing to reveal things to the reader doesn't take too much away from an enjoyable read about a fascinating and under-used character.  I give Unspoken Truth 7.5/10.  Not the best Star Trek novel, but certainly enjoyable and entertaining.

More about Unspoken Truth:

Also by Margaret Wander Bonanno:

Next review:

While waiting for Star Trek: Voyager: Children of the Storm to become available on the Kobo e-reader, I read a classic work of Trek fiction, Diane Duane's My Enemy, My Ally, the first book in her "Rihannsu" series of novels.  Look for a review of that book coming soon!

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Saturday, June 4, 2011

Blind Man's Bluff

Star Trek: New Frontier: Blind Man's Bluff
Published April 2011
Read May 19th, 2011

Previous book (New Frontier): Treason
Next book (New Frontier): The Returned, Part 1


Click the cover to purchase Blind Man's Bluff at Amazon.com!

Spoilers ahead for Blind Man's Bluff and other books in the New Frontier series, as well as the Star Trek: Destiny trilogy!


From the back cover:
Captain MacKenzie Calhoun has faced incredible odds before, but nothing he has ever experienced could prepare him for the simultaneous threats from two of the most destructive forces he’s ever encountered. The first is the D’myurj—a mysterious and powerful alien race bent on either the complete domination of humanity or its destruction . . . a potentially massive risk to the very foundations of Starfleet, one that goes so deep it’s impossible to determine whom to trust. The second is even more alarming: Morgan Primus, once a living creature with a soul and a conscience, now an incredibly sophisticated computer simulation taking up residence within the very core of the U.S.S. Excalibur . . . and quickly becoming a growing menace for the Federation. MacKenzie Calhoun is playing a dangerous game as he attempts to outwit and outmaneuver these new enemies, with the fate of the Excalibur crew members and potentially the lives of billions at stake. . . .


About the book:

 Blind Man’s Bluff, the latest installment of Peter David’s popular New Frontier series, chronicles the continuation of the story from the last novel, Treason.  The D’myurj continue their campaign to control the United Federation of Planets, and in particular, their goal to kill Captain Calhoun.  Also, we see Captain Calhoun’s attempts to destroy the computer entity that Morgan Primus has become.  However, Morgan has plans of her own, and before Calhoun cat act himself, Morgan strands him on Xenex with an army of The Brethren who systematically attack the Xenexians to root out Calhoun.  Meanwhile, Soleta, Seven of Nine and The Doctor all enact a plan to destroy Morgan, who has taken the USS Excalibur on a mission of vengeance to New Thallon.

My thoughts:

I am a huge fan of Peter David.  As I said in my review of Vendetta, I've always had high expectations picking up one of his novels.  Q-Squared remains one of my favorite reads of all time.  Held up to this standard, Blind Man’s Bluff was a bit of a disappointment.  In this latest installment, the characters seem to have become flatter, less real.  New Frontier has always been about the strangeness and quirkiness of the characters, and I always enjoyed that.  However, Blind Man’s Bluff seems to portray this “quirkiness” as mere ridiculousness.  The self-referential stuff gets a little tiresome.  For example, when talking about Tobias’ abilities to have premonitial feelings, one of the characters says something along the lines of “guess we can’t have a helmsman who’s not strange.”  Yes, we get it.  Excalibur attracts strange crewman.  Can’t you merely show us this rather than telling us every other page?  “Look at this character trait.  Isn’t it STRANGE???”  Yeesh, give me a break.

I also didn’t appreciate inserting bits of “cute” dialog into the novel that didn’t make sense for the character speaking it.  At one point, Seven of Nine is speaking with a small child about the dangerousness of space.  She says to her, “It's not safe out there.  It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross; but it's not for the timid.”  Sound familiar?  It should.  The monologue is lifted almost wholesale from Q’s appearance in TNG’s “Q Who.”  Instead of “Oh cool, that’s what Q said that one time!,” my reaction was to hear John deLancie’s voice saying it in my head as I read it.  I couldn’t picture those words coming from Seven, and it really took me out of the novel.  The number of moments such as this which made me kind of shake my head while reading was a little distressing.  Even a small reference to the Borg “eating Pluto” from Before Dishonor was enough to make me cringe.

One thing that was kind of cool was the pop culture references, including this reference to Doctor Who: “’This is the Doctor,’ Seven said by way of explanation.  Soleta looked momentarily confused.  ‘The Doctor? I met a man called the Doctor once.  Wore a long brown coat and a blue suit.  Very odd person.  This isn't him.’“  There was also a very subtle reference to the situational comedy How I Met Your Mother; kudos to anyone who is able to find it!

Continuity Issues:

 It is difficult to pin down exactly when Blind Man’s Bluff takes place.  In a number of places, the novel refers to events from the Destiny trilogy, particularly in regards to Seven of Nine, who seems to have been completely transformed into a human by this point.  This novel is very difficult to reconcile with the other novels in the larger continuity, especially due to the death of the imposter Admiral Nechayev.  Since she appears in a later novel, has the real admiral since been rescued?  Also, following the events of Destiny, Admiral Jellico retires as CinC of Starfleet.  Yet here, he is seen as a regular line admiral.  I suppose it is possible that he retires as CinC to step down to a lower position, but dialog in other novels points to an outright resignation from Starfleet.  Finally, according to the Voyager relaunch novels, following Seven of Nine’s transformation, she undergoes a nearly paralyzing period of identity crisis, which is resolved in Kirsten Beyer’s Unworthy.  However, she appears normal here.  The solution, of course, is to treat New Frontier as a separate continuity altogether.  It is understood that the novels do not have to follow the same continuity, but it was nice to have them mesh together over the past few years.  I suppose as readers of Trek fiction, we have become spoiled in expecting things to track properly across all of the novel series.

Final thoughts:

As I stated earlier, I love Peter David's work, but felt a little let down with this latest installment.  I feel as though this novel would have benefited from a more rigorous editorial process.  The continuity issues could have been avoided completely with only a few very minor changes, and the other issues are minor enough to be overlooked.  I feel bad giving Blind Man's Bluff a low score, but the high expectations I have for Peter David's work force me to be more critical of this latest effort.  I have to give Blind Man's Bluff a 5.5/10.  I enjoyed the continuation of the story, but the novel as a whole feels rough, and could have used a couple more polishes before being published.

More about Blind Man's Bluff:

Also by Peter David:

Next Review:
Margaret Wander Bonanno's story about Saavik, Unspoken Truth.  Until next time, LLAP!

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Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Watching the Clock

Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations: Watching the Clock
Published May 2011
Read May 11, 2011

Next book (Dept. of Temporal Investigations): Forgotten History


Click the cover to purchase Watching the Clock at Amazon.com!
Spoilers ahead for Watching the Clock, many episodes of Star Trek (in all of its incarnations), and the series finale of Star Trek: Voyager!


From the back cover:
There's likely no more of a thankless job in the Federation than temporal investigation. While starship explorers get to live the human adventure of traveling to other times and realities, it's up to the dedicated agents of the Federation Department of Temporal Investigations to deal with the consequences to the timestream that the rest of the Galaxy has to live with day by day. But when history as we know it could be wiped out at any moment by time warriors from the future, misused relics of ancient races, or accident-prone starships, only the most disciplined, obsessive, and unimaginative government employees have what it takes to face the existential uncertainty of it all on a daily basis . . . and still stay sane enough to complete their assignments.
That's where Agents Lucsly and Dulmur come in—stalwart and unflappable, these men are the Federation's unsung anchors in a chaotic universe. Together with their colleagues in the DTI—and with the help and sometimes hindrance of Starfleet's finest—they do what they can to keep the timestream, or at least the paperwork, as neat and orderly as they are. But when a series of escalating temporal incursions threatens to open a new front of the history-spanning Temporal Cold War in the twenty-fourth century, Agents Lucsly and Dulmur will need all their investigative skill and unbending determination to stop those who wish to rewrite the past for their own advantage, and to keep the present and the future from devolving into the kind of chaos they really, really hate.
About the novel:

 Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations: Watching the Clock follows the lives and careers of agents Lucsly and Dulmur, tasked with the job of maintaining continuity in a timeline prone to incursions by travelers from different eras.  We learn how Agent Dulmur joined the DTI, after a temporal anomaly ruined his career as a more traditional law-enforcement officer.  We also learn more about the organization and the methods they use to preserve the timeline.

In the course of the novel, we see agents of the DTI dealing with a new front opening in the Temporal Cold War (see Star Trek: Enterprise).  Temporal agents from various future eras (called "uptime") intervene in affairs in the 24th century Trek era we've come to know and love.  With help from these future travelers, agents of the DTI manage to save a group of scientists targetted for elimination by time-travelers, and even manage to thwart the plans of the mysterious "Future Guy" from the temporal cold war arc of Star Trek: Enterprise.  A secondary story has two other agents working to prevent a warlord from using time-travel through an anomaly called "The Axis of Time" to conquer and control an empire.

Also, through flashbacks, Watching the Clock revisits almost every time-travel story previously featured on Star Trek.  We see the effects of Paul Manheim's experiements in "We'll Always Have Paris" (TNG), the origin of that strange anomaly and the double of Picard in "Time Squared" (TNG), the Vorgons' attempt to steal the Tox Uthat in "Captain's Holiday" (TNG), Rasmussen's theft of a time ship and visit to the Enterprise in "A Matter of Time" (TNG), what becomes of the USS Bozeman and crew from TNG's "Cause and Effect," and a myriad of other time-travel plots.  Virtually every plot in Star Trek that involves time-travel, however tangentially, is at least mentioned or referenced in some small way in this novel.


My Thoughts:

I felt that this latest, highly unique and original novel by Christopher L. Bennett was simply outstanding!  The narrative, the concepts, and the execution were all done flawlessly.  New characters are introduced into the Trek universe, and they are written as complete and compelling individuals.  Also, the characters of Lucsly and Dulmur are fleshed out and expanded WAY beyond their intial three minutes and forty-five seconds of screen time in Deep Space Nine's "Trials and Tribble-ations."  I really love the character of Lucsly, a man who is so driven by his desire for order and his belief in the original, unimpeded timeline.  He kind of reminds me of a Joe Friday with mild Asperger syndrome.

"Just the facts, Ben."
The true genius of Watching the Clock lies in the depiction of the Department of Temporal Investigations as a whole.  As watchers of Star Trek, we are often concerned with the idea of "heroics."  The larger-than-life exploits of starship captains, the rise and fall of empires, the galaxy-shaking decisions of political leaders, and so on.  Department of Temporal Investigations provides us with a different perspective: the "boring" life of civil servants and desk-jockeys, filing paperwork and cleaning up after the Starfleet captains who all seem to want to crap all over the timeline.  In this way, Watching the Clock provides us with a glimpse of who the true heroes are.  After the Enterprise-E returns from the 21st century in Star Trek: First Contact, for example, who does it fall to to make sure they didn't screw up the past too badly?  DTI, of course.

Favorite part in the book: the explanation as to why Captain Janeway wasn't immediately thrown in prison for her time-altering stunt that brought her crew home in Voyager's "Endgame."  That always bugged me, and I credit Mr. Bennett with providing an adequate explanation.  However, I still stand by my judgement that Janeway should never have been promoted to Admiral; rather, I think there were many offenses she committed over the years that should have had at least a few consequences.  Ah well, that is an argument for another time I suppose.

Final Thoughts:

I highly recommend Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations: Watching the Clock, but only if you are very familiar with the many "canon" stories of the Trek universe.  Watching the Clock contains spoilers for literally every incarnation of Star Trek (yes, even the 70s animated series!), and readers who haven't watched all of the episodes may find themselves either lost or annoyed at having future viewing experiences spoiled.

My score: 10/10.  Absolutely outstanding, and I hope Department of Temporal Investigations is revisited again in the future.  Or the past.  Or in an alternate timeline?

More about Watching the Clock:

Also by Christopher L. Bennett:

Next review:

Peter David's latest New Frontier novel, Blind Man's Bluff.

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Thursday, May 26, 2011

Vendetta

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Vendetta by Peter David
Published May 1991
Read May 5th, 2011

Previous book (TNG published order): #16: Contamination
Next book (TNG published order): #17: Boogeymen

 Previous book (TNG unnumbered hardcovers): Metamorphosis
Next book (TNG unnumbered hardcovers): Reunion


Click the cover to purchase Vendetta at Amazon.com!


Spoilers ahead for Vendetta.  Also, Star Trek: Voyager and Star Trek: First Contact!


From the back cover:
The Borg -- half organic and half machine, they are the most feared race in the known galaxy. In their relentless quest for technological perfection, they have destroyed entire star systems, enslaved countless peoples, and, in a single brutal attack, decimated Starfleet's mightiest vessels. Only a final desperate gambit by Captain Picard and the USS Enterprise crew stopped the Borg from conquering the entire Federation. And now they have returned.

About the novel:

 It is the year following the events of "The Best of Both Worlds."  The Borg once again attack, this time almost completely destroying the Penzatti civilization.  However, just as the last of the race is about to be killed, an unknown force intervenes, destroying the Borg invaders.  Starfleet investigates, sending the USS Enterprise and a hospital ship, the USS Curie to render aid and discover what stopped the Borg.

The mysterious force that attacked the Borg is, in fact, a larger version of the "Planet Killer," seen in the original series episode "The Doomsday Machine."  This particular "doomsday machine" is piloted by a woman named Delcara, the lone survivor of a race wiped out by the Borg.  She carries with her a personal vendetta to destroy the Borg, commanding a ship fueled by her hatred and the hatred of the species that built it, whose "essence," or spirit, the planet-killer carries.  Delcara has such a close relationship with Guinan, that they each call the other "sister."  Delcara is also linked to Captain Picard.  She loves him, and shares a bond with him that goes back to his time at Starfleet Academy.

Another aspect of the plot involves the captain of the USS Chekov, Morgan Korsmo, who was a rival of Picard's at the academy.  Captain Korsmo is jealous of Picard's successes throughout his career, and since it was Picard's suggestion of "sleep" to Data that ultimately defeated the Borg in "The Best of Both Worlds," the accolades Picard received due to that event have served only to further Korsmo's resentment.

The Borg, seeking a new speaker to replace Locutus, come across a Ferengi ship, captained by DaiMon Turane.  The Borg assimilate him, turning him into Vestator of Borg.  Under Vestator's lead, the Borg mount a small armada to intercept Delcara's planet killing weapon.

Finally, Vendetta also tells the story of Reannon Bonaventure, a freighter captain who had been assimilated by the Borg.  The Enterprise crew rescues her and "de-Borgifies" her just as they did with Picard.  However, she remains seemingly catatonic, refusing to do anything but follow instructions like she did when she was a Borg drone.  To the Enterprise crew, what little reaction she does give indicates that she doesn't know how to be anything but Borg.

In the end, Korsmo puts aside his jealousy of Picard to assist in defeating the Borg, and Picard is able to best Vestator of Borg in combat.  However, the Enterprise crew is unsuccessful in rehabilitating Reannon, who kills herself while in custody over the guilt at having been complicit in the destruction of Penzatti.

The crux of the story is the vendetta that Delcara maintains.  She is unable to see past the feelings of revenge and hatred to analyse the situation rationally.  The end of the novel sees her speeding towards Borg space at speeds approaching warp 10.  However, due to severe time dilation effects, moments for Delcara are elongated into eternities.  She is doomed to spend forever in pursuit of her vendetta until the end of time.


My thoughts:

 I enjoyed Vendetta for the most part.  I had been told that it was one of Peter David's best, and I think it lives up to that reputation in many respects.  The pace of the story is good, the action is exciting, and it was fun to go back in time to the middle of the TNG series for once.  If I have only one complaint, it's the somewhat haphazard characterization of the series regulars.  I feel that the author captured Picard's voice perfectly, but some of the others come up a little short.  In particular, Data and Worf felt a little out of character.  Worf seemed to be nothing more than a (somewhat) oafish brute, and Data was a little too child-like and naive.  Granted, on the television show at the time, Worf and Data were closer to that than they became later in Trek "history," but I still feel that they were a little more developed by this point.  I also felt that Geordi's views and statements didn't entirely ring true.  I've never known him to feel that his being blind was in any way seen by others as a handicap, other than when the Enterprise visited the genetically engineered colony in "The Masterpiece Society" (TNG).  It seemed odd that he would ascribe bigotted feelings to his crew mates and link them to his blindness and having to wear his VISOR.  Finally, Dr. Crusher's objections to Geordi's attempts to rehabilitate Reannon seemed wildly out of character as well.

Vendetta presages a number of concepts that later find their way into the Trek universe.  The reversal of Reannon Bonaventure's assimilation anticipates a similar situation with regards to both Hugh in "I, Borg" (TNG) and Seven of Nine in Star Trek: Voyager.  Thankfully, Seven's story turned out much less tragically than Reannon's.  Another idea that surfaces again is a character who is blinded by revenge and hate for the Borg.  I found it very interesting that Picard is the one to try and talk Delcara out of her vendetta.  In many ways, her fury and single-mindedness are echoed by Picard himself in Star Trek: First Contact, although obviously not quite to the same degree.

I really enjoyed the ending of the novel, and the use of repetition to convey the idea of the futility of Delcara's journey of revenge.  As I read the novel in an electronic format, I at first thought the repeated chapters were an error, but enjoyed the stylistic device when I realized it was intentional.  The mathematical idea of infinitely halving the distance between two points and never actually reaching the end was a great analogy to Delcara's experience.  One truly appreciates the tragedy of her character, imagining her warping towards her revenge for the rest of eternity.

Vendetta was an exciting and interesting read, and I would have to give it an 8/10.  Peter David remains one of my favorite authors, and his work here doesn't disappoint.


More about Vendetta:
Also by Peter David:

Next review: 

 Christopher L. Bennett's Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations: Watching the Clock.  Until next time!
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Monday, May 2, 2011

Reap the Whirlwind

Star Trek: Vanguard: Reap the Whirlwind by David Mack
Published June 2007
Read: May 2nd, 2011

Previous book (Vanguard): Summon the Thunder
Next book (Vanguard): Open Secrets


Click the cover to purchase Reap the Whirlwind at Amazon.com!


Spoilers Ahead for Reap the Whirlwind and other books in the Vanguard series!


From the back cover:
Ancient secrets lie on the fourth planet of the Jinoteur system, and three great rivals are fighting to control it. The Federation and the Klingon Empire want to wield its power; the Tholian Assembly wants to bury it.
But the threat stirring on that distant world is more dangerous than they realize. The Shedai, who ruled the Taurus Reach aeons ago, have risen from their ages of deathlike slumber -- to gather, marshal their strength, and take their revenge.
To keep Jinoteur from falling into enemy hands, the crews of Starbase Vanguard and the U.S.S. Sagittarius must risk everything: friends... loved ones... their own lives. But the sacrifices they make may prove too terrible for them to bear.
About the novel:

 Reap the Whirlwind begins six weeks after the previous Vanguard novel, Summon the Thunder.  The Shedai - an ancient and powerful race of beings - continue to awaken on worlds throughout the Taurus Reach.  Through it all, the Starfleet crews of Starbase 47, the USS Lovell, USS Endeavor, and the USS Sagittarius begin to realize that they are in well over their heads.

The USS Sagittarius is sent to the Jinotaur system, which is the source of the mysterious carrier wave that was detected in the previous novels.  In orbit of Jinotaur IV is a derelict Tholian vessel, which A & A Officer Ming Xiong boards to investigate.  While he is aboard the Tholian ship, the Sagittarius is attacked by the Shedai defense system and crash lands in a river on the surface.  The team on the surface must fend off attacks from the Shedai while repairing the Sagittarius.  Xiong manages to escape from the Tholian vessel, and is later rescued by the Sagittarius.  Not everyone on the crew survives, and some manage to pull through only due to the timely intervention of Cervantes Quinn and Tim Pennington aboard the Rocinante.  During their time on the surface, the crew of the Sagittarius makes a startling discovery about the Shedai "carrier wave," which allows it to be used to regenerate the damaged tissue of a crewmember who lost her leg when the Shedai attacked.  The discovery of the regenerative properties causes Starfleet to send a new scientist to head up the project on Vanguard: Dr. Carol Marcus.  Excited about the regenerative properties of the wave, she clearly is determined to investigate using it for more than simply healing damaged tissue.  She notes that entire planets and ecosystems can be created using the technology.  Someone who controls that power would literally hold the power of creation, akin to the genesis myth of the Christian bible...

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Taurus Reach, the colony on planet Gamma Tauri IV formally refuses protectorate status from the Federation.  Commodore Reyes urges the president (who is also his ex-wife) to reconsider under the pretense of protection from Klingon forces.  President Vinueza knows he is hiding something, however, and she refuses.  Sure enough, the Shedai of that world come to life and begin slaughtering the colonists, a Starfleet scouting party, and a Klingon away team.  Commodore Reyes watches in horror from Vanguard as President Vinueza transmits her final moments as her and the colonists are slaughtered by the Shedai.  In the end, Commodore Reyes initiates Starfleet General Order 24, which calls for a photon torpedo bombardment of the planet surface, basically turning the entire globe into a radioactive glass and ash covered wasteland.  Over 13,000 colonists, along with a number of Starfleet officers, are lost at Gamma Tauri IV.

Back in the Jinotaur system, it becomes apparent that a civil war is raging amoungst the Shedai.  While most of the Shedai are content to go to war with and slaughter the "lower" lifeforms in the Taurus Reach (the Klingons, Tholians, and members of Starfleet and the Federation), one Shedai (called "The Apostate") has other ideas.  He fights the other Shedai on the surface of Jinotaur IV, allowing the Starfleet crew to escape.  As the Sagittarius and Rocinante flee, the Jinotaur system ceases to exist.

As all of this is happening, Commander T'Prynn's inner battle against the katra of her betrothed, Stenn, rages on.  His katra urges her to submit to his will, while she tries to maintain sanity by battling back.  Things between T'Prynn and her Klingon double-agent lover, Anna/Lurqal, come to a head, and T'Prynn is forced to leak false intelligence to the Klingons through her.  This leads to Anna's cover being blown, and T'Prynn sends her to live a new life, protected with a new face and new name deep in the Federation.  However, as Anna is departing the station, the freighter carrying her explodes in the docking bay, killing her.  This causes T'Prynn to have a complete breakdown, and she lapses into a coma.  Meanwhile, the battle in her mind rages on.

Commodore Reyes takes stock of all that has happened: the awakening of the Shedai, the loss of all life on Gamma Tauri IV by his order, and the personal turmoil his decisions have caused.  He decides to allow Tim Pennington to file a story that leaks classified information, no longer able to hide behind his own lies and cover-ups.  This results in his arrest by his current girlfriend, JAG Officer Captain Rena Desai, for leaking classified information.


My thoughts:

 Reap the Whirlwind is an exceptionally written, well-paced, engrossing novel.  When I first started reading the Vanguard series, I was sceptical.  However, the first novel, Harbinger, pulled me in almost immediately. Now, I am eager to find out what happens next.  Will T'Prynn recover?  What's next for Commodore Reyes?  Will we see the beginnings of Project Genesis, developed by Dr. Marcus?  What happened to the Jinotaur system, and what does this conflict within the ranks of Shedai mean for the future of the Taurus Reach?  While I have not read the later novels in the Vanguard series, I feel as though Reap the Whirlwind marks a definite turning point in the series.  We see many changes, including a tragic end to the Anna Sandejo/Lurqal storyline and a pivotal change for the character of Cervantes Quinn.  And while it is nice to see the redemption of Tim Pennington, it hurts that it is at the cost of Diego Reyes' career.  However, I do not believe that I could have continued to operate in his shoes.  Commodore Reyes has the weight of many worlds on his shoulders, and the fact that his decisions led directly to the deaths of many people would be an incredibly difficult cross to bear.

I found Reap the Whirlwind to be an incredible read.  The characters are written as real, vital people, and with a level of sophistication and maturity that other works sometimes lack.  I also have to commend David Mack, and Trek literature in general, for making room for LGBT relationships, an issue that I sometimes found lacking in the various television series.  Also, in one particular love scene between T'Prynn and Anna near the beginning of the book, Anna notes that the marks T'Prynn left in her back had bled... are there perhaps hints of BDSM in their relationship?  I find openness to ideas such as these refreshing, especially if handled as maturely as Mr. Mack seems able to.

Finally, although this is a secondary attribute of the novels, I have to say that I absolutely love the cover art for the novels of the Vanguard series.  This novel in particular is gorgeous.  I believe that the covers are done by Doug Drexler, whose blog can be found here.

If you have not checked out Vanguard yet, I urge you to do so.  I cannot say enough about how well these books are written.  Also, I have found that any novel that has David Mack's name on the cover is going to be a winner.  He is absolutely one of my favorite modern Trek novelists.

I'm hard-pressed to find a problem with this novel.  Again, I am a very lenient and forgiving person, so take this with a grain of salt, but I feel compelled to give Star Trek Vanguard: Reap the Whirlwind a 10/10.

More about Reap the Whirlwind:

Also by David Mack:


Next read:  

 I am eager to read Christopher L. Bennett's new novel, Department of Temporal Investigations: Watching the Clock.  However, for some reason, the Kobo bookstore doesn't yet feature it to download, despite it having been released some time ago.  Also, I am unable to buy the electronic version from Amazon because that title isn't available to Canadian customers!  Therefore, I believe that my next read will be from one of my favorite Trek authors, Peter David.  I've never read his famous Next Generation novel, Vendetta, and I think that oversight should be rectified immediately.


Until next time, LLAP!
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