Friday, January 8, 2021

Positively Trek Book Club: Federation

Star Trek
by Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens

Purchase:
E-book (Kindle): Amazon.com | Amazon.ca | Amazon.co.uk


Why not strive for that perfect world? 

Captain Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise are tasked with rescuing Zefram Cochrane, famed inventor of the warp drive. Caught up in a plot spanning centuries, the space exploration pioneer is the catalyst for an adventure that will reach into the 24th century and bring the two most famous crews of Starfleet history together for the first time!

In this episode of the Positively Trek Book Club, hosts Bruce and Dan discuss the classic Star Trek novel Federation by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. We talk about Cochrane’s history, the mysterious Mr. Brack, the Optimum Movement and World War III, the two Enterprises brought together, the distant future, the role of the Guardian of Forever, and wrap up with our final thoughts and ratings.

This was a truly fun conversation, and one of our best ever. We hope you enjoy our deep dive into this magnificent entry in the Star Trek literary universe!








Previous episode: Spock Must Die!
Next episode: Picard: The Dark Veil

1 comment:

  1. Great episode! Well, so far anyway. I'm only about 3 quarters of the way through but I've just heard you mention the Preservers and I had to opine. Now I don't exactly hate the idea of the Preservers, but to me they epitomize the "small universe" thinking of some writers. It's a big universe - not everything has to be directly connected to everything else.


    I have copies of both this and Prime Directive, and I'm thinking of rereading both of them due to the positive things you guys said about them in your reviews. I first read them a few years ago when I was first getting into Treklit, and my initial impression was mixed.

    I have a lot of respect for the Reeves-Stevens; they genuinely love Trek,and they helped turn ENT into a good show. Having said that, I have two big complaints about their novels:

    1) I think their love of the TOS crew occasionally leads them to writing them in an overly fannish way.

    2) They have a tendency to throw everything but the kitchen sink into a lot of their books. Preservers, the Guardian, and on and on and on. I mean, I like references and explorations of Trek lore, but at some point the story stops feeling organic, and begins to feel like an excuse to squeeze in more of Trek's greatest hits.


    That sounds harsh, and I do actually think that there are a lot of cool things happening in their books. I just wish they had dialed things back a little.


    Looking forward to your review of the new Picard novel!

    ReplyDelete