Star Trek: New Frontier, Book Six: Fire On High

By Peter David

I like this book better than the previous novel, Martyr.  As I noted in my review of that book, character development is a particular strength of the New Frontier series, and the discovery of Robin Lefler's mother, whom she believed to have died ten years ago, provides a nice emotional arc for the characters, as well as a compelling mystery.

Robin's mother, who now goes by the name Morgan Primus, is a woman with a lot of secrets.  While Robin is angry at her for having abandoned Robin and her father years ago, Captain Calhoun needs her help to solve the mystery of the Prometheans, a mythic race who Morgan has been on the trail of for years, and who may be able to remove the energy creature gestating in the Excalibur's warp core.  Meanwhile, the sexual exploits of Burgoyne 172, Dr. Selar, and Mark McHenry result in at least one (and possibly two) pregnancies.  By the end of the novel, the Prometheans make their appearance and the subplot involving the warp core creature is resolved.  As always, plenty of loose ends are left over to provide fodder for upcoming books in the series.

I read the early New Frontier novels when they were originally published over a decade ago, and am  now revisiting them.  I didn't remember much about this one, and I realized something about the identity of Robin's mother I had completely missed the first time around.  While no one ever comes out and says it in this book, it became clear to me that author Peter David was making a strong suggestion as to the true identity of Morgan Primus, an identity most fans of the original Star Trek t.v. series will probably be able to pick up on.  I'm embarrassed to say I only figured it out around page 220 of the book, on a second reading, no less!  Still, I really enjoyed the way this particular bit of Trek trivia was "hidden" in the novel without ever being revealed or explored, and I'm curious to see if they will do anything with it in later novels.

Fire on High achieves a near perfect balance between character moments, mystery, and sci-fi adventure.  It also introduces a great new character in the form of Morgan Primus, and an intriguing group of villains in the Prometheans.  Perhaps the finest book in the series up to this point, but I've a feeling the best is yet to come.