Star Trek #89: New Earth, Book One of Six: Wagon Train to the Stars

By Diane Carey

After having read and greatly enjoyed Diane Carey's Red Sector, an excellent novel in the midst of a just-okay miniseries, I was excited to read this book, the first in the New Earth miniseries.  Carey developed the New Earth concept with editor John Ordover, and wrote the first and last books in the sequence.  She also co-wrote the second book with Dean Wesley Smith.

In Wagon Train to the Stars (a phrase Gene Roddenberry famously used to pitch the original Star Trek TV series), Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise have been tasked with escorting a fleet of ships carrying a determined group of colonists to a newly discovered, earth-like planet where they hope to make a new home for themselves.  The planet, which the colonists have named Belle Terre, is in a previously uncharted area of space, far from the Federation.  The story takes place shortly after the events of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and presents an entirely new kind of challenge for Kirk.

On their long journey to Belle Terre, the expedition is plagued by a number of problems, including illness, malfunctioning equipment, and conflict amongst the civilian passengers and Starfleet officers.  What at first appear to be a random series of misfortunes are eventually revealed to be the machinations of one man, Billy Maidenshore, a thief who Kirk has had dealings with in the past and who secretly plans to sell a portion of the expedition ships and the colonists they are carrying to the Orions.  Eventually, Maidenshore's plot is uncovered and thwarted by Kirk, but Maidenshore escapes to forge another alliance, this time with an alien race called the Blood.  The Blood have been locked in a generations long conflict with another race called the Kauld.  Shucorion, the leader of the Blood, has himself formed a tentative alliance with the Kauld in the hopes of pitting Kauld and the Federation against one another so that they will destroy themselves.  Neither Blood nor Kauld want the Federation intruding on their space, which is near Belle Terre.

If this all sounds somewhat complicated, it is.  But not overwhelmingly so.  Diane Carey has carefully crafted an intricate novel filled with complex characters whose motivations and loyalties are constantly shifting.  I appreciated the detail that went into this novel.  Many of the colonists are fully developed, interesting characters with distinct personalities.  Great care has been taken to develop the Blood and the Kauld as distinct and complex cultures.  There is also a lot of detail in regards to Kirk and the Enterprise crew's duties in shepherding the Belle Terre colonists to their new home.  In short, this is an exquisitely crafted novel that stands well on its own, even as it sets the stage for things to come.  I greatly enjoyed this book and look forward to reading more about the Belle Terre colonists.

Star Trek: New Frontier #8: Dark Allies

By Peter David

Following directly from The Quiet Place, in a two-book sequence I like to refer to as "The Orange Duology," Dark Allies finds Captain Calhoun reluctantly entering into an alliance with his enemies, the Redeemers.  A strange, seemingly all-powerful entity known as the Black Mass is on course to destroy the homeworld of the Redeemers, and they are holding a planet hostage in order to force Calhoun to help them.  Meanwhile, Chief Engineer Burgoyne 172 continues to court a very pregnant Dr. Selar, Robin Lefler struggles with her feelings for Ambassador Si Cwan, and Calhoun and Shelby finally confront their feelings for one another.  There is also a lot of tension resulting from the appearance of Xyon, revealed to be Calhoun's son at the end of the previous book.  Here, Xyon and Si Cwan's sister, Kalinda, embark on a relationship, much to Si Cwan's chagrin, while Xyon and Calhoun have their own issues to work through.

I absolutely love this book.  Finally, we have all of the crew of the Excalibur together aboard the ship for an exciting and tense adventure.  The soap opera elements, a trademark of the New Frontier series, reach some particular high points in this novel, and the story of the Redeemers and the Black Mass is equally good.  The Black Mass really does seem nearly invincible, and I was uncertain throughout much of the book how the Excalibur was going to defeat it.  While the ultimate solution is actually rather simple, I appreciated the fact that we learned more about what the Black Mass was and how it functioned throughout the course of the story, and it is ultimately defeated using (sort of) real science, something I always enjoy in Star Trek stories and which New Frontier does not always excel at.

There are so many great character moments here, particularly Calhoun's revelation of his feelings for Shelby (a long time coming), and the moving, final scene between Calhoun and Xyon.  Near the end of the book, Calhoun compares himself to the Black Mass in a particularly clever and poignant analogy that I won't spoil here, suffice to say it was a terrific piece of writing.

Dark Allies has the feel of a season finale, as many of the long running subplots come to a head, and a sense of foreboding begins to creep into the book's final pages, suggesting that a major change is coming for all of the characters.  Indeed, the final sentence certainly bears that out.  In the pages of this wonderful novel, a new life is born, a heroic sacrifice is made, and New Frontier firmly establishes itself as one of the finest series of Star Trek books ever published.

Star Trek: New Frontier #7: The Quiet Place

By Peter David

This novel introduces several new characters to the New Frontier series.  Riella, a young woman from the planet Montos, is haunted by strange dreams that eventualy compel her to travel to a mysterious section of space known as the "Quiet Place."  She is also being pursued by hostile forces who want access to the Quiet Place, including former Thallonian noble Zoran, the sinister Redeemers, and a strange group of creatures known as the Dogs of War, vicious canine/humanoid hybrids who are the result of a genetic experiment gone wrong.  None of these characters are certain just what the Quiet Place is, but it is rumored to hold the secrets of immortality and ultimate power, and its secrets are locked inside Riella's mind.  We also meet Xyon, a young thief with low-level psionic abilities and foreknowledge of his own death, who aids Riella in her journey.  This novel brings to a conclusion one of the series' long-running subplots, that of Si Cwan's search for his missing sister.

I was anxious to return to the regular New Frontier novels, after having read Once Burned and Double or Nothing, both parts of crossovers that didn't feature the crew of the Excalibur all together in the present day.  I was a bit disappointed, then, when I began reading this novel and realized that so much time was spent with Xyon and Riella.  There are very few scenes on the Excalibur, and the only members of the regular cast who are primarily featured are Si Cwan, Zak Kebron, and Soleta, who are on an away mission to Montos when they become involved in Riella's and Xyon's adventure.  My initial disappointment was quickly displaced, however, as I became caught up in the excitement of the story being told.  The new characters are appealing and should make a good addition to the series.  The Dogs of War are particularly interesting villains of a type not often seen in Star Trek, and I look forward to future appearances by them.

I suppose a minor criticism could be that, when the Quiet Place is eventually found, it is not particularly interesting, nor is it ever fully explained just what it is or how it came to be.  In all honesty, though, this doesn't bother me at all.  The Quiet Place is really just an excuse to move the plot along, and doesn't really need to be explained or explored further.  As is often the case with Peter David's Trek books, character is the most important thing.  The novel ends with a wonderful surprise on the very last page that I did not see coming at all, and leads directly into the next book, Dark Allies.

Upcoming Star Trek Books from David Mack

Author David Mack briefly comments on his upcoming Star Trek books.

Star Trek: The Next Generation #56: Double Helix, Book Six of Six: The First Virtue

By Michael Jan Friedman and Christie Golden

The final book in the "Double Helix" saga is a prequel, taking place during Captain Picard's command of the Stargazer and featuring the backstory of the villain, whose identity was revealed in the previous novel. Picard attempts to negotiate a peace between two hostile groups of aliens on the brink of war, while Tuvok and Jack Crusher work undercover to investigate the possibility of a third party stirring up trouble between the two groups.

Publishing The First Virtue as the final book in the series was an odd choice, considering that it takes place before the other novels and does not have anything to do with the plague virus.  However, taken on its own terms, this is a very good Star Trek book.  Michael Jan Friedman, who co-created the "Double Helix" concept with editor John J. Ordover, had written a couple of previous novels featuring the Stargazer crew, and would go on to write the Stargazer series.  I have not read those books, but after having read this one, I intend to.  Surely, that is one mark of success for these sorts of crossover projects.  I also really enjoyed the inclusion of Tuvok in this novel, and felt he made a good partner for Jack Crusher.  I had a bit of trouble keeping the various members of the Stargazer crew straight, but, again, I was intrigued enough to want to read more about them.  A good ending to an uneven series.


*Final Thoughts on "Double Helix":

The whole of the "Double Helix" miniseries was not as good as its individual parts.  While most of the novels themselves were very good, I was often frustrated by the way in which the story was told throughout the six books.  Parts one through four basically repeated the same story without advancing the plot at all.  Everything was wrapped up in the exciting fifth book, but there was really no reason you would need to read the previous four books to understand it.  Book six is a standalone prequel.  It is a failure as a mystery story, because there was no possible way to guess the identity of the villain by reading the first four books.  A miniseries like "The Captain's Table" worked very well because all of the individual titles stood completely on their own while sharing the same basic concept.  "Double Helix" seemed as though it was set up to tell one long story over the course of six novels, but failed to really deliver.  I also don't know that the story of the plague virus was ultimately interesting enough to sustain six full length novels.  I would recommend Diane Carey's excellent Red Sector and Michael Jan Friedman's and Christie Golden's The First Virtue on their own merits, and New Frontier fans will want to read Peter David's Double or Nothing.  Ultimately, though, reading all six novels back to back was rather exhausting and not very satisfying.


*Further Notes on "Double Helix":

1.) "Double Helix" was originally published as a series of six paperbacks, which were later collected in a single volume, Star Trek: The Next Generation: Double Helix Omnibus.

2.) Links to all of my previous "Double Helix" reviews: Book One: Infection, Book Two: Vectors, Book Three: Red Sector, Book Four: Quarantine, Book Five: Double or Nothing

Star Trek: The Next Generation #55: Double Helix, Book Five of Six: Double or Nothing

By Peter David

The cast of New Frontier star in this penultimate chapter in the "Double Helix" saga, along with Commander William Riker and Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the Enterprise.  This novel is really the conclusion to the "Double Helix" storyline, with the final book, First Virtue, serving as a kind of epilogue explaining the backstory of the person responsible for the plagues (whose identity is finally revealed in this novel) and his history with Captain Picard.  Double or Nothing is quite different from the earlier "Double Helix" novels, in that it is less a medical thriller and more an action/adventure story that ends in a literally explosive conclusion.  We do not see great masses of people suffering from the effects of the plague as we did in the earlier books, but the threat of its final release throughout all of the Federation worlds hangs over the action of the story.

The novel follows two parallel storylines.  Admiral Nechayev recruits Captain Mackenzie Calhoun to go undercover and infiltrate a group of criminals who are believed to have stolen a powerful new piece of computer technology known as the Omega 9.  Eventually it is revealed that the Omega 9 is a key component in the villain's plan to release the virus throughout the Federation.  While undercover, Calhoun is surprised to meet up with Captain Picard, who has also been sent by Admiral Jellico (unbeknownst to Calhoun or Nechayev) to infiltrate the same group.  Meanwhile, Commander Riker has been given a temporary field promotion to Captain and put in charge of the Excalibur while Calhoun is away.  The Riker storyline is mostly played for laughs, with Commander Elizabeth Shelby furious at having been passed over (again!) for command by her old rival, and Riker generally playing the straight man to the eccentric Excalibur crew.

I liked this book okay.  It's great to see Calhoun on one of his undercover missions for Nechayev, and the material with Riker aboard the Excalibur is often quite funny.  Some of the exchanges between Riker and Shelby are nearly as good as those in the lauded "Best of Both Worlds" television episode.  Peter David's strengths lie in characterization, and he has a lot of fun bouncing the various Excalibur crew members off of the relatively straight-laced Commander Riker.  The climactic action sequence is certainly grand and exciting, but the ultimate reveal of the villain is not really that interesting after being built up over four previous books.  Ultimately, I feel this is one of the weakest New Frontier books, but one of the best "Double Helix" books.  I am an admitted huge fan of New Frontier and have been only mildly impressed with "Double Helix," so take that statement for what it's worth.

Author Interview: Greg Cox

Author Greg Cox (The Eugenics Wars) discusses his new Warehouse 13 novel, as well as a couple of his Star Trek books (one upcoming, and one - a book based on the new timeline established by the 2009 Star Trek film - on indefinite hiatus) in an interview with Unreality SF.

This Month in Star Trek Books: July 2011

Welcome to the debut of a new regular feature here at one seven zero one!  Every month (usually during the first week of the month), "This Month in Star Trek Books" will let you know about any Trek books to be released that month.  The release date and publisher's basic description will be provided, along with a link to purchase or pre-order.  I will also try to provide a cover image for the books if they are available, although keep in mind that what I'm able to find may not be the final, approved cover.

The following Star Trek book will be available later this month:

Star Trek: Cast No Shadow
by James Swallow
available: 7/26/2011

From the Publisher:

Seven years have passed since a catastrophic explosion on the Klingon moon Praxis touched off a chain of events that would result in the assassination of the reformist High Chancellor Gorkon, and the eventual creation of the historic Khitomer Accords. Now, as part of the ongoing efforts to undo the disastrous fallout from the destruction of Praxis and with the help of aid supplies from the United Federation of Planets, reconstruction is in progress, and after years of slow going hindered by political pressures and old prejudices, headway is at last being made. But the peace process begun by the Khitomer Accords is still fragile just as the deadly plans of what is believed to be a hard-line Klingon isolationist group violently come to fruition.

Yet the group thought responsible for the deadly attack has been dormant for decades, and its known modus operandi doesn’t match up to the manner of the strike. And further investigation leads to an unexpected revelation connected to the Gorkon conspiracy of 2293, and in particular one disgraced and very familiar Starfleet lieutenant….

Star Trek: The Next Generation #54: Double Helix, Book Four of Six: Quarantine

By John Vornholt

Just as Infection, Vectors, and Red Sector respectively featured characters from TNG, DS9, and The Original Series, Quarantine features some of the cast of Star Trek: Voyager.  Specifically, it is a story of Captain Chakotay's Maquis cell (including B'Elanna Torres, Tuvok, and Seska) before they were taken to the Delta Quadrant and merged with Voyager's crew.  When Chakotay and his crew discover that Helena, a planet in the demilitarized zone, has become infected with a strain of the plague virus seen in the previous three novels, they reluctantly request Starfleet's help in treating the populace and hopefully finding a cure.  Help comes in the form of Lieutenant Thomas Riker, Commander William Riker's double, who has just transferred to the medical branch of Starfleet and now works as a medical courier.  The novel also shows how Thomas Riker was seduced by the Maquis philosophy, and leads directly into that character's appearance on an episode of DS9.

Like most of the books in the "Double Helix" miniseries, this novel does not advance the plot of the overall story very much, but, like Diane Carey's Red Sector, writer John Vornholt uses the opportunity to tell an entertaining story.  It was, of course, a lot of fun to read about Chakotay's pre-Voyager adventures with the Maquis, and to see him interact with Tuvok and Seska, who we know would both eventually betray him.  There is a good scene in this book where Tuvok, who is an undercover Starfleet officer, begins to have sympathy for the Maquis cause. 

The planet Helena is also an intriguing creation.  Most of the citizens are of mixed heritage, and genetic crossbreeding (both natural and artificially engineered) is regarded highly.  The dark side of this seemingly enlightened philosophy is the fact that those of pureblood ancestry are a segregated minority, making Helena a kind of inverse of the planet Archaria III in Infection, where hybrid "mixers" are persecuted by the bigoted human populace.  While I didn't quite understand why human/Klingon hybrids should be so rare or admired by the Helenites (we have seen at least a couple of them on the various Star Trek series), it is fun to see B'Ellana have to deal with being practically worshiped by much of the populace, a role with which she is understandably uncomfortable.

Thomas Riker makes a good protagonist here, a kind of rougher, less confident version of the William Riker with whom we are more familiar.  His shift in loyalties is handled well and convincingly over the course of the story.  I also like Ensign Shelzane, a female Benzite who serves as Riker's pilot and partner on the mission.

With so much else going on, the story of the plague almost seems to fade into the background at times.  Interestingly, this is the only "Double Helix" book thus far that does not end with a cure for the virus being found, nor does it feature a prominent character who is a doctor.  Still, this is a good Star Trek novel, particularly for fans interested in Thomas Riker and the Maquis.

Star Trek: The Next Generation #53: Double Helix, Book Three of Six: Red Sector

By Diane Carey

In my review of Vectors, I wished for something different in the third "Double Helix" novel.  Boy, did I get my wish.  Red Sector is an excellent book that introduces some fantastic new characters and concepts into the Star Trek universe.

While I enjoyed previous entries in this series, I found the writing to be of professional quality but rather workmanlike.  The same basic story of the plague virus was told using the TNG and DS9 characters, with subplots and extraneous detail kept to a minimum.  Diane Carey takes an entirely different approach in Red Sector.  Not only does this novel offer the most unique take on the virus we've seen so far (it has now been engineered to target Romulans of the royal bloodline), Carey also presents the story of ensign Eric Stiles, a young Starfleet officer who is in charge of escorting Ambassador Spock off of an alien planet that has turned hostile towards the Federation representatives that have been working there.  During the evacuation, Stiles is captured and held prisoner on the planet for several years, his only companion a fellow prisoner, a Romulan scientist named Zevon.  Because the alien world on which Stiles has been imprisoned has become hostile towards the Federation and all outside influence, it has been declared a "red sector," meaning the Federation cannot mount a rescue attempt.

Eventually, Stiles is rescued by a very elderly Dr. Leonard McCoy, but sadly must leave Zevon behind, despite the fact that the two have grown very close during their years in captivity.  Eventually, Stiles becomes a Lieutenant Commander in command of the Saskatoon, a Combat Support Tender (CST) that is a kind of "floating space station," designed to assist, refuel, and repair starships, sometimes in the middle of combat situations.  The concept of the CST is a terrific idea, and Carey populates this new ship with a dynamic and diverse crew of young officers.

There is a lot going on in this book, and it is about 100 pages before the plague virus is introduced into the story.  Once that happens, the book proceeds along two parallel tracks, with Dr. Beverly Crusher and Data attempting to cure the dying Romulan Empress on Romulus, and Stiles and his crew, along with Spock and McCoy, attempting to rescue Zevon from the red sector.  Zevon has royal blood and may hold the key to a cure for the virus.  In addition to an exciting story with appealing characters, I enjoyed this book because Diane Carey is a fantastic writer.  She has built a wonderful character arc for Eric Stiles, following his development over a number of years.  She also captures the personalities of Spock and McCoy perfectly, and is equally adept at writing exciting action sequences.  Two of the best moments in the book involve edge-of-your seat space battles, both involving the Saskatoon.  We first encounter the CST when it is attempting to repair a damaged Federation starship in the middle of a firefight with the Romulans, and the Saskatoon's battle with the alien ship while escaping red sector towards the end of the novel is tense and exciting as well.

I hope the rest of the books in the "Double Helix" miniseries follow the example of Red Sector, using the basic story of the plague virus as a springboard to tell fast-paced adventure stories with great character development.

Top Ten "Old" Star Trek Books

Readers of this blog will enjoy this list of Dayton Ward's ten favorite Star Trek books, all published prior to 1980, over at StarTrek.com.

Star Trek: The Next Generation #52: Double Helix, Book Two of Six: Vectors

By Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch

While all of the "Double Helix" books were published as Star Trek: The Next Generation novels, the miniseries is actually a crossover, and Vectors primarily features characters from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.  According to Jeff Ayers' Voyages of Imagination, editor John J. Ordover says that TNG was the bestselling series at the time, so the decision was made to publish all of the books under the TNG banner.

Vectors takes place a couple of years after Infection, during the beginning of TNG's third season and before DS9 had gone on the air, making it a kind of prequel to that series.  In the book, Dr. Pulaski travels to Terok Nor (the name by which Deep Space Nine was known while still under Cardassian command) in hopes of finding a cure to a strange disease that infects both Bajorans and Cardassians, and which may have ties to the plague virus Dr. Crusher and the crew of the Enterprise combated on Archaria III.  One of Dr. Pulaski's ex-husbands is the Bajoran doctor on Terok Nor, and she must work with both him and the Cardassian doctor to find a cure before the Cardassian government enacts a final solution, destroying the quarantined space station and perhaps all of Bajor.

Setting this book during the years of the Cardassian occupation of Bajor was an interesting choice.  I have always been intrigued by Terok Nor, so it was great to read a book that takes place on the station during this period.  While Starfleet characters like Commander Sisko and Dax were missed, I am a big fan of Gul Dukat, and the writers do a great job with him here, as they do with all of the characters.  Other DS9 characters like Odo, Quark, and Kira are prominently featured, and there are brief appearances by some of the crew of the Enterprise-D.  The scenes featuring Quark and his family are quite funny, and the scenes between Odo and Kira are a lot of fun, subtly hinting at the relationship the two of them would eventually develop.  While I wasn't exactly clamoring for a novel featuring Dr. Pulaski, she made a fine protagonist for this tense medical thriller.

The basic plot is essentially the same as that of Infection.  By the end of the novel, a cure has once more been found, but we are no closer to learning the identity of the person ultimately responsible for the plagues.  I am a little worried that this formula will wear itself thin over the course of six novels, but I remain optimistic for now.  The only real criticism I have of this book is that, like the first novel, it seemed to end rather abruptly once the cure was found, and I wish the writers had gone into a bit more detail, particularly in regards to the various battles between Bajorans and Cardassians that took place during the final third of the book.  One the whole, this sophomore entry in the "Double Helix" miniseries was an improvement over the first, but I'm hoping for something a little bit different in book three.