Page Count - 269
I had read this book once before and gave up on it. I knew it was part of a trilogy, however I found the book so slowly paced that I was uninterested in perusing it further.
Then along comes the Literary Treks podcast and I learn that this trilogy is the key to the entire Star Trek universe reset. Since all the shows are done and there is no chance of further movies, Pocket Books now has the freedom to alter the path of the characters how they want.
With this trilogy the separate shows of The Next Generation, Deep Space 9 and Voyager are folded into one giant story. This is appropriate since they all occupy the same time period. Even some of the characters that have only lived in the novels are brought in here too.
Based on what Christopher Jones and Matt Rushing, the hosts of Literary Treks, said about this series, I bought the 828 page, door stop of a book, omnibus edition collecting the tree novels.
In my mind, if you're writing a trilogy, you might want to bore people with the second book, not the first one. I remember why I quit it in the first place - pacing.
I'm shocked that the death of millions of people from Borg attacks could feel as though it is a footnote to the more "important" story of what happened to the crew of the NX-02 Columbia or of Troy and Riker's attempt to have a baby.
We follow four different story lines here, Captain Hernandez and the Columbia, Captain Jean Luc Picard of the Enterprise, Captain Will Riker of the Titan and Captain Ezri Dax of the Aventine; who are all chasing the mystery of the Columbia's disappearance. Some of these captains don't know it yet as they are looking for clues as to how the Borg are getting into Federation space without being detected but it is all linked to the Columbia.
The only plot line that is even remotely interesting is the Enterprise because they are engaged with the Borg directly. What goes on with all the other plot lines is exceedingly dull and mostly revolves around folks talking about tricorder readings. But I kept with it and things got more interesting at the end of the book where two of the four plot lines came together.
I will keep with it because I trust Rushing and Jones and because I want to get into this new universe. Plus, when I hold a book that is over 800 pages long it's understandable that the first 270 might be about the set up. I think I would have been happier if each of the separate plot lines were broken up into smaller chunks and if there was more action within. I don't need explosions on every page but I also don't want computer readouts and endless descriptions of alien crew members. To be honest, I'd be much happier if Star Fleet had more humans on board so we could enjoy some story telling.
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