Page count - 488
This is the second book in the Typon Pact series and centers it's story around Will Riker and his ship the Titan.
After the affairs described in Destiny, races that felt they were forced to participate in the Federation actions against the Borg formed their own alliance. Members of the pact are; the Romulans, the Tzenkethi, the Breen, the Gorn and the Tholians.
These are all races the Federation has had troubles with in the past so it's a bit ominous that they would all group together in a rival alliance. So now the world of Star Trek is poised to endure a period of Cold War much like the United States and the USSR. This could make for some interesting story telling.
Unlike the previous series, the Destiny trilogy, these books do not follow a single narrative, at least not yet. The first two books truly stand alone and serve to more fully explore each of the member races. In this book we take a look at the Gorn Hegemony where they have suffered a terrible natural disaster. A critical hatchery world is destroyed and they are now looking for a candidate to terraform to replace it. The trouble starts when they choose a planet that is inhabited by intelligent pre-warp beings.
Riker and the Titan must get involved to save the inhabitants of this world.
We learn more about the Gorn society and how delicately it is held together.
All in all it was a good story in that understanding the Gorn is the primary thing I've come away with. The book itself could have been cut by 150 pages without hurting the plot one bit. The amount of repetition is astounding, you'd think this was a collection of serialized stories, not a novel. Plus, again, "sigh", aliens, (I hate these guys) - so much ink is wasted on describing all the funky aliens working on Titan that I was ready to pull my hair out.
This book was only okay. It was such a slog to get through that it has made me want to take a break from the world of Star Trek.
Interestingly, this recent period of exclusively reading Star Trek stories has awakened some real world interests in me. While reading this fiction I've been buying many non-fiction books that the stories have inspired me to learn more about. I've got dozens of books about the history of space flight, engineering, shipping, espionage and exploration all inspired to be purchased from reading Star Trek.
Because Star Trek books are so closely related to each other I've come away with a desire to read some history. I could have gone on a quest to learn the history of Star Trek by buying all the old books and filling in the blanks but, instead, I want to learn more about the real history and current events of the world I'm living in. I'll be returning to Star Trek from time to time but I don't see myself reading them exlusively as I have been for the past while.
I'll still be choosing books that I feel I can fit into my book a week challenge. Once the 52nd book is read I'll be free to tackle some of the larger books out there.
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| Michael A Martin |
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