Star Trek: Legacies: Purgatory's Key by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore - Book Report #184

This was a fine ending to the story.

But I will be honest here, when it comes to science fiction I like mine hard.  Hard boiled is even better.  (But that is a very thin slice of the SF pie.)

Because I like my fantastic stories to be as plausible as possible I am not a big fan of; aliens with convenient "super powers", time travel, mystic powers (like the force) and alternative dimensions.

Honestly, and I am sorry if you don't agree, but these are just conveniences that allow a writer to escape from well, reality.  If you want a dose of true hard science fiction try reading The Cold Equations by Tom Godwin.  It's in the public domain and can be easily searched.  Here is a link to a PDF copy of the story - http://photos.state.gov/libraries/hochiminh/646441/vantt/The%20Cold%20Equations.pdf

Okay, the story.  Our heroes have shaken off the Romulans now they have to convince the Klingons that the work they want to do on the planet will not harm the Empire nor give the Federation an unfair advantage going forward.

Kirk and Spock have to use the Transfer Key to locate and rescue their friends from the other dimension.  Loads of time is spent showing just how strange the other dimension is, which I found exceedingly boring, but the conflict between the Klingons was very entertaining.

In the end it was the talents of Ward and Dilmore that kept me engaged.  Their sense of humour lifted the story many times when I was just about to roll my eyes.

Yes, I liked the series.  The stories were at their best when we were in our own universe  I found the characters true to their TV roots.  Interestingly I thought the narrator channelled Karl Urban's performance of Bones rather than DeForest Kelley.  But it worked for me.

I must mention the talents of Robert Petkoff who narrated all three books.  He had perfect characterisation throughout.  He convincingly channelled the original actors of the series which was a talent that needs to be recognised.  I was transported into the story by his abilities.  Excellent work.

Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore

Book Report #123 - Star Trek: Seekers 2: Point of Divergence by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore

Book 47 of 52
Page count - 351

Part two of the new Seekers series, which is itself part two of the Vanguard epic.

This book takes up where Seekers 1 left off.  The Sagittarius is stranded on the surface while the Endeavour has arrived to help in a rescue and to solve the mystery of the Tomol, who are now running amok and making a large nuisance of themselves.

To be honest, this book was a bit of a one-note experience.  The Tomol keep evolving, gaining new powers and generally making things more and more dangerous for the humans.  This goes on for well over 200 pages; just more and more power gains until the Tomol have evolved into X-Men.  It was a bit much, especially considering the Klingons were also in orbit, trying to be menacing but largely being ignored by Ward & Dilmore.

There was something about this book that just fell a bit flat, for me.  The end was satisfying in that Star Trek way and I enjoyed THAT enough to say it was a good read.  But, yea, those middle 200 pages were a bit of a slog.

Dayton Ward (left) & Kevin Dilmore (right)

Interphase Book 2 - by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore, a short story review.

Original cover.

In part one the Captain and his a way team are stranded on the Defiant, inside the spacial anomaly, while the Tholians execute a surprise attack on the da Vinci.

This becomes a two-perspective story switching from the actions of the away team trying to free the ship from the anomaly and the crew of the da Vinci coping with the attack while being led by an inexperienced officer.

Through the action the authors keep injecting moments of humor that serve to break the tension for the reader and the characters in the story.  This kind of self-deprecating interaction is easily achieved among people with exceptional abilities and strikes a note of realism that I very much enjoyed.

I'm not sure if David Mack has read these stories although I feel he must have.  There is a scene at the end of the story that was lifted and inserted into the end of Star Trek: Destiny.  I do know that these three authors have worked extensively together so I'm pretty sure this kind of thing is more a tip of the hat then a lift.  It's a form of compliment among authors.

In any case this story was very satisfying and I recommend anything written by Ward and/or Dilmore.

Dayton Ward (Captain) and Kevin Dilmore (Navigation)

Cover of the omnibus collection

Interphase Book 1 - by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore, a short storyreview.

The fourth installment in the Corps of Engineers series was a cracking read.  The USS da Vinci is sent to Tholian space to recover the Defiant, a Constitution class starship lost in a spacial anomaly 100 years previously.

Its the job of the da Vinci's captain and crew is to figure out a way to pull the derelict ship out of the anomaly.

This being a two-parter; things go terribly wrong just as the team is making progress.

This story was so well written with good dialog and a plausible situation.  Dilmore and Ward always turn out entertaining page-turners.  This one felt like it could have been a television show; it was very cinematic.  Some of the best sequences are the moments when the crew beam over and make it to the classic bridge.  There are some cringe-worthy moments as the away team discover the ship is not only a museum piece but also a tomb.

These stories were once sold individually, today they are collected in omnibus volumes.  Pocket Books are taking full advantage of the ability to split the two parts into separate volumes, ensuring sales of the next book.  But I don't mind it a bit since most of the stories are of such high quality.

Read on people.

Dayton Ward (left) and Kevin Dilmore (right)

Omnibus cover art.

Book Report #97 - A Time To Harvest by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore

Book 21 of 52
Page Count - 330

The second book in the A Time To Sow/ A Time To Harvest duology was a very satisfying payoff. 

The troubles that were plaguing the Dokaalan people, it was discovered, were more than just unfortunate accidents.  The Dokaalan's were involved in a very difficult project of trying to terraforming a nearby planet.  But acts of sabotage and disagreements within the population threatened to destroy what was left of this race.

The troubles that had to be addressed were many and interrelated.  The authors did a wonderful job of tying things up and creating a bad guy that was so good that I stopped reading to enjoy the "Oh, cool!" moment.  I love intelligent, pragmatic bad guys and the baddies in this book are great.  They are highly resourceful and able to turn unexpected events to their own advantage.  Plus, and this is something I always loved in Robert B. Parker's Spenser novels, when they were caught they merely smiled with a "Well, you've got me." attitude then were willing to discuss things in a civilized way.

This whole series is building up to the movie Nemesis so it will be fun to see how the crew gets to where they are at the start of that story.  Until then, we get to enjoy some very well though out adventures that simply feel like this was season eight or nine of the television series.

I like these two books very much, maybe even a bit more than the first two because the baddies were just so well done.  I still don't own the next two books; A Time to Love / A Time to Hate, I may have to buy them as eBooks to continue this series.  But I will certainly continue with it.

Dayton Ward has a website HERE

Sorry to say that I could not find a personal website for Kevin Dilmore.  (He may have a FaceBook page or Twitter account but I didn't search for those.)

Dayton Ward (left) and Kevin Dilmore (right)

Book Report #96 - Star Trek: A Time to Sow by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore

Book 20 of 52
Page count - 314

In 2151, during the time of Johnathan Archer and the TV series Enterprise, a probe was found by the Vulcans.  This probe was a distress call from a far flung planet that was suffering planet-wide seismic events that threatened to destroy it completely.  It was discovered that the probe had been in space for 38 years.  The Vulcans decided to to nothing about it since the events plaguing that world would have already taken place and there would be no rescue to mount.

Fast forward two hundred years to the days of the Enterprise-E, with Starfleet wanting to keep Picard out of the way, they are sent to explore the region to see what evidence they can find of the inhabitants of this poor world.  They discover the planet had indeed been destroyed but were surprised to find the survivors had migrated to, and created a sustainable society, in the asteroid belt of the system.

Since the Dokaalan people had sent the distress call Picard initiated first contact with them.  A crisis occurs while they are there and the Enterprise manages to rescue over 400 Dokaalans which goes a long way to enable the trust of the leadership.

This is classic Star Trek; exploring strange new worlds.  It takes a while to discover that there is some internal strife going on that threaten the crew.  This is a story that takes place over two books so I don't recommend reading A Time To Sow without having A Time To Harvest close by.

I really liked this first installment.  I grabbed the second book without pause and just kept on reading.

Dayton Ward (left) and Kevin Dilmore (right)