The United Federation of Charles

Warning: This review will contain spoilers for the ending of Sleeping Dogs.

The Year of the Snake is the final DLC of the first Sleeping Dogs game. It serves an epilogue, to an extent, for the main game. We finally find out whether Wei Shen's loyalty is ultimately to the Triads or the Hong Kong police department. Sadly, this is all a bit of an anticlimax dealt with in the opening monologue of the game.

Hint: Wei is a cop.

The trailer for the DLC reveals said monologue which confirms that Wei Shen has returned to active duty as a Hong Kong police detective. Unfortunately, due to the staggering body count and property damage his investigation created, he's demoted to beat cop. Wei Shen spends a humorous montage writing traffic tickets and giving directions to tourists. While I would have loved to have played through some of this--the actual DLC is about a terrorist bomb threat.

The SWAT gear for the Hong Kong police comes free with the DLC--once you complete it.

The Year of the Snake deals the discovery of a cult which believes the world is going to end on the Chinese New Year, so they've decided to start bombing things (for some reason). This is actually not that far from some real-life extremist sects so I didn't particularly mind the premise. Wei must travel across Hong Kong attempting to defuse bombs and deal with the various cultist threats.

Part of the problem is this may be a little too ambitious of a premise for a DLC. The Year of the Snake could easily have been the beginning plot of Sleeping Dogs 2. Maybe the Snake cult are a front for the Triads attempting to do, I dunno, stock manipulation or something. The DLC seems a bit underwhelming as the cultists are all mindless mooks. This is a sharp contrast to the main game where the Triad bosses all had distinct personalities.

Wei Shen learns to go ultra-violent in a socially ACCEPTABLE way.

      Still, there's a great deal to be fun here as the addition of a stun gun and handcuffing to the game (which can be brought over to the main game) are tremendously fun. I also appreciate the chance to use the various police vehicles inside the garage. Rather than just keep to the Snake cult missions, Year of the Snake also throws in a bunch of random police missions. These are mostly petty like stopping indecent exposure or delinquents but also include things like needing to defuse bombs.

    I'm not going to say the Year of the Snake is a waste but its potential is under-realized. A lot of the game feels like repetitions of previous adventures from the main game, which they are, but they don't give enough of them. Sadly, the most commonly repeated police adventure is "Suspicious Vehicle" which is the least enjoyable of the new material.

    In conclusion, I liked Year of the Snake but wasn't blown away by it. I recommend people who were fans of Wei Shen to pick it up but not to get their expectations too high.

7/10

Star Trek: Into Darkness is a movie I have had some trepidation about watching due to the fact that I'm a big Star Trek fan. You can see it in the name of my website. I really liked Star Trek's reboot under JJ Abrams but I also think it was roughly as substantial as a doughnut. It's all powdered sugar and sweet bread, no real substance. Which isn't bad. Mindless entertainment has its place.

The thing about Star Trek, I love the series, but it was on its last legs due to a series of medicore serials and unfortunate misteps. I liked Enterprise but it was clear the writers had no idea what they wanted to do with the series. Likewise, Star Trek: Nemesis was a half-finished jumble of ideas with nothing behind it. This is in addition to the damning with faint praise I have for Star Trek: Voyager, which never really rose above okay.

ST:ID continues the fine Trek movie tradition of kicking the **** out of the Enterprise.

    So how does Star Trek: Into Darkness measure up?

    Pretty well, except it's now a doughnut with a glass of orange juice as opposed to just a doughnut. There's very-very mild social satire in the movie and that elevates it above the previous one but the movie never stops to breathe long enough for the ramifications to sink in. It's literally not until the final speech we even get the movie's opinion on terrorism.

    The problem with ST:ID isn't that it's a bad movie or has poor world-building, it's one of the most evocatively realized settings I've seen out of big-screen science fiction in a long time. My main issue is that it's a very smart movie which doesn't have much confidence in the story it's telling. A surprisingly good script is buried under whiz-bang action and never-ending fanservice. I, honestly, believe the movie would have been better if they'd deleted all of the callbacks from the final half-hour of the movie and stuck with the original plot they'd created.

I'd complain that Trek isn't about attractive women in skimpy outfits but then I'd be forced to choke down my own laughter.

     Still, I can't be too hard on this movie because of two factors:

    1. I was never bored.
    2. The movie had a surprisingly uplifting message for the Post-War on Terror United States.

    Much like Iron Man 3, Star Trek: Into Darkness is pretty anti-War on Terror. Our heroes are struck hard by the character of John Harrison but the film depicts Kirk's knee-jerk desire for reprisal to be objectively wrong. In fact, violence of any sort causes repeated problems for our heroes (even in self-defense). Only once or twice in the movie does it do them any real good and that's when it's coupled with thinking.

Benedict Cumberbatch is amazing in this film, oozing menace even during scenes straight from Silence of the Lambs.

    The performances in the movie are a good deal better than the original and I didn't think any of those were bad. The actors were more comfortable in their roles and able to stand on their own rather than dwelling in their predecessor's shadow. Chris Pine's Kirk isn't the most likable of characters, especially when he commits crimes which never would be tolerated in any profession let alone Starfleet, but you can't say he's not a distinct character from Bill Shatner's Kirk.

     Zachary Quinto's Spock is a little less authoritative in this movie, which seems to come from his realization Kirk is his only friend in the world (not counting Uhura). It's an interesting change and plays up the rivalry between Kirk and Spock in this setting. Sadly, that leaves Karl Urban less to do as McCoy. One of McCoy's major roles in the game was to be Kirk's voice of conscience as well as Spock's rival. With those roles split between Spock and Kirk, he mostly exists to re-hash classic lines.

     Oddly, my favorite performance from the movie was Peter Weller's Admiral Marcus. The years have not been kind to Mister Weller, who looks more like Robocop than any man should, yet this only lends credence to the idea he's a Starfleet Admiral who has seen more than most. He strikes me as one of the few characters capable of putting Kirk in his place. I wish his role in the movie had been larger.

    In conclusion, I really enjoyed this movie and recommend people see it. This isn't entirely a movie where it's best to turn your brain off but it's close.

7.5/10

    I was a big fan of C.L Bennet's Department of Temporal Investigations: Watching the Clock. It was a new kind of Star Trek novel, depicting a fascinating mixture of bureaucrats dealing with minutiae and an outsider's perspective on all the various time-travel shenanigans we saw through all of the recent series. In WTC, we didn't get much information on the Original Series but that seemed like a big undertaking with Captain Kirk's somewhat legendary relationship with time travel.

    "Seventeen recorded violations!" as Agent Lucsly would say.

    Forgotten History attempts to make up for this conspicuous absence by dealing with Captain Kirk's relationship with the DTI. As the first recorded time traveler in Federation history, his actions lead up to the founding of that body and their reactions to his further incursions into the time-stream. C.L Bennet is a master of incorporating obscure canon into his stories, including the largely forgotten animated series.

    Fans of Watching the Clock may be disappointed that the previous stars of the book, including several minor characters from TNG who grew into fully-developed time agents, barely factor into this book. The work was written as a Star Trek: The Original Series novel and it shows.

    I can't say this isn't disappointing on some level. I love Captain Kirk, Spock, and Scotty but I was hoping for more information about Lucsly and Dulmer. They have some good bits in this novel but I felt they were a bit stereotypical in places. Lucsly, for example, has a passionate hatred of Captain Kirk which seems disproportionate given what we know of both men. Even if he viewed Kirk as a menace to linear history, he had to also know he spent a substantial amount of time patching up the timeline too.

    I will say, however, the book does something clever with time travel. A minor theme of the book is that the way we remember history isn't remotely how it happened. History is a story, which is obvious if you think about it, meant to tell us about what we can achieve or should avoid as much as what happened.

    Characters from the future discovering people from the past aren't all sunshine and roses or Sauron wannabes adds an interesting perspective to the book. I will say, however, there's a bit at the end which really annoys me. A Starfleet officer's first obligation is to the truth so a character should never deny the "warts and all" of the past as well as the reverse. I think knowing George Washington had slaves, for example, doesn't diminish his accomplishments while also warns us away from making his mistakes.

    The original series characters work extremely well and I particularly liked the handling of Spock. The "arc welding" of various Trek series is quite cool with Spock having some pointed opinions on the Vulcans of T'Pol's time. There's a subplot I won't spoil but harkens back to my favorite Spock episode too, with an unexpected guest star.

    In conclusion, this is a really good book. One I am very glad to have bought and one of my favorite Star Trek stories. Unfortunately, I really wish we'd seen more of the Temporal Agents. They were guest-stars and it would have been nice to see a character do a complete 180 on his opinions. That would have made the book a perfect 10.

8/10

    I was going to post this review a long time ago but I actually lost my original one. In any case, I got around to re-reading the novel and decided to review it anyway.

    As the title implies, this is a companion piece to Star Trek Online as opposed to the novel universe. There's numerous nods to the novels in the MMORPG, so it makes sense there's numerous nods to the novels in the companion book as well. However, the events of Star Trek: Destiny manifestly did not happen in the MMORPG so there's references to the novels in STO:TNTM but also contradictions.

    Confused yet?

    Well, you shouldn't be. STO:TNTM is more an epilogue to the Star Trek television shows as opposed to a tie-in to the MMORPG. The book is set after the events of the "Undine War" that is the central basis of the online game. Alien shapeshifters invaded the Federation, again, and the book implies our heroes eventually beat them back. It's an interesting tact for a tie-in novel to take, being set after the game itself, but I suppose none of us believed the game would end in the Federation's destruction anyway so it's ok.

    The premise of the novel is DS9 character Jake Sisko, known as a famous author in the novel's setting (and implied in the show), has been hired by the Federation to chronicle the events of the Undine war. He decides, in-universe, the only way to do this is to print up the transcripts from selected interviews taken from veterans of the Undine War. In short, the novel is the Star Trek version of World War Z without the zombies.

    The novel is, overall, good but there's many stories which have little-to-nothing to do with Star Trek Online or its history. There's some timeless stories like Jake Sisko dealing with a damaged soldier who couldn't bring himself out of the war, Worf dealing with a sanity-bending fight against an Undine warrior disguised as himself, and how B4 saved the Federation. I swear to you, the last story is actually touching. This, from B4's greatest detractor.

    However, quite a few stories don't deal with events from the Online game like an interview with Captain Picard's descendant and a baseball game against the Gorns. I'm serious about the last one. They seem more like epilogues to the characters of the television series. For example, Seven of Nine isn't particularly relevant to the conflict in the game yet we see her ultimate discussed.

    The confusion over the alternate universes of the Expanded universe is given a nice little nod, however, in an interview with Lucsly and Dulmer from the Department of Temporal Investigations. They, more or less, explain that all of the various novel universes are separate with temporal shenanigans responsible for the discrepencies. I liked this explanation and give them kudos for bothering to explain it.

    Would have the novel been better to talk about battles against the Undine and the Borg? Would it have been better to discuss how the Federation reacted to being under siege by not only these two implacable enemies but the Klingon Empire? Perhaps. There's only so much you can do without either spoiling events of the game or hamstringing the developers of the game, however. Likewise, I felt the Federation trying to make sense of such a senseless conflict was rather cool. It fits that they don't lionize the war other cultures might (including our own).

     Perhaps the most important story in the book, at least for Trek-Lit fans, is the discussion of the Hobus Nebula explosion in J.J. Abram's movie. The book nicely deconstructs the bad science behind it while maintaining it as an important cultural/political/historical milestone in the franchise. I appreciate when authors work around oddball things in Star Trek versus rejecting them outright.

    One of my favorite elements from STO:TNTM is the timeline in the back of the book. The Needs of the Many contains a complete timeline leading up to the events of Star Trek Online. For those seeking a companion piece to the MMORPG, this is the most useful part of the book. Captain Lucien Drake of the U.S.S Tarot, my character if you didn't know, found it most helpful. Despite not being what it advertised, this book got me into Star Trek Lit and I highly recommend it.

    Kudos to Mathew A. Martin, the book's "real" author.

8/10

    The West Wing meets Star Trek.

    One thing I've always wondered about is how the United Federation of Planets works. The name implies its meant to work roughly analogous to the United Nations but it has its own military and power. Indeed, a Federation means that it probably functions more like the original United States did before we gradually became more federalized versus state-based (after a little something called the Civil War).

    Articles of the Federation more or less shows how the Federation works by following its President in the post-Dominion War era, Nanietta Bacco, as she attempts to navigate the events following Shinzon's overthrow. This is very much set in the events of the Star Trek-Lit universe, frequently referencing events in other novels (particularly Star Trek: Titan).

    Reading this after the first J.J. Abrams movie is kind of hilarious as everyone reacts to Praetor Shinzon's actions as the most devastating thing which has ever happened to Romulus. While it's wrong to laugh at genocide, even of fictional races, I can't help but feel a little schadenfreude as the Romulan's future woes.

    Take that, evil space elves.

    Honestly, I can't wait for the novels to catch up to the movie timeline since it will nicely rid the Star Trek Lit-universe of several truly appalling Romulan politicians. I admit, I also want to see the reaction of many characters in this book who are desperate to appease them.

    Articles of the Federation consists of not so much a narrative as a 'Week in the Life of the Federation's President' and watching her deal with various scandals, meetings, diplomatic conferences, and so on. The writing is very anarchic, feeding into the idea that the President is constantly under scrutiny and forced to deal with a hundred different things simultaneously.

    I very much enjoyed some of the subplots: the investigation of the previous President's arms trafficking to an independent planet, persuading a surgeon to perform an operation on an enemy race's VIP (despite her being a former POW of them), and why a seemingly friendly race constantly becomes belligerent every time they leave their planet.

    I'm a bit "meh" about Nanietta Bacco, herself. She seems designed to be a badass President who steamrolls her way through any opposition to the most moral outcome possible. My favorite parts of the book are when the author has this backfire horribly. She's an okay character but I enjoy my Trek characters a little more flawed. It doesn't help I'm not a big fan of baseball and find her obsession as baffling as I found Sisko's.

    The supporting cast, however, is awesome. I loved each and every one of them from the President's aides down to the Betazoid college roommates watching political TV for a class. There's a large, interesting, and diverse cast spread throughout the story. While fans might something with a bit more 'meat' to it, I think this is one of the most enjoyable Star Trek novels I've ever read.

9/10

Star Trek is one of the most prolific franchises in the world for video games. One of my favorite video games of all time is Star Trek: Bridge Commander. Unfortunately, Star Trek video games have a reputation as being somewhat buggy or outright bad. This is a general problem with virtually all video game adaptations of existing properties with the Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay being about the only exception.

Star Trek: The Video Game is an intrequel between the Star Trek (2013) movie and Star Trek: Into Darkness. The premise of the game is the Enterprise is summoned to a Vulcan space station where there's some sort of disaster is going on. As the box explains, this bit of nastiness of the responsibility of the Gorn. First contact in the reboot universe is even more violent than in the Original Series episode, "Arena." Add in a Vulcan scientific achievement which can be used as a super-weapon and you have the perfect recipe for a Star Trek game.

The Enterprise has some good rail-shooting sections. If you don't like rail-shooting, err, then sorry?

The problem is the game is one of the most schizophrenic ones I've ever played. On one hand, it's really cinematic with beautiful set pieces and action scenes. All of which would have easily made this an excellent sequel to the reboot were it a movie. Then there's the gameplay, which is obviously rushed, half-finished, and the best parts cribbed from better-designed games.

This seems to be the result of something similar to what happened with Alien: Colonial Marines (except less disastrous). The people who were put in charge of developing this game didn't actually care about the game itself, preferring to work on their own projects. The irony is, SOMEONE must have cared since a lot of the levels are really well-designed and the plot is great. They managed to get all of the original cast from the first movie back for voicing the intrequel.

The likenesses are quite well done.

I'll handle the good parts first. The Gorn make spectacular enemies as while we, the audience, are familiar with them--Kirk and Spock aren't. It really seems like a conflict out of left field for our heroes as they don't know who the enemy is, what they want, or why they're doing this. The initial confrontation between a Gorn warrior and our heroes is a tough boss fight and you're left using your head to figure out how to beat him. Even on Easy, I had to try a few times to figure out how to beat him.

The supporting character of T'Mar reminds me of some of the Original Series love interests combined with the better parts of TNG's. She's exotic, interesting, and has a connection to one of our character's pasts. It's interesting to see a Vulcan love interest and while her plot hook is classic, she's the daughter of a chief figure on New Vulcan, it works well. I also enjoyed her voice acting, which was strangely soothing.

T'mar is also easy on the eyes.

    The set pieces, as mentioned above, don't lack ambition or imagination. Having Kirk and Spock travel along the side of a space-station while gigantic solar blasts are fired their way is just plain fun. Add in the weird mix of the modern and retro for the Federation starbase and you have the idea someone was paying attention to making this game. I also loved the designs for Gorn ships. They're weird and menacing but still functional-looking.

    The bad part is the game's half-finished nature is obvious. The lip-synching to character models is appalling, the clues for where you're supposed to go next are all-but useless, and the mini-games aren't much fun. I'm pretty sure you could also get rid of the experience part of the game and no one would have noticed the difference. About the best part of the game is the fact it's mostly wholesale cribbed from Mass Effect. Given Mass Effect was awesome, this is not a bad thing.

    Ironically, one of my favorite parts of the game is one of the less obvious ones. The game provides achievements for using stun and avoiding killing your enemies. Rewarding players for being less violent is about the most Star Trek thing about this game and a welcome change from the way this game could have been played.

    In conclusion, I can't really give this game a high score but I had fun completing it. As a result, I'm going to give it a slightly above-average score. This is one of those games which deserved more attention than it got.

6.5/10

    Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Hollow Men is a direct sequel to the episode "In the Pale Moonlight."

    For those of you who haven't seen that episode, I suggest you stop reading and go watch it now. It's one of the best episodes of Star Trek I've ever seen and I've seen a lot of them. It also is one of the most highly controversial and morally troubling episodes. Not morally troubling the way, "Dear Doctor" is but calling into question your own values. I'm going to spoil the episode if you read further, so consider yourself warned.

    The premise of "In the Pale Moonlight" is Captain Sisko and Garrak attempt to bring the Romulans into the war against the Dominion by faking plans of an invasion. It's, already, morally troubling to an absurd degree. This is equivalent to faking an invasion of Latveria to make sure they join up against the Nazis. Yes, the Nazis have it coming but this is a fight which will lead to the death of many Latverians. Admittedly, Doctor Doom probably wouldn't care but that just goes to show he's a horrible leader.

    Things get worse for Sisko as the plan goes pear-shaped and they end up having to murder a Romulan Senator as well as his pilot (not to mention their forger) in order to make sure the plan goes off without a hitch. In the end, the Romulans enter the Dominion War on the side of the Federation and it gives "our" side some much needed breathing room. Sisko is left with the troubling question of whether he can live with himself. The answer from the episode? Yes, yes he can.

    This book analyzes if he was kidding himself. Sisko returns to Earth and Starfleet Headquarters for a conference on the Dominion War. Both Garak and their new Romulan allies will be present at this occasion. Sisko, determined to thine own self be true, has decided to fess up to his role in the conflict to his superiors. It's a stark contrast to his behavior at the end of the episode and could have made him look week but struck me as an appropriate response to a man trying to bury his guilt. The idea Sisko wants to be punished for not only his murders but the potentially thousands of Romulan deaths he'll cause is a pretty decent one.

    This part of the book is good, very good in fact. Unfortunately, it only compromises about a quarter of the book. Una McCormack, perhaps realizing that there's not much suspense in Captain Sisko's future (we know he and Garak keep their relative positions after all), instead attempts to create a number of subplots to keep the novel going.

    One of these B-stories, a heist of latnium on Deep Space Nine, flat-out didn't interest me. The plot with a former Starfleet intelligence officer turned peace protestor is good but doesn't end in a satisfying manner. I didn't grasp the character's motivations until the end of the book and the tie-in with a certain group of baddies I normally appreciate just didn't work.

    Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Hollow Men is at its best when it's questioning the nature of guilt and what sort of actions we're willing to do in order to achieve victory. Also, the question of whether or not peace with evil enemies is a viable choice of action if it means preserving your way of life. Sisko is confronted with the rather ambiguous answer to, "is it worth it to compromise your principles to achieve victory" with the answer, "if you don't, you will lose, but if you do too often, you will lose too." It's a very true to life answer.

    In conclusion, I think this was an okay book but the subplots simply didn't interest me. The original characters were okay but the novel would have been superior if we'd kept a focus on Garak and Sisko. I suggest you pick it up if you're a fan of the episode but don't expect anything game-changing. The book is too limited by continuity, I'm sorry to say.

6.5/10

    Star Trek: New Frontier is the father of the modern Star Trek Expanded Universe. Much like Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy created the modern Star Wars Expanded Universe, so did Peter David's adventures of Captain Mackenzie Calhoun and the U.S.S Excalibur create the foundations on which all others would follow.

    Star Trek fiction existed before this massive multi-book series, existed in books by the hundreds in-fact, but it was continuity-less and insubstantial as a cloud to the greater universe. I hesitate to use the word licensed fan fiction, because some of it was really good, but that's how Paramount viewed it. Flattering, fun to read, but lacking in consistency and unimportant in the grand scheme of things.

    New Frontier changed that by providing a self-contained universe written entirely by Peter David, carrying the consequences from one story to the next. For over fifteen years, the adventures of Captain Calhoun have entertained fans of Star Trek and created a bedrock to let publishers know fans were willing to follow original characters into the void.

    With the obliteration of planet Vulcan by Nero, the old universe now exists entirely within text (and in Star Trek Online) so the importance of Star Trek fiction can't be understated. So, what better way to celebrate my love of Star Trek fiction than to discuss the Star Trek: New Frontier universe with its first four volumes collected neatly into this omnibus.

    So what do I have to say about this series, now that I've talked it up for about four paragraphs?

    It is very-very silly.

    No, seriously, that's what you should understand before you pick up this volume and read a word of it. Peter David is a comic book writer, one of my favorite if not my favorite, and I mean that in both tenses of the word. The adventures of Captain Calhoun and his wacky crew trump the Original Series in terms of ridiculousness, are often prone to comedy skits, and include a race of Ewok-shaped evil wizards. If the idea of a planet-sized egg for a being not-too-dissimilar to the Phoenix from the X-men comics offends you, this may not be the series for you.

    The strange thing is, New Frontier is still capable of generating drama and pathos despite its occasional verges into utter insanity. I care about the characters of the U.S.S. Excalibur more than I care about a lot of fictional characters. The death of billions during the Star Trek Destiny series affected me less than than the loss of some crew members here. This is definitely a book series where your mileage may vary but I recommend checking them out just in case.

    Now that I've discussed the series as a whole to death, I'll mention the omnibus itself. The premise for New Frontier is brilliance in itself and I've replicated it a dozen times for my tabletop Star Trek games. A big Romulan Empire-sized territory called the Thallonian Empire has collapsed, leaving dozens of star systems anarchic and without leadership.

    The Federation, fearing a humanitarian crisis on an epic scale, sends a lone starship into the chaos to patch things up. It is captained by the second most renegade/rules-ignoring Captain in Starfleet history (the most being Chris Pine's Captain Kirk).

    Captain Mackenzie Calhoun is a former planetary warlord who joined Starfleet after liberating his planet from oppressive alien rule. He's also spent the past six years on undercover assignments for Admiral Nechayev, doing the sorts of things Section 31 would do if it had been invented yet out-of-universe.

    His crew is a similar collection of misfits including straight woman Shelby from "The Best of Both Worlds", Robin Lefler (Wesley's girlfriend played by Ashley Judd), a hermaphrodite alien engineer, one-off TNG character Selar, an exiled alien dictator, and the cast from Peter David's Starfleet Academy books. It's not the sort of cast which immediately excites you but the way they interact is delightful. Assuming, you know, you throw out all sense that Starfleet has any discipline whatsoever.

    The first four books aren't perfect. I'm not too fond of the way that Shelby conducts herself around Calhoun, I think Burgoyne (the hermaphrodite engineer) treats Selar in a manner dangerously close to sexual harassment, and the best moments for our captain are usually when his brother is humiliating him. Despite this, the humor and sense of adventure is nearly beyond compare in the EU. Check them out, I suspect you'll find them well worth it.

9/10

    I've just picked up the Star Trek: Destiny series after putting it off for some time. I've been spoiled to a number of facts regarding the book series and how it ends, which ironically kept me from reading it. I'm a big fan of the Borg and always felt they deserved better than to become stock villains de-fanged by repeated losses. An epic trilogy about the Federation having a full all-out war with them was something I was leery about. There was no way the Borg could be portrayed fairly without removing what few teeth they had remaining.

    At least, that's what I thought.

    In any case, I finally broke down and downloaded the Star Trek: Destiny omnibus for my reading pleasure. Unlike the adventures of Mackenzie Calhoun, I'm going to review the books inside individually as opposed to altogether. There's simply too much story to go around and I think the individual books work better here separately than the first four of New Frontier, that I felt was more an episodic but continuous story.

    Star Trek Destiny: Gods of Night is a book which is deliberately meant to have a relationship to every single era of modern Star Trek. A substantial portion takes place in the Enterprise era while characters from The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager all play a role in the story. Captain James T. Kirk and company are conspicuously absent but they've gotten enough attention I didn't mourn their loss (too much).

    The book is divided into four main sections, three in the "modern period" taking place a short number of years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis and one in the "archaic period" which takes place in the Enterprise-era just before the Romulan War.

    The four sections of the book couldn't be more different and I applaud the author's ability to juggle both styles of storytelling. David Mack's ability to tell a despite struggle against an implacable foe, a personal character drama, a 'ghost story' on an abandoned ship, and a more cerebral science fiction 'first encounter' tale shows his versatility as an author.

    The first part of the book deals with the Borg Invasion, chiefly through the eyes of Captain Jean Luc Picard and the crew of the U.S.S Enterprise. The author allows us to understand the stakes from the very beginning by watching the extermination of a world and its population. The Borg are no longer here to assimilate, they purely want the Federation's destruction.

    This is possibly the only part of the book I'm a little leery of. In Dragon Age, part of what makes the Qunari so scary is 'they waste nothing' and the Borg resorting to destruction rather than murder diminishes them in my mind rather than increases their terrifying power. After all, death is a mercy compared to Assimilation. I suppose it makes the story easier to tell, however, since you'd have to talk about the logistics of assimilating entire worlds. Still, I would have loved to have seen the Borg conquer one world at a time.

    Anyway, Jean Luc Picard isn't dealing well with the fact the Borg are annihilating the Federation and they've only a sent fraction of their forces to start the process. They've only sent sixteen or so cubes to attack the Federation when, as Voyager illustrated, the Collective has millions. Watching Jean Luc Picard have a slow meltdown over the inevitability of the Federation's defeat while wracking his brain for the kind of "rabbit out of a hat" tricks which were never his specialty like Kirk is both moving and tragic.

    The rest of the TNG crew is over on-board the U.S.S. Titan with William Riker and Deanna Troi suffering a relatively mundane problem of infertility. Deanna Troi was, shockingly enough, affected by her magical pregnancy during the show and now can't safely carry a child to term. This is a struggle Gene Roddenberry would have disapproved of but makes the characters a bit more human. I will say it was hard to get quite as worked up about their personal struggle when the Alpha Quadrant is burning, however.

    The final "modern" story deals with Captain Ezri Dax. I'm sorry to say, when DS9 was on, I didn't watch much of the final seasons and missed most of Ezri. What little I saw didn't impress me and I understand she's gone through a lot of character development in the novels. The confident Captain is a far cry removed from the slightly bumbling Girl Friday from the show. She's also a great deal more likable. Her storyline is the crew of the U.S.S Aventine investigating a "haunted" starship lost centuries earlier. While extremely important to the next plot, it seems a poor use of Federation resources when planets are blowing up left and right.

    The final storyline in Star Destiny: Gods of Night is that of Captain Erika Hernandez and the U.S.S Columbia, said 'haunted ship' from modern times. I never got to see the character of Erika Hernandez because I am still in early Season 2 of my Netflixing Enterprise but she seems an intriguing character. Basically, a more level-headed version of Archer who is still new to the mysteries of the universe.

    The period of Enterprise is the perfect one for the kind of story David Mack is telling with her, which is basically an Arthur C. Clarke-esque tale of meeting a civilization above and beyond your wildest dreams of what was possible. The ship, damaged by Romulan attack, encounters a mysterious race called the Caeliar who I assume will tie in with the Borg somehow but (during Enterprise's time) dwarfs them technologically.

    At the risk of spoilers, I'll say that David Mack does a wonderful job with twists in this plot. When there's conflict with Erika Hernandez and her crew about the new aliens, I was sympathetic to both sides. However, I squarely came down on the side of those who wanted to escape the Caeliar's planet at all costs--and against those who disagreed. Seeing how this situation turned out was one of the few times I was genuinely stunned as a reader.

    In conclusion, I am pleased with this introduction to the Borg invasion. The Borg have never been more terrifying than they are in this book, save possibly "Best of Both Worlds", and show they're not used up as villains. Gods of Night ranks with Star Trek: Online for Borg I just want to jump into the media to fight.

    Bravo.

9/10

     My name is Charles Phipps, and I am a Trekkie.

    This is, quite bluntly, the Platonic true form of nerd in many people's minds. My wife, lovely woman that she is, finds Star Trek to be the most embarrassing of my hobbies. She's okay with my being a Star Trek fan but I read the novels, routinely watch the old shows, and would go to the conventions if I had the extra cash.

    The problem is, time marches on. I think this is the most annoying factor to Star Trek fans, and indeed, fandom in general. No one likes to acknowledge they're getting old. However, comic books have been dealing with this fundamental truth for generations. When fans get old(er), set aside "childish things" (or let them become nostalgia), a fandom has to court new(er) audiences to survive.

    Buck Rogers, Tarzan, and Flash Gordon used to be the most famous mulch-generational stories there were. Unfortunately, time had a way of eroding their good will so that all three drifted out of the public consciousness. The Flash Gordon TV series on SyFy illustrated just how badly reboots can go, leaving people with a poor impression of what the franchise is all about, but letting them know it exists.

    Star Trek is in no danger of disappearing, of course. It's as influential as its rival Star Wars and has shaped public consciousness to the point every science fiction program takes something from its setting. Indeed, real-life inventions like the cellphone have been influenced by Trek. However, by the time of Star Trek: Nemesis, most fans were aware the writing was on the wall.

    Star Trek had become irrelevant. Worse, it had become boring.

Poor Tom Hardy. We know you can act now. We're sorry we blamed you.

    Ron Moore created his Battlestar Galactica reboot which, horrible ending aside, never shied away from controversial topics. Social progressiveness has gotten to the point that we have a transgendered character causally introduced on Elementary, when the only homosexuals on Star Trek allowed were evil Mirror Universe counterparts. Which, given they were genetically identical to their alternates, meant half of DS9's cast was bisexual but never bothered to show it.

    A new series was, and is, necessary to tackle the kind of subjects the show was made famous by. I believe Star Trek belongs on the small screen and, ironically, the movies are keeping that from happening. Still, this is a essay to defend the reboot as opposed to oppose it. If nothing else, JJ Abrams material has done something which has rocked my Trekkie heart to its core. Its made Star Trek cool.

    The JJ Abrams reboots have put Star Trek squarely back into the public eye and earned no small amount of good will from the public in general. More than anything, though, they've introduced a whole new generation of individuals to the world created by Gene Roddenberry. While not as successful as, say, Michael Bay's Transformers--it's given Star Trek a badly needed shot in the arm (or hypospray if you will).

The fact he's not doing the Vulcan peace-sign says it all, doesn't it?

    A lot of my fellow fans point out nothing I've mentioned necessitates a complete restart of the series. Why are we in a parallel reality, anyway? Why are we closing the universe on Star Trek universe-1, anyway? The Next Generation continued the universe of the original cast and crew, after a fashion. Ironically, older fans have told me TNG was originally loathed because it wasn't Star Trek: The Original Series Season 4 (or 6 if, if you count the animated series' two seasons). Gradually, though, TNG won over even hardcore fans.

    I'd be remiss, of course, if I didn't mention the caveat we're all thinking: but Charles, TNG was good!

    Okay, you've got me there. I could argue that the first couple of seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation were gloriously bad but they were never boring to my adolescent self. Even when Tasha Yarr was being killed by a sludge monster, I enjoyed it. JJ Abrams, likewise, is never boring but there's not much content. The words 'pure spectacle' come to mind when describing his movies compromised of almost pure action and adventure.

    He's made no secret of his Star Wars influences and man, what sort of Mirror Universe are WE leaving in that the Star Wars movies are about separatism, trade-negotiations, religious dogmatism, and political corruption while Star Trek is all about the "pew pew"? A Mass Effect movie is impossible now because between JJ Abrams Trek and the Total Recall remake, there's no point.

    However, the big anchor weighing down any new fans is continuity. The most successful science fiction reboot in recent memory to both fans of the old and the new is probably Doctor Who. What managed to make that palatable to new audiences? Well, in addition to any number of small changes, they started from the beginning and introduced every element from the beginning.

    Would Star Trek fans be willing to sit through an explanation of what Ferengi, Klingons, Bajorans, Prophets, Organians, Q, Augments, and so on are? Perhaps they might have, but that's partially what the reboot movies are. They're cherry picking from the best of the franchise and letting us remember the good without the bad.

    That's the dark side of this discussion, I think. A lot of fans don't want Star Trek to change and you either evolve or die. As fans, we've suffered through some horrendously bad movies, but Abrams' Trek challenges us with brainless popcorn fair. Nothing says "grumpy fan" than complaining about everyone liking your series. Do I want more from our films? Yes, but I'm content with the pew-pew until something meatier comes along.

    Besides, there's nothing preventing the old series from being appreciated. They're DVD and Netflix, waiting to be experienced again whenever I want. Nothing JJ Abrams will do can take that joy away.

    Live long and prosper folks.

    Mere Mortals is the second in the Star Trek Destiny series. It's also my favorite of the three books, nicely ratcheting up the tension while preparing us for the big finale. The Borg have fully invaded the Federation and things are crumbling down our heroes' heads. I admit, part of my joy from this book comes from the glee of seeing Worf fight a Hirogen in a completely unnecessary but quite amusing side-adventure.

    Digression: I feel terrible for Worf. Worf is a bit like Wolverine in that he's constantly trying to fight the latest monster of the week but he always gets beaten up by it. It's nice to see him actually win but, against the Hirogen, Worf may be outmatched again! Read to find out if I'm right!

    Mere Mortals' premise is that Captain Picard and Ezri Dax have found a series of subspace tunnels which have the potential of shifting the tide of the war. Captain Picard wants them destroyed but the other members of Starfleet are aghast at this discovery's potential destruction.

    It's an interesting moral dilemma. The Borg aren't actually using the subspace tunnels, but they could, and this would make it even easier for them to wipe out humanity. On the other hand, destroying them for a relatively minor strategic advantage is an immense waste. It's a bit like finding a bunch of high-ranking Nazis hanging around in the Sphinx.

    This dilemma is contrasted against Captain Riker and Deanna Troi's situation. Due to their investigations, they've become prisoners of the Caeliar just as the crew of the Columbia became two centuries ago. Despite the advances the Federation has made, they might as well be guests of Q for how powerful the Caeliar are.

    Worse, due to the events of the previous book, there's no chance of persuading them to leave. Ultimately, the choice Riker has to make is agonizing but reminds me of "Best of Both Worlds", illustrating exactly why Number One has it in him to sit in the Captain's chair.

    I will say the continuing pregnancy plot of Deanna Troi annoys me. Her refusal to terminate her pregnancy despite the potential to kill her and unsustainable nature of the fetus seems like bad medical advice. In Star Trek, of course, miracles are possible but this is a bit like a Star Trek character refusing to do surgery on a child because he's sure space magic will cure him.

    My favorite part of the book, though, is watching Captain Erika Hernandez cope with being a prisoner of the Caeliar for the rest of her natural life. The book shows the agony of the Columbia's surviving crew as they are forced to watch months turn into years turn into decades as any hope of escape is ground down.

    Erika Hernandez is a complicated character as she's able to bond with the Caeliar in a way her crew can't and this occasionally makes her an unsympathetic character. Erika Hernandez might have decided to stay with the Caeliar of her own free will but the others hate them for holding them indefinitely, despite there being no malice. Erika, herself, starts to comprehend this only after her crew begins dying off. Watching her rediscover her humanity at the end was genuinely heartwarming. At the end of the day, she's a human not a Caeliar.

     Speaking of the Caeliar, I like how this book expands on their perspective a bit. They're a deeply flawed race. Whereas other science fiction authors might portray them as perfect or hopefully flawed, their xenophobia and arrogance are nicely balanced against their more positive qualities. They're an obsessive, almost machine-like, race whose desire for perfection doesn't make them bad but unlikeable. We never get the impression they're not worthy of life, but we do acknowledge they're not saints or as smart as they think they are.

    Another part of the book I absolutely adored was watching President Bacco attempting to find a diplomatic solution to all of the Alpha and Beta Quadrant's disparate problems so they can face the Borg together. In this, President Bacco remains blameless but you'd think she'd murdered the Tholian hatchery worlds by the way some of the "enemy races" react to her actions. While Star Trek is a poor place for moral ambiguity, I do find the consequences of these actions rather peculiar in the face of the Borg invasion.

    The grand finale of the book nicely sets things up for the series' conclusion. Everything seems lost and there is only the barest hints that things will turn out for the better. Of course, we the audience know they're not going to destroy the Federation and replace it with a Borg-run universe but the NJO warped everything decent about Star Wars so you never know.

    In conclusion, I'll say I'm anxious to see how things turn out. Bravo!

10/10

Note: This review goes into a VERY long digression on ethics in science fiction.

    The planet-shattering, literally, conclusion to the Star Trek Destiny story arc. The Borg have finally brought the entirety of their military assets to the Alpha Quadrant and are exterminating the whole of the Federation. Faced with oblivion on all sides and an Andromeda-esque ending as the best seeming outcome, our heroes must figure out a way to guarantee civilization's survival. Part of what has made Star Trek Destiny so appealing is its avoidance of the usual Star Trek-esque deus ex machina that characterized the series--can it keep it up?

    For the most part, yes.

    What prevents this from being a deus ex machina is the ending is entirely consist with the themes of Star Trek, carefully laid out, and worked for by our heroes from beginning to end. Furthermore, it has an ending which nicely wraps up the "Paradox of the Borg." The Paradox of the Borg is something that my fellow Trekkies and I discussed long and hard over Doritos, once. Basically, the Borg are innately anti-Trek in their theme.

    If you believe the Borg are based on Doctor Who's Cybermen, you might actually believe this is by design. Doctor Who frequently has its protagonist run into purely-evil aliens. These aliens serve as personifications of Nazism, communism, and various other political ideologies so the idea of obliterating them is not quite so disgusting as it might be were they Klingons.

    Even so, the show has the Doctor debate over these acts of xenocide as they challenge his brain that mass murder of an entire species could ever be justified. It's a brain teaser more than an ethical question, undermining arguments for genocide by showing the ridiculous lengths you'd have to go to in order to justify it in RL. Unfortunately, this bit of satire is frequently lost on fans who just think it's a justification of genocide (even if only in a fantasy environment). Warhammer 40K is less subtle about its satire but equally mishandled by its fans.

    The Paradox of the Borg is that in a series that is about finding the value in differences, there is a species with no value. The Borg exist only through enslaving others and destroy all that is different about people. They are the ghostly specter of the Other brought back to life and the only rational response to them is hatred. Hatred for what they stand for, hatred for what they represent. In a series about understanding, compromise, and peace--there can be none with the Borg.

    Which, when you think about them, makes them crap villains since they undermine the series' entire theme. If forgiveness and love is not an option, Star Trek's Federation is painfully naive and wrong about the universe. Yes, the Feddies can make peace with Klingons and Xindi but THOSE guys? Yeah, not happening.

    I think Star Trek's writers must have realized this on a subconscious level because the best episodes of the Borg are actually about trying to find the good in them. "Hugh", "Unity", and Seven of Nine's entire arc are about finding ways the Borg might peacefully co-exist with the Federation. I love Star Trek: First Contact but but the Borg are zombies and exist to be shot at with a Tommy gun.

    Star Trek Destiny: Lost Souls is about solving the riddle of how to live with the Borg without violating every ethical principle you hold dear. If you destroy the Borg, you're murdering trillions and justifying xenocide. If you leave the Borg alone, you're sanctioning the slavery of trillions. They're a race which exists on the violation of the soul and are seemingly impossible to reconcile with the Federation's values.

    There's a bunch of stuff I could address in this book about Erika Hernandez's role, Captain Picard's breakdown, and Geordi LaForge making a principled stand in the face of genocide. I don't always agree with the characters, Geordi's refusal to build a super weapon based on Data's sacrifice to stop a similar one sounds good, but to refuse to do so even to save countless lives--it borders on sophistry. I had similar problems with Insurrection as a fairly typical, 'stop people taking the locals' stuff' story becomes problematic when the 'stuff' in question is medical supplies.

    I'm a fan of ethical dilemmas in my science fiction. "In the Pale Moonlight" has Sisko not only murder two people to bring the Romulans into the Dominion War on the Federation side, it also has him directly responsible for the thousands of Romulans who will likely die as a result of his actions.

    Section 31 using a biological WMD on the Founders has been argued at my table many a time between my fellow fans--asking whether the Founders are a legitimate military target if their entire race is a gestalt. However, any fantasy fiction which justifies genocide has gone down a very slippery slope. In RL, George W. Bush used 24's contrived, "what if there's a nuclear bomb that needs to be stopped" to justify torture.

    The book's heart is a reaffirmation of the Federation's values of tolerance, respect, and understanding in the face of an absolutely unthinkable situation. Maybe it ended on a 'space magic note' but the circumstances which precipitated it were ones as contrived as the resolution. In real life, there is no such thing as purely evil human beings. There are people who choose to be evil or who are damaged, broken, or insane. We can only meet these people with compassion, refusal to submit, courage, and even forgiveness (if so warranted). I may not like the final choice of the book's central protagonist but the rest of it is a breath of fresh air in a world of very dark science-fiction.

10/10

    Star Trek: A Singular Destiny is the epilogue of the Star Trek Destiny saga. With over sixty billion sapients killed, entire worlds lit on fire, and half of Starfleet looking like Wolf 359--it's been a profoundly crap week for the Federation. Taking a novel to deal with the consequences of this immense devastation, the reactions to it, and the changes in the political landscape is an excellent move by the writers.

    The best part of the novel is, in my humble opinion, the stories of people reacting to the Borg invasion. One chapter consists entirely of listing casualties from the battles against the Borg. Another is a suicide note about a man who left his family to go to a pleasure planet only to have them die along with his entire world. Another still is the story of a Starfleet officer murdering a bunch of ex-Borg. These add context to the immense emotional toll exacted by the Borg upon Starfleet.

    A Singular Destiny has a number of plots coming together but they appear to, initially, be separate. How they all connect turned out to be genuinely a surprise and I applaud Keith R.A. DeCandido for managing to come up with a way to reveal the big twist without telegraphing it. I won't spoil the twist but the changes it results in are ones I am eager to explore.

    My favorite part of the book probably relates to the examination of the Romulan Civil War's aftermath. In real life, too often, the consequences of armed conflict are overlooked. People think of the death toll in purely military terms without thinking about the resulting casualties from famine or disease. It's interesting to see how the Romulan State splitting in two affects things, resulting in an almost a North Korea-like situation for one. Sadly, said state is doomed as its heart will be annihilated within a few in-universe years thanks to JJ Abrams.

    A character I particularly enjoyed was the teacher/ambassador, Sonek Pran. While this character seems to have been set up to be deliberately "quirky" (he plays the banjo amongst other things) he actually serves as a nice embodiment of the Federation's values. A multi-species academic and peace-maker who is loathe to use violence--he's wonderfully evocative of what the UFP wants to be. While I think he persuades certain characters a little too easily of what he wants them to do, it's nice to see diplomacy (as opposed to phasers) work for a change.

    Another element I enjoyed was the Kinshaya and their war against the Klingon Empire. This is where I'm going to turn off a lot of my readers by saying I love the Klingons but I prefer them as villains. Don't misunderstand, The Undiscovered Country was awesome, but they're a vicious gang of killers who get too often romanticized. The Kinshaya, a race of griffon-like religious theocrats, had my full support when they went to war with the Klingon Empire during this book. They seem entirely in the right given what we know of Klingon conquest policies.

     Oddly, the part of the book which moved me the most was one Star Trek rarely touches on: a tribute to religion. Using the Bajorans, who exist so Star Trek can deal with issues of religion without touching on Gene Roddenberry's vision too much, it takes about how people of faith and those without it both come together in the aftermath of crises seeking answers. As a person of faith, it left me feeling touched. People are free to believe as they want but its important to note everyone is seeking comfort and we shouldn't lose hope for a better world.

    Am I entirely satisfied with the way this book works out? Not quite. I would have liked to have seen more of the political fallout from the Borg invasion. Hearing about survivors having to deal with the loss of their homes and planets would have been potentially traumatizing but I suspect the author was up to the challenge. Likewise, I would have liked to have known about how people felt about the revelation the Borg were partially the creation of humanity.

     In conclusion, I'm really impressed by this book and think it's an excellent wrap-up for Destiny while also a great jumping-on point for the post-Destiny Star Trek EU. I applaud the author's work and hope to see more from him in the future.

9/10

    I am a great fan of Christopher L. Bennett's work. He's one of those rare authors who attempts to take Trek technobabble seriously, which seems a bit like trying to roll Sisyphus' boulder, yet somehow manages to make things make semi-coherent sense. His Department of Temporal Investigations books incorporate a lot of RL physics to make Star Trek's "time travel runs on the power of plot" almost plausible.

    Over A Torrent Sea is the first Star Trek Titan book to take place after the events of Star Trek: Destiny. Despite this, the events of the Destiny series are almost incidental to the book. They're not ignored, Captain Riker wonders why they're not rebuilding the myriad devastated worlds left behind, but the book gives an understandable reason for our heroes returning to their mission of exploration.

    Actually, let me take that back, the events of Destiny are very important to the plot but reflects on the more personal losses of the crew as opposed to the widespread destruction the Borg inflicted. Members of the crew aren't thinking about the annihilation of Risa but people they knew who were killed, such as Tuvok's son or a family pet.

    This is an interesting way of handling things and perhaps more realistic than leaving the entire crew with a case of PTSD. Star Trek: Titan is about exploration and having only one or two crew members broken up by events seems like a superior way of handling things than changing what the books are about.

    My favorite reaction from the crew is the aforementioned trouble Tuvok has with his son's death. His son chose to sacrifice his life to save others, which Tuvok is angry about. No matter how logical the needs of the many are over the needs of the few, a father knows his son chose to die. It's a powerful personal story and one which is handled with both dignity and respect. I also liked Christopher Bennett's handling of Tuvok's wife and would have enjoyed hearing more of her opinions on the subject.

    There's also fallout from Troi's pregnancy, which was my least favorite plot from Destiny. I felt her behavior during the trilogy was irrational and unprofessional. Unfortunately, this behavior becomes an actual threat to the crew's stability in this book. For a book series which is more 'realistic' than standard Trek, well semi-more realistic, the fact Troi wasn't packed up and sent home for her effect (however unintentional) on the crew stretched credibility. Still, the adventure which resulted was hilarious.

    The main part of the book is another first contact situation where Riker and the crew of the U.S.S Titan encounter a race of Pre-Warp but extremely advanced in biological sciences aliens. This nicely deconstructs one of the elements of the Prime Directive which has never made much sense to me. Why is Warp-Travel the definitive "be end all" of civilization? The Ferengi were sold warp travel when they were primitives while another Pre-Warp civilization might be enlightened pacifists. It's an interesting question that relates directly to Riker's decision to pretty much throw the Prime Directive to the wind this book.

    Over A Torrent Sea has a definite "old time" science fiction feel to it. Part of what has made Star Trek: Titan so interesting is the series has focused on developing new and unique cultures for our heroes to interact with. Care and attention is taken to develop the alien's culture, technology, as well as how they interact with their biosphere. Nods are even made to how their world may have evolved. The science is unlikely, but it doesn't mean it's impossible.

    I will say, I'm of mixed feelings that the crisis inside the book is as much the fault of the U.S.S Titan as nature. While I suspect the author intended it to illustrate why the Prime Directive is important, i.e. don't go blundering into situations you don't fully understand, I prefer to see our heroes as positive forces rather than negative ones. Even if it's more realistic they'll make mistakes, potentially endangering an entire species is one which hurt my enjoyment of the book.

    If I had to say what my favorite part of the book was, I'd definitely say it was developing the character of Aili Lavena as well as the developing relationship between Xin and Melora. The fact I've come to care as much about these 'lower decks' characters as the main cast, says a great deal about how effective the U.S.S Titan series has been in developing them.

    Aili's story is about coming to terms with the fact she's a terrible parent, something which is an all-too-human frailty, while a great scientist. You don't usually see that sort of dichotomy and the fact she can't reconcile with her children is a nice way of showing things aren't always repairable. I also liked the contrast between Riker and Aili's attitudes towards sexuality. Riker has always been a gigantic horndog but he's in a committed monogamous relationship and finds Aili's disregard of that (as well as her family) disgusting.

    Xin and Melora's relationship is surprising because it's one of the few fictional ones I actually have no idea how will end. Will they end up together? Will they break up? What will happen? Privately, I'm of the mind Aili was right and these two are no good for one another but I'll be interested in seeing how future authors handle it.

    In conclusion, Over A Torrent Sea is a great book. It's a story about meeting new life and new civilizations while boldly going where no man has gone before. The fact there's no villains and the problems are purely natural in nature makes Roddenberry's vision stand out all the greater. Was it perfect? No, I had some problems with a few elements and it dragged in one or two places but I overall loved it.

8/10

*warning - long-winded review ahead*

    Star Trek: Typhon Pact: Zero Sum Game is a spy novel.

    A very unusual spy novel.

    The premise is something which, adjusted to an Earth setting, could be the basis of a James Bond movie. The Typhon Pact (Soviets) have stolen the secrets of the Slipstream Drive (submarine plans) and are assembling their own prototype in a secret shipyards (unchanged). Julian Bashir (Bond) is recruited by Starfleet Intelligence (SIS/MI6) to sabotage this project.

    Furthermore, because the Typhon Pact killed Federation citizens in their theft, Bashir (Bond) has carte blanche to use lethal force in the process. Bashir is even allied with a beautiful female agent for the duration of his mission. About the only thing which doesn't happen during this mission is Bashir sleeping with the beautiful silver-haired dissident.

    One of the early misapprehensions of the Typhon Pact was that it was going to be the Legion of Doom or a kind of Reagan-era view of the Soviet Union. The Tholians, Tzenkethi, and Breen have been portrayed as nearly universally evil while the Gorn and Romulans have had some pretty solid roles as Federation antagonists. Given Star Trek Online's transformation of the Klingon Empire into an Axis of Evil (including the Orions, Nausicans, and Gorn), you will forgive me if I assumed there would be some nod towards this. Can you do write about an alliance of totalitarian dictatorships, murderers, and terrorists without making them villains?

    Yes, yes you can. Because, that's where things get interesting. David Mack takes the stereotypical "us vs. them" spy story with all its moral certainties about its immoral activities necessity and turns them on their head. Star Trek has played around this before using Section 31 but, arguably, failed since so many fans embraced the evil organization as antiheroes as opposed to well-realized villains. Zero Sum Game, by contrast, takes a seemingly binary situation to illustrate why the Federation way is better.

    Zero Sum Game is an interesting story about humanizing, for lack of a better term, the alien races gathered together in opposition to the Federation. What I liked about the book is it managed to keep the fact the Breen and Romulan governments are lead by vile people whose ideal world includes a boot on the face of humanity forever but more or less rebuttals a lot of the inherent xenophobia in spy fiction.

    The Breen are a federation, themselves, consisting of many races formed together into a single body. Unlike the Federation, however, they enforce a mono-culture which attempts to stamp out diversity and dissent. They could have very easily been cast a communist parable but are, instead, depicted as the most capitalist group outside of the Ferengi.

    The thing is, the Breen aren't a singular entity. We get a nice look at Breen civilians and they're more or less identical to the ones you'd find anywhere on Earth. The most powerful moment in the book for me is, unexpectedly, a scene where Bashir just sits down and listens to the Breen wandering around a marketplace. They talk about their jobs, kids, supervisors, and spouses. It's a powerful moment, reinforcing what Star Trek is all about.

    Given I'd been thinking of the Breen as walking experience points from my time fighting them in Star Trek: Online, I was momentarily ashamed. Of course, even Star Trek: Online had a Breen officer disgusted by the actions of his crewmates. So, really, my treating them as walking experience points was my failure rather than the games' own.

    Meeting Breen dissidents who don't want to necessarily overthrow their governments but, simply, want more freedom was another way of showing the Star Trek Novelverse's races aren't necessarily like Dungeons and Dragons species. There's no such thing as, "Always Chaotic Evil."

    The Typhon Pact is everything I wanted out of the series when I heard it was first announced. A rip-roaring Cold War adventure between a twisted country which hates freedom, a heroic nation which loves it, dashing super spies, and a narrative which rips to shreds the binary dualism that usually underlines such stories.

    The Breen and Romulan governments may be evil but their citizens are not, leading to the serious question as to who war would benefit should the Typhon Pact go to war with the Federation. The answer? Absolutely no one. Zero Sum Game is a ruthless deconstruction of the spy genre while remaining entirely a part of it. The best approximation I can think of is The Prisoner, by Patrick McGoohan, who wrote one of the seminal works of espionage by taking an utter **** on the Cold War's values. By recognizing the fundamental value of "our" enemies, we may defeat them more conclusively than through force.

    This is one of the reasons David Mack remains my favorite Star Trek author alongside Christopher Bennett. While I don't always agree with their decisions in their books, I believe they have a strong grasp on at least one element of Star Trek that makes their books resonate with me. In David Mack's case, he manages to insert the fact peace and understanding are the forefront of all of the Federation's conflicts as a desired goal. This is not the case in Babylon Five, Star Wars, or other rival franchises. Victory is. Trek has peace being more desirable than victory, even if it means not getting everything you wanted.

    Julian Bashir's characterization in this book is great and I would love to see David Mack do further spycraft adventures with him. I, honestly, prefer Secret Agent Julian Bashir over Doctor Julian Bashir. Still, both sides are always in play during this book. Seeing the conflict inside him over the necessity of killing is great and we get "necessary casualties" examined when the aftermath of his actions are examined by a Breen engineer.

    Captain Ezri Dax was kind of underwhelming in this book because I am more invested in her relationship with Julian Bashir than her role as a badass starship Captain. She's become the Kirk-lite of the post-Destiny world and that's great for her but awesome starship tactics as well as radical plans just didn't really move me here. I suppose it's because I was one of Ezri's fans when DS9 was on the air and would have preferred more attention paid to the vulnerable side of her Julian brought out.

    Another character from DS9 makes a surprise return this book, surprising me as a reader. I won't spoil their identity but their role in this story makes an excellent contrast to Julian. This character attempts to portray the "ends justify the means" spy role "straight" while Julian subverts it at every turn. The book was so effective at this characterization, a latter revelation made perfect sense.

    I'm not sure if the Novelverse will use the ending of the book to its full effect but if they back off from it, I'll be disappointed. Thematically, David Mack has created Julian's ultimate nemesis who I would love to see him face in life-and-death struggle. This may be a contrast to my earlier praise of peace and understanding, but just because Captain Kirk made peace with the Gorn doesn't mean I don't like seeing him blow the reptile Captain up.

     In conclusion, kudos to David Mack for creating this novel and his role in developing the Typhon Pact. You should definitely read this novel.

9.5/10

    Star Trek: New Frontier had a bit of growing pains to go through with the first four books. While there were moments of great comedy and great adventure, they were interspersed with unprofessional behavior amongst the crew and inappropriate silliness. New Frontier's fifth installment hammers out some of these problems and makes a more "realistic" (for whatever value that word has in a setting with Apollo running around and logical elves) take on the characters.

    The premise of this novel is Captain Mackenzie Calhoun is summoned to the planet Zondar by the locals due to their startling claim he's their planetary messiah. Mackenzie is flattered by this proposal and believes he can use it to bring an end to their centuries-long civil war. Meanwhile, the authoritarian religion known as the Redeemers are dealing with the after effects of Thallonia's destruction.

    Part of why I enjoyed Martyr so much is the novel takes the time to walk you through the the setting's craziness as well as address the lunacy of the last four novels. Admiral Jellico doesn't believe a word of Mac's logs regarding the "Great Bird of the Galaxy", for instance, and it requires Shelby citing Kirk's memorable encounters with the unreal to convince him to lay off. Everyone has time to reflect on the previous craziness and that makes the future insanity all the more effective.

    This book nicely illustrates a lot of Mackenzie Calhoun's flaws, showing how easily he's taken in by the prospect of being a planetary messiah as well as his belief in brute force over subtler solutions. The arrogance of the boy-warlord turned starship captain is shown as a weakness rather than a strength as is his refusal to compromise on anything.

    It's a challenge which reminds me of Captain Kirk's own in Star Trek: The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan. Seeing him forced to confront problems on an intellectual level rather than through brute force was deeply satisfying. By the end of Martyr, I felt Captain Calhoun was actually worthy of being a starship captain than "Conan in Space."

    The character of Elizabeth Shelby also grows. Whereas she was originally a somewhat contrary commander for contrary's sake, her objections are much more reasonable in this book. Still, there are times she comes off as more jealous than introspective, which doesn't suit her character. The whole plot of unrequited feelings between both her and Captain Calhoun just doesn't work for me.

    Likewise, the ongoing relationship between Burgoyne 172 and Selar the Vulcan doesn't improve. Burgoyne 172 comes off more as a stalker than a romantic suitor, ignoring Selar's continued requests for he/she to leave. It becomes especially annoying when Selar goes into Pon Farr, which makes the entire thing just creepy. While I can accept Burgoyne is genuinely in-love with Selar, it just reminds me of too many RL situations where someone won't take a hint.

    The Redeemers are bad guys I can either take or leave. While I love cruel and evil Star Trek races as much as the next guy, the Redeemers see-saw between ridiculous and nightmarish. They're capable of decimating whole worlds with plagues but their religion is almost parody-like, designed to do evil because their god is too good to emanulate.

    Overall, I really liked Martyr and think it's a nice set up for a 'serious' Star Trek: New Frontier series. Its flawed but these flaws don't hurt my enjoyment of the work overall.

8/10

    Does an android have a soul?

    This question was asked on February 13, 1989 when "The Measure of a Man" premiered on Fox, Channel 11 as watched my yours truly at the tender age of nine. The question is an easy enough one to answer when the robots are indistinguishable from humans, less so when they're more machine-like. If there is a God and he is good, I wouldn't imagine him to deny such a thing to intelligent machines just because they were made by his children than him. However, Star Trek is inherently agnostic because it reflects our world and the question of God is as up in the air today as it will undoubtedly be in the 24th century (and has been since time memorial).

    The question of whether Data has a soul is actually a question of whether he has value as a person but, there's a hitch, machines can be repaired where humans can't. If you erase a computer program, you can reboot it if you have the data saved. If you were able to copy a person's memories and upload them to a new body, you would be able to have an exact replica of that person. It wouldn't be that person in literal terms, but it would be indistinguishable.

    Or would it?

    Lieutenant Commander Data was killed in Star Trek: Nemesis, sacrificing his life to destroy Shinzon's Thalaron super-weapon. His body was killed and, presumably, his soul went on to whatever afterlife (or lack thereof) which awaits us all. However, Data backed up his memories before he died. What are the ethics of using this Data to clone Data or reincarnate him in a new body?

    In Star Trek Online: The Needs of the Many, B4 chose to voluntarily sacrifice his life to resurrect Data. In Star Trek Countdown, B4 was killed by accidentally uploading Data into his brain. In my tabletop RPG, I had Geordi upload Data into a holographic matrix. Plenty of Star Trek fans have thought of raising Data from the dead using his backups without really questioning whether this is Data or if it reflected his wishes.

    To help you understand the ethics if they're elusive to you, how would you feel if (after your death) your friends or family commissioned someone to create an exact copy of you.

    The Persistence of Memory examines the question in a surprisingly easy and light manner. An android duplicate of Doctor Noonien Soong, creator of Data and other androids, intends to recreate his deceased son. Doctor Noonien Soong is a figure who believes, perhaps erroneously, he's a transfer of his consciousness rather than just a mental clone in a android's body. For him, the question of whether or not Data is dead is largely irrelevant. For others, they don't want to examine the question, merely have their lost friend back.

    Much of the book deals with the life, history, and doings of Doctor Soong. The books take on him is somewhat darker than I expected. I've always viewed Doctor Soong as a harmless eccentric, more Doc Brown than Sivana, possessed of overwhelming arrogance as well as callous disregard for other people's feelings. An example of his almost Howard Hughes-like antics includes building an entirely automated casino on Orion.

    Doctor Soong's misanthropy never approaches the level where he's a villain but David Mack illustrates Doctor Soong's flaws run deep as well as wide. Watching his newly immortal android self waste his life accumulating wealth and influence in order to rival an equally immortal associate (TOS Episode "Requiem for Methuselah" character Flint) is sad, especially when we discover someone Doctor Soong cares about more than anyone has gone over to join his side.

    The book lacks a confrontation between these figures and I feel kind of bad about this. I really wanted Doctor Soong to show why he was a better inventor than his rival, a better husband, and a better father. Unfortunately, the book prefers to leave Flint in his position as unchallenged master of robotics, which saddens me. Of course, given the book's ending, a form of this confrontation may yet take place.

    While the book primarily deals with the immortal Soong android's doings as well as his plot to restore Data, the crew of the Enterprise-E plays a central role. Sadly, this book kills one of my favorite novel-only characters in a manner I felt diminished her character. I'm aware authors have more freedom to kill non-television characters but that doesn't mean it should be done. It seemed a terrible waste to destroy such a promising character to illustrate our heroes' danger.

    I won't spoil whether or not Doctor Soong succeeds in his quest to resurrect Data. There's been a lot of controversy over whether or not the book would do it. Personally, I think that ship has sailed. Not only was Spock returned from the dead and many excellent stories done with him thereafter but there have been quite a personal character studies done about death (VOY's "Mortal Coil", "Barge of the Dead", and "Coda" for example). A good story is a good story whether or not it involves resurrection. A hack story is a hack story whether it returns a well-loved character or not.

    This is not a hack story.

8/10

    Stacia Kane's Downside Ghosts series is an Urban Fantasy series with a surprising amount of edge. Unlike many of its sibling series, the novels are not just focused on the romance element. Instead, its primary focus is the dark hard-edged world our heroine lives in and her struggles to maintain her sanity against a bleak world without hope.

    The premise of the Downside Ghosts universe is that, roughly fifteen years ago, the Underworld cracked open and plunged the Earth into a ghost-filled apocalypse. The result of this was the death of a third of mankind followed by the rise of a totalitarian one-world dictatorship called the Church of Real Truth. The Church promptly banned all worship of gods, created its own secret police, and ruthlessly purged all of its enemies. It is a stark world, immediately drawing you in with the sense of this is not right about the place.

    Our heroine, Chess, is one of the Church's ghost hunters. She's a drug addict, abuse victim, and deeply damaged individual. Despite this, she proves an effective heroine as she loyally serves the Church yet is keenly aware her world is not right. It's an interesting display of moral ambiguity to have the heroine loyal to people who are utterly corrupt yet have had a positive influence on her life.

    The book opens with Chess discovering her drug dealer, the vulgar yet hilarious Bump, has decided to leverage her considerable tab into a private service for him. Apparently, the airstrip Bump uses is haunted and needs Chess to exorcise it. To make sure she lives up to her end of the bargain, he sends along his mountain-like associate Terrible.

    Part of what I like about Unholy Ghosts is how relentlessly cynical the book is combined with the awareness this is not how people should live. Chess has no interest in improving the world, she merely wants to carry out her duties as a Church Witch, yet there is an unconscious sense things are not as they should be. The Church guarantees an afterlife for all its worshipers yet life after death is dismal and dull. Arguably, hell would be better than an eternity empty of feeling.

    I also appreciated how unsentimental Chess is. Unlike most Paranormal Romance heroines, she is no particular mood to begin a romance. She's sexually active but emotionally closed off with no desire to change this state. For an emotionally repressed addict, she's content with who she is. I've read the adventures of a lot of so-called antiheroes over the years and it's nice to see one with actual flaws.

     The character of Terrible, by contrast, is the emotional core of the book. A terrifying figure of power and danger, he turns out to be one of the most moral individuals in the setting. Whereas Chess is dark and troubled, Terrible is a killer with a heart. It's a nice contrast to what you'd expect that the government mercenary is the amoral mercenary while the drug dealer's enforcer is the conscience.

    A supporting character I'm very fond of is Lex, who is a stark contrast to sociopath Bump. Part of the humor of the series is the drug dealers are the most animated characters in the setting. In a world where the dead walk, those who deal chemicals seem to be the only people getting on with their lives. The Chinese gangster, Lex, seems at once more intelligent as well as charismatic than half of the Church put together.

    The world, itself, reminds me of the World of Darkness game line Wraith: The Oblivion. In W:TO, the dead are forced into a massive other-dimensional city called Stygia where life is a pale reflection of the mortal world. Downside Ghosts has a lot of similarities to it, especially in how the Hierarchy functions as compared to the Church of Real Truth. Fans of that long-canceled game line would enjoy this book and its heroine.

    If I had any real complaints about Unholy Ghosts, it's how the setting doesn't take as much time developing its secondary characters as it does its heroine. We get Chess' drug dealers, Chess herself, Terrible, and a handful of others. The world would have felt more vibrant, more alive, if we'd gotten a sense of how other people were dealing with the Post-Apocalyptic Earth.

    Best moment of the book? The fact Unholy Ghosts uses Tobin's Spirit Guide from the Ghostbusters franchise as a real-world document.

8/10

    The Romulans have a saying, "Never turn your back on a Breen."

    Silent Weapons is the sequel to not only the The Persistence of Memory but the Typhon Pact series. David Mack is exceptionally good at spy fiction and this book is one of the better examples of it in the Star Trek setting.

    The premise is Data is pursuing the mysterious Flint, the universe's greatest cyberneticist, in hopes of resurrecting his daughter Lal. Along the way, he ends up on Orion and finds himself accused of murder. Simultaneously, the hostile Breen race is once more threatening the Federation and it's up to the crew of the U.S.S Enterprise-E to resolve things. The plot twists and turns throughout the novel and it's not until the end you have a complete idea of what the heck is going on.

    Data (or Data 2.0 as I call him), is both the same character and different. He's a great deal craftier, more secretive, and more obsessive. Having been restored from the dead and merged with his father, Noonien Soong, he has developed numerous emotional quirks which separate him from his TNG self. It's a brilliant bit of character building to be able to illustrate him as both Data as well as Noonien. Data doesn't think of himself as Noonien but he's far more scoundrel-like than he's ever been before.

    I'm glad David Mack has chosen not to have Data return to the U.S.S Enterprise and am pleased to be able to enjoy him as a solo adventurer. Something which bothers me about many Expanded Universes is they rarely are willing to go "outside the box." While some would be happy to see Captain Picard commanding the Enterprise well into his 200s, I'm interested in watching characters grow and evolve.

    Part of what makes this book so enjoyable is the politics of the Alpha Quadrant are seamlessly integrated into the novel's narrative. The Federation wants to lure the Gorn into an alliance, the Breen want to become leaders of the Typhon Pact, and the Gorn want to impress their new allies while not annoying the Federation too much. You wouldn't think a conference about the political future of an alien race would be all that interesting but these are some of my favorite sections of the book.

    I've always been a big fan of the Gorn race so seeing them have a bigger role is excellent. Their leader is an especial hoot, caught between a rock and a hard place thanks to having some of the worst allies any species could have in science-fiction. The Gorn might be better off in the Federation but they've allied with the Typhon Pact and removing themselves would prove... problematic.

    The Breen, by contrast, are very much how I envisioned the Romulans. When I was first introduced to them by TNG I imagined a race of constant backstabbing as well as secret police officers monitoring everything. I also saw them being the ultimate schemers in Star Trek with plots within plots. The Breen show that the Romulans can be one-upped with this as they have plans within plans within plans.

    David Mack nicely avoids the "David Xanatos" problem by having these plans not always work out in their favor. Arguably, in fact, they forfeit numerous advantages in both time and resources in order to succeed in their main goal. Also, the Breen are probably more trouble than their worth in the Typhon Pact.

    They betray the Gorn, Tholians, and themselves over the course of the novel. It makes me wonder if the Breen leadership has any redeeming qualities or if they're just a collection of complete [insert Klingon profanity]. Given David Mack is the spiritual "father" of the Breen, it'd be interesting to ask what exactly the public sees in their scheming leadership.

    President Bacco plays a central role in this book and it's fascinating to watch her be out of her depth for once. As great a leader as she is, she's not used to people dealing in bad faith or the complex chain of betrayals the Breen are comfortable with. While she acquits herself well, it's nice to see she can be outsmarted. I was also touched by a eulogy she gave one of her close friends after the main plot of the book is resolved.

    The rest of the characters work fine but I will say the most interesting plot of the Enterprise-E crew was definitely an unusual one: a fight between Doctor Crusher and Captain Picard over the fact the latter would put her life over the President's. Also, the question of his decidedly less than usual enthusiasm for Starfleet.

    I won't share the circumstances of how this comes up but it's the kind of argument which would only come up in Gene Roddenberry's utopia. It's also appropriate given Captain Picard sacrificed the life of her previous husband on a mission. I like to think David Mack was thinking of Jack Crusher whenever Mrs. Picard was giving her husband the business. If you fall in love with someone, some of the worst arguments can emerge from not knowing who they are really.

    I like David Mack's Post-Destiny Captain Picard. While I wouldn't go so far as to say Picard has PTSD, which he certainly did after becoming Locutus, I'm going to say that he's a figure whose clock is running down. The Borg stole away much of Captain Picard's love for space and forced him into becoming a warrior.

    While we don't get much insight into what the Captain was doing during the Dominion War, the events of Destiny have clearly left their mark. He still loves being a Captain but I think he's capable of making the transition to Admiral or retirement Kirk couldn't. Which is a good thing as it separates those two characters more.

    Silent Weapons is less of an emotional journey than The Persistence of Memory but my love of spy fiction biases me to liking it more.

9/10

   Star Trek wasn't dead, but was on life-support after Star Trek: Nemesis. This isn't because Nemesis was bad, I don't think it was as bad as Insurrection, but because it was plain that everyone in charge had run out of ideas.

    Both Voyager and Enterprise exhausted what I feel was the wellspring of, "doing it like we've done before" with a healthy dose of the audience being too jaded to appreciate what they were doing. Star Trek lived on in novels, comics, and an MMORPG but its absence from both types of screens was keenly felt.

    The real question needing to be asked was simple: why is Star Trek fun? Followed by: how do we bring that fun back? There was a third question too: What made Star Trek great? Sadly, the third question was ignored.

The movie has some truly breathtaking visuals. This scene just sends tingles down my spine.

Still, as Meatloaf would say, two out of three ain't bad. Star Trek (2009) is a movie which is tremendously fun but doesn't reach the heights of greatness Gene Roddenberry aspired to. Indeed, it doesn't even try. It's a movie whose ambition is limited to being a fun popcorn movie and is more or less a complete retread of the Wrath of Khan. Nevertheless, unlike Nemesis, it actually understands vengeance so it's not a bad remake of TWOK.

The updating of the Original Series aesthetics to modern production values is a beautiful display of special effects wizardry.

    For those unfamiliar with Trek canon, TWOK, is the most remade Star Trek property ever. The thing is, almost all of TWOK remakes are about spectacle or spaceship battles. Very few directors remember the heart of TWOK. Specifically, that one of our heroes has REALLY ****ed off someone. That the villain is, literally, insane with fury.

    The Wrath of Khan worked because you understood Khan's logic. Indeed, he had been genuinely wronged by our hero, even if it was through negligence rather than design. Which, honestly, is what elevates Star Trek (2009) above most odd-numbered Trek movies. It's villain is crazy, out of his mind with rage, but he has a reason to be. Nero's planet was blown up with his wife and unborn child.

    That's a primal and sympathetic motivation even if his actions are beyond disproportionate revenge. More understandable than trying to join with a magic ribbon or replacing your lost organs with your pseudo-father. If you give a grieving man the keys to the Death Star, he's probably not going to use it wisely, which is exactly what happens in this film.

Quite possibly, the angriest man in the universe. Yeah, I know he just looks hung over, but believe me--he's angry!

If you're looking for applicability, there's no intentional parallels, but Nero makes a better analog for today's terrorists than most. He's not a state-based actor, simply a man with nothing to lose and a willingness to inflict as much pain as possible. Sadly, as the movie shows towards its very end, JJ Abrams doesn't believe there's any way to deal with a man like Nero other than putting him down.

But now to discuss the movie itself. As a reboot of the franchise, it serves its purposes admirably for the non-Trekkie audience. This is Captain James T. Kirk, his rebellious and lecherous streak exaggerated for comic effect. This is Spock, his human-Vulcan duality exaggerated for dramatic effect. This is Uhura, her eye candy role exaggerated for, well, eye-candy. This is Bones, more or less the same.

Romulan mining vessels are apparently manufactured in Mordor.

Everyone is recognizable but a lot more combative, angry, and emotional. This is the college years of Star Trek, appropriate since everyone is a cadet, but I couldn't help wish Bruce Greenwood's Pike was on-screen more. The Wrath of Khan had a crew of cadets but at least there were adults in the room. I'd have less of a problem with James T. Kirk's position as Captain if I actually thought he could do the job without getting half of his crew killed.

JJ Abrams' love of Star Wars is littered throughout this movie and hardcore Trekkies, such as myself, will either react to the obvious homages (Alderaan, Hoth, Mos Eisley Cantina, blasters, and starfighter combat) with amusement or annoyance. He's openly admitted he prefers the pacing of Star Wars to Star Trek. Which, honestly, isn't that bad when the recent Star Wars movies had the speed of a drunk turtle.

Sometimes fanservice is both ways, too!

    Despite this, the sheer amount of fanservice was pleasing. The Kobayashi Maru, Starfleet Academy, Vulcan, Spock's bullying, Tribbles, Sulu's love of fencing, Orion women, and even a reference to Admiral Archer's dog (Porthos XVII?). JJ Abrams may not be a Trek fan but, at least, he respects we're the original insane fandom.

    With the exception of the Sherlock Holmes fans who drove Arthur Conan Doyle to revive the titular character, no one else has ever cared about their fandom as much as us. The movie is an excellent "jumping on" point for new Trek fans. My wife, who looked at my love of Star Trek like it was some sort of toxic curse I'd inherited, 'got it' after watching this movie. So there's that.

    Star Trek (2009) is an entertaining movie. It's got some great character moments, emotion, action, comedy, and special effects. Sadly, it doesn't have anything to say about the future or ourselves. Which, unfortunately, is what Star Trek is supposed to be about.

7/10

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