vesper1931's review
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
Stardate 7521.6. The Enterprise is sent on a mission to retrieve nine prisoners of the United Epansion Party. Soon after they receive a message from Trellisane who are under attack from their neighbouring world Sealon. Kirk decides to investigate even though he has nine prisoners and the Klingons are involved.
An entertaining re-read.
An entertaining re-read.
protovulcan's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
3.75
The aliens and conflict in this were great. Wasn't a big fan of some of the characterization for the bridge crew
frakalot's review against another edition
4.0
I was very impressed with this story. Great new aliens in a classic political setting with many turns and players.
amelianicholebooks's review
2.0
An interesting premise but I just failed to deliver time and again. Plus the narrator was wildly out of place and there was many instants of head hopping which annoyed me.
Love the subplot with nurse chapel. Wish it had a bigger impact.
Love the subplot with nurse chapel. Wish it had a bigger impact.
octavia_cade's review against another edition
2.0
A lot of the early Star Trek novels are really quite short, and that has both advantages and disadvantages. Personally, I tend to enjoy shorter novels - there's frequently far less waffle to get through - but they do run the risk of skimming over a lot, and that's what happens here. There's an interesting idea at the bottom of this - the conflict between the sea creatures of one world and the land creatures of another, and the medical staff of the Enterprise come off very well. Both McCoy and Chapel are outstanding, and Chapel's temporary inclusion as part of a symbiotic organism (something she takes on willingly in order to treat it) is genuinely compelling, and I think deserved far more focus than it got. Engineer Scott also uses his brains, but most of the rest of the crew are functionally useless, and the entire problem of Kirk losing his ship to begin with is idiot plot, as the entire security team of the Enterprise - which both Kirk and Dvorkin are at pains to tell us is the best available - are absolutely moronic. (I've been reading these novels from the beginning, and it's come to my attention that the more time an author spends telling me how elite the ship's crew is, the more the text belies that assertion.)
But for all that, the rating had edged up to three stars up until the end, where storylines are ignored or tied up in bare paragraphs. Chapel's enormously affecting experience barely rates a few sentences. The issue of slavery is solved ridiculously quickly, and given that McCoy discovered that the people of Trellisane were eating the slaves - and that he'd eaten murdered sentient creatures as well - it's frankly staggering that this had not so much as a sentence of follow-up. What this book needed as a closing chapter was not Kirk feeling smug about his poor performance, but McCoy and Chapel working out their traumatic experiences together over a stiff drink.
But for all that, the rating had edged up to three stars up until the end, where storylines are ignored or tied up in bare paragraphs. Chapel's enormously affecting experience barely rates a few sentences. The issue of slavery is solved ridiculously quickly, and given that McCoy discovered that the people of Trellisane were eating the slaves - and that he'd eaten murdered sentient creatures as well - it's frankly staggering that this had not so much as a sentence of follow-up. What this book needed as a closing chapter was not Kirk feeling smug about his poor performance, but McCoy and Chapel working out their traumatic experiences together over a stiff drink.
birdmanseven's review against another edition
3.0
I had the chance to interview David about this and his other work. Find it here: https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/episode-149-take-five-with-david-dvorkin
joelshults's review against another edition
4.0
I really liked this one, much bigger roles for Scotty and Bones (and Nurse Chapel). There were some blatant problems with some of the premises (like how everyone on the Enterprise reacted to the entire event) but if you pretend like there was some reason for all of that, the story was a fun and exciting one.
reeshadovahsil's review against another edition
3.0
2.5 stars if I had the option. It's okay. It's kind of boring. But it's not bad.
This book never really gets going, even though there are several good moments where everything could start to come together. The issue is there are so many different mini-plots trying to be woven together, half of them too boring to bother with, that nothing ever gets the attention it needs to be fleshed out.
The small subplot with Chapel and 4-joined-beings lifeform, an Onctilliian, is the most interesting part of the novel by far, but it's barely explored. This idea should have been its own full-blown novel, totally separate from all this Trellisane/Sealon/Klingon/Romulan nonsense. A pair of warrior women lovers is another germ of an idea that could have been interesting if handled properly. But they're just background characters who barely even speak to each other despite being mates.
Our beloved crew is in character some of the time, but also out of it often enough to regularly throw one out of the story in annoyance.
The "shocking twist" was painfully obvious about a hundred pages before it's apparently supposed to be, making our heroes look like blithering idiots for not picking up on it.
The Trellisanians are pretty darn boring. Not even slavery, mind control, and rampant cannibalism can make them interesting. The Sealons could be interesting if they were given some more time and attention.
I saw several sparks of possibility scattered throughout this story that it's a shame didn't get more focus. All in all, it's not a bad book, it's just kind of meh. I didn't hate it but I wouldn't read it again or recommend it to a friend.
This book never really gets going, even though there are several good moments where everything could start to come together. The issue is there are so many different mini-plots trying to be woven together, half of them too boring to bother with, that nothing ever gets the attention it needs to be fleshed out.
The small subplot with Chapel and 4-joined-beings lifeform, an Onctilliian, is the most interesting part of the novel by far, but it's barely explored. This idea should have been its own full-blown novel, totally separate from all this Trellisane/Sealon/Klingon/Romulan nonsense. A pair of warrior women lovers is another germ of an idea that could have been interesting if handled properly. But they're just background characters who barely even speak to each other despite being mates.
Our beloved crew is in character some of the time, but also out of it often enough to regularly throw one out of the story in annoyance.
The "shocking twist" was painfully obvious about a hundred pages before it's apparently supposed to be, making our heroes look like blithering idiots for not picking up on it.
The Trellisanians are pretty darn boring. Not even slavery, mind control, and rampant cannibalism can make them interesting. The Sealons could be interesting if they were given some more time and attention.
I saw several sparks of possibility scattered throughout this story that it's a shame didn't get more focus. All in all, it's not a bad book, it's just kind of meh. I didn't hate it but I wouldn't read it again or recommend it to a friend.
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