6th July 2016

Jeffrey Lang returns to the Star Trek Novelverse with a book that, like his previous entry, takes place away from the ongoing narrative of the series. This time we join O'Brien and Nog as they head off on a slightly weird holiday to visit a former colleague, Benjamin Maxwell (who appeared once in a TNG episode).

It's a good fun adventure story. I really liked how it explores Maxwell in particular, reflecting in flashback over much of his life and exploring how he had evolved as a person over maybe twenty years since we had last encountered the character.

However the parts of the plot set in the 'modern day' part of the timeline were quite confusing, and I never really felt like I had a good understanding of what was going on, what the various characters' motivations were, and why events were unfolding in the way they were.

I've also become used to the novels telling a chapter in an ongoing story, tugging on threads left by earlier novels, leaving things dangling for the future, and evolving the characters. I didn't fee that this book did that - instead being much more in the 'toys back in the box' mould of earlier novels, and I found that quite frustrating that it just seemed to be an adventure rather than moving the lives of the main characters. It could be that I'm totally misremembering this though as its a few weeks since I read it.

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8th July 2014

Jeffrey Lang returns to Trek to follow up on the events of the Cold Equations trilogy, which in turn followed from Lang's own Immortal Coil. I've not read Immortal Coil, so I can't really say how much is referenced back to that book, but one thing this book does do is refer back to almost every android that's ever appeared in Star Trek.

Despite the serious subject matter, the narrative is quite light and the characters in particular are presented in a similar manner to some of the more jokey episodes of The Next Generation. In fact the main characters of this story are probably the best part, each having real depth and growing through the novel.

The plot is quite fun too, a cross between a heist and Sherlock Holmes, and is entertaining throughout despite posing some good moral questions in the Trek style. I really enjoyed the non-linear nature of the narrative, continue happy jumping around the characters' timelines to gradually reveal more to the reader.

I can't really pick out anything to criticise - although I thought I spotted one or two continuity glitches (but I might be the one misremembering). A great fun read, and one that I hope Lang is able to follow up on.

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