Sometime Life Doesn’t Go On

Well I just finished Missing in Action by Peter David yesterday evening. This is the most recent of the New Frontier Series. It picks up right where the previous book ended. I have an even better understanding of the necessity of the note to the reader that I mentioned at the beginning of the review for the last book. This book could make some readers mad.

This book is pretty much non-stop. There is a lot more action and it draws the reader through the story a little faster. Calhoun and the Excalibur are trapped in another universe trying to get home, but really that’s a side plot. The main play is still with the women of the books, Admiral Shelby, Captain Meuller, and Lt. Commander Robin Leffler. They are trying to find out what happened to Calhoun, stop a civil war in the Thallonian Protectorate, and save countless lives in the process. You know, the usual fare. People will be pissed off because, shit happens, the world changes, and people die. And time keeps moving forward, inexorably.

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Comes the Thud

It’s been a long time coming, but I finally finished reading After the Fall by Peter David; of the New Frontier Series. This book chronologically is the next book after the first New Frontier book I read, Stone and Anvil. But it takes place three years after that book ended. It also apparently takes place days before the events of the movie “Star Trek: Nemesis”. That is said in the “A Note to Our Readers” at the beginning of the paperback. It also states that 3 years have passed, life moves on, and the Universe changes. Big things have happened to the characters you have grown to love and that’s the way things are. There isn’t going to be a fancy travel back in time ending to set all things “right” with the universe. This is life and the passage of time, get used to it. They did.

First of all, I understand this statement at the beginning of the book. Many readers expect ST books with big sometimes unpleasant changes to come with a time travel fix everything ending. I like the warning, because it stops the wasting of brainpower. People can accept the changes without constantly wondering if they will evaporate later. Secondly, is the timetable placing. For many reasons that would be a signal that the book is almost fanfictiony in quality and the story is almost wishful thinking, but David seems to have an excellent knack for bridging other people’s story arcs and plots with well written and thought out adventures of his own. That’s one of the reason’s writing about a crew no one else writes about is such a great palette for him. Long time readers will see characters are gone that you didn’t expect, some come back that you did expect, people are having real problems with family, and a new and mysterious threat has emerged. A kidnapping leads to a murder, and possibly war. And then it’s continued until the next book. PD why do you tease us so?

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Food of the gods

I finished the next Star Trek universe installment of “The New Frontier” series by Peter David. Gods Above is really a continuation of the story from the previous book, Being Human. The Excalibur has been severely damaged in battle with life forms that purport to be the ancient gods of Greece, Rome, Norse, Native Americans, and other pantheons, and two familiar crew members are dead, or are they.

The book covers the weeks taken to repair the Excalibur and return to duty. The body of one crewmember, thought to be immortal, was destroyed while trying to protect another crew member from the vengeance of the gods, but she may still not be dead. The very special crew member she tried to protect, a descendant of the gods themselves and responsible for Calhoun rejecting the gods’ proposal, lies in sick bay with a hole in his chest and no life signs. However his body shows no sign of degradation or even a definite cause of death. He appears to be stuck in between seconds. This all came about because of a battle with the gods of old that started when Captain Calhoun declined to entertain bringing their gift of ambrosia to the Federation and launching a new golden age. All the gods wanted was a little prayer, some sacrifices, and adulation. Really, is that too much to ask? After their rejection by Calhoun the gods move on to set up shop on a nearby world with a population that embraces the calming, strengthening, health improving, life extending properties of the ambrosia. The real questions are what do the gods really want, and how do you fight something that can pass as a god and draws power from worship itself?

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... How Like a God

I just finished Being Human by Peter David. I hope the links work for it. As you may have noticed I use pictures from Barnes and Noble for the books and as compensation I link to the purchase page for the book there as well. That has worked great for every other book I have put on here. This book however doesn’t appear on B&N’s web site. It’s like they don’t acknowledge its existence. It’s funny cause even if they don’t have a copy or picture of other books they usually have a page and allow you to search affiliated book stores for copies. So instead I used Amazon. I’m just not sure how stable the links are. But enough about that, lets ramble on about the book.

As I’ve said before I like the way Peter David writes, and this book is no exception. David takes on one of the first journeys with Captains Calhoun and Shelby on their own ships, the Excalibur and Trident. They each have their own missions- that end up being related, big surprise. What really makes this story is that David works some old characters and adversaries into it. As mentioned this is the first book with Shelby’s new crew. One of the crewmen you meet is Lieutenant M’Ress, a Caitain or feline race. She is supposed to have been displaced in time from The Enterprise captained by Kirk. Her character actually did appear on the Star Trek: Animated Series. David does nice things like that, but her appearance is explained in another book he wrote that isn’t in this series. Now I want to get that one. That’s the one annoying thing about David’s stories. He has no problem referencing anything he has done in previous books, and he always does it in a way that gives you all the information you need but not as much as you want. In the end you want to get the book to see what the hell he’s hinting at. Some call it good marketing, but I call it a way to pump me for money. Right now it seems to be working. Also David reaches back to The Original Series to the episode “Who Mourns For Adonais?” for adversaries in this book. As usual he expands on what was originally done and integrates it into the ST universe well. It’s really enough to make a ST geek giggle like a schoolgirl. I didn’t giggle, but I did sit bolt upright in my chair when I figured it out. Yeah I have problems.

Anyway, this is an excellent continuation of the series. I used to point and laugh, or at least chuckle under my breath, at people that followed some of these book series. Mostly because some of them were just poorly written and weren’t very cohesive. David has fought that by creating his own space to work in, with his own characters and some minor ones no one else was using, and by integrating well with the history of the series. I like it. The only downside is that it makes me want to buy more books, and this one is “To Be Continued.” Oh well. The prices we pay for entertainment.

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Shattered, Part 3

If you want to understand this review better, I suggest you read the first and second parts first. If you have done so then let’s get going. Excalibur: Restoration is actually quite a bit longer than the first two books. It’s not just because it’s around 100 pages longer. It also seems that the publisher switched from a 12 point font to a 9 point font. It made my eyes do funny things when I jumped from one to the other. Anyway, that probably kept them from having to change to thinner paper.

Finally you get to hear what happened that caused the ship to blow up, all of the crew to survive. After teasing you for two it’s somewhat of a letdown until you get farther into the book and see how it’s connected to other events. You follow Shelby as she accepts her first command and gathers her crew. She goes on her first mission and realizes that she is no longer the strict by the book commander she used to be. That’s too bad because she picked the rest of her crew to be just that, and there is some tension. You also get to see what happened to Calhoun just before and since the ship blew up. He’s stuck somewhere and has to try to figure out how to get back. It ties up a few loose ends, loosens a few more, and gets you ready for the next book.

This book had a quote on the front from SFX magazine that sums up Peter David’s work on this series. It says, “An established Star Trek novelist whose name is a … guarantee of quality.” I agree.

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Shattered, Part 2

If you want to understand this review better read the first one first. If you have done so then feel free to continue. This lime I’m looking at the second book Excalibur: Renaissance. This book doesn’t happen after the first, it basically happens in parallel. The basic story lines in this one are Burgoyne and Selar having disagreements about how and where their child should be raised that creates quite an incident on Vulcan and Morgan and Robin go to Risa on vacation only to run into an old friend and more excitement than they ever wanted. And oddly several of The Original Series’ (TOS) characters make an appearance, to the glee of fan freaks. Little touches like that that tie into the television series are nice.

And speaking of tie-ins there is a good one in here that some people would miss. At the front of the book is a letter from Morgan Primus, Robin Lefler’s mother, to ‘Xana from “Aunt” Morgan. From the hinting you get the idea David means the reader to make the connection to Lwaxana Troi, Deanna Troi’s mother. In the book Robin and Morgan run into Scotty at Risa, and Scotty and Morgan react in shock to seeing each other. Scotty calls Morgan Christine. This and hints of Scotty talking about Christine leads one to link to Christine Chapel off TOS. What you have to realize at this point is that Morgan is supposedly nearly immortal. She never gets sick, all physical harm visited on her heals in minutes, and she has apparently been around for centuries. So she could indeed be Christine. Now what’s even funnier is that I have read a book that occurs later in the series, and Morgan, through some event, gets her consciousness trapped in the computer. She literally becomes the voice of the computer. If you haven’t made the connection yet, all of these characters and voices were or are portrayed by Majel Barrett-Roddenberry, the widow of Gene Roddenberry. That, is nice.

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Shattered, Part 1

I’m doing this set of book reviews a little different. I’ve read all three books before writing a review, because they are all related. Firstly Peter David ended the last book with basically a cliffhanger. Captain Calhoun was talking and wrapping up the book like one would expect. David quoted Calhoun and the last part of the sentence was, “Said Mackenzie Calhoun, five minutes before the Excalibur blew up….” The Excalibur is the ship by the way. The next three books deal with the aftermath of that event, hence them all being named Excalibur.

First is Excalibur: Requiem that takes place after the disaster and the inquest. The command crew meets in a bar for a last toast and then heads their separate ways for the downtime that Star Fleet allots a crew if their ship is destroyed. It’s a recuperative thing. David has some fun with the reader by dancing around the reason behind the ship being destroyed, because no one wants to talk about it. It’s actually kind of annoying, because he’s so blatant about it. Anyway he splits the characters and follows them as they explore parts of their lives you have gotten hints at earlier in the series. Each chapter takes a limited third person view that has intimate knowledge of the mental workings of the character being followed. David also names each chapter after the character on which you are focusing, which I like in books that jump between characters. It makes it easier to follow. You jump between Soleta going to see her father on Vulcan and then chasing down her biological father, McHenry and Kebron doing a little side mission for Star Fleet that creates more questions about them than it answers, and Si Cwan and Kalinda seeking the cause of one of her visions.

It’s nice and well written. You learn a lot about the characters in the stories, and it compels you to read the next in the series. That review is next.

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When the scary things get scared

This is a short review of Dark Allies the Star Trek New Frontier novel by Peter David. Look at my previous reviews to find out more about this series. Basically this takes up near the time the previous book left off. Two of the greatest “evils” in that area of the galaxy are on a collision course that will see the destruction of at least one. Captain Calhoun and the crew of the Excalibur must decide whether to take this opportunity to try to destroy a seemingly unstoppable eating machine called the Black Mass or stand aside and let it destroy one of their greatest adversaries, the Redeemers.

This is the eighth in the series and David is most consistent in the entertainment value he provides in his books. The book reads fast and is worth the small cost of the paperback. It’s cheaper than most movies now days.

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In The Quiet Place everyone can hear you scream.

I just finished The Quiet Place by Peter David last night. I’m still amazed by how fast this series reads. This makes the seventh in the series.

The book fits in well with a series that is made of books that could each be produced as 3 hour long television episodes. This book ties together a few loose ends form the previous ones and continues character and civilization development. I liked it and still plan on reading the rest of the series.

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