STAR TREK: SEEKERS: SECOND NATURE - David Mack


Every once in awhile, while we watched the adventures of Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise, we would get glimpses of other ships, crews, and their captains. But clearly the Federation had an entire fleet of ships and crews who are exploring and expanding Federation presence in the galaxy.  Not everyone is as wild and rogue as Kirk.

Regular Star Trek author, David Mack, begins a new series set in the Star Trek original series universe.

Two Federation ships are assigned to explore the Taurus Reach area. The scout class ship, U.S.S. Sagittarius, detects unusual energy readings from the planet, Nereus II - where there are no known civilizations with warp drive capabilities. But upon exploration, they discover that the indigenous people, the Tomol, are (in some ways) more advanced than what had previously been detected. However, they are also slightly unusual in that there are no people older than 20 among them.

As the members of the research vessel discuss and make plans to secretly investigate the unusually high energy readings, a Klingon vessel, captained by Kang, arrives with a similar mission of investigation. But Klingon investigation means captured and kidnap for further study.

It's certainly not a secret that I enjoy reading Star Trek-related fiction (it might be the most reviewed topic in the 2500+ reviews on my blog) and I think all the authors who published Star Trek fiction in the last five years or so are top-notch authors. But one of the things I enjoy about reading these books is that I typically already know the characters. I've watched the televisions shows - multiple times in many cases - are these regular characters are already old friends. This lets the authors focus on story and introducing us to a limited number of new characters. In a book like this, however, we don't know any of these people (except the Klingon, oddly enough) - we know only the organization in which they work. This means we need a little more background on who these people are and their relationships with those they work with. We don't know if they are acting unusually or within their norms. 

I'm going to assume that it's because of this - our needing to get to know the characters - that the book felt really slow to begin with. Honestly, I was so bored that after getting about 1/3 of the way through I put the book away and came back, starting from the beginning again, years later. It did get a little easier the second time and it does pick up. But I'm still not sure I can picture the characters and how they are unique from characters who already exist in the Star Trek universe. 

It's a limited series and it's Star Trek, so yes, I will want to read more.

I should note that I laughed when I read: "...the officers tended to refer to the communal dining area as "Pre-sickbay.""  I should also note that I was definitely attracted to the book by the cover. For those of us of a certain age who bought the James Blish adaptations new, as they were released, this cover art by Rob Caswell brings back fond memories. Much has been written about Caswell's work online.

Looking for a good book?  Star Trek: Seekers: Second Nature by David Mack is the first book in a limited series set in the Star Trek universe but not featuring any of the famous regulars from the television shows. It's a bit slow, but promises an exciting series.

3-1/2 stars (rounded down)

* * * * * *

Star Trek: Seekers: Second Nature

author: David Mack

series:  Star Trek: The Original Series; Star Trek: Seekers #1

publisher: Pocket Books

ISBN:  9781476753072

paperback, 304 pages 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE - Ian Fleming

Image
 Well this was a surprise. I am by no mean a big James Bond fan.  I was, however, a teenage boy in the 1970's so spies, action, and beautiful-falling-out-of-their-skimpy-costumes-women were the kinds of movies I went to see with my friends.  And while the movie version of You Only Live Twice came out a  little early for me, you can be sure I went back and rented it when I was in college. But it's only been recently that I've decided to read the originals - the books that the fanciful movies were made from. My surprise, then, is that this book bares almost no resemblance to the movie of the same title. As Wikipedia says (I went to look it up, wondering if my memory of the movie was wrong): "( You Only Live Twice ) is the first James Bond film to discard most of Fleming's plot, using only a few characters and locations from the book as the background for an entirely new story." James Bond's wife, Tracy, was murdered shortly after their wedding.  The killer ...
Read more

SILVER ECHOES - Rebecca Rosenberg

Image
Rebecca Rosenberg's Silver Echoes is compelling historical fiction based on real people and events set in the early 20th century. We mostly follow Silver Dollar Tabor - the daughter of Horace and Baby Doe Tabor who made their fortune during the silver mine boom in Colorado and were among the country's elite. Silver hopes to use her family's fame as a springboard and take the world by storm as an entertainer, but fame would allude her, especially after the death of her father and the loss of the mines (and therefore an income). Determined to make something of herself in the entertainment world, and to get back some of the Tabor fortune, Silver takes any job that's offered, leading her into the circus, working with dangerous animals. As if life wasn't challenging enough for Silver, she struggles with a personality disorder and has even given her alter ego a name - Echo LaVode - and will introduce herself as such when she's under Echo's control. Silver/Echo tr...
Read more

THE DEVILS - Joe Abercrombie

Image
 In Joe Abercrombie's The Devils , we have a strange twisting of our familiar reality. In this dark fantasy,   Abercrombie gives us a Catholic Church which only has female priests and a female pope (who is barely more than a child). Her friends and protectors include vampires and werewolves. In this world, the Crusades are being waged against Elves - a race thought to eat the flesh of people. Brother Diaz arrives in the Holy City, intent on serving Pope Benedicta to the best of his abilities. He is thrust, unceremoniously, into a position higher than he's really capable of serving, tasked with helping Pope Benedicta seat a long-lost child on the recently vacated Serpent Throne in Troy. When the sorceress, Empress Eudoxia, died, her sons were fighting across the land, each vying for their own power.  Having a foothold in Troy would help the Christian movement but it's going to be a tough haul putting this distant claim on a throne when the sons, who are accustomed to ...
Read more