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defcons_treklitI can’t concur with the Fourth Oligarch, this book is not “a piece of very bad fiction” (p.69), quite the opposite : It’s a good read.
Again Keith R.A. DeCandido was able to write an interesting story about the crew of the I.K.S. Gorkon, this time with minimal losses among the more heavily featured crew members, even Klag’s first officer survives the book and stays on board. ;) There’s not that much “large-scale” stuff in this novel, in my opinion it is more focused on the actual mission than the previous two books. That’s not a bad thing, since the Elabrej Hegemony is an interesting place for a mission, with it’s not humanoid species and self-centered world view. It’s intriguing to see how their scientist(s) rate the Klingon race as inferior, only because of their, from their point of view, unusual appearance. It’s like an analogy to the old saying “Don’t judge the book by it’s cover.”, since in the end the Oligarchs have to see that they are losing the war, although the Klingons are so much less developed in their opinion. One thing I found to be strange is how “open” the I.I. Agent Trant allows Lokor to present him as something special before his agent status is openly revealed. I can understand that Lokor isn’t to motivated to keep his secret, but shouldn’t Trant be more confidential until he has the command of the Gorkon and try to restrain him?
The characterization is once again one of the main strengths of the book. Like with the story there are no major revelations or developments, but a steady and balanced development. The one crewmember who goes through the biggest charcter change is the chief engineer Kurak. I certainly hope her change of mind is explained a little bit more closely in books to come, since her change of behavior is a little bit to suddenly for my taste without further details about her state of mind. The only people I would have liked to get more info about, are the mutineers, I think this subplot was cut a little bit to short. Somehow the (tried) mutiny just happened and wasn’t far enough on the forefront to get more informed about the motives of the actual mutineers and the mood among the other crew members.
Overall “Enemy Territory” is a good, balanced I.K.S. Gorkon “episode” without involvement in a big multi-book story arc, but an interesting mission.
”Defcon’s TrekLit” Rating :
Story : **** of *****
Characterization / character development : **** of *****
Originality : *** of *****
Writing style : **** of *****
Cover : *** of *****
Overall : 81 %
Again Keith R.A. DeCandido was able to write an interesting story about the crew of the I.K.S. Gorkon, this time with minimal losses among the more heavily featured crew members, even Klag’s first officer survives the book and stays on board. ;) There’s not that much “large-scale” stuff in this novel, in my opinion it is more focused on the actual mission than the previous two books. That’s not a bad thing, since the Elabrej Hegemony is an interesting place for a mission, with it’s not humanoid species and self-centered world view. It’s intriguing to see how their scientist(s) rate the Klingon race as inferior, only because of their, from their point of view, unusual appearance. It’s like an analogy to the old saying “Don’t judge the book by it’s cover.”, since in the end the Oligarchs have to see that they are losing the war, although the Klingons are so much less developed in their opinion. One thing I found to be strange is how “open” the I.I. Agent Trant allows Lokor to present him as something special before his agent status is openly revealed. I can understand that Lokor isn’t to motivated to keep his secret, but shouldn’t Trant be more confidential until he has the command of the Gorkon and try to restrain him?
The characterization is once again one of the main strengths of the book. Like with the story there are no major revelations or developments, but a steady and balanced development. The one crewmember who goes through the biggest charcter change is the chief engineer Kurak. I certainly hope her change of mind is explained a little bit more closely in books to come, since her change of behavior is a little bit to suddenly for my taste without further details about her state of mind. The only people I would have liked to get more info about, are the mutineers, I think this subplot was cut a little bit to short. Somehow the (tried) mutiny just happened and wasn’t far enough on the forefront to get more informed about the motives of the actual mutineers and the mood among the other crew members.
Overall “Enemy Territory” is a good, balanced I.K.S. Gorkon “episode” without involvement in a big multi-book story arc, but an interesting mission.
”Defcon’s TrekLit” Rating :
Story : **** of *****
Characterization / character development : **** of *****
Originality : *** of *****
Writing style : **** of *****
Cover : *** of *****
Overall : 81 %
