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defcons_treklitA very unimpressive read.
Although the novel has some interesting starting points, i.e. the idea of a “though police” and to make the representing person for Kirk’s “arch enemy”, the diplomatic corps, a person who is/was his friend, the way Simon Hawke uses these premises is very unsatisfying.
First of all the writing style is boring, it took me very long to finish the novel, because I couldn’t motivate myself to read big parts of it in one sitting. Going back to the interesting starting points : The relation between Kirk and Jordan is as uninteresting as most of Kirk’s interaction with diplomats in some of the earlier TOS novels, like Jordan the diplomats are either people only caring about their career or people to preoccupied to see Kirk’s “wisdom”. So, instead of making Jordan someone who is able to play on the same battlefield as Kirk when he disagrees with his decisions, he’s just another chewing of the known diplomat’s image. The solution of their divergence is as unsatisfying as if the author had just written : “And by the way, the two are on the same side again.” And what is the exact role his assistant Wing is playing in the novel other than being McCoy’s Viagra ? I don’t really see the significance of the relationship for the bigger picture of the story. It could’ve been interesting to see a real dispute between McCoy’s loyalty to Kirk and his “love” to Wing, but that one scene with the “malfunctioning” transporter doesn’t justify a whole B – plot about it. The way it is presented here I handle it as what it is : an (unnecessary) filler to get a higher page count.
The thought police/terrorist plot doesn’t even marginally uses the potential it has. The question of the pros and cons of a thought police is only handled on a side note and the only point of views are a la “It’s disgusting” and “It’s necessary”, there isn’t really a deeper discussion. The end of the plot isn’t very convincing either, the only real prove for the guilt of the “traitors” are Iano’s accuse, but it is known that the patrian telepaths go nuts often shortly before they die because of their operation, so why should members of the government be sentenced on the base of the words of a man, who probably is a paranoid madman ? The only one who really made himself suspicious is Harkun, who attacked Iano when he accuses him. The government took away the rights and capabilities of the other telepaths directly after the meeting, so they can’t get a confirmation of a trusted Telepath, but if they have obtained proves for the conspiration the normal way, it shoul had taken month to investigate and trial the “traitors”. I hadn’t had the ffeling so much time has passed while reading the Epilogue, so I doubr they had a fair trial. One other thing I haven’t understand about this plot : So Iano is scanning the people in the Arena Club mentally, why doesn’t he realize that the master is blocking his attempts, like he does with Spock ? One should think he would concentrate his scan on the master for at least a few moments, just out of curiosity. To finish with something positive : I liked the fact that there still were controversies on Patria in the end, and there wasn’t one big happy end, where all real terrorists are running free.
Overall in my opinion a novel only really interesting for collectors, who want to have every ST Book made. The normal reader should ignore this disappointing piece.
Rating : 38 %
Although the novel has some interesting starting points, i.e. the idea of a “though police” and to make the representing person for Kirk’s “arch enemy”, the diplomatic corps, a person who is/was his friend, the way Simon Hawke uses these premises is very unsatisfying.
First of all the writing style is boring, it took me very long to finish the novel, because I couldn’t motivate myself to read big parts of it in one sitting. Going back to the interesting starting points : The relation between Kirk and Jordan is as uninteresting as most of Kirk’s interaction with diplomats in some of the earlier TOS novels, like Jordan the diplomats are either people only caring about their career or people to preoccupied to see Kirk’s “wisdom”. So, instead of making Jordan someone who is able to play on the same battlefield as Kirk when he disagrees with his decisions, he’s just another chewing of the known diplomat’s image. The solution of their divergence is as unsatisfying as if the author had just written : “And by the way, the two are on the same side again.” And what is the exact role his assistant Wing is playing in the novel other than being McCoy’s Viagra ? I don’t really see the significance of the relationship for the bigger picture of the story. It could’ve been interesting to see a real dispute between McCoy’s loyalty to Kirk and his “love” to Wing, but that one scene with the “malfunctioning” transporter doesn’t justify a whole B – plot about it. The way it is presented here I handle it as what it is : an (unnecessary) filler to get a higher page count.
The thought police/terrorist plot doesn’t even marginally uses the potential it has. The question of the pros and cons of a thought police is only handled on a side note and the only point of views are a la “It’s disgusting” and “It’s necessary”, there isn’t really a deeper discussion. The end of the plot isn’t very convincing either, the only real prove for the guilt of the “traitors” are Iano’s accuse, but it is known that the patrian telepaths go nuts often shortly before they die because of their operation, so why should members of the government be sentenced on the base of the words of a man, who probably is a paranoid madman ? The only one who really made himself suspicious is Harkun, who attacked Iano when he accuses him. The government took away the rights and capabilities of the other telepaths directly after the meeting, so they can’t get a confirmation of a trusted Telepath, but if they have obtained proves for the conspiration the normal way, it shoul had taken month to investigate and trial the “traitors”. I hadn’t had the ffeling so much time has passed while reading the Epilogue, so I doubr they had a fair trial. One other thing I haven’t understand about this plot : So Iano is scanning the people in the Arena Club mentally, why doesn’t he realize that the master is blocking his attempts, like he does with Spock ? One should think he would concentrate his scan on the master for at least a few moments, just out of curiosity. To finish with something positive : I liked the fact that there still were controversies on Patria in the end, and there wasn’t one big happy end, where all real terrorists are running free.
Overall in my opinion a novel only really interesting for collectors, who want to have every ST Book made. The normal reader should ignore this disappointing piece.
Rating : 38 %
