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3.65 AVERAGE
3.65 AVERAGE
At first, felt a bit longer than it really needed to be, with extraneous detail, but was better once it all came together at the end.
Very nice story. Shows the difficulty involved with leading a convoy composed of random ships of all sizes and functions on a very long journey. OF course there is the typical dangers of internal strife among the crew, and encounters with a new enemy who doesn't want the settlers to reach their destination.
Star Trek with a western feel. I like it! Set between Star Trek TMP and Star Trek II, Kirk and crew are assigned to escort a group of settlers to a newly discovered world where they will carve out a new life for themselves. Unfortunately two alien societies were there first, bitter enemies who cannot understand the spirit of exploration and the thrill of new challenges that humans crave. Throw in an interesting and dangerous rogue, the Orions, and all the tensions and hardships of a Wild West wagon train and you have the start of a fun series.
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book is not just underwhelming, it's disappointing, because the concept is actually really cool and the plot had so much potential to be both gripping and moving... but the new characters were not interesting, the old characters were unfamiliar, and the emotions were drawn up like finger paintings from a kindergarten art class.
This outcome surprised me because although she's not a personal favourite I've previously enjoyed many Diane Carey novels and I know she can write better than this. I found the relationship between Federation crew and the colonist crews just very childish, fair enough to have issues but almost every interaction was over-the-top volatile and sounded like a school yard slinging match.
Book one is not ALL bad (just mostly bad) and there is much more to the story than those poor characterisations. The plot kept me engaged and I'm interested enough to follow through with the series.
This outcome surprised me because although she's not a personal favourite I've previously enjoyed many Diane Carey novels and I know she can write better than this. I found the relationship between Federation crew and the colonist crews just very childish, fair enough to have issues but almost every interaction was over-the-top volatile and sounded like a school yard slinging match.
Book one is not ALL bad (just mostly bad) and there is much more to the story than those poor characterisations. The plot kept me engaged and I'm interested enough to follow through with the series.
James Kirk is on a milk run, escorting colony ships to their new home, and we know going in that it's all going to go horribly wrong (else where would the story be?). But it's not the battles and various action sequences that stood out for me here, it's the tone. Kirk's getting old, looking back on his life and the sacrifices made by others to get him where he is, and there's a really quite visceral sense of quiet loss and of poignancy running through the story that I didn't expect. Where it doesn't stack up so much for me is the broad strokes - the main villain of the piece, Billy Maidenshore, is a caricature on legs and every time he's on page the whole thing drops and I get ever more irritated. I hope he dies soon in this series, because I'm sick to death of him already. There's enough genuine, thoughtful conflict with the alien wars and the disagreement between colonists (and between colonists and Starfleet) to propel the narrative without going back to the cartoon villain well again and again and again. I was really close to giving this 4 stars, but the quite excellent tonal restraint doesn't extend to the plot on this point.
This one starts a little rough, but once I got into it it really surprised me. I feel like the Blood/Kauld feud wasn't really conveyed all that well. It just kind of read flat...but the rest of the happenings were exciting enough for a good read.