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A review by zmull
Articles of the Federation by Keith R.A. DeCandido
4.0
Articles of the Federation is an attempt at Star Trek does the West Wing. I like Star Trek. I like West Wing. But I've avoided reading this book for years because I tend to think the less a backstory is explored the better. In Star Trek we know what the Federation is in general terms, but we don't know the details of how it works. The Federation is interesting because it allows the viewer to fill in those details however they choose. Backstory is intended to engage our imaginations. Once you start filling things in you get shit like, "Now this is podracing!" Knowing that this book was heavily inspired by the West Wing suggested to me that an American-style Presidential system was going to grafted on to the Federation and I just couldn't find much enthusiasm for that until recently with the premier of Star Trek Picard. Picard is a show that uses the politics of the Federation as its starting point. I was curious about how the Trek books writers handled it 15 years ago.
Does DeCandido make the Federation an analogue of the American system as I feared? Not really. He does something else that I never really considered but is obvious in retrospect. He writes the Federation President like a Starfleet captain. President Bacco is weirdly rude, but otherwise a typical Star Trek captain. Yeah, there is some political maneuvering with the Federation Council and the book is generally much more talky than another Star Trek story might be but the vibe isn't wildly different than a diplomacy heavy TNG episode.
The book itself is good. It's got some interesting dilemmas for the characters to deal with and I'm glad to hear their stories carry on into other Star Trek books. For the continuity worriers, Articles isn't wildly out of step with the Picard continuity either making this a good choice for people interested in further reading from that show.
Does DeCandido make the Federation an analogue of the American system as I feared? Not really. He does something else that I never really considered but is obvious in retrospect. He writes the Federation President like a Starfleet captain. President Bacco is weirdly rude, but otherwise a typical Star Trek captain. Yeah, there is some political maneuvering with the Federation Council and the book is generally much more talky than another Star Trek story might be but the vibe isn't wildly different than a diplomacy heavy TNG episode.
The book itself is good. It's got some interesting dilemmas for the characters to deal with and I'm glad to hear their stories carry on into other Star Trek books. For the continuity worriers, Articles isn't wildly out of step with the Picard continuity either making this a good choice for people interested in further reading from that show.