by David Mack

Pocket Books, out now

2384: the Enterprise responds to an attack on Bruce Maddox’s facility…

Very slowly but surely catching up with the Trek Literature continuation of the Star Trek timeline after the events of Star Trek Nemesis, this is the first in a trilogy by David Mack – author of the previous highly acclaimed Destiny trilogy – that shakes things up quite a bit. Although it seems a little odd to worry about spoiling a book that’s nearly a decade old, I suspect I won’t be the only one catching up with the adventures of the Enterprise-E as we approach the Coda trilogy, so this will be pretty spoiler-free.

A good proportion of the book is dedicated to the account of one of the key people in Data’s life, and it ties up with Jeffrey Lang’s 2002 novel Immortal Coil (which I can also recommend – it’s one I read pretty much at time of release, but details flooded back from the prompts within Mack’s text). This is a pretty good jumping on point as well for the novels – through the reminiscences we’re reminded of everything that’s happened since Nemesis (particularly the Borg invasion and the consequent rise of the Typhon Pact).

Mack isn’t one to look to the past unless it’s telling us something about the present or the future, and a lot changes with regard to the Enterprise crew from start to finish of this first volume. The first person section captures the relevant voice well, and there’s some nice, almost incidental (although I suspect it will turn out otherwise) misreadings of each other by two of the Bridge crew.

It’s also interesting reading around this as to the story’s genesis (bits of which were being discussed at the one Shore Leave I attended back in 2011), and what might have been… which gives food for thought about Mack’s final book later this year. There’s some… interesting, shall we say… comparisons with the Picard timeline’s events as well.

Verdict: I’d forgotten how much I enjoy Mack’s Star Trek work – having been reading more of his non-licensed books, which are also well worth your time. A cracking start to the trilogy 9/10

Paul Simpson

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