by Diane Duane
“In memory of Deforest Kelley, James Doohan, Mark Lenard.”
War has been declared between the United Federation of Planets and the Romulan Star Empire. A Romulan civil war seems likely. Kirk and crew assist Ael and crew in support of the rebellion, which causes Kirk’s superiors to believe he has ‘gone native.’ They begin to plan his destruction. The Romulans launch a WMD at Earth. Ael, Kirk, and crew save the day.
Diane Duane is possibly my favorite Star Trek author. It feels almost sacrilegious to say it, but this book is tedious and illogical. It feels like it was written without love, simply to tie up the Rihannsu storyline. Further research shows Ms. Duane suffered health problems which delayed the writing of the novel. That may explain the disconnect.
Random Thoughts Written Down as I Read:
Chekov and Sulu pounce on their controls a lot.
Pages 1-30 are about battle preparation: planning, strategy, logistics, and all the other minutiae and nuances involved in the art of spilling blood. I realize that in reality there must be endless prep for battle, but reading 30 pages of it is just tiring.
Pages 31-68 describe the battle in space.
I begin to be bothered by Kirk’s role in the Romulan Revolution. Regime Change.
The Romulan rebels have 3 generation ships, built to support 380,000 people who wish to withdraw from the RSE. I’m not sure where they got the means to build these ships, since they are rebelling because they are over-taxed and under-represented.
Why is Kirk the admiral of the Romulan rebellion fleet? I’d want to control my own fleet.
Besides being a miracle worker, Scotty is truly a genius engineer.
Enterprise’s recreation computer, Moira, makes me think of SIRI.
Kirk calls the Engineering crew “Scotty’s Kids.”
McCoy has Tarot cards and knows how to use them. He reads Ael.
And now I just start feeling like I’m reading filler.
I begin to tire of Arrhae and her ‘startle! settle’ mode.
Ael, Kirk, McCoy, Sulu, K’s’t’lk, and Scotty play poker with the Tarot deck. Spock watches. Then they play fizzbin. I don’t even know…
I’m tired of reading about pre-battle jitters, post-battle recapping, the loneliness of command, and trusting no one.
I think the Bloodwing surgeon is a traitor and it’s been telegraphed clumsily.
Nailed it.
“Cut off the head; the body will die.” Has been said at least 3 times now.
I’m tired of reading battle tactic discussions and have started skipping larges swaths of battle planning paragraphs.
I find Arrhae’s promotion from housekeeper to Senator unlikely, especially with no vetting, which would have revealed she is a human agent.
Kirk changes his tunic OFTEN. I’m starting to think my beloved Captain Kirk stinks.
The WMD is a nova bomb which will destroy Sol, earth’s star. Our crew links Eisn, the Romulan star, to Sol counteract the nova bomb. I have no clue what I just said. But now Eisn and Sol are connected.
Sol sings and dances… … …
I STILL don’t know why the Romulans are letting Kirk wage their war for them.
Heretical thoughts:
The ending is sudden, cheesy, and overdone. Arrhae, the Federation-spy-turned-Romulan-Senator leads the call to make Ael Empress. She asks Kirk what he thinks. He says yes, and so she accepts. Spock ‘crowns’ her by giving her his sword. All the Romulans stand around and cheer this usurpation of their victory.
Ael predicts the rise of the Next Generation-type Romulans after her death.
Kirk and Ael kiss goodbye.
ETC:
“Acknowledgements: D.C. Fontana, David Stern, Kevin Ryan, John Ordover, Marco Palmieri, Keith DeCandido, Mimi Panitch.”