The Brave and the Bold, Book Two (Star Trek) [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

The first book in this series was so well written and exciting, that I was really looking forward to a riveting conclusion. One of the minor gripes with the entire series, like all of the Star Trek book series that incorporate all of the television crews, is that it became a little bit too much of a coincidence that the same things would happen to all of our familiar crew members. Candido alleviated that a little bit by having other crews involved as well: in the first book, it was Decker and his ship and then the crew of the Odyssey. Further along those lines, Candido provides even more distance by making Tuvok and Chakotay the only two familiar characters in the Voyager story. I found that this helped considerably.

The first story is really well-told, as DeCandido does a good job of fleshing out some characters that we saw only briefly in the TV series (Cal Hudson) as well as creating some very interesting characters for the Hood. The Hood doesn't have as much to do as the ships did in the previous book, but the characters that DeCandido creates for it, especially Captain DeSoto, are vivid. DeSoto is a champion at the game of Go, and he has created a monster by teaching his first officer the game (and now she constantly beats him). It becomes a running gag throughout the story. It seems a bit superfluous, but it adds greatly to the character, as we feel we know him. DeCandido doesn't do as good of a job with the villain of the piece, though. The Andorian is very two-dimensional, going crazy because of the death of his family. He becomes very boring after awhile, and it's good that the story is short. The Maquis characters that DeCandido creates fulfill their roles well, but are rather basic otherwise. The distrust of Tuvok is understandable, but that's pretty much all there is.

While the Voyager story is pretty good, the Next Generation story that ends the book just completely falls apart. One of the problems with it is that it seems to be a showcase for DeCandido's new series of books about the IKS Gorkon and less a Next Generation story. That's fine in and of itself, but that's not really the way the book was sold. They do seem like an interesting crew, and DeCandido makes them intriguing to read about, but Picard and the rest of the Enterprise crew are bit players in their own story.

The second problem, and the one that made me almost want to put this book down in frustration many times in its short 140 page duration, was the constant explanation of continuity references. In many Star Trek books, there are so many references to past episodes that it can strangle a story. Others handle this very deftly, by either not including many references or by the author being very capable of explaining just enough of the references to not leave the new reader confused without bogging down the story. Throughout the first three stories in this series, DeCandido did a really good job of this. They were not intrusive, but they also weren't mystifying. Even better, a lot of these "references" were actually references to things that we haven't seen before, because they dealt with the new characters that DeCandido had created. That made them interesting. Unfortunately, in this final story, the continuity references come at the reader fast and furious, and DeCandido uses paragraph after paragraph to explain them. Most of them only need one paragraph, but when there are multiple references on each page, it starts to add up and get very messy. Not only are there references to television episodes, but there are multiple references to other books, as well (especially concerning the Gorkon, which has appeared on one of DeCandido's previous books).

The story also feels very staged and ends up being anti-climactic. DeCandido moves all of the pieces around, has them do their assigned jobs, and then has the book end within one page in a very boring way. Finally, there is fifteen pages of story after the ending, which makes the rest of the story seem very inconsequential. I understand that this is the conclusion to the two-book series, and thus needs to be there, but when the story itself is only 140 pages, it doesn't add much to the final story. I wouldn't mind so much if the story itself were actually good, but this really needed a bit more to it.

On a positive note, though, the crew of the Gorkon is very interesting, and I'm looking forward to their series. DeCandido is a good writer (this story not-withstanding) and I think he'll do a good job with it. It highlights the differences between Klingon ships and the Federation ships that we're all familiar with, as well as containing good characters to boot. I have to admit I was surprised by one of the deaths, because I thought that this character was one of the more interesting ones and I was looking forward to seeing the character in the new series. I was touched by the character, and really sorry to see the death. In such a short story that contains so much, that's a rare feat.

Overall, the series is very good, but it the final story is a big let down. Speaking specifically about this book, it contains a 4-star story and a 2-star story. Thus, I'll split the difference and make it 3-stars. What a waste.

David Roy

This portion of the story, (part three: The Third Artifact, 2371), takes place several weeks before the Star Trek: Voyager pilot episode "Caretaker," and shortly before the Star Trek: The Next Generation novel Double Helix Book four: "Quarantine. What I like about this series is that it is fast paced and fills in some timeline gaps and does some character fleshing out, along with a story that spans the whole Trek genre.

The artifacts are now called the Malkus Artifacts after an all powerful dictator that rules the Alpha Quadrant some ninety thousand of years ago. Malkus had four items constructed which served as the intruments of his rule. They were devices of impressive power. The devices were able to resist the gravitational forces of the Sun and were unscathed so this ancient culture spread them to remote locations so no one else could use them.

Ah, now, comes Starfleet as two of the impressive weapons were found in the first book the second series of two weapons will be found in this book. Part Three involves Captain Kathryn Janeway and the Starship Voyager as they find the third artifact in the demilitarized zone on a shakedown cruise. This device is now in the hands of the Maquis, so Janeway enlists some help from Captain Robert DeSoto of the U.S.S. Hood as Voyager's security chief Lieutenant Tuvok infiltrates the Maquis. This segment moves very quickly and it get your attention till the end.

The fourth and final Malkus artifact,(2376), leads to several disappearances throughout the Federation and the Klingon Empire. The fourth part takes place two years prior to Star Trek: Nemesis; it also takes place shortly after the Star Trek: Gateways book series, and a couple of months after the Star Trek-The Next Generation novel "Diplomatic Implausibility." Again the author tell a tale well as Captain Jean-Luc Picard joins forces with Captain Klag of the I.K.S. Gorkon and the Ambassadors Spock and Worf are in this book.

This book is action-packed-adventure only as DeCandido can deliver. Good reading for the Trek reader, also there are technical specifications for a Qang-Class Defense Vessel and a whole bunch of other story related stuff found in the back of the book.

My next book arrived today Star Trek: Nemesis... S.C.E. Omnibus Book Three has been ordered... Some Assembly Required, also Surak's Soul will arrive hopefully in February. Expect a Captain Klag book out soon with the adventure of its captain and the I.K.S. Gorkon coming soon. I'll see you around the galaxy.