Review of
Ship
of the Line, by Diane Carey ISBN 0671009249
Four out of five stars
While the side plots
are interesting, there are too many of them in this book, which manages to
cover many years and characters in the ongoing Star Trek saga. The main premise
is based on the Star Trek Next Generation episode 118 “Cause and Effect.” The
Enterprise is caught in a time loop, repeating actions where they collide with
another Federation ship that is from the past. After a great deal of debate,
the crew of the Enterprise is able to break out of the loop and avoid the other
ship, the “Bozeman” under the command of Captain Morgan Bateson. The Bozeman
entered the time portal during a deadly battle with a Klingon ship and reappeared
90 years in the future.
The opposing Klingon
commander is disgraced and spends decades trying to recover his honor. He then
makes one more attempt to restore his good name by taking over the latest
version of the Enterprise after it was destroyed in the events of the feature
film “Generations.” There is a significant reference to the Next Generation
episode “Chain of Command” as well as extensive virtual conversations between Captains
Picard and Kirk, referencing the two episodes of the original series “The Enemy
Within” and “Balance of Terror.”
All of this
makes for a complicated story with many threads, none of which is really
dominant. To me, the high points of the book are the virtual conversations between
Kirk and Picard, where Kirk explains his reasoning and emotions as he brings
the Enterprise through extremely difficult circumstances. Compared to these plot
threads, the rest of the book is rather dull.
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