Review of "Ship of the Line," by Diane Carey

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.