Rating: 
Summary: Good Idea, Good Plot for Star Trek fiction
Review: I'm no longer much of a fan of "Star Trek" yet this book did a fine job in keeping my interest. Authors Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels have written one of the better "Star Trek" novels I've come across, providing the reader with an engrossing tale about Captain Hikaru Sulu and the crew of the USS Excelsior set approximately five years after Captain Kirk's death. The authors excel in their descriptions of Tholian culture and society. It's one of the most unique examinations of an enemy alien civilization I've come across in "Star Trek". Diehard "Star Trek" fans will surely enjoy this novel; the first in a series which covers Federation history from the time of Kirk's death to the launching of the USS Enterprise under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
Rating:
Summary: Good Idea, Good Plot for Star Trek fiction
Review: I'm no longer much of a fan of "Star Trek" yet this book did a fine job in keeping my interest. Authors Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels have written one of the better "Star Trek" novels I've come across, providing the reader with an engrossing tale about Captain Hikaru Sulu and the crew of the USS Excelsior set approximately five years after Captain Kirk's death. The authors excel in their descriptions of Tholian culture and society. It's one of the most unique examinations of an enemy alien civilization I've come across in "Star Trek". Diehard "Star Trek" fans will surely enjoy this novel; the first in a series which covers Federation history from the time of Kirk's death to the launching of the USS Enterprise under the command of Captain Jean-Luc Picard.
Rating: 
Summary: An entertaining story with some dull spots
Review: It takes awhile for the main story to really get anywhere but there are some entertaining bits along the way. The most fun and interesting parts of the novel is the story of the Neyel and how they came to be. The Tholians are involved and we learn interesting things about them. Good parts but it needed to be shorter. The conflict with the Tholians and the Neyel took too long to develop so the story was a bit slow.
Rating: 
Summary: Tale of the Lost Plot
Review: Once again desparate to keep the franchise going Pocket Books have seen fit to engage on another multi-book series, and once again the results are at best mixed. Examining the missing periods of Star Trek history may seem like a good idea, but with the plethora of mediocre writers around today did they really think they could provide anything new or interesting? This is yet another example of a book that starts out well but soon loses its' way. Resplendant with a host of Star Trek cliches the average rabid fan will probably be satisfied, and there is enough whizz-bang action for the Playstation generation, but as usual there are a number of basic mistakes that are likely to leave purists cold. Also if you are expecting a good old-fashioned adventure with the characters of the original series that you love - forget it! Captain Sulu is about the only one who makes any valuable contribution to the story, the rest are just wallpaper dressing, and the new characters are excrutiatingly weak 'new age' space cadets full of emotional angst and problems (*the ghost of 'Voyager' still haunts Star Trek it seems!!!).
Having said that you may think I hate this book but I don't. It does have some potential and I liked the way the authors brought the Tholians to life. They were probably one of the most unusual aliens from the original series and yet with all the resources of modern Star Trek, and all the rehashed material floating around, few have seen fit to give them anything other than a passing mention. Though many fans will find the interpretation of the Tholians as a crystalline insect type species debatable, I enjoyed it and feel it is possible within the established Star Trek framework.
The real problem with this novel as I said is one of weak plot and poor characters. If you are looking for this kind of story I would be more likely to recommend "The Rift" by Peter David (Star Trek No. 57) published in November 1991, or at a pinch "The Galactic Whirlpool" by David Gerrold (*yes 'the tribble guy') published in 1980. You will find similar ideas in those novels but with a more focussed approach, and far less padding. What this novel really could have done with was some severe editing, as it is it really is too long and despite the action doesn't really fully deliver on what it promises.
Rating:
Summary: Great book!
Review: One of the better adventures that gives us another look into the command of Captain Sulu and the Excelsior. And there's a couple of moments in there for all of you who remember "The Naked Time". Enjoy!
Rating:
Summary: ST: The Lost Era 2298 The Sundered
Review: Star Trek: The Lost Era 2298 The Sundered written by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels is a character driven action-adventure novel. This is the third book written by this pair of authors and is the best yet in this genre. As stated in the book, this story is set in the year 2298, five years after the presumed death of Captain James T. Kirk aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise-B in Star Trek Generations, and sixty-six years before the launch of the Enterprise-D in "Encounter at Farpoint." Now, we get to see what happens after Kirk and prior to Picard as Captain Hikaru Sulu takes command of U.S.S. Excelsior in an action character driven book that keeps the readers interest piqued. The book is divided into ten sections giving the reader background to the characters within the story and it further carries the reader through the whole of the book. Making for an easy transition. There are space battles as the Tholians weave a web of vengence against the Neyel that have been approacing Tholian space via an interspacial rift, a tear in the fabric of space that allows great distances to be traveled in relatively short periods of times. This is the same rift in space that has trapped the Defiant from ST: TOS and later recovered by the ST Corps of Engineers. We read about some of our favorites from the older Trek novelizations including Chekov, Janice Rand, Christine Chapel, Tuvok and Akaar as they interact with the story. Interlaced within the pages of this book are flashbacks to scenes of past adventures spicing up the story and jogging the reader's memory. The Tholians and the Neyel are the featured aliens in this novel. The Tholians are a mineral based life that use musical tones to communicate and the Neyel have a past that leads back to Earth and look completely different from their original stock. Both lifeforms think the other is nonsentient, a leap of faith that you'll have to get over, as they are both spacefaring cultures where communication is a must. This is the crux of the problem, communication, where neither side has adquate universal translation skills and only the Excelsior and her crew can make communication possible. The book is a very fast read for its 384 pages as I found that I read 150 pages in one short sitting as the action mounts and the situations get resloved. The command of writting and style keeps the reader engrossed within the story and you'll finish the story in short order. This book is a solid 4 stars and is the third book that I've read from this duo of authors and it is the best so far. Captivating the reader and wanting to know what comes next are used with very powerful outcome, making for a delightful read. This series "The Lost Years" fills the trek reader in on what happens in the universe between Kirk and Picard. I only hope that the other 5 books in this 6 book series are as well-written as this opening foray.
Rating:
Summary: ST: The Lost Era 2298 The Sundered
Review: Star Trek: The Lost Era 2298 The Sundered written by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels is a character driven action-adventure novel. This is the third book written by this pair of authors and is the best yet in this genre. As stated in the book, this story is set in the year 2298, five years after the presumed death of Captain James T. Kirk aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise-B in Star Trek Generations, and sixty-six years before the launch of the Enterprise-D in "Encounter at Farpoint." Now, we get to see what happens after Kirk and prior to Picard as Captain Hikaru Sulu takes command of U.S.S. Excelsior in an action character driven book that keeps the readers interest piqued. The book is divided into ten sections giving the reader background to the characters within the story and it further carries the reader through the whole of the book. Making for an easy transition. There are space battles as the Tholians weave a web of vengence against the Neyel that have been approacing Tholian space via an interspacial rift, a tear in the fabric of space that allows great distances to be traveled in relatively short periods of times. This is the same rift in space that has trapped the Defiant from ST: TOS and later recovered by the ST Corps of Engineers. We read about some of our favorites from the older Trek novelizations including Chekov, Janice Rand, Christine Chapel, Tuvok and Akaar as they interact with the story. Interlaced within the pages of this book are flashbacks to scenes of past adventures spicing up the story and jogging the reader's memory. The Tholians and the Neyel are the featured aliens in this novel. The Tholians are a mineral based life that use musical tones to communicate and the Neyel have a past that leads back to Earth and look completely different from their original stock. Both lifeforms think the other is nonsentient, a leap of faith that you'll have to get over, as they are both spacefaring cultures where communication is a must. This is the crux of the problem, communication, where neither side has adquate universal translation skills and only the Excelsior and her crew can make communication possible. The book is a very fast read for its 384 pages as I found that I read 150 pages in one short sitting as the action mounts and the situations get resloved. The command of writting and style keeps the reader engrossed within the story and you'll finish the story in short order. This book is a solid 4 stars and is the third book that I've read from this duo of authors and it is the best so far. Captivating the reader and wanting to know what comes next are used with very powerful outcome, making for a delightful read. This series "The Lost Years" fills the trek reader in on what happens in the universe between Kirk and Picard. I only hope that the other 5 books in this 6 book series are as well-written as this opening foray.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent story.
Review: The authors give us a fine story, set in the time between the apparent death of Captain Kirk and the beginning of the "Next Generation" series, with Hikaru Sulu as Captain of the Excelsior the hero of the day. We get enough connection with the original series characters to feel grounded, while getting to see some new and interesting characters, too. If, like me, you had expected the second series to be one centering on Sulu as a captain, rather than making the immense jump in time that was made for the "Next Generation" series, this is a story you've been waiting for for a long time (close to 30 years now, I suppose.) I won't say that it was worth the wait; that would suggest that the wait was justified. But i will say that it's a good enough story that it should have been told long since.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent story.
Review: The authors give us a fine story, set in the time between the apparent death of Captain Kirk and the beginning of the "Next Generation" series, with Hikaru Sulu as Captain of the Excelsior the hero of the day. We get enough connection with the original series characters to feel grounded, while getting to see some new and interesting characters, too. If, like me, you had expected the second series to be one centering on Sulu as a captain, rather than making the immense jump in time that was made for the "Next Generation" series, this is a story you've been waiting for for a long time (close to 30 years now, I suppose.) I won't say that it was worth the wait; that would suggest that the wait was justified. But i will say that it's a good enough story that it should have been told long since.
Rating:
Summary: Character driven Trek novel
Review: The best Trek fiction these days isn't coming from within the established series themselves, but instead in novels set outside of the events we see on TV. One only has to witness the brilliance of Peter David's New Frontier series or the on-going continuation of the DS9 story to see this. And this month, Pocket books attempts to expand the series of original Trek fiction even further--this time by answering the questions of what happened between the death of James T. Kirk in Generations and the first time we saw the Enterprise in Encounter at Farpoint. It's an intriguing idea, if not necessarily an original one (TOS did it with the underrated Lost Years saga) and its really the type of thing the Trek fiction should be doing. The first entry is the Sundered, written by the phenomenal writing team of Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels. The story is one of Captain Sulu and his time aboard the Excelsoir, negotiated a peace treaty with the Tholians. But along comes a new race of aliens who hold a secret that just may unravel the delicate peace process and drag not only the Excelsoir but the entire Federation into war. Along the way there is a murder, some space battles and some guest appareances by Trek characters we've all heard of before. Martin and Mangalis take a page from the DS9 re-launch and allow the story to be character driven as well as dependent on the plot to move forward. We get moments to enjoy gettting to know the crew of the Excelsoir--both old and new friends--and we also get some exploration of the societies of the Tholians and the new aliens. It's the character moments that make the story a real page turner and help it rise to the level of quality that has been achieved by the DS9 relaunch. That said, the story does fall prey to some rather heavy-handed foreshadowing. There are flashbacks that take place within the story to certain events that will impact the plot later. Unfortunately, by doing this, I was able to guess the plot twist that was coming about fifty or so pages before if happened. Also, the authors suffer from something that a lot of modern Trek writers are falling prey to these days--novelizing scenes from classic Trek episodes. While it's not nearly as bad as the Michael Jan Friedman trilogy "My Brother's Keeper" it's still annoying enough to take you out of the novel for the few pages its include (also, thankfully they don't fall into Friedman's trap of novelizing the entire episode for us). But the good points far out weight the nitpicky points in this novel. This is one of the more enjoyable Trek novels I've read in a while and it's got my interest up not only for the next book but the entire Lost Era series. It also makes me wonder if a series featuring Sulu and his Excelsoir crew wouldn't be welcome. I know there are already a lot of on-going Trek fiction series out there, but if the stories for Sulu and company are going to be this good, I think I could make a bit more space on the bookshelf for more such stories.
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