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Rating: 
Summary: Excellent, just different
Review: "Orphans" is different from most SCE ebooks because instead of simply presenting one problem it presents several which do not look related but are. Nearly half of the story is told from the perspective of the natives of the wandering colony ship. However, instead of just explaining everything from the begining, Killiany gives us pieces of the puzzle which don't all fit together until the end. This makes for a couple of moments of "huh?" at the begining, followed by "aha!" at the end. You have to pay attention to the clues, though. It's clear Killiany loves world building, the natives and their world are very fully realized and laid out. The structure and culture of the colony ship, which is not as simple as it first appears, involves a lot more hard science than is usual in a Trek story, so it's a little hard going if you're not into that sort of thing. Also, Killiany jumps forward and backward through the story which can throw you off. There are times and dates to help keep things straight, but they're given in the native's base-four system (like "two fours and three days before the Quest") so again you have to pay attention. The characterizations are very good, particularly P8 Blue.
We only get to know one of the Klingon "SCE" -- the leader. He is not a warrior but a craftsman, something we don't see much of in Klingons. Overall, "Orphans" is a good read. However, its flavor is more "mainstream" science fiction than what a lot of Trek readers might expect. If you want something a little out of the ordinary, I highly recommend it. -- James
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, just different
Review: "Orphans" is different from most SCE ebooks because instead of simply presenting one problem it presents several which do not look related but are. Nearly half of the story is told from the perspective of the natives of the wandering colony ship. However, instead of just explaining everything from the begining, Killiany gives us pieces of the puzzle which don't all fit together until the end. This makes for a couple of moments of "huh?" at the begining, followed by "aha!" at the end. You have to pay attention to the clues, though. It's clear Killiany loves world building, the natives and their world are very fully realized and laid out. The structure and culture of the colony ship, which is not as simple as it first appears, involves a lot more hard science than is usual in a Trek story, so it's a little hard going if you're not into that sort of thing. Also, Killiany jumps forward and backward through the story which can throw you off. There are times and dates to help keep things straight, but they're given in the native's base-four system (like "two fours and three days before the Quest") so again you have to pay attention. The characterizations are very good, particularly P8 Blue.
We only get to know one of the Klingon "SCE" -- the leader. He is not a warrior but a craftsman, something we don't see much of in Klingons. Overall, "Orphans" is a good read. However, its flavor is more "mainstream" science fiction than what a lot of Trek readers might expect. If you want something a little out of the ordinary, I highly recommend it. -- James
Rating: 
Summary: A disappointing addition to a series
Review: If SCE wasn't such a fantastic series overall this book may not seem so disappointing. The story of the SCE crew having to work with a Klingon crew to repair an out of control ship, that in this case is inhabited by a people who think they are on a planet (along the lines of the episode 'For the World is Hollow and I have Touched the Sky)is a good idea. The medieval culture and the problems of the aliens provides lots of potential. Unfortunately that potential is never realised.
The main events in this book are never written. Instead a chapter ends on the cusp of important meetings/ events and when we return back to that place it's over. All we get are snippets of people talking about what has taken place. Annoyingly for such a short book I had to keep going back to check I hadn't skipped a chapter.
While seeing things from an alien point of view is nice in theory the aliens never seem to be more than one dimentional characters. It feels like a waste of space to be reading the thoughts of characters we don't care about when we could be finding out what happened to the crew we do care about (four days worth of important events with the crew are briefly mentioned in a few lines)
The overall impression given by this book is that the author just skipped over the difficult bits, or possibly that a rough idea of a story with the detail yet to be filled in was published by accident.
Unfortunately for Orphans, it is because the SCE series is generally of such high quality that an average book seems a lot worse than it otherwise might.
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