My review of the latest Star Trek: Vanguard novel, Precipice, is now up at Shiny Shelf. Go check it out, you know you want to.

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A little Star Trek humor… jump, Chekov, jump!

Last Updated: 10/21/2009

If you’ve read this site for a while, you know that I love the Star Trek: Titan series of books, chronicling the adventures of Riker and his crew of the USS Titan as they spearhead a new era of exploration for Starfleet. Star Trek: Titan has been describe by former Senior Editor and creator of the series, Marco Palmieri, as “The Original Series in the Next Generation time frame.” While looking through some stats for my site the other day, I noticed that the highest number of hits from Internet searches this month were from people looking for information on “USS Titan”. So, I thought I’d put together a sort of mini-guide, cobbling together information and try to give someone new to the series a decent introduction. I will be updating this page as time goes on.

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Synthesis is the latest entry in the popular Star Trek: Titan novel series, with well-regarded British writer James Swallow taking the reins this time around. In Synthesis, Titan encounters a race of sentient machines, whose civilization is losing a conflict against a vast and barely comprehensible enemy known as the Null. If the machines fail, the Null could pose a threat to all life in the galaxy, and beyond.

This is why I love the Titan series; Swallow deftly intermixes high-concept science fiction with compelling drama and action. Swallow raises questions about prejudice and machine / AI’s right to life in a way that is fresh. In doing so, he casts a mirror on the diversity of the crew with a twist, while avoiding any heavy-handedness. The world building Swallow treats us to is on par with Christoper L. Bennett’s work, which is to say, fantastic. The Sentry Coalition are an intriguing species, and specifically their member, SecondGen White-Blue. White-Blue, by necessity, is the most fleshed out of the Sentry, and develops the character with a careful hand that made it one of my favorite in the novel. Swallow also does a wonderful job in capturing the crew members’ voices, who come across and authentic and not merely as ciphers.

The criticisms are few. I did not care for the use of Minuet in the novel (the visual, not the character / AI underneath of it). The AI using that “disguise” could have looked like anyone, really, and very little, if anything, would have been lost. In fact, Titan’s AI could have been very interesting character arc over a number of books; it was a bit of a shame to see it truncated here (though, again, necessary). And (certainly out of the author’s control) the cover was what I like to consider a “cheap pop”; to easily draw in the readers who will recognize Minuet’s face, even though it never conveys an actual scene in the novel. I just didn’t care for it.

The Titan series continues to push ahead with its tenet of being “the Original Series for the Next Generation era,” being about Star Trek’s core purpose of exploration. Swallow does the series justice with Synthesis, continuing the high quality that has been a hallmark since the beginning. Highly recommended.

Rating: A

Ganked from Dayton Ward’s blog, because this is very funny.

Open Secrets is the fourth volume in the popular Star Trek: Vanguard novel series, taking place concurrent with the original series and chronicling the events concerning a starbase in a remote region of space called the Taurus Reach and an operation to unlock the mysteries of a genome and technological remnants of an ancient and extremely powerful race.  That is Vanguard’s premise at its most basic; it says nothing of the complex politics and military ramifications involving several races, including the Klingons and Tholians.  Popular Trek author Dayton Ward takes the reigns solo on this volume, writing the volume based on a story by himself and his usual writing partner, Kevin Dilmore.  Open Secrets picks up in the aftermath of the previous volume, Reap the Whirlwind. Starbase 47 commander, Commodore Reyes, has leaked top-secret information on Operation:  Vanguard, leading to a court-martial and trial.  The Klingons begin to make bold moves into the Taurus Reach,  and intelligence office T’Prynn faces a psychological battle that will change her life forever.

Open Secrets resolves a few dangling plot threads from the previous books in the series, and as is typical for an ongoing narrative, leaves a few more.  Ward’s writing style is straightforward, with lean prose and solid pacing that, for the most part, briskly takes the reader through a lot of territory.  Open Secrets has a rather large scope, another hallmark for the series; not only covering a number of characters and locales, but over the course of months.  As with his previous entry in the series, Summon the Thunder, you feel like you’ve read through an entire season worth of material by the time you are done with the novel.  It is a credit to Ward as a writer that the novel, for the most part, rides along smoothly.  Only in a couple of parts does the plot drag a bit.  For example, T’Prynn’s internal, dream-like struggle gets repetitive and then is resolved rather abruptly.  This is probably just a nitpick, and is not that bad considering her current character arc reaches its conclusion.

Ward has done another great job in the latest Vanguard entry; he has a love for the era and it shows.  He is able to evoke a variety of drama in this novel: court room, political, military, diplomatic, and does it with ease.  New station commander, Admiral Heihachiro Nogura, is very well fleshed out and is wisely developed as a very-much different type of officer than Reyes.  Open Secrets continues the very high quality for the Vanguard series, and thankfully we only have to a wait a few more months until volume five, Precipice.

Rating: A

I’ve had these three books on my bookshelf for over a year.  I got them cheaply off of Half.com but never got around to reading them until last weekend.  Once I picked up the first book, Cohesion, and started reading it on a whim, I was pretty much hooked.  Next thing I knew, I was 80 pages into it with no signs of stopping.

I’m not a huge fan of Star Trek:  Voyager.  I watched it fairly regularly through the first four seasons, and trailed off during the fifth. I would catch it here and there, but the same thought always struck me:  what a shame.  Voyager could easily have been the best of all the Trek series.  It had probably the best premise of any spin-off (lost across the galaxy with two ideologically different crews forced to band together?  Talk about the storytelling possibilities, not only from a dramatic standpoint but from a sci-fi / high concept one as well).  Instead, Voyager relegated itself to sticking with the by-then stale formula of Next Generation, coupled with little character growth, screwy internal logic, and poor-to-average use of the series’ concept on most days.  Voyager is the rare series where I find the first season actually was the best, as it stayed closest to possibilities of what could be done with the series (see “Parallax”, “Ex Post Facto”, “Prime Factors”, “Emanations”, and “The Cloud” as some great stories IMHO).  Had Voyager been produced in today’s post-Battlestar Galactica environment, we would have had a better series.

About 4 years ago, in the 10th anniversary year of Voyager, Pocket Books put out a trilogy (set between the 4th and 5th seasons) and short story collection to commemorate the occasion.  I initially gave the trilogy, String Theory, a pass.  At the time, I wasn’t very interested in reading Trek fiction that took place in-between episodes or seasons of the series; that seemed like the old way of putting out Trek fiction, and with all the book relaunches, I wanted to read fiction that pushed the series in new directions, not run over old ground.  Since then, I’ve changed my mind regarding that, and am willing to give a book a chance for, you know, the story.  And since editor extraordinaire Macro Palmieri edited the trilogy, I figured that it had to be good.

And I am very glad I gave it a read.  I went through the 1,100+ pages of the trilogy in a week.  Without spoiling anything, the race introduced in the trilogy, the Monorhans, is one of the most finely developed in Trek literature, and their story arc in the trilogy is a fascinating one.  Even better is how the trilogy ties into one of the oldest, unresolved plot threads in the Voyager TV series and makes it work.  It’s not just shoehorned in or gratuitous.  The trilogy enhances certain aspects of the series, as well as resolving and explaining some of the core issues in later seasons.  Again, the trilogy does this without being overbearing in terms of continuity.  Aside from that, the crew is put through an amazing set of crucibles during the trilogy, and as the reader you really get the sense that the crew is pushed to the breaking point.  The ultimate resolution in the final book is a fine payoff for challenges faced during the trilogy and is very satisfying.  There are also some great concepts used here, such as the massive array orbiting a black hole in the second book, Fusion, and the inhabitants therein.  The authors really did a great job in mapping out the trilogy and using Voyager’s core concepts to the fullest.

Breaking it down book-by-book, I found the first two, Cohesion and Fusion to be the best.  The final book, Evolution, was a bit disappointing.  I found it to be a step down in terms of the plotting and story choices (Tom and Harry’s storyline was tedious, and the Doctor’s story in the past aligns awkwardly with the rest of the trilogy).  There are some really good parts in Evolution, however; the last 60 pages are riveting, the conclusion satisfying, and the brave choice to have Janeway out of the picture was a welcome one.  Also, the last line is a very nice touch.

Voyager fans should love this trilogy.  Star Trek fans should give this trilogy a look; if you ever wanted to see how Voyager could have been if done correctly and consistently, String Theory is a great place to start.

Rating:  A

What is it?
Full Circle is the latest novel in the Star Trek: Voyager relaunch series. In fact, this novel (coming 4 1/2 years after the previous relaunch novel) charts an entirely new direction for the series, under writer Kirsten Beyer. Full Circle covers the 2 1/2 years since the previous novel and just what the crew has been up to, with all the tragedy, heartbreak, and drama you can cram into a 561-page novel.

What did I think?
I’ve got to be honest, Full Circle didn’t blow me away. While Beyer is a fine writer, the problem I had with Full Circle was that it felt like one big cleanup job. Opinions of the Voyager relaunch, under Christie Golden’s tenure, among online fandom has been fairly heated and mixed. I read the Golden’s first two books in the series and gave up. But the Voyager relaunch books sold very well, and the last novel left a number of plotlines dangling. The promise of a fresh outlook on the series and Beyer being the writer (I enjoyed her short story from the Voyager short story collection, Distant Shores , a few years back) had me excited to read Full Circle.

Full Circle is Beyer not only resolving those stories, but also putting her own stamp on the series with a vengeance. In the process, she removes just about all of Golden’s additions to the crew. Do I blame her? Not at all. Beyer’s additions are interesting in their own right (Captain Eden being my favorite), and certain plots that I did not care for (Secret Agent Libby) have been resolved in a way that they will no longer have a bearing on the series. Voyager’s new mission (and its setup) is an intriguing one, as is Admiral Batiste and his relationship (working and otherwise) with Eden. That dynamic has a lot of potential.

However, getting through the resolution of some of the dangling threads was a chore. The first 250 pages involving the kidnapping of Paris and Torres’ child did not engage me at all. As I got further into the story, I read it just for the sake of the story, but I was relieved when it was over. The rest of the novel is better.  Full Circle is not a bad novel by any means, and is an improvement on previous books in the series. But I don’t think I can judge it too strongly either way since it reads like a transition novel, and tries to cover a lot of ground. Some of the pacing and non-linear elements did not work for me.   To the author and editor’s credit, they released this as one novel (had it been two and the first book was the Miral subplot, I would never have bothered picking up the rest of the series), and if you look at it from a value standpoint, you are not short-changed.

What’s the final word?
Full Circle brings a new writer, editor, and direction to the series. With these new sensibilities, I believe the online contingent of fandom will be excited by Beyer’s story choices. However, being a transition novel, the true value of this new direction will not be seen until the next novel, Unworthy, later this year. Beyer does a good enough job in hooking me in with the new premise to lure me back for the next novel, and to reserve judgment on whether I am sticking it out or bailing on Voyager. Full Circle is flawed, but in the end it works. How well will be up to the reader. For me, it didn’t connect as well as other novels have.

Rating: C+

Dayton Ward is a novelist and popular Star Trek author, whose credits include Star Trek:  Vanguard:  Summon the Thunder, The 4400:  Wet Work, and Star Trek:  The Next Generation:  A Time to Harvest / A Time to Sow (all co-written with Kevin Dilmore), as well as The Last World War.  Dayton Ward takes some time out of his schedule to participate in The Ten and discuss his latest novel, Star Trek:  Vanguard:  Open Secrets, as well as writing in general, fandom, and more.

1. Your latest novel is Star Trek: Vanguard: Open Secrets. Noticeably absent on the cover is your usual partner-in-crime, Kevin Dilmore. What was his involvement in the development of this novel, and why no partnership this time around?

Kevin and I developed the story for Open Secrets intending to share in the writing duties as we have on a number of projects over the past several years. Unfortunately, fate chose mid-late 2008 to throw Kevin some curve balls from several directions. In the end, he simply did not have time to work on this book and deal with everything else going on, and opted to step back from the project. He asked that his name be removed from the cover, but he still has a shared story credit with me on the book’s title page.

Those worried that this might signal the end of our writing partnership should rest easy; Kevin and I have already collaborated on a novella which will be out next year for the Star Trek: Seven Deadly Sins anthology, and we’re starting to work on a new article for Star Trek magazine. Still, you can expect to hear about us working on various solo projects from time to time in the months to come.

2. Can you give us an overview of creation of this novel, from outline to final print?

Well, a lot of what is in Open Secrets is due to us taking cues from fellow writer and Vanguard co-creator David Mack, who wrote the previous book in the series, Reap the Whirlwind. Readers familiar with the book know that Dave left us with quite a few dangling plot threads demanding attention. After three books of introducing characters and a lot of action and big events unfolding, circumstances required a deliberate change of pace and focus for the next book in the series.

We also were given the task of advancing the overall storyline so far as Vanguard’s position within the larger Star Trek timeline. The first three books in the series take place very early in the original series’ first season, between the pilot episode “Where No Man Has Gone Before” and the first production episode, “The Corbomite Maneuver.” Open Secrets unfolds over a large chunk of time – several months, moving deep into the timeframe covered by later episodes of the first season of TOS.

As for the actual writing, as I said before, Kevin and I started out writing this novel together. We divided up the various plotlines and chapters, and set to work. I wrote my “half” during the summer of 2008, but even then Kevin was beginning to dodge bullets from various fronts, and it was having an effect on his writing. To give my man some well-deserved credit, he kept fighting despite what I know was a lot of pressure squeezing him from all sides. Finally, he came to me and editor Marco Palmieri and told us he was having trouble, did not like what he was writing, and could not focus on it due to other priorities having to take precedence. I had a phone conversation with Marco, who asked me if I could write the rest of the book in the time remaining before the due date, or if some sort of extension was required. Not wanting the book to slip in the publication schedule, I said that I thought I could finish the writing in what was just over a month. I ended up writing close to 72,000 words over the course of just about five weeks, all while balancing a full-time job, a wife and kids, chores around the house, and so on. I was a zombie for the last couple of weeks, and collapsed the night after I handed in the manuscript. It’s not an exercise I wish to repeat any time soon.

3. With a number of different TV and original book series novels vying for spots on the schedule, what makes Star Trek: Vanguard different from the rest? Or, to put it another way, why does Vanguard matter?

Most of the other fiction series and their respective spin-offs are set in the Next Generation era, so Vanguard helps to provide a nice balance to that. It’s also the only series where the overall storyline has been plotted from beginning to end, although things have evolved to a point that the entire saga cannot really be boiled down to a set number of books. Vanguard allows us to play in the setting of the original series, which is my personal favorite of all the shows, while not being tied to the canonical events featuring that show’s characters. Some might say there’s no real fun left to be had in this era, since what we already know of future Star Trek “history” hems us in a bit, but I don’t look at it that way. There are still lots of stories to be told in the 23rd century, be they with Kirk’s Enterprise, Vanguard station, or characters and ships yet to be created. As for the series itself, its premise and assortment of characters — very few of whom are molded in the prim and proper Starfleet image — allow the telling of stories which would feel out of place in, say, an original series or even a Deep Space Nine novel.

4. Who was your favorite character to write in Open Secrets?

I have a few favorites. A large portion of the story by necessity focused on Commodore Diego Reyes, who was arrested at the end of Reap the Whirlwind, and I enjoyed the chance to do a few new things with him. I also had fun with his replacement as station commander, Admiral Nogura, and Ambassador Jetanien is always a favorite character to write. The ambassador’s role in the series is beginning to shift, as we’ll start to see in Open Secrets, and that will be fleshed out some more in the series’ next book. One character I enjoyed writing who ended up not appearing in the final version of the book was Dr. Richard Daystrom (the TOS episode “The Ultimate Computer”). Though we had him in the original outline and I wrote the scenes featuring him for the first draft, we eventually decided we didn’t need him for purposes of the Vanguard storyline. Too bad…I think he could’ve had a fun, if necessarily short, plot arc before continuity and “canon” required him to be elsewhere.

5. Describe your writing / creative process. What tools do you use to generate and develop ideas?

I get ideas from anywhere and everywhere; something I read or see in the news, or I read in another book which I turn on its ear, something I observe from people-watching, you name it. Anything you encounter just walking down the street can be the kernel of a story idea.

As for developing plots and whatnot, at the early stage, I use a whiteboard in my home office. When I’m done, the thing looks like a flowchart, with different color markers used to indicate different characters, subplots, etc. I do most of my actual writing on my laptop, but I’ve been known to take pen to paper when I think I need a change of venue or pace. I don’t write out entire chapters in longhand as I did when I first started, but I still write the occasional scene while sitting in a restaurant, waiting in the doctor’s office, and so on.

6. You have written a number of “media tie-in” novels in a few franchises. Why do you think a stigma exists for writers who work just as hard at creating novels in this area as opposed to “original” fiction?

I suppose some of that stems from the fact that there’s no shortage of adaptations and other tie-ins which were and continue to be written by authors simply looking for a quick paycheck. There certainly have been more than a few authors who’ve admitted as much. As for other people who might hold that perception, be they writers or readers, usually they’re commenting from a position of ignorance with respect to how such books are developed, written, and published, and by whom. Award-winning novelists like Kevin J. Anderson or Max Allan Collins just to name two off the top of my head write several books a year, both their own work as well as media tie-in fiction. Everyone I personally know who works in this field busts their ass to create something they’re proud to say they’ve written, regardless of whether it’s their own original fiction or a Star Trek or Star Wars novel.

7. You have had a flash fiction serial published in installments on a couple of websites. Do you see the Internet as a viable and legitimate outlet for fiction to be published in the future?

Absolutely. Anyone who tells you otherwise has their head stuck in the sand, or perhaps lodged in some body orifice. Look at how the Internet has changed how we receive news and other information, shop, find a job or just a phone number or address, order dinner, watch movies or catch an episode of some television show that we missed; whatever. How many print newspapers folded this year? How many magazines have reduced or abandoned their publication schedules in favor of moving content to the web? How many independent book stores have given up renting space at a strip mall and instead sell their books via conduits like eBay or Amazon.com?

Readers and authors have been connecting via the Internet for years, starting with Usenet newsgroups or online services like GEnie or CompuServe or Prodigy, to AOL and now personal websites and blogs and social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook. Why not use these venues to offer writing samples if not complete short stories or even novels?

While I don’t think the printed book is going anywhere any time soon, the popularity of electronic books and magazines read via a laptop computers or portable devices is increasing. Slowly, but it is increasing. With your phone or a device like Amazon’s Kindle, you can receive content directly from providers via the Internet. I’ve seen news stories where newspapers and magazines are looking into similar delivery systems. It’s insane not to explore the advantages and potential offered by such technology. The key is not to treat the electronic version of your book, newspaper, or magazine like the unwanted stepchild of your print incarnation. Publishers at every level, from the smallest of micro-presses to the largest houses to the premiere news organizations around the world, have to put some real money, time, and effort into leveraging the Internet’s potential to maximum effect, or they’re not going to survive. The landscape is increasingly littered with the dried up husks of those who failed to realize this simple reality.

8. Fandom: Necessary evil, misunderstood beast, or something else entirely?

Fans can be awesome. They can also be damned infuriating. You’ve got casual fans, ardent fans, obsessed fans, and downright scary fans. I love the first two groups, whether they tell me they like my work or not. Fans with a passion for this stuff is the reason Star Trek has thrived as long as it has. Some of the people in the latter two groups can be off-putting, to say the least.

The problem is that fandom is not some monolithic entity; you can’t get two or more fans to agree on anything. I’ve read reviews of my work where the reader thought it was the greatest thing ever put to paper, followed immediately by another review for the same work where the reviewer was adamant that I never be allowed within reach of any sort of writing implement ever again, and that my arms should be amputated and my mouth sewn shut for good measure. Though I’ll admit I sometimes let a bad review get to me when I know I shouldn’t, I generally try to just let all of that stuff roll off my back. Likewise, I try not to get too excited or pleased with myself when I read a nice, positive review. I enjoy the momentary satisfaction of knowing I was able to entertain that person for a little while, and then I get back to work.

9. In your opinion, is J. J. Abrams’ new Star Trek movie (setting, time frame, style) exactly what the franchise needs right now?

In concept, this is exactly what Star Trek needs: A good kick in its ass. Robin Hood, King Arthur, Tarzan, James Bond, Batman and Superman—to name just a handful of examples—have all been repeatedly and successfully re-imagined for new audiences. Why not Star Trek? I’ll go to my grave a fan of the original series. My earliest memories of watching television include Star Trek, and as a fan I can’t wait for this new film. I don’t care if the uniforms, sets, ships, and all of that stuff is updated. I don’t care that different, younger actors are playing the characters I grew up watching on TV. What I care about is that – at its core – this new movie retains the heart and soul of what has always made for a good Star Trek story: characters you can care about offering hope that our future is brighter than our present, and that we as a race will put aside our stupid differences and continue to mature, improve and evolve as we reach for that future. Oh, and maybe lay the flying drop kick on a bad buy before bagging the occasional hot Orion green chick.

10. What’s next for Dayton Ward?

Just getting ready to hit stores is an anthology of military science fiction short stories I edited for Flying Pen Press, titled Space Grunts. It’s the third book in their series of anthologies with the umbrella title Full-Throttle Space Tales (I just love that title). The book features 18 stories, many of them by fellow Star Trek fiction alumni. I’m currently working on the sequel to my science fiction novel The Last World War, which is scheduled for publication in April 2010. I’m hoping to write another Star Trek novel after that, but we’ll have to see what we’ll see, so far as that’s concerned. After that? Who knows? Stay tuned!

Dayton, thank you very much for your time!

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had the opportunity to buy and/or read a few items.  Here are my random musings:

• Star Trek:  A Singular Destiny.  I finally got a chance to finish this novel by Keith R. A. DeCandido.  As usual, it was up to his high standard.  A very solid follow-up to the Star Trek:  Destiny trilogy, forming a natural progression of the cataclysmic events in that novel.  One of the main characters, Sonek Pran, reminded me of Trek’s version of the Doctor (from Doctor Who), for some strange reason, and I would like to see him in some capacity in the future.  Captain Dax and the crew of the Aventine get some more air time here, and the novel incorporates a lot of different characters and situations while DeCandido manages to deftly present them all without drowning the reader.  The one flaw I found in this novel was Pran’s reconciliation with his son; it felt cliched and obvious.  Aside from that, I am very curious how the events with the Typhon Pact will play out (which is an idea I love; I’m reading it as basically the Soviet Union to the USA post-World War II.  There are so many potential storytelling possibilities to come out of this).  Overall, a great way to kick off 2009.  Rating:  B+.


• Star Wars:  Fate of the Jedi Book One:  Outcast.  I finished this one shortly before vacation, and while a longer review will be forthcoming, I really enjoyed this.  Can’t say I’m entirely sold on the idea of the entire Fate of the Jedi series coming out in hardcover, but if the quality the same as this novel or better, I won’t have too much to complain about.


• The Hunger of Empty Vessels by Scott Edelman.  Ordered my copy while on vacation and already had it here when I returned.  I love how the novella is bound (basically felt like a prestige format comic book); signed and numbered for only $15, which isn’t bad.  A full review will also be forthcoming.  Love the cover and concept, and if David Mack was pimping it, it can’t be all bad, right?  ;)


• Captain America #49, “The Daughter of Time”.  An interlude story after the the new Cap’s adventure in China over the past 6 issues, we catch up with Sharon Carter as she comes to terms with her role during the events of the epic The Death of Captain America storyline.  Some well-done scenes, such as when she discovers her pregnancy (and loss of the baby).  That scene, however, does not make any sense considering this story takes place 6 months after losing the baby, and you’re telling me she just now notices the scar?  Aside from that, a decent issue.  Looking forward to the big 5-0 issue.


• Picked up Planetary:  Crossing Worlds, which now means I have every Planetary trade paperback available.  This also means that it’s time for a full re-read of the series thus far.


• I think I’ll be subscribing to Shutterbug magazine for my photography.  I’ve bought a few issues and have dug them.  Any suggestions?


• Currently reading Star Trek:  Voyager:  Full Circle.  126 pages in and Kirsten Beyer has redeemed the Voyager relaunch for me.  It’s actually not tedious.  And it’s engaging.  And no Secret Agent Libby (except for a couple of pages, and they were totally worth it.  See ya!)  Wow.