Sunday 6 November 2016

Retro Review: Titan's The Red King



As we come to the third book in the post-Nemesis list we are staying aboard the USS Titan with Captain Riker and his crew & continues the story set up at the end of the previous novel The Red King.

Admiral Akaar (The Original Series episode Friday's Child) and Commander Donatra (Star Trek Nemesis) are also back in this novel from authors Andy Mangels and Michael A Martin plus it features the Neyal (The Original Series novel The Sundered) and for anyone who has read this it does feel a little like a sequel to that story but you don't need to have read either this or the previous Titan book to enjoy this story.

In The Red King we learn that part of the fallout from Nemesis was a rift was caused in Romulan space when Shinzon's ship exploded. This created a rift in space which pulled in the Titan and Donatra's Romulan fleet to the Magellan cloud which is where they encounter the Neyal who are an offshoot of humanity not encountered in many years. 

We also find out that a Klingon ship has been sucked into the rift and Donatra is unusually willing to help out but we eventually find out her reasons for doing so. 

The Titan crew discover a small proto universe has been created due to the rift and is causing space around it to expand and erase itself. It leaves the crew with some scientific and philosophical decisions to weigh up & leads them to make some very difficult choices. 

As this adventure raps up there is a big party on the bridge for the senior crew and finally the Titan gets its dedication plaque - "Infinite diversity in infinite combinations". 

While this was a good read I did have a few issues with the book. As this is only the second book of the Titan series, we are still getting used to the crew but I feel the book spends more time focusing on the Neyal rather than our new crew. Also while it is great to see a diverse crew there are to many new species onboard and it is very hard to keep them all straight in your head. 

Two points that the authors dropped in; Vale, Rikers second in command having an issue with Deanna being part of the senior staff and being his wife causing conflict and also some of the crew noting that Federation starships are primarily commanded by Humans -hopefully will be picked up in future books. 

All in all a decent read but not probably one you would reread.

What are your memories of The Red King?


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