Cold Equations Book Three: The Body Electric

David Mack's conclusion to the Cold Equations trilogy is both epic and brave - and there might be spoilers!

Brave because there are no Tholians,  Gorn, Breen or mention of the Typhon Pact; epic because this really is the ultimate mission for survival. Very little of the Alpha Quadrant gets a look in here and if you're looking for "more of the same" then this is certainly a curve ball I didn't see coming to round off David Mack's latest three-book foray into Trekdom.

If it wasn't for the ongoing tale of the resurrected Data and his search for the Immortal, you could be forgiven at times for thinking that this is a standalone novel. That thread is in greater evidence here than before and certainly more than in Silent Weapons so if you were wondering where it had gone, never fear.  While there is a larger threat and storyline played out in The Body Electric, you cannot help but be reminded of the events and narrative that have reintroduced us to Data 2.0. The overall arc has very much been the story of his return and the quest that he takes on to locate Akharin (aka Emil Vaslovik aka the Immortal). This was almost skated over in the previous novel with scant reference to the arc until the last few chapters which essentially set up this finale.

As I've said, if you're expecting something similar to Silent Weapons then you'll be surprised. as The Body Electric is different again showing that Mack is a dab hand at at least three genres and is not fond of sitting back and allowing his readers to get too comfortable or dug into the rut of "same old, same old" storytelling. The Persistence of Memory was autobiographical for the most part; Silent Weapons a political thriller and here in The Body Electric it's all about action and (Im)mortal danger. The stakes have, to use a cliché, never been higher.   

Finding a terrible galaxy-destroying machine at the heart of the Milky Way, Traveler Wesley Crusher returns to the Enterprise seeking help to save civilisation from imminent destruction when he is left with no other option and abandoned by his associates. While all this kicks off at one location, Data makes contact with the Fellowship of Artificial Intelligence in order to gain access to the Immortal, Akharin. Mack takes us to the very heart of our galaxy for the climax to the Cold Equations trilogy. Changing the style of novel maintains the focus and has kept this series from becoming stale. Here the story elements are drawn together from different locations to the arena where the showdown for this saga is ultimately set - and the centre of the galaxy can be no bigger a stage!

Now I'll give Mack this; until their mention right at the end of Silent Weapons I had completely forgotten about Noonien Soong's visits from the Fellowship of Artificial Intelligence. In The Body Electric we really get to understand their significance within the overall framework of this trilogy and what their ultimate goal is. The android characters we meet are wide and varied; tentacled, bipedal, tread-rolling, multi-eyed and exceptionally loyal to their cause. Once more the benefit of the written page allows Mack to create much  more than we would have been able to experience on the screen which in turn gives these stories something of a cinematic quality - the writers of a few Enterprise episodes could have learned a thing or too from this.

Tyros, the second-in-command(roid) we have met before, attempting to lure Soong to their ranks in the pages of Book One. Now we see him as the right-hand to Gatt, a more hard-line android who has, shall we say, been through the mill. I loved reading the sections where these two characters were present as they aren't maliciously evil and, as Tyros points out, it's more about obsession. I found Gatt quite interesting namely due to his beliefs and determination. Gatt's path through the novel is certainly one of the more interesting and is perhaps not what you might expect. Tyros however doesn't come across quite as sinister or shadowy as he did in The Persistence of Memory and it's a shame that this is lost, possibly due to the nature of the story more than anything else - at some point we had to "get to know" him.

In relation to this pairing, Mack handles several duets through The Body Electric and there are certainly a few to explore.  While Silent Weapons highlighted the bond between Picard and Crusher, Mack goes to town with Worf and the captain being the only ones to seemingly slip the net. Central is the relationship triangle of Data, Akharin and Rhea McAdams. The way in which these three deal with each other while in the company of the Fellowship is crucial to the book and to bring about a conclusion to this piece of Data's rebirth. This is a Data determined to succeed with his own goals especially where family is concerned (make sure you take note of the prologue, readers). If that's not enough for you then there are a few secondary stories building on this relationships theme. . We have seen Taurik and T'Ryssa Chen before, but I'm not sure if their story brings much to the novel overall. It acts as a distraction from the intensity of the main plot but whether it's necessary at all is debatable as the arc story and the danger posed by the Machine are more than enough here to fill out near-350 pages. In some ways this additional "C" story feels like filler which is interesting as I didn't get that sense with either of the previous books. It is all wrapped up well but I would have preferred Data's search for the Immortal to have taken a bit longer to build up and intensify. The way in which it all happens early on just seems a bit easy! I had expected there to be more time spent finding Akharin and travelling to the Machine (as it is called) but there seems to be a lost opportunity to explore what Wesley has been doing and some more investigative workings from our favourite resurrected android. The speed at which Data locates the Immortal is break-neck especially when you consider that it looked like it was going to be a long process going by the investigations he was undertaking at the beginning of Silent Weapons.

As with the previous books, readers will hopefully be drawn in by the wealth of cross-referencing to Trek of days past.  At some point within The Body Electric we are pointed in the direction of TNG (very, very important),  DS9 and the original series and it's movie sequels (very, very, very important).  All credit to the author here as everything is slotted in and has a use.  As I've noted before it's all important and don't forget a thing.  It's likely to be significant further down the line! What we also get here is the return of Wesley Crusher and I have to take Mr Mack to task here because I didn't find him annoying! In fact I enjoyed reading the character and it felt like there had been a maturing period since we last spent any time with him on screen (I would class that as TNG's "Journey's End" rather than the fleeting appearance in Nemesis although we are reminded of that here). He's all grown up and acts as a major driving force to get this story moving. He's learnt a lot but we don't get the arrogance that plagued his last TNG visit. Time has changed him to a more reasonable individual who, it has to be said, has been perhaps modelled just a little on Wil Wheaton - if only in physical appearance - but you can still imagine the old Wesley at times, especially when he's speaking to Beverly, mother to son.

It's very hard not to divulge too much of this book without ruining potential enjoyment of the trilogy because there are so many strands from Books One and Two that are tied up here, as well as a few from some time earlier and any reference would surely give it all away. I would say that there is one part of the concluding section of the book which I wasn't too thrilled with and after the amazing roller-coaster that we've been through over the course of 900 odd pages I did feel a little bit let down while still in some ways expecting that something like this would be on the cards. While I'm mentioning this, I'm not sure whether we needed a blink-and-miss appearance by Q early on. A visit that forms the snapshot taster page at the start of the book. A little misleading to what is coming perhaps and it left me wondering if he would be turning up at some point even though it is made clear he has been left unable to intervene by the Continuum,

Now hopefully I've managed to avoid wrecking the plot and your enjoyment of The Body Electric.  If you've not read any of the previous books  I thoroughly recommend you do so before attempting this final narrative. I've even put in an order for the Star Trek: Destiny omnibus to help bring me back up to speed. Right. The overall opinion bit. It's a good conclusion to the trilogy and leaves enough open for Mack or other authors to continue the expanded universe saga, developing a wealth of characters who could end up in their own novels given further development. I preferred the political nature of the second book over both The Persistence of Memory and The Body Electric. What swayed it for me was the disappointment that nothing was made of the discovery made at the end of Book two in the following volume. I still prefer Secret Weapons as a story and would rate it as the best volume out of the three as the omission of that central story factor greatly affected my judgement over the final book. There should have been some kind of follow-up but I guess that wasn't in the big plan. So, The Body Electric, good, but like many an odd-numbered Trek movie, it left me wanting for that little bit more. May be the next book from David Mack will answer some of those niggling questions and I certainly look forward to finding out.

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Cold Equations Book Three: The Body Electric is available now from Simon and Schuster priced £6.99 ISBN 9781451650747

You can read my review for Book One: The Persistence of Memory and Book Two: Silent Weapons now at Some Kind of Star Trek

Cold Equations Book Two: Silent Weapons

Silent Weapons picks up a short time after the events of Book One, The Persistence of Memory and from the off this is a very different beast to its predecessor.

Now before we go any further - SPOILER ALERT. If you haven't read the first book, be warned as I WILL be referring to it during this review!

While The Persistence of Memory skipped through time to provide the autobiographical narrative of Doctor Noonien Soong, this is a much more linear affair but much more complicated in the nature of the plot. It does require a bit more concentration to keep track of events right from chapter one - yep, David Mack kicks this sequel off with a lot of balls in the air and the art here is very much in the catching.

I was hesitant as to where this was going to go as Book One really left things open for interpretation. After getting into the heart of the book at about 150 pages I realised that it's as close as Star Trek could come to a taut political thriller. While the Vaslovik plot is carried over from the first novel in the trilogy, it spends a considerable amount of time on the proverbial backburner in favour of political machinations which I found to be more interesting but we'll come to that in turn. Book Two focuses more on the discovery of the android factory from the concluding section of The Persistence of Memory and the way in which the Breen are utilising this find for their own devices. There are numerous locations for the action, namely the Breen homeworld, a control centre for their acquired androids, a secret conference on Orion and then the Enterprise itself. Now you know that at some point they will all come together, the fun is in working out just how Mack will achieve this by the last page. I can assure you it does and - well, I'm not going to ruin it! I will say that it's a "thinker" and you need to be on your toes to keep up with who is doing what, where, when and how otherwise you might be in a big narrative mess by about page 160. 

My interest in this novel was piqued more than with the first not just for the multi-faceted thriller but also thanks in no small part to its supporting cast. The Gorn, one of my favourite alien races in the franchise (kudos for that, Mr Mack), are heavily featured and we get name-checks for the Tholians and the Tzenkethi too as part of the shadowy Typhon Pact. Even the Romulans manage an appearance to remind us that they're still a power to be reckoned with in this quadrant. I hope that Mack utilises the Gorn again in the future and that we get to see the Tholians in action and not just as a technology reference.

Reading this purely on my journey back and forth to work could have been a nightmare due to the strands that Mack lays out but I kept up with a couple of flick-backs to earlier chapters and previous pages so it was well worth it. Occasionally there are plot reminders from the cast which helps keep you in the picture. Everything has a purpose (as we know!) and no action is there for the sake of filling a page. As with my first review I don;t want to give too much away as it would ruin the experience that I was lucky to have upon opening chapter one - needless to say the Breen are up to no good here and Data gets implicated very early on, bringing the Enterprise to the Orion homeworld. Some of the initial chapters might seem irrelevant in some of the details described and you are left wondering - but persevere and you will not be disappointed. If there's one thing I'm learning from David Mack is that everything has a purpose!

One thing that I do enjoy within Mack's work is that he just loves playing with known Star Trek concepts. It happened in The Persistence of Memory and it's in action once again here. We're reintroduced to Captain Morgan Bateson, formerly of the USS Bozeman and it was impossible NOT to think of him as anyone other than Kelsey Grammer in "Cause and Effect" from The Next Generation. Orion was never visited in the multiple TV series but Mack builds on his visual impressions littered into Book One and fleshes them out further, even to the point of taking us deep into their slums and teaching the reader about the nature of their society. Fascinating stuff but my hat truly has to come off for his insights into the Gorn who have only managed two story appearance across the five series and ten films.  In particular their view of art is intriguing and I was quite envious of how Mack has established their culture, hierarchy and motivations within this story. While you would think it would be enough to focus on providing an insight into just the one race as part of the narrative, don't be deceived as the Breen get their own fair amount of page time in which we learn much more about the structure and taboos of their society while we watch them unfold their plans section by section.

Twisting thriller into mystery into action, Mack weaves the after-effects of The Persistence of Memory into this new story with deadly androids doing their masters' bidding, secretive Breen and even the UFP President thrown into the soup for good measure - one gripe; why did the President's bodyguards have to verge on the cliched CIA-style agent with dark glasses and a suit? Minor point but it's the 24th Century....! 

This new Data is something of an oddment and whenever I was reading this character I felt about as uneasy as Geordi - it's Data but it's not. The memories are there but this is Data version two and while you can see the character is there, if only through the absence of contractions in his speech, he feels different just in the way he carries himself through the narrative and on more than one occasion I made myself question who this character was. David, if this is part of the plan, I applaud you because it worked. The "new" Data is centre-stage for a good portion of this novel as are Picard, Geordi and Worf and all four characters are well defined and seem to work better within this story than they did in Book One. While the latter three characters are familiar the resurrected Data really is intriguing and slightly eerie. Indeed  it is his predicament which drives the story initially and the trail of crumbs and events from that which power the story along.  The pacing is great as we move from one set piece into investigation, to diplomacy, to private moments and then back into action once again - there's no let up so if you have to put this book down beware of what point you take a break - what you've just read may be very relevant in a few pages time or you might need to recall it in a few chapters!

Anyway, a lot of this book as you will have gathered, is focused on androids and Soong-type androids to be precise. They instill a great deal of paranoia into the story because you just don't know where or when they will turn up, what will happen when they do and whether or not they will succeed in their actions. Some of the descriptions of their actions are brutal and we can see that they are focused solely on their mission's goal. The androids are expendable but there is definitely more to them than you first think considering what they are capable of doing and who is in control of their minds. Manipulation is the name of the game.

Alongside the main story is a sub-plot revolving around Picard and Crusher which does link into the main thread at one point later on. I felt this was a particularly effective thread as it dealt with the nature of their relationship as a family and as shipmates. Mack drops in a note about the age difference between La Forge and Smrhova at one point - because these guys aren't getting any younger and it does waft up scents of nostalgia because of the length of service we have seen the main characters over. 

The Jean-Luc/Beverly plot reminds us that they are human and that at some point things have to change, especially as the captain is no longer single and there are important matters to consider for their future and the safety of his son. I'll be interested to see if this transitions into the final book, The Body Electric. I'm also fascinated to know how the Vaslovik plot is going to be continued in the finale as we have effectively skipped over it from the first few chapters of Silent Weapons. It was the reason for Data's presence on Orion but other things got in the way!

Overall I probably enjoyed this story much more than I did with The Persistence of Memory, possibly because I understood a bit more about the expanded Trek universe and also because the first book had "broken" me back into the TNG universe. Looking back, the first novel is very much a set up piece which lays a lot of seeds and possibilities for the second book and doubtless the third will bring all the threads together neatly (I say that now!). Not a book to pick up on its own but if you've pounded through the first book this is certain to satisfy your curiosity and leave enough questions unanswered (again) to ensure that the concluding book is an essential purchase.

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Cold Equations Book Two: Silent Weapons is now available  from Simon and Schuster ISBN 9781451650730 priced £6.99