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19 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Simply stunning, May 31, 2005
This review is from: Articles of the Federation (Star Trek (Unnumbered Paperback)) (Mass Market Paperback)
Most individuals consider the realm of "Star Trek" to be a fancy, not worthy of significant note; this goes double for the books, which seem to be regarded as merely extensions of fan fiction. While those of us who read "Trek" novels on a regular basis know this not to be true, it is still an unfortunate label.
If only these critics were to read "Articles of the Federation." Concerned not with any particular starship or crew, "Articles" touches on an oft-ignored aspect of the "Star Trek" universe, that of Federation politics, more specifically the Office of the President of the United Federation of Planets, Nan Bacco. Picking up where the events of the "A Time to..." series, "Nemesis," and "Titan" last left us, "Articles" deals with the first year in the life of Bacco's administration.
And that lone year certainly has a significant amount of ground to cover.
Yet DeCandido makes one year fly by quickly, his writing style flourishing, fast-moving, and very, very literary. The author has stated that this was an attempt at bringing "The West Wing" to the "Trek" universe, and "Articles" is all that and more. Full of political machinations--the Bacco administration does not find itself treading water, it must struggle to stay afload--potential conflicts between Klingons, Remans, Romulans, and the Federation, there is not a dull line in the entire novel.
Simply put, this first year is a combination of Bacco finding her place and voice as leader of a vast interstellar organization and the struggle to lay to rest the demons of the previous president, one Min Zife. Indeed, this struggle culminates in the surprise (yes, I will admit to being fully floored by this next, even though I understand the reasoning for it) resignation of a decorated Starfleet officer and advisor. Visible in "Articles" is Praetor Tal'Aura's continuing efforts to solidify her power base (she should have taken lessons from Martok's tale in "The Left Hand of Destiny"), a reporter's quest to find the truth behind the Tezwa affair, one doctor's prejudice against the Tzenketh that could spark an interstellar war, and Bacco's first attempt at welcoming a new race into the Federation--the Trinni/ek. Packed to the gills with plenty of references to "Treks" past and future, "Articles" is a stunning novel that deserves to be considered not only one of the finest "Star Trek" novels written, but also a significant literary achievement for Keith R.A. DeCandido.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
So *this* is how Federation politics works!, July 10, 2005
This review is from: Articles of the Federation (Star Trek (Unnumbered Paperback)) (Mass Market Paperback)
Political Trek, eh? Most Star Trek books deal with a Starfleet ship or station and the various crises that they encounter. Articles of the Federation is basically "The West Wing in Trek." Sounds like it might not be that interesting, right? However, this one is written by Keith R.A. DeCandido, the master Trek novel writer, so it was definitely worth a shot. And besides, politics can be interesting too, can't they? I'm happy to say that they can certainly be not only interesting, but fascinating. It helps that the author has a cool president character, the talent to write great characterization of myriad people, and the memory of an elephant for Trek continuity.
In A Time for War, A Time for Peace, Nan Bacco was elected president of the Federation. Articles of the Federation is the story of her first year in office. And what a full plate she has. The Romulan situation, as left in Titan: Taking Wing, is starting to deteriorate, as a ship full of Reman refugees approaches an outlying starbase. A first contact diplomatic mission goes awry in a very public manner. The Federation Council makes things even more difficult for her to get legislation through, and a large number of people keep seeing her as a lowly planetary governor, too small for such an immense office. The final capper, though, is when what really happened on Tezwa, as instigated by her predecessor, comes home to roost. If that gets out, there will be nothing stopping yet another galactic war.
Bacco is DeCandido's creation, and you can tell that he really loves writing her character. She is a fully-formed, three-dimensional creation who just springs off the page. She's also the unifying force in this book, as even when she's not "on screen," the events happening are going to have a great impact on what she does and who she is. She's pragmatic, willing to strong-arm two planets into negotiations by threatening to go to war with one of them (pretty much an empty threat, but she makes it believable). She loves the newly revived game of baseball, religiously following the teams in the league on her home planet, and even arranging a publicity tour in such a way that she's available to throw out the first pitch of the season. She's quick with a sarcastic remark, especially to her chief of staff, Esperanza Piniero, who gives it right back to her. Their relationship is also wonderful to read about, as their friendship that goes back decades really deepens both of their characters.
While these two are the main characters, the book has so many other characters that you would think they'd all start looking the same after a while. That's not so in any DeCandido book. Even those who are only in the book for a short while still have a feeling of depth to them. There are many policy advisors and other governmental positions in the book, and those characters' names do start to run together after a while, but not their personalities. How DeCandido manages to keep them all straight, I'll never know. But he does. Various other characters pop in to fill their small roles (Spock, Scotty, Chancellor Martok, Voyager's Doctor, to name just four), but their appearances never seem choreographed for a "Wow" factor, instead feeling absolutely necessary.
This brings me to continuity, as the book is literally brimming with it. In the past, I have been on DeCandido's back about the excessive continuity and how his explanations of it have ground a book to a halt. Surprisingly, in a book this continuity-heavy, he largely avoids this. All references are perfunctory, with just enough explanation to give the reader an idea of what happened and just enough information to make clear whatever the characters who mention it are doing about it. To help those who are still confused, he has created a page of annotations, saying who these characters are and where these events took place.
In fact, this book is not slow at all. Yes, there is no "action" in it (unless you consider the wheels of politics and diplomacy as action), but it still grips the reader all the same. Every two month period of Bacco's first year is given its own section, and each section is opened with somebody watching one of those news analysis show like you see on CNN or Fox News, with "experts," journalists, and former politicians or military officers as guests. This sets the stage for what is going to happen, as well as reacting to what has already occurred. I thought this was an ingenious way to move things along and let us see how the outside world thinks about what Bacco is doing. The only one that felt a little forced was the opening one, but otherwise these flowed very nicely.
The book is certainly not flawless. Bacco is a bit too flippant at times (such as in council or diplomatic meetings). I had trouble keeping the advisors straight occasionally, and a couple of the in-jokes just made me scratch my head until I heard the explanation of them (Martok saying that the Romulan Praetor sounds just like his wife comes completely out of left field and pulled me out of the book wondering until I discovered that the same actress played both characters). However, these are so small that they quickly disappeared as I went deeper and deeper into the book. I was fascinated by everything and had trouble putting the book down. It's dense for a Trek book, but that just made it all the more enjoyable. While you certainly don't have to have read any of the "A Time to" books, Articles of the Federation has a lot more impact if you have. It's a wonderful continuation of the Trek mythos, and you could enjoy it even if you don't like political books.
David Roy
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Executive Decision, June 17, 2005
This review is from: Articles of the Federation (Star Trek (Unnumbered Paperback)) (Mass Market Paperback)
Another of the most anticipated Trek book of the year, "Articles of the Federation" follows up on the events in the A Time To series as it follows the presidency of Nan Bacco through her first year in office. The book goes a long way to make up for a huge lack of any stories or scenes set in the president's office throughout much of Trek. We've been more familiar with the lineage of Klingon chancellors than we have with Federation presidents until now. On the whole, the book is very good.
President Nan Bacco has inherited a pretty sticky mess. The Romulan Star Empire is falling apart from within and Bacco has to deal with situation and keep the Klingons in a balanced equation. This is generally the main crisis that the Bacco administration has to deal with throughout the book, though it certainly isn't the only one. There's problems with the Tzenkethi, Federation Council politics and a new First Contact as well.
There's so much thrown at Bacco and her people and yet it felt like the book was wandering around, meandering from story to story. The closest thing that I'd call a climax would the retirement of a Starfleet officer in relation to a previous incident. There didn't seem to be much focus on any one thing, which is a strength in its uniqueness and a bit of a weakness at the same time in the lack of a unifying driving force in this, the author's longest novel to date.
That said, just about all of the multiple stories were of interest, from the continuing disintegration of the Romulan Empire to intrigue between Federation councilors. This helps since this book built on the A Time To series, a group of books whose plots I wasn't crazy about. I especially liked seeing Bacco's decisions affecting orders to Starfleet vessels. It might have been nice had we seen a Lower Decks-like approach and had sections set onboard these vessels affected by her orders, with the captains being the bottom rung of the ladder.
That's a minor quibble because we still got updates on several different ships. I guess the Enterprise's mission mentioned will be the basis for a future book. If it weren't for the mystery being solved in this book, I'd say we could have been looking at a future SCE story as well with the da Vinci dispatched to Klorgat IV. I did notice that there was a lack of updates from the Bajoran sector. Well, this book does end many years in the future (the farthest into the current timeline from what I can tell), so there's several years difference between this and the DS9R.
President Nan Bacco was a good mix of strength and humility and humanity. I also liked all of her staff, especially the Nasat and Hermat. Though my only other quibble with the book is here: the banter back and forth between the characters like Bacco and Esperanza just didn't work for me. This was the same as "A Time for War, A Time for Peace". Much of it felt forced. The characters have a familiarity with each other, but it didn't leap off the page for me. Perhaps if this were a TV or film that I could hear, it would come across different. Instead, it felt a bit belabored and hammered home. There's been much made of this being West Wing. INNNN. SPAAAAACE. The kind of rapid fire dialogue back and forth certainly seems inspired from the show. I just find it a bit distancing and too self-aware.
Overall, "Articles of the Federation" is a very good read, with a unique approach to the narrative that may or may not work for you depending on what you like. There's been a couple of interesting tidbits dropped about events coming up (Selelvian War) for other series that I'm looking forward to. A strong recommendation.
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