Customer Reviews

Daedalus: Part One of Two (Star Trek: Enterprise)

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Star Trek - Enterprise: Daedalus part 1 of 2 written by Dave Stern is a well-wrtten storyline where the main characters in this book that are known to us are Charles (Trip) Tucker, III and Hoshi chief engineer and communications respectively. After the first fifty pages Trip becomes the primary character, as Hoshi plays a minor role.

The book is full of Trip's memories of the Daedalus Project man's first attempt at warp drive... a cascading ion drive a full ten years ahead of the matter-anitmatter warp drive. This project was headed by Professor Victor Brodesser a rather forward thinker and hard working man. But, the cascading ion drive propulsion system has some problems... Trip was a working engineer on this project and he has discovered a fatal flaw in the cascading design. Trip gets some concessions from the Professor but the Daedalus is lost on its maiden voyage.

Now, thirteen years have past and the Enterprise is investigating an anomaly when it is attacked and lost to a rather human-like race called the Denari. The Denari are in the middle of a civil war as one side has better technology than the other, but, how did they obtain such an advantage. That is one of the questions answered within the pages of this wonderfull story. There are twists and turns throughout this book and it moves right along keeping your interest till the end... well the end of part one. There is a leadin chapter to the second book Daedalus' Children.

The author does a good job of character development and piques your interest. The villian in this book is just hearsay untill the end and the Denari Doctor Trant has a liking for Trip as we find out in the book.

This is a solid 4 Star Trek novel and I hope that the second tome in this series is as well-written. It is finally refreshing to read a ST-Enterprise novel where there is good writing and character development. I just hope this trend will continue for some badly needed solid storylines for ST-Enterprise.

I managed to pick up a copy of "Enterprise: Daedalus" from a local library and thought it would be a mildly pleasant diversion for a long subway ride. To Dave Stern's credit, he had me hooked with a simple plot and a credible character study of Starfleet engineer Commander Charles "Trip" Tucker of the first Starfleet ship to bear the name Enterprise. Although the ending is a bit too predictable, the rest of the book is memorable in depicting Tucker's reaction to the seizure of his ship and his involvement in a civil war within a spacefaring civlization only a few decades younger than Earth's. Fans of the current Star Trek television series "Star Trek: Enterprise" will not be disappointed with this tale.

'Daedalus' by Dave Stern is undoubtably the best Enterprise novel to date, and echoes with the hallmarks of great Trek.

The story of part 1 is centred around Charles 'Trip' Tucker, Chief Engineer of Enterprise and one of the leading actors in the show.

Basically, Trip and Hoshi are forced to abandon Enterprise in the cell ship after their ship is crippled and boarded in a sneak attack. From there, they are picked up by the opponents of the forces that took control of Enterprise, a desperate military organisation on the verge of collapse.

This puts Trip in a delicate position, does he use his Starfleet technology on training to aid his new allies, even though it would violate the Prime Directive?

Matters are further complicated when it is revealed that Starfleet technology had a hand in starting the war, and that the enemy now have their hands on even more advanced technology in the form of Enterprise.

The story is exciting, gripping, and character centred, all the good things that you want from a Star Trek novel.

The writing itself is a little unorthodox, and not quite like any previous form of Trek writing. Stern is a very factual, practical writer, and writes a novel with the minimum of verbose descriptions and the maximum of dialouge. This is not a bad thing, but it is different to previous authors.

The dialouge itself is extremely well done, and Stern really conveys the characters thoughts and intentions through it. One of my favourite scenes from the book is during Trip's initial meeting with Marshall Kairn, when Kairn puts the hard word on Trip about joining the Guild. The scene shows just how desperate things are for the Guild, and sets the scene for the rest of the book.

But overall it is a solid story, and definitely the best Enterprise novel to date.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and recommend it to any Star Trek fan.

.... This book is Part 1 of at least 2 parts (who knows?).

The story of Daedalus does not resolve by the end of the book. You have to read Book 2 to find out what happens to the people who are all in dire straights. I hope Book 2 ends the story, because I don't want to be caught in a hardcover "soap opera."

That said, I am looking forward to Daedalus Children (Part 2). I only regret that the publishers spaced the books so far apart. I will have forgotten what this book was about by the time Part 2 is ready for sale and I've already sold my copy of this one.

By the time this Daedalus story comes to an end, I also hope that it deviates from what has become "standard" Star Trek plots (time-space continuum anomalies, etc). I am ready to move on to good science fiction with some new Trek ideas.

As far as Stern's ability to TELL a story, he did a good job. I enjoyed his style.

Regardless of my concerns, Daedalus is entertaining enough to be worth the cost of the book.

We get to see part of federation history aboard a ship that didn't have a successful engine design. Years later Trip and Hoshi hope to prevent the same from happening while captured aboard an alien ship. Stern has a good grip on the characters. It's almost like a two part TV episode. The overall feel of the book is just like the show. Now if only the producers would hire Dave Stern to write for the Enterprise show.

What surprised me the most about "Daedalus" was how enjoyable a reading experience it was. I readily admit that I wasn't expecting much based on the previous Enterprise novels but "Daedalus", despite its weaknesses, was an interesting story with appealing characters that was solidly executed. Not great but certainly engaging and entertaining.

The title, Daedalus, refers to the ship of that name, an experimental warp capable vessel that exploded on its maiden voyage thirteen years earlier. Tucker, who had worked on the Daedalus project, finds his memories of that catastrophe coming back to haunt him in more ways than one in this story and it is Commander Tucker who quickly becomes the main character in the novel. Stern's characterization of Trip is excellent, the personality and voice of the engineer comes through marvelously.

While Hoshi and Tucker are the only two main Enterprise characters utilized in "Daedalus" after the first three chapters, and Hoshi plays only a limited role, the other characters are well drawn. They are sympathetic but strong. The Denari doctor, a woman named Trant is particularly likable. However, the apparent villain, General Sadir, is only seen superficially, primarily through hearsay.

Just after the midway point the plot of "Daedalus" takes it's first startling twist but it is in the final chapter that Stern guarantees you'll want to read part two, "Daedalus's Children", by dropping another astonishing, and hopefully unforeseen turn into the story. How the story is concluded in the second part will ultimately determine just how good this first part was, and hopefully the plot can maintain its momentum and we will have to wait until May 2004 to find out, but based on the story thus far I'm feeling a lot more optimistic than I expected.

This was the best Enterprise novel, so far. Yes, it did only focus on Trip and Hoshi, and the supposed villan is removed a little too easily, but it keeps your attention in the current era storyline. The flashbacks are a little disjointed, but will link up to the current story and sequel.

I think they should have released it as one book, since the first is relatively short (but that is the way of the Star Trek publishers). Why combine the story into one book for the reader, when you can get 2x the price by splitting up the story until MAY.

Over all, I enjoyed this book, and book 2.

However, there were a few things that definitely annoyed me. The first being that the dates didn't make any sense with how old Trip is. I think I worked out that he would have had to be a Lieutenant at 16, or something ridiculous like that.

Second, just general bad editing. Lt. Hess is on two ships at once at one point...these are the sort of things that bug readers, and how hard would they have been to fix?

This is an outstanding book...one of my favorite Star Trek novels of all time. This is a deep Trip story, where we learn more about the officer and the man. What impresses me is the character development of not only Trip, but the new characters introduced in this book. Many times, characters in books (and episodes, for that matter) are just shells of what the could be...nothing more than reactionary placeholders. The characters in this book truly evolve and you get to like them. I could see Trip staying with this crew for the rest of his career, and I would enjoy reading about that. He really becomes one with them.

I have only one complaint about this book: people shake their head way, way too much!

This novel feels a lot like a character exploration of Chief Engineer Tucker. The plot is simple but surprising well done and I enjoyed the read.

We spend the first fifty pages on the Enterprise and that is it. We spend the rest of the time exploring a civil war a new alien race and watching Trip struggle with his own first contact procedure. One of the advantages of doing this `off ship' story it is very easy to hit the reset button and get everything back to normal.

I was disappointed with the ending--too predictable. The clues and logical explanations were everywhere. I look forward to seeing how this story resolves so I am waiting to get my hands on the second part.