Customer Reviews

War Drums (Star Trek Next Generation (Numbered))

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

 

 

This one constitutes decent Star Trek entertainment. It is set in the "Next Generation" universe. Basically, the USS Enterprise is dispatched to deal with a situation in which a very small Earth colony is being plagued by a group of Klingon aborigines. It turns out that the Klingons are children who were fleeing the Romulans (they were being evacuated from a war zone) and they crash-landed on the colony planet. In a sort of "Lord of the Flies" scenario, the Klingons revert to savagery and begin preying on the colony. Captain Picard and Co., mainly Ro, Data, Worf, and Troi, are charged with dealing with the situation.

No "Star Trek" novel constitutes great literature, but this one is solidly written, and the storyline hangs together pretty well. The author, thankfully, manages to steer clear of the overused devices of time travel and telepathy, and simply writes us a story about space travel. How novel and refreshing! I did question whether the Klingon youths would have stood up as well as this novel assumes against a technologically advanced human colony armed with phasers, replicators, and the works, but each reader can decide for him or her self.

An enjoyable read.

Star Trek - The Next Generation: War Drums written by John Vornholt is a book where the "bumpy heads" make an impression and action-adventure mixed with a little mystrey and intrigue keep your attention till the end.

This book is typical of Vornholt where he takes sometime and adds a Trek twist to it... the the case of "War Drums" it remineded me of the "Lord of the Flies" but with good character development as feral Klingon's and Erth settlers try to get along until a Romulan spy gets into the picture.

Worf leads an away team to the surface of the planet Selva to investigate why young feral Klingons were left on the planet and are now fighting the colonists. As the Starship Enterprise is called away on another mission and leave Worf and Deanna Troi, Data and Ro at the settlement called New Reykjavik to investigate.

Reading this book reveals some of the Klingon rituals of comming of age and Worf leads a mission to contact the feral Klingons as he and the others try to find out why the Klingons have decided to fight the colonists. The story is fast-paced and you will find that you can nearly finish the book in one setting as your interest is piqued.

I enjoyed the story as it was well-written and the characters were true to form and there is a rather intriguing ending to the story which was rather unusal for a TREK book. All in all, this was a solid 5 star book because of the writing style and character development.

As one expects from a Trek story, War Drums consists of recycled and borrowed plots; here, we have a Klingon version of Lord of the Flies. And, typically Trek, the resolution is too pat to be credited. Vornholt asks us to accept that the human colonists should "turn the other cheek" toward the feral Klingons who had brutally murdered their friends and family - with no apparent justification. (At no time are we told of anything the colonists did to trigger the attacks, other than simply being there.)

However, as he did with Contamination, Vornholt spins a good yarn, staying true to the characters, even making Ensign Ro somewhat likeable (a major feat in and of itself). Overall, an enjoyable read.

As you may have noticed by the lack of reviews this was not by any means one of the better Star Trek books out there, however it was still a welcome entry to my Trek Library. Lots and Lots of Klingons are in this story along with Worf, Data and Troi an odd team if you ask me. I found Ro Laren's role in the story interesting, but a little to close to racial issues. If you have extra time you might consider picking up this book, and if you're a fan of Ro or Klingons in general you will love this book hands down. However, casual Trek fans might find this book a little slow and low on action.

Selva is a planet with lush vegetation, fertile soil and massive oceans that appear dead due to high ion concentrations. Due to the shifts of borders between the Klingons, Romulans and the Federation, it was available for colonization so a small group of humans colonized it. Unknown to everyone, a small group of Klingon children were already living there. The children are the survivors of a Romulan raid on a Klingon outpost, the doomed parents sent their children off on a ship, hoping they would survive. The ship crashed on Selva and the children had been living a feral existence, surviving the best way they could.
Rather than meeting each other and working towards the common good, the starving Klingons and the colonists were engaged in a bitter conflict and the Enterprise has been given the mission to end it. Each side has intense hate for the other and is in a killing mode, so the road to compromise is difficult. The presence of the male Klingon adult Worf aids in the interaction with the Klingon children and along with Troi and Data, the Klingon children are reasonably easy to persuade. It is the colonists that prove intransigent, even to the point where they defy, imprison and fire on the Enterprise away team. The situation is further complicated when the Enterprise is called away to help solidify a peace treaty, leaving the away team on their own. The colonists are aware of this so they feel that there is limited time for an armed resolution.
This story is a strong one because it takes as the premise the reality that although the Federation and the Klingon Empire are at peace, there remains a fundamental suspicion between the races, leading to the creation of local conflicts. Especially when there is a third force having the express purpose of sparking as much distrust as possible. The Enterprise crewmembers are masterful at defusing the situation and turning what could have been a massacre into a situation of mutual cooperation.

There are a few places in which the plot complications are a bit obvious, and the foreshadowing gets a bit heavy-handed, which is the only reason that I didn't rate this book a full five stars. But the plot is interesting, (Klingon "Lord of the Flies") the characterizations are well-handled, and the action moves well.

The setting is this: a group of human colonists is under attack by a group of strangely primitive Klingons. The Enterprise crew quickly discovers that the humans that the humans have gone from a siege mentality to outright racism and brutality. Worf, Troi and Data go to interact with the Klingons and stop the attacks, while Ro Laren monitors an environmental problem from the colonists' base and tries to stop them from doing anything stupid. The Enterprise leaves, Ro fails, and the away team discovers the hard way that the human leader has learned that fear of the other can be used to empower a dictatorship. Things get worse from there.

The way the Enterprise characters are portrayed never seems an exact match for the show - Worf smiles a lot, for one thing - but the characters are still more than appealing enough. The writing quality in general is quite high. The racism and brutality of the colonists, and the Klingons as well, is blunt enough to be clear but rare enough not to make the book depressing. The moral messages are clear because they are obvious. The author never lectures us on them, either directly or through preachy characters (apart from the foreword, anyway). The entertainment value of this book is very high.

From early experiences with John Vornholt and his excellent writing style that is so very fluid, one learns that one of his novels are to be looked forward to with great anticipation. "War Drums" is no exception to that general rule. If I were to rank the early Star Trek The Next Generation novels, up to the release date of "War Drums," I'd definitely have to rank it in the top five.

As is true with all of his novels, John Vornholt uses a very fluid writing style and instills in his novels very realistic characterizations, not only for the primary characters but for the "guest" characters. Along with the excellent characterizations, his plot, plot devices and surprises with the story makes his stories very memorable. As is his usual style, he also sets the surrounding world up with perfection; when he takes you to an alien environment, he describes it clearly and concisely, making you, the reader, feel as if you're there with the characters.

What makes this novel so intriguing is that it's a Worf story and adding to that is Ro Laren. Both characters of which, at the time of this exceptional novels release, hadn't received too many stories, making this novel that much more valuable to fans of these characters.

The author also does a great job of exploring some of the Klingon culture in this novel, which to most fans is a true delight, considering the enormously popular nature of all things Klingon.

The cover art for War Drums is good but typical of most early Star Trek novels, where you basically have portraits of one or two of the main characters of the story and a somewhat interesting background.

The premise:

The planet Selva is a lush colony world that has been settled by a group of humans. Unbeknownst to them when they settled on the planet, it had already been "settled" by a group of young Klingons. When violence erupts between the two groups, the Enterprise is called in hopes of rendering assistance and stopping the violence.

Upon her arrival, the Enterprise is called away on another urgent mission. Captain Picard leaves Worf, Troi, Data and Ro Laren behind as an away team. Worf and the rest of the away team soon find that the old hatreds between humans and Klingons exists in abundance on this planet and they must soon find a way to stop the violence before it turns into an all out war. Adding to that mix is a particularly intriguing third party!

What follows is what I found to certainly be one of the best early STNG novels and I'd highly recommend this novel as it will make an excellent addition to your Star Trek library. {ssintrepid}

This book was my introduction to John Vornholt, and I must say, this book is great! I would definately recommend this one to any Star Trek fan, new and old alike!

This book is one of the few star trek books that I have missed since I stopped reading them.

The story line is very good and it keeps you on the edge of your seat the entire time.

If you want to learn a lot more about data, worf and roe this book is for you.