War Drums (Star Trek The Next Generation, No 23) [Mass Market Paperback]

John Vornholt (Author)

Book Description

Series: Star Trek Next Generation (Numbered) | Publication Date: October 1, 1992

The planet Selva is a lush colony world settled by a hardy group of humans, who found the planet already inhabited by a small gang of young Klingons. When violence erupts between the two groups, Captain Picard and the "U.S.S. Enterprise" TM are sent to render assistance.

Worf leads a landing party to the planet while the "Starship Enterprise" is called away on another urgent mission. On Selva, Worf and his party find that the old hatreds and prejudices between humans and Klingons are revived, and the settlers are out for blood. Now, Worf must prevent a horrible massacre before all of them fall prey to Selva's deadly secret and raging fury.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

The planet Selva is a lush colony world settled by a hardy group of humans, who found the planet already inhabited by a small gang of young Klingons. When violence erupts between the two groups, Captain Picard and the U.S.S. Enterprise^TM are sent to render assistance.

Worf leads a landing party to the planet while the Starship Enterprise is called away on another urgent mission. On Selva, Worf and his party find that the old hatreds and prejudices between humans and Klingons are revived, and the settlers are out for blood. Now, Worf must prevent a horrible massacre before all of them fall prey to Selva's deadly secret and raging fury.

About the Author

John Vornholt is the author of several bestsellling Star Trek novels including two of the hugely successful four-volume Next Generation/Deep Space Nine DOMINION WAR sequence. He lives in Tuscon, Arizona. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 276 pages
• Publisher: Star Trek; First Edition edition (October 1, 1992)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671792369
• ISBN-13: 978-0671792367
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,072,462 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Decent Trek entertainment, December 13, 2008

By 

Roger J. Buffington (Huntington Beach, CA United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: War Drums (Star Trek Next Generation (Numbered)) (Kindle Edition)

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars ST-TNG: War Drums, June 22, 2003

By 

Joe Zika "Khemprof" (Cincinnati, Ohio) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: War Drums (Star Trek The Next Generation, No 23) (Mass Market Paperback)

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.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Another fine Trek novel, February 21, 2002

By 

jrmspnc (Maryland, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: War Drums (Star Trek The Next Generation, No 23) (Mass Market Paperback)

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.