Customer Reviews

First Frontier (Star Trek, Book 75)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Ever since I checked out this book from my local library, it has become my favorite! I like to write science fiction, and I have a series of stories I am still developing. In my stories, one of my alien species evolved from dinosaurs. This species was showing signs of intelligence when an asteroid was detected heading toward Earth. To save them, an extremely advanced species relocated them to another planet. This species was developed before I read First Frontier. If you have read First Frontier, the description above should sound familiar: it is exactly the same as the Clan Ru! Wow! This book is the best of the best!

As usual, Diane Carey tells a fascinating story, with excellent plot, characterization, and pacing. Unfortunately, also as usual, Diane Carey tries overhard to be a "wordsmith", making continuous attempts to use words in clever and unusual ways, and failing miserably at it. Her word choice is distractingly odd and frequently just wrong. She has a near-pathological aversion to the phrase "he said", using such replacements as "he bolted" (while not moving), and "He appraised", as well as many more; I could fill a page and more with odd word choices that she makes in an attempt to avoid commonplace phrases. Mind you, I understand the desire to avoid repetitive use of common phrases, but Ms. Carey has a real tendancy to go so overboard in the attempt, and has so little talent for doing it fluently, that it is truly distracting and makes it hard to focus on the story, which is actually a very well-conceived and fascinating story that I would have liked to see better-told.

This is a great, great book. A little confusing the first time through, but only because it's a complex plot; which is often the best kind.
To summarize: The Clan Ru, alien reptiles, think the Federation has held their race back, and so go back to prevent humanity's evolution (note: they do NOT know they're from Earth, contrary to at least one other review). Due to Cosmic String which I do not pretend to understand, only the Enterprise remains in the chnaged timeline. So the Enterprise is stuck in an alternate version of their own universe, caught between the Klingons and the Romulans who have been battering each other for decades to no purpose. A lot of things happen, but eventually Kirk, Spock, McCoy and some red-shirts take the Guardian of Forever into the past (note: the Enterprise never leaves the present time; they're down on the ground with virtually nothing in the middle of the dinos) to try and make sure the dinosaurs are wiped out.
What happens? Well, I'm certainly not going to give it away! Go read it yourself, it's well worth it.
It's a great book, a really great book. Read it, and it's like being on the Enterprise for awhile. Thoroughly engrossing. (sitting in middle of my friends reading, and I was seriously getting into it.)
Have I convinced you yet?
Go! Read! Whatever Amazon is charging, it's worth the money!
THAT'S how good this is.

I don't know if it will let me post the link to the Bulwer-Lytton Bad Fiction site (entry #40) here, but it is my duty to inform you all of the following:

You want bad writing - I got bad writing. Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you. Star Trek-- First Frontier by Diane Carey and Dr James I Kirkland. Doctor Kirkland is credited as the dinosaur expert, since the story is set on prehistoric earth. I hesitate to guess what Ms Carey's field of expertise may be, since it certainly isn't writing clear, literate English prose. The book is littered with cherishable errors - at a rate of one or two biggies every four or five pages. Particular favourites include a resolute refusal to use the phrase "He (or she) said" if at all possible. So we have:

Kirk clipped, Chekov bolted. (While not moving from his seat), he malaised, Kirk distilled....., he resigned (While not going anywhere) Kirk impugned.

Chapter 23 starts with the entirely incomprehensible sentence: "Head down into the storm they went, pressing barehanded to their chests an unshielded sense of peril."

There are so many pleasing subjects for speculation here. How does a group of humanoids have multiple chests but only one head? Do you sometimes need gloves to press unshielded senses of peril to your chest? Do senses of perils usually come shielded and they took the shield off, or did they put a shield on and then took it off afterwards? And if so, why?

But all these pale into insignificance before the panoply of riches which is Chapter 29.

We have a Klingon who "gazed up at Kirk with roguish languor."

A dinosaur described as a "shriven corpse on the floor." As I Catholic, I find it curiously reassuring to know that Confession was available to prehistoric reptiles. A human is endowed with a twenty-foot arm. (apparently only the one, though) and the best of the "he said" alternatives.

"Pushing, Kirk under-girded, "But........"

And I haven't even mentioned the rest of the book : Kirk leering at the bridge screen, the seconds that went by like surgical time (faster? slower?) the chap who cloyed to his work, Kirk reeling with respect for someone, disinterest used for uninterest, Kirk's surfeiting nod, vilification used as a synonym for hatred, and disdained for despised, etc.

I always enjoy the way this gal spins a tale! The story's format is the highly recognizable one used in "It's a Wonderful Life" -- what if the human race (and by extention, the Federation) never existed?

While I find evolutionary theory unbelievably improbable, so is science fiction -- and they fit! I thoroughly recommend this page-turner and the author for her writing skills.

With the incredible proliferation of Star Trek novels these days, it's rare when I read one that actually stands apart from the rest. This one does just that. For the most part, this is another wonderful Diane Carey book. Kirk saves the evolution of humanity and makes friends with the dinosaurs. Gotta love it! This one'll keep you reading, and it's length (383pp) gets you your money's worth (for a change). I really liked the coverage of the dinosaur-extinction event, although I must confess to still preferring Gary Larson's version!

The only book-specific complaint is the tying together of the events that bring this book together.

The generic complaints are as follows:

* doesn't Pocket Books employ proof-readers? I tire of spending money on books only to find a dozen typos included.

* why do the crews of the different Star Trek worlds use exclusively the 20th Century Earth as their point of reference? (that's the impact of how many atomic bombs? that's how many miles or miles per second? that's in what state?)

If you're interested in dinosaurs and in Star Trek, then this book is for you. With Kirk struggling to fight a dangerous illness, the crew must find a way to get back to their timeline using and old aquaintence of theirs- The Guardian, and put back some very wrong doings. So that the human race has a chance to begin~ Although dinos have never really been in any trek novels I have read it still has the same twist that all trek fans love!!!!!!! :) Perhaps even better because of it....

First Frontier by Diane Carey and James I. Kirkland is a fantastic Star Trek adventure with the fate of the Human existence on the balance. There is an alternate timeline in the story, one that if it plays out the Human Race would be nonexistant.

Not only does this book have the classic Star Trek characters, but it incorporates a very excellent dinosaur story. As with any good adventure, there has to be a causal effect to make the story play and here in lies our classic Trek.

Millions of years hence, before the great extinction of the dinosaurs on Earth, there were travelers in space who noted that there were intellegent dinosaurs and transplanted them on another planet to develop into a society. As they developed, they noted that their DNA was similar to that on Earth present day. So they set off to change the timelime and history as we know it.

As the Starship Enterprise was testing a new shield and emerged from the Sun, they find themselves in the middle of an on going battle between the Klingons and Romulans. As Kirk et.al. pick up a lifepod, they find that the Klingon who survives has no knowledge of human existence. As the Enterprise crew further investigates , Starfleet Headquarters has been replaced by a jungle where large dinosaurs now inhabit the Earth.

The Guardian of Forever is Kirk's only recourse. Left as a relic from a race known as the Iconians eons ago, it is one of the constants still left in this alternate time that corresponds to the time Kirk knows. Now you have all the tools for a classic conforntation between two cultures so diverse as to create a fantastic adventure.

Reading this story puts you right in the middle of this mystery and you live it vicariously through Kirk et. al. with the dinosaur fauna hunting them. Excellent writing, storytelling and a plot that keeps you rivited.

I highly recommend this combination Star Trek - Dinosaur tale. For the people who like a good story with adventure this is it, one of the all time best Star Trek adventures ever written.

...that could be even more interesting if revised as happening in the timeline established by the most recent Star Trek movie -- an alternate history of an alternate history.

In this story Kirk and the human members of the Enterprise crew are faced with the prospect of trying to live in a timeline where humanity never evolved. In the Trek movie, Spock and the survivors of Nero's attack on Vulcan are faced with living in a future where Vulcan has been destroyed.

In First Frontier, however, the Klingon-Romulan war and the Klingon quasi-subjugation of Vulcan would have prevented any Vulcan plan to use red matter to try to snuff a supernova threatening Romulus. Thus no time travel by Nero and no destruction of Vulcan. Faced with the choice of restoring Earth only to lose Vulcan again, Spock might have provided additional conflict to this story.

I'm about halfway through the book but unless the ending proves utterly disappointing compared to the story so far, I think it will deserve at least four stars.

While testing new equipment the Enterprise brushes a Cosmic String and discovers that everything has changed. Vulcans, Klingons and Romulans are engaged in continual conflict, humans and many other races are missing. In fact no one has even seemed to have ever heard of humans. A trip to Earth reveals a planet filled with life but no humans. In order to find answers the Enterprise travels to the Guardian of Forever where they discover that Earth timeline had been changed in the far distance past. Dinosaurs had been wiped out by an asteroid millenia ago but had instead evolved into the dominant, intelligent lifeform but had ultimately destroyed themselves. Kirk, Spock and McCoy decide to once again venture through the Guardian to try to restore the timeline when they and a small landing party become the sole survivors after the Enterprise is destroyed.

FIRST FRONTIER is a definite treat for any Star Trek fan who happens to also have a passionate interest in paleontology but for those with less than a true passion not so much. This novel is 383 pages long and would be much better at half that length. The same information is given repeatedly (Kirk is injured, he needs a course of treatment which he does not want to take time for - we get it already). The descriptions of a dinosaur filled earth go on and on and on. Actions take place while there that do absolutely nothing to move the story along, and this story really does need to move along. Also the descriptions of the various societies, the Clan Ru, the time altered Vulcans, Klingons and Romulans are, to use Spock's phrase - most illogical. The reader is asked to believe that no one other than humans are able to convince other races to work together to form the Federation. The ending is also rather unsatisfying, leaving many loose ends and relying on the cliched question about a time paradox and the obligatory observation about time travel causing headaches.

This is not the worst Trek novel I have ever read but there are certainly many, many better ones.