Customer Reviews

A Flag Full of Stars (Star Trek (Numbered Paperback))

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

 

 

Eighteen months after the end of the Enterprise's five year mission, and following the events of THE LOST YEARS this novel finds Kirk still at his temporary assignment in the Admiralty, a position that he is beginning to suspect is not so temporary after all. Kirk has married Lori Ciana (see THE LOST YEARS and STAR TREK:TMP) who is also coming to realize that she has been manipulated by Admiral Nogura. The couple's dissatisfaction with their professional lives has taken a toll on their personal lives as well. Kevin Riley is still working as Kirk's assistant but is also having his own problems, both professional and personal. Across the continent a Klingon scientist is dealing with his own problems. G'Dath is held in suspicion by Klingon society, he is not a member of the warrior caste and is interested in scientific research for the sake of knowledge itself, not as a means to wage war more efficiently. He has come to Earth in order to pursue his work only to discover that human society is also suspicious of a peaceful Klingon. The only position he could find was teaching an advanced course for high school students. The novel switches between these different storylines until they all merge for an exciting climax.

For serious Star Trek fans, paticularly those of the original series, this is a must read. The LOST YEARS Saga answers the questions raised by the first motion picture, A FLAG FULL OF STARS focuses on Kirk's activities during this period to the near exclusion of the rest of the crew. It is a well written novel that moves the saga forward. For Kirk fans it is a treat but Spock, McCoy and other fans will be disappointed. Those who are only casual fans of the series should probaby just give this one a miss.

Far above your typical Star Trek novel. In this book Kirk is an admiral and as usual has to solve an intergalactic conspricy with nothing(except the resources of an entire galaxy). I remember reading this book and the reason why I rmember it is because of the unique inovation of putting impluse engines on the (by then) old space shuttles. A must for any Star Trek fan.

It is wonderful to find this author's understanding of Klingon culture is impeccable. Writing a story about a Klingon pacifist teaching humans is not only a new idea but an intriguing idea as the concept of a human-raised Klingon in Starfleet.

Although I must congratulate Mr. Ferguson on his spectacular book, it pales in comparision with Mr. Ford's Final Reflection and Mr. Friedman's Kahless. No offense, Mr. Ferguson.

This novel takes a step back to the Lost Years era of Star Trek. It occurs between TOS and the Movie timelines.

Reading the first Lost Years novel will give you perspective. This novel however is a better than average Kirk vs. Klingons novel.

This is a fun novel dealing with Captain Kirk and others after the Five Year Mission is completed. The Enterprise is in spacedock being refitted, Kirk is now an Admiral, in charge of the Enterprise refit. But that is not what the story is really about.

The most memorable character in this novel is a Klingon scientist, working in the Federation on an exchange program, a chap by the name of G'Dath. G'Dath has invented something with great military potential, the Klingons are suspicious of Dr. G'Dath, and G'Dath himself has somewhat divided loyalties--he is a Klingon, but he likes living on Earth in a free society, even if Earthmen, not without reason (given the Klingon Empire's nature at this point in time) are prejudiced against Dr. G'Dath.

The conflict in the story is interesting, as is Dr. G'Dath. This novel gives us an interesting look at 23d Century society on Earth in the Star Trek universe. The ending was a cop-out in my opinion. (VERY MINOR SPOILER--CAUTION)) because science, once discovered, cannot be suppressed. More would be telling.

This book is a part of The Lost Years-saga, and although puplished as the third of the four books, chronologically it takes place after the thirdly puplished "Traitor Winds".

"A Flag Full of Stars" doesn't live up to the expectations of "Traitor Winds", wich is, without a doubt, the best of the four.

"A Flag Full of Stars" comes second, though, due to the boringness and not-beliavability of "The Lost Years", and the simple meaninglessness of "Recovery".

The Biggest strenght of "A Flagg Full of Stars" is that it's an unconventional Trek novel.

Taking place mostly on Earth, the novel centeres around original, and more-or-less succesfully constructed characters. We have a story of a Klingon scientist, living on Earth, teaching, and a tale of one of his students.

As so often, the youngsters act at least five years younger than expected, are shallow and underestimated as characters.

The Klingon scientist on the other hand is written extremely well, but even he can't measure up to his pet kitten, who is clearly the best character of the entire spectrum of the characters introduced in this novel.

The setting is exellent, the writing good, characterization decent, but the plot leaves something to be desired for.

It's bases are ridiculously devoid of credibility, introducing a machine that can create energy out of nothing. And most ludicrous is the fact that it's created not in some top secret research lab, but at the inventors home, vithout the inventor even knowing what's being created. Whatever happened to the laws of physics and common sence?

All in all the kitten, the writing, and the use of good characters elevate this book into a decent one, that might have been exellent, if it had had at least a slightly intelligent plot.

This book is well-written, with characters handled well and a plot that moves well, with a writing style that is very enjoyable to read and few sloppy errors.

Unfortuantely, there are two major problems with it: one is that I find the basic concept to the "Lost Years" stories somewhat dubious; if, during the time between the end of the five-year mission and the first movie, there continued to be major, exciting things going on involving Kirk, it seems doubtful that he would have become the bored and boring paper-pusher who was so desperate to get out of his admiral's office and back into a captain's chair. It seems far more likely that nothing of note happened during those years, which is WHY he became so dissatisfied. So for that reason, among others, I find that I have difficulty accepting the story here (and in its predecessor, "The Lost Years") to be canonical.

Secondly, there is a related issue: it may satisfy the curious to read stories told about the "Lost Years", and it has some of the same morbid fascination as watching a train wreck, but it really isn't my idea of entertainment to read stories about the years during which Kirk became a boring and bored pencil-pusher. It is enough to know that this HAPPENED, and that that explains why he would actively pursue a demotion in order to regain command of a ship later. This was an effective cautionary tale about the dangers of the Peter Principle, accepting promotions to your level of incompetence, but it seems to me it worked better as an off-screen, behind-the-scenes story. It loses some of its effect when examined closely.

This was an excellent book. Good read

G'Dath is quite un-klingon but i'm glad Mr. Ferguson's understanding of the Klingon culture is impeccable. I really liked the pre-Khitomer human-Klingon relations are viewed.

Brad Ferguson showed Klingons are individuals who have different philosophies or concepts