Customer Reviews

Gateways #1: One Small Step (Star Trek)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This novel is based on the Original Series episode which had Lee Merriwhether as the guest star. To briefly recap the story: The Enterprise crew discovers a long deserted planetoid/space station. A landing party explores. The group runs into a holographic projection of a beautiful woman that is able to kill with a touch. Capt. Kirk and company find a solution. The computer projection is a relic of a long lost civiliztion. They were the Kaladans.
"One Small Step" picks up where this installment ended. The Enterprise crew members are doing clean up operations. While exploring, the Enterprise is attacked by Klingons. They are almost defeated and destroyed by them. At the last minute they are saved by a small ship, coming out of nowhere, that blows the Klingon vessel to smithereens. The saviors claim to be the descendants of the Kaladans. Kirk is skeptical of this assertion.
What was best about the novel? The author did not depart from the characterizations of the first series. It's very annoying when a writer tries to make Spock fall in love or have Captain Kirk not pay attention to the ladies. This is not done. The plot had the linear progression that is expected of Star Trek novels. The ending had a believable cliffhanger.
What did I like least about the novel? There is a trend in Trek writing to have novels chopped up into as many as six different books. In many cases two novels could be combined as one. Gateways is the latest series to be chopped up into sequels. This is a rip off. The author did depart in one sense from the Original Series. It seemed the Enterprise Crew were viewing the Klingons with Next Generation sensibilities. In the Original Series they probably would have been estatic that someone saved them from being target practice. Instead they are puzzled and a little contrite. They hadn't yet given Kahless a second look. As far as Jim Kirk was concerned, Kahless was another Genghis Khan.
I was able to finish the book within the week. There's nothing I hate worse than reading in a ST novel, the aliens are going to take over the universe, but due to plodding prose and silly tangents, you really don't care. You don't mind getting back to it the next year.
A key reason "One Small Step" doesn't get a lot of stars is that this is not a stand alone novel. You will have to shell out more money for part 2 or hope your public library has it. Overall, this was an OK read.

This is a tolerably well-written book; contrary to at least one of the other reviewers here, I feel that the author did a fine job of portraying the established characters, and the story fit well as a continuation of the original series episode, "That Which Survives". Also, the new race, the Petraw, seem plausible and moderately interesting, kind of a cross between the Ferrengi and Harry Mudd. (Although I must say, I found the motivations for the "deviant" member of the alien crew a bit opaque, and since the actions of that character have a very major effect on the plot, that's a rather large caveat.) Also, as has been mentioned by other reviewers, this story was somewhat lacking in action; not as much as has been suggested elsewhere, but enough that if you read Star Trek for the fast action and gripping adventure, you're likely to be disappointed.

But the real flaw in this book (and the reason I gave it 3 rather than 4 stars) is that it has no satisfactory ending; it is simply "Book 1" of a series, and cannot stand on its own. The "Section 31" series demonstrated that that is not a neccessary flaw in a series; "Cloak", at least, (the only one of that series that I've yet read) is a complete story in and of itself, in spite of being part of a series. That is the way a series SHOULD be put together; it is dishonest to write a story that has no ending, simply to attempt to bully the reader into buying the next book in the series. If the writing is good, the reader will do so without that gimmick, and if it isn't, the gimmick won't help.

If you like Star Trek, and are willing to put up with having to follow the story line into the next book (and the five after that one, probably) there's no reason not to get this book. If you don't or aren't, there's no reason to do so.

Set immediately after the TOS episode "That Which Survives" the story starts off with the return of the Enterprise from where the Kalandan technology has flung the Starship and the defeat of the deadly Losira replica. Unfortunately when the landing party attempts to beam back up to the Enterprise they are unable to as the transporter biofilters detect a deadly and highly contagious virus. The same virus that decimated the Kalandan colony that once inhabited the engineered planetoid. Stranded on the planet until a cure is found, Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Sulu decide to put the time to good use and explore the base of what was obviously a technologically advanced society.

Meanwhile the huge power surge given off by the planet when its defenses were activated has attracted the attention of both a Klingon Captain spoiling for a fight and a scout ship from a previously unknown alien race, the Petraw. The Petraw are a race that seemingly attain their technology by tricking others out of theirs. They are able to intercept and decode all messages that they intercept and gain the knowledge they need to plan a strategy that allows them to obtain covertly any technology and information they think will be useful to their race. In this case, the detection by the Petraw's ships sensors of the power surge leads then to intercept the messages sent by Kirk to Starfleet command and his report of the advanced and powerful technology they have stumbled upon.

Sufficiently intrigued by the possible opportunities the alien planetoid might hold, the Petraw leader Tasm plans her teams tactics and decides the best way to obtain access to the technology on the planet is to impersonate the decedents of the Kalandans and claim the base and technology herself. To this end the Petraw surgically alter themselves to appear as much like the Kalandans as possible. They successfully synthesis a cure for the virus to offer to the Enterprise crew and time their arrival at the planet to aid the Enterprise which has come under attack from the Klingon ship.

Kirk is skeptical of Tasm's claims but decides to cooperate to a point with the 'Kalandans'. Under orders to learn all he can about the interstellar transporter, this allows the Enterprise crew to continue to investigate the alien technology but also enables the Petraw to realize that within the base lies a Gateway that will bring unimaginable power to whomever learns its secrets. A technology they are as determined to obtain as Kirk is resolved to keep out of anyone else's hands. Working together the two crews are able to reactive the portal which brings matters to a climax. The story ends in a cliffhanger of sorts as the Petraw's plans suddenly go awry.

"One Small Step" was a disappoinment to me. I had two main problems with the book. The first and most important to me were the characterizations of established characters. I did not like the way the author portrayed the TOS crew. This is highly subjective I know, everyone who reads the books envisions the characters their own way. But for me Susan Wright just didn't acurately portray the TOS characters. It was if she didn't really know the characters she was writing. I did however like the Petraw crew. I thought the race was very interesting indeed and those characters pretty well done.

The other major problem I had with the story was that it was downright tedious at times. I got tired of reading about Spock or Scotty or one of the Petraw tracing filaments etc. I was hoping for a little more action. The plot was very slow. Every time the story began to pick up it seemed to suddenly drop off again. Perhaps I've been spoilt by the quality of other recent Star Trek novels but "One Small Step" is a book I would call mediocre at best.

First about this story -- not bad despite having less action and romance than most Trek books. The plot has some mystery, but doesn't really get you lost or confused.
But once again Pocket Books has come up with another way to dupe us out of our money rather than just giving us a good product so that we keep coming back. The entire first 6 books of the series have very little interaction with each other, except that you must get the seventh to have a conclusion. And the seventh is only available, at this date, in hardback. I was more than slightly annoyed by the Rihannsu ploy where no indication was given of a continuing series and the conclusion is still not out after more than a year. This ploy is another of the same character (or lack thereof). If you like stories contained in a series of books, that's fine. I sometimes enjoy them. But tell us what we are getting. Don't hide it.
I've read book four (DS9) also. I found it even better than this one.

First off I have to say that I am a bit biased as "That Which Survives", the episode that this is a sequel to, was one of my favourite shows. Having said that this is yet another recent Star Trek novel that continues the downward slide in the quality of story telling. Here we have a novel that takes 230 plus pages to tell a story that could have been told in 150. It is full of redundant padding, it has one of the most overused Star Trek cliches in the form of the interstellar transporter, the Klingon involvement is an utter waste of time, and the regular Enterprise crew seem to spend much of their time doing nothing. As for the ending it's just another attempt to improve sales by getting people to buy more than one book, but of course if the writing quality of recent Star Trek novels was any good there wouldn't be the problem of falling sales in the first place. Personally this novel, which seems aptly named, is another one that rather than being written seems to have been created by a replicator !!!

This is the only book I've purchased in years that I was unwilling to finish. It's boring beyond belief. And it's poorly written. It reads like a transcript of a role playing game session. Not a very well-moderated rpg, either. At one point, we are told of a grid that measures three point nine four meters by two meters. That's exactly how it's written, too. And at no point do we get to see why the dimensions of the grid make the slightest bit of difference to the players ... oh, characters. The e-book was good for the excerpt of Sir Apropos of Nothing by Peter David, which *sparkles* in comparison to the turgid prose inflicted on an unwitting readership by Ms. Wright.

The storyline of this book is well documented in other reviews, so I won't rehash it here.

The strength of this book is the new alien race introduced. I feel that they were well thought out and executed. Their motives were not at cross purposes to intelligent plotting, and you wound up with a legitimate question as to whether one of the alien crew is a heroic visionary or just psychotic ... and that was very interesting.

However, the book was not completed. The cliff hanger at the end is unnecessary and very frustrating. We didn't find out the answer about the alien crew member, nor the consequences of her actions. I've just started reading this series, and I have no idea where to go for the rest of the story, nor even if there IS anywhere to go for it.

Most of the actions and thoughts of the Enterprise crew made sense. However, after the aliens destroyed a Klingon ship that was about to destroy the Enterprise, I think the author had the Enterprise officers doing a bit too much hand wringing about why the aliens finished off the ship. That motif is much more appropriate in the Next Gen setting than a TOS setting.

Another quibble is that the author has Spock figuring out the coordinates of Starfleet HQ to "set" the gateway to open to it. Considering that Starfleet HQ is on a planet that is rotating about its axis, and is revolving around a star which is constantly in motion relative to the rest of the galaxy (at 132 miles per second), having even Spock do this "in his head" is more than a reach.

Finally, the author placed the Enterprise crew in the midst of a fascinating setting. However, their interactions and discoveries in that setting were decidedly pedestrian. A little more imagination and fun factor was needed there.

The book is well worth a read for a TOS fan. However, I don't recommend reading it unless you already know where to go to finish the storyline.

Note: With some research after writing the above, I found that all of the Gateways books have cliff hanger endings. The endings are all wrapped up in the 7th book. Essentially this was a scam to keep everyone hooked on the series, and in the end to buy an extra book that you shouldn't really need to. The 7th book is essentially the last chapter(s) of each of the first six. So you can safely read this book if you also have book 7, and go directly from the last page of this book to the concluding installment of it in book 7, without reading books 2 through 6 first.

Sadly, the climax of the story in Gateways 7 was not as well thought out as the first of the story here in Book 1. Kirk's ultimate escape makes little sense. It seems that an alien civilization that has been spacefaring for generations, at least, does not possess hand weapons or emergency internal communications in their most important city. They also somehow made an unconscious decision to begin communicating in English, a language unknown to all but one of them, the moment Kirk became a fugitive on their planet.

This is what often happens when an author writes themself into a corner and lacks the originality, energy, or wit to make sure that their finale makes sense.

I am a loooong time fan of ST. However, I never forayed into reading any of the books, beacause the couple of times I picked one up, the writing [was bad]- effectively turning me off to furhter attempts for a very long time...

One day I sat down and started reading this book for the heck of it and was immediately drawn in. All the wonderful cheesiness and derring do! of TOS was perfectly captured in this book. I felt just like I was watching an episode of the series - I could even hear the overblown music and see the wonderfully overdawn and totally sixties costumes on the alien women...

I was excited when the ending left me hanging for more...I eagerly picked up the next book....and that's where everything went wrong.... Unlike one of the previous reviewers I don't mind going through a series of books...I love it...I personally prefer "Neverending Stories" - but the next book is just awful! The writing is reprehensible at best! The characters are just caricatures of people...I can't say enough about how awful it is...I still haven't forced myself to finish the second book...Eventually I suppose I will because I want to know what happens to Capt. Kirk...but oohhhhh - how painful it is

Read and love the first book...but be prepared for a massive let down with the second....

(I've subsequently started to read some other Trek books and I can't recommend Sarek by A.C. Crispin highly enough...WOW!!!)

This is getting totally pitiful. The mini-series junk trying to span stories through all the different genres of StarTrek in my opinion belongs in the trash. Pocket Books is making a big mistake. I for one only care for the original cast books. I buy one to read (which I've read them all) and I get no ending unless I go read Next Generation and then the next genre and the next and the one after that.

YUCK!!

When I bought the book I had pretty high expectations. I was a little disappointed with the book. Like some people have pointed out it had little action. At the end I got plenty interested but then it leaves you hanging. The characters for me were pretty accurate, (Kirk, Spock, Scotty, etc.) but the Petraw really didn't intrigued me that much since there was so little about them and pretty similar except for one major character. The book is pretty much an introduction into the series. Hopefully the other five books have more action and the 7th one should tie everything together.