Customer Reviews

Miracle Workers, S.C.E. Book Two

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I can't say much in this review of Book 2 of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers that I didn't already say in my review of Book 1. That is, it's great! Well-written, believable, and very entertaining, with nods to continuity throughout. If you're not reading these, or the DS9 re-launch, then you're missing out on some great stuff.

An added bonus in the back of this publication is the S.C.E. Minipedia, written by one of the good ones, Keith R.A. DeCandido. Set up like the Star Trek Encyclopedia, it contains all you'll need to know and more about the persons, places, and things in the S.C.E. universe, which includes, of course, plenty of the canon stuff we've come to know and love. And for those of you who favor nitpicking, there's an e-mail address where you are invited to send in errors, corrections, or comments if you wish.

Win-win, if you ask me.

To all who read Star Trek, you will find that the second SCE book to be well written and an excellent read. Starfleet Corps of Engineers journey through adventures that include rescuing a ship trapped in interphase, help Deep Space Nine get a new power core, and put together a subspace accelerator.

We have a collecton of short compact stories that being the Corps together in time pressed situations and get results. Perils and alien interference along with mystery and uncertainty all are part of the mix when dealing with the galaxy's wonders.

Miracle Workers in their own right the Corps solves the problems in each of the short stories. First off there is the continuation of the story left off in book #1. Interphase by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore.

Interphase is about extracting the U.S.S. Defiant fron an interspatial rift. The unusual tenuous connection that the rift created betweeen the two universes causes problems, but the Tholians are a bigger problem. The adventure is well written and this conclusion was worth the wait. A good well written story and the characters are fleshed out here.

Cold Fusion by Keith R.A. DeCandido is the Corps next adventure.
Lt. Nog is in this one but Sonya Gomez is not, we will find out why in the third short story Invincible. DS-9 needs a new power core so, the Corps is sent to an abandoned Cardassian station in the Trivas system known as Empok Nor. When they arrive they run into an alien race of technology thieves. The adventure is well written and the character Lt. Commander Duffy leads the away team to the station. Duffy's character gets fleshed out in the story as the XO is not on this mission. Well written and the alien Androssi are introduced in this story.

Invincible is the third story, by David Mack and Keith D.A. DeCardido is a story wriiten in personal logs, first officer's logs, letters to home and family etc. This is an evolving story as the logs continue. Sonya Gomez is sent to a far remote region of space to help out in a engineering project on the planet Sarindar. Captain Scott had read a paper that Gomez wrote about subspace accelerators and recommended her for the job. Sarindar's completely scan and transporter proof due to the very high ore concentration of Chimerium.

Silicon based life forms exist on the planet of crystalline snowball appearance. Now the story is told and you will want to see how this story plays out.

There is a "Minipedia" in this book to help in explaining the characters and places etc.

In enjoyed these Trek adventures as I hope you will. Very well witten and each story in this series builds upon the last adventure told so you have a sense of continuation.

"Miracle Workers" was as enjoyable as "Have Tech, Will Travel". The conclusion to the Interphase story was worth the wait. The Cold Fusion story is set between DS9's Avatar and Abyss and filled in some plot points. Overall well worth reading.

The second compilation of the Star Trek: S.C.E. (Starfleet Corps of Engineers) e-books, called Miracle Workers, collects books 5-8 of the continuing series, and they continue the stellar work that Keith R.A. DeCandido has done editing the series as well as great work from the authors. While I read mine in an e-book version, this is also available in paperback. As the series begins to move forward, we find out even more about some of characters, as well as getting some exciting action as well.

In fact, Miracle Workers demonstrates even further that you can get a bunch of Starfleet engineers together and tell interesting stories with them without all of the technobabble Trek is known for. Sure, there's always going to be some, but no more so than any other Trek book. Instead, we have stories such as First Officer Sonya Gomez going through a huge trial by fire that will change her life, or a straight adventure story about salvaging a space station while dealing with a scavenger race that will gladly kill anybody who gets in their way. The writing is excellent, and the stories are only getting better and better. Let's hope that continues to be the case as I move on to the next compilation.

Yes, there are a couple of weaknesses ("Cold Fusion" has a couple of problems as well as being very straightforward compared to the books around it, for example), but overall this is a strong compilation. The writing is uniformly excellent (of course, it's full of some Trek staples, though this was actually David Mack's first prose fiction) and the characters are a lot of fun to read about. Don't let the "engineer" part fool you; this series is about the characters, and they're well-done characters too. Give it a try.

David Roy

Reading the DS9 Relaunch novels? Want to learn how Nog brought Empok Nor over to DS9? If not, you can skip the story in this novel that I am reviewing. If you want to know all the intricacies, then this short story is worthwhile reading.
This is a review only for "Cold Fusion" and how it ties in with the DS9 Season 8 Relaunch novels.

I bought this SCE book not as part of the SCE collection, but for the short story, "Cold Fusion" with Lt. Nog that occurs between the events of Avatar Book 2 and Section 31:Abyss. At the end of Avatar DS9's fusion core is lost, and so Nog comes up with the idea of salvaging the fusion core from Empok Nor. It is his idea, and he wants to implement it.
What stands in his way? A group of cocky, condescending SCE engineers and an alien race based on some sort of perversion of Plato's Republic (with an elite, officer and worker classes).

DeCandido is one of my favorite Trek authors. This short story is interesting, yet I think too short to really develop much.
Those wanting to get some filler between Avatar and Abyss could read this if they choose, but they really are not missing much.

What I did like about this story is how it admittedly does make one want to know more (read more) about the Starfleet Corps of Engineers. Read as only part of the DS9 Relaunch, I really didn't care or understand about who was sleeping with who, but I bet if I was into the SCE books I'd have enjoyed this novel more...and reading about the other characters, some very interesting such as an Insectoid and a sole Bynar (who has lost his partner) definitely intrigued me into learning more about the SCE. Not to mention a brief yet comical visit by Scotty.

Although I had no background to this book, I found that both DeCandido's writing of filling in some stuff briefly and the Minipedia at the back of the book helped orientate me towards these brand new characters. I bet DeCandido was betting some people would read the story as part of a DS9 book, and hoped he could catch some more people into his SCE web...I must say I am quite interested to read more about the SCE, and just may well do so after finishing the DS9 relaunch books.

Being introduced to these characters for the first time I felt rather like Nog did. And the condescending attitude of the SCE towards a fellow Starfleet Lt. was despicable I thought. They wouldn't even hear him out, even though his plan had been approved not only by Colonel Kira, but also Commander Vaughn (a man who all respect). Right away I disliked a few of these SCE people because of their unprofessionalism.

Anyways, the story is short, involves a really cool alien race (Androssi) that I would love to see more of. I really thought that Nog would snap and tell these arrogant SC Engineers to listen to him. I really wanted him to come into his own and confront the discrimination he constantly feels for being Ferengi. In a way he does. He does offer the winning solution to their problems, but I wanted to see him explode at them. As it is, it appears he won the respect of the SCE, although I felt it was a little contrived. Granted, Keith only had 90 pages to develop all of this, but something was missing if one is to read the story as a stand-alone episode. I did find that he did a decent enough job developing (or explaining) some of the backstory to these characters.

The story itself was short, with the action very condensed. Description was good, but I just didn't feel completely into the story as if I were ON Empok Nor.

I guess I should state that my bias won me over. This is NOT a DS9 story, but an SCE story with a continuing cast. It would be like watching "Relics" (TNG) for Scotty, only to watch this other crew you know nothing of. To his credit, the author made me care somewhat for these (to me) new characters. It must have been very difficult trying to write a story that continues the development of SCE characters, while integrating Nog into it. He did a decent enough job, though something felt off. His Gateway book by comparison not only fits in with the Gateway books, but also furthers the DS9 Relaunch books. I guess I was just misguided in expecting a DS9 story when it's really a SCE story with a guest star.

One other complaint. As seen at the start of Abyss, Nog gets 9 Starfleet Captains to help out with his plan. What angered me beyond belief was how it was set up so that the captains had the option of declining or accepting the plan. DS9 is in shambles and mere days away from evacuation, yet Starfleet brass don't even bother ordering the ships to help Nog! Instead, he had to use his Ferengi skills to NEGOTIATE THE COOPERATION of one of the captains! The Captain actually had the nerve to ask, "What's in it for me?" [to help save DS9]. I was like, HOW ABOUT YOU'RE A FRIGGIN STARFLEET OFFICER!!

So, to sum up. Nog gains more confidence, though not in a way that entirely pleased me. He never really stood up for himself, which is what I wanted to see. The new alien race was awesome. Some of the SCE crew were arrogant and didn't make it easy for me to like them. Yet, the crew, especially its alien races, fascinated me. It had me thinking that I would probably enjoy the SCE series if I got into it. For this reason I give the story 4 stars (especially given the addition of the Minipedia to help people like me out).

Only read the "Cold Fusion" story if you are a perfectionist and want all the details, or if you want to get into the SCE crew. Otherwise, easily skip this and read Abyss as the continuation of Avatar.

The 2nd compilation of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers. Engaging, fast paced and even funny at times. Very good and highly recommended if you're a fan of the "Star Trek Universe".

It's a great read if your tired of the usual characters in the NG universe. This
one is about Duffy and crew. If your a fan of NG and don't want to read about a universe that stays the same read this book.

Lt. Nog from DS9 has a story that uses his engineering know how to solve a problem aboard the Da Vinchi. It's stories like these with under used characters that make this special. We get to see a side of Nog that wasn't apparent in the series.


It even has Sonia Gomez from the NG episode that introduced the Borg.
In her story, described in log entries,was the most chilling. Gomez and crew are battling a crystal-like beast that were destroying everyone in sight. The plots and characters keep you wanting to know more about them. If your looking for something other than the norm, read this series!

star trek sce book two miracle workers is a very fun entertaining book,
enjoyable for any star trek or sci fi fan to enjoy.

Picking up where we left off in "Have Tech, Will Travel," this series of short stories of the Starfleet Corps of Engineers is collectively titled "Miracle Workers."

First, the "Interphase" tale is completed, and I was quite impressed with the tone and pace of the second half of the story. It had a rare amount of nostalgia to it that didn't suffer from being trite or overwrought. As always, the characters shine - again proving that in the Star Trek universe, the depth of the character is what matters, not how much screen time they might have had on the television shows or movies.

From there, while there are less stories in this package, the tales are of such high quality that you don't suffer from the lack of them. Nog, as a lieutenant from the DS9 Books set in the "Avatar" and "Abyss" timeline, guest-stars in one of the stories, and doesn't distract from the overall story. The authors really have a deft touch with these shared characters: I have never noticed a character to act out of character from previous stories - quite a feat!

The only negative I can mention from the reading was the inclusion of the "Androssi" as a villain race that the S.C.E. have previously battled - but we have never seen. It was a bit awkward, and made me wonder if I'd missed a story somewhere - the aliens were spoken of as something I should know, but no real details were given. I enjoy good backstory, but there was too much left to backstory in this case.

The inclusion of a "Minipedia" - an encyclopedia of all the information from the various stories in the S.C.E. series, and it was well received by this reader. It was good to look up minor characters and events and have them on hand.

Grab it folks, Trek fans of all kinds will be happily surprised...

'Nathan