Customer Reviews

Present Tense: The Janus Gate Book One of Three (Star Trek The Original Series)

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

 

 

I am a big trek fan and loved this book. The premis of this trilogy is to tell a story from the perspective of Kirk's crew. This is touted as being unusual in the Star Trek original series library. I don't agree with this. Ishmael,Home is the Hunter,Ice Trap and Fire storm are similar, the latter two also by LA Graf.

The story is complicated but the continuity is excellent. I have read over one hundred of the original series books and LA Graf is obviously very familiar with all the characters. The story is set before Sulu, Uhura and Chekov become friends, during the first five year mission. LA Graf beautifully reveals the personalities we already know. It does spoil the suspense a little since we already know who lives and dies.

However we are given so many references to stories already known I don't think a new reader would follow the plot,(or see the point of it all)

Me, I LOVED IT!

One strange point was that the synopsis on the back cover bore no resemblence to the story inside the book. Go figure!

Or in this case, the man writing the blurb for the back cover, which apparently was based on a VERY early rough draft/plot synopsis, which bore VERY little resemblance to the eventual story.

The actual story is intriguing, one of the best I've seen. There are a couple of caveats: I HATE cliffhanger endings, so that's why I docked the book one star; if you don't share my dislike of stories that end "to be continued" without resolving any plot points, then consider this a five-star rating. Other than that, my major caveat is that the claim in this book is that at this point in time, Uhura ranked Sulu, and was fourth in the Enterprise chain-of-command after Kirk, Spock, and Scotty. This is clearly not canonical; Uhura was not in command-track at all, and while it's possible that Sulu wasn't yet fourth in the food chain, Uhura was certainly not ahead of him.

But this is a minor quibble, and one I'm willing to overlook, given how good the story is. I must admit, I'll be interested to see how the author gets them out of the corner s/he's painted them into; this really is a proper cliffhanger, as it certainly seems like there's no likely way out, but we KNOW that they get out of it, as the story is set early in the first five-year mission, just after the episode "The Naked Time". Or just before it, depending on how you look at it, given that at the end of that episode (and the beginning of this book) the Enterprise has just been accidentally timeslipped three days into the past.

Having been a little disappointed by the quality of recent Star Trek novels it was with some trepidation that I bought this multi-book series. Fortunately L.A. Graf has had a number of successes in the past and proves there is still life in the original Star Trek universe. The author has written a number of works that have a common thread of an almost obsessive fascination with the characters of Sulu, Uhura, and Chekov, and while I don't always agree with how they are represented it is true that I have never been disappointed by Graf's story writing abilities. Here we have a basic "transporter gate" type story but unlike last year's terribly weak "Gateways" series, the author manages to breathe life into the story by the added twist of the time travel nature of the transporter. As the first book in the series is is mainly a set-up piece, but it is full of mystery and intrigue and nicely leads into book two. The clever way that the adventure is slotted into the original Star Trek timeline is also indicative of the author's attention to detail and is appreciated by a long time fan of the original series like myself. A good effort all round and I look forward to reading the next book.

While I was an avid "Star Trek" novel reader in junior high and high school, I've found that in the last seven or eight years, I've really drifted away from "Star Trek" in any nontelevised form. Once a year or so, I may pick up a novel that has a relatively interesting premise, but I find myself more often than not disappointed these days. Anyway, I picked up "Present Tense" needing something to tide me over in Honolulu until my furniture (and books) arrived from the mainland and found that it was, to my surprise, pretty decent.

L.A. Graf's work has often been a cut about many of her "Star Trek" writer-colleagues'. This one proves no exception. While the plot isn't necessarily anything new - something's draining power from the ship and people are trapped on a planet below - she writes with enough heart and interest in the characters that it reads like a good, old-fashioned "Star Trek" plot. When you throw into the mix a brand-new Ensign Pavel Chekov, perspectives from oft-ignored Uhura and Sulu, an attention to detail surrounding the events of "The Naked Time" - which chronologically just precedes this, and a certain amount of creepy cave-crawling, you get a fun, if light, story.

Being the first book of a three-book series, there's a lot of set-up here, but it does a good job of laying out mysteries that have a certain amount of thought to them - and can't be answered immediately. While it does, eventually, become a time-travel/alternate history story, it works fine as a mystery/adventure first. Even the set-up for the time-travel stuff is good, though, as Graf lays it out in little chunks rather than dropping it all at the end.

My only real regret about the book is that, as a serial, it's the first of three books to buy. Pocket Books, the publishers of "Star Trek" novels, occaisionally release three-book sets, all penned by one author with two books released one month and one the next. Why they don't release it all as one trade paperback that costs the same as three mass-markets, I don't know, but the serialization does prove a minor nuisance as you have to keep going back for more books.

Other than that, though, this is good, old "Star Trek". Not much is new, but that's not really necessary here. What's important is that it's moderately engaging and true to the series. If you're a "Star Trek" fan and you're looking for some very light summer reading, this is a good place to find it.

Star Trek: The Original Series, The Janus Gate - Present Tense by L.A. Graf is interesting. This book is about the early crew of the Enterprise NCC-1701 and the focus is on Pavel Chekov as he is just new to the Enterprise and her crew. This is book number one of a three part trilogy, so don't get in a hurry to finish this series, as book three won't be out till the end of June 2002.

This book is interesting in that we see Chekov as an eager ensign on the fast trak to the bridge crew, but along the way we see that his character is full of self-doubts and eagerness to please and to the right things. A lot of thought goes through Chekov's mind in this book.

I've noticed that the theme of this years crop of Star Trek books has a lot to do with character developement and fill-in and fleshing out of the characters. This book is along those same lines and is told through the crew members of the Enterprise. Yes, book one has action and adventure, along with Kirk and Spock, but the main focal point of the storytelling is through the crew members eyes.

Kirk and crew are sent to Psi-2000 to get there before it blew up. They had to cold start the engines, which threw the Enterprise and crew back 3 days in times. We read about Sulu and his sword fighting and Kevin Riley's singing all from the TOS televison series where the crew caught a virus and was affecting the judgement of the crew and they were doing strange things. Now, the Enterprise is on its way to Tlaoli 4 to recover a survey team and run into the main adventure of this book.

Spelunking, gravity wells, alien transport, sink holes, limestone out cropings are all part and parcel in this adventure. Also, we find that part of the crew being caught in this adventure are found in older and younger versions of their original selves. You have to pay attention when you read this book to follow what is happening, otherwise you'll become confused. I hate to give away too much of this book, but there are alternate time lines and makes for an interestingly intriguing read.

Now on to the second book in the series, as see through all-new eyes, an interesting concept.

In the last decade or so I haven't taken much time to read Star Trek in the written form. In the past, I've always enjoyed the Star Trek novels because the publishers seem much more willing to take chances. Chances in the form of relationsips, choices, and actions the television producers seems too scared to attempt. In addition, the novels always gave the secondary charcters an opporuntiy to shine. Again, in their focus on two or three main characters (Kirk/Spock/McCoy, Picard/Riker/Data) the supporting cast rarely had the chances to shine except in a few episodes written specifically for them. Present Tense is an example of the latter. Here Graf allows the secondary characters to shine and show their stuff, especially Uhura, Chekov and Sulu. Sulu especially is given more to do than he ever had in the series or movies (except possibly Undiscovered Country and his appearances on Voyager). The hallmark of the Original Series was the interaction between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. I have to say the author really captures that by-play better than any I've read so far. As to the plot, there are times when I found myself skimming but the ideas are intriguing and the action is good enough that I definately wanted to keep on reading. I'm actually reading an omnibus edition published by the Science Fiction Book Club so I won't have to wait long for the end. If you enjoyed classic Original Series shows, then the Janus Gate series is a must read. Even if your a Star Trek fan in general, this book series is a great and fun romp.

The back cover of the book, and Amazon description of this book are different than the actual story inside the book.
I just finished Book One of this series (which I got from the library) and this book is pretty dull. 90% of the book is about being trapped in a frozen cave.There are sub-plots of course but this book was a real disappointment.I have book 2 and 3 of this series still to read.The only one of the series that I paid for was book 3 and I will probably regret having done that.Unless you can get this book for free at the library, or used for a [money amount], then I wouldn't waste my time or money on it.The Errand of Vengeance series by Kevin Ryan is a bit childish but much better than this series has been so far.If you want to buy a series, then buy that one instead.

What takes place between the pages of this novel bears little resemblence to the back cover description. Set within the original 5 year mission, immediately after the episode "The Naked Time" the story is uninteresting and the characters fall flat. Save your money on this trilogy, it's very disappointing.

Here's part one of three now if i have the other two janus gate books i'll be surprise. Love them Star Trek books.

Rondall Banks

For the most part, I enjoyed this book. The story on the back cover bears no resemblance to the story between the covers, but what you do get is a pretty good read. Going is a bit slow at times, with more discussion about geology and cave exploration than I really would've cared to read, but this *is* the setup for a trilogy, so who knows what'll end up being important by the end of the story arc?

I love Star Trek books that exlpore the ramifications of decisions and actions from television episodes, ad in that regard, this book does shine quite brightly. I suspect the rest of the trilogy will follow suit. This is the first book I've read by L. A. Graf, and while it's not a Peter David read by any stretch of the imagination, it's a fun Star Trek romp. Probably won't go into my permanent collection, but I'm glad I read it anyway. Besides, as I said, that could change depending on the rest of the trilogy.