3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Copies Wrath of Khan's plot, but great characters., January 4, 2004
The plot of this book is essentially a copy of Wrath of Khan: a madman converts something designed for peace, in this case a hospital ship, into a weapon and Kirk has to stop him while commanding a ship run by cadets. To complicate matters, the rogue ship is full of civilians, including Dr. McCoy, and Kirk's aide Kevin Riley (a major character in the Lost Years series). Unlike Wrath of Khan the book is a thriller, with McCoy and Riley trying to catch the madman and/or stop the ship, while the madman hunts down civilians and eventually (of course) comes after McCoy. The characters, old and new, are excellently depicted. The writing in general is very good. There is a real feeling of tension, and the occasional, good humour scenes are never done to detract from it. The scenes featuring the two cadets with each other come off pretty clichéd, but their interaction with Kirk or Riley is very well done.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Has similarities to the classic series: The Ultimate Computer, October 30, 2009
There is a review saying this copies the Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan plot. That isn't true.
This story is nothing like that film. (The only similarities are McCoy, Kirk, and...the fact that both stories take place within the Trek universe).
This story shares similarities between the classic Trek episode, 'The Ultimate Computer'....where we have a scientist who believes computers will be more efficient on a starship than it's human operators.
In 'Recovery' we have a huge rescue ship (of the book's title) headed by a scientist who is upset Kirk doesn't believe the ship can actually perform over humans, or at least without humans to monitor the computers.
The ship is supposed to be tested in a simulation; with Starfleet vessels Paladin and Starhawk on-hand....
Since this takes place before 'The Motion Picture'...Kirk is still an Admiral, brought on the simulation as an observer; Dr. McCoy is a civilian who happens to be on the Recovery also as an observer....Ambassador Sarek is on hand as well to speak with the Romulans, Tholians, and Klingons...who each have a ship on hand to watch the simulation since the ship is an interesting piece of technology, and the fact that the simulation takes place near their borders.
Spock is in the midst of Kolinahr on Vulcan, the purging of emotions....but 'senses' his friends are in trouble.
(Oh, yeah...and Lt. Kevin Riley from the classic episodes 'Conscience of the King' and 'The Naked Time' is on-hand as well; he has been working as Kirk's aide; and Sonak, the commander we briefly see in 'Star Trek: The Motion Picture' shows up).
Of course, with all this....there is bound to be trouble.
***
This is written by J.M. Dillard, who--in my opinion--has a good pacing quality in her Trek books; she doesn't bog down the story with science (or have the characters bog the reader with unnecessary or unrealistic scientific technobabble dialogue)....but keeps the reader wondering how the heroes will solve this issue that may start an interstellar war; she keeps the characters relatable/realistic to the readers...i.e. the way they talk, act, etc...
I do like the mix of characters, which shows a very Trek-like future:
*Riley has a beautiful 'ex' from Somalia (named Lt. Saed), works security on one of the vessels.
*Chief Engineer Gambeta, a woman from South Africa is part of the USS Paladin crew.
*Josiah Ngo, seems to be half-black/half-Asian (particularly Vietnamese, with that name)...and works with Dr. McCoy in the course of the novel...
I'm sure there are a couple more.
I definitely recommend this book for fans of the classic series, and those looking for an action-based novel set in the Trek universe. (Not too mention, recommended as a book with interesting characters).
***SPOILERS***
This also is a follow-up to the episode, 'The Tholian Web.' If you are familiar with that episode, you will figure out who the villains of this piece are.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Pleasant surprise., August 1, 2006
This is the final book in a subseries by J.M. Dillard about the "Lost Years", the years between the end of the original Star Trek 5-year mission and the first movie. All of the books in this series have done an at least reasonably plausible job of filling in the blanks for the "Trek History" buffs, and the writing has been quite good. Unfortunately, the period in which the books are set is, by definition, a "down" period in which Kirk is an admiral with a desk job, McCoy and Spock have left the fleet, and the other main characters are scattered, which is a severe handicap for the writer to work with in terms of coming up with interesting, plausible stories. Occasionally, even Dillard can't overcome that handicap. But in this book, in spite of the plot on the face of it being merely a rehash of a (not terribly good) original series episode, which it is actually a sequel to, the action moves well, the book far outshines the episode that it is based on ("The Ultimate Computer"), the characterization is excellent, and as usual with Dillard, the writing is on the high side of competent. Definitely worth the read for any fan of the original series, and possibly worth reading for someone sufficiently unfamiliar with the series to not know of the episode that inspired it.
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