Customer Reviews

Recovery (Star Trek, Book 73)

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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.

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.

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.

THE LOST YEARS saga (THE LOST YEARS, A FLAG FULL OF STARS, TRAITOR WINDS and RECOVERY) covers the years between the end of the original series and STAR TREK: THE MOTION PICTURE. The crew had been scattered after the end of the five year mission. Most were trying to be reassigned to the refitted Enterprise when she was ready to resume duty. Their various interim assignments/new career paths have been covered throughout this series of novels - the focus shifting slightly in each novel. RECOVERY emphasis is on Kirk, who is frustrated by his new position in the Admiralty, Kevin Riley now assigned as Kirk's aide, and Dr. McCoy who is consulting for Starfleet.

Starfleet has a new automated rescue ship, one that has the potential to travel where needed, extract personnel from a hazardous situation, treat the injured and take survivors to safety all by automation. Kirk, based on his prior experience with the M5 computor disaster, has given the project a very poor recommendation. Despite this Starfleet has bowed to pressure and agreed to a trial for the project. Kirk has been assigned to evaluate the trial, and unknown to him, so has Dr. McCoy. Of course something goes wrong placing all in peril.

The story draws from a couple of TOS episodes, and being familiar with those would definitely help with appreciating the story although not absolutely necessary. The original elements of this novel are quite reminiscent of other Trek episodes, a-madman-controlled-by-a-hostile-force takes-over-a-ship-endangering-everyone. Dillard handles it well but must write in very strict parameters, the action of the original series is well known, the events of the previous three novels has already taken place and the beginning of the first movie has already been seen by most fans. This gives the author very little room to work since we know before opening the book that Kirk, McCoy, Spock etc. all rejoin the Enterprise to meet te V'ger threat.

For fans of the series the whole LOST YEARS saga is a delight, and RECOVERY ties up the last loose ends quite nicely. For those who are not fans of TOS there would be no point in reading any of these books at all. There would be better places to become acquainted with the series, watching the original episodes for example.

One small problem with the LOST YEARS saga is that there are slight discrepancies in the timeline details from novel to novel. For example a character's activities are described one way in one novel and slightly differently in a later one. This series was written by different authors and (at least released) over a five year period so this is quite understandable. It could be a bit annoying though to anyone who is reading the whole series at once.

I first read Recovery in Middle School and I picked it back up recently to see if it was as good as I remembered it. It was. I really liked how the book seemed to focus on more than just the original cast like the first two movies did. Also J. M. Dillard was able to really set the stage for The Motion Picture with this book. It begins to show how the characters have so drastically change since the Original Series. I liked how the story focued on how the lives of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Riley have changed over the last eighteen months since the Enterprise came home. It really adds to them in a more human way. You also can get the feeling that the supporting characters are not just throw away, flat characters that are found in so many novels.

Yes I know that the book reuses a basic Trek plot, but it does add some new flavor to it. I really liked the J. M. Dillard making the Tholians the culprits. In my opinion they were one of the more interesting Trek aliens that seemed to have been over looked.

If you are a trek fan I recommend this book. You do not have to read the other three books in the Lost Years cycle, however it will add to the enjoyment of this book. If you want to see exactly what happened to cause the changes to the Original Cast we see in TMP then this IS the book for you. My only regret is that this is one of those Trek novels that has not been deemed canon. If you don't belive me read it. Believe me you'll be hearing the soundtrack to the movies at certain points.

Each mini series of Star Trek novels needs its action, romance, and dark mind control novels.

Dillard applies her insight into the demented mind to the Lost Years saga. If you like her other books, you will probably like this one.

The last book in the Lost Years-series is definitely the worst one.

We get a book, that unlike it's predecessors, doesn't use the potential of the characters being out of a starship, in their own separate ways and situations.

The plot of "Recovery" might as well have been used in any other TOS novel. It offeres nothing but un-beliavabilities by introducing a 100% automated "hospital-ship", that would be a technological marvel even in the era of Enterprise-E and Voyager in the year 2272.

The story is boring and predicteble. Beyond saving by the good writing of Jean Mary Dillard, who has written so much better book in her career that it's a real surprise to find her ending the series like this. We get only one important original character. The one we've seen a hundret times already: the young and eager cadet, who thinks Captain Kirk is a god and perfect in every way, and finally get's to meet him.

The book isn't really closely related to the other books of the series, but it can't hurt to read it as a bad ending.

At leas not much.