Customer Reviews

Star Trek: Enterprise: The Romulan War: Beneath the Raptor's Wing

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Overall, very well done:

The pros:

- Excellent job continuing to bridge the gap between Enterprise and TOS. Enterprise was in a tricky place as a prequel in a strongly established universe, and this book continues to work to bridge the gaps left behind after the early cancellation of the series. It is not perfectly in line with all trek ever written, but then with hundreds of books, that is an impossible task nowadays.
- Good continuation of the Trip-T'Pol connection without making this a sappy love story where everything works out magically for the couple. I like the emphasis on the dynamic between Trip's sense of service and his love for T'Pol.
- Good nod to those of us in the fan base who like what TOS was known for, subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, social commentary. It continues well with the Enterprise series' relation to modern times.
- Good level of plot complexity.
- Overall, good character development with an interesting plot; this is exactly what I want from trek.

The cons:

- More depth into the subplots would have improved this book.
- The writer is toying a careful line between rushing the plot and keeping the story fast paced.

This is the best book in the relaunch series thus far. This is a must for anyone who likes Enterprise. I can only hope that the next book in this series comes out quicker; I get impatient waiting for the next step in Enterprise.

Everyone who's ever been a fan of Star Trek has wanted to see just how the Romulan War went down. Well Martin is giving us that chance and it's not unfolding anything like I expected it to.

In Beneath the Raptor's Wing we see an expansion of the Trek universe from the TV series. There is a good bit of focus on the politics of the war, particularly Vulcan's surprising stance on it, and the ramifications of the political intrigues. There is an interesting subplot involving a journalist who reports on the war throughout the novel and I'm interested in seeing more from Gannett Brooks' point of view.

It's somewhat frustrating that more time is not spent with the Enterprise crew and little ink is given to the largest assembly of Earth space forces ever, but these are minor complaints against a larger, well written backdrop that is a satisfying read when all is said and done. The inclusion of Columbia in the novel is a bit confusing at first, but we soon see that Martin's use of the good ship and crew does indeed jive with the continuity established by the Destiny trilogy.

I don't see the war being dragged out for too long, but I do anticipate a good series of books with this novel as a solid launching point for the war. I hope that the series isn't too long delayed and we can get back in the action soon.

I eagerly looked forward to this book when I found out it would deal with the Romulan War, a much referred to yet "undocumented" period of Trek history. After reading it, I'm not sure I truly enjoyed it, but I appreciate the effort made by the author.

First, the bad:

I didn't realize going in that this was the start of a new series of books about the Romulan War. At least I hope it is, because the story isn't over where the book ends. There is no indication if there will be one more book, or dozens. I like to know what I'm getting into before I become caught up in a story. A simple "Book I" on the cover would have alleviated that to some extent.

Why, oh why, are the main characters so spread out? Archer, Reed, Sato and Phlox are still on Enterprise, but Mayweather leaves for other postings, and T'Pol goes off to Vulcan. And then there's Tucker. My biggest disappointment in this book is that he's still off on secret missions. I can only hope the main characters are reunited in subsequent book(s).

I really don't care for some of the extraneous characters, such as the reporter Gannet Brooks, but I can understand why she's utilized. She's giving a perspective on what the rest of humanity thinks about the conflict with the Romulans. What's really a shame is that more time is devoted to her than either Reed or Sato.

Now the good:

The main characters were, for the most part, believable. Some character development was shown, but it didn't become overly bogged down to the extent that it interfered with the plotline. Archer's depression/regret over what happened with the Kobayashi Maru, for instance.

The book drags -- almost the entire first half -- until the action starts. But the background leading up to the action is needed to better understand precisely why the Romulans view Earth as a threat and how the humans and their Coalition allies respond.

Trip and T'Pol's relationship is renewed in a way that's both believable and understated, and works well for the story.

The machinations behind the scenes of the Romulan Empire are quite well done.

The ending (for the book, not the war) surprised me to the extent that I do want to read more. Here's hoping that it isn't long before the next book comes out.

The good part of this book is the story line. The war with the Romulans has been a gap in the Star Trek history of the future for far too long. Unfortunately, the writing is reminiscent of a high school freshman with a thesaurus obsession. And if I read one more reference to an emotion that is detectable only behind a Vulcan's eyes, I think I will vomit. Technical details are nearly non-existent, and the reference to "Obama" station in orbit of Earth almost made me throw the book out right there. I really wish this story could have been picked up by Mack or David or Friedman.

Sometimes this book is very slow reading, and often times extremely boring. It would have been easy to cut 100 pages and not have missed anything. There where times I felt he was trying to sell me on his politics, which I could care less about. Cut 100 pages and get rid of the politics and It may be a pretty good book.

Michael A Martin has created a wonderful new Enterprise universe. After rushing events to conclude the final season of Star Trek Enterprise, the studio created more story questions than were answered. Martin has regrouped those questions and spun a web of story telling that any 21st century reader can appreciate. Deeply detailed, each scene setting is clear and authentic. In addition, the "bad guys" are only "bad guys" from a certain perspective. It is classic Star Trek in every well chosen word. As our world establishes new borders seemingly every day, so does this work. Each species and government, friend and foe alike, are embroiled in political machinations caused by mistrust, poor communication, and sometimes plain old ignorance. There is no cheating the reader with 24th century gizmo's. Star Trek Enterprise; The Romulan War brings us to the frustrating realities of time, distance, and the unpredictable nature of other beings and their technologies. Roddenberry's "Wagon train to the Stars" is in good hands, and hopefully intent on providing us years of wonderful story telling.

Just finished reading ST:ENT: The Romulan War. This is an outstanding addition to the ongoing relaunch series begun several years ago, possibly the best of the group so far. The Romulan War covers the first year of the iconic Romulan War from the Start Trek universe. Epic in its scope, the book had almost a John Jakes or Herman Wouk-type feel, kind of a future history done as historical fiction. I strongly recommend this to anyone who would appreciate the possible future direction of the series, had it continued.

If you were looking for an epic war story . . . keep looking.

This book chronicles the beginning of the Earth-Romulan War. It takes place after the events of the "Star Trek: Enterprise" TV series and the books "The Good that Men Do" and "Kobayashi Maru", both co-authored by Michael A. Martin.

Although I liked Martin's previous works, this book fell far below my expectations. Unlike other Trek books I've read, especially those set during wartime, this book failed to strike any sort of emotional cord within me. There was just too little story spread over too many pages, as if the editor said, "Mr. Martin, write me a 450-page-long book in which empty descriptions and dull dialogue fill up 100 of those pages."

There are also way too many insignificant characters that we get introduced to, each with their own little sub-plot that gets lost in the fray and then suddenly pops up 15 chapters later. The overall effect of these mini plot lines is that the chapters about Enterprise are too few and far between for my liking. I mean, after all, the book is titled: "Star Trek: ENTERPRISE: The Romulan War", not "Star Trek: EVERYONE ELSE and a Bit of Enterprise: The Romulan War"! I want to read more about Archer and his crew, not a news reporter or a Romulan admiral!

The book's short list of redeeming qualities are as follows: 1) It stays true to the notion established in The Original Series that the Romulan War was fought with nuclear weapons; 2) It tries to explain why The Original Series ships look so bulky and technologically ancient compared to the Enterprise NX-01; 3) The ending is actually interesting and makes me want to know what's next.

My recommendation is to only buy this book if you really, REALLY cannot stand not knowing about the Romulan War.

Alright - I just finished this book and have been anxious to get my review out there. I read it on my Kindle. I'm glad I waited until the end before reviewing. Here's what I liked and didn't like about it.

The pain - Martin must have come up with about 500 new Romulan words (at least it seemed that way). It is difficult to read when you are stumbling over every other word in the Romulus chapters. I have a decent vocabulary but felt as if Mr. Martin was sneering down his nose at me every time I had to look up one of his "for-academics-only," vocabulary words, just so I could follow what he was trying to say. By his writing, Martin strikes my as an elitist snob. Perhaps I would have a different opinion if I met him in person - I hope so :) I read the book on my Kindle and was able to look up what I needed to with the dictionary that was already on the Kindle. I doubt I would have finished the book if I had to whip out the dictionary every time I sat down to read. Too many tedious chapters centered on the role of the media and it's war reporting (yawn). Martin kept bringing up Travis Mayweather but it never really added anything to the overall story. I'm not sure why he is mentioned as often as he is without expanding more on his role in the overall scheme of things. Did I miss it? Maybe it will make more sense in the next installment. Really, there were so many subplots that there just wasn't enough time/space to treat any one plot as thoroughly as it deserved, except for the media plot, which got way more than it's fair share. For the Trip/T'Pol shippers - you will be disappointed if you are looking for a lot of interaction between these two. What is there is good, but there is very little. Hard to say much more without spoiling, but I think this comes back to the too-many-plots-too-little-time problem.

Kindle-related pain - typos, word omissions, and more typos. I was really surprised by the number of typos I came across. I don't know if these appeared in the printed text as well. The typos only aggravated an already-difficult read. Come on guys!

The gain - Continuation of the Romulan war plot, in general. Expansion on the Trip/T'Pol dynamic (not enough though). Explosive ending opens the door to what could be a very intriguing plot. I'll just say I didn't see that one coming!

I WOULD recommend this book to the devoted Star Trek: Enterprise fan. Reading it is a labor of love. It is worth the read.

This story would be accessible to even the most casual Star Trek fan. It begins in the aftermath of the actual Kobayashi Maru incident and finds Jonathan Archer as desperate and compromised as he was in the Expanse (my favorite ST story arc of all time). The Coalition of Planets is not the Federation yet and the Romulans are close to strangling the Earth and its young colonies. A good read.