Though the United Federation of Planets still reels from Andor’s political decision that will forever affect the coalition, Captain William T. Riker and the crew of the U.S.S. Titan are carrying out Starfleet’s renewed commitment to deep space exploration. While continuing to search the Beta Quadrant’s unknown expanses for an ancient civilization’s long-lost quick-terraforming technology— a potential boon to many Borg-ravaged worlds across the Federation and beyond—Titan’s science specialists encounter the planet Ta’ith, home to the remnant of a once-great society that may hold the very secrets they seek. But this quest also takes Titan perilously close to the deadly Vela Pulsar, the galaxy’s most prolific source of lethal radiation, potentially jeopardizing both the ship and what remains of the Ta’ithan civilization. Meanwhile, Will Riker finds himself on a collision course with the Federation Council and the Andorian government, both of which intend to deprive Titan of its Andorian crew members. And one of those Andorians—Lieutenant Pava Ek’Noor sh’Aqaba—has just uncovered a terrible danger, which has been hiding in plain sight for more than two centuries. . . .
Star Trek: Titan: Fallen Gods
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About the Author
Michael A. Martin is the author of Star Trek: Typhon Pact—Seize the Fire, Star Trek Online: The Needs of the Many and Star Trek: Enterprise: The Romulan War—Beneath the Raptor’s Wing and To Brave the Storm. He has also coauthored (with Andy Mangels) several Star Trek comics for Marvel and Wildstorm as well as numerous other works of Star Trek fiction. He lives in Portland, Oregon.
™, ®, and © 2012 CBS Studios, Inc. Star Trek and Related Marks are trademarks of CBS Studios, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
One
U.S.S. TITAN
Lieutenant Commander Melora Pazlar reached across the light-years and cupped the rapidly spinning neutron star in her outstretched palm. She held it gently, carefully rotating the bright, oblate body’s south pole until the energetic prominence that originated there pointed almost directly toward her face, while its northern counterpart pointed almost directly away. The vast, star-flecked cloud of gas and dust that a supernova explosion had left in its wake millennia ago—nestled deep inside the Gum Nebula, an even more expansive cloud of gas and dust generated by a still more ancient supernova—mirrored the change in the pulsar’s orientation, turning obediently on the gravitational tethers that subtly linked every particle of matter in the universe.
Known in the Federation’s astronomical catalogs as the Vela Pulsar, the intensely bright object that lay in Pazlar’s open hand was now positioned so that the nearest of its polar jets had become the electromagnetic equivalent of a fire hose; the pulsar’s immense gravity had so accelerated its outer shell of infalling matter that its poles emitted powerful streams of energy that encompassed every wavelength from gamma rays and X-rays to visible light to radio waves to the subspace bands. She flinched involuntarily, releasing the pulsar as the stream of false-color brilliance geysered into her face. She knew that the resulting light show was entirely harmless, a holographic representation of the real thing, even though she noted with a turn of her head that it extended through and past the space she occupied; it formed a long tail beyond her head, as though she wasn’t even there. And yet she had flinched, her reaction fueled by some primal instinct she was incapable of taming. Her senses found the illusion all too convincing, despite her certain knowledge of its unreality. If the holographic object before her possessed any of the Vela Pulsar’s characteristics other than its fierce appearance, she would have been utterly fried long before she had come anywhere near the object’s seething photosphere.
As she drifted like a dust mote in the expansive variable-gravity imaging chamber that comprised the bulk of the stellar cartography lab’s volume, she silently upbraided herself. Melora, you’d think by now the fact that you routinely soar through interstellar space wearing nothing but an ordinary duty uniform would keep you from forgetting that you’re safe, toiling in your cozy personal workspace.
A familiar Efrosian lilt rose from the combadge attached to Pazlar’s uniform tunic, interrupting her reverie. “Are you busy at the moment, Melora?”
She gave the combadge a desultory tap. “You might say that, Xin,” she told Titan’s chief engineer. “I’m about to start a long-range analysis of our next destination. The captain wants to know as much as possible about the Vela Pulsar before we arrive and start the actual survey mission.”
“Do you think you might put that task aside for a few minutes?” Commander Xin Ra-Havreii said. “I could use your assistance here in engineering.”
Pazlar listened carefully for any sign of flirtation or double entendre, but found neither. Although she knew that Xin took his job as seriously as she did her own, she had learned very early in their still-evolving relationship that he wasn’t past suggesting a midday tryst occasionally.
“Why?” she said, unable to keep a slight edge out of her tone.
“It’s almost time for Captain Riker’s conference with Admiral de la Fuego, and he’s expecting to tie it in to the shipwide holoimaging system. The system has developed a few glitches that I can resolve more quickly with your help.”
She frowned. “Troubleshooting holoimagers sounds a lot more like your department than mine, Xin.”
“Running the stellar cartography lab the past couple of years has made you more of a holography expert than you realize, Melora,” he said. “Besides, you’re easily the shipwide holosystem’s heaviest user.”
His words struck her with the force of a mild slap, reminding her that she had once allowed herself to become entirely too dependent upon Titan’s integrated network of internal holoemitters for her own good. How could it have been otherwise? The system allowed her to visit essentially any section of the ship without risking bone breakage via exposure to the crushing artificial gravity levels that prevailed nearly everywhere aboard Titan. It obviated any need for either a bulky contragravity suit or an antigrav exoskeleton, not to mention the necessity of leaving the safety of either the stellar cartography lab or her quarters, both of which faithfully recreated the microgravity environment of her homeworld.
But over the course of the past year Pazlar had gone out of her way to avoid using the shipwide holosystem. On the advice of Counselor Huilan Sen’kara and others—advice that she had rejected at first—Pazlar had come to recognize that she was overusing telepresence technology, and had turned it into an unhealthy form of self-imposed social isolation.
She scowled and pushed the Vela Pulsar hologram away, allowing it to recede several virtual light-years into the simulated distance. If Xin really is looking for a nooner, she thought, then he’s doing a damned poor job of pouring on the charm.
“What exactly are you saying, Xin?”
Pazlar knew that her ability to concentrate on matters astronomical would depend upon what Xin Ra-Havreii said next.
“I’m saying you’ve had more experience fixing the system on the fly than anybody else aboard Titan, with the possible exception of myself. The captain needs the holosystem running glitch-free—now—and I don’t want to disappoint him. A second pair of trained eyes could go a long way toward making sure I won’t have to. Please come down to engineering, Melora. I won’t need you for very long.”
Adrift in microgravity like a piece of cosmic flotsam, she considered his request. At length, she said, “All right, Xin. Give me a minute.”
She could visualize the satisfied grin behind his reply, and imagined his snow-white mustachios going gently aloft like the delicate underlimbs of a telepathic Gemworld Lipul. “Thank you, Melora. Ra-Havreii out.”
Pazlar activated one of the several small compressed-air maneuvering thrusters she had incorporated into her uniform tunic. In obeisance to basic Newtonian physics, her body began moving in the direction opposite the gentle thrust, toward the lab’s central consoles and the network of catwalks and railings that surrounded them.
Once she reached “ground level,” she headed for the locker where she kept her contragravity suit. Thinking better of it while en route, she turned in mid-motion, used her thrusters to arrest her momentum, and then launched herself at the nearest console capable of accessing the holosystem.
Just in case he really did have a hidden agenda that he couldn’t carry out unless she came to him in the flesh.
* * *
Captain Will Riker noted that he’d reached his destination nearly two minutes early, and decided to take that as a good omen.
Standing alone in the dimly illuminated main observation lounge, he paused to gaze out the panoramic window and take in the breathtaking vista it displayed. He looked outward across Titan’s broad bow into the mysterious, tantalizingly luminescent depths of the Gum Nebula that lay in the starship’s path.
What are we accomplishing out here, really? he thought. Lately his dreams had been plagued by images gathered from a dozen or more worlds—Federation members and allies—that had been hit hardest during the Last Borg Invasion. Deneva, Vulcan, Andor, Tellar, Qo’noS, none of these planets were done picking up the pieces yet. Could they ever recover fully, considering how much wholesale death the Borg Collective had dealt?
Riker turned and glanced around the observation lounge’s interior. He had ordered that the room be made available exclusively to him at fifteen hundred hours, the scheduled time of his conference with Admiral de la Fuego. He would have preferred to have Deanna at his side, considering one of the topics to be discussed. However, this was a command-level affair, for the captain’s eyes and ears only. Some of the ground to be covered would be sensitive, which was why he wanted the meeting conducted in full three-dimensional holography. If Admiral de la Fuego expected to ram an unpalatable policy down his throat, she’d damned well better be prepared to look him straight in the eye when she did it.
At the broad, round conference table that dominated the room’s center, Riker sat with his back to the observation windows. He sighed, then said, “Computer, open secure holographic subspace channel Starfleet Seventeen-Tau-Alpha-Epsilon. Authorization: Riker-Beta-One-Zero-Two. Increase lighting to point-seven-five of standard.”
The illumination level rose instantaneously. Within the space of a few heartbeats, a hologram began to coalesce in a chair across the table from Riker. The image shimmered, gradually gaining solidity before it began to fade away behind a curtain of static. It was almost as though the admiral were being beamed aboard Titan with a faulty transporter, which was losing her pattern.
The captain scowled and whispered a pungent curse. Just as he was reaching for his combadge, the holographic image in the chair suddenly acquired clarity, depth, and resolution. It ...
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
By Malcolm
Format:Mass Market Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
To see a magnificent example of GOOD tie-in fiction, one only needs to think back a month to David R. George III's fantastic Raise The Dawn. It took all of the compelling pieces of the DS9 & wider-Federation narratives and recombined them in unexpected new ways, expertly balancing the familiar and the new, the Star Trek spirit and the rush of galaxy-changing consequences. Characters grew and changed, took terrible chances and made surprising choices.
Then there's Fallen Gods. Titan is arguably the most interesting set of characters in any ongoing Trek series right now, and this book does nothing with any of them. Every character arc is a sad little echo of an earlier one that was written better than this (eg, Keru still distrusts cybernetic life because of the Borg, Ra-Havreii still doesn't trust himself because of his Luna accident before the first book in the series, etc). Titan has been flying for three YEARS now. To not develop any of these characters at all is unimaginative and unrealistic.
And the plot is so resoundingly predictable. Religious aliens start destroying the technology keeping them alive. Our heroes have to save them. Yawn. But even better, in the end, our heroes do almost nothing anyway; the whole thing is resolved by an alien AI. The only victory for anyone is a minor twisting of legalese that Riker pulls off.
And the writing somehow manages to be pretentiously verbose and annoyingly filled with contemporary slang and phrasing, both at the same time.
The Trek novels have been so good lately, and Titan is capable of so much more. Can we stop letting Martin write these things, please? Literally any other regular author in the Trek Literature stable right now would've been better than this.
Oh well. At least Kirsten Beyer, Una McCormack, and David Mack are writing the rest of the novels this year, and none of them have had a miss yet.
Then there's Fallen Gods. Titan is arguably the most interesting set of characters in any ongoing Trek series right now, and this book does nothing with any of them. Every character arc is a sad little echo of an earlier one that was written better than this (eg, Keru still distrusts cybernetic life because of the Borg, Ra-Havreii still doesn't trust himself because of his Luna accident before the first book in the series, etc). Titan has been flying for three YEARS now. To not develop any of these characters at all is unimaginative and unrealistic.
And the plot is so resoundingly predictable. Religious aliens start destroying the technology keeping them alive. Our heroes have to save them. Yawn. But even better, in the end, our heroes do almost nothing anyway; the whole thing is resolved by an alien AI. The only victory for anyone is a minor twisting of legalese that Riker pulls off.
And the writing somehow manages to be pretentiously verbose and annoyingly filled with contemporary slang and phrasing, both at the same time.
The Trek novels have been so good lately, and Titan is capable of so much more. Can we stop letting Martin write these things, please? Literally any other regular author in the Trek Literature stable right now would've been better than this.
Oh well. At least Kirsten Beyer, Una McCormack, and David Mack are writing the rest of the novels this year, and none of them have had a miss yet.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By Adrian
Format:Mass Market Paperback
After the fantastic last two Typhon Pact novels by David R. George III, I was hoping this would be another great installment , as it is linked to the events happening in the Typhon Pact series. Alas it was not meant to be.
If you want to know the plot, you can read the extract above.
The book lacked action and excitement. The plot seemed weak and stretched. A starship captained by William Riker should not be like this. Everyone knows the phrase- Boldly going where no one has gone before. Well, where's the Boldly Going part? This is Will Riker, a man capable of such lateral thinking that even Captain Picard said: "He's the best" in one of the ST TNG episodes. Why aren't the publishers getting writers who are capable of lateral thinking? I want to read something clever from him. The last few pages are supposed to be an example of him pulling something last minute out of his hat, but come on....that's not really the sort of thing we like ST for. We want him to miraculously make an old shuttle do something like taking out a Warbird or rescue a whole planet, not some minor legalese.
One other area Titan fails I think is having Troi aboard as his wife. She really doesn't have a big role, and half the time she's mentioned it's "she could feel his anger building up". Really? Along with Tuvok and Vale, this makes Titan seem top heavy to me. Perhaps others feel she makes the crew more well rounded, but I think she should be somewhere else. I mean, she was fantastic in the ST TNG episode where she woke up as a Romulan Tal Shiar agent. More of that for her? Give Christine Vale a chance to grow and not be boxed in by the Riker/Troi/Enterprise D couple.
I know it looks like I'm rambling more than giving a more objective well rounded review, but I'm quite disappointed.
As the previous reviewer wrote, this is one ST book you can give a miss, or perhaps borrow from the library.
And how could the Andorian battle cruiser possibly outgun Titan 3 to 1? Since when to Federation planets maintain their own Space Force? And there were hints it was from the Archer days- in which case it's pretty damn old and no way could they have retro fitted it in a few months to outgun Titan, one of the newest vessels in Starfleet.
Again, thanks for reading and hope you made it to the end!
If you want to know the plot, you can read the extract above.
The book lacked action and excitement. The plot seemed weak and stretched. A starship captained by William Riker should not be like this. Everyone knows the phrase- Boldly going where no one has gone before. Well, where's the Boldly Going part? This is Will Riker, a man capable of such lateral thinking that even Captain Picard said: "He's the best" in one of the ST TNG episodes. Why aren't the publishers getting writers who are capable of lateral thinking? I want to read something clever from him. The last few pages are supposed to be an example of him pulling something last minute out of his hat, but come on....that's not really the sort of thing we like ST for. We want him to miraculously make an old shuttle do something like taking out a Warbird or rescue a whole planet, not some minor legalese.
One other area Titan fails I think is having Troi aboard as his wife. She really doesn't have a big role, and half the time she's mentioned it's "she could feel his anger building up". Really? Along with Tuvok and Vale, this makes Titan seem top heavy to me. Perhaps others feel she makes the crew more well rounded, but I think she should be somewhere else. I mean, she was fantastic in the ST TNG episode where she woke up as a Romulan Tal Shiar agent. More of that for her? Give Christine Vale a chance to grow and not be boxed in by the Riker/Troi/Enterprise D couple.
I know it looks like I'm rambling more than giving a more objective well rounded review, but I'm quite disappointed.
As the previous reviewer wrote, this is one ST book you can give a miss, or perhaps borrow from the library.
And how could the Andorian battle cruiser possibly outgun Titan 3 to 1? Since when to Federation planets maintain their own Space Force? And there were hints it was from the Archer days- in which case it's pretty damn old and no way could they have retro fitted it in a few months to outgun Titan, one of the newest vessels in Starfleet.
Again, thanks for reading and hope you made it to the end!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
By Tony
Format:Mass Market Paperback
The Positive
It is not as hideous as Seize the Fire.
The Negative
I found the aliens to be exceptionally boring. I had to force myself through the chapters in the book focusing on them. I honestly did not care at any point in the book if the "Trashers" won and ended up destroying their home world. The "religion destroys the world" theme has been done. Find a new theme.
I find the writing style to be exceptionally pretentious and off-putting. The author tries to make us believe in the alienness of the alien du jour by changing English words to alien words. "Subta'ithan" in place of "subterranean" for example. I read that and had to put down the book, it takes me completely out of the story. The historical references are odd, I find it hard to believe that Pazlar is going to use the Tacoma Narrows bridge example. Seems rather obscure to me, particularly for someone who wasn't born on Earth. Every Titan Andorian crewman was on the bridge when the Andorian ship arrived. That was just silly. Lastly, the explanation of things that don't require explanation - "Vale touched the control stud, and the hatch slid open, causing a serpent like hiss as the atmospheric pressure between inside and outside equalized." I think we all get why there would be a hiss.
The characterization is really flat. None of these characters have advanced in any way since Synthesis (or possibly Over a Torrent Sea). Ra-Havreii is still hung up about the explosion in the Luna engine room. This is tired and has been done better in the past. Pazlar is still using the holo-presence system. Pretty sure there was a group hug where Pazlar decided she wouldn't use the holo-presence in the Destiny trilogy. Let's follow the previous novel continuity. In the case of Troi, she has actually been regressed to being Riker's emotional thermometer. Exceptionally disappointing particularly when you review her characterization in prior books. Vale used to be fun, now she is kind of a martinet and really boring. Lastly, there was a huge missed opportunity to explore Tuvok's experience with the alien terraforming knowledge. Perhaps I should Martin-ize this and refer to it as "Ta'ithanforming" technology.
The Andorian subplot seemed both odd and contrived. How did the Therin get all the way out to Titan's position? The historian's note states that this book takes place two weeks after the events in Paths of Disharmony in which Andor withdrew from the Federation. So, in the midst of the political turmoil of leaving the Federation and the political re-organization that was occurring in the Andorian government, they had time to build a ship, crew it and send it out to Titan's position to retrieve seven Andorian crewmen? I assume they had to build a ship because it doesn't track to me that the Andorians would retain their own military after so many years in the Federation. Perhaps I am wrong on that part.
The entire objective, however, appears to be the retrieval of seven Andorians from Titan and potentially replacing them with brain washed copies. Wouldn't they focus on people a little closer to home? Or, assuming the Andorians may choose to enter the Typhon Pact, wouldn't it make MUCH more sense for the Andorians to be trying to place operatives to obtain the slipstream drive technology? It has been on the Typhon Pact's bucket list for the last several books, I would think making that happen would get the Andorians a huge Typhon Pact gold star for citizenship.
Presently, there is only one Star Trek book per month and there is only one Titan novel per year. Could we please give the Titan series to someone who can write well, provide a plot that is not contrived, provide a good story, provide good characterization and continue to develop the characters? There are so many excellent writers right now - David Mack, Kirsten Beyer, Christopher L. Bennett, David R. George III, Una McCormack - let them write the Titan books. If the Titan series continues to be written by Mr. Martin, I don't see a bright future for the series. That would be a shame as the premise and the characters are very interesting.
It is not as hideous as Seize the Fire.
The Negative
I found the aliens to be exceptionally boring. I had to force myself through the chapters in the book focusing on them. I honestly did not care at any point in the book if the "Trashers" won and ended up destroying their home world. The "religion destroys the world" theme has been done. Find a new theme.
I find the writing style to be exceptionally pretentious and off-putting. The author tries to make us believe in the alienness of the alien du jour by changing English words to alien words. "Subta'ithan" in place of "subterranean" for example. I read that and had to put down the book, it takes me completely out of the story. The historical references are odd, I find it hard to believe that Pazlar is going to use the Tacoma Narrows bridge example. Seems rather obscure to me, particularly for someone who wasn't born on Earth. Every Titan Andorian crewman was on the bridge when the Andorian ship arrived. That was just silly. Lastly, the explanation of things that don't require explanation - "Vale touched the control stud, and the hatch slid open, causing a serpent like hiss as the atmospheric pressure between inside and outside equalized." I think we all get why there would be a hiss.
The characterization is really flat. None of these characters have advanced in any way since Synthesis (or possibly Over a Torrent Sea). Ra-Havreii is still hung up about the explosion in the Luna engine room. This is tired and has been done better in the past. Pazlar is still using the holo-presence system. Pretty sure there was a group hug where Pazlar decided she wouldn't use the holo-presence in the Destiny trilogy. Let's follow the previous novel continuity. In the case of Troi, she has actually been regressed to being Riker's emotional thermometer. Exceptionally disappointing particularly when you review her characterization in prior books. Vale used to be fun, now she is kind of a martinet and really boring. Lastly, there was a huge missed opportunity to explore Tuvok's experience with the alien terraforming knowledge. Perhaps I should Martin-ize this and refer to it as "Ta'ithanforming" technology.
The Andorian subplot seemed both odd and contrived. How did the Therin get all the way out to Titan's position? The historian's note states that this book takes place two weeks after the events in Paths of Disharmony in which Andor withdrew from the Federation. So, in the midst of the political turmoil of leaving the Federation and the political re-organization that was occurring in the Andorian government, they had time to build a ship, crew it and send it out to Titan's position to retrieve seven Andorian crewmen? I assume they had to build a ship because it doesn't track to me that the Andorians would retain their own military after so many years in the Federation. Perhaps I am wrong on that part.
The entire objective, however, appears to be the retrieval of seven Andorians from Titan and potentially replacing them with brain washed copies. Wouldn't they focus on people a little closer to home? Or, assuming the Andorians may choose to enter the Typhon Pact, wouldn't it make MUCH more sense for the Andorians to be trying to place operatives to obtain the slipstream drive technology? It has been on the Typhon Pact's bucket list for the last several books, I would think making that happen would get the Andorians a huge Typhon Pact gold star for citizenship.
Presently, there is only one Star Trek book per month and there is only one Titan novel per year. Could we please give the Titan series to someone who can write well, provide a plot that is not contrived, provide a good story, provide good characterization and continue to develop the characters? There are so many excellent writers right now - David Mack, Kirsten Beyer, Christopher L. Bennett, David R. George III, Una McCormack - let them write the Titan books. If the Titan series continues to be written by Mr. Martin, I don't see a bright future for the series. That would be a shame as the premise and the characters are very interesting.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
fallen gods
I love all the star trek books I read and I love how all of the writers talk with each other to get information for there books. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Neelex
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book
This is a great addition to the Titan series. I thoroughly enjoyed it. My only complaint about the Titan series is that they do not publish them fast enough.
Published 2 months ago by Xent99
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good Book
This is a good book, well written. My only complaint is why is it taking so long to continue this story
Published 2 months ago by Duane Johnson
4.0 out of 5 stars
OK Book
The Titan series is good all in all this one was a good easy read but I can't say I loved it.
Published 3 months ago by jhk
3.0 out of 5 stars
Slow start, interesting middle, unfinished ending
I'll keep it short. It was a chore to get through the first hundred pages or so. The author went to great lengths to describe the doings on an alien planet, which just felt forced. Read more
Published 4 months ago by M. Sullivan
1.0 out of 5 stars
Star Trek Titan: Fallen Gods
I thought the basic premise in this book was unscientific and faulty in design, which spoiled it for me from the beginning. Read more
Published 4 months ago by J.C. Barr
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not bad, I liked it.
There were several story lines here. The one about the planet around a pulsar was a little dry. The idea of using the transporter as a cloning machine was the real meat of this... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Neil Smith
3.0 out of 5 stars
entertaining but forgettable
You know those episodes of ST:TNG you watch because you don't remember them till almost the end? This could be one. Read more
Published 5 months ago by ERIC R GOERLITZ
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book
As good as all the others continues the story of the crew of the Titan and their mission for Starfleet
Published 5 months ago by Gumshoes
4.0 out of 5 stars
Kind of odd aliens but fun story
I enjoyed the story but the aliens were kind of strange in a bad way. I would not recommend this one, except for how it gives insights into Tuvok and his wife.
Published 6 months ago by Philip B. Bigelow
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