Customer Reviews

Sword of Damocles (Star Trek: Titan, Book 4)

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

 

 

"Sword of Damocles' is the first STAR TREK: TITAN novel in almost 2 years, and proves to be worth the wait. A wonderful aspect of this series (chronicling the adventures of Captain Riker and his crew) is the core concept of the series as given by editor Marco Palmieri, essentially that TITAN is "the Original series for the Next Generation era." In other words, TITAN is all about outward exploration, with the Federation getting back to the core ideals of exploring strange new worlds and seeking out new life and knowledge after years of war and strife. The crew of TITAN are leading this endeavor as they explore a region of the Beta Quadrant called Gum Nebula.

And there are some great moments in this novel- high concepts mixed with wonderful character development. There's a central mystery, the delving into a character's past, the proverbial clock counting down- it all makes for a thrilling adventure. If you're a fan of Star Trek *period* then you should like this novel. Highly recommended.

It never cease to amaze how the similar storyline formats of these novels can and still hold your attention but when the writer is good it can happen every time. I am two chapters shy of finishing this and I must say this is fine addition to the Titan saga. You get to know characters that were somewhat neglect in other novels, they become as real to you as Riker, Deanna, and Tuvok because of stories like these. Thorne gives Jaza Najem, Christine Vale, Xin Ra-Havreii and other characters back-stories, quirks and qualities that make them come alive and take shape in your mind. I miss the unique perspective and consideration that Michael A. Martin (Author), Andy Mangels (Creator) brought to the first two novels but this story certainly does not disappoint!

Geoffrey Thorne is a relative newcomer to the published Star Trek mythos, with just a few short stories to his name. Sword of Damocles, the latest "Titan" novel, is Thorne's first full-length novel, and he's written an exquisite one. The Titan writers seem to be excelling at not having "villains" in their novels, instead having antagonists that have conflicting points of view with our heroes, and Thorne provides us with a perfect example of that here. All of that, and Pocket Books has given us technical diagrams of the new ship too!

While the technobabble can get a little thick in Sword of Damocles, Thorne never lets it get out of control, and it helps that he has some non-technological characters for others to explain things to. Thorne has created an extremely intricate plot, dealing with some time travel, cultural contamination (and its avoidance), and how things that are not understood can assume heightened significance in those who don't know any better. Thorne puts all of his characters through the wringer, as all of them must make choices based on both the Prime Directive (the non-interference policy Starfleet has) and what's best for their ship.

What I especially liked about Sword of Damocles, though, is that the fact that the crew is extremely diversified was not used as a cudgel over the reader's head. We saw the integration of the crew, but nobody actually *mentioned* it. It was a breath of fresh air given the past three books. Thorne doesn't avoid this by not using any of the alien crew members, but by showing us how they're interacting with the crew without actually announcing it. I hope future Titan books do the same thing. I realize that this diversity is sort of a novelty, but we're four books in now, so it really should be stopped.

Thorne's characterization is almost perfect, from Vale, Troi and Riker to the other Titan crew members and even the Orishans themselves. Commander Ra-Havreii, the rather arrogant chief engineer, is annoying to everybody, but somehow he walks that thin line of not turning off the reader as well. The reason for the rift between Riker and Troi seems a little basic for how much anguish it causes, but it is understandable, especially in their situation. Still, the writing is powerful and the characterization is right on the nose. The climax to the story veers a little bit into the heavy technobabble mode, but it's exciting nonetheless.

Thorne's prose is quite good for a first novel, and the book reads very smoothly, with very few clunky phrases throwing you out of the book. He describes both the character scenes and the action scenes quite well, never making it boring but also not overdoing the action too much. There were a couple of coincidences that I shook my head at, but for the most part they have a plausible explanation that makes it so they're not too annoying.

Sword of Damocles is the best Titan book since Taking Wing, and here's to many more adventures in the future. Of course, we'll have to see what the upcoming Destiny trilogy holds for our Titan crew before we get the next Titan book, and since that series is written by David Mack, maybe they'll all be dead! Whatever happens, though, Geoffrey Thorne has himself a winner here, and I look forward to reading some more of his stuff in the future.

David Roy

I enjoy the Titan novels for the same reason I enjoyed Challenger, New Frontier, and Vanguard. That is, they are not the same old Star Trek. While it's good (and comforting) to read about familiar characters, it's *great* to read about entirely new ones. And Titan is packed with 'em.

When I first began to realize this was going to be a temporal story, I got a little nervous, thinking "oh, no, reset button." In the end, thankfully, it did not turn out quite that way. I was most impressed with the story arc about a Bajoran member of Titan's crew, Jaza Najem, who figures centrally in the temporal theme, but who also has his own demons to battle. Faith vs. science (vs. faith) comes heavily into play, and it all struck a very deep chord in me.

For those of you who enjoy space battles in your books, there were a number of those. For those of you who like the "'shipping" aspect, there was plenty of that, too, though I've gotta say the Riker/Troi conflict seemed a little out of proportion to what the conflict actually turned out to be. Still, I gotta hand it to Will and Deanna: They ain't divorced yet! Living in a closed community such as a starship, it cannot be easy separating the personal from the professional, but these two do an admirable job.

Though I'm not much into ship diagrams, it was nice having Titan's included in this book. Congrats to design competition winner, Sean Tourangeau.

I really enjoyed this whole series. I can't wait for the new one this fall.

Geoffrey Thorne succeeds where most pop science fiction authors fail. He both presents a new idea (planet literally facing a twisted reflection of itself) and tells a compelling story. The interactions between Jaza Najem & Y'lira Modan, specifically Jaza's dual attraction/repulsion from Modans disparate physical forms, and the workplace friction between Christine Vale and Xin Ra-Havreii actually got me interested in the motivations and flaws of these characters, something hard to do in the character-saturated Trek universe. The imagery throughout the book is equally impressive (the 'becalmed' ship, the 'eye' in the sky).
The ending to this book makes the book. No names are given, but the quality storytelling leaves no doubt as to who we are reading about from page to page. This technique is one more instance of the author making this more than just another Trek pulp. The Riker/Troi angst ends predictably, which is really my only problem with the book, but fortunately both characters are kept on the sidelines, where they belong.
When I put this book down I was amazed that a Titan installment (or even a Trek book) could be this good. Its predecessors by other authors have been above average, reaching sometimes desperately for a plot. Sword of Damocles was above and beyond the best of the series, presenting problems not easily solved with tired reset button or disposable red-shirt tactics.
So, who is Geoffrey Thorne? I had no idea. After reading this, I did some digging and found little in the way of novels. If you're reading this, Geoffrey, we want more!

The fourth book of the Star Trek: Titan series is your run-of-the-mill Star Trek story; the ship is in danger, the away team is dispatched to solve the problem, are stranded on an alien world and stuff happens that leads to a satisfying, but predictable, ending. While the past Titan novels have been gripping and felt new and exciting from start to end, I felt this one was a bit dull. It was hard to get into and the middle, with the crew discovering and exploring the alien world and its culture, was indeed the most attention-grabbing part of the novel. Yet, the start and the end seemed to lack the zeal and excitement of the previous novels, making it more of a chore than pleasure to get through.

What I liked about this novel is the continuing exploration for the characters. Unlike in many 'The Next Generation' novels, Deanna Troi is put into new situations where instead of repeating the obvious or dealing with a new patient-of-the-week, she herself is the patient in crises and in need of some assistance in sorting out her feelings. Her relationship with William Riker is also put to the test, which, after seeing their love affair played out for so long, was nice to see that marriage didn't do away with all of their problems. The character of Jaza Najem and Dr. Ra-Harveii, are also in the spotlight and it was enjoyable getting to know these un-establsihed and unfamiliar characters at this point in the series. There is an element of time travel that was used to spice up the plot and make it a bit more interesting than I've seen it handled in many Trek novels.

What didn't work for me as well was how basic the plot was. It felt like there was little conflict, and by the time the problem is presented, you as a reader were more than capable of deducing what the outcome would be. There were many parts of the novel that dragged on and felt unnecessary. The plot also felt very uneven; it takes a majority of the first one hundred pages for the novel to set itself apart from all of the other time travel/away team stranded on an alien planet. Then, just as the novel snatches your attention, things seem to wind down long before the conclusion of the book.

In all, this novel was just average for me. I enjoyed the previous novels in the series a great deal more but did find the character exploration to add to the overall experience of this new line of Trek novels, even if this specific installment didn't meet the potential and unique-plots of the previous Titan novels.

There is non stop action in this story and finaly some marriage tension between Troi and Riker I loved that part. Though the surprise in the story is a bit of a letdown because you know that the Titan is not actually destroyed. Still a great novel though.

Part I of the book was good and interesting, but the second half just dragged on and on. Sometimes it felt like there was no end in sight to it.

This book takes place after the events of the last Star Trek The Next Generation film, and details an adventure that Will Riker has, as the Captain of the Starship Titan. This book reminded me of some of the best episodes of Star Trek, both TOS and TNG, as it had the crew truly exploring a "strange new world" with "new life, never civilizations," etc. They come to a planet whose citizens have, for centuries, been watched over by a mysterious object in the sky above them, not sure if it is friend or foe. What I noticed most about this book was Thorne's strong characterization. In addition to Riker and his wife Deanna Troi, and Tuvok, having joined the Titan, after the events of Star Trek Voyager series, there are several new characters among the crew whom I was not familiar with. I'm not certain how many, if any, were created just for this book or if they had been introduced in earlier Titan novels, but Thorne makes sure that the readers are quickly familiarized with the important characters so that by the end of the book there were as "real" to me as the characters that I already knew from TV and movies. I enjoyed this very much.