Customer Reviews

Taking Wing

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

I'd say this is one of the few books that should be added to the "must read" list of Star Trek novels. This is, in a way, a follow-up to the movie "Star Trek Nemesis." This is the first full-length novel to feature the Titan and its crew. Captain Riker and Troi and the ship have both appeared in other post-Nemesis novels, including Shatner's "Captain's Blood." So, how does it do? It's a fun novel. We don't have Picard involved at all, we don't have Troi and Riker looking back or relying on the Enterprise-E, they're out on their own and there's a freshness to the entire premise.

Titan is a vessel whose mission is compared in text to the old Constitution-class vessels; long-term, deep space assignments. The premise of this first novel plays with this mission. The crew is bothered that Starfleet Command has chosen their vessel for an assignment into the Neutral Zone when the ship is meant for exploration and discovery. Part of the novel takes place days after Nemesis and the coming novel "Death in Winter," involves Riker's last visit to the Enterprise-E as seen in the movie, and him visiting Chrstine Vale (appeared throughout "A Time to..." series) to get her to join the crew.

I'd personally say this novel is more about the characters than the actual action. The plot of Riker and crew having to sort out the mess that's fallen upon the Romulan Star Empire is onlya backdrop to the characters. Each seems have something to work on; Riker on adjusting to his own command and finding his own style, Troi on proving she's more than Riker's wife and is a capable diplomatic officer, Vale being comfortable with leaving the Enterprise for an executive officer position, Ra-Harveii on ghosts from his past, Keru still hasn't gotten over the death of Sean Hawk in the novel "Rogue," Ree on being somewhat of an outsider among everyone. What's best about this novel is that the authors bring life into a lot of these characters. There are people from each series of Trek (except Enterprise) being involved. Tuvok, Spock and Admiral Akaar also play big roles in this novel.

What worked or didn't work? I felt as if the Romulan situation was so big that perhaps it was simplified for this novel. Tal'Aura (NEM) and Tamalok (TNG) have claimed power over the entire Empire while Donotra (NEM) and Suran (NEM) have claimed power over the military. Then you have the Tal Shiar, the Remans, and the Unificationers all working in the same picture, at the same time. Yet, the reader is only shown parts of this situation. We never really get a look at Tal'Aura beyond her wanting to stay in power. Who is she? Why did she feel she should support Shinzon in Nemesis? Who does she think she is to suddenly takeover the entire Romulan Star Empire? The end features her the typical angry, upset, fearful villain who realizes things won't go their way. Also, what's happening on Romulus beyond the capital? What's happening on other Romulan worlds?

The plot suffers also from a lot going on. I don't think there were too many characters introduced. It helped flesh out the Titan and set it apart from all the other ships out there. I liked that it is home to one of the first Cardassians in Starfleet and that there's a very different Ferengi doctor on the crew. Also, there was a death of a major crewmember while a couple had its first child by the end of the book, a rather amusing pregnancy indeed. Also, we got to see a rather uncertain Troi who doesn't do much counseling at all but plays up her diplomatic role. Even Spock has a moment when he learns his Unification movement may be in jeopardy. Tuvok, who's often ignored in Christie Golden's Voyager Relaunch novels, seems to have found a place here.

There are a few things that held this novel back from being a five-star novel. Perhaps too much focus on characters like Keru. A lack of development of the Romulan characters. Even though Sela will be a part of the "Death in Winter" novel, I'd have liked to have seen her in this situation a little since I'm sure she could have taken advantage of a Romulan Star Empire without any true leaders. I felt the ending mirroed a previous novel by these authors too much, and that it was too much like Star Trek Voyager redux. Admiral Janeway played a rather large role in the "A Time to..." series in Riker being assigned the Titan. Why wasn't she even mentioned here? Instead of Akaar being involved in the same capacity he is in the DS9-Relanch and TNG novels, the use of Janeway could have really been a creative point of the novel. The Romulan situation, by the end, seems to be wrapped up a little too well, though I was glad to read that the Remans played a major role in all of this.

So, perhaps it covers too much ground. Yet, it remains interesting throughout and introduces some great new charactes. This is a good series to get into, going back to the roots of Star Trek and putting a focus on the characters more so than big action and war. Definately worth your attention and money.

Taking Wing by Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangels suffers from a clear lack of focus, too many new characters, and too little focus. Entirely too much time was spent on the political aspects of Romulan society-- the writers obviously learned nothing from Episode 1 of Star Wars, The Phantom Menace. I found the political stuff just plain boring.

Then the two major criteria that Martin and Mangels seem to have for making someone a crewmember of Titan is that we must never have heard of them before and that the person be from a freaky alien society. Oh yes, they do pull in Nurse Ogawa, Tuvok and Lt. Melora Pazlar (from a DS-9 episode) as well as making the ambassador be the adult son of the baby Dr. McCoy delivered in a notable Classic Trek episode but at least twenty (I lost count after that) new characters are whizzed past us with little more than their name, occupation, planet of origin and whatever alien characteristic makes them stand out from everybody else. They make a big deal of Titan being unique because of the diversity of its crew, but Peter David's excellent New Frontier series with the Excalibur has a much more diverse crew and doesn't pat itself on the back for it every five pages. I don't care if Excalibur isn't canon; the writers certainly have to be aware of it and don't need to act as if it doesn't exist.

Finally let's get down to the reasons why we want to read the Titan series in the first place-- the continuation of the story of Troi and Riker. Riker spends too much time dealing with insecurity and angst over his new command-- come on, this is the guy who thought nothing of spitting in the eye of Captain Jellico and being relieved of duty rather than accepting commands from a royal idiot. Now he's second, third and fourth guessing himself. The Riker of Next Generation was always superbly self confident and self-assured. He knew what he was, who he was and was comfortable with it. The Riker in this book seems to have lost all of that.

However, his character is not as poorly dealt with as Commander Troi. Granted, I always felt that her purpose on Star Trek started out as being for more of the babe in a catsuit factor than anything else, but her character developed into being a valuable and necessary member of the crew. In this book, her role is more as Riker's wife than anything. She's supposed to be the diplomatic officer, but Riker handles all the diplomacy stuff- while she suffers a fit of pique at his doing so without including her. She's still the ship's counselor as well, which means we get treated to the, "I sense you are feeling troubled" type of dialogue from her that she was able to get away from after a couple of seasons of Next Gen. With this book, she seems to be back where she started, as more of a sex object than anything else. Very few references to her are allowed to slip by without including the qualifier that she is Riker's wife. Okay. We get it. They're married. Big whoop. Move on.

The book is redeemed by about 50 pages of action that happen near the end when crewmembers stage a stealth raid on Romulus to rescue a Federation operative. It's a great scene, with terrific action and suspense. But then, unfortunately, we are returned to the ship where we once again need a scorecard to keep track of all the characters. We probably don't need to bother, however, as a lot of them seem to be getting killed off before we have a chance to learn if we even care about them or not.

In short, this is a disappointing start to what I hoped would be a good new Star Trek series. Forget Titan, grab a New Frontier book and read the kind of series that Titan apparently aspires to be but falls short of.

Taking place almost directly after the events of the motion picture movie "Star Trek - Nemesis (Two-Disc Special Collector's Edition)", the novel Titan: Taking Wing focuses on the now Captain William T Riker and his newly assembled crew aboard his very own Federation Luna Class ship, the Titan.

There is a lot of familiarity found in this go around. Anyone who has seen Nemesis should be familiar with the events that most of this book references. And the characters are a mixture of various Star Trek TV show personalities. From Riker, to his now wife Troi to the Vulcan Tuvok who was a part of Voyager and even some other lesser known Next Generation cast members make a return on the new crew in bigger roles. There are even nods to the Old Series and a cameo moment with Worf and LaForge.

Of course with the old comes a lot of new never before seen characters. Like a chief medical officer who looks more like something out of Jurassic Park (Widescreen Collector's Edition) and seems to scare everyone with his eating habits and apperance, but of course he is nothing more then a gentle and brilliant giant. We have another who must stay in water at all times so her room was filled with parts of the ocean. We have a Trill, a Ferangi and Bejorin to name a few of the various species we have met in our time watching Star Trek that are proudly a part of the ships crew and civilians. Of course all of this diversity will lead to a lot of interesting situations which is probably the authors thought process behind such a crew.

While it is great to see some of our old friends back together again, it also is a bit disapointing as the book is nothing more then average, predictable and lacking in that extra something that other books to carry the Star Trek name have had.

The authors seem to be missing the point at some areas. Often relying on resorting to Poker references throughout the book as if everything was just one big tournament going on on ESPN that every character in the book was dealing with. Also Troi seems to be able to now converse with Riker in the same way she does with her mother, which was weird and confusing to say the least. I found myself skipping through long parts of the book waiting to get to the meat of the situation at hand. We have a lot of character building but the story even when it reaches its climax never really gets anywhere eventful. What was almost all out war is easily resolved by some clever thinking on Riker's part, but still didn't come off as anything creative or new that we haven't seen before on an episode of the series.

Other weird out of place aspects that really took over a huge part of this book that also made me think "We aren't in Star Trek land anymore.." are the focus around racism that came up at many times. Due to the before mentioned diverse cast, we have some of the members of the ship not liking some of the others due to their differences and even moments of them being repromanded for their opinions on others. Just seemed too much like a lesson in a Sociology class at times rather then a realistic Star Trek situation going on with all of the racist views flying past the reader. A sensless spaceship fight towards the end that never goes anywhere also made one scratch their head while reading this. It just seemed like it was thrown in there as it was expected to be in a Star Trek situation but really seemed silly and forced for the most part.

The book serves as a good start to what will hopefully become a better series. For those sad to see the Next Generation come to an end with Nemesis, this is a great chance to see what maybe would have happend after those events. Riker and Troi's relationship will be a big part of the series and hopefully with all of the character introductions out of the way now (almost half the book is just character building .. be aware of that fact if you don't like long reads that just are developmental and nothing more) the future books will be more action and situational then this one was. The story was predictable but still fun enough to fit into something that you maybe would see in a typical episode. This book isn't bad, it just isn't great either. It seems a little more of a draft with a nice idea on how to tie things together from the end of the last movie, but seeming to miss out on really taking the chance to make this fun.

Overall its worth getting just to see what happens next, but don't expect it to be on par with some of the great Star Trek books that have come before this. It just doesn't rank up there as it is slow at points and really won't keep you at the edge of your seats as you would like. Worth checking out and the series is continued in the later books that will follow and those books are better at points. It's great to see Riker in the Captain's chair where he finally belongs but you will wish that he was given a better send off to his new life then this book did. It can only go up from here at least for Riker and his crew on the Titan.

I had high expectations for the first of the TITAN series, but this is the worst Trek book I've ever read.

Of course it's necessary to introduce many new characters at the start of a new series, but most of these Starfleet personnel merely stand around and lecture each other on the need for interspecies understanding. Very few of the characters actually DO anything. The plot is slow-moving and driven by interstellar politics, a theme that is handled far more successfully in ARTICLES OF THE FEDERATION.

My biggest problem is not the pace or the moralizing, however, but the fact that the book simply isn't very well written. The authors seem almost obsessed with certain devices and phrases: characters touching their rank insignia, making odd gestures, maintaining eye contact with their opponents, and displaying personal quirks that have nothing to do with the story. Secondary plot elements are introduced but never resolved, and the strong emphasis on the characters' personal lives is completely out of place in the first book of a series. (Yes, we might eventually care about the characters' personal lives, but only if we've first developed some interest in them over the course of several books or episodes.) These characters are just redshirts, each with a single distinctive characteristic.

If your favorite TNG episodes focus on Counselor Troi and the Troi/Riker dynamic, then you might like this book. Otherwise, don't bother.

Taking Wing is a mediocre start to the Titan series. The main issues are: 1) The simple and flat plot; 2) No strong feeling of drama or suspense; 3) The overdose of new characters that are of new or rare species so it's hard to picture them, much less keep track of all of them; 4) Not much moral or emotional struggle that usually sets Star Trek apart from other sci-fi.

That being said, the book isn't horrendous. Riker and Troi are true to character, and the book honors Trek continuity. Most of the new characters are entertaining, too. Riker also pulls off some pretty nifty diplomacy towards the end that's fun to read. Although Taking Wing could hardly be called a page-turner, Martin and Mangels write descriptively and attractively enough to make this pilot novel worth reading for hard-core Trekkies.

It's an interesting read, especially if you're a Romulan fan, a Riker/Troi fan, or if you just want to know what happens after Star Trek: Nemesis. Just don't go in expecting to be blown away by every page.

I love Star Trek! So I decided to try a new novel after being away from Trek books for awhile. I could not even finish this book. Star Trek was all about unity and working together without shoving the concept down your throat. It was happening and you liked it or left.

This book goes out of its' way to show you how nice everyone works together plus there are lectures to those who are not politically correct. If you have a hard time talking to something that looks like a nightmare out of your worst dreams then you must have missed a class in the Starfleet Academy! Even if you did talk to the lifeform you should not have flinched!

Then there was the "look how much work we are doing on our starship to make other life forms happy chapter!" arrgghhh

Maybe I'm not ready for the next gerneration of the next generation. I should stick with the original series.

Live long and Prosper

Gordon

I have been reading a lot of ST books lately. I purchased the first three books of this series, looking forward to reading all three.

The writing style of "Taking Wing" is not one that I would start a book series with. I found it incredibly hard to get through, not at all like the usual ST book. Things like: "the question took him off guard, forcing him to grope blindly for an answer" describing normal conversation between Riker and his wife Deanna. In hindsight, I have to question how this passed the editor's muster.

The plot isn't terrible, and the book is somewhat entertaining, but if I were a new ST reader, I would go for one of the other series of books, like the Vanguard series lead-off, by David Mack called Harbringer.

This book is okay, I would have preferred a different writing style, without the sickly syrup writing....

TAKING WING (STAR Trek Titan book 1)

Will Riker has finally accepted the role of captaincy within Starfleet. One minor gripe is that we don't get to read about a final and potentially moving farewell between Pickard and Riker. That could have added so much to the beginning of the story but I soon got over this disappointment. This series is all about Riker and as the saying goes, "All good things..." The beautiful new USS Titan is launched and all crew members aboard are eager to boldly go where no-one has gone before. But there is one small (?) problem and with Admiral Ackaar along for the ride, he is not letting any secrets out. His presence alone places even more pressure on our brand new captain, but its fortunate for both our Will and the reader that the lovely Deanna Troi is on board as ship's chief counsellor as well as chief diplomatic officer. Internal strife on Romulus needs to be sorted out to avoid a civil war that could lead to millions of deaths as well as armaments falling into the wrong hands right across the galaxy. In one of the most exciting finishes to a book I have ever read, the glory that is Star trek shines through like a sun going nova.

No further comments from me apart from the fact this book is a truly great read and of course comes highly recommended.

Bring on RED KING!!!!!

Star Trek: Taking Wing is the first of the series dedicated to Captain William T. Riker and his new ship the Titan. After his career aboard the Enterprise, Captain Riker sets out to prove himself as a leader. Along with former members of the Enterprise, Troi and Vale, the Titan is assigned an important mission to Romulus in order to prevent a civil war that could spill over to the Federation.

The beginning of the book starts off with a deeply complex and sometimes overwhelming character list. A chief medical officer that is a species not to different from a T-Rex is met with fear and uncertainty from his fellow crewmen. A ship consular that is described as an almost smurf-like being is assigned the duties that Troi was once responsible for and an unjoined Trill is responsible for securing the ship. There are many, many more characters that stretch the bounds of reasonable imagination but the sheer number and detail of each would have me typing for far to long.

The books character and storyline are a deeply complex journey into the new path for Riker but as a reader the sheer weight of the story can be too much to keep track of and makes for a difficult read. The books saving grace is the writing. The two authors have a clear understanding of the Star Trek universe and write in a very smooth manner that can take some of the stories edge off. Over-all the book is pretty good but it falls victim to its own weight and far-fetched imagination.

I am a long-time reader of Star Tek novels. I read Taking Wing as it is the introduction to the new Titan series featuring Will Riker as captain of the Titan. The concept for Titan is good but this book spends far too much content on the introduction and development of its cast of characters at the expense of its story line. While I realize that a series introduction novel needs to introduce and familiarize the reader with the new characters, it does not have to bore the reader with a tremendous amount of information on each one. I would have preferred more time spent on the advertised story line about working with the Romulans than on incessant crew conversations in the mess hall or time in their quarters. Nonetheless, the book is an OK intro for the series...at least you'll know the characters when you are finished!