Tales From the Captain's Table (Star Trek (Unnumbered Paperback)) [Paperback]

Keith R. A. DeCandido (Editor)

Book Description

Series: Star Trek (Unnumbered Paperback) | Publication Date: June 14, 2005

In this follow-up to the bestselling Captain's Table series of books, nine new Star Trek® captains belly up to the bar to tell their tales of adventure and romance, of triumph and tragedy, of duty and honor, of debts paid and prices exacted, including:

Jonathan Archer of the Starship Enterprise™, as told by Louisa Swann

Chakotay of the U.S.S. Voyager™, as told by Christie Golden

David Gold of the U.S.S. da Vinci, as told by John J. Ordover

Kira Nerys of Deep Space 9™, as told by Heather Jarman

Klag, son of M'Raq, of the I.K.S. Gorkon, as told by Keith R.A. DeCandido

Jean-Luc Picard of the U.S.S. Stargazer, as told by Michael Jan Friedman

William T. Riker of the U.S.S. Titan, as told by Michael A. Martin & Andy Mangels

Elizabeth Shelby of the U.S.S. Trident, as told by Peter David

Demora Sulu of the U.S.S. Enterprise™-B, as told by David R. George III

From the weekly episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise to the monthly adventures of S.C., from the bestselling novel Serpents Among the Ruins to the bestselling series New Frontier, from the past tales of Stargazer to the new stories of Titan, from the glorious exploits of I.K.S. Gorkon to the post-finale chronicles of Deep Space Nine and Voyager, come nine new stories from the nine newest members of Star Trek's finest and bravest shipmasters.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Keith R.A. DeCandido was born and raised in New York City to a family of librarians. He has written over two dozen novels, as well as short stories, nonfiction, eBooks, and comic books, most of them in various media universes, among them Star Trek, World of Warcraft, Starcraft, Marvel Comics, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Serenity, Resident Evil, Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, Farscape, Xena, and Doctor Who. His original novel Dragon Precinct was published in 2004, and he's also edited several anthologies, among them the award-nominated Imaginings and two Star Trek anthologies. Keith is also a musician, having played percussion for the bands the Don't Quit Your Day Job Players, the Boogie Knights, and the Randy Bandits, as well as several solo acts. In what he laughingly calls his spare time, Keith follows the New York Yankees and practices kenshikai karate. He still lives in New York City with his girlfriend and two insane cats.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Introduction: How We Built the Bar

Dean Wesley Smith

Back in the mists of history, around 1997, the Captain's Table was built, to float forever in time and space, allowing only captains of ships through the big wooden front door. If my memory serves, the creation of the Captain's Table was slow, like any construction process -- a labor of love carried out over a number of phone calls between myself and former Pocket Books editor John Ordover.

John and I both loved the tradition of bars in literature, and often talked about the White Hart, one of our favorites. I'm not sure of the exact conversation between us that sent the Captain's Table into full construction, but I do remember that at one point John suggested I create the bar.

Since I had worked as a bartender and have a degree in architecture that I have seldom used, it was a logical assignment. I took the task very seriously, actually going to my architectural studio and drawing up floor plans. As I would in any good design, I included restrooms, determined the location of stairs, provided for liquor storage, and so on. Every detail, all to scale. Then John and I worked out the characters who would be regulars, who would be there to listen to the captains' stories.

We developed the rules of the bar, and how it works with captains of ships from any time and any space. We developed the tradition of captains telling tales, and many of the other details that threaded their way into the bar. Then John hired eight of his writers to bring the Captain's Table to life and write six novels. He assigned each the task of writing in first person, from the captain's point of view while in the bar.

Since I had designed the bar, I was given first choice and picked Benjamin Sisko, writing with my wife, Kristine Kathryn Rusch. The team of L.A. Graf took Jim Kirk and Hikaru Sulu, Diane Carey wrote about Kathryn Janeway, Michael Jan Friedman got to record Jean-Luc Picard's story, Jerry Oltion told Christopher Pike's, and Peter David told Mackenzie Calhoun's tale.

John kept everyone together in details and timeline, even managing to have the different books linked by last and first chapters, with one captain leaving the bar while another came in. John even had the artist put in the faces of the authors in the crowd scene behind the captains in the cover paintings and on the big poster. Only not always on our own books. (Hint: Kris and I are right behind Captain Janeway.)

As a hard-core Star Trek fan, this was all grand fun for me, not only the creation of the bar, but writing the novel. Since then, I have been editing Strange New Worlds, the annual-contest anthology that lets the fans into the professional writing side of Star Trek. Over the years, my biggest regret has been that the rules of Strange New Worlds don't allow Captain's Table stories. I've really wanted to read more about the bar that floated out there, giving the captains of ships a needed place to relax.

Now Keith R.A. DeCandido has solved that problem with this wonderful book, getting some of the best Star Trek writers to drop in to the Captain's Table and listen to more stories from many varied captains. I feel like I have come home.

So sit back and enjoy great stories in one of the most interesting and strange places in all of time and space. And when you leave, don't forget to tip the bartender.

Copyright © 2005 by Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Pocket Books/Star Trek; First Edition edition (June 14, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416505202
• ISBN-13: 978-1416505204
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #878,903 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars "Tales" leaves much to be desired, June 27, 2005

By 

Antoine D. Reid "80sforever" (Durham, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tales From the Captain's Table (Star Trek (Unnumbered Paperback)) (Paperback)

The "Captain's Table" was an interesting concept back in 1997 and still has some value today. This is different from the 1997 version, for it's all in a single book. This anthology features captain's that have come up through the past few years of Trek lit. I like the concept, each captain paying for their drink in this bar with a story. In the 1997 series, the main captains of Trek told stories that sort of defined them and their captaincy. Now, each captain tells a story that isn't necessarily true and doesn't always define them.

I thought there were some good stories, then some stories that really pulled this anthology down. "Pain Management" featuring Elizabeth Shelby, "The Officer's Club" featuring Kira Nerys, and "Iron and Sacrifice" featuring Demora Sulu were the best this book had to offer. The authors of these stories not only took on something that explained part of the respective series and events, but they added depth to these characters. They were great stories, great writing, really kept me flipping through the pages.

There were others that sort of dragged on for me, those being the "An Easy Fast" and the Klingon tale. They were good, but they could have been better. Their best moments came at the end when the moral was revealed. The same can be said of Picard's post-Stargazer story, "Darkness." Great beginning, touched a little on the Stargazer book series and it's characters after everything is over. The story, due to it's shortness, was a bit bungled and the situation seemed out of place. Yet, the ending was great.

What made this a rather average book though were the "Tales" that shouldn't have been included. Comedy is nice, humor is great, but over-the-top ... no. The worst story by far was the Archer tale. Perhaps someone thought it was cute to spawn an obviously fake, children-humor tale about Archer and Porthos, but it plain fell on it's face. I didn't find it funny and thought the start of the tale, with Archer and Shran speaking and such was great. The writing and quality from there was simply lost. The next offender was the Riker/Troi honeymoon tale. Again, why so much humor? A little mixed in is great but this didn't feel like Star Trek at all. The characterization was way off, the idea of Riker and Troi involving so many people in their honeymoon activities and the focus being on another character so much ... no, we didn't need this. What Riker got out of the adventure left me rather baffled. The Chakotay tale had some good moments but if you've read Christie Golden's work, you've basically got enough Chakotay to last you a lifetime.

Perhaps the anthology format hurt the "Captain's Table." I agree, it needed a follow-up to account for the changes in Trek since 1997. I think individual novels for some of these characters, where stories could have been developed more and better plots chosen for some would have been better. I'm not sure if I would recommend it but there are some stories worth reading. It doesn't feel like all the authors were on the same page as to what this concept was supposed to be about. It wasn't, back in 1997, about comedy and stories that may or may not be true. I was sort of disapointed. I hope if there's another anthology, we'll have fewer captains and longer, more developed, stories.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A very mixed collection, September 28, 2005

By 

R. Spottiswood (Western Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tales From the Captain's Table (Star Trek (Unnumbered Paperback)) (Paperback)

I must begin this by saying that, based on the Captain's Table books, I had very high expectations for this anthology. They were not met. Some of the stories I quite enjoyed, but several I did not, and the bar as a setting was underused. The first story, Riker's, was light-hearted, entertaining, and rather preposterous. I thought it was setting the tone for the anthology. The next few stories showed me that the theme was about family, their betrayal and abandonment, and that this story was a cheerful bookend to an often sombre collection. After Riker came Picard, with a story set between Stargazer and Enterprise. The story is about Picard's love of starship command being restored after losing his first ship, and there is no subtlety to it. It's more like a story guide than a real tale. After that comes Shelby's story. I only read New Frontier stories in anthologies, and they never fail to justify not reading the novels. Most of this story is actually a fairly rousing adventure tale, with a sardonic humour I like. The conclusion portrays Starfleet as turned into a huge collection of conspiracy freaks by the Dominion War. I don't like the "everybody on both sides of a war is an idiot" attitude and I really don't like the way it is presented. After Shelby comes Klag. It's not really a story at all, just a lonely man feeling miserable about his family problems and sharing the misery with a bar full of strangers. After reading this story, I took a break for dinner, and also to get out a previous Trek anthology and read a story that was entertaining and cheerful, because I felt that was the only way I could get through to the end of Tales.

Fortunately, the collection picked up at that point. Kira's story was from the Occupation, a tale of espionage and double agents. It is well written, but the emotional level is a bit shallow. The real impact for me was the incredible difference between the physical state of Kira here and after the Occupation. It is a well chosen point of shock for the reader. I did not bother to read Archer's story, as NX-01 stories in any form have no interest for me. That might have been a mistake, as the collection could have done with a big humour infusion, and I suspect that story tried to provide it. Demora Sulu's story is actually three stories, the bar story, the story told in the bar, and the third story, told in the story told in the bar. It needed to be well written to be good, and it is. The bar story and the third story were good in general. However, the bar story relates how Demora modified the second story, about caring for her dying grandmother, to achieve her goal in coming to the bar. The story reflects that attitude, that is, it feels like she was manipulating her grandmother to get the result she wanted from providing the care, and any benefit to her grandmother was good but unimportant. Demora in general comes across as coldly manipulative, and no matter how good the writing, she is just not a pleasant character to read about. Which makes for quite a contrast to Chakotay's story, involving her and showing how he managed to get into Starfleet Academy. It is also light hearted and upbeat, making a welcome if shallow change from the preceding stories. The final story, David Gold's, finalises that trend, and is more like Riker's story than any of the others. It actually involves the bar patrons in the telling of the story, which is a feature I really liked about the Captain's Table books and was wasted by most of the stories in this collection. His and Riker's stories I found to be the most enjoyable of the book.

I am not sure I can recommend for or against this. Several of the stories are reasonably entertaining, but I found several very depressing, and the overall quality of the writing is not particularly high. The most I can say is that this anthology is below the standard of previous Trek anthologies I have read, and considerably below the entertainment level of the Captain's Table books.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Where Everybody Knows Your Name..., July 23, 2005

By 

Sxottlan (Canandaigua, NY USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tales From the Captain's Table (Star Trek (Unnumbered Paperback)) (Paperback)

I finished up the anthology Tales of the Captain's Table this afternoon and really quite loved it. It's the best Trek anthology since The Lives of Dax. The stories are held together by focusing more on events happening within the Captain's Table as we start off with Picard inducting Riker into the group. The mysterious Cap is the glue as he reflects on a particular day at the bar when all our characters turn up at one point or another.

The biggest problem I had with recent anthologies like Prophecy and Change and Tales of the Dominion War was that many of the stories themselves felt inconsequential. That problem is completely remedied in Tales of the Captain's Table because the stories told deal with far more important moments in the lives of the new batch of captains. Others document events previously mentioned in earlier books. Some thoughts on the individual stories:

Riker: Hokey to the extreme, this tale of the honeymoon of Will Riker and Deanna Troi is tolerable because of the dubious credibility cast upon it. I'm sure there was a honeymoon of some sort, just maybe not this one involving pirates and mistaken identity. It's kind of a good bad story if you know what I mean. This is the kind of story you'd see in a bad episode of any given Trek series, but with the tongue firmly planted in cheek, it makes it fun. Riker is going to be a regular at the bar I think.

Picard: I ended up quite turned off by the Stargazer series by Michael Jan Friedman, so this short story by him was a nice surprise in the way it engaged me. I hadn't realized how much time had passed between the loss of the Stargazer and Picard getting command of the Enterprise. Picard's mindset is pretty dark and I rather liked seeing him during this time.

Klag: A surprisingly emotional tale about Klingon family. It gives further depth to M'Raq, who is often mentioned but not much beyond his capture and subsequent dishonor. I noticed Klag reflecting on his father's twilight years in a more gentle light. The twist ended the segment wonderfully.

Shelby: We start to get a little insight into the Selelvian/Tholian War with this tale. Apparently, the Selelvians are able to get the Tholians and Orions on their side. I guess all these villain species are just lining up to take a whack at the Federation for the hell of it. This seems to be developing into a similarly sized conflict like with the Cardassians and Tzenkethi. The story packs a wallop because there's a certain grandioseness to every action the characters take out of loyalty and friendship. And frankly, it's nice to take a break from Calhoun every once in a while.

Kira: Honestly, I didn't remember that Kira ever had a brother. Still, this proves to be a great little tale of espionage during the Bajoran Occupation. It was interesting to see the contrast between the way Kira's cell does things as opposed to Plin's. Kira undergoes several shifts in her opinion of her brother and end on the right one.

Archer: If looked at in the right light, you could see this tale as a blistering commentary on how for the majority of its run, the writers and producers were making Enterprise up as they went along. The result is something akin to what Porthos leaves behind after eating cheese. I sort of chuckled at the arbitrary nature of the tale because of the improvisation, but that didn't make it a really memorable. I'm saddened we didn't get something about "Airlock" Archer instead. Certainly the weakest of the stories.

Sulu: Three stories in one and David R. George 3 provides a nice variety as a result. There's family drama, action thriller and spy thriller. There's something for everyone. Sulu's reasoning for staying at her distant grandmother's side makes the situation sympathetic and kept me from wondering why Demora didn't lash out verbally at the morose matriarch. The framing story continues a trend I've noticed lately as we get a little bit more about the Tzenkethi Coalition on top of what we got in Articles of the Federation. I can see these books priming the audience for more Tzenkethi in the future.

Chakotay: A nice dramatization of a story told by the former Maquis captain in an early Voyager episode. No large black cats jumped out of anyone's head in the making of this short story. Rampant spiritual hokiness is kept down to a merciful minimum. Perhaps there's more depth to the characterization because it's told from his point of view instead of what we've gotten in the relaunch. We also understand Sulu's hesitation about Chakotay. The resolution is a bit pat.

Gold: A tale of revenge certainly wasn't what I was expecting when it came to David Gold and that makes for a surprising little three-part morality tale. Left for dead as a younger man, Gold seeks out those who wronged him and the results are intriguing. The heart is in the growth of Gold over the years regarding his quest.

Tales of the Captain's Table gets a very hearty recommendation and will most likely end up as one of the top Trek books of the year in my opinion. There's a little bit for everyone and stories carry more weight, giving the reader moments only read about or heard about elsewhere. There is just more reason to care. Even with the Archer story, I'm feeling generous.