Incredibly Biased, Done The Impossible Explains Firefly Fandom . . . Poorly.

The Good: Decent explanation from fans
The Bad: Terribly inaccurate (gets a number of facts wrong)
The Basics: Done The Impossible explains the fandom around Firefly . . . in a mediocre fashion.


It’s worth, at the outset of panning the documentary Done The Impossible: The Fans’ Tale Of “Firefly” And “Serenity”, to note that I am a fan of Firefly. I mention that up front because I was excited to watch Done The Impossible . . . until pretty much the first frames of the documentary. I can live with bias, especially in a documentary about fandom . . . but I have a low threshold for factual inaccuracies in any documentary and Done The Impossible does not do a good service to fans in terms of creating a good historical document.

Done The Impossible is essentially Trekkies (reviewed here!) for Firefly. Firefly (reviewed here!) was a short-lived television show on the FOX network, which was resurrected as a film Serenity (reviewed here!). The show has a strong fan base, but objectively viewed, the series is fourteen episodes long and a movie which was by no means a box office smash. The documentary mines the limited amount of commentary available on the subject to present a short documentary, most of which was contained in the bonus features for the DVD sets for Firefly and Serenity.

Filmed mostly at conventions packed with fans of Firefly, Done The Impossible proclaims the series the best program ever to air on television before a protracted series of introductions of fans of Firefly. After a number of people whose fifteen minutes might be their vague association with the fan movement surrounding Firefly introducing themselves, Adam Baldwin appears on screen to tell the story of Firefly and Firefly fandom. Inaccurately saying that Firefly had done something never done before with a television series being cancelled and then resurrected as a film (did these people never hear of Star Trek?!), the documentary has fans discuss their love of Firefly.

The documentary then shifts to the cancellation of Firefly and the reaction from both fans of the series and people involved in the show. While it is impressive to see Nathan Fillion and Tim Minear talk about their reactions to the show’s cancellation, they provide nothing truly new than they did in the bonus features on the DVD and Blu-Ray for the show/movies. The documentary then discusses how fans helped raise the capital to make the film Serenity. Outside comments on how Browncoats (the Firefly fans) raised money for charity, there was really nothing new or original in terms of substantive commentary in Done The Impossible.

Thus, much of Done The Impossible is fans (including filkers, Orson Scott Card, and otherwise unremarkable individuals who fell in love with the series) talking about their own personal reactions to the show, the cancellation, and the fight to resurrect the series. Done The Impossible is not fact-heavy, though it tells the personal stories of many people’s emotional connection with the series.

Sadly, that makes the documentary remarkably thin. There is little to say about the show, there is little to say about the campaign to make the movie (we were told, if enough money is raised, the studio will make and distribute a film . . . so we raised the money) and there is remarkably little to say about the fandom. That makes Done The Impossible and unfortunately unremarkable documentary that seems likely to please fans, but not truly enlighten or sway those who are not already part of that fandom.

For other documentaries, please check out my reviews of:
PoliWood
Craigslist Joe
Jedi Junkies

2.5/10

For other movie reviews, please check out my Film Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2014 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Better-Than-Average Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Novel Demons Of Air And Darkness Satisfies!

The Good: Interesting concept, Good pacing, Good character moments, Nice overall story development
The Bad: Plays the same card the last book did.
The Basics: Keith R.A. DeCandido presents a chapter in a larger story of the Iconian gateways with the Defiant and Deep Space Nine crews on a humanitarian mission!


As Star Trek: Deep Space Nine continued in novel form, the publishers at Pocket Books tried to integrate it into the larger Star Trek universe better. As a result, when there were crossover series', this oft-forgotten corner of the Star Trek universe was brought in. One of those few - to date - crossovers was a little series about Iconian gateways and the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novel in that series was Demons Of Air And Darkness, by novelist Keith R.A. DeCandido.

I was not all that impressed by the other Star Trek novel of Keith R.A. DeCandido, Diplomatic Implausibility (reviewed here!) that I had read. However, I was not about to avoid the next Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novel in the rebooted series simply because of the author. The novel was Demons Of Air And Darkness and it appears to have been both a stand-alone Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novel and a piece of a larger crossover in the various elements of the Star Trek franchise. As such, it has cameos by Jean-Luc Picard and Calhoun and Shelby from the novel-only "Starship Excalibur" series. But, largely, this is the new face of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and it works pretty well.

Moments after bringing a new communications array in the Gamma Quadrant back online in preparation of the U.S.S. Defiant's renewed interest and ability to explore that quadrant, Commander Vaughn and the Defiant are recalled. StarFleet has gone to a fleet-wide yellow alert when the mysterious Iconians return after two hundred thousand years of being absent from the Alpha Quadrant. They activate all of their gateways and the potential represented by the appearance and activation of the space and planet-bound gateways is astonishing to the leading governments of the Alpha Quadrant. While Quark goes on a mission to represent the Orion Syndicate's interests in acquiring the gateways, Kira, Vaughn, Taran'atar and Tenmei head to Europa Nova to deal with an environmental crisis while Nog and Shar try to figure out why there are no gateways near Bajor.

Quark is soon faced with a serious problem; he is negotiating against his cousin Gaila, a Ferengi who absolutely hates him. While Ezri remains in command of Deep Space Nine, Nog and Shar reason that the Denorios Belt might be responsible for the lack of gateways in the Bajoran system, before Shar is waylayed by his politician mother with additional pressures to return home. But the situation at New Europa is the crisis that seems most devastating. As Bashir works to save lives by evacuating colonists using a small fleet of ships, Kira and Taran'atar pass through the Iconian gateway to try to disable the Malon freighter that is dumping antimatter waste into New Europa's atmosphere. Unfortunately, the Malon themselves are dead, fallen prey to a Hirogen, whose hunt may cost more than just Kira and Taran'atar's lives!

Demons Of Air And Darkness is a surprisingly well-plotted book, save that DeCandido mixes up one important detail and plays the same card that Dean Weddle and Jeffrey Lang did in the prior Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novel, Abyss (reviewed here!). The card is a very simple and increasingly annoying writer's trick that makes use of the novel format, because this is not a television series. Simply put, subterfuge is much easier in a novel than it is on television. Characters are, quite simply, recognizable by their casting. As a result, simply writing "a Jem'Hadar" or "a Bajoran dabo girl" becomes a great way to escape that particular problem in the novels. This sets up reversals when the reader finds out which Jem'Hadar is menacing our protagonist or which Bajoran has truly accompanied Quark on his mission (readers who have been with the series thus far will not be surprised as the dabo girl is the noticeably absent character from the cast list). And DeCandido might have gotten away with it were it not for the fact that the same reversal was used in the prior novel and, frankly, it would be refreshing to read something a little more original than simply omitting the name and description of a character so that when it is revealed it is a surprise. In the case of the Jem'Hadar in Abyss and the dabo girl in Demons Of Air And Darkness, the clandestine aspect would have been evident the moment the characters appeared on screen. It would have been refreshing for the reader to have the facts the opposition didn't have and enjoy that secret knowledge more than banking on the reversal (classic problem with Star Trek: Voyager, for example). The mixed-up detail is significant enough that it is annoying to the careful reader: Kira and Taran'atar realize that the Malon ship must have powerful transporters because the Hirogen is aboard, but the Hirogen beamed aboard from his ship moments before it was destroyed, using his transporter, not the Malon's.

Most of the story, though, is well-paced, clever and well-executed. Demons Of Air And Darkness - a phrase used to describe the Iconians in Star Trek: The Next Generation - presents the return of the Iconians and the only real flaw with them is the lack of intellectual curiosity presented in this novel in relation to the Iconians. None of the StarFleet officers in this book seem especially curious as to the nature and existence of the Iconians after two hundred thousand years. This plays a minor part in this particular novel, though it's fairly predictable to fans of the series to guess that the people in negotiations with Quark are not entirely in control of the gateways. The Iconians are given dialogue bits where they communicate between one another and the reader picks up pretty quickly their true nature. Still, DeCandido plays that card well, holding it until the last possible moment.

The whole idea of the Iconians, of course, was brought up in the television series. The Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Contagion" (reviewed here!) introduced the concept of the Iconians and their gateways and the idea was revisited on Star Trek: The Next Generation with "To The Death" (reviewed here!). It helps to watch one or both of those episodes before reading this book as the nature of the Iconians is otherwise somewhat vague and alluded to more than explicitly described.

That said, this chapter in the gateway story that overcame the Star Trek franchise when the novel was originally published, is remarkably strong on its own and the way it manages to stay distinctly Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is through its emphasis on the characters. More than that, Keith R.A. DeCandido is given the task of fleshing out some of the new novel-only characters. Bashir and Ezri are largely neglected in favor of Elias Vaughn, Shar, Taran'atar, Quark and Kira. Three of those are unique to the book series. Far more than plot-driven, much of the action in Demons Of Air And Darkness is refreshingly character-driven.

Take, for example, Elias Vaughn. Outed in the prior novel as the father of the Defiant's new conn officer, Prynn Tenmei, Vaughn is the new commander of the Defiant and the first officer at Deep Space Nine, effectively filling the niches Worf and Kira previously held. Vaughn represents a pretty astonishing concept in the Star Trek novel world and the overall concept of the Star Trek franchise. Over one hundred years old, Vaughn represents the chance to expand the backstory and depth of the Star Trek universe by creating a guy who has been around doing things off camera for the whole time (and longer) the modern Star Trek series' have been without contradicting what is established canon. So, for example, in this novel, we learn that the two on-screen missions involving the Iconians were not the only ones and that Vaughn participated in a highly classified mission involving the Iconians. It's a clever idea and it seems like one that could work extensively in the novels, so long as it is properly used. Vaughn is a great source for referencing various episodes of Star Trek as he supposedly has an amazing security clearance. His part will work better - I suspect - when we encounter something he has heard about or has peripheral knowledge of, but not direct experience with. We can buy that he was on a mission involving the Iconian gateways, though. It is nice to see Vaughn commanding and commanding well in this book, establishing himself as a fairly vital character.

Thirishar ch'Thane, the new Andorian science officer, is also featured prominently in Demons Of Air And Darkness. Ch'Thane - or Shar as he is commonly called - is the son of, among others, the representative from Andor to the Federation Council. Shar's mother makes an appearance in this novel and the badgering for him to return to Andor persists, pretty much as it has since he was first introduced. He and Nog continue to develop a friendship and it is refreshing that Nog's character is not so abandoned that when the refugee crisis from New Europa comes up Nog is disappointed they have to give up searching for Jake Sisko, who disappeared a few books back! Shar, though, is becoming likable and his character works especially well, giving Nog a decent companion.

Taran'atar continues to grow on the reader as he continues to do Odo's bidding by following Kira's orders. While his part is relegated once again to a battle scenario, it works, especially with his pairing with Kira. They make for an unlikely mentor/student relationship with Taran'atar in the role of the curious student. Kira, for her part, comes into her own well in the last half of the book.

For those fearing that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is becoming unrecognizable in its novel form, there is relief in the form of Quark. Quark's presence in the book is surprisingly active and while Quark never truly grows as a character, it is refreshing to see him doing things, like negotiating and weaseling around the Orion Syndicate.

Fans of the Star Trek franchise will find a lot to like about Demons Of Air And Darkness, though while many of the vital points involving the Deep Space Nine crew are wrapped up neatly, there are a number of threads still unresolved by the end of this book. Fans of science fiction in general and action-adventure stories will also find enough to be intrigued by in this one, though there are no overwhelming philosophies in this book and it is somewhat simplistic on the science fiction front. There's enough action adventure for fans of that and fans of the Star Trek franchise will likely enjoy seeing StarFleet and Federation personnel working on a humanitarian problem. In other words, this does not degenerate into yet another stupid "kill the villain" scenario.

Keith R.A. DeCandido does a fine job with the writing, though few Star Trek novels are a source of sophisticated or complicated diction, this one is good enough. In other words, Demons Of Air And Darkness is more likely than most Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novels to intrigue the reader and keep them coming back for more!

This book is part of the Twist Of Faith omnibus, reviewed here!

7/10

For other Star Trek book reviews, be sure to visit my Star Trek Book Review Index Page for an organized listing!

© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season Eight Opens With The Omnibus Twist Of Faith!

The Good: Interesting new characters, A strong sense of history and future concept
The Bad: Not exceptional writing, A bit of repetition from the series.
The Basics: With a strong concept of the universe painted in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine,Twist Of Faith collects the new novels to reboot the series as if it were the start of Season Eight!


My love of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (reviewed here!) leaves me with a strong desire to get some reading done and having just finished the omnibus Twist Of Faith, I find myself pleased to put in my two cents on it.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine was arguably the least commercial of the "modern" Star Trek series and also the most adult. As the show progressed, it became more serialized and the emphasis was strongly on characters as opposed to plots. Actions had consequences and characters rose and fell as they struggled to overcome their issues and the circumstances they found themselves in. It was pretty much guaranteed that the series would not see the light of day on the big screen and as a result, it was pretty much assumed that it was a dead little corner of the Star Trek universe.

But Star Trek: Deep Space Nine had something the rest of the franchise didn't have; a core of rabid, adult fans who had both a limited disposable income and the desire to see the story progress following the series finale, "What You Leave Behind" (reviewed here!). Designed for the fans, then, Pocket Books picked up the story of space station Deep Space Nine three months after the loss of Captain Benjamin Sisko. The concept of Twist Of Faith is to present a Season Eight of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine that tells the story of the station and its vital characters following all of the cataclysmic changes that were depicted in the series finale. This mandated the presence of several new characters.

This is an omnibus edition, collecting the novels which rebooted the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine storyline and it is a simple collection of the previously-released novels:
Avatar Volume 1
Avatar Volume 2
Abyss
Demons Of Air And Darkness
and the novella "Horn And Ivory"

In Avatar (Part 1), Jake Sisko is working at the archaeological excavation of B'Hala when a Prylar hands him an ancient prophecy concerning him and the Emissary (Captain Sisko). Eager to see his father again, Jake abandons the dig and makes plans to make a journey that will allow the prophecy to come true. Elsewhere, in the Badlands, the U.S.S. Enterprise-E is hunting rogue Breen ships that have been sighted following the war. Instead, they come across an old Cardassian vessel that is housing a secret of its own, a secret that will call the 101 year-old Elias Vaughn to change his life.

Unfortunately, it is at this time that space station Deep Space Nine is running a complete and total retrofit of the station and the Defiant and it is at its most vulnerable. Protected by a lone ship, the new command staff of Deep Space Nine - made up of familiar faces like Colonel Kira Nerys (now the commander of the space station), Dr. Bashir, Lieutenant Nog (Chief of Operations), and Lieutenant Ezri Dax (ship's counselor) and characters entirely new or new to this context, like Security Chief Lieutenant Ro Laren, Ensign Thirishar ch'Thane (Andorian science officer), and Commander Jast (first officer) - is overrun with mechanical problems when Prylar Istani Reyla arrives on the station and is killed in an apparent robbery which also results in the death of her assailant. As Ro and Kira square off over the new security chief's handling of the situation, the station comes under attack by three Jem'Hadar attack ships. Normally this would not be a problem, but with the station and Defiant in the middle of complete overhauls . . .

In Avatar (Part 2), space station Deep Space Nine is in disarray following the Jem'Hadar attack and the revelation to Kira of a prophecy that tells of ten thousand deaths to bring a new age of enlightenment to Bajor. Kira begins to question her faith, though she believes in the strength of the Bajoran people and the wisdom of the Prophets. While she seeks for proof that the supposedly pacifistic Jem'Hadar, Kitana'klan, is telling the truth about his mission from Odo, Vedek Yevir arrives on the station to recover the heretical text that her friend apparently died for. Kassidy Yates and Lieutenant Ro rail against the prophecy, but Kira suddenly finds Yevir's playing religious politics strangely familiar.

No sooner has Kira become resolved to a course of action than the U.S.S. Enterprise arrives with Commander Elias Vaughn, preparing to meet with a fleet for an impending invasion of the Gamma Quadrant to retaliate for the breaking of the treaty. Vaughn and Picard return the Orb of Memory to the Bajoran people when Kitana'klan shows his true colors and Deep Space Nine is sabotaged and hovers on the brink of destruction.

In Abyss, Nog and his engineering crews haul Empok Nor to Deep Space Nine to salvage the station's reactor. As a result of the repair efforts, Colonel Kira orders all nonessential personnel to get lost for a little while. This includes the Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Julian Bashir and the station's counselor Lieutenant Ezri Dax, who has now transferred to the command track. Eager to take a trip to Earth together, Bashir is frustrated when moments before his departure from the station he is intercepted by a Section 31 operative named Cole. Cole explains that the Federation's most covert organization needs Bashir's assistance. It seems in the Badlands there is a world called Sindorin where a genetically enhanced human - Dr. Ethan Locken - has taken over an abandoned Jem'Hadar production facility. Utilizing his medical training, Locken is breeding a new strain of Jem'Hadar soldiers who are loyal to him and will help him to take over the Alpha Quadrant for the genetically enhanced as the new Khan.

Eager to stop Locken from bringing his army to a truly menacing strength - whatwith the fragile peace between the Klingons and Romulans to maintain - Bashir agrees to attempt to stop Locken and thwart his ambitions on Sindorin. To accomplish his mission, Bashir and Ezri take Ro and the new Jem'Hadar attache, Taran'atar, to Sindorin. En route, they discover Locken's handiwork in the form of a derelict Romulan ship complete with corpses showing evidence of torture and when approaching Sindorin, the runabout is shot down. As a result, Taran'atar and Ro find themselves meeting with a diminutive race Ro recognizes to raise and army to attack Locken's facility. And inside the facility, Bashir becomes tempted by his madman "brother" in his quest to take over the galaxy.

In Demons Of Air And Darkness By Keith R.A. DeCandido, Commander Vaughn and the Defiant are recalled immediately after getting the new communications array in the Gamma Quadrant online. StarFleet has gone to a fleet-wide yellow alert when the mysterious Iconians return after two hundred thousand years of being absent from the Alpha Quadrant. They activate all of their gateways and the potential represented by the appearance and activation of the space and planet-bound gateways is astonishing to the leading governments of the Alpha Quadrant. While Quark goes on a mission to represent the Orion Syndicate's interests in acquiring the gateways, Kira, Vaughn, Taran'atar and Tenmei head to Europa Nova to deal with an environmental crisis while Nog and Shar try to figure out why there are no gateways near Bajor.

Quark is soon faced with a serious problem; he is negotiating against his cousin Gaila, a Ferengi who absolutely hates him. While Ezri remains in command of Deep Space Nine, Nog and Shar reason that the Denorios Belt might be responsible for the lack of gateways in the Bajoran system, before Shar is waylaid by his politician mother with additional pressures to return home. But the situation at New Europa is the crisis that seems most devastating. As Bashir works to save lives by evacuating colonists using a small fleet of ships, Kira and Taran'atar pass through the Iconian gateway to try to disable the Malon freighter that is dumping antimatter waste into New Europa's atmosphere. Unfortunately, the Malon themselves are dead, fallen prey to a Hirogen, whose hunt may cost more than just Kira and Taran'atar's lives!

Keith R.A. DeCandido also wrote "Horn And Ivory" a novella that concludes the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine portion of the Gateway saga by returning Kira to Deep Space Nine. Last seen lost on an arid planet in the Delta Quadrant, dying of theta radiation poisoning, Kira leapt through a newly discovered gateway. She awakens in Bajor's past, some thirty thousand years in the past, where she struggles alongside a local general, Torrna, for the freedom of a peninsula.

In the process of liberating the peninsula, establishing a local government, fighting off pirates and becoming besieged for the newly valuable port that the peninsula contains, Kira draws parallels with events in her own life and in Bajor's larger history. She ultimately finds the strength to go on and is returned to both the present and Deep Space Nine.

Twist Of Faith actually works a little bit better than the books on their own, because it establishes well the new characters, like Elias Vaughn, ch'Thane, Taran'atar and introduces the less vital newbies, like Bowers and Prynn. As well, it creates a larger sense of the Star Trek universe by bringing Ro Laren into "Deep Space Nine" as well as Jean-Luc Picard and the Enterprise-E. The arc of the overall story works well in an omnibus form.

For example, Kira has a decent arc as the new commander of Deep Space Nine between assuming more the mantle of leadership and her conflicts with the religious hierarchy of Bajor. Those who just pick up the latter two books as opposed to this omnibus are likely to be confused about the circumstances surrounding Kira's becoming Attainted.

Still, this is not exceptional literature and there is a lot that a reader would need to know from the series. This, unfortunately, runs smack into the writing problem: those who were attentive to the television series will wonder why Kira is so beleaguered when she spent about the same amount of time in command of Deep Space Nine under arguably worse circumstances between the sixth season finale and the seventh season premiere. The stress she seems to be under is dramatically disproportionate to her experience.

But there is enough here for science fiction and certainly Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fans to enjoy and celebrate. And it is a decent start to a new vision for Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the underdog Star Trek series. So, in this case, the sum is greater than its individual parts. This is a good way to get back into Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and save some shelf space!

7/10

For other novel reviews, be sure to visit my Book Review Index Page for an organized listing of all the fiction books I have read.

© 2012, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Continuing With The I.K.S. Gorkon: Enemy Territory Is A Triumph Of Creativity Over Quality.

The Good: Interesting alien design, The end picks up nicely.
The Bad: Pacing issues, Unlikable characters, Simplistic writing style, Allusions and self-referential nature, Repeated plot.
The Basics: Poorly written, with an uprooting of anything familiar in the Klingon military structure, Enemy Territory spends a lot of time focused on aliens readers won't care about.


In the realm of the Star Trek novels, there are very few concepts that are as ambitious as the idea behind the I.K.S. Gorkon series. Even Peter David's Excalibur novels are essentially recasting the traditional Federation starship, despite the way they go off into an area of the galaxy that has become David's own within the Star Trek universe. The I.K.S. Gorkon series, however, has the difficulty of presenting an alien crew and culture while having them explore the unknown and still be interesting to human readers. This is a problematic concept and while it is ambitious and novelist Keith R.A. DeCandido is creative, he falls a little shy of being able to make it work, at least in this, the third novel in the I.K.S. Gorkon series.

Truth be told, I read Enemy Territory, the third book in the I.K.S. Gorkon stories of Klingon exploration and expansion on its own because the first novel with the Gorkon crew I read, Diplomatic Implausibility (reviewed here!) underwhelmed me. Keith R.A. DeCandido redeemed himself some in my eyes with his novel and novella in the Twist Of Faith omnibus, but having little interest in Klingon culture I was not inclined to read the two books in the series before this one. Judging by how often they refer to the events in those adventures in Enemy Territory, I do not feel like I am missing much at all. Indeed, Enemy Territory holds up well-enough on its own without reading the other books that one could pick this one up and get into it . . . if it were worth picking up at all.

A tight-knit religiously dogmatic empire on the corner of explored Klingon territory, the Elabrej Hegemony consists of a central planet and a few outer worlds where the citizens are working toward independence. The Elabrej are headless sexpeds who are beginning to explore the galaxy in ships made of interconnecting spheres, despite their religious doctrine which dictates that they are the only intelligent life in the galaxy. They get something of a wake-up call when their exploratory vessel encounters the I.K.S. Kravokh, captained by Wirrk. Wirrk dispatches one vessel, but is soon met by an Elabrej fleet which destroys his ship.

Meanwhile nearby the I.K.S. Gorkon is dealing with the aftermath of a battle which forced Captain Klag to fight a sect of mutinous Klingons. Having taken aboard some Klingons from other crews, security chief Lokor is anxious about a possibly mutiny among the ground troops and he begins to institute preventative measures against a coup on Klag's life. When the Gorkon gets word about the destruction of the Kravokh and the presence of some of its crew as prisoners on the Elabrej homeworld, the Gorkon moves to intercept to save their brethren's lives. As they find themselves outmatched by a fleet of Elabrej ships, the crew falls divided among some of the planets in the Elabrej starsystem where they join with the rebels to attempt to get their crew back, putting at risk the entire central government of the Elabrej Hegemony!

The essential problems with Enemy Territory is that it is exceptionally hard to care and it is made much more difficult by the sheer amount of new information thrown at the reader. First, while the crew of the Gorkon has a pretty standard rank system (based on Naval ranks) the reader is compelled to deal with a second ranking system for the ground troops with generic ranks like "Leader" at the same time they are assimilating the position and caste names of the various strata of the Elabrej Hegemony. For such a short book, with a race that most readers know will be gone by the end of the book (the Elabrej bear the "episodic" portion of the serialized Gorkon novels), most readers will not want to invest the emotional energy to keep everything sorted out and straight.

As well, Keith R.A. DeCandido seems to be operating on what the last writers in the Star Trek franchise had to deal with; Klingon names. For sure, it is confusing when all of the names begin with "K," but it also makes it very clear when one is referring to a known Klingon character versus one of the Klingons on the Gorkon, a Klingon on the Kravokh, a Klingon killed on San-Tarah OR one of the Elabrej. While DeCandido uses Klingons who were named in the television series without "K" first names, for years, that was how Klingons were easily defined and having so many new characters with so many different little affiliations in this book is needlessly complicated for a 320 page novel.

But more than that, an inordinate amount of time is spent with characters who it is hard to care about. Captain Klag is largely a secondary character as the various spies and intelligence agents and officers are fleshing out their stories and half the book is preoccupied with characters in the Hegemony and telling the story from their perspective. That last part, the Elabrej getting their voice in, is worthwhile and interesting, save that DeCandido gives voice and focus to the least interesting of the Elabrej, the members of the Hegemony. The government officials spend most of their time bickering with the theological authorities and while there is some amusement to be had there - especially for the Bush Administration allusions DeCandido sneaks in - the rebels who are fighting against the religious orthodoxy are far more interesting. As a result, chapters are spent with characters that the reader will be rooting against and with the repetitive descriptions of spaces (we get that everything in the Hegemony is spherical!) waste space more than make interesting and fleshed out settings.

In the details, DeCandido truly falls down in Enemy Territory. On pages 169 to 175 there is a space battle described which knocks the Gorkon out of the Elabrej sky. The problem here is that the battle was not proofedited at all. As a result, Elabrej ships appear, more than the number that appear are destroyed or crippled before untouched ships that never appeared begin firing. In short, how many ships the Gorkon is up against changes virtually with every line and DeCandido and his editors did a poor job of making sure it all made sense before the book was published.

Outside that, the book is rather simple in its writing style and diction. Anyone with a fifth grade education ought to be able to read it and while there are mentions of sex and violence (these are Klingons, after all!) there is nothing too graphic for younger readers to read.

This, too, is part of the problem. The characters who have been mentioned in other works are rarely mentioned, so when they are, their characterizations are more abrupt and explicit than actually developed. For example, Chief Engineer Kurak is now a drunk and Rodak and Leskit are virtual nonentities. Similarly, Toq has more references to his backstory and to being recently promoted to First Officer than any development now that he is first officer. The result is a sense of stagnation in the characters who those who watched the television series' would know.

Even Captain Klag is far from heroically developed in this novel. In Enemy Territory, there is some concern that some of the enlisted soldiers are mounting an attempt to kill him and take over the Gorkon. Klag, though, is not characterized as anything or anyone heroic, he simply goes about working on getting his newly-grafted arm to function better and he defers virtually all of the major decisions dealing with the conspirators. In other words, it is not his heroics that either deal with the conspiracy against his captaincy or with the Elabrej problem, but rather those around him who do all of the work. Without counting pages, I would suspect Klag is on less than a quarter of the book's pages. In other words, he is not a strong Star Trek captain, not even a Jonathan Archer!

The last portion of the book devolves into a fast-paced action adventure book as one of the Kravokh's crew escapes and begins a killing spree on the Elabrej and Toq joins with the Separatists to rescue the Klingon survivors, but by that point it is hard to care. Even more disappointing - for someone who has only read one other "Gorkon" novel - is the way DeCandido resolves the book the same way he resolved the other one I read! This, too, is disappointing and while the idea of a new and different crew in the Star Trek universe is a clever one, DeCandido fails to sell readers on this particular one.

For other Star Trek books, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Star Trek: The Motion Picture by Gene Roddenberry
The Klingon Dictionary by Marc Okrand
Avenger by William Shatner

3/10

For other book reviews, please check out my Book Review Index Page for organized lists of the books I have reviewed!

© 2012, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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Diplomatic Implausibility: Prelude To I.K.S. Gorkon Books Is A Boring Who's-Who Of Klingons!

The Good: Knowledge of the Star Trek universe and how it fits together
The Bad: Failure to focus on Worf, Dull story, Way too much exposition, Alien race
The Basics: In a flatly sub-par Star Trek: The Next Generation novel, Worf's vocation as an ambassador is used as an excuse to launch a new book series.


The problem with working within someone else's universe is that sometimes the requirements of that universe stifle creativity. In reading Star Trek: The Next Generation novel #61, Diplomatic Implausibility, one has the sincere hope that author Keith R.A. DeCandido was given a memo by the editors of Pocket Books that read something like "We're starting a new series to tap into the Klingon market, we need you to write a book with at least five known Klingons on one ship or you're fired. Seriously, pack it with Klingons readers will recognize or you'll never write for us again (and use Worf, he's a pretty solid moneymaker for us)." And one hopes that those editors were given some form of note from Paramount Pictures that read something like: "VHS sales of episodes are dropping off, we need you guys to stimulate the market by making allusions to as many different episodes as possible so fans will go out and purchase tapes. Do this or we'll yank your license for Star Trek." After all, if these two criteria were met, then Pocket Books would simply be looking to protect its cash cow - the Star Trek franchise - and DeCandido would be looking to keep his job and this wouldn't simply be a crappy book packed with allusions.

Wow, I hope that's the case, because otherwise, Diplomatic Implausibility is a pretty unspeakable crime against literature and science fiction. In order to maintain my standards as a reviewed, I have to go with what is before me (just like I refuse to write reviews on a c.d. which includes information not on the disc or in the liner notes). Lacking any documentation on arm twisting or threats, I am left with the sad conclusion that Diplomatic Implausibility is just a lousy book.

Retired from StarFleet, yet again, Worf has been named the Federation Ambassador to the Klingon Empire. En route to his installation on the Klingon Homeworld, he is intercepted with his first mission. A rebellion has broken out on the world taD, a world the Klingons have subjugated and hold for the mining of topaline. During the period that the Federation and Klingons were at war, the leaders on taD requested assistance and now that the Dominion War is over with, the Federation is getting around to dealing with that request.

Worf it transferred to the I.K.S. Gorkon, which had just finished its shakedown cruise and is populated by Klingons Worf or other Enterprise crewmen know, like Captain Klag. The Gorkon takes Worf and his aide to taD to reach a settlement with Worf given the express orders from Martok that taD cannot be allowed to become independent for the sake of appearances. On taD, a genuine political revolution breaks out and Worf must find the rebel leaders and negotiate before a full-scale war begins.

Author Keith R.A. DeCandido clearly knows the Star Trek universe and in the credit where credit is due department, he clearly establishes his credibility with Diplomatic Implausibility. Indeed, he packs the Klingon allusions in right and left. There is Captain Klag, promoted from being first officer of the Pagh from "A Matter Of Honor" (reviewed here!), which allows for a scene that includes Riker. There is Kurak from "Suspicions" (reviewed here!), which gives Dr. Crusher a chance to flee the Gorkon abruptly. There is Rodek from "Sons Of Mogh" (reviewed here!), which gives Worf a chance to stare at a Klingon like an idiot. There is Toq from "Birthright, Part II" (reviewed here!), which gives Worf a chance to have another conversation about the past. There is Drex from "The Way Of The Warrior" (reviewed here!), which allows Worf to have a legitimate adversary on the Gorkon. And there is Leskit, from "Soldiers Of The Empire" (reviewed here!), which allows Mr. DeCandido to make yet another allusion to a Klingon.

Then there's the name of the ship, the allusions to General Chang and others . . . the only two original Klingons introduced in Diplomatic Implausibility are Vell, an ambitious engineer, and Dr. B'Oraq, a Klingon doctor who knew Dr. Crusher. B'Oraq is DeCandido's shining star of creativity, making a clever allusion to the year (the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation) that Dr. Crusher spent away from the U.S.S. Enterprise. This allows him to create a radical Klingon character and she works out well. As for Vell, I spent the whole novel waiting for him to be revealed as an android, but it didn't happen in this book (Vell is, rather unfortunately, written like first season Data).

So, DeCandido knows Klingons. It's pretty hard to deny that he knows Klingons when he has packed in virtually every living Klingon to ever appear on an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation or Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. One wonders if the Klingons ever compare notes and find it strange that they all had something to do with the Enterprise-D or space station Deep Space Nine . . . The fundamental problem here is that Diplomatic Implausibility is supposed to be a Worf novel and ultimately does not satisfy fans of the show or readers in general. For fans of the Star Trek franchise, at least the ones who are out buying the books, there is far, far too much exposition. Despite the stereotypes, Star Trek fans tend to be a pretty smart bunch and savvy for their favorite series. As a result, most of them will figure out almost instantaneously who the various Klingons are. Thus, we recall Toq, we know why Worf is avoiding Rodek and the moment there is an allusion to Martok in relation to him, we'll even remember Drex. We get it and after one hundred ten pages, a Star Trek fan is likely to be sitting there yelling "get on with it!" at the book. I know I was. For the first one hundred plus pages, it's exposition and reminding readers of who the characters are and why Worf is an ambassador now.

And for those who might be coming to the book blind to the allusions, Diplomatic Implausibility rather fortunately dumbs it down by repeating everything. One need not be a Star Trek fan to figure out most of the backstory with the various Klingons on the I.K.S. Gorkon. First, DeCandido alludes to the episodes each character was in. But then, later on, he provides moments when he rehashes each episode either through a character discussing the episode or an expository paragraph or two. And it's boring.

"What about the plot with taD?" I hear readers of this review crying. What about it?! Neglected for almost half the book, getting to taD becomes merely an excuse to introduce the crew of the Gorkon and if it hadn't been for knowing that Pocket Books would be releasing a series based on the Gorkon, this would have been a huge waste of time, money and paper. Come to think of it, it still is: the mission to taD is window-dressing. Diplomatic Implausibility is simply a prelude to that other series, which is why Worf figures minimally into the story. Moreover, when it comes to resolving the situation on taD, it is resolved abruptly and without and challenges to the resolution.

In other words, this is a "simple problem, simple solution" type book and it will not challenge readers on any front. In that regard, the only things that are problematic in the book are the few liberties Diplomatic Implausibility takes with creating new information. First, the residents of taD are essentially giant house cats. Whenever they are described, they are described in such a way that makes one think that DeCandido was bored when writing the book, saw a house cat of his own and began to write about it. Seriously, whenever the people of taD are described it instantly reminds one of the "Family Guy" allusion to Stephen King and the evil lamp.

Moreover, for all of his knowledge of Klingon characters who have appeared in the modern Star Trek series', Mr. DeCandido seems to know little about them or attempts to characterize them in terribly unsuccessful ways. For example, he creates a sexism in Klingons that is not as evident in the series as it is in this book. Worf, in fact, refers to Klingon women as equals in battle and Klingon women serve at the highest levels of the military in the series'. Not so in Diplomatic Implausibility. Similarly, DeCandido has Klingons whining about cold weather. Cardassians are characterized as hating the cold; the Klingons have never seemed to have any environmental restrictions. Or, if they did, they are not serious enough to thwart their warrior pride. Again, Diplomatic Implausibility makes Klingons into wusses about the weather.

There is nothing here to recommend for fans of Star Trek or readers of general literature. When the book isn't referencing episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation or Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, it is developing the crew of the I.K.S. Gorkon; the storyline is peripheral to that so Worf does not learn or grow as a character here.

For other Star Trek: The Next Generation books reviewed by me, please check out:
Imzadi By Peter David
Federation By Judith And Garfield Reeves-Stevens
The Return By William Shatner

3/10

For other book reviews, check out my Book Review Index Page by clicking here!

© 2012, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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