The dedicated agents of the Federation Department of Temporal Investigations have their work cut out for them protecting the course of history from the dangers of time travel. But the galaxy is littered with artifacts that, in the wrong hands, could threaten reality. One of the DTI’s most crucial jobs is to track down these objects and lock them safely away in the Federation’s most secret and secure facility. As it happens, Agent Gariff Lucsly and his supervisor, DTI director Laarin Andos, are charged with handling a mysterious space-time portal device discovered by Starfleet. But this device turns out to be a Trojan horse, linking to a pocket dimension and a dangerous group of raiders determined to steal some of the most powerful temporal artifacts ever known…
Anytime I see a Star Trek story on NetGalley, I request it. Star Trek is my gert lush. (See Sarah, I used your regional British slang!) I usually wait until it’s closer to a book release to read and review, but I needed my Trek fix.
The Good: The regular cast members from the shows have done just about everything under the sun. It’s nice to read a Star Trek story that isn’t the main cast. Sometimes, the limitations of the main characters make for ho-hum stories. It’s refreshing to read new characters in a universe that I’m already familiar with. The author can do pretty much anything they want.
The Bad: This is another of those continuing Star Trek sagas. I think this is the fourth DTI story. There were lots of references to events in what I presume are the first three stories. They’re not required reading, and I was able to follow the story just fine. The villains in this story were one-dimensional and clichéd. That was disappointing.
The Ugly: This is just another Star Trek story. Nothing earth-shattering, which is a common issue with a fifty-year-old franchise. This felt like another TV episode. And why was this story branded DS9? There didn’t seem to be any connection to DS9 at all, except that two of the characters’ first appearance was the time-travelling tribble episode on DS9.
The Final Word: Star Trek fans will enjoy another romp into the franchise universe. This is a 3.5-star read, and I’d be interested in reading the previous DTI stories, and any new ones that happen in the future.
At the age of five and a half, Christopher L. Bennett saw his first episode of Star Trek, believing it to be a show about a strange airplane that only flew at night. As he continued watching, he discovered what those points of light in the sky really were. This awakened a lifelong fascination with space, science and speculative fiction. He devoured Asimov, Clarke, and books on astronomy and physics. He often made up Trek-universe stories set a century after Kirk’s adventures (an idea years ahead of its time), but soon shifted to creating his own original universe. He eventually realized he did this pretty well, and deluded himself into thinking he could make a career out of it. So far, that delusion has been working out for him…
Amazon
Goodreads
http://christopherlbennett.wordpress.com/
About Mark Gardner
Mark Gardner lives in northern Arizona with his wife, three children and a pair of spoiled dogs. Mark holds a degrees in Computer Systems and Applications and Applied Human Behavior.
View all posts by Mark Gardner
Article 94 
Leave a comment