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Taking Wing (Star Trek: Titan, Book 1), by Michael A. Martin, Andy Mangels
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After the wholesale assassination of the Romulan senate in the feature film Star Trek: Nemesis, the Romulan Empire is in disarray, with rival factions fighting to pick up the pieces and seize the reins of power. After several factions separately contact the Federation Council -- each laying claim to legitimate political power -- Starfleet Command sends Captain William Riker and the USS Titan to Romulus to set up a forum for power-sharing talks. But even as the factions take their first faltering steps towards building a new Romulus, civil war looms. Meanwhile the remnants of the Romulan intelligence service, the dreaded Tal Shiar, are regrouping behind the scenes, taking advantage of the political vacuum to mobilize ships and soldiers, threatening to touch off a conflict that would tear Romulus apart. With no other help available, Riker and the Titan crew are all that stands between the shattered Star Empire and a bloodbath.
- Sales Rank: #533999 in Books
- Brand: Pocket Books/Star Trek
- Published on: 2005-03-29
- Released on: 2005-03-29
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 6.75" h x 1.00" w x 4.19" l,
- Binding: Mass Market Paperback
- 384 pages
Features
About the Author
Michael A. Martin's solo short fiction has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction. He has also coauthored (with Andy Mangels) several Star Trek comics for Marvel and Wildstorm and numerous Star Trek novels and eBooks, including the USA Today bestseller Titan: Book One: Taking Wing; Titan: Book Two: The Red King; the Sy Fy Genre Award-winning Star Trek: Worlds of Deep Space 9 Book Two: Trill -- Unjoined; Star Trek: The Lost Era 2298 -- The Sundered; Star Trek: Deep Space 9 Mission: Gamma: Vol. Three: Cathedral; Star Trek: The Next Generation: Section 31 -- Rogue; Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers #30 and #31 ("Ishtar Rising" Books 1 and 2); stories in the Prophecy and Change, Tales of the Dominion War, and Tales from the Captain's Table anthologies; and three novels based on the Roswell television series. His most recent novels include Enterprise: The Romulan War and Star Trek Online: The Needs of the Many.
His work has also been published by Atlas Editions (in their Star Trek Universe subscription card series), Star Trek Monthly, Dreamwatch, Grolier Books, Visible Ink Press, The Oregonian, and Gareth Stevens, Inc., for whom he has penned several World Almanac Library of the States nonfiction books for young readers. He lives with his wife, Jenny, and their two sons in Portland, Oregon.
Andy Mangels is the USA Today bestselling author and coauthor of over a dozen novels -- including Star Trek and Roswell books -- all cowritten with Michael A. Martin. Flying solo, he is the bestselling author of several nonfiction books, including Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Characters and Animation on DVD: The Ultimate Guide, as well as a significant number of entries for The Superhero Book: The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Comic-Book Icons and Hollywood Heroes as well as for its companion volume, The Supervillain Book.
In addition to cowriting several more upcoming novels and contributing to anthologies, Andy has produced, directed, and scripted a series of sixteen half-hour DVD documentaries for BCI Eclipse, for inclusion in the He-Man and the Masters of the Universe DVD box sets.
Andy has written hundreds of articles for entertainment and lifestyle magazines and newspapers in the United States, England, and Italy. He has also written licensed material based on properties from numerous film studios and Microsoft, and his two decades of comic book work has been published by DC Comics, Marvel Comics, Dark Horse, Image, Innovation, and many others. He was the editor of the award-winning Gay Comics anthology for eight years.
Andy is a national award-winning activist in the Gay community, and has raised thousands of dollars for charities over the years. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with his long-term partner, Don Hood, their dog, Bela, and their chosen son, Paul Smalley. Visit his website at www.andymangels.com.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Chapter One: Romulus, Stardate 56828.8
"This must be your first visit to Ki Baratan," said the woman who stood behind the operative.
So much for hiding in plain sight, the operative thought, quietly abandoning his hope that she would pay him as little heed as had the throngs of civilians and military officers he'd already passed along the city's central eyhon. He turned and regarded her, averting his gaze momentarily from the graceful, blood-green dome of the Romulan Senate building. The ancient structure gleamed behind him in the morning sun, reflecting an aquamarine glint from the placid Apnex Sea that lay just beyond it.
"As a matter of fact, this is my first visit," the operative said. He smiled broadly, confident that the woman wouldn't sense how awkward this particular mannerism felt to him. "Before today, I had seen the greatness of Dartha only in my grandfather's holos."
As she studied him, he noted that she was old and gray. Her clothing was drab and shapeless, her lined countenance stern, evidently forged by upwards of two centuries of hard life circumstances. He watched impassively as she ran her narrowed, suspicious gaze over his somewhat threadbare traveling cassock.
"Dartha?" the woman said, still scrutinizing him. "Nobody has referred to the Empire's capital by that name since Neral came to power."
The operative silently cursed himself even as he concealed his frustration beneath a carefully cultivated mask of impassivity. Though his lapse was an understandable one -- roughly akin, he thought, to confusing Earth's nineteenth-century Constantinople with twentieth-century Istanbul -- he upbraided himself for it nonetheless.
"Forgive me, 'lai," he said, using the traditional rustic form of address intended to show respect to an elder female. "I arrived just today, from Leinarrh. In the Rarathik District."
An indulgent, understanding smile tugged at her lips. "Just what I thought. I took you for a hveinn right away. A farmer who's never left the waith before."
The operative forced his own smile to broaden, reassured that she found his rural Rarathik dialect convincing. He maintained his caution, however; like him, this apparently harmless old woman might not be at all what she appeared to be. "At your service, 'lai. You may call me Rukath."
She nodded significantly yet discreetly toward the dome -- and the disruptor-carrying guards that walked among the green, ruatinite-inlaid minarets that surrounded it. "Then allow me to give you some friendly advice, Rukath of Leinarrh. Continue gawking so about the Hall of State, and I might have to call you 'dead.' Or perhaps worse."
The operative allowed his smile to collapse, which actually came as a relief. He feigned innocent fear, per his extensive intelligence and tactical training. "Do you really think those uhlans over there would actually shoot me? Just for looking?"
"Just pray that the cold fingers of Erebus find you too unimportant to snatch away into the underworld," she said with a pitying shake of the head. "Daold klhu."
Tourists, the operative silently translated the unfamiliar Romulan term as the old woman turned and walked away. "Jolan'tru, 'lai," he said to her retreating back.
He turned back toward the Senate Dome and watched as the guards made their rounds. He counted six at the moment, marching in pairs, their arrogant, disciplined gazes focused straight ahead. The old woman's warning notwithstanding, he might as well have been invisible to them.
But it's best not to become complacent, he thought, checking the chrono built into the disguised subspace pulse transmitter he wore on his wrist. Time was growing short. Since his surreptitious arrival on Romulus the previous day, he had taken in sights very few of his people had ever seen.
He'd just paid what might well turn out to be a once-in-a-lifetime visit to the Romulan capital of Ki Baratan. Now the time had come to venture beneath it.
The operative deliberately set aside unpleasant thoughts of the underworld of ancient Romulan mythology. Those old stories hadn't sufficiently described the noisome smells that were wafting up around him from the figurative -- and literal -- bowels of Ki Baratan. Erebus, indeed.
Guided through the stygian gloom by his wrist light, the operative was relieved to note that the venerable maze of aekhhwi'rhoi -- the stone-lined sewer tunnels that ran below Ki Baratan -- corresponded precisely to the maps the defector M'ret had provided to Starfleet Intelligence. Carefully stepping over and past countless scuttling, multilegged, sewer-dwelling nhaidh, he made his way to the appointed place. Once there, he pulled hard at a rust-covered, meter-wide wheel, laboriously opening up a narrow access hatchway that looked to be older than Surak and T'Karik combined. The corroded steel aperture groaned in protest, moving only fractionally as the muscles in his back strained. After perhaps a minute of hard coaxing, the wheel gave way and the hatch opened with a clang that reverberated loudly throughout the catacombs.
Releasing the wheel, he pulled a small disruptor pistol from beneath his cassock, then squeezed through the narrow opening without making any further pretense of stealth; by now whoever else might be down here, whether friend or foe, was surely aware of his presence.
He passed into the darkened chamber beyond the hatch, where air that reeked of stagnation, moldy old bones, and damp earth assailed his nostrils. Stepping forward, he heard a quiet yet stern male voice.
"Halt! Drop your weapon." Something cool and unyielding pressed forcefully into the small of his back.
The operative released his grip on the weapon, allowing it to clatter to the rough stone floor. A bright light suddenly shone before him, momentarily triggering his nictitating inner eyelids. He caught a glimpse of several humanoid silhouettes standing before him, several meters farther inside the cavern's depths.
"State your name," said the voice behind him. It sounded young, almost adolescent. Or perhaps merely frightened? "And state your business here."
The operative knew that this was the moment of truth, and very possibly the last moment of his life. He faced that prospect with a Vulcan's ingrained equanimity.
"While on Romulus, I am known as Rukath."
"Of Leinarrh, in far-off Rarathik," someone else said, in a stern female voice. "By way of Starfleet Intelligence. Yes, we knew you were coming."
The operative nodded. "Then you already know my business here. I expected no less."
He felt the weapon at his back quiver slightly, and he calculated his odds of disarming the man behind him. They weren't at all good. Nevertheless, the time had come to end the standoff, regardless of the outcome.
"I also bring greetings from Federation starship Alliance. Captain Saavik sends her best regards to the movement. And to the ambassador, of course."
As the operative had hoped, the mention of the ambassador's wife prompted one of the silhouettes before him to detach itself from the others and step forward. The tall, lean form spoke in a graveled yet resonant voice that he recognized instantly, even though more than eight decades had passed since he had last heard it.
"Lower your weapon, D'Tan. Rukath is among friends."
"But how can we be certain this Rukath is a friend? If that's even his name."
The figure stepped forward another several paces, and waved an arm in what was obviously a prearranged signal. In response, the light levels diminished, allowing the operative to see the approaching man's face clearly, as well as the coterie of a half-dozen armed Romulan civilians, an even mix of men and women, who stood vigilantly all around him.
Ambassador Spock.
The tall, conspicuously unarmed figure came to a stop only a meter away, his hands folded in front of his simple hooded pilgrim's robe as he studied the operative's face. The operative recalled his only previous meeting with the ambassador, whose saturnine visage was umistakable despite the addition of a great many new lines and wrinkles. He wondered if Spock remembered him as well, after the passage of so many years. Perhaps the minor surgical alterations that had been wrought on his facial structure obscured his identity.
"Your vigilance is an asset to us, D'Tan," Spock said to the young man with the weapon. "But as Surak teaches us, there can be no progress without risk."
That evidently got through to the armed man, who withdrew his weapon and backed away. The operative spared a quick glance over his shoulder, nodding toward Spock's youthful bodyguard in a manner that he hoped would be taken as nonthreatening and reassuring. He noted the other man's response: a hard scowl and a still-unholstered disruptor.
The operative fixed his gaze once again upon Spock, a man who had achieved great notoriety back on Vulcan -- as well as throughout the Federation and beyond -- more than a century earlier. How strange, he thought, that one who never even achieved Kolinahr now represents all of Vulcan here in this forbidding place -- and attempts to bring such radical change to both Vulcan and Romulus. He wondered if Spock would have taken on such a task had he attained the pinnacle of logic that the Kolinahr disciplines represented.
Would I have been so foolish to have followed him here had Kolinahr not eluded me also?
"Walk with me, please, Rukath," Spock said, then abruptly turned to stride more deeply into the rough-hewn cavern that stretched beyond the sewer hatch. The operative immediately fell into step beside the ambassador. He heard the crunch of gravel behind him, as Spock's followers tailed the pair at a respectful distance. If I really were the Tal Shiar or military intelligence infiltrator these people fear that I am, this mission would surely be a suicide run.
"You must forgive D'Tan," Spock said.
"There is nothing to forgive, Mr. Ambassador. His caution is understandable. The Tal Shiar's eyes and ears are everywhere."
"Indeed. And none of us have forgotten Senator Pardek's betrayal."
The operative thought he detected a touch of wistfulness in the ambassador's tone. Though it was a surprising departure from Vulcan stoicism, he could certainly understand it. Though he had studied Captain Jean-Luc Picard's reports about Romulus -- one of which included Spock's own observation that reuniting the long-sundered Vulcan and Romulan peoples might take decades or even centuries to come to fruition -- it was disappointing to think that Spock's efforts had yielded so little after eleven years of hard, often perilous work.
As though he had surmised the dark turn the operative's thoughts had taken, Spock came directly to the point: "Tell me, Rukath: Why have you come to Romulus?"
The operative was not surprised to learn that Starfleet Intelligence might not have briefed Spock thoroughly on his reason for visiting Romulus. Or perhaps Spock was testing him, despite his reassurances to D'Tan.
"I bear an offer from the Federation Council," the operative said.
Though the cavern's illumination remained dim, the operative could see Spock's right eyebrow rise. "And the nature of that offer?"
"The council has decided to give its official endorsement to your agenda of Vulcan-Romulan unification. But both the council and the new president will want you to return to Earth to make a formal report first."
Spock brought their walk to an abrupt halt. His dark eyes flashed with an almost fanatical intensity. The operative wondered what so many years living among Vulcan's hyperemotional cousins had done to the ambassador's emotional disciplines. Had he "gone native"?
"My work is here," Spock said.
The operative raised a hand in a placating gesture. "You would be returned here, Mr. Ambassador, to resume that work as quickly as possible. After you've addressed both the council and the president's office on your progress."
Spock turned his gaze downward and stared into the middle distance, a deliberative expression on his face. "I see," he said after a pause. "To avail myself of an Earth idiom, the council evidently wishes me to 'come in from the cold.'"
Thanks to nearly a century of at least intermittent association with humans, the operative was conversant with the idiom Spock had used. "Yes, Mr. Ambassador. And the council will almost certainly place Federation resources at your disposal, at least covertly."
Spock paused again before responding. "Indeed. That would be a significant change in Federation policy."
"We live in changing times, Mr. Ambassador."
"Unquestionably. President Zife's sudden resignation is but one sign." Spock clasped his hands before him, steepling his index fingers. "I cannot help but wonder whether the council's offer is related to Zife's abrupt departure."
The operative was impressed by Spock's knowledge of the political landscape beyond the Romulan Neutral Zone, though he knew it shouldn't have surprised him; he reminded himself that the ambassador had made more than one brief return to Earth since beginning his work on Romulus.
"I'm afraid all I know about that is what's been on the newsnets," the operative said truthfully.
Spock nodded, his expression grave. The operative had no doubt that the ambassador was well acquainted with those same reports.
Sensing that the ambassador still required some additional persuasion, the operative said, "I will need to rendezvous with my transport this evening. If you will agree to accompany me, we can have you back in Federation space within days."
Something resembling a half-smile crossed Spock's face. "I trust, Rukath, that you aren't prepared to use force to return me to Earth."
The operative gestured toward D'Tan, whom he knew still stood -- disruptor in hand -- only a short distance behind him. "I am obviously in no position to force you to do anything, Mr. Ambassador. I had hoped you would agree to come to Earth voluntarily."
Spock very slowly shook his head. "I am pleased that the council has finally come to understand the necessity of the cause of reunification. But I cannot afford to abandon my work on Romulus, even temporarily. Especially now, while tensions between the Romulan Senate and one of the key Reman military factions continue to escalate."
The operative recalled yesterday's update about this very subject in his daily intelligence briefing. The mysterious Shinzon, the Reman faction's young leader, had led a number of successful military engagements against Dominion forces during the war. His sudden prominence in Romulan politics could cause unpredictable swings in the delicate balance of power within a senate now evenly divided on issues of war and peace.
"You wouldn't be away from Romulus for very long, sir," the operative said quietly.
"The local political landscape is far too volatile for me to leave now. In addition to the unpredictability of the Reman faction, there are rumors of unrest on Kevatras and other Romulan vassal worlds. I dare not leave Romulus now, even for a short time."
The operative decided that the time had come to risk goading the ambassador into cooperating. "Has your unification movement progressed so little over the past decade that you remain completely indispensable to it even now?"
But clearly Spock wasn't taking the bait. Sidestepping the question, he said, "I must also consider two other possibilities. One is that you actually are a Tal Shiar agent. The other is that the Federation Council's agenda is not truly as you have described it."
Despite this disappointing response, the operative still wasn't ready to accept failure. Taking a single step closer to Spock, he said, "Then I offer you access to my mind. I invite you to know what I know."
Spock's right eyebrow climbed skyward yet again. Then, after casting a reproving glance in D'Tan's general direction, the ambassador approached the operative. The operative closed his eyes, felt the steady, relentless pressure of the ambassador's fingers against his temples. Vibrant colors and orderly shapes began placing themselves in elegant arrangements across his mind's eye. It was a tantalizing glimpse into an extraordinarily powerful and well-organized mind.
And then it came: a frisson of recognition. After all these years, he does remember me.
"I believe you," Spock said, a moment after withdrawing his hand and breaking the mind-touch.
The operative's eyes opened, and he blinked away a momentary feeling of disorientation as the ambassador stepped away from him. "Then come with me back to the Federation."
Another shake of Spock's head. "I regret that I cannot."
"But you said you believed me."
"My faith in your sincerity is not the issue."
"Then what is the issue, other than Romulan politics?"
Spock's gaze narrowed as though he were beginning to lose patience with a willfully obtuse child. "Federation politics."
It was the operative's turn to raise an eyebrow in surprise. "I don't understand, Mr. Ambassador."
"The Federation president has just resigned. One of the two contenders to replace him can be charitably described as a political reactionary who wishes to adopt an aggressive posture toward former Dominion War allies. I find it difficult to believe that such a president would support the Unification movement on Romulus."
The operative needed no further explanation: Spock was clearly talking about Special Emissary Arafel Pagro of Ktar. And given candidate Pagro's already well-publicized anti-Klingon predilections, it was a safe assumption that he wouldn't support any peace initiatives on Romulus.
"The results of the special election are not yet completely tabulated," the operative said. "Governor Bacco of Cestus III may yet emerge as the winner."
Spock nodded. "In that event, I will consider returning to Earth for a brief meeting with President Bacco and the council. Provided, of course, that Romulan-Reman affairs permit it."
At a wordless signal from the ambassador, D'Tan and the rest of Spock's retinue surrounded their leader. "Live long and prosper," Spock said, holding his right hand aloft in the traditional split-fingered Vulcan salute.
"Peace and long life," the operative replied, using his left hand to mirror Spock's ritual gesture.
Then the group spirited the ambassador away, vanishing with him around a darkened turning of the rough-hewn cavern walls.
The operative stood alone in the dim, rocky chamber, listening to the distant echoes of dripping water and his own frustrated sigh. Moving silently, he retraced his steps, recovered his disruptor from where D'Tan had forced him to discard it, and began his lonely ascent back to the cobbled streets of the ira'sihaer, Ki Baratan's ancient casbah.
He paused to take an afternoon meal in a shabby-looking inn built of gray-and-ocher bricks that appeared as old as time itself. Although his vegetarian order caused the servers to eye him with some suspicion, he was far too preoccupied with mentally preparing his official Starfleet Intelligence report to care.
Following the meal -- Romulan cooks, the operative noted, did not seem to have the faintest notion of how to prepare vegetables -- he booked himself into a private room on the inn's relatively secluded third floor. Once he'd settled in and run a tricorder scan for surveillance devices, he discreetly recorded his report, then used the transmitter mounted in his wrist chron to send it as an encrypted "burst" transmission that lasted only a minuscule fraction of a second. The chance that even the much-feared Tal Shiar would intercept it, much less decode it, were infinitesimally small.
Minutes later, he heard raised voices outside the window, at street level. For a moment he wondered if the Romulan authorities had indeed intercepted his transmission.
But one look out the concrete window casement told him that the people shouting on the streets weren't Tal Shiar, or even Romulan military personnel. A dozen people, all of them apparently civilians, were running from the direction of the Romulan Hall of State. He could hear little coherency in their cries, other than a few general references to death and murder.
Curious, he left his room and descended to the main lobby, and from there proceeded to the ancient cobbled street. Still more civilians were joining the steadily growing throng, adding to the noise, chaos, and general tumult. An increasing number of uniformed police and helmeted military uhlans began to appear among the frantic crowd as it surged down the street, away from the official state buildings. In the background of the low skyline of Ki Baratan's Government Quarter, the graceful dome of the Hall of State arced skyward, dominating the horizon like the perpetually sun-scorched face of Remus. A trio of fierce-looking mogai wheeled through the thermals high above the dome, making dirgelike shrieks as they circled on nearly motionless wings. The operative briefly wondered whether the carnivorous birds had sniffed out live prey or carrion.
A young woman ran along the sidewalk, nearly knocking him into an elderly man as she passed. Her jade-flushed face was contorted with panic and near hysteria. "They've murdered the Senate!" she cried, repeating the phrase incessantly.
The operative chased her for a few steps, grabbing her by the shoulders and turning her to face him. "Who? Who has murdered the Senate?" As he repeated her words, the notion of the entire Romulan Senate suddenly being struck down simultaneously sounded absurd to him.
The woman's only response was a terrified scream. At the same moment, something struck him from behind, hitting him hard enough to hurl him to the stone sidewalk. The impact drove all the breath from his lungs, and all feeling vanished from his left arm and both of his legs. Nevertheless, he managed to roll onto his back, hoping to face whatever had hit him.
A pair of uhlans in red-crested helmets and full armor raised their stun truncheons. The one closest to the hysterical woman silenced her scream with one savage blow. The other felled the old man whom the operative had nearly toppled by accident scant moments before.
"Leave them alone!" the operative shouted, though he could barely hear himself over the escalating melee. The uhlans moved toward him, their truncheons rising and falling like scythes harvesting ripe stalks of Rarathik-grown kheh. Countless other panicked civilians, ordinary folk who didn't even seem to know which way to run, were either scattered or felled by repeated blows from the weapons of a growing phalanx of police and military uhlans.
He fleetingly recalled what he'd read of the bloody riots that Archpriest N'Gathan's assassination of Shiarkiek, the Empire's aged monarch, had touched off more than five years ago. Something really has happened in the Hall of State, he thought. Something terrible. Everyone here must think the same thing is about to happen to them as well.
And judging from the behavior of the uhlans, they were every bit as panicked as the general populace.
Using his right arm, the operative laboriously pushed himself up into a sitting position, facing away from the two approaching uhlans. Pulling himself forward, he tried to navigate a sea of fleeing legs. Inadvertent blows landed by scores of running feet rained onto his ribs, chest, and belly.
Pulling his wrist chron to his lips, he shouted a prearranged command directly into the voice pickup, hoping that all the ambient noise wouldn't drown it out.
"Aehkhifv!" The Romulan word for "eradication."
He knew he was almost certain to be either captured or killed. If he was fortunate, his voice command had already set the purge program into motion, releasing a minute thermite charge intended to destroy every bit of Federation circuitry hidden within his wrist chrono.
Including the subspace burst transmitter that represented his best chance of getting off of Romulus alive.
Then came a bone-crunching impact against the back of his head. As he sprawled forward, tumbling over the edge of a darkened abyss, his last coherent thoughts were of the Romulan Erebus myths.
Copyright © 2005 by Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
Most helpful customer reviews
40 of 45 people found the following review helpful.
'Taking Wing" A Good Start
By Antoine D. Reid
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.
14 of 17 people found the following review helpful.
Ho Hum! New Frontier Does It Much Better
By DRob
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.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful.
Average start to the new Riker lead series...
By C.J. Roger
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.
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