Review: The Sundered (Lost Era)

The first book in the Lost Era series, The Sundered features Captain
Sulu and the starship Excelsior. I've always been interested in seeing
what an adventure with him and his Excelsior crew would be like. In
The Sundered, we see that he has a few familiar faces along with some
crew members we haven't seen as well. For me, part of the "coolness
factor" of this novel is the fact that we get to see Captain Sulu in
action. Unfortunately, some weird pacing and jumping back and forth in
history bring the book to a screeching halt every time it gets going.
Add a "trial by combat" cliché, and the book turns out ok rather then
great.

First, it was good to see old friends again in new situations. Sulu
has assembled a number of known Trek characters to fill out his crew
complement. Janice Rand is now the communications officer, Christine
Chapel is the ship's doctor, and Pavel Chekov is Sulu's first officer.
Also, as established in the Star Trek: Voyager television series,
Tuvok is a member of the crew. Not only was it great to see these
faces, but Martin & Mangels capture them perfectly. They are the
characters we all know and love, but they have matured. Chekov is no
longer the impulsive hot-head he was in the original series, but he
can still remember that time. When it comes time to discipline one of
the crew, he remembers back to when he was a raw ensign, and it
affects how he does it. It's like the kids have grown up and are
running the store. Given the fact that these characters were small
roles in the original series, there is no larger-than-life character
that has to be given the hero's position. In fact, the resolution of
the whole story is sparked by somebody else, and what Sulu has to do
is adapt it in order to solve the current crisis. This is refreshing
for those of you who are tired of seeing Jim Kirk solve every problem
in sight.

While the known characters are done well, what about the rest of them?
The new crew members are top notch as well, though they are relatively
few. Only two of them actually have much to do, but they are great
characters as well. This is marred by only one thing. The authors
decide to make use of a situation from an old episode, where two of
the crew are about to get married, but then one of them is killed in
battle with the Romulans. Not only does this happen again (except no
Romulans, of course), but it's foreshadowed so bluntly, that the
episode is actually referenced *before* it happens! Rand thinks back
to the last time two crew members were going to get married and
remembers what happened to them. The authors don't even change much of
the story, having the death happen in the same place on the ship as
the previous one. While I appreciate the fact that Mangels and Martin
took this story further (and actually tell a little sub-plot about
revenge), the fact that none of the details are different seems very
lazy.

Another problem with the book is the awkwardness of the story-telling.
The book is broken up into parts, alternating between the current time
and history (both of the ambassador and of several Earth historical
points). While I understand that the Neyel have a lot of history that
can't just be infodumped, I found that the way it was done destroyed
the tension in the book. It didn't help that the characters within
this history weren't that interesting. I found myself wondering when
the history lesson would end so we could get back to the actual story.
Just when the Sulu story really started to get interesting, they would
switch back to the history. They even include a scene in this history
with Zefram Cochrane (the creator of warp drive) discussing things
with the Next Generation characters that helped him in the movie First
Contact. This scene seemed entirely gratuitous, as it didn't seem to
matter anywhere in the plot.

Other than that, though, the plot of the book is very intriguing. The
Tholians haven't been used much in Trek fiction, so it was nice to see
them. The current-day story is well-told and intriguing, though it's
brought down by the cliché of Sulu fighting a trial by combat with the
Tholian commander is really a groaner. Thankfully, Mangels and Martin
end it in a distinctive way, at least.

The Sundered is a flawed first book in the Lost Era series, but it's
certainly worth reading if you're a Trek fan. The series has an
intriguing premise, and if subsequent books can keep up the quality of
this one (without the annoying bits mentioned above), then it should
be a winner.

David Roy

 > First, it was good to see old friends again in new situations. Sulu
 > has assembled a number of known Trek characters to fill out his crew
 > complement. Janice Rand is now the communications officer, Christine
 > Chapel is the ship's doctor, and Pavel Chekov is Sulu's first officer.
 > Also, as established in the Star Trek: Voyager television series,
 > Tuvok is a member of the crew.

Just for the sake of keeping the record straight, Rand as the
communications officer under Sulu was established way back in STAR
TREK VI (and reinforced by the same episode of VOYAGER that put Tuvok
on the ship).

Looking forward to your thoughts on the other LOST ERA books,
particularly mine. *grin*


Keith R.A. DeCandido
keith.RemoveThis@decandido.net
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