Book review
Written by David Mack
Pocket Books paperback
Release date Out now

The Borg are on the rampage and across the galaxy Starfleet crews battle the odds...

This epic trilogy promises to reset the Star Trek universe of the 24th Century, featuring the various crews (both on screen and in print) in a battle with the Borg that has been building up in the recent novels.

David Mack, renowned in Trek fandom as "The Angel of Death" for his habit of killing characters off, has a daunting task, juggling strands that span not just different crews, but different centuries, as the loss of the Columbia NX-02 in the 22nd Century is integral to the plot.

The intricate plotting pays off in this first volume, as readers can start to tie the threads together, even if the various characters can't as yet. Events in the Enterprise era timeline affect the crew of the Aventine 200 years later, and while the crew of the Titan may feel cut off from the rest of Starfleet, their actions are clearly correlated.

Telling a story on this wide a canvas could have meant that the smaller character details got overlooked, and it's to Mack's credit that they aren't. Some of the most affecting sequences are family-based, as the Rikers try for a child, Beverly Crusher Picard shares her fears about the Borg's effect on her husband, and Starfleet officers talk to their families for what may be the last time. Peter Quentin

VERDICT: 8/10
A very promising start to a critical series of novels.

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