Starfleet Academy The Gemini Agent review!

 Literature  No Responses »
Oct 022011
 

Synopsis…

In The Gemini Agent, as first-year final exams week kicks off, several incident reports with serious allegations against James T. Kirk end up on the Commandant of Midshipmen’s desk. None of the allegations are true, of course… or are they? Kirk is being plagued by mysterious blackout periods, so he finds the allegations difficult to refute. During these blackout periods, he has no recollection of what he did, save for some very disturbing and disjointed memories. Kirk needs his friends, Bones and Uhura to help prove his innocence. Who is targeting Kirk, and why is he being targeted? And how far are they willing to go? Someone close to Kirk holds the answers to all of these questions, but can he put the pieces together before it’s too late?

Review…

This book was written by Rick Barba and is intended for young adults.

Unfortunately, this books is not as good as the first two in the Starfleet Academy series. The storyline can only be described as a mess, somehow a artificial intelligence inhabits a person and does crazy things at the Academy, but the details are so vague and contradictory that I just don’t get it. The Romulan angle can quite frankly only be understood by a Star Trek geek with years of Star Trek experience. I got it, but will others readers? Probably not.

Unlike Rudy Josephs the author of this book is also more inclined to add pieces of teen angst to the story, because it is noticeble it also distracts from the rest of the story. Furthermore the character of Kirk seems wooden, it’s like he can only do a ertain set of things in a certain way and nothing else.

There are two plusses in this book.

The first is that Spock is now officially introduced to Kirk, albeit indirectly. The second is de first occurance of Pavel Chekov. Where Doctor McCoy’s character shun in ‘The Edge’, his character is the star of this story and offers both intentional and unintentional hilarity. Especially the scene in which he almost drowns in his own dorm is very funny.

However, the book is otherwise utterly forgettable. Where ‘The Edge’ was an experience this book is a chore, and that can’t be right.

Score; 6.5/10.

So what’s next for Starfleet Academy.

Well, more books are planned for the young adult market. Sadly nothing has been announced for older more seasoned readers of Star Trek.

The next book in the Starfleet Academy series is entitled ‘The Assassination Game’ and its author is Alan Gratz. Despite its rather provocative title for a young reader book I must say I am game.

The official release date was september 2011, but that has probably slipped.

Synopsis…

The rules are simple: draw a target. Track him down and “kill” him with a spork. Take your victim’s target for your own. Oh, and make sure the player with your name doesn’t get to you first. No safe zones. No time outs. The game ends when only one player remains. James T. Kirk is playing for fun. Leonard “Bones” McCoy is playing to get closer to a girl. But when a series of explosions rocks the usually placid Starfleet Academy campus, it becomes clear that somebody is playing the game for real. Is it one of the visiting Varkolak, on Earth to attend an intergalactic medical conference? Or could it be a member of a super-secret society at the Academy dedicated to taking care of threats to the Federation, no matter what rules they have to break to do it? Find out in The Assassination Game.

Starfleet Academy The Edge review!

 Literature  No Responses »
Oct 022011
 

The_Edge_cover

Synopsis….

A new beginning – but the same old problems.

Jim Kirk arrives at Starfleet Academy ready to take on whatever challenges arise. Most new beginnings mean you get to start with a clean slate, but Kirk quickly discovers that he is already infamous among his classmates. Thanks to his bravado and boasting that he’ll finish the four-year program in three, they’ve already made up their minds about kind of rival he is … and how they will beat him.

The Academy’s program is extremely rigorous and uncompromising. The students are the best and the brightest, and the school demands total commitment from them – physically and mentally. Kirk is ready for it all, but he didn’t expect that some cadets will do anything to ensure they succeed at the Academy, no matter the cost.

He soon finds that his best friend, McCoy, is one of the main suspects in an Academy misconduct investigation for crimes that could cost the lives of his classmates. Kirk is determined to clear McCoy’s name and unmask the dark side of Academy life – before it’s too late.

Review…

This is the second book in the Starfleet Academy book series that is intended for young adults. The first noticeble thing is that the writing style is significantly different. The author of the first book Rick Barba tried in my opnion a little too hard not alienating young readers away from the Star Trek Universe. Odd concepts for Star Trek such as money and street crime were really out of touch. The author of The Edge Rudy Josephs does not make this mistake and seems to have a good grasp of the Star Trek Universe without alienating newbies. In fact, this book is also enjoyable for more adult readers as Rudy goes lightly on the teen angst theme that usually occurs in these kinds of books.

Both ’The Edge’ and ’The Delta Anomaly’ do have a rather dark subject matter, in this case its drug use combined with doping that leads to a fatality at the Academy, i believe writers should not avoid these subjects and the way Rudy Josephs has threaded it into the story gives young readers a thorough review of the risks involved on both a physical and personal basis. The author also uses ying-yang as a sort of leitmotif. This is also the way in which the book ends, its a good ending but the main characters all have lessons to learn.

On the subject of the characters, it is a little odd that while Uhura interacts with both Spock and Kirk they on the other hand have yet to meet each other. At this moment I can spoiler that that will change by the third book ‘The gemini agent’.

There are a number of new characters that have been introduced in ‘The Edge’ such Monica Lynne, the girlfriend of kirk who has her own secrets. and unlike ‘the Delta Anomaly’ they don’t seem as wooden.

While the book would seem to focus on Kirk mostly I would say that doctor McCoy and Uhura are really the shining stars…

As for the negative side of this book. From certain passages it would seem that there was a subplot concerning doctor McCoy, its a shame that it has been deleted because despite the fact that the book is longer than the first one it is over all too quickly. One would think that Simon Spotlight (the publishers) would have caught on to Harry potter length novels.

What is also irksome is that certain plot twist are easily anticipated and others are deliberately altered to negate the sense of prediction, that makes the plot just a little too contrived at moments.

Score; 8.5/10.

PS, the book was first called ‘The Competitive Edge’ but has since been abreviated to ‘The Edge.