Forgotten History

Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations #2

by Christopher L. Bennett

The agents of the Department of Temporal Investigations are assigned to look into an anomaly that has appeared deep in Federation territory. It's difficult to get clear readings, but a mysterious inactive vessel lies at the heart of the anomaly, one outfitted with some sort of temporal drive disrupting space-time and subspace. To the agents' shock, the ship bears a striking resemblance to a Constitution-class starship, and its warp signature matches that of the original Federation starship Enterprise NCC-1701--the ship of James T. Kirk, that infamous bogeyman of temporal investigators, whose record of violations is held up by DTI agents as a cautionary tale for Starfleet recklessness toward history. But the vessel's hull markings identify it as Timeship Two, belonging to none other than the DTI itself. At first, Agents Lucsly and Dulmur assume the ship is from some other timeline . . . but its quantum signature confirms that it came from their own past, despite the fact that the DTI never possessed such a timeship. While the anomaly is closely monitored, Lucsly and Dulmur must search for answers in the history of Kirk's Enterprise and its many encounters with time travel--a series of events with direct ties to the origins of the DTI itself. . . .

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Time Travel, Fiction, Adventure, Star Trek Original Series, Media Tie In

350 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 1, 2012

About the author

Christopher L. Bennett is a lifelong resident of Cincinnati, Ohio, with a B.S. in Physics and a B.A. in History from the University of Cincinnati. A fan of science and science fiction since age five, he has spent the past two decades selling original short fiction to magazines such as Analog Science Fiction and Fact (home of his "Hub" series of comedy adventures), BuzzyMag, and Galaxy's Edge. Since 2003, he has been one of Pocket Books' most prolific and popular authors of Star Trek tie-in fiction, including the epic Next Generation prequel The Buried Age, the Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations series, and the Star Trek: Enterprise -- Rise of the Federation series. He has also written two Marvel Comics novels, X-Men: Watchers on the Walls and Spider-Man: Drowned in Thunder. His original novel Only Superhuman, perhaps the first hard science fiction superhero novel, was voted Library Journal's SF/Fantasy Debut of the Month for October 2012. Other tales in the same universe can be found in Among the Wild Cybers and the upcoming Arachne's Crime, both from eSpec Books. His Hub stories are available in two collections from Mystique Press.
Christopher's homepage, fiction annotations, and blog can be found at christopherlbennett.wordpress.com. His Patreon page with original fiction and reviews is at https://www.patreon.com/christopherlb..., and his Facebook author page is at www.facebook.com/ChristopherLBennettA....

Reviews

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fanwank: taking a long-standing franchise's history and canon, and trying to include innumerable elements of it in a story, with results ranging from the epic to the preposterous. As a "Doctor Who" fan I have plenty of novelist fanwank heroes, such as Gary Russell, Lance Parkin, and Craig Hinton. Even Russell T Davies & Steven Moffat manage to give us fanwank moment in their television scripts. Meanwhile, I have idly wondered who would be king or queen of fanwank in the "Star Trek" universe...but I no longer live in ignorance.

I hereby christen Christopher L Bennett the master of fanwank in the Trek universe, and as proof I offer you "Forgotten History". This is a novel that might, at any moment, crumble under the weight of endless references and connections to Trek stories set between the 22nd & 24th centuries. Yet it not only escapes this fate, but manages to be an exciting story all its own, even as it codifies a solid canon for a particular branch of Trek lore, specifically the role of time travel & the involvement of the Federation & Starfleet. This entire book is a love-letter to long time Trekkies (the in-jokes and kisses to the past can verge on both the sublime & the hilarious), and while it's not a book to give to any rookie Trek fan, for this old school reader, it was one of the most satisfying geeky reads I've had in a long while. Reading "Forgotten History" made my fan-boy day, Mr. Bennett.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Forgotten History is probably the Star Trek novel I've been most anticipating this year. For the most part, it did not disappoint. Prior to its release, Christopher L. Bennett claimed that this novel could be viewed as either a Department of Temporal Investigations novel or as a novel of the original Star Trek series. Indeed, after reading it, I can see how it can be both. I'm a huge fan of the original series, and Bennett writes Kirk and crew very well. The agents of the DTI took a bit of a backseat in this novel, and while I really enjoy the adventures of the original crew, I would like to someday see another book centered around the dour Lucsly and the slightly-more well adjusted Dulmur.

For Christopher L. Bennett's trademark explaining-away of discombobulated bits of Trek lore, and a damn fine story to boot, Department of Temporal Investigations: Forgotten History earns a 9.5/10 from me. Excellent story, with Bennett's trademark humour and scientific acumen on proud display.

Full review: http://treklit.blogspot.com/2012/05/f...

[Crystal Bensley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good Temporal Invetigations novel with alot of Kirk in it as well as a cool alternate universe side story.

[Aron · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a DTI novel that's really more of a TOS novel. CLB irons out some wrinkles & answers pretty much every question I've had about TOS's time travel adventures. Gave me some much appreciated new insight into Assignment: Earth with Gary Seven & The Voyage Home. I really enjoyed this book from cover to cover & I highly recommend it for TOS & time travel fans.

[Scott Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christopher Bennett is a very clever and thoughtful Star Trek writer. In this book, he does an amazing job of knitting together dozens of events and characters from TOS, other novels, and the Animated Series. He finds believable and understandable answers to seeming inconsistencies across canon and weaves them into a very entertaining new story.

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations: Forgotten History
Author: Christopher L Bennet
Publisher: Pocket Books
Published In: New York City, NY
Date: 2012
Pgs: 352
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REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS

Summary:
The Department of Temporal Investigations tell each other horror stories about Jim Kirk and the Enterprise NCC-1701. The files regarding the Enterprise and her Captain are the largest in the DTI. Shock joined those horror stories when a temporal anomaly with an inactive vessel at it’s heart appears deep in Federation territory, a ship that appears to be a Constitution class starship, registry NCC-1701. Inspection shows hull markings identifying the ship as Timeship Two, belonging to the DTI itself. Agents of the DTI must delve back into Kirk and the Enterprise’s many time travel encounters and immediately, because there’s not record of Timeship Two or this particular adventure of Kirk’s. Fears emerge that this could tie directly into the creation of the DTI itself.
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Genre:
Science Fiction
Fantasy
TV, Movie, Video Game Adaptions
Star Trek
Literature
Fiction
Genre Fiction
Movie Tie-Ins
Time Travel

Why this book:
Star Trek, Captain Kirk, Time Travel, no whales.
_________________________________________________

Favorite Character:
Kirk’s reticence to ever travel in time again comes to the fore after the Edith Keeler events. Leading to when Dr Grey is doing her interviews on the subject of time travel when the Committee is trying to determine if time travel should go forward as more than a theoretical occurrence.
GREY: So in your best judgment, the experiments should stop?
KIRK: I know that once a thing is discovered, it can’t be undiscovered. Our descendants will travel in time--that’s a reality we can’t avoid. But as for us, here and now...we’re not ready. We’re children playing with fire. And we’ve seen how little it takes for that fire to burn out of control. Someday we will master this, but now is not the time. We need to stop before we burn ourselves away.
Put that in context with how every DTI appearance talks about Kirk. Also, take in the context of the Krenim and what they did to themselves and their local area of space with their timeships.
The juxtaposition of Kirk’s reputation about time travel and his actual feelings about it plays well to the reader.

I like the idea and execution of Sulu as First Officer in the period immediately after Star Trek: The Motion Picture while Spock was otherwise occupied, ie: Saavik.

Least Favorite Character:
Lucsly. He’s too stiff, too hidebound. And he let the Kirk myth stand. Not cool. Liked the book anyway.

Character I Most Identified With:
McCoy when his attitude toward time and values is revealed as more than Luddism and curmudgeonliness. He is much more pragmatic than shown, but it comes through.

The Feel:
This felt like Star Trek.

Favorite Scene / Quote:
In contrast to the Eugenics Wars books, the use of TOS episodes as framing elements/Easter eggs is well done here. There were more Easter eggs in this than I even noticed. The tapestry is thick with them. Very well done interweaving. Reading the afterword where the author walked us through where the Easter eggs were all from was fascinating. There were way more than I even realized. And in instances where there were Easter eggs they weren’t beaten over the readers head.

GREY: I’m surprised, Doctor. The impression I’ve gotten is that you consider yourself an old fashioned type, suspicious of progress.
MCCOY: Oh, I’m suspicious of all sorts of things, Doctor Grey. Too much focus on the past or the future can keep people from making the right choices in the present. I don’t appreciate old fashioned values because they’re old, but because they’ve stood the test of time and still have value today. You wouldn’t want to drink a fine wine before it matured. No, Doctor--the value of time is that it moves forward.

Pacing:
The pace when it catches is great. The pages and chapters flow well.

Plot Holes/Out of Character:
Two people sitting at a table talking in the prologue. Then a third person, sitting between them, talks. The whole making the reader have the “oh I didn’t see you there” moment is a peeve of mine. Why not just say that there were three people at the table.

Another deus ex conversation happens in the lava tube cell on Pelos. In the previous scene, Kirk was sent to die with his compatriots. He fights to escape, but is recaptured. He is to be taken to the lava tube and executed with the rest of his party, already there. Switch to the lava tube cell, where Spock and Mccoy are talking about how Spock is trying to get them out. Two pages later, with no indication that he has arrived, Spock tells the Captain that he’s ready to try communicating with the ship. I’m liking this book, but it could have stood a little closer to the editor’s pen.

The idea of Vulcan memory suppression seems counterintuitive. A Vulcan employing logic would compartmentalize their knowledge of certain events inimical to the culture, time, place and not use certain events and/or data until such time as it was needed again. Not by suppressing the memory.

Hmm Moments:
Love the way that the agents of the DTI state that when starting from the beginning in investigating a temporal incident too often the starting point when reconstructing what is/has/will happen you start with Captain James T Kirk.

The Christopher Family have played a role in the last 2 ST books that I’ve read. Odd that bit players in a trivial role should reoccur coincidentally back to back like that. And Gary Seven appears offpage.

Commodore Delgado seems driven. Is he going to be the first head of the DTI or the first problem that the DTI need to fix.

Chronologically, this, in Delgado’s perspective, takes place after The Menagerie.

Delgado’s time bug vs the stiff disciplinarian that he was presented as in The Menagerie. Though, I guess we don’t know how much of the way he was presented in The Menagerie was actually Delgado’s personality and how much was the Talosian’s use of his persona as a foil.

With the time frames covered, didn’t we wonder what happened every 7 years with Spock? Amok Time was one ep in the 2nd season of TOS. The time would have come upon him many more times over the years between then and his jumping into the Kelvin Timeline.

WTF Moments:
I begin to wonder, as I move through this story, is Delgado the villain. His motivation to drive the exploration of time forward seems very like zealotry. He’s playing the politics game with all those involved trying to get his way. Makes me wonder if there is something very specific that he wants to do with time travel. Is it just hubris, an almost Khan-ian megalomania, that time travel will make his name writ large in the stars and across history?

Why isn’t there a screenplay?
This is way too thick and crunchy to work as a movie or television series.

Missed Opportunity:
Seems to me that the Verity’s failure to return to where it belonged in the timestream would be a major disruption in and of itself.
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Last Page Sound:
This gave me that “I could read another two hundred pages of this” feeling.

Author Assessment:
I will read more by this author.

Editorial Assessment:
The two instances of deus ex conversation are the only real quibbles I have with this book.

Knee Jerk Reaction:
instant classic

Disposition of Book:
Irving Public Library
Irving, TX
South Campus

Dewey Decimal System:
PBK
F
BEN

Would recommend to:
friends, family, kids, colleagues, everyone, genre fans, no one
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[Marlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Today is Star Trek Day. Why? Because, once upon a time in a galaxy not far away at all, on this day in 1966, the very first episode of Star Trek, now referred to as Star Trek: The Original Series, because it WAS, premiered on television thanks in no small part to the efforts of Gene Roddenberry AND Lucille Ball.

Today is also, and coincidentally, the 50th anniversary of the premiere of Star Trek: The Animated Series.

Those combined anniversaries make this the perfect day to review the second book in the Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations series, Forgotten History. Because, as you might have guessed from the cover, this pseudo-history takes a deep, deep dive into the many, many times that Captain James T. Kirk either created or was caught up in a temporal disturbance.

From the perspective of DTI Agent Gariff Lucsly, the ENTIRE purpose of the DTI was to prevent anyone else, particularly any other starship captain, from messing about with time as much or as often as Kirk did.

Because Kirk had so damn many up close and personal encounters with time travel that it could be said they had a ‘friends with benefits’ relationship. Or, considering the events involving the Guardian of Forever, perhaps that relationship might be better referred to as ‘frenemies with benefits’.

There certainly WERE benefits – as even the DTI generally considers saving the planet to have been a benefit. They just wish that they didn’t owe it to their departmental nemesis so many damn times.

The story in Forgotten History begins with what seems to be incontrovertible evidence that Kirk played fast and loose with the stability of the Federation’s timeline on at least one more occasion, and a much bigger occasion at that, than the SEVENTEEN times that the DTI was previously aware of.

But Kirk, for all of his temporal escapades, and in spite of the way that DTI investigates the ways and means in which time looks back on itself, is more than a century in their rear view mirror. So to speak. And as DTI Agents Lucsly and Dulmur discovered in the first book in the DTI series, Watching the Clock, the events that make it into the history books – or the official records – may have only the barest resemblance to what really happened.

So the story that we, and the DTI Agents, begin with is a tale about a captain who ran roughshod through history and established procedure and was allowed to get away with it. (Which he very often did and was.)

But perhaps not in this case. Only time will tell.

Escape Rating B: The story of Forgotten History, and the history that was deliberately forgotten, is wrapped around the creation of not one but two legends, and the purpose the creations of those legends was intended to serve.

Which means that this is a story that goes back in time to show just the events which shaped both of those legends.

One, of course, is the legendary career of Captain (later Admiral, later Captain again) James Tiberius Kirk and the successful completion of the USS Enterprise’s five-year mission under his command. A five-year mission where even in its first year the ship had three encounters with time travel – at least by the DTI’s count.

They’d already set the record – and they hadn’t even gotten started.

Which is where the other legend came in. Because the Enterprise and her crew were playing with things that no one understood, Starfleet needed to get a handle on time travel before it got a handle on them. Leading, eventually and in a more roundabout and bureaucratic way than anyone imagined, to the formation of the Department of Temporal Investigations under the direction of its Founder and first Director, Dr. Meijan Grey.

How those two legends, and their legacies, impacted each other AND Starfleet is what lies at the heart of this book.

In order to reach the point in the ‘present’ that gives that impact its full weight, the book puts itself and the reader through a LOT of the history of Kirk, Grey and the DTI. In the process of putting that history into the hands and minds of the readers, there’s a heaping helping of infodumping to cover every temporal infraction Kirk and the Enterprise ever committed, every DTI response, and every bit of political and bureaucratic shenanigans going on behind the scenes and under the table to serve agendas that Kirk turns out not to be nearly as on board with as legend would have it.

Unfortunately, that necessary infodump really drags the pace of the story for the first half. It was a terrific bit of nostalgia, and I enjoyed a fair bit of it, but it takes the action and adventure out of a series that has always been blissfully full to the brim with both – even when the plot of the episode was humorous, thought-provoking, or both.

Which means that, while I did like Forgotten History quite a bit, a good bit of that is due to the high nostalgia factor in going back to the era of The Original Series, both in the stories and characters themselves and that I watched the final season as it was broadcast in 1968-69 with my dad.

But as a story, Forgotten History wasn’t nearly as much fun as Watching the Clock, which just plain moved a whole lot faster and enjoyed a tighter focus on its central mystery in spite of its greater length. Still, I liked them both more than enough that I just picked up the rest of the DTI series, and will probably dive into the next book, The Collectors, whenever I’m next in the mood for a bit of Trek.

Originally published at Reading Reality

[Raymond Masters]

I had never read a book set in the original series era. That was different. I loved the time travel aspect and getting to see the history of the Department of Temporal Investigations. The author was extremely technical, which bogged it down for me, story-wise, but it also lent it credibility. It was a fun read. I'm looking forward to the other DTI book, written by the same author.

[Steven Kravitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun book if you like trek history. If you ave not read the other DTI books, you will be a bit lost. Almost like a story collection rather then a single book.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

forgotten history was a great read. I always enjoy Christopher L. bennetts novles.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was rather mixed for me. On the one hand, all the TOS story line stuff was GREAT. Excellent stuff! It seemed to come right out of the original series - the characters felt so vivid, just as if the actors were playing them, and the plot line was fun and compelling! I had an absolute blast reading that part of the book, which does make up most of the book.

However, the stuff with Dulmer and Lucsly was rather disappointing and felt very off. It was almost like some other author, not Bennett, was writing the characters and this new author didn't quite know the characters as well as he should. Right from the beginning the tone was jarring, kind of simplistic and reads almost like fan fiction. (No offense to fan fiction writers!) Watching the Clock seemed almost TOO complex, but Forgotten History seemed almost TOO simple. Was Bennett trying to compensate? I don't know, but it just felt like bad writing to me compared to his previous book. It was like he was being really lazy with this one and painted in broad strokes.

SPOILERS FOR THIS NEXT PART

The finale was probably the most poorly written, IMLTHO. While I did find the actual meet up between Kirk and Lucsly satisfying (Bennett *does* understand what the fans wants! haha), the way everything was handled after that point was kind of a let down. I mean I guess Gray and Delgado's "Trial by Advanced Self-Righteous Alien Life Forms" is on brand for Star Trek, but it isn't the aspect of the series I would say you would want to replicate. That was always when the show became the most on the nose and preachy, and that is exactly how that whole scene came across. It also did a disservice to the characters of Gray and Delgado, as they had to pretty much lay out all their dirty laundry and intimate motivations (telling not showing here). It just came across as embarrassing and cruel. For advanced aliens, they sure don't understand how to administer actual justice and due process!

Also I didn't appreciate the "hero that Gotham deserves, not what it needs" conclusion of the story. I mean I could very much understand why Gray's crimes were kept under wraps. The DTI was fledgling at the time, and the violation of trust and spacetime laws at that magnitude would have probably crushed moral and ended the organization. It was shrewd and necessary for them to keep it a secret. However, there is no reason to have to keep her "myth" alive and well after this point. The DTI is a well established organization, and I know the agents struggle with existential dread all the day long, but it is like, if you can't accept that humans are humans, we are fallible and corruptible creatures - even the best of us, than you probably shouldn't be doing this job. I loved Dulmer's approach to the whole situation, as he talked Lucsly out of his mental breakdown. Just because a human being makes a mistake doesn't mean all their other deeds are eradicated. It isn't right or healthy to fall into black and white thinking, elevating people to hero status and demonizing others (Kirk). Just accept that people are complicated. I do not see what is so earth shattering about that!

Worse of all, though, continuing in this vein, I didn't like that Lucsly thought it was "wisdom" to continue Kirk's poor reputation of having flagrant disregard for the timeline - believing that the DTI needed its heroes, as well as its villains to maintain order. I was all: "B.S., Lucsly! You just were saving face because you didn't want to admit to your fellow agents you were wrong about Kirk!" I just internally threw up my hands at that point because I really loved the meeting between Kirk and Lucsly, and how Lucsly had to face the ACTUAL living and breathing James T. Kirk, not the made up fantasy of him. To me that conclusion just kind of made it all pointless, but whatevs. 😒

[Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is almost nothing more disappointing when it comes to books than a disappointing sequel. The first DTI book was loads of fun. It was funny while still being a mystery played throughout time full of weird characters both new and old. And at times it felt like several mysteries that by the time you got to the end was really one story and you felt a little weird not being able to see it by the end. And it's what made it such a cool book.

Forgotten History on the other hand seemed more like Christopher L. Bennett wanted to write a sequel/conclusion to the stories he started in all of his previous Star Trek: The Original Series novels and because he was writing a story about time travel, through his DTI crew as an afterthought. Kirk, Bones, McCoy, Spock, Scotty, etc. crowd Dulmer and Lucsly out of their own book. Not only that, we don't even get to view the TOS characters from the DTI point of view. They are portrayed as the heroes we are used to, not the dangerous boogeyman that DTI Agents are trained to think of them as.

This book reads like a TOS book with a DTI framing device. They say you can't judge a book by its cover, but this time I am. If the cover read Star Trek- Forgotten History and the cover blurb been more accurate, chances are I would have still bought the book. Since I would expecting a TOS story, I wouldn't have been disappointed. I came in wanting the same kind of wild, crazy and fun adventure I got with the first book and felt really let down.

I know there are at least two other web only DTI stories out there but I'll have to check reviews since if they are a lot like this one, I'd have to pass on them. But if they were closer in tone to the first book, I'd say hell yeah.

[Roz · Rating 4 out of 5]

For two throwaway characters in a Deep Space Nine episode, the Department of Temporal Investigations turned out to be a really fun ride through the Trek universe. Bennett, who's written a bunch of novels featuring the Time Cops of the Federation, has a novel here featuring an admiral who's obsessed with going to the future, an alternate timeline or two, and loads and loads of techno babble.

To be honest, all the babble was something that could've dragged the story down, but I mostly glossed over it since I don't really know science anyway. But the story itself, which makes a real effort to tie together several unrelated episodes, novels and even a comic strip, it a fun ride that mostly features Kirk and company getting in way over their heads and royally screwing up the future.

That's about half of it. The other half has Bennett engaging in some heavy world building: without really making a point of it, he lays out the history and purpose of the DTI, sets up a large cast of characters and gives the two DS9 throwaways some depth; I loved their deadpan sense of humour.

I get the vibe that a lot of modern-day Trek novels are a lot heavier and more serious than the earlier, one-off ones, and that's fine and all, but Bennett's book was fun and when it doesn't drown you in science-stuff, pretty engaging. I liked this more than the average Trek novel.

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Between watching Doctor Who and reading this series, I've been seeing a lot of time travel lately. I'm not complaining, though, because such stories are a longtime favorite of mine. I thought I had read these books already, but, Goodreads says otherwise; go figure!

Now, for my review: Though different than usual for Roddenberry's space opera, this book works very well. Appearances by the original crew, especially Spock, don't hurt. After this, I wonder what will happen in the next volume...

[Maggie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good read! My only quibble--and it's a very small one--is that there isn't enough of Agents Dulmur and Lucsly; it's mostly about the time travelling adventures of Kirk, Spock, & Co. Still....one of my favorite subplots involves Spock and a T'Pring of a different timeline, so there's that. Recommended for Trek fans and fans of time travel in general.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 4 out of 5]

This to me read better than the first book. Deals with TOS era stuff, even calling back to the Guardian of Forever. I really like how Kirk, Spock, and Bones feel like themselves, especially with their philosophical debate at the end about how people are remembered in history. Really ties back to the title.

[Rob · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hate time travel but this was not all that hard to follow. I enjoyed the perspective of the DTI agents on Kirk's encounters with the time line. The novel brought forward some interesting new characters for me and I'd like to read more the DTI stories after this.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am impressed with this book. There is TONS of time travel techno-babble and very tight constraints of when this can occur in main star trek canon and yet it still works. I enjoyed it better than the first one.

[Judith Paterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some quite detailed scientific time theory which is a bit mind blowing, but you can follow the story without understanding it. I doubt many people do understand.
The story touches on many of the original series episodes and stories. Enjoyable story.

[Vic Page · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book dragged for me. I was originally so excited to see Kirk and Spock but I found myself skimming pages because it was hard to follow what was really going on.
I am a bit sad because I was so excited for the DTI but I think it might not be for me!

[Laura (Robertson) Peacock · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow…just fantastic

I loved it … great way to explain / rationalize all of the TOS episodes that sort if made no sense :) and great interweaving and hypothesizing about alternative timelines from Archer’s ENT.

Thank you!

[Lyle Blosser · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great "collaboration" between two DTI agents and some of the more familiar ST characters.

[Paxton Holley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 2 in the ST: DTI series. Much more entertaining than the first book. This lives up to the potential I thought the series itself had. Look forward to more books like this.

[Rebekah Johnson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not my favorite star trek book. It has a very slow start. Finally was somewhat entertaining towards the end.

[Jemma · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok but there's too much office politics, which is the sort of thing humanity has gotten past by then. The best aspect is how many strands are woven together but the payoff is a bit anticlimactic.

[Wayne Solberg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story has all the information necessary to tie in many of the loose ends from the Star Trek universe. I am looking forward to reading more stories from the same author.

[Betsy]

There will come a day when I don't add every Star Trek book that so much as mentions James T. Kirk to my tbr, but today is not that day.

[Captain Dunsel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, and the author knows his Star Trek 'history' (better than I do, and I've been a Trekker since the 1960's). Still, could do without a lot of the pseudo-science and hand-waving.

[Peter Rydén · Rating 5 out of 5]

Riktigt bra bok som utspelar sig i flera olika tider och tidslinjen. Det skulle ha kunnat bli rörigt, men det hölls bra ihop av författaren. Jag älskar att vi fick möta DTI igen!

[C.T. Phipps · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was a big fan of C.L Bennet's Department of Temporal Investigations: Watching the Clock. It was a new kind of Star Trek novel, depicting a fascinating mixture of bureaucrats dealing with minutiae and an outsider's perspective on all the various time-travel shenanigans we saw through all of the recent series. In WTC, we didn't get much information on the Original Series but that seemed like a big undertaking with Captain Kirk's somewhat legendary relationship with time travel.

"Seventeen recorded violations!" as Agent Lucsly would say.

Forgotten History attempts to make up for this conspicuous absence by dealing with Captain Kirk's relationship with the DTI. As the first recorded time traveler in Federation history, his actions lead up to the founding of that body and their reactions to his further incursions into the time-stream. C.L Bennet is a master of incorporating obscure canon into his stories, including the largely forgotten animated series. Fans of Watching the Clock may be disappointed that the previous stars of the book, including several minor characters from TNG who grew into fully-developed time agents, barely factor into this book. The work was written as a Star Trek: The Original Series novel and it shows.

I can't say this isn't disappointing on some level. I love Captain Kirk, Spock, and Scotty but I was hoping for more information about Lucsly and Dulmer. They have some good bits in this novel but I felt they were a bit stereotypical in places. Lucsly, for example, has a passionate hatred of Captain Kirk which seems disproportionate given what we know of both men. Even if he viewed Kirk as a menace to linear history, he had to also know he spent a substantial amount of time patching up the timeline too.

I will say, however, the book does something clever with time travel. A minor theme of the book is that the way we remember history isn't remotely how it happened. History is a story, which is obvious if you think about it, meant to tell us about what we can achieve or should avoid as much as what happened.

Characters from the future discovering people from the past aren't all sunshine and roses or Sauron wannabes adds an interesting perspective to the book. I will say, however, there's a bit at the end which really annoys me. A Starfleet officer's first obligation is to the truth so a character should never deny the "warts and all" of the past as well as the reverse. I think knowing George Washington had slaves, for example, doesn't diminish his accomplishments while also warns us away from making his mistakes.

The original series characters work extremely well and I particularly liked the handling of Spock. The "arc welding" of various Trek series is quite cool with Spock having some pointed opinions on the Vulcans of T'Pol's time. There's a subplot I won't spoil but harkens back to my favorite Spock episode too, with an unexpected guest star.

In conclusion, this is a really good book. One I am very glad to have bought and one of my favorite Star Trek stories. Unfortunately, I really wish we'd seen more of the Temporal Agents. They were guest-stars and it would have been nice to see a character do a complete 180 on his opinions. That would have made the book a perfect 10.

8/10