From the Depths

Star Trek: The Original Series #66

by Victor Milán

Okeanos, a water world settled centuries ago by a group of Federation separatists, is now rocked by a power struggle between the natives and the ex-Federation colony. When the USS Enterprise is sent beyond the Federation's boundaries to the planet to act as mediators, they are surprised to find a group of Klingons already serving as the natives' advisors.

The volatile situation rapidly deteriorates when one of Okeanos's great floating cities is completely destroyed, and Captain Kirk is arrested for sabotage. Now at the center of a deadly civil war, Mr. Spock and the crew must race to free their captain as they face the deadly secret hidden beneath Okeanos's murky depths.

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Fiction, Star Trek Original Series, Science Fiction Fantasy, Ebooks, Space

280 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1993

About the author

Victor Woodward Milán was an American writer known for libertarian science fiction and an interest in cybernetics. In 1986 he won the Prometheus Award for Cybernetic Samurai. He has also written several shared universe works for the Forgotten Realms, Star Trek, and Wild Cards Universes. He has also written books under the pseudonyms Keith Jarrod, Richard Austin (Jove Books The Guardians series), Robert Baron (Jove Books Stormrider series), and S. L. Hunter (Steele series with Simon Hawke, who used the pen name J. D. Masters). He also wrote at least 9 novels under the "house name" of James Axler for the Harlequin Press/Gold Eagle Books Deathlands series & Outlanders series.

Reviews

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not too good.

[Liv]

mccoy says to kirk, with his whole chest, "you press all her daddy buttons at once," and the worst part about this is that after i got done taking a lap around the library, i realized that he absolutely would

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, this was a surprise. It opens in the fashion of an old school Trek novel, then it starts taking several detours that end up being head-spinning & exciting. This novel deals with everything from the legacy of the Eugenics Wars and WW3 on Earth to the conflict over humans dominating the Federation & Starfleet to an urban vs rural ecological argument that is still relevant 20 years after this novel's publication. It also dives into the darkness of the legacy of physical & mental abuse -- a darkness that isn't often explored in Trek. Add in an exciting action finale, and a Klingon villain who is suitably hiss-worthy, and the end result is a novel that forced me to delay my bed time until I reached the final page.

[Andrew Beet · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book and it pleasantly surprised me that the author packed a lot of action into the story and you know when the klingons are involved it's not going to end well and going into reading this book I thought it's not going to be good but it is because you do think that the star trek novels that are written by the lesser known authors are not going to be that good but this one was a very good book to read

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Normally I wouldn't be too harsh on something as silly as a Star Trek novel, but Moriah Wayne might be one of the worst characters ever written. It's like she crawled out of the 1990's misogynistic fever dream of the tenth-grade president of the high school student Republicans. Let's dissect her for a moment (some spoilers ahead):

-She's the child of high-level career bureaucrat given a position she didn't earn (i.e. a member of the 'privileged elite' who didn't have to work for it)
-Accuses of every man she meets of being sexist (i.e. a 'feminazi')
-Cares more about the environment than people (i.e. a 'tree hugging' anti-capitalist)
-Hates and distrusts the military (i.e. anti-American)
-Sides with natives and aliens over humans to the point of being willing to commit genocide against her own kind on their behalf (i.e. a 'race traitor')
-Willing to commit treason and murder in order to finally seize power from 'the men in charge'
-All of her insanity is explained away by an abusive father creating subconscious 'daddy issues' (i.e. bad parenting is the cause of her problems)
-To top it all off, she's still hot enough that Captain Kirk has sex with her despite all her crazy and she's equally hot for him because she really 'just wants a strong man in her life'
-Oh, and the solution is to kill this irredeemable woman

Which is all sad, because the author could have made her an interesting character and brought at least a little bit of depth to this pseudo-commentary on colonialism. Instead, she's an irrational, illogical crazy lady made out of awful stereotypes.

[James Herring · Rating 5 out of 5]

Being a Trekkie, and loving the Kirk era and those people much more than TNG, I have a love for a good book set with them. Vic Milan does not disappoint. I have known Vic for many, many years and have always enjoyed his style. While some may see it as a classic trek idea, how Vic approaches it is still something that I have come to enjoy and look for. The characters are pure Trek. It is what I look for.

I always look for Vic's books no matter what universe he is writing for.

[Becky · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book drives me crazy. In some respects I love it, the plot idea is really interesting and throws up some good ethical questions. Some of the characterisation is very good and you have a number of strong women. There is an understanding that battling in space is going to cost lives...

But then you have a character like Wayne who is just a bag of the worst stereotypes of women possible and so many plot holes that you can drive a starship through...

[Menion · Rating 5 out of 5]

Definitely one of my faves in the 'Trek' catalogue, along with 'Joy Machine,' 'Sanctuary,' and 'Three Minute Universe.' I loved the water world in this one, and found the story very compelling. Good characters too, I really hated the bitch-villain. Overall, a very good 'Trek' read. One of the few I will probably read again.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

First off, the title is wrong. I would have titled the book Discord after the planet as they don't focus a lot on the depths of the ocean world as the issues are more on the surface and the depths only truly play a part in the story in the last few chapters. Now if the depths we refer to are of Commissioner Wayne and her horrible biases and judgments hiding something terrible under the surface (I assumed she was a Klingon in disguise until her later reveal of having "daddy issues") then maybe it's more fitting there. However this is a big one where you don't want to read the cover as that is a BIG spoiler for the end of the book and highly misleading why they are at the planet.

Anyway, the story and conflict were interesting and the Vares were something that we hadn't seen too much of. Learning not to judge a culture from where they came from to who they are now was an interesting idea. However, this was the first book where I actually thought "wow, this was obviously written in the 90s". Kirk's phrasing for a lot of the time sounded less like a Captain in the 22nd Century and more a guy from the 90s. That's probably my biggest gripe in the book and me not liking Wayne any time she shows up in the book but that's really her character.

There's some pretty crazy moments that do happen in the book which rarely do these titles go that for so it was a but surprising. I would therefore give it more a 3.5 stars then.

[Reesha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Why is it always misogyny?

Blatant, uninventive sexist tropes and a bland Klingon tie-in totally ruined what was shaping up to be a fantastic story about a fascinating mismatched community and their struggles with an equally fascinating new alien species on the same planet.

If I ever again have to read a Star Trek author unironically writing the phrase "daddy issues" vomiting out of any Enterprise crewmember's mouth, it'll be far too soon.

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okeanos is a Terran colony inhabited by refugees from the Eugenics Wars. Kirk must strike a deal with the anarchic society to begin evacuation procedures to avoid a war with the Sussuru, who also colonised Okeanos, and the Klingons.

Milan captures the feel of the series very well and all the characters get a moment or two of greatness in this novel.

[Jason Fawkes · Rating 1 out of 5]

Odd one - reads like a libertarian propaganda novel, and the crew and Federation come across as villains. After googling the author, who when I read the book I hadn't heard of, this seems likely to be the case.

[Katrina Veerkamp · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book very much. A water based planet. Two species fighting each other….Klingons causing trouble. A crazy commissioner trying to control what’s going on. Lots of interaction from all the main crew not just the big three….of course Kirk outsmarts them all. I recommend this one.

[Robert · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did not get through the prologue. Read like a cross between waterworld and baywatch with piles of made up terms thrown in.

[Nick van Leeuwen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Prima boek

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okeanos, a water world the natives, the Susuru are in conflict with an ex-federation colony. The Enterprise is sent to mediate but the Klingons have already arrived.
An entertaining re-read

[Frank Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was enjoying the story but a little distracted by Kirk's lustful internal dialogue.

[Eric Benjamin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun Star Trek novel! I recommend it, but the book hits too many of the interesting ideas from the original series and that detracts from the story.

[Scout Who · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some of it was good, other parts were quite disappointing.

[Michael Hanscom · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's rare for Trek fluff to annoy me enough to drop a star (I never expect these to be Great Literature, after all), but this one managed it. Hints of interesting ideas scattered throughout (such as the conflict between the Federations post-Khan "no genetic manipulation EVAR" mindset and a society where genetic manipulation for particular environments is commonplace), but marred with bad characterizations and characters both.

(Minor spoilers follow.)

One of the two primary antagonists is a high-level Federation administrator in charge of enforcing Prime Directive regulations, and simultaneously horribly xenophobic. While the book tries to explain it away (clumsily, in a few short sentences at the end) through nepotism and favoritism, it was too unrealistic that such a person could have been appointed to that position (let alone that Kirk would see her as a romantic interest immediately after she verbally abuses his bridge crew). Definitely one of the least impressive Trek novels I've read.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

And so...another Star Trek book read and dispatched...this is one of a pile of books I got from a boot sale some time back and from time to time visit!!
The beauty of these books is even if you aren't a truly hardcore Star Trek fan( I'm not) and only take a cursory interest (guilty again) you do know enough of the characters to mean the narrative is kind of instance..there's no need for pages explaining away star fleets mission or the colour and shape of the enterprise...as Scunthorpe generally make for a quick read.
The lack of overt character or equipment analysis does however mean the narrative needs to be strong to compensate or things can fall flat, In this book the tale is good enough it's an oft repeated one truth be told of Kirk mediating between two warring factions with the Klingons there or thereabouts throughout...Kirk breaking away from procedure...and Kirk romancing...in fact in many ways a predictable star trek book..however it's fun,inoffensive and no worse than any of the others I have read so far.

[Stephen Fender · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not bad, but certainly not great. The story was fairly weak, not at all like some of the stronger TOS novels from Pocket. The supporting characters were a little flat, and the end left quite a bit to be desired. The one redeeming feature of this book should have been the big fight scene between the Enterprise and the "new" Klingon battleship, but that also fell quite flat. The big problem with it was that the author took the time to really stress how much more powerful the battleship was over the Enterprise, yet the ship was still easily defeated by tried and tested TOS tactics (yawn). Did the Enterprise even get damaged? Sure, but purely for the sake of drama. The Klingon should have easily defeated a much less powerful cruiser, Enterprise or not. Sorry. That was a bit of a let-down. It would have been more believable (and just as boring) to put a D-7 in place of some new "super" Klingon ship that you'll never read about ever again.

[Jay Goemmer · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was hoping for more from this one, I really was. The cover painting is a bit misleading, with Michael Dorn's character Worf standing in for Captain Kirk's adversary.

Unfortunately, author Victor Milan runs Kirk through his stereoptypical paces: Kirk puts the moves on a socially stunted woman, who runs away, then runs back to him, then runs away to his Klingon adversary. Tired and unnecessary. And then we trot out the standard hackneyed Gene Roddenberry "but wait, there's more" plot thread scenario.

Move along. This isn't the Star Trek you're looking for... unless you like it *really* old school and mysogynistic.

June 4, 2012.

[Ben · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a disappointing entry for a Star Trek book. It was long on political dialogue and short on action. The plot was thinly thrown together, with not much connecting each scene to the next. The cover of this book is great - a water world! But all the scenarios you think could be used for such a story were left out.

[Shaun]

enjoyable pulp

[James Wood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Started out pretty slow but did finish stronger. Best part about these books are seeing favorite characters in new story lines.