One Constant Star

Star Trek: The Lost Era

by David R. George III

An original novel set in 'The Lost Era'; time period between Star Trek: The Original Series and Star Trek: The Next Generation!

When Captain Demora Sulu leads the crew of U.S.S. Enterprise-B on a mission near Tzenkethi space, they explore Rejarris II, a planet they cannot explain. A strange structure on the surface could hold answers, but when a landing party transports down to study it, chaos erupts. After communication fails with one officer and another is horribly injured, Captain Sulu deems the planet too dangerous to continue exploring. She decides to leave Rejarris II, but not until she can retrieve her lost crew member. But when contact is ultimately severed with the captain, a Tzenkethi force subsequently appears. Could they be behind the mysteries on the planet, or the disappearances of the Enterprise officers? Regardless, will Sulu's crew be able stand up to them long enough to find and retrieve their captain and the other missing personnel?

Once, John Harriman commanded Enterprise-B with Demora Sulu by his side as his first officer. Eight years after stepping down as a starship captain; in the wake of the Tomed Incident, Harriman now serves as an admiral based out of Helaspont Station, on the edge of the Tzenkethi Coalition. When he receives a mysterious message from Rejarris II, he realizes that he might hold the key to finding his former crewmate. In choosing to help recover Demora Sulu, though, he could risk losing everything he holds dear. What price is Harriman willing to pay to attempt to rescue his longtime friend?

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Fiction

387 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published May 27, 2014

Reviews

[John Yelverton · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a real breath of fresh air. The story is good, there is a mixture of beloved and new characters, and the story actually begins and ends in one novel. This is how "Star Trek" novels are supposed to be written.

[Paul Lunger · Rating 4 out of 5]

In our latest trip into The Lost Era, David R. George III continues the story of the Enterprise-B with "One Constant Star" set in 2319. In this installment Demora Sulu is now captain of the Enterprise and the ship visits the planet Rejarris II which appears to be a lifeless world with a vanished population. Upon inspection, though, the planet contains a spacecraft that is a portal which eventually sucks in Demora Sulu & 2 other crew members. Along the way, we learn that the Excelsior was reported missing with all hands reported lost. George's story is actually a sound action story as we see the crew of the Enterprise do everything in their power to try to rescue Captain Sulu and the 2 crew members no matter the cost. Through a rather important flashback (or more likely just a good plot device) we find out exactly what happened to the Excelsior and have a family reunion that is one of the more heartfelt scenes in a Star Trek novel in a very long time. The re-introduction of now Admiral Harriman is a nice touch as well since it has been 8 years since the Tomed Incident caused him to leave the captain's chair behind. Despite at times a bit of uneven storytelling & a plot device or 2 that seem useful just because he could, "One Constant Star" is a nice return to the Lost Era novels & fills in a mission that is probably one of the final for this crew. It is my hope as a reader that we'll eventually return to these fill in the blank novels since they are definitely a joy to read.

[Jimyanni · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just barely four stars; I have to concede that this book is better than mediocre, but it's much closer to a three-star effort than a five-star one. A moderately interesting basic idea, featuring Demora Sula (daughter of Hikaru) as captain of the Enterprise in the year 2319. The plot conflict was a thorny one, but one that the original Enterprise with Scotty and Spock (or possibly even the Enterprise D, with Geordi and Wesley) would probably have solved much more elegantly, without needing recourse to "Keep rolling the dice until we get it right". But hey, whatever works, right? Not EVERY Enterprise can be staffed with superstars.

[Graff Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Star Trek: The Lost Era: One Constant Star by David R. George III

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense

Medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters are a main focus? Yes

4.0 Stars

Great story. It took me a bit to get into it. The Prologue confused me...especially since the previous book explained that Captain John Harriman had stepped down from the captaincy of the Enterprise, but at the beginning of this story...he was with Commander Sulu...as if that hadn't happened. 

I had to reread this chapter to notice the date at the beginning...which explained that this chapter happened before the story of the previous novel. I was confused.

This story was truly well-crafted. The stakes and the tension was high for a great part of the novel. We did not know how the conflict was going to be resolved.

By the end, it was brilliantly told, and I even had tears in my eyes for a few sequences.

I love how Admiral John Harriman and Captain Amina Sasine love each other. The way they interact is so sweet and gentle. They were/are made for each other.

Loved Captain Demora Sulu, and how she leads the Enterprise.

Also, her Executive Officer, Xintal Linojj, and what she goes through in this story is horrific. 

And...we get some closure on something that has been left on the stove for a while and what happened to the Excelsior. Glad that we figured out what happened. Wow!

The threat of the Tzenkethi Coalition was well played. The idea that they had to be very secretive on how they sent messages and how many ships should be sent to this planet. 

FYI - Every time I read about them  (Tzenkethi Coalition), I think of Halo. It just seems like a crossover species. Is it only me?

Overall, I was locked into the story...and just ate it up.

I will be picking up Star Trek: The Lost Era: The Art of the Impossible by Keith R.A. DeCandido.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Several past "Star Trek" novels have fallen too much in love with their scientific plots, at the expense of the human adventure. "One Constant Star" never forgets this element. It starts off as a scientific puzzle, which transmutes into a life-and-death struggle, with hurtles into a race against time...and at the centre of all this, never forgets the human drama necessary to bind it all together as proper, life-affirming "Star Trek". This a novel that I blasted through, and now I'm actually despondent that it's over. Truly brilliant.

[Frank Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think this was pretty good.

[Red · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great overall story, but the author still sometimes sounds like he edited it with a thesaurus to make himself sound smart. Seriously who uses "surcease" and "insouciant"??

[Eggith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read!! wraps you into charectors that you saw for a few minutes in generations. along with serpents among the ruins this is on a quick reread list! read mutiple times

[Ian Dickson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Starts out with standard fare. The same formulaic structure most tie-in books have. Dialogue wasn't synonymous with how a crew that had served together for years - and specified in story as being close. Very impersonal, even for a services crew. Terse and bland, with unnecessary filler. There was no feeling of connection with crew that talk about how special certain individuals are. Two dimensional.

Now, the structure and flow changed near the two-thirds mark. It was like DRG saved up his best work for the end of the novel. Even though, an entire chapter was dedicated to a dinner between two people, which went on far too long and didn't really offer anything of value a shortened version couldn't have conveyed.

Anyhow, other than the ending being quite abrupt, the back third stood up to bring the book to a successful close.

3.5 stars. Slightly better than average, but not overly memorable.

[Roy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is among one of the finest Star Trek novels I've read! I really rather hope that Paramount will will end the madness toward a lame rated R Next Generation movie and make movies about each of the starships named Enterprise. Whether it follows some of the books or not I don't really care, just so long as they end this pathetic turn away from what makes Star Trek great, real story telling.

I really appreciate this deeper look into the Enterprise B. The back story wasn't too long and best of all, the story never stalled for too long in one spot, which kept it all moving at a nice pace. I even liked the musings of each character about their past or what is going on.

Great Star Trek novel about a time that has yet to be delved into on the silver screen beyond the christening of the ship. Let's start a movement to get stories about this ship made into movies.

[Bethyfly]

I truly loved the first 3/4 of this book then it went to another character and I felt it got lost in exposition. I didn’t need things reexplained three or four times. It felt belabored while at the same time if the author was looking for places to lengthen the text there were large breaks in the time frames which would have been far more interesting and provide a better story. I was truly excited and ate up the start of the book rapidly but found I had to push myself to get through the “and its been x -amount of time since all these things happened since we were here and so now we are adjusting- look they adjusted after all those things you already read about”
In summary it was not the solution that was disappointing but the way it was handled.

[Josh · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is probably the best of the David George Star Trek novels I have read, but it is still not very good. Its story and ambitions are fairly simple--Starfleet officers get stranded in another universe, and it is up to other Starfleet officers to put everything on the line to rescue them. The novel has several unresolved mysteries (like the portal that let to this universe, and the ridiculous idea of a star that scientists somehow know is constant in all universes) but it is really the character portraits that is the point. Unfortunately those ever-so-noble characters are not terribly interesting. The novel repeats a major plot point from Peter David's Captain's Daughter, which is just as ill-advised in this novel as that one.

[Burns Book Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

A return to form for Star Trek novels
One Constant Star follows the classic Star Trek formula: ship visits a strange new world, something goes wrong, then everyone works together to fix the problem. I was enjoying the more complicated structure of the previous novels, but this book was a breath of fresh air. The crew got a lot more personality than in the previous book, and that was greatly appreciated. I really enjoyed the mystery of this novel, and the story actually concludes without the truth ever being revealed.
Several Star Trek stories are concluded with this book, and it was executed perfectly. I love how important the Sulu family became in the aftermath of Star Trek VI, I’m curious to see how the focus changes as I get closer to The Next Generation.

[David Brawley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Captain Demora Sulu and the crew of the Enterprise B explore a now uninhabited planet, and discover a cool technological artifact that causes all sorts of complications.

This is a really solid bit of Star Trek, and getting to see a part of the universe that doesn't revolve around one of the TV show crews is still a treat. While not the best Star Trek book I've ever read, I think this is one of my favorites. I only wish a little more of the mystery of the former inhabitants of the planet had been resolved. Maybe in another book...

[Bookreader1972 · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75. Just a wee tiny bit too long.
Like most of the authors ST books, there is more descriptiveness about things (ships, planets, space stations, space its self, etc..) then I need.
I like the character of Demora Sulu very much, & would like several books about her career.
This story is good, just not great.

Recommended for Star Trek fans.

[Plish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most trek novels I go into with the understanding that they'll be okay, and I don't expect much else because the trek of it all is entertainment enough for me. But this one was pretty solid.
There were a lot of questions left unanswered and many aspects that would have been great novels on their own. But I'll take what I can get.

[R Z · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is--a really good novel. I really enjoyed this ST novel, like more than I was expecting.

[Robert Lewter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really Star Trek

This is not just filling in history. This is a barn burner. It is good old fashioned Star Trek from beginning to end.

[Nicolas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is really the end of a loose trilogy consisting of Peter David's The Captains Daughter and George's Serpent Among the Ruins. This had some pacing issues along the way, but ultimately ended with a satisfying resolution. I was surprised with the backstory they gave no Hikaru Sulu's golden years. I kept wishing I could have read that as a book length adventure! Pretty solid overall.

For more on my love of Star Trek tune in to this special episode of Howe's Things: https://thisendorianlife.podbean.com/...

[Bjoern · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took an awful lot of time until the story finally arrived at the point where we were past the introduction and got an idea of what was going on... and irritatingly the big "secret" of the whole introductory torment was then quickly phased out and never turned up again past the halfway point... but once this warp travel took up speed it really got rolling and didn't let me loose a grip on it again.
Actually the second half of the novel was so actionfilled and overflowing with barely looked at ideas and lots of characters that do not really get space or dialogue lines enough to flourish that it almost feels as if this is the sad rest of a trilogy or at least two volume book that got struck down to a single book which ended with most of the scenes from the original concept that had already been written and only needed some polishing and not a lot more of time to think about them and work out every detail.

As sympathetic as i am for the character, Harriman's wife for example could easily have been left out of the story without it losing more than ten or twenty lines of sappy romantic feelings... and in hindsight the whole contribution of the CASSIOPEIA was to blow up in the wake of ENTERPRISE going through the mysterious portal donut... (No, i won't call it Stargate, i won't ... i won't... oh dammit, of course it's a badly disguised stargate!) so why bother with the orders and emptying the ship and putting it on autopilot and whatever just to have a smallish decoy? Mining the thing would have worked every bit as well either in discouraging the Tzenkethi from following them or in putting up a similar "cover up" as the starship has done.
And so it continues, while most of the scenes were okay in their own right, looking back after having read the book is a it sobering as i'd have rather had a lot more scenes for Hikaru Sulu and Christine Chapel as the best known of all the characters used in the story, as right now as the book is we jump from having crash landed on the exile world to Sulu telling a very abridged version of how he was discovered and reunited with the rest of his crew and then spent 11 years hunted by the native wildlife... stuff that i find direly lacking in the publicised version and as sad as that is much more interesting and dramatic than discussions over a wedding anniversary dinner on the Harriman's space station or the discovery through the original village on Rejaris VII.

And at any other time, the whole "we're flying back under warp power and try to find a way through this multidimensional star/system would have been a novel of its own merit instead of a half assed epilogue to the main course...

In short: While i'm perfectly okay with giving the novel a high rating as the crash of the Excelsior, the discovery of Enterprises lost crewpersons and the salvaging attempt by John Harriman were really exciting, well told and came close to any fanboys dream of how a star trek novel should be, this book is far from perfect and has a lot of disappointing moments to share the glory of those few excellent scenes. The concept probably looked awesome on paper in the outline, but now as finished book it seems a bit rough and leaving out open ends at every corner... George can write far better than this.

[Lynda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although I love Star Trek, I have found a lot of the books have lost their sense of mystery and adventure, getting bogged down in fact/future fact, or delving too much into the personal life of a character. This book delves a little deeper into the personal life of sulu, unimportant, irrelevant to the story, and nothing there but for sexual innuendo. Saying that, it isn't in depth, more comments here and there which would make the book 5 stars without. However, the best is it keeps you guessing. You don't know what has happened, and the plot is set up so well, you can't figure out how they will get out.

[M Christopher · Rating 4 out of 5]

A ripping Star Trek yarn that weaves between decades involving Captain Hikaru Sulu and the crew of the USS Excelsior, Captain (later Admiral) John Harriman of the Enterprise-B, and Ensign (later Captain) Demora Sulu, also of the Enterprise-B. David George never fails to deliver better than competent scifi and a true affection for the Star Trek characters and universe. He has a deft hand with the relationships between the characters, which is, after all, the true hallmark of the success of the Original Series and its many spinoffs.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable. I'd like to see more from this crew. My biggest complaints were I think this could have made more than one book - lots of big things presented here. I hope they make more "Lost Era" books; this was the first one (at least under that banner) in many years and in that time I think the Trek books have grown better (on average) with a bigger and consistent expanded universe.

[Miket01 · Rating 3 out of 5]

An awful lot of coincidences mar an otherwise enjoyable planet-of-the-week novel. Not nearly as good as Serpent Among the Ruins.

[Dan Friedman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good reading can't wait till they do more lost era books

[Lorraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very entertaining imagining of an adventure involving Hikaru Sulu, Demora Sulu, and John Harriman, set in a time between the last of the TOS canon stories, and the beginning of STNG.

[Iain Parkes]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13756899

[Sherrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

.