Engines of Destiny

Star Trek: The Original Series

by Gene DeWeese

THE MACHINE AGE

After the apparent death of James T. Kirk on the U.S.S. Enterpris NCC-1701-B, Montgomery Scott decides to leave Starfleet. A chance encounter with a mysterious woman named Guinan leads him to hitch a ride on the U.S.S. Jenolen -- which crashes into a Dyson Sphere, leaving only Scotty to survive suspended as a transporter pattern....

Seventy-five years later, he is revived aboard the Enterprise-D -- on which Guinan serves as bartender. But fate has not finished with either Scotty or Guinan. The engineer hatches an audacious plan to travel back in time and rescue Jim Kirk the moment before he would vanish into the nexus and bring him back to the twenty-fourth century without damaging the timeline.

Scotty's plan, however, does not go as expected. Though Kirk is rescued, the famed captain and the engineer, as well as Captain Picard, Guinan, and the crew of the Enterprise-D, are trapped in an altered past where there is no Federation, and no human race. Sarek of Vulcan leads a ragtag collection of species fighting a losing battle against the Borg, who have swarmed into the Alpha Quadrant and assimilated Earth.

Starfleet's finest miracle worker must find a way to restore the timeline before the galaxy is overrun....

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Fiction, Time Travel, Ebooks, Star Trek The Next Generation, Science Fiction Fantasy

352 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Depressed and full of self-recriminations, Scotty decides to shun 24th century life and embark on a daring mission to travel back in time and rescue his former commanding officer James Kirk from the jaws of death on the maiden voyage of the Enterprise-B.

Engines of Destiny skillfully weaves together multiple time periods in Star Trek's history to create a chilling possible future: what if Kirk never died? We're quickly offered the answer in the form of a massive Borg armada who have established a major beachhead in the Alpha Quadrant and successfully assimilated humanity.

But how could Kirk's death possibly be responsible for such a radical departure from established history? Sadly, anyone with a passing knowledge of the events of Star Trek: Generations and Star Trek: First Contact will probably have worked out the answer before the author even poses the question. And therein lies the big problem with Engines of Destiny. Rather than take what could have been a fascinating look into the everyday realities of living in the presence of an inexorably advancing Borg neighbor, the author instead proceeds to ask the same question over and over again: why are the Borg here?

The potential of the premise behind this book was huge... I found myself instantly fascinated by the more restrained Borg, slowly assimilating Earth's solar system behind an opaque sensor screen while the neighboring "Alliance" (read: Federation) species struggle to come up with defenses for the day when they must face the inevitable assimilation of their own worlds. But DeWeese explores so little of this universe, instead falling back on interminable dialogue about temporal mechanics ("This timeline could be so unstable it could self-destruct!" is one fine example) and debating about what caused the changes to the timeline.

OK, so if we're not going to take the opportunity to delve into the minutiae of this new timeline then we'll at least use Kirk's presence onboard the Enterprise-D as a launching point for some amazing scenes as he interacts with the Next Gen crew, right?! Wrong :( The author literally sidelines Kirk for most of the novel, relegating him to offering brief grimaces or nods as he watches Picard and Guinan debate. Herein lies a symptom of a much larger problem I had with Engines of Destiny. The characters don't really *do* very much. Worf, Troi, Beverly, Riker, Geordi, Data... they're all relegated to serving up throwaway lines. Most of the "character work" in this novel comes from Guinan - trying to psychoanalyse her vague feelings - and Picard, trying to make sense of them.

So many tantalizing stories and scenes are set-up, only to be squandered with no pay off:
- The Cardassians trying to oust Sarak from the Alliance counsel. Why? What's the backstory there? Sarak "rescues" his Cardassian adversary then puts him in the brig. We then forget about him for half the book, only to have him released so he can face death with the rest of the Wisdom crew.
- The Bounty 2. It disappears in the new timeline, but so does all talk about where it came from. This was the central mystery in the first third of the book - how did a fully intact Bird of Prey come to be found near the Narisian homeworld? Just forgotten about.
- The Starfleet old-fashioned shuttle. Why was it in the Bird of Prey? Forgotten about.

The author sacrifices character development and world-building for endless hypothetical "what-if" questions, with a rather lose plot wrapped around them and scene after scene of the Borg pursuing the Enterprise as they try to dump Kirk back in the Nexus. The addition of the Guardian of Forever was totally gratuitous, and lacked any impact when Guinan 2 encountered it. Likewise, Guinan 2 herself was perfunctory, and the author's decision to skip over the conversation between both Guinans was just... bewildering. I could go on, but I think (by now) the flaws with this read are clear.

Still, plus points are awarded for a rather more fleshed-out Borg identity, and a more compelling Queen. I liked the use of the Narisians as spies, and the image of thousands of cubes rushing out from Sol was well written. Likewise, Picard's pursuit of Scotty to the Arrhenius system was well paced with good dialogue. All this rescues Engines of Destiny from a dreaded one-star review.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

For a Star Trek book that builds off of Generations opening scene and the wonderful TNG episode Relics, this book was a boring, meandering disappointment. Maybe I was expecting too much.

[Dawn · Rating 2 out of 5]

The main problem I had with this book was the inability to believe why Scotty was blaming himself for Kirk's death. Kirk **volunteered** to make the adjustments to the deflector. Now if Scotty had created the Nexus or something that would've caused similar results then I could believe the self-loathing and regret that he experienced. I just couldn't suspend disbelief for this one. As another reviewer posted this book had several promising points and greater potential that sadly didn't come to fruition. If you can ignore the self-loathing part and then it might make for a decent read.

[Andy Stjohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engines of Destiny by Gene DeWeese

So overall, this was a very good book. There wasn’t like super in depth characterization for a lot of the supporting cast of TNG but honestly that’s ok. It mainly focused on Scotty, Picard, Guinan, Sarek from the alternate timeline and Kirk.

This was another excellent time travel book, like many other ones I’ve read. The alternate timeline in which Scotty accidentally creates by rescuing Kirk is interesting and it gave off X-Men: Days of Future Past vibes. Seeing what would happened if the Borg won in First Contact was very interesting and seeing the ripple effect of that. Also having Kirk and Picard interact very briefly throughout the book was nice as it was another form of crossover which I always enjoy. But this book also felt a little thin, just set pieces moving from one place to another with not alot of character development. There was some, in the case of Scotty he got the most along with Guinan, but for everyone else it was very thin. Also when I was reading it, I was worried about issues with canon, but the novel neatly wraps it up. Overall, a pretty good book that functions as a good sequel to Relics and it’s a miracle Scotty saved them all.
7.5/10

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is NOT great... but it had everything fifteen year old me was looking for in a Star Trek book. Crossovers between two or more Star Trek series. A direct sequel to one or more sequel. Bizarre time paradoxes. It's just too bad it came out when in 2005... when I was about 25. Not only that... but I didn't read it until I was 40.

I still like crossover when they are done well. Which for the most part this one actually was. Some of the twists it uses regarding time travel are actually kind of cool. The problem is that in order for those twists to work, the story could only have one ending- the self deleting time paradox. These stories are not only cliche with time travel stories in general but with Star Trek time travel stories in particular. So as cool as some of the concepts are... it takes a real turn for the boring and pointless at abournd the halfway mark.

Still a better read than ANY of John Vornholt's Genesis novels. Definitely light years ahead of the first printing of Star Trek- The Killing Time. But still pretty bad.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can you imagine the pitch for this novel? Combined elements of TNG episodes and movies such as "Time's Arrow", "Relics", "Generations" and "First Contact", then twist it all together into an alternative universe epic. Well, the plot is certainly epic...and I'm amazed most of it doesn't crumble under the weight of so much fanwank. To be fair, it's an incredibly fascinating & intricate plot...but it comes at the expense of lack of character development. Especially egregious is that, in spite of being the focus, Captain Kirk himself is not at the heart of all this...and his impact is so ephemeral, you could actually remove his presence from the book and you wouldn't lose any plot or story development. A truly epic concoction...but one that's far to concerned with getting from A to B, without embellishing the journey itself.

[Peter Rydén · Rating 2 out of 5]

Trevlig och intressant berättelse, men lite svår att följa. Många svängar hänger jag inte alls med i och de förklaras först långt senare. Berättelsen är trots detta mycket intressant och trovärdig (ur ett Star Trek-universums perspektiv). Det är förvånande att författaren inte låter karaktärerna fatta hur allt hänger ihop lite tidigare, de är smartare än så. Intressant hur de knyter ihop en tidig TNG-Enterprise med händelser som långt senare sker i Star Trek: First Contact samt med viktiga TOS-karaktärer. Den kan på så sätt även passa in i Shatnerverse-böckerna, även om de inte direkt berörs.

Sammantaget en intressant men något rörig bok, precis som jag känner att denna recension blev... :)

[Mike Whiskey Bravo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good plot.

But they dismiss all the other character of the TNG crew with a dismissive air. Troi has one mention, but then abruptly interrupted and forgotten about. It could have been a lot more. But no, it was about the two captains, and Kirk’s speaking didn’t sound like Kirk, where Picard’s did.

Oh well.

(Rating changed from 4 to 3 stars during the writing of this review)

[Chad Sutherland · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great story tying together TNG, the original series, and the TNG movies. All aspects that make Trek Trek are here from impossible odds, human intuition, and time travel. Despite me wanting parts of the book to be expanded I felt it was a lot of fun to read!

[Paxton Holley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, such a good book. Focuses on Scotty traveling back in time to save Kirk from his death in ST: Generations.

[tom woods · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book

[Brian Flynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Intriguing - even great! - idea and setup, but the second half became a slog, in my opinion. Not a total waste, though.

[Leif Nar · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun as a sort of "what if...?"

[Lori · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this entirely for the Borg, and it does not do them justice at all.

[Steven Haworth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Decent plot - but there's really no character development or depth, beyond who the characters already are.

[Jeremiah Murphy · Rating 3 out of 5]

From the cover, I was really hoping for a Star Trek/Back to The Future team-up. I mean it looks just like the clock tower from Back to the Future, right?

But alas… I still enjoyed it.

[Stuart Ruffell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've read several of Gene Deweese's Star Trek novels before, and enjoy his style. He has a good grasp of character and of the Star Trek mythos, but with this book I felt that the plot and characterization was a little stretched.

Whilst I have to admit I thought the book was good, the crossover between Trek:TOS and Trek:TNG plus the addition of the Borg and an alternate time line where the Borg are everywhere didn't seem to sit quite right, and wasn't as sensational as i'd hoped. But that's just my humble opinion!

The true test is - will I keep it?

The answer would have to be - yes, worth keeping. But not as good as i'd hoped.

[Sean Randall · Rating 3 out of 5]

"If you were telling someone how to use a sonic shower, would you bother to explain that you can modify its circuits to make it work as a low-power disruptor?"

An interesting point there - I wonder if Section 31 have ever used that trick?

This started out gripping me but slacked off quite considerably. It's an interesting idea, Scotty and Guinan are two characters I wouldn't have ever thought to be involved in such a complex web. Guinan was even more insufferable here than in the TNG episode Yesterday's Enterprise, and kirk is a shallow shadow of himself inserted only as padding for Scotty's actions.

[Ralph McEwen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't read many of the Star Trek novels so I can't compare this one as the other reviewers have. I did enjoy reading this novel though. There are a lot of characters and if your not familiar with the Star Trek series's you could have trouble with this book. I liked getting a little more background into Guinan and how the story intertwined some of the Original Star Trek with The Next Generation.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is set after Scotty is saved by the Enterprise, and is shocked to find out what happened to Kirk. He decides to save him, enter the borg and alternative universes. This is a really good page turner. and the characters are engaging. A great read for anyone who likes Scotty or the Borg. A very good read.

[Kieran Price · Rating 4 out of 5]

very nice little story where the TNG crew go to a "what if?" time line where the borg have assimilated earth and pretty much every federation planet. The book captures the Next Gen feel very well with every character speaking and no one being left out, especially Guinan who actually plays an important part in the story. also very impressed with how the end links with Star Trek:Generations!

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was pretty awesome! Set six months after Relics, when the Enterprise-D crew stumbled onto Montgomery Scott, thus novel does a neat job of blending events from Generations and First Contact into a bizarre "What If?" adventure, while also setting the stage for the relaunch titles leading up to Star Trek: Destiny.

Anytime Kirk and Picard are thrown together is a rousing good adventure!

[Benjamin Plume · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't care so much for this one. There is better Trek out there.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

http://www.starbaseandromeda.com/Revi...

[Hasmik Vardanyan]

It WAS BORING!!!

[Frank · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Time Travel Story!

What happens if TNG era Scotty decides to go back in time and rescues Kirk from "dying" on the Enterprise B?

[Cheryl]

Decided not to read after I realized how dusty it was getting....