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Stranded on a remote planet, Worf, his friends from Starfleet Academy, and cadets from the Klingon Empire, fight for survival as they face a mysterious and dangerous alien warrior. Original. 175,000 first printing.
128 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
3 people are currently reading
203 people want to read
About the author
Peter David
3,567 books1,364 followersaka David Peters
Peter Allen David, often abbreviated PAD, was an American writer of comic books, novels, television, films, and video games. His notable comic book work includes an award-winning 12-year run on The Incredible Hulk, as well as runs on Aquaman, Young Justice, SpyBoy, Supergirl, Fallen Angel, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, Captain Marvel, and X-Factor.
His Star Trek work included comic books and novels such as the New Frontier book series. His other novels included film adaptations, media tie-ins, and original works, such as the Apropos of Nothing and Knight Life series. His television work includes series such as Babylon 5, Young Justice, Ben 10: Alien Force and Nickelodeon's Space Cases, which he co-created with Bill Mumy.
David often jokingly described his occupation as "Writer of Stuff", and he was noted for his prolific writing, characterized by its mingling of real-world issues with humor and references to popular culture, as well as elements of metafiction and self-reference.
David earned multiple awards for his work, including a 1992 Eisner Award, a 1993 Wizard Fan Award, a 1996 Haxtur Award, a 2007 Julie Award and a 2011 GLAAD Media Award.
Peter Allen David, often abbreviated PAD, was an American writer of comic books, novels, television, films, and video games. His notable comic book work includes an award-winning 12-year run on The Incredible Hulk, as well as runs on Aquaman, Young Justice, SpyBoy, Supergirl, Fallen Angel, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2099, Captain Marvel, and X-Factor.
His Star Trek work included comic books and novels such as the New Frontier book series. His other novels included film adaptations, media tie-ins, and original works, such as the Apropos of Nothing and Knight Life series. His television work includes series such as Babylon 5, Young Justice, Ben 10: Alien Force and Nickelodeon's Space Cases, which he co-created with Bill Mumy.
David often jokingly described his occupation as "Writer of Stuff", and he was noted for his prolific writing, characterized by its mingling of real-world issues with humor and references to popular culture, as well as elements of metafiction and self-reference.
David earned multiple awards for his work, including a 1992 Eisner Award, a 1993 Wizard Fan Award, a 1996 Haxtur Award, a 2007 Julie Award and a 2011 GLAAD Media Award.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
September 19, 2021
With Survival, the mini trilogy (all written by Peter David) that kicks off this Starfleet Academy junior book series comes to its conclusion. At the end of book two, Line of Fire, Klingon and Federation settlers evacuate the planet Dantar IV in the aftermath of a spaceship attack by an anonymous foe who used both Klingon and Federation weaponry. Evacuation vessels couldn't take everyone, so a small group volunteered to stay and await rescue. Included among them are Starfleet cadets Worf, Soleta (a Vulcan), Zak Kebron (a Brikar), humans Tania Tobias and Mark McHenry, as well as K'Ehleyr, Kodash, and Gowr of the Klingon Empire. Optimism runs high at first, but as days turn to weeks, Worf and his peers wonder: what if something bad happened to the evacuees before they found help? Will the stranded teens spend the remainder of their lives on this hot, barren planet?
Klingons and the Brikar have long been enemies. Worf and Zak made their peace some time ago, but Zak is constantly on the brink of violence in his interactions with Kodash and Gowr. Worf and K'Ehleyr have their own strong feelings on the subject, but struggle to maintain partiality as group leaders. The more time passes with no change in the Dantar IV situation, the harder it is to keep calm, but Soleta stumbles on a possible lead while searching the desert for signs of life. What is a wrecked spaceship doing here? She soon finds out the Starfleet cadets and young Klingons are not the only living beings on Dantar IV.
An enemy in their midst is cause for concern, but it's a relief to not be completely alone. Dantar IV turns out to have been settled before the Federation/Klingon project there. A group of hostiles wants to keep this earlier settlement a secret, and launched the attack against Dantar IV to do so. They will kill Worf and his comrades if given a chance, but our heroes won't be eliminated easily. Ignoring their personal squabbles, they must band together against the enemy so they can live long enough to signal that help is needed on Dantar IV. Will Worf's first foray into space exploration be a success, or prove he has a lot to learn before becoming a Starfleet officer?
What should be the top priority in life, safety or adventure? The scope of the question is magnified by the Star Trek franchise, but we grapple with it on a smaller scale in our own lives. Soleta thinks about it as she searches the desert alone. "Of what consequence was (safety), when one got down to it? She was stuck on a planet with lightly seasoned cadets, cranky Klingons, and dwindling chances of rescue. She was already in danger. It was like being out in the rain. Once you were wet, all you could get was more wet, which somehow wasn't as bad." Staying home is safer, but if you want a meaningful life, you have to venture out and risk harm; Soleta, Worf, and the others committed to that course when they joined Starfleet. Managing egos and avoiding cultural landmines is tricky, but if these cadets can do it they'll have learned everything necessary to be good ambassadors for the Federation and other humanoid empires as they move beyond their own galactic neighborhoods into mysterious regions of deep space. Worf can't be certain he has chosen the right path in life, but he's determined to see it through. "I will always have doubts," he admits to K'Ehleyr in a rare moment of emotional transparency. "But I will always overcome them." It's difficult to stand by your convictions when you have no way of knowing they are right, but the alternative is lifelong paralysis by analysis. A universe of opportunities is out there waiting for you to take hold of them.
Peter David isn't a natural children's author, but he does a pretty good job in this series. The action is somewhat bland, but now and then it rises to the occasion, and the story shows keen understanding of Worf's personal struggles. Mr. David's sense of humor provides several laugh-out-loud moments in Survival; Worf is arguably unsurpassed as a comedy "straight man" in any arena of fiction, a role he fills beautifully for this book. I might consider giving Survival two and a half stars. There are eleven books after this one in the Starfleet Academy series, and I look forward to delving into Geordi La Forge's origin story next.
Klingons and the Brikar have long been enemies. Worf and Zak made their peace some time ago, but Zak is constantly on the brink of violence in his interactions with Kodash and Gowr. Worf and K'Ehleyr have their own strong feelings on the subject, but struggle to maintain partiality as group leaders. The more time passes with no change in the Dantar IV situation, the harder it is to keep calm, but Soleta stumbles on a possible lead while searching the desert for signs of life. What is a wrecked spaceship doing here? She soon finds out the Starfleet cadets and young Klingons are not the only living beings on Dantar IV.
An enemy in their midst is cause for concern, but it's a relief to not be completely alone. Dantar IV turns out to have been settled before the Federation/Klingon project there. A group of hostiles wants to keep this earlier settlement a secret, and launched the attack against Dantar IV to do so. They will kill Worf and his comrades if given a chance, but our heroes won't be eliminated easily. Ignoring their personal squabbles, they must band together against the enemy so they can live long enough to signal that help is needed on Dantar IV. Will Worf's first foray into space exploration be a success, or prove he has a lot to learn before becoming a Starfleet officer?
What should be the top priority in life, safety or adventure? The scope of the question is magnified by the Star Trek franchise, but we grapple with it on a smaller scale in our own lives. Soleta thinks about it as she searches the desert alone. "Of what consequence was (safety), when one got down to it? She was stuck on a planet with lightly seasoned cadets, cranky Klingons, and dwindling chances of rescue. She was already in danger. It was like being out in the rain. Once you were wet, all you could get was more wet, which somehow wasn't as bad." Staying home is safer, but if you want a meaningful life, you have to venture out and risk harm; Soleta, Worf, and the others committed to that course when they joined Starfleet. Managing egos and avoiding cultural landmines is tricky, but if these cadets can do it they'll have learned everything necessary to be good ambassadors for the Federation and other humanoid empires as they move beyond their own galactic neighborhoods into mysterious regions of deep space. Worf can't be certain he has chosen the right path in life, but he's determined to see it through. "I will always have doubts," he admits to K'Ehleyr in a rare moment of emotional transparency. "But I will always overcome them." It's difficult to stand by your convictions when you have no way of knowing they are right, but the alternative is lifelong paralysis by analysis. A universe of opportunities is out there waiting for you to take hold of them.
Peter David isn't a natural children's author, but he does a pretty good job in this series. The action is somewhat bland, but now and then it rises to the occasion, and the story shows keen understanding of Worf's personal struggles. Mr. David's sense of humor provides several laugh-out-loud moments in Survival; Worf is arguably unsurpassed as a comedy "straight man" in any arena of fiction, a role he fills beautifully for this book. I might consider giving Survival two and a half stars. There are eleven books after this one in the Starfleet Academy series, and I look forward to delving into Geordi La Forge's origin story next.
June 5, 2017
a wonderful conclusion, overall, my irritation with heterosexuality aside. Mark McHenry at his best, and Soleta's discussion of the ethical implications of what Worf is asking her to do is much darker than I remembered. I'll be sad to leave the Dream Team behind, even if Capture the Flag is my favorite of the series.
January 29, 2025
2.5 stars, rounding up to 3. The last of the Worf-at-Starfleet-Academy trilogy, this is also the best of the bunch. Partly because I have a fondness for stories where people are marooned, and partly because of the focus on Soleta, who's fantastic (she more than makes up for Mark, whose airy strangeness is painfully belaboured - he's not remotely believable). Have to say I've never had much patience for coincidental contrivance, either, and the fact that the colonists built their colony right on top of a secret base made me roll my eyes, hard. But, as I said, there's still Soleta, who gets the best lines of the entire book, having smacked down an attacker of monstrous proportion: "I found his ship. Then he found me. Then I found his shoulder." Don't tell me Vulcans don't have a sense of humour, because I refuse to believe it.
September 18, 2016
Enjoyable...but not this franchise as you've come to expect it.
October 5, 2022
This was the conclusion of the book I started last year. It was a two part story. STNG- Starfleet Academy numbers 2 & 3.
Now the story was believable and exciting,. We are introduced to the Brikar. The Brikar is a warrior race, that kidnaps colonists and wage war against the Federation. The cadets on a smaller scale, also defeat the Brikar. Nice. I liked it.
Now the story was believable and exciting,. We are introduced to the Brikar. The Brikar is a warrior race, that kidnaps colonists and wage war against the Federation. The cadets on a smaller scale, also defeat the Brikar. Nice. I liked it.
March 20, 2020
Interesting story, with aliens I'd not encountered before. Wonder if they show up in any other books. Second half of a story though, so readers may be disappointed if the other half is not present as well.
September 28, 2025
While the first two installments are decent storytelling—I mean, this is Peter David after all—the third and closing of this arc is weak. The plot points, the conflict are just there without any real meaning. It’s fine in the end but jut ok. Two stars.
September 17, 2020
A very satisfying conclusion. The predicaments in this story are pure trek.
September 18, 2021
Tickled my fancy!
September 11, 2022
I hoped for a bit more from this one. It would have been great to see more of Worf and K’Ehleyr’s budding relationship.
October 7, 2023
It was okay.
February 28, 2019
I've decided to read some of the stuff that takes place in the Star Trek universe, for research purposes. I was particularly interested in Starfleet Academy and, since Next Generation was clearly the best Star Trek series yet, I went with that one. So here I am reviewing the first three in a fourteen book series called Star Trek The Next Generation: Starfleet Academy Book Series, all written by Peter David. And, boy, am I disappointed!
It's not that I expected some high end drama, but in reality each one of these books is a booklet that one can read in about 2 hours. All three of them together are barely a novel. And the thing is that this is exactly what I was looking for: a history of the crew of the Enterprise from when they were cadets. What am I disappointed for? It is a "written by numbers" book. It is one of those "write a novel in nine days" thing, only each is probably written in five. The characters are shallow, undeveloped, details are missing and there is no real science fiction in there. I mean the real stuff, the one that takes into account centuries of cultural and technological evolution in which we had eugenic wars and a third World War, in which we encountered a myriad of alien species that are very different from us. There is no social commentary, no psychological evolution, no high technology and no real personal drama. And I understand. Just take a look at the bibliography of Peter David, it needs its own page. The man is a writing monster. However, it is clearly a quantity vs quality thing.
Anyway, I will review all three books as a single story, which in fact it is. All about Worf at the Academy, Worf's First Adventure is about proving himself in a simulated battle against the Romulans, while Line of Fire and Survival are about him taking command of a diplomatic mission on a joint Federation-Klingon colony.
From the first pages we get that Worf has a conflicted personality, stuck somewhere between the strict tenets of the Klingon culture and the Human education from his parents, unclear if he is more Klingon or more Human. His parents are proud of him and his adoptive brother as they embark for the Starfleet Academy, but from then on, for three "books" of adventure, we don't hear anything about those parents anymore. In fact, the first book is there merely to prove Worf's superiority over his human brother who is forced to leave the Academy as soon as the story ends. Afterward, we don't read anything about him, either. There are more pages dedicated to grumpy and violent behavior than it is to what the Academy entails, what are the courses, or how disjointed lectures can form a cadet into an officer in a four year standard program. It is not explained why some are engineers and some are in security, even when they are taking the same classes. Nor is it made obvious how the teaching methods in the twentyfourth century differ from the ones in 1980. Worf simply floats from one sequence to the other, like in a dream, without the need for continuity or context or even common sense.
To summarize: Worf comes to the Academy, learns nothing new and his innate values and abilities help him go through the challenges posed by a Starfleet training. I mean, really, there is a part there about how Worf was taught to be in a certain way and not helping a team member when in need was simply not conceivable. So basically... he remains unchanged. True, Worf is one of the most stubborn and difficult to change characters in Star Trek, but still, a good story needs some sort of development, some sort of life changing challenge, any kind of challenge at all.
In truth, this level of writing makes me more confident on my prospects of writing books myself, but I don't want to read stuff like this.
It's not that I expected some high end drama, but in reality each one of these books is a booklet that one can read in about 2 hours. All three of them together are barely a novel. And the thing is that this is exactly what I was looking for: a history of the crew of the Enterprise from when they were cadets. What am I disappointed for? It is a "written by numbers" book. It is one of those "write a novel in nine days" thing, only each is probably written in five. The characters are shallow, undeveloped, details are missing and there is no real science fiction in there. I mean the real stuff, the one that takes into account centuries of cultural and technological evolution in which we had eugenic wars and a third World War, in which we encountered a myriad of alien species that are very different from us. There is no social commentary, no psychological evolution, no high technology and no real personal drama. And I understand. Just take a look at the bibliography of Peter David, it needs its own page. The man is a writing monster. However, it is clearly a quantity vs quality thing.
Anyway, I will review all three books as a single story, which in fact it is. All about Worf at the Academy, Worf's First Adventure is about proving himself in a simulated battle against the Romulans, while Line of Fire and Survival are about him taking command of a diplomatic mission on a joint Federation-Klingon colony.
From the first pages we get that Worf has a conflicted personality, stuck somewhere between the strict tenets of the Klingon culture and the Human education from his parents, unclear if he is more Klingon or more Human. His parents are proud of him and his adoptive brother as they embark for the Starfleet Academy, but from then on, for three "books" of adventure, we don't hear anything about those parents anymore. In fact, the first book is there merely to prove Worf's superiority over his human brother who is forced to leave the Academy as soon as the story ends. Afterward, we don't read anything about him, either. There are more pages dedicated to grumpy and violent behavior than it is to what the Academy entails, what are the courses, or how disjointed lectures can form a cadet into an officer in a four year standard program. It is not explained why some are engineers and some are in security, even when they are taking the same classes. Nor is it made obvious how the teaching methods in the twentyfourth century differ from the ones in 1980. Worf simply floats from one sequence to the other, like in a dream, without the need for continuity or context or even common sense.
To summarize: Worf comes to the Academy, learns nothing new and his innate values and abilities help him go through the challenges posed by a Starfleet training. I mean, really, there is a part there about how Worf was taught to be in a certain way and not helping a team member when in need was simply not conceivable. So basically... he remains unchanged. True, Worf is one of the most stubborn and difficult to change characters in Star Trek, but still, a good story needs some sort of development, some sort of life changing challenge, any kind of challenge at all.
In truth, this level of writing makes me more confident on my prospects of writing books myself, but I don't want to read stuff like this.
October 10, 2011
The last part of a trilogy detailing Worf’s times in Starfleet Academy, “Survival” picks up where “Line of Fire” left us hanging, in the middle of a terrorist attack on a remote colony world shared by the Federation and the Klingon Empire. Like its predecessors, this novel is well written and rich with character content, even if the plot isn’t among the most original ever concocted.
June 25, 2014
I enjoyed this ending to trilogy. Peter David is one of my favorite Star Trek authors of all time. I liked how the Brikar war was the underlying problem. Worf's character is well defined with a strong moral code.
September 16, 2014
The last in the trilogy. The cadets are stranded on a planet and find the reason behind the attack on the colony. A fun book that ends the trilogy believably. There is definite character growth among the Klingons. the illustrations, again are very well done. A good read.
August 24, 2013
Not a surprising end to the story, enjoyable nevertheless. I would appreciate a change of cadet now, though, as too much of one bunch can seem a little taxing.
August 26, 2016
This is the second half of book #2. Better than the previous two as this one has a lot more action. YA but worth the read of the first three in this series if your a fan of TNG and Worf.
November 15, 2016
A good continuation from the last book, I enjoyed the story of the young Worf trying to fit into two different worlds. I look forward to the rest of this short series of books.
November 7, 2018
Take the third part of Worf's journey as it comes to a close for Starfleet academy for him
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews