Force and Motion

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

by Jeffrey Lang

A thrilling original novel set in the universe of Star The Next Generation / Deep Space Nine !In 2367, Captain Benjamin Maxwell of the starship Phoenix ordered the destruction of a Cardassian warship and a supply vessel, killing more than six hundred crew members. Maxwell believed that the Cardassians were arming for a new attack on the Federation, and though history eventually proved he was probably correct, the Federation had no choice but to court martial and incarcerate him.Almost twenty years have passed, and now Maxwell is a free man, working as a maintenance engineer on the private science station Robert Hooke , home to crackpots, fringe researchers, and, possibly, something much darker and deadlier. Maxwell’s former crewmate, Chief Miles O’Brien, and O’Brien’s colleague, Lieutenant Commander Nog, have come for a visit. Unfortunately, history has proven that whenever O’Brien and Nog leave Deep Space 9 together, unpredictable forces are set into motion…, , & 2016 CBS Studios, Inc. STAR TREK and related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Star Trek Deep Space Nine, Fiction, Military Fiction, Novels, Ebooks

352 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 1, 2016

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Alejandro · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cool Sci-Fi Adventure!


ENGINEERING A STORY

…any government is only one crisis away from either anarchy or totaliarianism.

While this is indeed a Deep Space Nine story, I think that they could easily published it as a Starfleet Corps of Engineers novel too, since the story is focused on Chief Miles O’Brien and Lt. Cmdr. Nog, that both are the key engineers of the new Deep Space 9 Frontier-class station, and even when the narrative occurs in other space station, still is a story full of engineering concepts.

Also, this story has a The Next Generation based background since this novel is a sequel to the event of TV episode “The Wounded”, where Captain Benjamin Maxwell of the Starship Phoenix fell from grace taking justice on his own hands attacking Cardassian battle cruisers and Cardassian civilian vessels, murdering hundreds of Cardassians.

The family of Maxwell was killed during a Cardassian attack on a Federation world during the first conflict of those powers. And when Federation and Cardassian Union were having a fragile truce, Maxwell was sure that Cardassians were re-arming again.

However, without tangible proof and just a hunch, the Cardassian Union demanded actions against Maxwell and Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the Starship Enterprise-D hadn’t any other choice than to arrest him.

Maxwell was real lucky of just be sent to a Psychiatric Penal Colony in New Zealand.

The sad irony of all this?

The Cardassian Union was indeed re-arming itself and it was ready to form an alliance with The Dominion and making war against the Federation once again, some years after that.

Nineteen years has been since the arrest of Benjamin Maxwell, and now he is a free man. But he is a man with a terrible past and now he only wants to keep a low profile. So, he gets a job as maintenance engineer in Robert Hooke, a private civilian space station, kinda near of Deep Space Nine.

However, in a civilian space station, a maintenance engineer isn’t other thing than basically a janitor…

…Benjamin Maxwell, from Starfleet Captain to janitor.


ENGINEERING AN EMERGENCY

Chief Miles O’Brien served under former Captain Benjamin Maxwell, and O’Brien was crucial for the arrest of Maxwell, and while O’Brien isn’t happy of having to do that, he knows that it was that or the Enterprise-D would have to fire against the Phoenix with the high chance of losing even more lives in the mess that Maxwell did. So since a battle between sister ships was avoided, O’Brien knows that he took the best possible call in that moment.

Miles O’Brien kept his friendship with Benjamin Maxwell, and is currently one of the few people that Maxwell can count as a friend in a final frontier where Maxwell isn’t welcomed anymore.

So, Chief Miles O’Brien asked Lt. Cmdr. Nog to accompany him to pay a visit to his former captain, they took the Amazon runabout to go to Robert Hooke station.

There, they will meet, not only again Benjamin Maxwell, but also some colorful characters:

Anatoly Finch, a male scientist working in a project with organisms, focused to make habitable again worlds devastated during the last Great Borg Invasion.

Nita Bharad, a female scientist working in a project with artificial lifeforms with evolving intelligence, in the shape of spiders…(sorry!) arachnoforms, having already two of them, “sisters”, Ginger and Honey.

However, there is an unquestionable fact…

…always that O’Brien and Nog go to someplace together…

…troubles rise!

Soon enough, in what was supposed to be a brief visit, O’Brien and Nog will have to put all their combined engineering expertise to try to save the Robert Hooke station and all the crew there.

But beyond any engineering issue…

…they will have to do their best too to help Benjamin Maxwell to find his long overdue…

…redemption.

Ah, and other good thing, that it's already usual to find in the Star Trek novels by Jeffrey Lang is that he is real good to develop characters, places and situations beyond Starfleet, creating a richer and larger final frontier in the franchise.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

An easy & pleasant binge read, but it was less than I was expecting. Although the overall story was entertaining enough, there were two issues that bothered me: (1) the relationship gold that existed between O'Brien and Nog in televised DS9 didn't seem to be recaptured here; (2) I simply wasn't that interested in the rehabilitation of former Captain Ben Maxwell. This novel was a decent enough diversion, but I need some meaty DS9 now...preferably Sisko's new adventures in the Gamma Quadrant.

[reherrma · Rating 1 out of 5]

Dieser Roman hat mir gar nicht gefallen....
Zu uninspirierend war die Handlung, die auch keine Geschichte innerhalb der aktuellen DS9-Handlungsfadens weitergeführt hat. Vordergründig ist es ein Abenteuer der beiden Sternenflotten-Ingenieure Miles O'Brian und Nog, die von Captain Ro Laren von DS9 weggeschickt wurden, um etwas Urlaub zu tanken. Miles besucht dabei seinen ehemaligen Captain Ben Maxwell, der inzwischen aus Gefängnis und Psychiatrie entlassen wurde um als Hausmeister auf einer privaten Raumstation zu arbeiten. Seinerseits wurde Maxwell aus der Sternenflotte entlassen und zu einem lebenslangen Gefängnisaufenthalt auf Neuseeland !!! verurteilt, weil er seinerseits verantwortlich war, während einer Auseinandersetzung mit den Cardassianern, ein vollbesetztes Raumschiff vernichtet zu haben.
Auf dieser privaten Raumstation finden genetische Experimente statt, "verrückte Wissenschaftler" versuchen Gott zu spielen und erschaffen neue Lebensformen. Dabei geschieht ein Unfall, als eine dieser Lebensformen aus dem Labor entweicht; es entwickelt sich nun eine Frankenstein-Krimi-Geschichte, in der Miles und Nog hineingezogen werden.
Für mich nur mäßig interessant, weil dem Star Trek Kanon nichts Neues hinzugefügt wurde, aber auch die Personen bleiben merkwüdig blass, Spannung war m.E. keine vorhanden.
Aufgehorcht habe ich nur, weil irgendwann mal das Shedai Meta-Genom erwähnt wurde, aber danach bleibt alles im Dunkel...
Ein Roman, dessen Leküre ich mir hätte sparen können; verpasst habe ich nichts...

[Jonathan Koan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Star Trek: Force and Motion is a novel from the Deep Space Nine line of books by Jeffrey Lang. It was released from Simon and Schuster’s Pocket Books in June 2016 (as part of the 50 year anniversary of Star Trek).

I won’t bury the lead on this one. This is by far the best Star Trek novel I’ve read in a long time. For sure in my top 5 standalone Star Trek novels!

This is a much smaller novel than most of my favorites. This story follows Chief O’Brien and Commander Nog as they go out to visit O’Brien’s longtime friend, Benjamin Maxwell on the research station Robert Hooke. One of the research projects goes awry, causing chaos and problems for the characters involved.

This is a way deeper book than I expected. It really tells a compelling story about redemption and forgiveness, as well as one about responsibility and greed. Despite it’s short length, Jeffrey Lang packs quite a lot of themes into here.

He also has quite a bit of story, backstory, and action. As someone who never knew about Benjamin Maxwell (I forgot about the episode “The Wounded” from TNG or have never watched it) I was hooked by his story and the way that Lang told it. The book really is his story throughout. Nog and O’Brien are key POV characters to be sure, but the real heart and focus of this book is Maxwell.

I also really enjoyed a lot of the flashback sequences featuring Nog and O’Brien. Lang made their scenes feel like moments from the Deep Space Nine series. And the book as a whole felt like it could have been a longer/reworked script from DS9. This is an excellent mark of a media tie-in author!

The problem that occurs on the research station felt quintessentially like Star Trek. It (and the story as a whole) reminded me a lot of Star Trek The Motion Picture and the beginning of Star Trek Generations. Those aren’t normally movies paired together, but if you read the book you’ll see why I include them. There was also an element from the movie “Independence Day” that I enjoyed. There was also a well-placed “Redshirts” joke in there.

This is a very difficult book to sell to fans, as it doesn’t have the main characters from Deep Space Nine in it, nor does it have the main characters from The Next Generation. O’Brien is technically a main character, but he’s never been one to carry a line of books. Yet the editorial team at Pocket Books decided to release this book anyway (and in a monumental year celebrating 50 years of Star Trek). If Lang ever returns to write another Star Trek book, especially one in this style, I will definitely read it on release day!
‘
This isn’t a book review element per se, but I must point out that this is a gorgeous cover from Doug Drexler and Ali Ries. This is definitely a favorite Trek cover for me!

There were some extended sequences in the Penal colony, specifically with Maxwell’s therapists that I thought could have been cut down in favor of more action or character moments in the present. That’s probably my only gripe with the book.

Overall, this is a phenomenal book. Jeffrey Lang gets top marks in almost every category, from action, character work, sci-fi elements, and Star Trek lore. While having high stakes, the book has an element of being a “comfort book”, as it doesn’t have huge galactic spanning threats like the other Post-Nemesis books, which really helps it stand out. It is a real shame that more people haven’t read this book, because it is excellent. 5 out of 5! Way to go Jeffrey Lang!

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reasonable book, nothing extremely exciting overall. A small contained storyline with O'brien and Nog. In that respect does reasonable well.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

All Miles O'Brien wanted to do was visit a research lab and catch up with an old friend, along with his engineering chum Nog. He didn't expect to be thrown into a fight for his life, one involving giant robotic spiders and a massive blob of organic materials using a dead engineer's head as a sock puppet. But that's a day in the life of Miles Edward O'Brien.

Force and Motion had two immediate lures for me: first, the friend O'Brien is visiting is none other than Benjamin Maxwell, the captain who went 'rogue' in TNG's "The Wounded", insisting the Cardassians were re-arming and launching a one-man war to stop them. Maxwell was cashiered and imprisoned after that, but it's been twenty years and now he's out and about, actively avoiding any serious responsibilities. He just wants to serve, why is why a twice-decorated captain is now the maintenance engineer of a private space station. No one watches "The Wounded" and regards Maxwell as villainous; by the end we know perfectly well the Cardassians are up to mischief, and Maxwell had lost so much at their hands -- his wife and children -- that he was determined they'd never ambush the Federation again. Maxwell was a good man, merely one who had made an error in judgement, and I was eager to know him better.

The space station was the other lure for me: it's a privately-owned science station. Star Trek and economics are like reality and political rhetoric; they never intersect. The show writers invariably portrayed business owners as rats and pirates, so I was hoping that a novelist might produce a...well, novel approach. A privately owned research station, home to fringe scientists and the hub for otherwise outlawed genetic engineering? Cool! But....the premise fails to launch. Our enterprising private-owner-of-a-space-station is not a visionary trying to push science outside the smothering watch of a Federation bureaucracy; he's just an amoral eccentric whose self-absorption gets people killed and absolutely ruins O'Brien and Nog's day off. We don't learn too much about the kinds of science and tinkering being done, besides (1) bacteria-eating bacteria (2) robot spiders and (3)..rumors of a shrink ray.

What Force and Motion delivers is good content on the growing friendship between O'Brien and Nog, both of whom have seen their friends drift away. Maxwell himself is a central character, but mostly we find him in flashbacks, brooding with his shrink and doing things like building robotic legs to amuse himself. At the end he takes charge of a crisis and earns redemption, which is nice -- but the book's promise never catches fire and delivers for me.

[Frank Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

This story is centred on Nog and O'Brien, two of my personal favourite characters. It was a lot of fun to start with but by half way in I had noticed that I was fairly bored. It's not a bad story. It has fun new aliens, arachnoids who apparently don't eat humanoids (the author's attempt at making spiders loveable). It also continues Captain Benjamin Maxwell's story and this type of universe expanding is always a fan pleaser (at least it pleases this particular fanboy).

But something was a little dry in the details. We've got a fair bit of backstory thrown in to reveal how the characters, especially Ben Maxwell, find themselves in place for this story. We've got a mad scientist whose wacky experiment goes awry and places a starbase and its occupants in immediate peril. We've got plenty of banter between Miles and Nog. But. I guess this just wasn't the thrill that I was expecting.

If you're reading the post-Nemesis stuff in order (like I am currently), you know that at the point when this comes up it has been a slog through several David R. George books in a row, so seeing a different (albeit unfamiliar) author's name on the cover feels like a breath of fresh air. Unfortunately, this story only held my interest for about a third of the book. Next up 'Disavowed' by David Mack should do the trick.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not everyone is going to love this story. It is far outside the norm for a Star Trek novel, but to me, it was perfect. I love character studies, and Benjamin Maxwell is one of the most fascinating secondary characters on Trek. The exploration of his past, and the past of the other characters in this novel, make Force and Motion a five-star book for me.

Full review: http://treklit.blogspot.com/2016/10/F...

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good follow-up to Ben Maxwell's story from The Wounded, mixed in with another O'brien-and-Nog-must-suffer story. Self-contained within the later DS9 relaunch novels, it's a fairly melancholy book focusing on loneliness and recovering from loss. Despite the heavy subject, the writing style is quite casual and sometimes funny, which makes it an easier read. The scenes are described well and tge canon characters were in-character. I didn't care for the villain and the ending felt a tiny bit too easy at the last minute, but overall I really enjoyed this one. Hopefully Ben and Horrible are living a good life somewhere!

[RoAnna Sylver · Rating 5 out of 5]

(Actual review forthcoming, with coherent words and whatnot - It's good, very good, but I'm just sitting here at 1 AM staring into space kind of laughing, tad maniacally, because this was Wild from beginning to end, but mostly That Ending... that ending... Surreal madness, possibly genius, and exactly what my poor brain needed. GOOD NIGHT)

[omiczech · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is a story about Benjamin Maxwell. Quarther of a book takes a trip of Miles and Nog to a distant station while you get like five unconnected flashbacks to Maxwell's life. I was not able to get interest in this story so in half of the book I stopped.

[Maurice Jr. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always love it when they bring back a character from one of the TV series and show us what he or she (or it) is up to now. This time up, former Captain Benjamin Maxwell from The Next Generation.

Ben Maxwell spent time in a penal colony following his destruction of a Cardassian ship and threatening another while following a hunch that they were arming for war. Years later, he's a free man, and working as a janitor on a remote starbase populated by eccentric researchers.

Chief O'Brian is ordered to take some leave time, and brings Lt. Commander Nog with him to visit Ben (his former commanding officer). Of course there's no such thing as a normal situation when those two are together, and this is no exception. One of the scientist's projects escapes confinement, and it's up to the two Starfleet officers (and the former one) to put things right and save the occupants of the starbase before it's too late

Quite an enjoyable read, particularly if you like Chief O'Brian.

[Christian Hamilton · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is probably my least favorite book in the DS9 Relaunch thus far. It’s not a bad book. It’s just a completely unnecessary aside after the bombshell ending in the previous novel.

Here, we follow O’Brien and Nog as they go to visit the former Captain Maxwell on a space station. It’s goofy in a “Doctor Who” sort of way, with an eclectic cast of characters, but the whole book feels disjointed. What exactly is the “Mother”? What’s the purpose? And why is O’Brien even visiting Maxwell in the first place?

Nog completely dropped out of his Vic Fontaine subplot to take part in this novel, and O’Brien could have been written as any other character.

The novel’s main plot was so threadbare that we had numerous time jumps back just to fill out the pages.

It was entertaining, but as part of the DS9 Relaunch. You could have thrown it out and I wouldn’t have shed a tear.

[Jimyanni · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story features Miles O'Brien and Nog, as established characters, but the real "main character" of the story is Benjamin Maxwell, who appeared in the Next Generation episode "The Wounded", as a disgraced captain of the Phoenix who attacked Cardassian ships unprovoked. In this story, decades later, he is rehabilitated as a decent and competent character. Hopefully, there will be follow-ups.

The story is well-enough written, although I found the flashbacks distracting if probably necessary. The main plotline was certainly interesting, and if the exciting conclusion that I would have liked to see detailed was skipped over and recounted only in a brief explanation, I can understand that that would have entailed a MUCH longer book. It did seem a bit of a cheat, but I can forgive it.

[Elliot Weeks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great read! Loved this book and the standalone story it tells. FINALLY some more O’Brien action. He’s one of my favorite characters and never gets any ‘screen time’ in the novels. I think the author did a great job of mixing flashbacks with the main narrative. I never felt annoyed to be reading a flashback—oftentimes I will if it’s not done well. Really recommend this novel, especially if you like the Chief!

[Teresa Cage · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great plot

Terrific plot but the story moves slowly in sections. That is the only flaw. Absolutely adore Ginger and Honey. Still don’t know how I feel about the ending. My only complaint is that I wanted to know a lot more about Maxwell and while we get a lot of information it seems to be trivial and not important to the real story going on. Oh and fewer time jumps would have been appreciated.

[Terry Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

These Star Trek books are my guilty pleasure. Love keeping in touch with that universe of characters and setting. This one brings back a character from a TNG episode and imagines how his life proceeded from that tragic turn in the series.

The storytelling jumps all over the place chronologically, which makes following the story confusing. Otherwise it is a serviceable installment for Trek fans.

[Marc Hart · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good book but wasn't what I expected. I knew the Chief and Nog left DS9 together but I expected the book to be about the others left on the station as things feel apart.

This felt more like a novel-length Corps of Engineers story with the Chief and Nog.

I can't wait to get back to DS9 and see what's going on.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic novel, and first comedy I can remember in a Trek book for a while now. Yet it's also a poignant story about a damaged man and his recovery out in the back end of space. Nicely absurd in places and always riveting. I loved this book.

[Judith Paterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A DS9 warning against too much genetic tinkering?
Enjoyable romp with Chief O'Brien and Nog; they go to visit an old colleague on a private science station. There are flashbacks to Captain Maxwell's past - I think I remember the original story.

[Scott Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great little adventure for Nog and O’Brien. It also does a great job of fleshing out the life of a memorable TNG guest star. I really like that it is a self-contained story in the fashion of the 80s and 90s Trek novels.

[Steven Shinder · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was excited to check this one out because it sounded like Nog and Miles got more focus. And they do have fun bits of dialogue. But there was other stuff in the story that kind of wasn’t as interesting to me.

[Bookreader1972 · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 stars. very enjoyable easy read.
Have always like Chief O'Brian and Nog.
This is a stand alone book in the DS9 series, & I like that about it.

[Ceremony · Rating 3 out of 5]

more like a standalone episode - not really bad but also more like a nice intermezzo

[M.R. Bowers · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a lovely, funny, touching, intriguing novel.

[BBFlyer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting premises, but very chaotic story line.

[Paul Griggs · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another switch in pace. It makes a change for a DS9 story to be based around Nog and Chief O’Brien while also bringing back a popular guest character associated with the Chief’s back story.

[Alvaro Zinos-Amaro · Rating 3 out of 5]

Detailed review here: https://www.tor.com/2020/11/11/star-t...

[Dani JO · Rating 5 out of 5]

best most sensible easy enjoyable ds9 read i have come across in a while.

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Force and Motion takes place in the relaunch of Star Trek Deep Space Nine after Julian Bashir was pardoned after using the Shedai Meta-Genome to cure the Andorian's of their reproductive crisis. This book is largely a story about Nog and Chief O'Brien visiting O'Brien's former captain Benjamin Maxwell. Benjamin Maxwell was introduced to the Star Trek universe in The Next Generation episode "The Wounded." While visiting Maxwell at a private for-profit research space station, one of the labs suffers a containment failure leading to Nog, Maxwell, and O'Brien to evacuate the station and contain the damage.

This was an easy book to read, it focused squarely on Nog, O'Brien, and Benjamin Maxwell, with others being introduced as needed. I particular liked researcher Nita Bharad and her two genetically engineered spiders, err, arachnoforms, called Honey and Ginger. Nita acts as a close friend to Maxwell with Honey and Ginger attaching themselves emotionally to the three main characters. Honey in particular takes on a whole new dimension towards the end.

The novel does bounce around with dates going from the present to the past and back again to provide context. Frankly, I didn't much care for the sections covering Maxwell's rehabilitation, but I did like the recollections of what happened to him in the TNG episode, which I'm not very familiar with. Towards the end, there was a section where Maxwell and Honey are found by, what I assume is Starfleet or Section 31, and the story skips over what happened to reunite Honey with Nita. I found this part of the novel irritating because the reader has developed a connection to these characters and to gloss over this event is a bit shortsighted. It will be interesting to see what becomes of Nita, Ginger, and Honey and Maxwell's future, assuming they will make a reappearance in future novels.