Fire with Fire

Star Trek - Prometheus #1

by Bernd Perplies, Christian Humberg

Several brutal terrorist attacks have occurred near the border of the Klingon Empire, resulting in thousands of deaths. With the Klingons calling for violent vengeance, the Federation races to discover the perpetrators, sending the USS Prometheus, their most powerful ship, to the border region to find the culprits and solve the mystery before war breaks out in the galaxy.

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Audiobook, Space Opera, Fiction, Unfinished

382 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 29, 2016

About the author

Bernd Perplies, geboren 1977 in Wiesbaden, studierte Filmwissenschaft und Germanistik in Mainz. Parallel zu einer Anstellung beim Deutschen Filminstitut (DIF) in Frankfurt am Main, wandte er sich nach dem Studium dem professionellen Schreiben zu. Heute ist er in Vollzeit als Schriftsteller und Übersetzer tätig. Seine Werke - darunter die "Magierdämmerung"- und die "Carya"-Trilogie - sind mehrfach preisgekrönt. Zuletzt ist von ihm "Nachtmeisters Erben" erschienen, ein Dark-Future-Roman im "Shadowrun"-Rollenspiel-Setting, der von einer gefährlichen Überlandtour zweier abgebrühter Transportfahrer handelt. Außerdem verfasste er unter dem Pseudonym Wes Andrews die Space-Western-Reihe "Frontiersmen". Bernd Perplies lebt mit seiner Familie in der Nähe von Stuttgart.

+++

Bernd Perplies was born in Wiesbaden/Germany in 1977. After graduating in Movie Sciences and German Literature he started working at the Film Museum in Frankfurt am Main. At the same time he became a freelance journalist and translator, writing for movie magazines as well as science fiction and fantasy publishers. His first novel was published in 2008. Since then he has penned more than 30 science fiction, fantasy and steampunk novels, earning him about a dozen nominations for prestigious German genre awards. He won the RPC Fantasy Jury Award in 2010 and was awarded the Deutsche Phantastik Preis twice (2013 and 2015). Bernd Perplies lives with his family near Stuttgart.

Reviews

[Dana (Dana and the Books) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review can also be found on my blog, Dana and the Books.

Another fantastic addition to the Star Trek relaunch novels! A must read for any Star Trek fan who wants to see the Trek universe continue in the 24th century.

The story takes place post-Nemesis and does tie into the other relaunch novels. But it's not mandatory to read them all to jump into this one (I definitely haven't. There are TONS. I'm not made of unlimited free time). Any references to previous plot points do have a basic explanation so the reader doesn't get lost in the Delta Quadrant of understanding.

The ship at the centre of Fire With Fire is the USS Prometheus -- first introduced to us in the Voyager episode Message in a Bottle. And what a ship it is: super high tech, fastest ship in the fleet, and multi-vector assault mode (yes!). I would definitely suggest watching the episode for a refresh to familiarize yourself with the Prometheus (and it's also a good excuse to watch Star Trek so you can't really go wrong here).

Originally written in German, I found the writing in this one was a bit simpler than other Star Trek novels, which isn't a bad thing at all. It just means I was able to read it faster and have longer binge reading sessions.

I loved that there were so many aliens; they outnumbered the humans for sure. Starfleet on TV can be very human-centric -- or even just human passing -- so seeing such a diverse cast was refreshing. Lenissa was my favourite of the crew (I will always love Andorians).  Also a shoutout to Alexander Rozhenko. He annoyed me in Next Generation (I find a lot of the Star Trek child characters irritating), but I actually liked him here. All grown up and important.

Like other Star Trek books, it jumped around from character to character and told each of their stories and how it fits into the big picture. I felt the first half jumped around a bit too much. I would have liked more chapters about the core characters on the Prometheus rather than chapters about one off characters. However, the second half of the book was more focused and I hope the remaining two books will continue that way.

Fire With Fire felt like the first part of a multi episode story arc and I can't wait to find out how it ends!

Thanks so much to Titan Books for sending over a review copy!

Book Links: Book Depository | Amazon US | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK

[Bill Riggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting start to a new trilogy celebrating Star Trek’s 50th anniversary. New characters and old in a race against time to stop an all out war. The crew of the USS Prometheus join with the Klingons to investigate mysterious attacks against the Federation and the Klingon Empire which appear to have originated from the Lembatta Cluster, whose inhabitants the Renao, regard all outsiders as conquering tyrants.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book; it fits comfortably into the current novel continuity, and it's a quadrant-spanning adventure that takes in a lot of current Trek storylines. However, it has two problems I simply couldn't get past. The first is that I didn't find the crew of the Prometheus anything to write home about. They were wallpaper to me, and actually paled in comparison to the novel's Klingon contingent. But what truly irritated me was the explosive fanwank over-drive. There are many people who do fanwank extremely well -- in the Trek novels, Kristen Beyer and Greg Cox are two such masters of the art. However, this novel takes it beyond all sane bounds. Too many cameos combined with too many outrageously long (almost encyclopedic) info-dumps combine to create a novel that screams in my head "fan fiction". Perhaps its unfair (isn't all tie-in fiction fan fiction?), but there's an earnestness here that seems too eager-to-please-fandom, as opposed to getting on and telling the story. I don't actively dislike this book, but there is too much here that frustrates and disappoints me.

[Kaya Kobold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bis zum Epilog dachte ich mir, das wären 4 Sterne.

[Tazitazitazi · Rating 4 out of 5]

What can I say - I'm a Trekkie.

[Blodeuedd Finland · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this was like watching a Star Trek ep, no, I take that back, I mean lots happened, so maybe more like a movie. But then more is to come so maybe a 3 part movie then ;) You get the point. Have you seen a ST movie or tv series then this is what you are getting.

Terrorists are blowing stuff up. But who are they and what do they want? I am not good with timelines when it comes to Star Trek. But Spock is 150 years or old something (he shows up), so that is when it takes place. There is peace with the Klingons. The Borg are defeated. Other races has build a new pact and tensions run high and now this. There will never be peace in this universe.

The characters include a descendant of Kirk's brother. There is a young Renao who is wondering what his people are up to. The Captain of the ship who is trying to solve this mystery without the Klingons going all kill them all.

I do prefer the show or movies cos they are always so visually awesome. But it was fun reading a book for once too.

[Paul Lunger · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's not often that the world of Star Trek fiction gets an entry from an unlikely place & yet that is the case with the "Star Trek: Prometheus" series. Authors Bernd Perplies & Christian Humberg begin this series (originally written in German" with "Fire With Fire" launching a new series with a lot of potential to start. The book opens with the USS Valiant entering the Lembatta Cluster of space & encountering some sort of unknown radiation in the 23rd century. Fast forward to the present era in late 2385 to find the exploits of the USS Prometheus (seen in Voyager's "Message in a Bottle") leaving the Tzenkethi border & heading for DS9 in the aftermath of the events of "Star Trek: The Fall". While the ship is docked at the station, Starbase 91 it comes under attack by an unknown assailant & is destroyed killing nearly 4000 lives. Another subsequent attack on a Klingon moon forces the IKS Bortas (last seen in TNG's "Rightful Heir") also into action to combat the threat. Both ships rendezvous near the Lembatta Cluster where the race is on to figure out just who caused these attacks & why.

Humberg & Perplies create a world that is immensely entertaining & fascinating as we the reader get a chance to see another side of the events in the world of 2385 that we haven't seen as well as a better understanding of the how perilous the galactic neighborhood is. It's nice to use the use of familiar characters in Alexander Rozhenko, Mendon, & Spock as well throughout the book as we the reader have a completely different set of crew & circumstances to work with in a series that is as enjoyable to read as anything written before. Additionally, the authors stay close to the current canon in fiction & keep everything as close as they can which makes this book (the 1st of 3) fit very nicely into the fiction universe.

Overall, the story is very well written with believable characters along with plot twist after plot twist that will have readers guessing as to what will happen next. The Renao (the race that inhabits the Lembatta cluster) are also fleshed out in a way that make them believable as well along w/ the Purifying Flame (the terrorist group claiming responsibility for the attacks). A very satisfying entry into a series whose next 2 books I eagerly await to be translated into English and released in 2018.

[Saphirablue · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like it!

The "case" is interesting even though it's a bit too similar to what happens around the world for my tates at the moment. It's not a bad thing but I haven't been prepared for it and therefore it took a bit of adjustment from my side.

I'm curious when the crashed Federation ship comes up in the "present time" and how it ties into everything.

Having Spock there is a really nice touch.

I like the characters (especially Adams, Kirk, Zh'Tiin and ak Namur). I just wish, that we could have had more background on them. Maybe in the next part.

Now, I want to re-read all my Star Trek books (especially my DS9 ones) and get more of them. And re-watch everything... *meep*

[Kathrin_the_dreamer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ein eher mittelmäßiger Auftakt zu einer Trilogie, die viel Potential zu haben scheint. An vielen Stellen ziemlich langatmig, aber man darf sich über einige bekannte Namen freuen.

[Rebekah Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is was my first venture outside the normal crew of Star Trek and I wasn't disappointed. It jumped around from person to person a lot to change perspectives which was kind of cool but also a little hard to follow along with especially at the beginning. There were a lot of names and places to remember. It relied quite a bit on a knowledge of star trek lore and characters which was fine for me. The ending was slightly disappointing but I'm okay with that cause I don't always like things neatly tied up. Overall, pretty good story.

[Scott Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

I jumped ahead of myself a bit in the timeline because I was so excited to read this. I love the USS Prometheus and have been so surprised that no one has really made much use of it.

I think the authors did an excellent job of creating a crew of characters that I’m interested to read more about. They fit in quite well with established Trek characters. They feel like they belong in the universe. I’m especially interested to see more of first Officer Roaas; a male Caitian. It was great to see Alexander Rozhenko and Spock used well.

I also thought the authors did a great job of structuring the novel in a familiar Trek format. It was easy to see how the chapters might translate to filmed scenes. They were just the right length and the authors took you from place to place in a very familiar-feeling way. It was very like watching an episode of 90s Trek.

The main criticism I have of this novel is that some of the writing seemed a tad clunky but I’m willing to bet that is because of the translation from German to English. I’m excited to read the next instalment in May!

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A welcome addition to the world of Trek lit! I'm glad this series was made available to English speakers, as the story is off to a great start in this novel. An interesting allegory to the troubles facing the world today, Fire with Fire sets up the rest of the Prometheus trilogy nicely, putting pieces in place for what I hope turns out to be an epic adventure.

Full review: http://treklit.blogspot.com/2018/07/F...

[Stella Davies · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’ll say upfront that I liked the central mystery here. There were enough facets of it that I was kept guessing throughout. I also really loved the Klingon characters, but then again, I’m a sucker for Klingons, particularly sympathetic ones.

I do think that for a series about a whole new crew (that were ostensibly supposed to care about), very little time was spent actually telling us anything about that crew. By the end, I knew the names of the main crew, and not much else (except that Lenissa is screwing the doctor, I guess). What I did know, however, is that *everyone* in the existing Star Trek universe thinks that the Prometheus is the coolest ship ever and that Captain Adams is the best. Chief O’Brien thinks the ship is really well built; Spock thinks Adams is just like Kirk; even Alexander Rozhenko is there! (As a side note, Alexander gets shuttled somewhere by Ezri Dax, in what I imagine would be one of the most awkward conversations: Worf’s estranged son and the reincarnation of Worf’s wife? I would pay money to hear what they had to say to each other. But no, Ezri was just there to *be* there.) Most of this was contained within the first half, and it gave the sense that we were going on a tour of the galaxy’s celebrities, each saying how much they loved the crew/the ship. It didn’t necessarily detract, except that I think it didn’t leave much time for the original characters to shine through.

All in all, though, fun book, and I’m excited to read the rest of the series. Hopefully the original characters get some personality/backstory in the next two.

[Nicola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ich bin positiv überrascht: Der Auftakt der Trilogie ist gelungen und das Ende macht Lust auf mehr. Ich bin sehr gespannt, wie es weitergehen wird!

Die ersten deutschen Autoren in der nun schon 50 Jahre währenden Star-Trek-Geschichte liefern ein gut geschriebenes Abenteuer ab, das genau das richtige Tempo an den Tag legt, auch für "Normalos" wie mich die richtige Portion Techno-Gebrabbel bietet und ganz nebenbei einen sehr gelungenen Auftakt zu einer - wie es scheint - spannenden Trilogie abliefert.

Star-Trek-Fans können unbesorgt zugreifen, auch wenn der Preis mit 15 Euro für diesen Taschenbuch-Band nicht gerade niedrig ist. Der Inhalt ist es wert.

[Ralph · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sehr guter Start in die Reihe. Empfehlung für Trekkies.

[Adam Graham · Rating 3 out of 5]

Terrorist attack a Federation Star Base and a Klingon mining base and extremist calling themselves the Purifying Flame have claimed responsibility and declared war on the great space empire. Their spokesman is a Renao. The USS Prometheus and a Klingon Battle Cruiser are dispatched to investigate and begin with the home system of the Renao, a species that’s tried to isolate itself from the Galaxy.

The book does a great job world building with the Renao and the Lembatta Cluster. You have a good sense of who these people are and why they would come into conflict with the Federation. It also incorporates events of recent novels without getting so bogged down in the details that people who haven’t read the novels will get lost. The book explores interesting ideas about interference, racial differences, terrorism, and the way nations engage with one another. By the end of the book, you begin to get the feeling that there’s far more to what’s going on than a terrorist cell from an obscure sector of the galaxy.

I also like the inclusion of the elderly Spock in this late 24th century Universe. I’m willing to overlook the improbability of him to be this hands-on with an operation, and even more improbably, take a station on the bridge of the Prometheus in the midst of a battle. The older and wiser Spock as seen in the Films and on the Next Generation is a delightful fount of wisdom and the writers make good use of him here. His kindness to a young Renao who had joined the Federation before the current unpleasantness is a nice touch and provides some good moments to the book.

I also enjoyed the machinations of the Klingon crew fascinating. Oftentimes, it’s easy to assume that Klingons are Klingons, but they’re also individuals and this book captures all those individual viewpoints quite well and the friction that runs within the ship.

I also thought Alec Newman did a very good narrating and bringing all these characters to life.
The book’s problem can be summed up with pacing and padding. There are three things that slow down the story: First, you have a lot of unnecessary cameos from well-known Star Trek characters. As much as I liked Spock’s appearance, most of the rest of these are rather pointless. If that was all, it would be forgivable. However, we also have time spent with characters who are there for one scene only such as Terrorists who blow themselves up and people blown up by the terrorists. We spend a ridiculous amount of time with these characters that we really didn’t need to. All of the one and done characters (except for the Ferengi Ex-Spy) are pointless.

The least forgivable drag on the book is the huge number of meetings of Federation and Klingon high-ups. To my mind, the book doesn’t really get going until seventy percent in. When it does, it’s really good, but it takes forever.

And as a result of a lack of focus, many of the characters including Richard Adams, the Prometheus’ Captain are barely known. This book would have been great had it gotten to the point quicker and focused more on the actual crews of the ships rather than focusing on so many characters that have a limited connection to the story.

[reherrma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dieser erste Roman, der in deutscher Sprache innerhalb des Orginal Star Trek Kanons das Licht der Öffentlichkeit erblickt hat, ist überraschend gut bis sensationell. Die beiden Autoren haben es geschafft, den Spirit der Nach-Nemesis-Ära der zahlreichen englischsprachigen Autoren (siehe das CrossCult Star Trek Programm) aufzugreifen und einige neue Sichtweisen einfließen zu lassen, ohne die Kontinuität zu verlassen. Obwohl die Geschichte in vielen Rückblicken (z.b. in die TOS-Zeit von Captain Kirk) erzählt wird, schließt die eigentliche Handlung exakt mit der Wahl der neuen Förderations-Präsidentin zh'Tarash an, die im letzten Band der Serie "The Fall" angedeutet wurde. Auch sonst bieten die Autoren viele Anektoden, Querverweise und Auftritte bekannter Figuren aus dem Star Trek Kanon, aus TV-Serien und den Büchern der Nach-Nemesis-Ära (Ich meine nicht die unsäglichen Filme des J.J. Abrams-Star Trek Reboot-Kosmos).
Die Handlung, bei der die Besatzung des Raumschiffs "PROMETHEUS" in den Lembatte-Cluster verschlagen hat, um dort Ermittlungen aufzunehmen, um die verheerenden Terroranschläge, die auf die Förderation und klingonischen Einrichtungen verübt wurden, nachzugehen, ist spannend, nachvollziehbar und macht Spaß auf mehr.
Die Motivation der Terroristen ähnelt der aktuellen Situation in unserer realen Welt, da ein Volk mit einer extrem fundamentalistischen Philosophie und Terroristen, die diese Philosophie noch extremer und noch verachtenswerter auslegen und in ihren Aktionen keine Grenzen kennen und so viele Intelligenzwesen töten wollen wie möglich, ohne Rücksicht auf das eigene Leben zu nehmen.
Indem sie sämtliche Technik und besonders die Raumfahrt ablehnen, aber selbst die modernsten Mittel und auch die Raumfahrt benützen, um ihre Terroranschläge zu verüben, sind sie selbst extrem ambivalent, was ihre eigene Ideologie betrifft.
Ich bin mehr als gespannt, wie es weitergeht und was den Inhalt und die Umsetzung des Projektes betrifft, bin ich regelrecht begeistert...

[Drew Ericsson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Big Finish audio edition

Three chapters in (around 15%), and all I can think is shoddy fan fiction.
- Prologue mainly consisting of expositionary info-dump: check.
- Casual, needless mention and/or appearance of old ST characters, ships or planets: check.
- Casual, needless sprinkling of ST technobabble: check.
- Casual, needless whistlestop history of old ST alien races and events: check.
- Characters described by their country of origin instead of their name: check (so 21st century!).
- Characters spouting exposition despite the info being already known to each other: check.
- Wholesale telling instead of showing: check.
- Clunky, cringe-enducing banter: check.
- Introduction of a distant relation to a main ST character, sharing the family name: check.
- Nothing actually happening: check.
- No likeable characters whatsoever: check.
- Death of a relation of a main character: check.

Clearly written by people who may like aspects of Star Trek, but don't really understand what the franchise represents. Hey, just like the writers of Discovery and Picard.

Franchise owners: YOU ARE A DISGRACE.

I'll continue listening on the off-chance that my expectations will be subverted.

Update:
OK, I lasted about six minutes more, then this happened: "The slender, attractive Tyburonian woman, who was in charge of communications during beta shift, puckered up her full lips." What the actual flip? Was this written in the sixties? Get the flip off my audio bookshelf!

A rare non-finisher; I haven't the time for this baktag.

[BG45 · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are a lot of positives to this book:
1. A new and engaging crew.
2. The return of the IKS Bortas.
3. A thorough examination by a relateable character who feels outcast from his home after experiencing the wider world(s).
4. Very well written.
5. Sympathetic political characters (e.g. our old friend Chancellor Martok, and the new Federation President).

The main negative is the same as that of all the recent Trek books: The franchise is floundering without footing, novel-wise. With the re-launch we had the Typhon Pact created because they thought it would be cool to do the Cold War in space...forgetting that was how the Klingons and Romulans originally were portrayed (hell, the introduction of the Romulans in TOS was an episode about MAD). President Bacco was modeled after JFK and assassinated. The Rise of the Federation pits Space Democrats against Space Tea Party. Now we have Space 9/11 and the laziness of the Renao names is astounding when trying to sound "close to, but not quite" Arabic; like "ak Namor" instead of "al Namor", it's one letter off on the keyboard! It just seems like the franchise is trying to see if anything earth-shattering in the real world can be successfully adopted for a Trek storyline, which is not the way that Star Trek in particular, has used its science fiction nature, to make commentaries upon our society.

[Ivo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dies ist also der erste "offizielle" von CBS abgesegnete Star-Trek-Roman, der in Deutschland geschrieben wurde. Man merkt den Autoren die Freude an, den sie beim Schreiben hatten. So ist ein sehr launiger Roman entstanden, der nur so strotzt vor Anspielungen an und Protagonisten aus dem großen Star-Trek-Kanon.

Ist sicher keine Hochkultur, aber das erwartet ja auch keiner. Also mir hat's Spass gemacht!

[Henrik Sturmbluth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Guter Auftakt zur Jubiläumstrilogie.

[Christopher · Rating 1 out of 5]

I've never been bored when I've read a Star Trek novel, until I slogged my way through this one. I won't bother reading the other two books in the series

[Balthasar · Rating 1 out of 5]

When a Klingon threatens a prisoner with castration, I was out.
-
Not only because - wow - I think I would never have had to read something like this in an escapist space adventure story, but also because the authors seemed to enjoy letting their saturday-morning-cartoon-villain-Klingon. I want to add that having characters do something like this in inherently bad writing. Some of the best stories I've ever read have reached the abyss of decent human behaviour and jumped right into it. But for "Fire with Fire" this scene was the last straw:
-
The books begins with a chapter that - frankly - drowns in fan service of the cheapest kind. And the book continues like this, having the chief engineer of the Prometheus being an ancestor of James T. Kirk who also happens to have inherited the famous name. And all of this made me roll my eyes harder than back when I had this demonic possession going on.
I would still have accepted this if it actually were an escapist space adventure story. But - one could say in true Star Trek fashion - the book aims to work with current real historic events. It tries to build a plot about terrorism and the various methods of dealing with it. Implementing the Klingons as a US-Army stand in effectively, gleefully torturing prisoners while complaining about the Federation and the way they always try to talk to and understand their opponents. This would be annoying enough, but a few things make it - to me at least - unbearable:
a. The Klingons actually progress faster in their efforts to yield results by torturing. This would be okay-ish for a harmless space adventure story. But "Fire with Fire" is rather explicit in its references to actual human history and ostracized peoples. In the (original) German version of the books, the antagonistic race Renao are often referred to as "Rothäute", literal red-skins, a common slur for native-american peoples. Simultaneously, they are presented as Arabic peoples were often presented in the aftermath of 9-11 and torture of prisoners of war was (and still is) a huge topic in this realm. And in reality the application of torture does most of the time NOT yield any results. So "Fire with Fire" is heavily founded on an abundance of racist historical and contemporary stereotypes while also presenting a plot in which violence against a native people is excused. The book tries to present the Renao as a non-homogenous group, but does not do a good job with it, because:
b. Bernd Perplies and his co-author Christian Humberg are not clever enough as authors to navigate these complicated topics. They would be apt writers for a fun space adventure story with some fan-service thrown in for good messure. But they are either not capable, not interested, or not considerate enough to go and work around the implications of this terrorist-plot they published.
c. Which makes the entire book oscilate back and forth between harmless spaceship-gazing for fans and inept political analogies. This combined with the frankly parody-like Klingon captain and the laughable internal Klingon politics (that have been a joke for quite a while to be honest) has a novel as a result that becomes quite the pill to swallow.
-
On top of everything the story just drags, too. My will to read the entire trilogy was still not broken though - yes, it was written as a long story split between three novels. I wanted to read all three books even though I did not have a fun time reading the first one. But I wanted to be fair, wanted to see if there was a point to the allegory. And then "the scene" happened. The scene in which the Klingon captain interrogates a prisoners suspected to be an aid to the terrorists. And this scene describes - in detail - how the captain draws his knife and subtly and slowly moves it across the prisoners chest, down towards his groin. And the captain is - in detail - described as enjoying the process.
The Klingons are seldomly described as a complex or imho even interesting space-race. They often are reduced to being "space-barbarians". But this level of sadistic pleasure in threatening another character with castration reached a level at which I was not comfortably continuing reading this trilogy. Again: It would have been okay with either better writing or a better handling of the allegorical aspects of the terrorism-plot. Setting a scene like this in the nominally optimistic Star Trek Universe did not help either.

[Kristen · Rating 2 out of 5]

My Blog | My Twitter

Really 1.5, I think. I'll round up.

After several terrorist attacks claim the lives of thousands, Starfleet sends the ship Prometheus to the Lembatta Cluster, from where the attackers hail. The region is already unstable and the crew of Prometheus are tasked with stopping further attacks and potential galactic warfare.

I really wanted to like this book. I thought it was rad that an original Trek novel was written in a language other than English at last. But damn, it read like fanfiction. I mean, I suppose all of the novels are fanfiction, but they don’t act like it. Other Trek novels are better written and more engaging. The crew of Prometheus are, frankly, kind of boring. There really aren’t any stand-out characters for me. I kind of wonder if the authors recognized that, weren’t sure quite how to fix it, and so brought in a shitload of cameos by other characters to make up for it. The Klingons were more interesting, which is saying something coming from me since I’ve never been that interested in the Klingons.

Parts of this also came across as almost...racist? I’m not sure it is that blatant, but the way in which some of the characters were described or spoken to just put me off. If someone said things like that to me or in front of me, I would have told them off. I can’t even think of an example of it anymore - I listened to the audiobook rather than reading it where I could make notes on the pages - but some phrases just set me on edge and not in a good way. Maybe it was a translation issue, I don’t know.

The audiobook thing is another issue. Normally, I love audiobooks. I have never listened to a Trek audiobook, though, since if it’s a book about, say, Lorca, I want Jason Isaacs to narrate it. Or Patrick Stewart for a Picard-centric book, Michelle Yeoh for Georgiou, etc, etc. Since this book isn’t set in one of the actual series with the characters I know and love, I figured it wouldn’t make me mental to have someone who isn’t Jason Isaacs/ Patrick Stewart/ Michelle Yeoh narrating. And in that regard, I was correct. It didn’t bother me that the narrator didn’t sound anything like them. He has a pleasant voice, in fact, and I would probably listen to more of the things he’s narrated. However, it drove me nuts at how many words he mispronounced. It wasn’t a dialect thing, either, or a Britishism. It was just wrong. Like ‘hegemony.’ Got it wrong every time. And a few other actual words I can’t think of now. And even words specific to the Trek-verse were wrong. I know, I know, they are made up and not real but even so, can you at least pronounce them like they are in the various series? It’s TAL shee-AR’ not ‘tal SHY-er,’ ‘KIT-o-mer’ not ‘kit-OH-mer.’ It’s levi-OH-sa, not levio-SAR. I mean, it’s the little things, you know?

Overall, this is a solid ‘meh’ for me. I like a new Trek book, but this one fell short for me.

[Taaya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hier hab ich irgendwie mehr erwartet. Dadurch, dass ich die Kinderbücher des Autorenteams kenne, darunter auch sowas wie Star Trek für Kids, bin ich von den beiden eigentlich Spaß gewöhnt. Eine lockere Welt, die zwar grad ein bisschen bedroht wird, aber nicht so sehr, dass alles trüb aussieht.

Ich weiß nicht, inwiefern ihnen hier von Seiten von CBS/Paramount oder dem Roddenberry-Clan Vorgaben gemacht wurden und inwieweit Story und Setting frei wählbar waren. Aber, dass hier wieder einmal ein Buch mit Mord, Drohung von Krieg und Rassismus (gegen andere Spezies) vorliegt, anstatt einem lustigen oder zumindest utopischen, stört mich sehr. Umso mehr, als dass die Reihe auf weiteren Reihen aufbaut, die ich nicht kenne, weil sie mich nie gereizt haben. Aus den selben Gründen. Ich hab keine Ahnung, was zum Teufel der Typhon Pakt ist und warum die Romulaner, die nach DS9 doch noch Verbündete der Föderation waren, VOR den Ereignissen von Picard wieder Feinde sind. Und war etwa noch einmal was mit den Borg?

Dass jetzt mehrere Star Trek-Reihen untereinander verzweigt sind und auf einander aufbauen, stört mich sehr. Schon fortlaufende Bücher einer Serie nerven mich, ich bevorzuge auch bei Büchern abgeschlossene Episoden und das gute alte Monster of the Week, aber, dass ich gezwungen bin, alle Bücher zu lesen, von mehreren Reihen mit verschiedenen Crews, um für EINE Reihe auf dem Laufenden zu bleiben, finde ich sehr ärgerlich und absolut nicht fanfreundlich.

Nachdem das gesagt ist, muss aber auch Lob her. Ich mochte es, dass in einer Zeit, wo so viele bekannte Charaktere noch aktiv im Dienst sind, auch einige von ihnen in kleineren bis größeren Rollen auftauchen. Und vielleicht hatte ich etwas Pipi in den Augen, als Spock auftrat.

Insgesamt sind die Charaktere ganz spannend, auch wenn ihnen durch zu viel Plot und zu wenig Entspannung nicht genug Zeit eingeräumt wird, um sie als Leser*in wirklich kennen zu lernen. Auch hier mag ich ‚Episoden‘ lieber, die statt auf Action auf Zwischenpersonelles setzen. So etwas stelle ich mir in der Crew der Prometheus sehr spannend vor und hoffe, das Autorenteam darf einen solchen, ruhigeren Roman hinterher schieben.

Aber ob ich der Reihe weiter folgen will, wenn es nur weiter um möglichen Krieg, Terror und eine fremde, aggressive Identität geht, weiß ich noch nicht. Das ist einfach nicht, was ich mir von Star Trek wünsche, nicht, was ich emotional brauche. Und eben nichts, was das Label Trek nötig hätte - weil es so etwas auch außerhalb des Franchise noch und nöcher gibt. Weshalb ich es schade finde, dass man das Alleinstellungsmerkmal von Trek schon seit DS9 immer weiter verwässert hat.

Aber wie gesagt, ich weiß nicht, wie viel Wahl die Autoren hatten und inwieweit man ihnen das wirklich vorwerfen kann, sind doch schon mehrere Fernsehserien und einige Vorgängerbuchreihen ähnlich im Ton - von den neuen Serien, die sich eher dystopisch anfühlen, ganz abgesehen.

[Erick M. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I cannot believe that I did not make a review of this book in its time!!

Back in 2023, I started my journey in the ST lit-verse. This was my first novel and damn, one never forgets its first time! As an introduction, this was a very fun experience. It is a novel that, although it may feel superficially heavy, is actually very easy to read. As soon as you get into the rhythm of the book, the pages turn faster and faster. The plot is simple: a terrorist cell from xenophobic and isolationist species has attacked the great powers of the quadrant and only the most powerful warship of the Federation and from the Klingon Empire can stop them: The USS Prometheus and the IKS Bortas.

The crew of the Prometheus is quite diverse and full of personality; there are very interesting characters, who offer a unique perspective on each moment. This may be a warship and its travel to stop a crisis, but they're all Starfleet, so it's interesting to read each one's point of view and how they try to resolve the main problem. Maybe not every character gets a special moment to shine, but I like the organic way they move the story forward. The Bortas crew is also very interesting. They serve the plot well and play a great antagonistic presence at various moments of the novel.

It was also so great to see a lot of familiar faces, such as Ro Laren, Spock, Alexander, Mordock and many others. The development of Onferin, the Renao homeworld, is also very interesting. I especially like the concept they have for their cities, like big pyramidal constructs. Perhaps the only negative aspect of this book is the fact that it spends quite a bit of time spilling random information, not all of it particularly important for the plot, whether about the IKS Bortas, the galaxy or the Renao. I mean, I always love to know more about the galaxy or lore from a new species but yeah, it becomes kind of repetitive.

Overall, this was an experience I still remember fondly and I really hope to read the rest of the trilogy soon. What a wonderful way to start!

[Jimyanni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not really very good.

On the plus side, the characters were interesting, and those that carried over from established canon (Spock, Alexander) were true to their roots. The plot was okay, nothing to write home about but not bad, and the pacing was pretty good. Unfortunately, the writing itself was a bit dubious; while far from the worst book I've ever seen in this regard, or even the worst Star Trek book, there were a few too many cases of poor word choice/awkward phraseology for my taste. Probably somewhere between half a dozen and a dozen. Things like "...an impassionate glance" when what is clearly meant was a DISpassionate glance (for one thing, in the context, "impassionate" would make no sense, especially considering that the author of the glance is Spock, and for another, "impassionate" isn't even a word, as is reflected in the fact that my computer is highlighting it when I write it here.) Or "...these days are long past..." when what was clearly intended was "those days are long past". Or (a straightforward typo) working a graveyard ship" rather than a graveyard shift. Or "you seem to be working on a very different starbase to me" rather than "from me". Or one that would have been fine if there had just been a properly-inserted comma: "the Klingon leader of the away team growled and grinned satisfied." Put a comma after grinned, and we'd be fine. Or "...the political goals of her appraised predecessor..." I'm not even sure what was INTENDED there, although I'm guessing "esteemed".

I know nobody's perfect, and I certainly know better by now than to expect perfection from a mass-market, genre paperback. But there were just a few too many of these sort of errors to overlook. One or two r even three a book, sure. I'll note them, but I won't bring it up in a review. But not this many. This is just sloppy, and the story isn't really good enough to justify giving it a pass.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm going to be kind to this one for a reason. I thought the story was interesting. Perhaps the best 'new original novels only crew' since Peter David's New Frontier.

However the phrasing of some of the language, particularly dialogue, seemed... well... simply odd. But there is a reason for that. This is the first time an official Star Trek novel was originally written in another language. Y'see for a long time, Germany publishers had big success translating Pocket Books Star Trek novels into German. Many of the people translators were writers and would be novelists themselves and wanted to know why couldn't they do their own Star Trek books. They jumped through lots of hoops to make it happen. And not only that... they sold well enough over there that the decision was made to translate them into English. A translation done by the original writers no less. Usually the best way to do it.

Only in this case... maybe not. They seemed so tied to the way they said things that made total sense in German (I don't know, I don't speak the language) that in that in English came out with that, in the words of Orson Welles, 'are only correct because they are grammatical.' No actual English speaker or write would have phrased it that way. It was better than what easily could have- and probably would have- been done a few years later... which is slap it into an AI and call it a day.

Still... I liked it enough that I'll give Book Two a shot eventually.

[Mrs. Hahn · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's been years since I read a Star Trek book, but a reading challenge prompt was to read something being read by a stranger in public. This is the first in a 3-book series, set in and around the current mission of the Prometheus, a ship captained by Richard Adams in the time of the Enterprise-E. The plot was basically that a terrorist group from a nationalist unaligned civilization has gained Romulan tech to attack both Klingon and Federation outposts, and the Klingons want blood and vengeance now, while the Federation want to investigate and make sure they're going after the true terrorists. And of course one of the officers on Prometheus comes from that civilization and is seen as a traitor to both.

This was a fun reacquaintance with Spock (Ambassador, still alive) and Alexander Rozhenko (Worf's now-adult son, also an Ambassador), and brief encounters with Ro Laren, Miles O'Brien, and Quark on DS9. I didn't really care much about Adams, but his executive officer Lanissa (an Andorian) and Engineer Jenna Winona Kirk (a great-grand-niece of James T.) were kind of fun. We spend a lot of time in Nissa's head, and I think she's my favorite of this whole bunch.

[Christopher Lutz · Rating 5 out of 5]

An exciting beginning to a brand new Star Trek book series. The USS Prometheus is a great choice for a starship to base a series around. It’s a cool design unlike my other in the franchise. Full of interesting story potential. The authors also fill the ship with a very interesting crew. I loved every character. The Andorian security chief is my favorite, with chief engineer Jenna Kirk a close second. The story was interesting, relevant to the times, and had a few great cameos. I’m very excited for the next part.

Now, any Star Trek novel can have a good plot, but Fire with Fire stands above other Trek novels. The writing style was so refreshing in it’s pacing. One of the best paced Trek novels I’ve come across actually. Others have said, and I agree, that this felt very much like Trek on TV. It was hard to put down and I never felt bogged down by the story. You get what you need with no fluff and the story never stops moving.