Star Trek Prometheus - The Root of All Rage

Star Trek - Prometheus #2

by Bernd Perplies, Christian Humberg

The Federation races to discover the culprits of several terrorist attacks, sending their flagship, the USS Prometheus, to stop war breaking out in the galaxy.

A dangerous evil is growing in the Alpha Quadrant. Fanatics who call themselves the Purifying Flame are trying to start a galactic war, while the crew of the USS Prometheus desperately try to settle the diplomatic and military crisis, while the Klingon Empire presses for war

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

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 22, 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.

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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 3 out of 5]

Lots of filler, but really easy and quick to read.

[Bill Riggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

The characters are beginning to get fleshed out as the story moves along in this second volume. With that being said, the plot seems unnecessarily drawn out as the crews of the Prometheus and the Bortas search for the source of the disturbance in the Lembatta Cluster. All in all not for the second of the trilogy. Looking forward to seeing how it all ends in the next book.

[Oz Trekkie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Finished this one tonight.

A bit slow to start but a strong finish and am looking forward to book 3 in November.

I didn’t mind the cameo’s that some other reviewers have mentioned. I thought they all served a purpose.

Will be listening to Literary Treks 233 on the way to work in the morning 👍.

[Michelle Winchester · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story is ok, but far too drawn out. What is troubling are the racist overtones. The bad guys are terrorists, far too obviously analogs to Middle Eastern cultures here on present-day earth. Insults against alien cultures are usually based on appearance, resulting in horrifying instances such as calling the terrorists savage murdering red-skins.

I expect more out of my Star Trek than clumsy analogies and racist epithets.

[Frank Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story is so many things and it is effortlessly achieved. I didn't love the new characters very much in the first book but they've all grown on me now and just like in the first, this book brings in a few more surprising familiar characters.

What wasn't a surprise for me was guessing the actual "root" of all rage, I'm not sure if it's going to be über obvious to all readers but the hints are there. I'm pretty sure I was onto it during the first book.

The most poignant elements for me related to the various convictions that individual characters hold. The emotive context is handled extremely well and especially so in the epilogue which powerfully portrays the traps of fanaticism.

[Kaya Kobold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Streckenweise eher 4 Sterne, aber in dubio pro reo

Wenn ich noch einmal hören muss, wie romantisch Paris ist, dann bekomme ich Pickel.

[Paul Lunger · Rating 3 out of 5]

The 2nd book in Bernd Perplies & Christian Humber's "Star Trek: Prometheus" trilogy, "The Root of All Rage" is a mixed bag of a book that continues the story of the USS Prometheus & IKS Bortas in the Lembatta Cluster as they seek out more information on the Purifying Flame & the secrets of the Renao. The story which takes place across a week of real time begins with the ships at the planet Xhehenem where the search continues for the terrorist group & to determine a way to stop them. It's in this segment of things where the crews of both ships start witnessing fits of rage that are eventually determined to be not their fault & also things also get a bit deeper into the xenophobic nature of people as well as the differing philosophies of both Federation & Klingon government.

There's also a rather unique parallel plot in this which involves Lwaxana Troi & Admiral Akaar on Earth which has them trying to learn more about this situation as well as her fear that the hatred of the Renao will plunge the Federation into yet another conflict they don't need. The cameo by Jean-Luc Picard in France is a nice touch to this as well along w/ references to a mission by the USS Enterprise-C to this area & the answer to the mysterious destruction of the original USS Valiant.

Perplies & Humberg's story at times almost feels drawn out & has trouble sorting through the characters as well as a narrative that is anything but spectacular at times. The character droppings that we get to see are nice as well as the quest for Iad which fills in more of the blanks as to the issues w/ the Renao & the mystery of the Purifying Flame. The ending ironically references a classic TOS episode as well as one of the better TNG trilogies involving Q w/ references to the Beta XII-A entity which play other roles in this series finale which will be released in November 2018 in English. Overall, though, this middle book is an uneven story that has this reader hoping the finale is better than where we are now.

[Adam Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

The build up from the first story continues a bit into this second novel, but we begin to get some questions answered which leads into other mysteries regarding the actions of the Renao.

This is a better story because it's more focused and we actually get to spend the majority of the book with the Federation and Klingon crews who both have their own unique insights and dynamics which have been expertly built up.

The story does a great job building towards the conclusion and setting up the final installment. It does feature another call back with Lwaxana Troi joining the cast of the book and becoming a minor character. Her appearance is a bit mixed. She does have some keen insights, but she also seems a bit overwrought that there are two people on Earth she overheard in a restaurant with bigotted views and no evidence this goes any deeper. It was appopriate to be upset after she heard it, but she was going on about it hours later as if represented something more than two fellas in a bar. Also, she brings in two relatively useless cameos from Picard and Worf.
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Overall, the story's well-constructed but there's still quite a bit of fat such as a couple that gets together for casual sex but doesn't have anything to do with the plot. In addition, the ending hinted it may come off as derivative. Still, there's a good deal of world building that went into this and it promises an intriguging conclusion to wrap up the trilogy.

[Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay... I love Star Trek. I actually enjoy tie in novels. I NEVER expect them to be great literature. Though there are some that come pretty damn close. Prometheus has a strong premise. And this one follows through on it much better than the first book does in a lot of ways.

However, it STILL suffers from the same problem as the first. I might read better in the original German. However, I think have the same authors who wrote the German version (who originally served as the translators for the writers in English) reverse engineer their work was perhaps a mistake. They were a little TOO close to their own material. You wind up with lots of narration and dialogue that do not quite seem natural to readers in English. I know the team behind Prometheus are fellow media analysis geeks. So perhaps they would understand the reference I'm going to make here. It's a phrase from the great Orson Welles. 'it’s full of–of–of things that are only correct because they’re grammatical, but they’re tough on the ear. '

Whether or not I'll track down book three an finish the trilogy... I haven't decided yet.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave this series a second chance. I tried to like it. It does have its moments, especially on-board the Klingon cruiser Bortas. It works very hard to be a quadrant-spanning epic. But in the end, it still reads like fan-fiction on steroids. It contains enough fanwank cameos and references to fill an encyclopedia, but it stands out only as fanwank, and not fanwank in service to the story (certainly not in the way Christopher Bennett & Greg Cox can make it work). As for the crew of the Prometheus, they're just cardboard sketches to me; certainly they aren't in the same league (or league of development) as the realized literary crews of USS Excalibur or USS Stargazer. I think this is about as far as I'm going to with this series. I want to escape into the "Star Trek" universe, and not be distracted by counting ALL the references that span virtually all televised and prose Trek.

[Jimyanni · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's not uncommon for the second book of a trilogy to suffer from "middle-book-itis", having neither a beginning nor an ending to be found within its pages. Truly well-written trilogies (which are few and far between) manage to have some particular plot point within each book, that begins at the beginning of the book and is resolved at the end, even while the overall series plot is advanced by increments. This book does not even approach that ideal; not only is there no internal plot point that is both begun and resolved within its pages, but most of the book is simply filler; it could easily have been reduced to a chapter at the end of book one and a chapter at the beginning of book three, and all of the important plot developments from this book could have been covered. The only reason we have a whole book here is to sell us another book; it's basically just padding.

[Nicola · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dieser Teil gefiel mir nicht ganz so gut wie der erste Band, weil es hier einige Längen gibt. Trotzdem vergebe ich vier Sterne, weil das Buch mir immer noch gute 3,5 Sterne wert wäre und weil mir die zugrunde liegende Idee für diese Trilogie sehr gefällt. Außerdem ist der Band immer noch so spannend und der Cliffhanger so gut gewählt, dass ich unbedingt erfahren möchte, wie es weiter geht. Insofern werde ich demnächst gespannt den dritten und abschließenden Teil angehen.

[Scott Williams · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am quite disappointed in this novel, more so because I enjoyed the first one so much. Almost every time I picked it up I began to fall asleep. I was bored by the plot that seemed to be doing nothing and the new characters that I liked so much in book one seemed to be doing very little. The last 40 or so pages pick up and introduce something interesting so I have high hopes for book three.

[Joe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Großartiger zweiter Teil, der den Weg für das große Finale ebnet. Ich bin immer wieder überrascht, wie perfekt die beiden Autoren Fremdenfeindlichkeit und Islamophobia im Transfer auf den Punkt bringen. Das ist eine der Trek-artigsten Romanreihen des Franchise, bei dem sich Titan und co. Eine Scheibe abschneiden sollten.

[Pavlin Angelov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Generally a good story, but how many times you need to mention how legendary Spok is... Jeez you either know who he is and how legendary he is or you don't care and no amount of repeating it would make you care...

Same with most other Trek stuff, few cameos for the hype sake like Pikard and so on... It's a bit too much for me

[Steven Shinder · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to the audiobook and also had the ebook version up. I think I liked this a little more than the first book, but am still not sure whether to give it 4 stars. I was certainly interested in Lwaxana Troi’s role, and seeing more of Spock was nice. There’s commentary on racism and I’m sure real life events were in mind when this was being written.

[Tamara · Rating 4 out of 5]

While this book was slow in a few places, and it also didn't feel like a Star Trek book the whole way through, I also really enjoyed it. I look forward to reading the next in the series and I expect the parts of the story that felt un Star Trek like to be fixed or explained in the next book.

[Whofan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some people will love this book and some will hate it . If you like 👍 a slow but full story with plenty of depth for characters and plot . And room to grow for each . I like this book and now started volume 3

[Nabil Hussain · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thrilling and spectacular novel!!

This book was wonderfully composed and was compelling to read. It was very exciting to read and had a lot of dramatic action. It was very interesting to read. It led inteestingly to book 3. I can't wait to read book 3.

[Debra Cook · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Prometheus investigates why everyone is so angry.

[Kristen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh.

[Gerard J · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good book

It was well written and plot exciting and the characters seem well thought out. It was nice to see Spock return.

[Danny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book 2 of the Prometheus trilogy. I was a bit more into it than the first one, although Lwaxana's characterization....nah.

[reherrma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Im 2. Band der Prometheus-Trilogie wird klar, dass die Wurzel allen Zorns die Strahlung ist, die den gesamten Lembatta-Cluster durchzieht. Diese "Hass-Strahlung" wird immer stärker, sobald sie dem mystischen Planeten Iad, der eigentlich nur in den Mythen der Renao existieren sollte, näherkommen.
Außerdem stellt sich heraus, dass das legendäre Sternenflottenschiff VALIANT auf diesem Planeten abgestürzt ist. Der Druck auf die PROMETHEUS und deren Besatzung wird immer größer, weil die Terroranschläge der Terrorgruppe "Die Reinigende Flamme" immer weiter gehen, der Klingonische Kanzler Martok gerät immer weiter im Zugzwang, endlich militärisch zuzuschlagen, ohne Rücksicht darauf, wer schuld ist oder nicht...
Der Roman ist ein Musterbeispiel, wie Xenophobie eine Gemeinschaft zerstören kann, insbesondere wird das deutlich bei den Besatzungen der beiden Raumschiffe, die die Vorfälle untersuchen sollen.
Das Autorenpaar schafft es auch wiederum wieder, Ereignisse und Vorkommnisse aus den diversen TV-Serien / Filmen und Büchern einfließen zu lassen, auch toll sind der Auftritt von Persönlichkeiten aus der deutsch SF- Szene, so hat Kadett Robert Vogel einen Auftritt und Admiral Markus Rhode (der Redakteur der ST-Romane bei CrossCult) agiert neben Admiral Akaar...

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Perplies and Humberg have a great grasp on what makes a good Star Trek story. The characters of Prometheus are compelling, and I feel like they took a page out of Keith R.A. DeCandido's book with their use of diversity and variation among the Klingon crew in particular. They have also managed to craft an engrossing story that has an important social message in the best tradition of Trek. The story uses the typical Trek tropes to good effect without overusing them, which is sometimes a difficult line to walk. They have set up the final book in such a way that I find I am really looking forward to seeing how this all plays out, and I'm definitely excited for the conclusion, which will be available in English in December. Rest assured I'll be reviewing it shortly after its release.

Full review: http://www.treklit.com/2018/10/TRoAR....

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Given a hundred hours to uncover the growing madness in the Sector before the Klingons declare war on the Renao, Adams and the crew of the 'Prometheus' track down the legendary homeworld of their former allies and discover the insidious threat which Spock believes is related to events from his past.

As the story builds, so the pace of the story improves. However, bear in mind that this is the middle volume of a trilogy and is not a novel in its own right.

[Mrklingon · Rating 4 out of 5]

On and into more mystery....

The Federation and their (hotheaded) Klingon allies seek an answer to the mystery of attacks and terrorism seeming to originate from a previously reclusive race, the Renao. Humberg and Perplies do a good job taking old canon (Spock, Lwaxana Troi, et al) and weaving it with their crew of the Prometheus. And next, we'll see how the sort it all out.....

[Apostolos · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, the twist at the end of the book was not something I was expecting. Interesting! Looking forward to the third book. I still find the pronunciation in the audiobook version a bit silly. Trek names of places and things (like Khitomer, VGER, and Roktajino) are butchered. Overall a good read

[R Z · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting. I'll pick up the other one at some point.

[Gary Aubry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like Book One, it took me a bit to get into it. But I have to say, I'm hooked and can't wait to read Book Three. Very interesting characters and an engaging plotline.