Drastic Measures

Star Trek: Discovery #2

by Dayton Ward

An original novel based upon the explosive new Star Trek TV series on CBS All Access!

It is 2246, ten years prior to the Battle at the Binary Stars, and an aggressive contagion is ravaging the food supplies of the remote Federation colony Tarsus IV and the eight thousand people who call it home. Distress signals have been sent, but any meaningful assistance is weeks away. Lieutenant Commander Gabriel Lorca and a small team assigned to a Starfleet monitoring outpost are caught up in the escalating crisis, and bear witness as the colony’s governor, Adrian Kodos, employs an unimaginable solution in order to prevent mass starvation.

While awaiting transfer to her next assignment, Commander Philippa Georgiou is tasked with leading to Tarsus IV a small, hastily assembled group of first responders. It’s hoped this advance party can help stabilize the situation until more aid arrives, but Georgiou and her team discover that they‘re too late—Governor Kodos has already implemented his heinous strategy for extending the colony’s besieged food stores and safeguarding the community’s long-term survival.

In the midst of their rescue mission, Georgiou and Lorca must now hunt for the architect of this horrific tragedy and the man whom history will one day brand “Kodos the Executioner”….

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook, Space Opera, Media Tie In, Ebooks

391 pages, Paperback

First published February 6, 2018

About the author

Dayton is a software developer, having become a slave to Corporate America after spending eleven years in the U.S. Marine Corps. When asked, he’ll tell you that he left home and joined the military soon after high school because he’d grown tired of people telling him what to do all the time.

Ask him sometime how well that worked out.

In addition to the numerous credits he shares with friend and co-writer Kevin Dilmore, he is the author of the Star Trek novels In the Name of Honor and Open Secrets, the science fiction novels The Last World War and The Genesis Protocol, and short stories which have appeared in the first three Star Trek: Strange New Worlds anthologies, the Yard Dog Press anthology Houston, We’ve Got Bubbas, Kansas City Voices Magazine and the Star Trek: New Frontier anthology No Limits. Though he currently lives in Kansas City with wife Michi and daughters Addison and Erin, Dayton is a Florida native and still maintains a torrid long-distance romance with his beloved Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Reviews

[Alejandro · Rating 4 out of 5]

An untold story in Star Trek finally told!


It’s recommended to watch the TV episode “The Conscience of the King” from “Star Trek: The Original Series.


A DARK MOMENT FINALLY TOLD

While most Trekkers (or Trekkies) are familiriazed with popular villains like Khan Noonien Singh or the Borg Queen (massively exposed thanks to theatrical films), sometimes, other villains like Kodos the Executioner isn´t remembered not matter that he was responsible of the mass murder of 4,000 humans in a single night…

…meet the Tarsus Crisis!

The story of this novel is based on the events developed in the TV episode “The Conscience of the King” of Star Trek: The Original Series, where it’s told about a crisis suffered in the past of the life of James T. Kirk, but several details of that said crisis weren’t totally explained…

…and here you are finally able to read about them!

Using two of the main characters of the new Star Trek: Discovery, Gabriel Lorca and Philippa Georgiou, set 10 years before of the beginning of the mentioned new TV series.
You’ll get cool cameos of a young James T. Kirk and Captain Robert April, where it’s confirmed that Star Trek: Discovery is set in the original timeline, and not in the newer Kelvin Timline (Abramsverse), since it’s confirmed that George Kirk is still alive and serving duty at Starfleet.


TO EAT OR NOT TO EAT

Tarsus IV, was a human colony, with 2,000 inhabitants, boldly living far away from the core of the Federation, but still part of it. However, when another colony established in other world which suffered a cataclysmic disaster, the Federation needs to relocate 6,000 people to Tarsus IV, and while several scientific studies were done to avoid any incompability with the resources taken from the doomed planet, and even without knowing for certain if that was even a factor…

…the true thing was that Tarsus IV was suffering of a devastating fungus plague which was contaminating all crops in Tarsus IV, along with food storages and food processors, and it was imminent that the whole population will suffer from hunger…

…obviously the Federation and Starfleet will do everything at their dispossal to senda aid, but…

…Tarsus IV was just too far away, even for 23rd Century Warp Technology, and it seemed that the few food supplies without contamination won’t be able to cover the whole population at Tarsus IV, before the first Starfleet vessels would arrive there…

…but maybe it would suffice to cover HALF the population!


WANTED: KODOS THE EXECUTIONER

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

The human civilization reached an utopian status in the future…

…but that was done thanks to eradicate diseases and famine…

…so, when a plague and hunger returned…

…old dark habits are back too…

…especially if the true government is disolved and a new governor rises offering a…

…final solution.

Lt. Cmdr. Gabriel Lorca is in command of the Starfleet Outpost in Tarsus IV, and suddenly is under attack by the very people that he was supposed to assist…

…Cmdr. Philippa Georgiou is waiting for her next starship assignment, so she is temporarily posted in the USS Narbonne, a colony support vessel, where Capt. Aurobindo Korrapati is determined to reach Tarsus IV the sooner as possible…

…Lorca and Georgiou soon will know about the insidious massacre in Tarsus IV…

…to unite efforts to hunt down the monster in human skin responsible of something that was supposed to be unthinkable in a Federation colony.

However, Kodos is one of the more cunning criminals that Starfleet has ever faced, since if his very first act was giving the order to kill 4,000 people…

…which will be his next acts?!

Finally, one of the darkest moments in Federation history is told in detail.

[Stephen Robert Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kodos the Executioner was Kirk's nemeses this set on Tarsus IV when the food ran out.
Governor Kodos another Hitler style evil dictator who killed thousands including Kirk's family which is why Captain Kirk went into Starfleet.
Forget this a Discovery book as I have not seen the series & just enjoy it for what it is a flashback book in Star Trek History set 19ys before 'Where No Man Has Gone Before' in which James T Kirk encounters the energy barrier at the edge of our galaxy.
This for the true Trekker and pay great attention to ch.20 guest stars James T Kirk after all you cannot have Kodos without him.

[Gerhard · Rating 1 out of 5]

It is not often I give a one-star review – that said, I do not shirk from five-star reviews either. There is a lot of debate on Goodreads about its rating system, and how it needs to be refined. But this could overcomplicate what is already a fairly equitable range of opinions (* for ‘I did not like it’, to ***** for ‘it was amazing’). I suppose the problem comes in when you have to decide between a * and a ** rating, which is an unhelpful ‘it was okay’, a kind of literary ‘meh’, I suppose.

Anyway, the book in question is hands-down the worst book I have read so far this year. Hopefully for the entire year. It irritated me from the get-go, and I was sorely tempted on a few occasions to just give it up as a bad job. (That is a whole other debate: the ‘shall I continue to Mount Doom’ mentality of so many good-natured readers).

I really enjoyed the first one, Desperate Hours, which is why I was so surprised at the lacklustre follow-up. I already have the third on my Kindle; let’s hope the quality improves drastically. The main problem with #2 is one that the Star Wars franchise has (unsuccessfully, I might add) grappled with to date: Canon.

Given that there has to be so many nooks and crannies in the back stories of Georgiou and Lorca, the decision to tack them on as what are essentially secondary characters in a half-witted follow-up to an obscure TOS episode is a highly questionable decision.

However, the fact that a very young Jim Kirk makes a too-brief appearance to have any impact on the overall narrative arc indicates that serving Canon was the main focus here. Which is a great pity.

While the writing is serviceable, the glaring issue is the plot. There is a great tradition of megalomaniac villains in Star Trek, but Kodos is sketched too broadly, and his ultimate fate is so by-the-numbers, that he has little impact on the reader.

In fact, I failed to understand Kodos’ motivations for his actions: ‘Terminating’ 4 000 members of a remote 8 000-person colony when the planet’s ecology crashes, and there is only enough food left for half to survive until the Federation can arrive to assist … barely has the genocidal act been committed when the Federation announces a kept-in-the-dark new-class starship was only two days’ away, anyway …

Thereafter, Kodos kind of disappears from his own story, which takes the form of a traditional manhunt for him and his followers, with much hand-wringing from Georgiou and Lorca about the betrayal of Federation values, and whether or not evil is innate in human beings. In other words, blah blah blah. The End.

Yes, Star Trek has always been a fantastic platform to debate Great Ideas, but this only works if the philosophising is grounded in believable characters and a satisfying narrative arc. Reading some of the reviews on Goodreads, it is clear that many thought this book delivered on all of these fronts.

But it could have been so much better.

[Miss Alexandra · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book disappointing. The story IDEA was a good one, returning to an incident from the Original Series in a satisfying way. This means the reader knows essentially how the story will end, and if finding out how it gets there isn’t satisfying, you should not read prequels at all. The plot gave me enough twists to keep me happy.

The problem was with the execution. The writing is just plain clumsy. The biggest problem is that the book is excruciatingly repetitious, a fault that the editor bears blame for as well as the author. Had I been his editor the book would be at least 10% shorter. To give one example fresh in my mind, in the last summary conversation between Lorca and Georgiou, they discuss THREE TIMES Lorca’s feelings about the outcome, and then go TWICE through a conversation about a character who died in the book. There are many examples of this kind of conversation. Sometimes, as if that weren’t enough, the book then proceeds to restate what the characters have just told you in dialogue, often more than once. It drove me crazy.

The book also tends to tell the reader about a character’s virtues or faults rather than showing them. This was especially egregious with the character of young Jim Kirk, who the book repeatedly tells us is oh so exceptional, which was completely unnecessary, since his actions show his courage. There is a little girl, who is introduced to show Georgiou being sympathetic, who I found very annoying. But the book kept telling me she was so wonderfully insightful as it piled on the mawkish pathos. Blech.

Finally, I thought the portrayal of the two main characters was just … OK. Lorca is presented as a stiff, military guy who bottles his emotions, which is probably about right but disappointingly flat. The author leavens him a bit with flashes of kindness towards colleagues and bits of snarky humor, which is EXACTLY right, but there isn’t nearly enough of it. And he should be more subtly cunning than he was shown to be. Georgiou comes off as generically heroic. The author of the first Discovery novel did a MUCH better job of showing the playful side of her personality which Michelle Yeoh brought out so brilliantly and giving insight into how she sees the world. Both of these characters are supposed to have a charisma that should have been evident in the way others react to them, but wasn’t.

But the final scene is worth the price of admission, giving us a HUGE revelation that ties into the "now" of televised Discovery. I wouldn't dream of spoiling it. This scene was expertly, subtly written to reveal itself slowly, not giving itself away entirely until the very last line, and demanding a repeat reading. I wish the whole book had been written so well.

[Rev. House · Rating 4 out of 5]

(Originally posted at https://trekmovie.com/2018/02/05/nove...)

Some spoilers ahead...

“The revolution is successful. But survival depends on drastic measures. Your continued existence represents a threat to the well-being of society. Your lives mean slow death to the more valued members of the colony. Therefore, I have no alternative but to sentence you to death. Your execution is so ordered, signed Kodos, Governor of Tarsus IV.”

Those words, spoken by actor Anton Karidian (played by Arnold Moss) in the original Star Trek episode “The Conscience of the King” served as the tipping-point for Captain James T. Kirk’s identification of Karidian as Kodos, the Executioner. The episode is a stand-out example from Classic Trek’s amazing first season, featuring creative direction, a truly creepy villain, and the beginning of Trek’s fascination with the work of the Bard of Avon.

Those words also form the starting-point for Dayton Ward’s new Star Trek: Discovery novel, Drastic Measures. Set a decade before Discovery and twenty years before “The Conscience of the King,” Drastic Measures takes us down to Tarsus IV as the fungal plague ravages the colony’s food supply, and tells the story of Kodos’ horrifying decision, the aftermath of his murder of 4000 colonists, and the manhunt for one of Trek’s greatest monsters. As the cover photo implies, that story involves not just Kodos, but Commander Philippa Georgiou and Lieutenant Commander Gabriel Lorca (yes, the real Lorca from the Prime Universe), two of the key characters in the first season of Discovery.

The story of Tarsus IV and Kodos has been covered in a number of previous Star Trek novels, including the recent Autobiography of James T. Kirk, David A. Goodman, but Dayton Ward’s novel was written with the full cooperation and input of Star Trek: Discovery staff writer Kirsten Beyer, and the full knowledge of the Discovery writer’s room. This gives Ward’s book, and the preceding Discovery novel Desperate Hours by David Mack, a stronger connection to official Trek canon.

The resulting novel tells an exciting tale of a colony on the brink of death, of people recovering from unimaginable trauma and loss, of the difficulty of being a first responder to a horrific tragedy that is an ongoing situation, and of the attempt to bring a murderer to justice when all you want is revenge.

As the novel opens, Lt. Cdr. Lorca is a recent arrival at Starfleet’s outpost on Tarsus IV, but he has already begun to build connections with his teammates in the outpost and some members of the colony. As Governor Kodos declares martial law in an attempt to control the developing famine, Lorca’s lady love, a Tarsus colonist, is one of the 4000 people selected by Kodos for extermination.

Commander Georgiou is aboard a Starfleet transport vessel bound for Tarsus IV in response to the colony’s distress call. Her ship will arrive well ahead of the two-month estimate that Starfleet had given Tarsus IV. She is in charge of the hastily-assembled first response team of Starfleet engineers, scientists, security personnel, and medics that have been sent to render aid as quickly as possible. As the ship arrives at Tarsus IV, and the horrible deeds that had been done there just days before become evident, Georgiou finds herself also managing a manhunt, spearheaded by a grieving Lorca.

Of course, we know how the manhunt for Kodos has to end up. In order for “The Conscience of the King” to unfold as we know it must twenty years down the line, Kodos must escape, but be believed to have died in a fire. That pulls some of the suspense out of the manhunt story, though Ward manages to make the journey exciting anyway.

“Upholding a set of ideals can be difficult, and sometimes it’s damned cruel. Being able to do that, especially during times of adversity and crisis and even great personal tragedy, is the true test of anyone privileged to wear this.” Reaching up, [Georgiou] tapped her chest to indicate her Starfleet uniform. “we’re bound to uphold and defend those ideals, but the harder job is living up to them.”

The story features a number of twists and turns, and bravely gives us some insight into the mindset of Kodos the Executioner. It explores survivor’s guilt, the clash between humanistic ideals and the desire for revenge, and the trade-offs required of every leader in a crisis situation. It also serves to tie together many of the scattered details provided by “The Conscience of the King” about the Tarsus IV crisis, and the massacre.

One critique for the novel is that when it seems to end, it then ends again, and then again. And there is a mysterious and almost incomprehensible “post-credits” scene. It feels like, having “landed the plane” (so to speak), Ward had trouble letting us disembark. It comes off as a bit awkward, after a well-crafted story with a satisfying climax.

Canon connections

Drastic Measures features a Denobulan character as well as a Betazoid character, and I was pleased to learn a bit more about the history and ethics of the Betazoid people. The Benecia colony, the destination of the Karidian Company of Players in “The Conscience of the King” is mentioned. The book hints that the Bonestell Recreational Facility, where Jean-Luc Picard once left his heart (TNG: “Samaritan Snare”) may have been on Tarsus IV. There seems to be a nod to the Enterprise episode, “Horizon,” in a discussion about arming transport ships.

I was also pleased to see brief appearances by Captain Robert April and his wife Sarah, and Ward seems to take their characterization from their depiction in Diane Carey’s excellent novels Final Frontier and Best Destiny more than from the Animated Series episode, “The Counter-Clock Incident.” There’s a brief mention of zenite, and the planet it is mined from, Ardana (TOS: “The Cloud Minders”). There’s an oblique mention of Spock. And yes, a pivotal appearance by a teenaged Thomas Layton and James T. Kirk.

Memory Alpha tells us that the not-seen-on-screen bio of Ensign Hoshi Sato, prepared for the episode “In a Mirror Darkly, Part II” indicated that Hoshi and her family were among the 4000 people killed by Kodos on Tarsus IV. However, there is no indication of that in this book. Neither Kevin Riley nor his family are mentioned. Also, while “The Conscience of the King” does not mention Kodos’ first name, and The Autobiography of James T. Kirk gives it as Arnold, in Drastic Measures, his name is Adrian.

Bottom line

“Drastic Measures” is an exciting and worthwhile read, providing insight into the Prime Universe’s Gabriel Lorca and Philippa Georgiou. It is a compelling exploration of a community in crisis, and an exciting manhunt story. I highly recommend the book.

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved it! Really enjoyed the ride. Nice tie-in with the Tarsus IV story, and Kirk and Tommy Leighton.

It was lovely to meet Prime Lorca for a change. And catch a glimpse into his background.

I found Drastic Measures to be far better than the first DSC novel. And that ending leaves me stunned. I need to know what’s going on!!! :-)

[Jasmine]

Okay so I read this one hoping that it would make me like Lorca, because of spoilers about our meeting him in the show. It didn't really do that. And I almost gave up on the book entirely multiple times just cause it wasn't my jam. It didn't really read like what I think of as a Trek book, it didn't capitalize on the aesthetic and technobabble and determined optimism of that setting, and it kept giving space to people with views like "really kodos went too far but he had some good points about how everything bad started with the refugees". Not my jam.

HOWEVER. The last like, fifth of the book? I'm very glad I kept reading. The entire sequence with Georgiou and the corps of engineers hacker at the spaceport was deliciously Trek, and the book stuck the landing SO well. (Possibly it stuck it so hard because I wasn't really invested in the middle or beginning of the book, so when I did invest I did so with enthusiasm, but anyways. Those last two ending sequences ahhhhh.)

[Virginia Mae · Rating 4 out of 5]

This first part might sound negative but bear with me, I have other things to say. Okay, so the parts with Georgiou didn't ring true for me; I couldn't feel her character's presence/personality on the page at all, with the exception of one wonderful scene near the end when she parts ways with Lorca.
Particularly, I think we're missing her wry sense of humor, one of her best qualities. We all know this woman can't get through a situation without clever wisecracks, and there's almost none to be found. I also didn't care for the overall plot, which was somewhat predictable and meandering, except for the big scary scene that set the whole awful nightmare off for Gabriel.

*But* this is not a negative review because the author's portrayal of Prime Lorca is amazing and gorgeous. I loved every single scene where we got to delve into his character and all his wonderful quirks and preferences, the things that drive him and of course, when he loses his temper and/or gets into action scenes -- I need a cold shower. Damn, boy. Everytime the focus is on Lorca, the words jump off the page. Whenever we have to go back to anything else that's going on, paying attention to the book is a struggle.

It's well worth it. The Lorca parts make for an excellent read and I high key love this author for putting that fabulous little tiny epilogue in suggesting what may have happened to Lorca years later, after he was switched with his MU counterpart. Major brownie points -- that was the best!

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

Few tragedies had a greater impact on the history of the Federation than the massacre on Tarsus IV. There, in response to the devastation to the colony's food supplies caused by a fungus, the colony's governor, Adrian Kodos, ordered the execution of half of the colony's population so that the other half could survive on the remaining stocks. Accentuating the horror of Kodos's decision was the needlessness of it, as the unexpectedly rapid Starfleet response led by Commander Philippa Georgiou meant that the anticipated famine never would have happened. With the crisis alleviated Kodos and his supporters are on the run, chased by a determined lieutenant commander named Gabriel Lorca who is determined to bring Kodos to justice for the deaths he ordered — including those of the members of the Starfleet monitoring post on the planet and a woman close to his heart.

One of the opportunities provided by the setting of the recently-added Star Trek: Discovery series to the Star Trek franchise is that of exploring the events prior to those of the storied original series. While the series itself provided a depiction of the Federation-Klingon War referenced in "Errand of Mercy," Dayton Ward takes the opportunity in this novel to develop the events referenced in "The Conscience of the King," one of the first episodes of the show. There’s a lot to like about the novel, as Ward writes a suspenseful story and he knows how to pen effective action scenes. He also has an unusual opportunity to craft a different Gabriel Lorca from the one shown in the first season, and he balances his portrayal of the more moral and upright figure one would expect in the Star Trek universe while hinting nicely at the elements evident in the Mirror Universe counterpart from the show.

Yet while his novel is entertaining and his incorporation of both Georgiou and Lorca are effective, many of the elements of his plot are an awkward fit with the original series episode on which it's based. While part of the problem in this regard that Ward doesn't adhere to the scattered details of the massacre provided in the episode, the main issue ironically enough is his effort to conform to one major point from it: the problem of recognizing Kodos. Given all of the ways of identifying people that have emerged in just the half-century since the episode was written, Ward had to work out how a figure as public as Kodos could have remained unidentified after his death. This ends up consuming far more of the novel than it should, to the point of disrupting the story's pacing for the sake of an awkward and not entirely satisfying resolution. It's an unfortunate burden for what could have been a powerful story of Federation morals tested by circumstance, rather than an awkward fit that somehow manages to be both too faithful and not faithful enough to its source material.

[Krista · Rating 3 out of 5]

The build was frustratingly slow and I almost didn't finish it, but it finally started picking up the pace around page 200. It was a good novel about the tragedy at Tarsus IV; not my favorite of the Disco novels. But it did hold my attention to the end, which brought it up from 2 stars to 3.

[Laura · Rating 1 out of 5]

She could only imagine what they and so many others had to be feeling. Like her, they felt a need to come here, to walk on this grass and see for themselves what little remained of those lost. In some respects, the tragedy would not be real until they saw with their own eyes where it had happened. Such revelations would bring with them more pain as those left behind struggled to process this insanity. Georgiou felt herself gripped by the same emotional turmoil. The longer she stared at the desecrated field, the more the weight of what happened here seemed to press down on her.

"I can't believe something like this could ever happen on a Federation world."

Lorca said, "Utopia's easy when everything works and all your basic needs are met. We tend to think we've traveled this long path toward peace and prosperity, but take away the necessities of living and it's a short walk back to our baser instincts. Kodo's mistake was allowing that to cloud his judgement."



~~A screen shot from the Star Trek: Discovery TV show, depicting a crash that closely resembles my mental image of one of the more thrilling action sequences in the book.

Synapse: Things are quickly going from bad to worse on Tarsus IV--a colony on a planet on the fringes of the Federation. Originally a small colony composed of those who wanted to live a independent lifestyle, the population was more than doubled a few years ago when they took refuges from another planet experiencing *severe* and persistent earth quakes. Unfortunately, there is a new invasive fungus on the Tarsus IV now that is quickly and devastatingly making its way through their food supplies and farms, rendering any crops/food it touches inedible. Some of the original population believes the refugees are to blame.

However, regardless of where the fungus came from, it's clear that there isn't nearly enough food remaining to support the colony until help arrives. Most likely many will die of starvation. So what's a government to do? Well, in this case, they remove from office the current governor, who isn't acting quickly and decisively enough in the council's opinion. In her place, they nominate Kodos as acting governor. He decides to go with a ..... Drastic Measure ...to ensure survival of the fittest.

Lorca, a Starfleet commander overseeing the outpost on Tarsus IV, witnesses the brutality first-hand. When a rescue ship arrives days later, Kodos actions turn out to be not only drastic, but completely unnecessary. Riots break out among the grieving colonists, and Lorca bands with Commander Georgiou from the rescue ship as they engage in a massive manhunt for Kodos.

My two cents: I'd like to start with the disclaimer that I'm not a "fan" per say of either the Star Trek or Star Wars franchises. I like to be well-read though, and so have read a few books based on both worlds. Ward's offering, in particular, seems to ride on the coattails of the system his book is a part of. The book itself has amateur writing, clunky dialogue, and flat characters. Aside from a couple of very well done action sequences, the book was a drag to get through. Those who love the new series may get some background questions answered, and if that sounds like you, then by all means check this book out from your local library. For me though, it was overly melodramatic, and formulaic. Given 1 star or a rating of "Bad". Hopefully the next book I'm reading breaks this downward trend.... :/

Another favorite quote: "While it was true that much of Earth's ancient literature and poetry was lost to time, certain authors and their creations had somehow managed to persevere through the ages. Though he read the usual selections of Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet in primary school or while attending university, it was only within the last few years that Kodos took an active, ongoing interest in the celebrated playwright's life and writings. The book in his lap was one of the few physical tomes he had brought with him from Earth. For reasons he still didn't understand, reading its electronic equivalent on a computer screen of date slate--as he had done with almost everything else since childhood--did not provide the same sense of satisfaction. There was an energy to the words that was somehow diminished when reduced to pixels on a screen. Here, in a tangible form he could feel beneath his fingers, they exuded the passion, pain, and life captured by their author all those centuries ago."

[Chris (horizon_brave) · Rating 3 out of 5]

****As per all of my reviews, I like to preface by saying that I listened to this book in audiobook format. This does indeed slightly skew my rating. I have found that audiobooks, give me a better "relationship" with the characters if done well, but also kills the book for me if narrated poorly. Also due to the nature of listening to the text, names and places may be spelled incorrectly here as I often do not have the physical volume in front of me.

Also, I have written this review in a "rolling updates" style. In that I basically chronocle my reading as I progress. This may make for a jarring and spoilery review so be warned.*****


So, I will fully admit, I'm not as big of a Trek fan as I am as a Star Wars fan. I love Trek, but I don't scream and yell if I see something that "breaks canon" or doesn't fit with look of "Trek" as long as I love the look and feel, it doesn't bother me. Hence why I can get behind the newer updated Discovery era of Star Trek…now..that being said as much as I enjoy the athestic, the story and timeline is a bit…off for me..but that's a discussion for a completely different topic.

Well, it's up to Mr. Dayton Ward to pick up the pen and give us a story in the DISC timeline. I've read two other books by Ward and he has a writing style that I actually really enjoy. He goes out of his way in giving us a much deeper fleshed out library of supporting characters. It's easy with books based on other media like movies and TV shows to just source what has been established with those characters and not stray from that. Basically just providing us with the characters we see on screen and never really branching out. Or sprinking in random "red shirts" and just focusing in on the "big names". No sir, Mr. Ward seems to make it a goal to give us a cast of support that actually feels like we could see their presence on screen…

So
Opening chapter is from the perspective of a journal reporting on a prisoner in one of the "light duty" penal colonies. These are for smaller offenses, and ones that show that the incarerated can be redeemed and brought back into society. One prisoner is Fujimura. She's interviewed and even though no one here is considered a huge threat she's still watched very very closely by guards during the interview. It's implied that she was involved in some sort of attack, and even killed someone or multiple people. She tells her back story, that she immigrated to the planet Tarsus IV, which was a planet not really associated with the Federation. Which was a draw to many. The people who lived on Tarsus IV valued heavily their freedom, and quiet out of the way life. It was a sparsely populated planet. She came from the planet Mantilles which was a major port of call for Starfleet and was very very busy and bustling. She craved the more quiet seclusion. Then there was a huge ecological disaster on the nearby planet of Epsilon Sorona. And their population was relocated to Tarsus IV. Refugee's, press, and spotlight followed. The natives of Tarsus were none too thrilled about this "invasion". What's more is that a huge ecological virus is brought to the planet and it kills many. Furthermore it contaminants their foods and water, and great hassle is brought upon the once peaceful planet. Many people grew tired of this and began to start protests and rallies, and a man named Kodos grew tired of waiting by while people just talked and discussed. Kodos gathers a group, Fujimara assumedly was apart of it on some level, and attack one of the Star Fleet outposts. Star Fleet was brought in to keep things peaceful between the natives and refugee's.

So we get the opening chapter with Lorca, who's a member of Starfleet (this is Prime Lorca I assume…) He's on the ground stationed on Tarsus IV, after having served on a star ship for years and years it was recommended that he spend some time "grounded". He and his output is at or near the capital of Tarsus IV, New Anchorage. He's responded to his facility being under attack by the locals and is combing through the output room by room with another member of his team, a woman named Bridges. They discover that the attackers have their weapons set to kill, and are baffled as to why they've done this. They discover members of their team shot dead. They meet up with Aasal Soltani, a Saudi member of StarFleet, and the three begin sweeping their way to the command station. They burst in, kick some ass, and take a few prisoners. They note that the attackers are breaking off and retreating. They find that the attack was intended to raid their armoury. Lorca steps up readily eager to interogate their new prisoners. It's pretty clear that the attack was actually meant to kill the StarFleet team, but realizing that they couldn't over take them, they weird to steal the weapons. The most disturbing thing they found out is that the Governor, who now was no longer trusted by many of the locals for being "in bed" with Star Fleet was overthrown and replaced with Kodos. And he being a revolutionary in mindset isn't good…
*This portion actually reminds me a lot of the Expanse, both Cibola Burn, and Persepolis Rising**

Lorca is already showing signs of being a **tad** gungho and perhaps in need of some anger management techniques. After interrogating the captives he punches the wall and bruises his own fist, relishing in the pain…Reminds me of the scene in DISC where he headbutts himself all casual like in order to appear more 'bruised' in the Mirror Universe. Lorca, Bridges, and Aasal are prepare themselves for another wave of attacks. He returns to his desk and notices he has a missed message, explaining that the prior governor was removed and this hot headed Konos had imposed himself. The woman who relates the message is a very attractive woman who has gained the eye of Lorca since his arrival Balanaya. (aiiiight mah man Lorc…) Apparently later this night there is going to be a mass gathering of citizens. Due to size restrictions of the ampitheatre the speech will be given twice for two different groups….In a world of space age star ships…and light speed communications, the need to split the population of Tarsus IV attending the speech by Kolos weems like it's going to be heavy plot device. Lorca decides to go, probably moreso because his lady love, Balanaya.

Chapter 4:
We're introduced to Philippa Georgiou here in this timeline (Speaking of which this book takes place roughly 10 years prior to Battle at Binary) She's a bit exhausted, her and her crew having made a mad scramble to be stationed at Tarsus IV to help the Star Fleet unit there (with Lorca) and resupply them, and assist in the Outbreak/contamination, as well as providing some off loading of the refugee's onto the starship. It doesn't appear that she's aware of any of the hostilities currently taking place between the native locals and the newer imposing Starfleet presence. Georgiou seems to still have her cool motherly demeanor. She's accompanied by her assisstant Enamori Jenn, a Betazoid woman. At this time Betazoid has been only a recent addition to the Federation. The team they were attached to was assembled on Star Base 11, and the USS Narbonne was assigned to the mission to aid Tarsus IV. She's currently now onboard the USS Narbonne under the command of Captain Korrapati.

Chapter 5: So we're given some reasoning as to why Kolos wanted to have a physical gathering of the people of Tarsus IV…Lorca, Bridges and Aasal all plan to meet up with Balanaya, (who we assume is Starfleet as well) at her apartments near the Amphitheater and then all go together. Well Balanaya for whatever reason decided to leave early and meet them there…Yea bad idea that plan… Turns out Kodos who predictably is evil (who would have thought) decided to turn the entire population that showed up (about 4000 people) into laser pulp. In mass execution style, the crowd is pretty much mowed down. Four Thousand people is sort of a lot, you think it would take some time…but nope… Tarsus cutlets everywhere… Well Lorca and team, realizing that Balanya had already gone to the theater, decide to just crash at her apartment and watch it all on TV. So imagine their surprise when they see the crowd being made into turkey melt sandwiches..
My problem here is that this is a rather large action. I mean if something like the mass killing of 4000 people doesn't go down in history, then it just feels like the story is a bit far fetched. Now I’m no canon stickler… I don't feel like everything MUST be referenced in perfect time… but having some sort of implications or later acknowledgement of events like these really make the universe more 'firm'. So I was indeed please to see that this "Tarsus IV Massacre" is indeed a real event, and the planet itself is actually quite prevalent in canon. So much so that it's actually the plot of an episode of TOS and later referenced throughout Trek. So..that being said Dayton Ward, our author in all of this, has pulled out a piece of Trek canon history and given us a story here involving our Disc characters. Now arguments about a "small universe" aside, I think this was pretty cool. I am definitely not a deep cuts Trekkie, so stuff like this doesn't really bother me.

Chapter 9:
Again I feel that the meeting of the two characters of Lorca and Georgiou seems a bit forced… I think if it were a new character created for this instead of Georgiou it would have been way way more natural. The ship, the Narbonne touches down on Tarsus IV, and Dayton gives us a very deep description of one of the medical officers on the Narbonne as someone who seems to have absolutely no desire or love of Starfleet. He seems to have made his way into the medical field during his civilian time, and she can't figure out why he actually joined. I think it would be a tad to obvious for him to be some sort of agent of Kodos, so I'm going to assume at this point it's just Dayton giving us some deep character development. This wouldn't be a surprised either considering the previous two books I've read of him, he has a fantastic method of fleshing out characters, like in Hearts and Minds and Headlong Flight. Nevertheless the doctor, Varazdinski, leaps into motion when tasked with assembling a medical crew, and starting to unload medical supplies and trying to help. Decontamination farms, hydroponic facilities and food processors etc.

Kodos fled and Governor Ribiero has returned to office. She gives a speech trying to desperately to unite the divided planet. Korrapati of the Narbonne makes contact with her, and tells of their plan to restore aid to the planet. On the heels of this, one of Ribiero's aids tries an assassination, bombing attempt on her and the crew of the Narbonne. He attempts to toss a grenade at them, but is stopped by Georgiou (couldn't a phaser shot be far more effective…) She realizes that she's not going to be able to trust everyone and begins crying…okay, she's a weakling… Georgiou needs to be put in charge here…

Chapter 11:
Now, Kodos in control feels that he's actually made an error in the whole melting of the half the population to vapor. You see, he estimated that the next Starfleet transport was weeks/months off and that no help would arrive. Also he just generally doesn't like or appreciate Starfleets help. That being said, when he's informed that the Narbonne would be there soon (like hours), he now has to flee with his loyal followers, AND realize that his horrible error in calculation pretty much made his complete attack on the populace completely pointless.
He's been driven underground and his obviously quite angry.

Some good character building moments sprinkled throughout. We're told that Philippa Georgiou was actually trained early in her career in combat medical. The capital city of New Anchorage on Tarsus IV is slowly returning to some form of stability, but protests and acts of violence are still popping up, and Star Fleet, now with the boosted aid of the Narbonne and the crew is providing medical aid to the security forces.
Georgiou is funnily enough teamed up with a Denabulian junior medical officer, (same race as Phlox). Same mannerisms.

So in a bit of (far far too on the nose) cheesy "small universe" fan service… we're given a scene…which involes…Kirk.. Now I would have been reeling against this and complaining. BUT after watching Consciousness of the King It is a major part of the story were we find out that Kirk and his friend was present when the slaughter happened, and saw Kodos' face. Ward's depiction of Kirk, reminds me exactly of the young Kirk that we see in 2009's JJ Abram's version of young kirk. I like it…rash, brash, but still respectful, but definitely not afraid to say his piece… He was caught, hacking into a computer and Georgiou finds out that he and his friend has seen Kodo's face. Again this comes into play in the episode. Kirk's appearance doesn't stick around long, and while I don't mind it's inclusion…it *just* crosses the line for being a bit too on the nose.

So the story actually takes a turn for a character, the captured Alex Simmons, who we were expecting to be the right hand man "Number 2" of our bad guy. But through the very well written chapters detailing the documentary of "The Four Thousand" about people involved in the Sacrifice while they're imprisoned, Simmons is fleshed out heavily. This is a really great idea that was introduced in the beginning of the book, but now it really helps show us the more human side of those who followed Kodos. Alex Simmons was a security officer, and he wanted nothing more than to protect his people. He knew what Kodos wanted by the end was wrong, and was actually the target to be killed in the sacrifice by Kodo himself for not being loyal enough. Because the documentary chapters take place more or less in "present day", it shows him as he is now, living, but deeply deeply regretful and mournful of what he had a hand in. He actually turns down his early release from the prison, so he can pay his due. He believes he got off far to easily for all those who died.
To me this wins on two fronts… it actually accomplishes what I was hoping for, in making this mass killing very very real and 'impactful' in the universe. The people involved are still talking and thinking about this event. Also it gives us a very personal feel to some of those involved who may have just been doing what they felt was right, up to a point.

Back in the narrative though, Lorca has just captured Simmons and he's roughing him up and now that we know what Simmons was going through, you feel bad for him. Lorca doesn't trust him and treats him pretty much like scum.
Lorca eventually snaps and jumps at Simmons while interrogating him. He goes to choke him to death (oh lorca!) and Georgiou has to step in and send him off. They eventually hash it out, and Georgiou (who actually is above Lorca in rank), sends him, another "red shirt" and Simmons himself on a field mission. Simmons has given information as the suspected whereabouts of Kodo's encampment. It's in a mountainous area outside of New Anchorage.

A nod to the fans here (not in a fanservice way) we get the explanation and story behind Kodos and him being portrayed as an actor in the Star Trek TOS episode that inspired this story..

By the end of the book, Lorca is beaten up pretty badly, same for Bridges and Soltani. Georgiou and the captain of the Narbonne find him in the collapsed tunnels outisde the base of Kodos. We're then left with pretty much the opening story of when the TOS episode takes place. They make a big deal about making sure Kodos is truly dead. They find two bodies, and one of them is positively identified as Kodos, but obviously this isn't true. Shame that Lorca was not around long enough to see Kodo's true fate..
Dayton Ward continues with his traditional writing prowess of creating unique characters that really stand out. With his other book Hearts and Minds, he continues the characters in the Post Voyager story with the Enterprise NG crew. I love how he takes a bit of time giving each supporting character atleast some monocrum of backstory. I can then relate to to them and feel as though these are real characters surrounding out main heroes. And this really really helps with the whole small universe problem that this book falls into. I mean honestly, I think I could have done without the Kirk appearance here…I know that it was the basis of the story really, but still I think Dayton could have worked it a bit better.
I'll say this though, Ward's rendition of Lorca was spot the hell on. Ward depicts Lorca as a definite good guy, but VERY unhinged at times and able to get so wrapped up in something, that he blind sides himself, and gets rail roaded into getting revenge and narrow minded on revenge. (A common theme in Trek). Now this is Prime Lorca…for those who watch Star Trek Discovery will know what this means… The Lorca we know from the show is really expanded on and we can see the differences between Mirror Lorca. I love the idea that Prime Lorca while completely different than Mirror Lorca, still have some traits of Prime. Lorca here isn't evil, but seems just very determined to go after Kodos and do whatever is necessary to get to that goal. We see him relish in the ability threaten, beat and have no qualms about being hmm…"Aggressive". Sadly, Georgiou is sort of bland here, as I said, the other supporting character that Dayton sets up, easily carry the story, and I got a feel for many of them. The careful attention to the original episode "Consciouness of the King" is well done, and even adding a ton with the "interlude" chapters that deal with a sort of documentary about the massacre on Tarsus IV. One of my main worries was that the Tarsus IV scenario which sent 4000 people to their deaths in the blink of an eye… would just be unrealistically forgotten or just ignored… I mean an event like that should be talked about for years and years and apart of the culture. Ward does a good job in making this event weighty and seem like it will have aftermath and reprecussions.
Ward gives us a good look at Kodos's point of view of things, and while he' still completely wrong and there's no justification to Kodos' action we atleast get to see his point of view. Unfortunately though, it still just comes off as maniacal. I think Ward did a great job in handling the story. I feel though at times it's way way too long winded and could have been told in far shorter of a book. There are many scenes that drag on way too long and don't even add that much. Character development scenes are great and need to be here, but some of the action scenes go on too long. More so than in the TV shows, the book seems very down to earth in terms of the actual science and physics. It creates a very nice read that's not reliant on random techno babble just to pass the story on.
I wasn't thrilled from the beginning to have the idea that Captain Georgiou and Lorca cross paths. One huge problem in Star Wars and Trek is that in a galaxy..people just keep bumping into each other. How often do you run into someone you know in the same town? Now think about those odds in the space of an entire freaking galaxy..You could live in a town that's 10 miles wide and never run into someone you know… and multiply that distance by a few million..I of course do not blame Dayton, this is nothing new. It's often fanservice disguised not so cleverly as story plot. I enjoyed the book, glad to see it tie heavily into the TOS episode, definitely fun going back and watching the episode to get some comparison and context.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a fan of the original Star Trek, I have fond memories of the episode, "The Conscience of the King", in which a group of Shakespearean actors come aboard the Enterprise. In the episode, we learn that the troupe's leader is Kodos the Executioner, once the governor of a Federation colony who mercilessly ordered the death of over 4000 people. Captain Kirk was one of the only people who ever saw Kodos and could identify him and those witnesses are being systematically murdered.

In the 60s, it was a little easier to imagine how the true identity of a remote colony world's governor might remain a secret. In this modern age of 24 hour news cycles and portable devices that capture images, the premise of the episode pushes credulity. Enter Dayton Ward who tells us the story from the perspectives of up-and-coming Starfleet officers Gabriel Lorca and Phillipa Georgiou (who happen to feature prominently in the new Star Trek: Discovery series. Ward gives us a thrilling story of the Kodos's crime and the subsequent manhunt for him. Of course, young Jim Kirk makes an appearance in this story. Also, it was great to see some other people from Star Trek make an appearance. I might have been just a little more impressed if he had worked in the character of Kevin Riley, who featured in the original Star Trek episode, but I can see how that might also have diluted the plot.

Recommended for fans of both classic Trek and Discovery.

[Michael Lauck · Rating 4 out of 5]

SPOILER FREE REVIEW: Okay, a spoiler free review... I enjoyed this book more than the first Star Trek Discovery novel. I did not feel that it "filled in" as much of the backstory of these two characters as the first novel (Desperate Hours), but in all fairness the first novel did center on the series lead. This novel, like Desperate Hours, is set before the series. Unlike the first novel it also ties into events mentioned in (even central to) an episode of the original Star Trek series. That alone may make this book more appealing to Star Trek fans who are not current with Star Trek Discovery... And if that is you, it is worth noting that neither Desperate Hours or Drastic Measures will "ruin" or "spoil" anything about the television series. They fill in backstory but there has yet to be anything in a Discovery novel that hinges upon or reveals any plot twist of the TV series. Dayton Ward tends to be one of my favorite Star Trek authors, and he delivered again in this book. I think I might actually suggest starting with Drastic Measures instead of Desperate Hours if you are new to the Discovery series but not new to Star Trek.

[Elentarri · Rating 1 out of 5]

Flat characters, too much info-dumping, odd plot and erratic pacing. The pace only picks up in the last third of the novel. Despite the provided explanations/motivations for "Kodos the Executioner's" actions, they don't really make sense to me in terms of the events described in the novel, so the plot falls flat. Kodos is something of a non-entity, despite being the villian of the novel. Georgiou and Lorca have no distinctive personality - they may as well be any random generic StarFleet officers. Young James T. Kirk makes an appearance, so I suppose there is some sort of canon tie-in with an Original Series episode (which I haven't seen so can't comment on it). The kid Kirk is just as much an annoying, know-it-all smartass as the adult Kirk.

[Kym Masera Taborn · Rating 4 out of 5]

Started slow but I eventually got engaged in a mystery I knew the answer to. I would have liked it had they gotten more into the implied eugenic theories that supposedly motivated Kodos the Executioner. Young Kirk had a cameo but no Riley. It gave some nice insight into Lorca Prime. And totally Star Trek Yeoh.

[C.T. Phipps · Rating 4 out of 5]

4/5

I just finished DRASTIC MEASURES about an hour ago and decided to do my review immediately rather than wait for it to digest in my brain like I do with most of my books. As anyone who checks my Amazon or Goodreads account knows, I'm a huge Star Trek book fan and have reviewed over fifty books on the subject. This is a drop in the bucket of the number actually produced and also the number I've read. It's just now that I've started making a habit of writing down my thoughts on every one of the books I read.

STAR TREK: DISCOVERY has been a somewhat controversial entry into the series but that's nothing new for longtime Trekkies. Every series has its critics and every one of its changes got torn to shreds by the original fandom nerds (of which Trekkies used to have a copyright on). While I have complaints, I've overall enjoyed it and especially liked the characters of Captain Lorca and Captain Phillipa Georgiou that represent binary differences on how two Federation heroes might act. I also was a fan of the previous novel, DESPERATE HOURS, which seems to have already been decanonized given it's hard to reconcile with Michael Burnham/Spock's relationship in Season Two.

The premise for this novel is it chronicles the events of the Tarsus IV massacre. In the original Star Trek series, "The Conscience of the King", Governor Kodos massacred 5,000 of his citizens in order to stave off a famine that would have killed the entirety of the colony. Unfortunately, this was an enormous mistake not just on moral grounds but on practical ones. It turned out Starfleet relief ships were able to get there much faster than expected and if he'd waited just a day longer, no one would have had to die.

This episode is, in my opinion, probably the best Star Trek episode of the original series other than "City on the Edge of Forever." It was a dramatic Shakespearian revenge plot with guilt, lies, betrayal, and intrigue. Captain James T. Kirk was a child on Tarsus IV when this massacre happened and it weighed upon him his entire life. It probably didn't happen in the Kelvin timeline of Star Trek (you'll get that reference if you're a nerd like me) and episodic television means it was never brought up again but it always stuck with my vision of who James Tiberius Kirk was.

Drastic Measures postulates that Captain Phillipa Georgiou (then Commander) is there to be the first responder for the famine relief, only to find a massacre's aftermath instead. Also, Lieutenant Commander Gabriel Lorca is planetside, chilling with his girlfriend and buddies when events turn nightmarish. Putting both of them in such a pivotal Star Trek event pushes credibility but not too much. It also fits Gabriel Lorca, at least as how Discovery treats him, that he'd be witness to such a terrible event.

Overall, I enjoyed the novel and had fun reading it but it does feel like it had a few missed opportunities. The majority of the book deals with the manhunt for Governor Kodos who, we know, will survive for decades until Captain James T. Kirk discovers him. The problem is that the most interesting part of the story, the decision to incinerate the colonists and build-up to it, is more or less skipped over.

I also feel like Kodos' personality is a bit off. While it's certainly possible that a man could change drastically in twenty years, the sheer dark dramatic irony of his situation barely seems to affect him. He has a bunch of followers and is primarily concerned with their escape like they're terrorists. Given the massacre was completely and utterly unnecessary, I feel like the horror and regret of events would be weighing on Kodos much more.

Even so, it's entertaining and has an epic twist at the end I didn't see coming. The best parts of the book are probably the interview sections that create the fictional premise that this is a documentary being done on the massacre a good decade in the future. I felt that added a gravitas to the whole thing that would be otherwise absent.

[Laurel Bradshaw · Rating 3 out of 5]

Well, this is more like a Star Trek Original prequel than a discovery novel, since it tells the back story of "The Conscience of the King." We get to see a brief cameo of James Kirk as a teen, although I still don't know what he and his mother were doing on Tarsus IV. This could have been an interesting psychological study of Kodos, but it wasn't. The main character seems to be Gabriel Lorca and is trying to give him a backstory for his dark and brooding nature in Discovery. Spoiler if you haven't seen Season 1 of the TV show - which I thought was adequately accounted for by the fact that after the Battle of the Binary Stars, Lorca was in fact Lorca from the Dark Universe. A better story might have been how that happened and why. The Philippa Georgiou here is a Commander, not yet a Captain, and seems to be added just to bring the two of them together.

So an okay plot, but the writing was highly repetitive. I could have sworn I had read some paragraphs three times. A bit of a slog, but I'll give it 3 stars for the effort. It's hard to write for these characters early on in the series, without risking radical departures from where the TV characters are taken. I don't know if I will read any more of this series. There are two further novels out - the next one focuses on Mr. Saru.

Book description: It is 2246, ten years prior to the Battle at the Binary Stars, and an aggressive contagion is ravaging the food supplies of the remote Federation colony Tarsus IV and the eight thousand people who call it home. Distress signals have been sent, but any meaningful assistance is weeks away. Lieutenant Commander Gabriel Lorca and a small team assigned to a Starfleet monitoring outpost are caught up in the escalating crisis, and bear witness as the colony’s governor, Adrian Kodos, employs an unimaginable solution in order to prevent mass starvation.
While awaiting transfer to her next assignment, Commander Philippa Georgiou is tasked with leading to Tarsus IV a small, hastily assembled group of first responders. It’s hoped this advance party can help stabilize the situation until more aid arrives, but Georgiou and her team discover that they‘re too late—Governor Kodos has already implemented his heinous strategy for extending the colony’s besieged food stores and safeguarding the community’s long-term survival.
In the midst of their rescue mission, Georgiou and Lorca must now hunt for the architect of this horrific tragedy and the man whom history will one day brand “Kodos the Executioner”….

[Maj · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book was a bit too exhaustive in the descriptions of the character's inner life, and the dialogue bordered on "people don't talk that way" sometimes, but other than that it served well developing Prime Lorca and Georgiou's characters. Lorca, we of course, never got to meet, Georgiou only shortly (but for long enough that I became a fan of her...as amusing and well acted as the emperor is, I still hands down prefer the captain).

I suppose I could have done without Kodos's being involved in the inner thoughts narrative, don't think it really brought too much light to WTF he was on about - though I admit it did fit with the shifting perspective method of the book, which helped move the story along. But I definitely don't think the epilogue was needed, it only spelled out what the reader figured out on their own anyway.

And yes, there was no need to tie in Lorca and Georgiou into TOS stories, but other than my caveats above, I think the book did well what it set out to do, and I for one am glad I got to meet and understand Prime Lorca and spend some more time with Prime Georgiou.

[Gabi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ooookay … this was surprisingly … dull.

The first novelization didn't exactly win me over, so I thought the second could only be better - well, little did I know. Rarely have I read a plot that was so lacking supsense, had such a repetitive narration, pictured characters so uninterestingly and succeeded in telling not showing on such a broad and sometimes preachy level. I'm honestly flabbergasted.
I could go with the zero recall value of known DSC characters, since the book probably was written before the first season aired, so for the first tie-in novelisations it is always hard to stay true to the characters, that are brought to life by their actors. (and in all fairness, this version of Lorca never did show). But this does not excuse a badly executed story plot.

This book absolutely was not for me. As much as I adore and value Discovery in its TV form, this probably was the last time I spent my money on one of the novelizations.

[Shaun · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had mixed feelings with this book. Liked some parts and was bored by others. All in all not bad. I like having Star Trek back on television and will happily read any novel they release about the show Discovery.

After watching the TOS episode that this was based off of I understand the story's faults a bit more. There really wasn't much to work off of and only so much you could do having to force Lorca and Georgiou into having individual prominent roles with the event on Taurus IV.

The book was pretty much just to let us get to know Lorca's background and throw us a nice little tease at the end. Make sure you keep thumbing pages after the novel until you're at the very end of the book! :D

[Brayden Raymond · Rating 3 out of 5]

I can't help but feel the most exciting and shocking part of the novel happens right away and the rest is just clean up. The character work is solid and getting to see Prime Lorca was fun (though he shares many similarities to mirror Lorca), as well as the Kirk cameo. Beyond that however it just didn't suck me in as much as I'd hoped. This is probably 3 downgraded to 2.5 for me.

[Christopher Backa · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting story that tells the tale of Kodos the executioner from the episode “conscience of the king”. It follows Commander Lorca who leads the manhunt for Kodos. Learning more about Lorca, makes his story arc in season 1 of Discovery disappointing.

[Karl Schaeffer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Star Trek SF novel in the Discovery Universe. We meet a younger Georgiou and Lorca. We learn their back stories and we meet Kodos the Executioner and learn how he got the name. An entertaining read.

[Jesse Slater · Rating 2 out of 5]

[1.75/5]
Short version: Read the epilogue, or this spoiler (Season 1 of Discovery spoilers): the epilogue all but says that Prime Universe Lorca is/was in a Mirror Universe prison.

I was underwhelmed by the first ST: Discovery tie-in book, but given that it was a kick-off book, I cut it some slack. I wasn't sure if I'd read this one (especially considering how the events of the second half of the first season of Discovery show that we've never met this Lorca, which is hilarious for a book released right as that was revealed). But I saw a post on Reddit alluding to the surprise at the end, so I bit.

This book doesn't seem like it knows who its audience is. It is based on the backstory to an Original Series episode, so the events are a foregone conclusion, as are the fates of our primary characters (for all intents and purposes). About halfway through the book, I realized I had no idea what the driving force of the drama was at this point. There couldn't be much of a twist, and the human drama was, honestly, lacking. The tragedies that came up felt copy-pasted from Lorca's own tragedy with loss.

This reflects on the book as a whole: it was very repetitive. Information often felt like it was repeated, particularly between the narrative and the interspersed in-universe book excerpt chapters. I get the feeling that the author wanted to use the latter more, but editorial said it needed to be more traditional narrative-focused, and the redundancies weren't weeded out. At least, that's how it feels. Those, overall, were the more interesting sections.

I would have difficulty recommending this book to anyone. I just don't feel like I gained anything from it.

[Richard Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Missing Star Trek: Discovery already? This may or may not scratch the itch. As I mentioned in my hot take on Desperate Hours, the first of the tie-in novels for Star Trek: Discovery, the freshness of the television series gives the novel writers few gaps to fit in their stories. So like the previous novel, Dayton's Ward's book is a prequel to the series. It also acts as a prequel to the Original Series episode 'The Conscience of the King.'

The basic plot involves the intersection of younger versions of Gregoriou and Lorca following the incident on Tarsus IV. What follows is a series of tense cat-and-mouse games as the crew of a Starfleet vessel attempts to stablise the colony. For Ward, this represents plenty of opportunities to delve into the history of the There's a gratuitous cameo from a young Jim Kirk, which might be canonical but it didn't have to make him quite so Wesley Crusher-ish. What separates it from being a straightforward telling are the 'historical accounts' peppered throughout the chapters, often foreshadowing events yet to come. Sadly, there's no sign of the origins of Uhura's random singing.

In some ways, Drastic Measures is a story that could have been told in any era. With the exception of the presence of the Discovery crew, it will have far more impact for people familiar with the Original Series episode this book is directly tied to. That said, with the gripping finale of Discovery having just screened at the time of writing, it offers a few hints about Lorca's future persona and a timely reminder of the ideals of Starfleet and the Federation.

One last handy hint: keep reading beyond the acknowledgements and 'credits,' and you might find a nice little surprise.

[Max Zaslove · Rating 1 out of 5]

THIS WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS.

This book is utter garbage. I hardly know where to begin. Dialogue and internal monologues are clunky and totally unbelievable; people don't speak naturally whatsoever. Pages fill up with blather that repeats the same obvious point over and over (basically that this shit should never happen). Descriptions of basic things take up too much space/time, the amount of detail is unnecessary because it doesn't add to the story or even the world building. The villain has chapters from his perspective, in order to try and make him relatable or something (?) which completely fail because there's no justification for an act like this, so these chapters only end up making him seem less interesting because it's so obviously unbelievable. SPOILER: he kills half the population of a planet and then once he finds out he didn't have to...still remains steadfast that he deserves to get away and feels no remorse? How could you feel no remorse after finding out that you killed 4,000 people for no reason?? And even after all that, the supposed protagonist in Gabriel Lorca is also totally unlikable in his vicious nature, and morally ambiguous intentions. The fact that he goes through unimaginable trauma and then has to deal with it for the rest of the story doesn't even excuse how malicious he ends up being. And GODDAM IT there was almost a redeeming chapter at the end that was then COMPLETELY RUINED by the epilogue. The villain who was supposedly killed in battle, who goes down in history books in a 10 year flash-forward as "the executioner".....actually survived and JUST FUCKING GOT AWAY WITH IT?? That's not a good cliffhanger for him to show up in later stories, it's just bullshit! It ruins almost all of the chase that took up 3/4 of the book, ruins the idea that "if he survived, he would've faced justice but the fact that he was killed on accident is acceptable" thing... there's no real closure to this atrocity! I can't anymore, I've spent too much time even dissecting this. 0 stars.

[Patrick McWilliams · Rating 2 out of 5]

First, the bad. I felt like the whole book dragged. The writing style during dialogue scenes drove me nuts. There'd be a line or two of dialogue, then a page of material in past perfect tense explaining why the person just said that. Then, the dialogue would pick up again, but by that time, I'd forgotten what they were replying to and I'd have to go back and find it again. One chapter opened with a lengthy speech being delivered, but it wasn't until the end of the speech that you found out who was speaking, or even what gender they were, making it impossible to envision the scene.

Lots of minor characters are introduced whose only real defining characteristics seem to be how each one has a unique geographical/ethnic background. I am sincerely all for diversity of characters, but after a few repeats of the formula (new character, hairstyle/eye color, and Earth region of family origin), it began to actually be distracting. Note: Introducing a line of characters who are only going to be in one scene and being sure to tell us what country their grandparents were from isn't actual inclusiveness or diversity; it smacks of lazy virtue-signalling. That also goes for the throwaway lesbian line from a character whose name you forget by the next page.

The good! Great plot idea. Cool to see Prime Lorca. The little bonus scene at the end (even after the acknowledgments) is very significant to watchers of the show; I hope they follow up on that! Cameos from canon characters were handled well and were not overwhelming. I liked the Denobulan and Betazoid characters and wish we could have seen more of them.

Ultimately, I give it a 2-star "It was ok" rating because despite some cool aspects as listed above, I just could never get really interested in it. It's very difficult for me to not finish a book, but this one I finished out of a feeling of obligation rather than enjoyment.

[Kristen · Rating 4 out of 5]

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This entire review contains spoilers. The whole thing. All of it.

Drastic Measures takes place about 10 years prior to the Battle of the Binary Stars in Discovery, and focuses mainly on Gabriel Lorca with Philippa Georgiou playing a large key role. Set on Tarsus IV, Lieutenant Commander Lorca is in command of a small outpost on the colony planet. When a large group of colonists from another world are relocated to Tarsus after a natural disaster on their own planet, Tarsus finds itself suddenly infected with a spore which destroys nearly all the colony’s food supplies. Help is weeks away, by which time the colonists will mostly have starved to death. Lorca and his small team at the outpost give all their uncontaminated food to the colonists, hoping to buy some time. But a lack of strong leadership in the colony’s government results in the ouster of the governor Gisela Ribiero, who is replaced by Adrian Kodos, known to the Trekverse as Kodos the Executioner.

Kodos’ plan is really a final solution. Gathering up those colonists he has deemed to have less value, he and his supporters slaughter 4,000 unarmed citizens in an attempt to save the rest of the colony from starvation. The colony, reeling in shock and grief, is relieved only days later by the arrival of the starship USS Narbonne, bearing Commander Philippa Georgiou and a team of doctors and scientists ready to help the colonists. With medical and food aid now available, Lorca is free to head up the hunt for Kodos, which he takes up with a vengeance because he also suffered a personal loss during Kodos’s “Sacrifice.”

This entire novel was a nice homage to TOS with the inclusion of a teenage Jim Kirk. The TOS episode "The Conscience of the King" referred to a tragic event in the past life of Kirk. This is that story, but it is solidly anchored in the Discovery cast with Kirk only making a very small cameo in this nice. I thought that was very deftly written. It also fills in a couple continuity gaps from a hazy past event in Federation history deserving of more notice.

Some of the writing seems a little out of character. For example, the massacre on Tarsus IV didn't really appear to affect Lorca all that much. This is not Mirror Lorca, he's Prime Lorca. He should have been horrified, maybe even in tears, over the thousands of deaths, especially since his girlfriend was among them. He could probably still do his duty as an officer but it didn't seem believable that he could just shake it off like that, or compartmentalize things so thoroughly. He is still human, and not from the Mirror universe, which would make more sense with his reactions. There was a lot of telling rather than showing that Lorca was upset, and because of that, it didn’t seem genuine. It was only near the end that we saw him act in a manner that might be consistent with the behavior of a grieving man. Throughout the novel, a lot of the things Lorca said or did were inconsistent with a Prime universe Starfleet officer, which is disappointing because it may not be at all the way Prime Lorca would act if he were to appear in the show. Ahem. I think this is an excellent argument in favor of bringing back Lorca in the series; we only ever saw Mirror Lorca in the show, so we really don’t know who the “real” Lorca is. I would very much like to. I mean, I’d be cool with it in real life, too. Hello, Jason Isaacs…*drool*

I thought Ward did pretty well with his portrayal of a younger Georgiou. She was not a captain yet, was clearly not as seasoned or wise as she is in the show, which makes sense. She only made a couple witty jokes, which is sort of a trademark for her in the show. But we could see in this story that she had the potential for that woman we get to know later, and it is always fun to see characters grow into their roles over time.

I don’t mind that this is a Discovery book only in that there are two characters in this book who are also in the series. It’s called a backstory for a reason. All the characters in any series have a history, if it is a well written and complex world; none of them spring fully formed into the people they are in whatever TV show. So I think some of the lower ratings this book received are unfair and unrealistic. Was it a perfect book? By no means. It had plenty of flaws, perhaps even more than the average Trek novel. Yes, it dragged a bit in parts. Yes, the characters seem off. But I am going to give it the benefit of the doubt because it was likely in the process of being written as season 1 of the show was unfolding. Ward’s portrayal of Lorca as kind of a dick in places seems justified, since that is what we knew for most of season 1. We still didn’t know the characters well yet, and I think Ward did a good job incorporating what we did know with what he wrote.

But! PRIME LORCA!! PRIME LORCA IN THE MIRROR UNIVERSE!! Who else could it be at the very end there if not Prime Lorca?? OMG please let there be a forthcoming book (or, preferably, books) about Prime Lorca and his stories in the Mirror Universe! Where can I preorder it? Shut up and take my money!

Favorite lines:
- “It won’t be easy,” said Georgiou.
“Nothing worth doing ever is.”

- Lorca said, “Utopia’s easy when everything works and all your basic needs are met. We tend to think we’ve traveled this long path toward peace and prosperity, but take away the necessities of living and it’s a short walk back to our baser instincts.”

- “Upholding a set of ideals can be difficult, and sometimes it’s damned cruel. Being able to do that, especially during times of adversity and crisis and even great personal tragedy, is the true test of anyone privileged to wear this.” Reaching up, she tapped her chest to indicate her Starfleet uniform. “We’re bound to uphold and defend those ideals, but the harder job is living up to them.”

- “...Shannon, don’t you have something for Commander Georgiou?”
Instead of replying, Shannon held up the doll in her right hand. The stuffed Andorian companion now sported two antennae thanks to Georgiou’s repair efforts, and she noted that it had been cleaned since she last saw it.
“I want you to take him. Maybe he can bring you luck now.”
The simple gesture was enough to elicit tears, and Georgiou reached up to wipe her eyes. “Thank you, sweetheart. I promise to take good care of him.”

- The paper resting in the palm of his hand, Lorca studied the words it contained.
Hate is never conquered by hate. Hate is conquered by love.

[Barry Rice · Rating 4 out of 5]

Drastic Measures is a thoroughly enjoyable read that greatly expands on the backstory behind one of the original Star Trek series' most intriguing episodes ("The Conscience of the King"). Unlike the first Star Trek: Discovery novel -- David Mack's Desperate Hours -- this novel provides little insight into the characters and motivations on DSC. Phillipa Georgiou is ably portrayed as one of the heroes, but we learn little about her as a person. Gabriel Lorca is a fascinating character, as well, but *SPOILER ALERT* since we never actually met the real Lorca on the series, it's hard to garner much insight about him either. Nonetheless, the story is compelling and kept me reading almost without stopping.