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Star Trek: Enterprise #9
Rosetta
On the edge of uncharted space, can linguist Ensign Hoshi Sato use her skills to decipher an alien language? Communication is the only way to avert the threat of war?
407 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published February 1, 2006
15 people are currently reading
314 people want to read
About the author
Dave Stern
53 books40 followersDave Stern has written/edited/collaborated on multiple previous works of fiction/non-fiction, including the New York Times-bestselling biography Crosley, the epistolary novel Shadows In The Asylum, and an unauthorized Adam Sandler biography composed with the help of the good people in the Smith College Library. His most recent work is Codename: Blackjack, the second thriller in the Sagas of the Cincinnati series.
His author photo is woefully out of date.
His author photo is woefully out of date.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
May 17, 2021
Hoshi is great, and a book focused on her is cool. Archer is basically on a side-story that is interesting.
There are great ideas in this book, BUT....
Okay, so it's a book largely about linguistics. And yet, the author is absolutely fixed on the word "frowned." it is repeated over. And over. And over. It's all anybody did was frown. They experienced no other feelings and actions. They just frowned. Sometimes they even mentally frowned. Once, Archer thought he could hear a computer voice frowning. Frown, frown, frown.
According to my count on my kindle, the word "frown" is used 175 times in this book!
This book made me frown.
There are great ideas in this book, BUT....
Okay, so it's a book largely about linguistics. And yet, the author is absolutely fixed on the word "frowned." it is repeated over. And over. And over. It's all anybody did was frown. They experienced no other feelings and actions. They just frowned. Sometimes they even mentally frowned. Once, Archer thought he could hear a computer voice frowning. Frown, frown, frown.
According to my count on my kindle, the word "frown" is used 175 times in this book!
This book made me frown.
August 17, 2018
Not a bad read, though I think the story comes up a little short when you compare it to the previous installment, Daedalus and Daedalus' Children. I like that this story focuses on a lot of the other crew and the big three (Archer, Trip and T'Pol) take a backseat. Though Archer does pull off some heroics towards the end.
Hoshi does play a bigger role here. The book explores her background just a little bit and does not deviate far from the TV show. The most interesting part is how the author weaves in a few real-world linguistic studies into the story. Not a whole lot to be distracting, but enough to be convincing and fun.
The story centers around an old confederacy of species along the outer rim of the galaxy. I wished that we could get more information about it, since this seems to be interesting, and so far to my knowledge, and unexplored topic in the Trek universe.
Overall, a good story for any Enterprise fan.
Hoshi does play a bigger role here. The book explores her background just a little bit and does not deviate far from the TV show. The most interesting part is how the author weaves in a few real-world linguistic studies into the story. Not a whole lot to be distracting, but enough to be convincing and fun.
The story centers around an old confederacy of species along the outer rim of the galaxy. I wished that we could get more information about it, since this seems to be interesting, and so far to my knowledge, and unexplored topic in the Trek universe.
Overall, a good story for any Enterprise fan.
June 30, 2019
The Enterprise encounters an unknown alien ship that attacks them carefully to drive them out of an area it seems to be defending. Hoshi is unable to decipher the signal being broadcast from the ship meaning the crew cannot communicate with the aliens at all. After retreating, the Enterprise becomes somewhat embroiled in the politics of the Thelasian Confederacy and their ongoing conflict with the aliens. Archer and Hoshi will become instrumental in the conflict, but will either survive the experience?
I was looking forward to a story where Hoshi seeks to interface and communicate with an alien race and we really get to see her at work. I was hoping for something along the lines of the movie "Arrival" where we get to use many techniques and Hoshi's brilliance to bridge the communication gap. That's not what we get here. We mostly get Hoshi dealing with insecurities in the aftermath of her captivity by the Xindi and a lot of misdirection. In this storyline there are really a number of inconsistencies and some frustration over the entire resolution. I'm not sure I really bought into the idea of why the aliens couldn't communicate from early in the story. Seems it was just a convenience to build up to the confrontation near the end of the story. While we get a micon or two of development for Hoshi, it's mostly just her getting past what was done to her at the hands of the Xindi. And that's fine if it's put to rest after this.
The other plotline involves Archer and a heist, of sorts. The character pulling the con is kind of interesting in a mustache-twirling villain sort of way. His overall plot doesn't make much sense to me either and you could see the potential for his plans to fall apart even as they're being revealed. Archer doesn't benefit from any real development in this story either, so it's kind of a pointless journey.
The overarching theme of artificial intelligence is kind of interesting. There are some interesting concepts in here that provide the backbone of the entire story, but it's not really enough to be a real captivating idea. In general this book had a lot of potential, but sold it off in favor of simple ideas that resolved to easily.
Not horrible, but I just wanted more.
I was looking forward to a story where Hoshi seeks to interface and communicate with an alien race and we really get to see her at work. I was hoping for something along the lines of the movie "Arrival" where we get to use many techniques and Hoshi's brilliance to bridge the communication gap. That's not what we get here. We mostly get Hoshi dealing with insecurities in the aftermath of her captivity by the Xindi and a lot of misdirection. In this storyline there are really a number of inconsistencies and some frustration over the entire resolution. I'm not sure I really bought into the idea of why the aliens couldn't communicate from early in the story. Seems it was just a convenience to build up to the confrontation near the end of the story. While we get a micon or two of development for Hoshi, it's mostly just her getting past what was done to her at the hands of the Xindi. And that's fine if it's put to rest after this.
The other plotline involves Archer and a heist, of sorts. The character pulling the con is kind of interesting in a mustache-twirling villain sort of way. His overall plot doesn't make much sense to me either and you could see the potential for his plans to fall apart even as they're being revealed. Archer doesn't benefit from any real development in this story either, so it's kind of a pointless journey.
The overarching theme of artificial intelligence is kind of interesting. There are some interesting concepts in here that provide the backbone of the entire story, but it's not really enough to be a real captivating idea. In general this book had a lot of potential, but sold it off in favor of simple ideas that resolved to easily.
Not horrible, but I just wanted more.
October 9, 2023
I like stories that focus on characters that received less focus in the TV series, and the plot of this book does just that, with Hoshi having the protagonist role and Captain Archer only really having a more important part near the final part of the story. I also appreciated Reed, Trip and Mayweather's depictions.
Both A and B plots are also quite interesting and engaging, with a good mix of action, mystery and exploration, especially during the first part.
Unfortunately, I don't think this book deserves more than three stars. The most serious flaw of it is the writing style itself: as another reviewer pointed out, the author seems absolutely obsessed with the verb "to frown". This word is everywhere. Every character in the book "frowns" multiple times, sometimes even multiple times on the same page! This gets particularly distracting and shows a serious lack of "vocabulary" by the author. I cannot believe he couldn't find at least a couple of synonyms for that word...
Another issue is that the dialogue of certain characters (such as Archer) is underwhelming, and often doesn't sound like what you would hear from them in the TV show or other official media. It feels artificial at times, and even their actions may leave the reader perplexed, though I did not find anything canon-breaking or particularly outrageous.
Overall, I would only recommend to read this book to hardcore Star Trek fans who are thirsty for more Enterprise stories, but even in that context there are better ones already, such as The Good That Men Do.
Both A and B plots are also quite interesting and engaging, with a good mix of action, mystery and exploration, especially during the first part.
Unfortunately, I don't think this book deserves more than three stars. The most serious flaw of it is the writing style itself: as another reviewer pointed out, the author seems absolutely obsessed with the verb "to frown". This word is everywhere. Every character in the book "frowns" multiple times, sometimes even multiple times on the same page! This gets particularly distracting and shows a serious lack of "vocabulary" by the author. I cannot believe he couldn't find at least a couple of synonyms for that word...
Another issue is that the dialogue of certain characters (such as Archer) is underwhelming, and often doesn't sound like what you would hear from them in the TV show or other official media. It feels artificial at times, and even their actions may leave the reader perplexed, though I did not find anything canon-breaking or particularly outrageous.
Overall, I would only recommend to read this book to hardcore Star Trek fans who are thirsty for more Enterprise stories, but even in that context there are better ones already, such as The Good That Men Do.
January 5, 2023
This was *almost* my favorite Star Trek book so far. The first one hundred pages or so of it, in fact, are pretty incredible; exploring the origins and history of the universal translator, as well as some of the backstory of the second most underutilized character on Star Trek: Enterprise. Hoshi Sato. There is a fascinating villain and a compelling location. Unfortunately, things take a turn after the first act that forces me to take away a few stars.
It's not so much that Hoshi is forced to wear a dress for a mission, it's that Capt. Archer goes along with it as though it's a great idea. It would make a lot more sense if Archer refused to put Hoshi in that position, and it was Hoshi's idea to wear it. Otherwise it just feels like Archer is exploiting Hoshi, and for no reason too, as the gambit of course ends up blowing up in everyone's face. Literally!
After that, things take a turn for the confusing. Was Theera an android? I didn’t really understand that part. The underlying mystery is compelling (the fifty-seven pulses would have been an interesting MacGuffin in an Enterprise movie) and Hoshi happens to be one of my favorite characters on the show (shut up, nerd.) She is never more compelling when she ignores her PTSD and focuses on a linguistic mystery. But somewhere between the B-story about lost wages and the fistfight on the Klingon bridge, the fascinating parts of this story get buried. Shame.
It's not so much that Hoshi is forced to wear a dress for a mission, it's that Capt. Archer goes along with it as though it's a great idea. It would make a lot more sense if Archer refused to put Hoshi in that position, and it was Hoshi's idea to wear it. Otherwise it just feels like Archer is exploiting Hoshi, and for no reason too, as the gambit of course ends up blowing up in everyone's face. Literally!
After that, things take a turn for the confusing. Was Theera an android? I didn’t really understand that part. The underlying mystery is compelling (the fifty-seven pulses would have been an interesting MacGuffin in an Enterprise movie) and Hoshi happens to be one of my favorite characters on the show (shut up, nerd.) She is never more compelling when she ignores her PTSD and focuses on a linguistic mystery. But somewhere between the B-story about lost wages and the fistfight on the Klingon bridge, the fascinating parts of this story get buried. Shame.
December 14, 2018
Boring
December 21, 2015
A fairly good Hoshi story.
March 18, 2025
It has been a LONG time since i read a Star Trek book, and i probably wouldn't have gotten around to this one for a dog's age more if it weren't for the random "books i own" jar where it was pulled from. I'm probably one of the few people who liked Enterprise and was happy i finally got around to reading one of the novels from the series. And honestly.....it wasn't bad.
The first thing i noticed was this was a LONG book for Star trek. normally a ST book runs about 230-270 pages. this was 407. Which is pretty chunky for one of these books. luckily it read pretty fast. managed to read the whole thing in 3 days. There was some technobabble but not enough to make it unreadable. When that sort of lingo came up i zoned out a bit, but overall, it read well and the story was fine.
The general idea is that there's this alien species they can't communicate with that's attacking people so Hoshi (the linguist/girl on the cover) has to figure out how to communicate with them. On the flip side the crew is dealing with Archer not being around because of reasons i won't go into spoilers and they have to figure out how to run the ship without out and what happened to him.
I will say, that for a book about Hoshi, Hoshi definitely had some of the drier scenes in the book. most of her scenes boil down to
Hoshi: hey let's do a thing
Everyone else: no
Hoshi: grr
rinse and repeat. Her scenes weren't the greatest and got dull at times. The other side of the story was quite interesting with the crew's and Archer's stories being more exciting/interesting.
This is definitely not an action oriented book. there's a LOT of talking in this one. Between peace negotiations, trying to translate this new species' message, it's a lot of back and forth with VERY little action. So that's a warning. if you're looking for a more actiony star trek book this 100% is not it. The villain was fine. Mildly generic, yet entertaining in a way that left me wanting to read more about him.
When it boils down to it, i don't have a LOT to say about this book, other than the ending was a little weak. that was probably the biggest issue i had with this. without spoilers i'll say it was one of those "uh oh, we only have 20 pages left. we need to end the story QUICK" kinda feelings. Archer's story ending was rushed and Hoshi's was....weird? and didn't really wrap up in a SUPER satisfying way.
this book is 100% a 3.5 out of 5. no two ways about it. but of course to my everlasting pain, we can't do 1/2 stars. SO, that being said, i was VERY much considering giving it a 4, but the ending was just too.......not good. it ended with a bleh more than anything. so sorry, wish i could have given it a 4, but...3.5 out of 5 rounded down to a 3.
The first thing i noticed was this was a LONG book for Star trek. normally a ST book runs about 230-270 pages. this was 407. Which is pretty chunky for one of these books. luckily it read pretty fast. managed to read the whole thing in 3 days. There was some technobabble but not enough to make it unreadable. When that sort of lingo came up i zoned out a bit, but overall, it read well and the story was fine.
The general idea is that there's this alien species they can't communicate with that's attacking people so Hoshi (the linguist/girl on the cover) has to figure out how to communicate with them. On the flip side the crew is dealing with Archer not being around because of reasons i won't go into spoilers and they have to figure out how to run the ship without out and what happened to him.
I will say, that for a book about Hoshi, Hoshi definitely had some of the drier scenes in the book. most of her scenes boil down to
Hoshi: hey let's do a thing
Everyone else: no
Hoshi: grr
rinse and repeat. Her scenes weren't the greatest and got dull at times. The other side of the story was quite interesting with the crew's and Archer's stories being more exciting/interesting.
This is definitely not an action oriented book. there's a LOT of talking in this one. Between peace negotiations, trying to translate this new species' message, it's a lot of back and forth with VERY little action. So that's a warning. if you're looking for a more actiony star trek book this 100% is not it. The villain was fine. Mildly generic, yet entertaining in a way that left me wanting to read more about him.
When it boils down to it, i don't have a LOT to say about this book, other than the ending was a little weak. that was probably the biggest issue i had with this. without spoilers i'll say it was one of those "uh oh, we only have 20 pages left. we need to end the story QUICK" kinda feelings. Archer's story ending was rushed and Hoshi's was....weird? and didn't really wrap up in a SUPER satisfying way.
this book is 100% a 3.5 out of 5. no two ways about it. but of course to my everlasting pain, we can't do 1/2 stars. SO, that being said, i was VERY much considering giving it a 4, but the ending was just too.......not good. it ended with a bleh more than anything. so sorry, wish i could have given it a 4, but...3.5 out of 5 rounded down to a 3.
May 29, 2023
I wanted to read this novel for a long time, but it took a while to find it at a reasonable price (to me).
Languages and translation fascinate me, so I love Hoshi's character, and I love the idea of being one of the early translators and interpreters that would interact with all the alien races.
That being said, I do think that Hoshi was and is underutilized. That's what interested me most about this book.
We get to see some of the work of translation and interpretation here, and we get to meet an interesting new species.
This book is long and, at times, there were lulls where I got a little bored. There was a whole side-story with Captain Archer that, honestly, I thought was unnecessary. On the whole, though, I enjoyed this book, and I enjoyed the theme of trying to communicate with a species that was wholly unlike any that we'd met before.
Languages and translation fascinate me, so I love Hoshi's character, and I love the idea of being one of the early translators and interpreters that would interact with all the alien races.
That being said, I do think that Hoshi was and is underutilized. That's what interested me most about this book.
We get to see some of the work of translation and interpretation here, and we get to meet an interesting new species.
This book is long and, at times, there were lulls where I got a little bored. There was a whole side-story with Captain Archer that, honestly, I thought was unnecessary. On the whole, though, I enjoyed this book, and I enjoyed the theme of trying to communicate with a species that was wholly unlike any that we'd met before.
May 27, 2021
Boken fokuserar med all rätta på Hoshi Sato och hennes arbete med universalöversättaren. Det är nu särskilt ett språk där hon, liksom alla språkvetare före henne, har gått bet. Det är en spännande mix där Hoshis stress och innersta tankar på ett mycket bra sätt presenteras. Jag upplever mig ha fått en något bättre bild av hur hon faktiskt fungerar när det handlar om översättningsarbete. Jag har läst en del av författaren Dave Stern tidigare (såsom Daedalus med uppföljare), och där har sidospåren, som alltid finns med i litteratur, känts malplacerade. Här har han överraskat med en mycket god bok. Sidospåren känns heller inte malplacerade utan de är naturligt inbäddade i grundberättelsen.
January 25, 2021
This story is written really well. It's interesting and entertaining throughout. The only thing I didn't really enjoy was the little red dress.
All the characters are quite believable and most are well utilised in this story. Reed was a favourite in this for me.
There was a bit of a Thompson and Thomson skit going on with Poz and Verkin which was amusing. The running "son of a" gag was also done well and kept popping up unexpectedly.
Highly recommend as a top class ENT story.
All the characters are quite believable and most are well utilised in this story. Reed was a favourite in this for me.
There was a bit of a Thompson and Thomson skit going on with Poz and Verkin which was amusing. The running "son of a" gag was also done well and kept popping up unexpectedly.
Highly recommend as a top class ENT story.
December 14, 2018
Excellent!!!
I know Enterprise may not be the most popular Star Trek series but I love everything Trek and feel this book was an excellent continuation of the show I really enjoyed. I haven’t seen Dave Stern’s name in a long time but I hope he writes more Star Trek novels because this one was really good!!!
I know Enterprise may not be the most popular Star Trek series but I love everything Trek and feel this book was an excellent continuation of the show I really enjoyed. I haven’t seen Dave Stern’s name in a long time but I hope he writes more Star Trek novels because this one was really good!!!
February 4, 2018
I really liked this book; I like Hoshi, and would have enjoyed seeing her get more screen time and character development in the show. This book is fun because it's Enterprise, and it works on its own merits as a SF novel.
February 27, 2019
Not a bad story - plus brownie points for some contemporary linguistics peppered in. That said, it felt a bit slow to begin (so much so that I lost the plot a bit while listening to it via TTS)
July 8, 2022
Wonderful character study of Ensign Hoshi Sato.
January 6, 2024
Probably one of the Best Enterprise books I’ve read! Love the various plot points, multiple storylines, and honestly that ending was a surprise!
February 11, 2024
wow!
This is the best book yet! Great story, great job with the characters…very creative and a funny ending :)
Thank you!
This is the best book yet! Great story, great job with the characters…very creative and a funny ending :)
Thank you!
April 12, 2018
This book lets Hoshi, Travis and Malcolm take the focus of the story. It demonstrates their dedication, not simply to their duty but following their own consciences. There is also a sense of the limitations they often face within their service and how far they're willing to push those.
There is action but this is a story about brains over brawn.
There is action but this is a story about brains over brawn.
April 11, 2012
I think this book is probably the longest Enterprise novel I have read which has enabled Dave Stern to create quite an involved story with a fair few things going on. However, the rather wordy narrative does result in the book being quite slow paced and I found myself getting bogged down at a few points although it never got bad enough that I felt the need to put the book down.
The story itself is based around the actions of a mysterious race of beings known as the Antianna that have been attacking anyone that makes an attempt to enter a specific region of space they seem to be defining as their territory. When the Enterprise itself is attacked it falls upon Ensign Hoshi Sato to try and translate the complex language that these aliens appear to be utilising in order to understand why the Antianna are attacking. However, the aliens have also been attacking the Thelasian Trading Confederacy and their leader, Governor Maxim Sen is ready to go to all out war. The Enterprise is drawn into the politics of this situation and the crew offer their own assistance in the hope of averting the war by finding a way to enable some sort of understandable communications to occur.
The most interesting aspect of the story is that it was focused on Ensign Hoshi Sato, who was under-utilised during the TV series. I think that Stern has actually done a good job in his portrayal and he doesn't fall into the trap of trying to make her into something she shouldn't be. Therefore she doesn't become a great warrior or undertake complex espionage but her intellect and linguistic skills are utilised to ensure that she is quite integral to the plot. I was also quite interested in the way in which the novel tried to bring out some of her involvement in the creation of a Universal Translator which was a nice little bonus although I do think this did become a little bit lost in the overall story.
However, there were a few issues that really spoilt the overall impact of the story and my enjoyment of the ending. The first was the way the great technologically superior enemy basically just decided to vanish once they had a heart to heart chat with a member of the Enterprise crew. This entire thing just came across to me as being weak storytelling and a cheap way of ending one of the novel's major plotlines. The second issue was in relation to the way that Stern creates some interesting opportunities when he has Archer imprisoned on a ship where he discovers one of his captor's secrets. However, instead of using this, Stern just opts for Archer basically pulling out a plug which left me feeling rather let down. I just don't understand why Stern even bothered setting up something that looked like it might be quite intriguing only to just ignore it all.
Overall, it was nice to see a little bit more of Ensign Sato and I think Stern once again did a good job of capturing the various characters well. However, whilst the story itself was complex, interesting and enjoyable in parts, the slow pace and the rather weak conclusions to various events just left me feeling a bit unsatisfied by the time I reached the ending. To be honest, I think there are better Enterprise novels out there but if you are interested in gaining some more insight into Hoshi then you may as well pick this novel up.
The story itself is based around the actions of a mysterious race of beings known as the Antianna that have been attacking anyone that makes an attempt to enter a specific region of space they seem to be defining as their territory. When the Enterprise itself is attacked it falls upon Ensign Hoshi Sato to try and translate the complex language that these aliens appear to be utilising in order to understand why the Antianna are attacking. However, the aliens have also been attacking the Thelasian Trading Confederacy and their leader, Governor Maxim Sen is ready to go to all out war. The Enterprise is drawn into the politics of this situation and the crew offer their own assistance in the hope of averting the war by finding a way to enable some sort of understandable communications to occur.
The most interesting aspect of the story is that it was focused on Ensign Hoshi Sato, who was under-utilised during the TV series. I think that Stern has actually done a good job in his portrayal and he doesn't fall into the trap of trying to make her into something she shouldn't be. Therefore she doesn't become a great warrior or undertake complex espionage but her intellect and linguistic skills are utilised to ensure that she is quite integral to the plot. I was also quite interested in the way in which the novel tried to bring out some of her involvement in the creation of a Universal Translator which was a nice little bonus although I do think this did become a little bit lost in the overall story.
However, there were a few issues that really spoilt the overall impact of the story and my enjoyment of the ending. The first was the way the great technologically superior enemy basically just decided to vanish once they had a heart to heart chat with a member of the Enterprise crew. This entire thing just came across to me as being weak storytelling and a cheap way of ending one of the novel's major plotlines. The second issue was in relation to the way that Stern creates some interesting opportunities when he has Archer imprisoned on a ship where he discovers one of his captor's secrets. However, instead of using this, Stern just opts for Archer basically pulling out a plug which left me feeling rather let down. I just don't understand why Stern even bothered setting up something that looked like it might be quite intriguing only to just ignore it all.
Overall, it was nice to see a little bit more of Ensign Sato and I think Stern once again did a good job of capturing the various characters well. However, whilst the story itself was complex, interesting and enjoyable in parts, the slow pace and the rather weak conclusions to various events just left me feeling a bit unsatisfied by the time I reached the ending. To be honest, I think there are better Enterprise novels out there but if you are interested in gaining some more insight into Hoshi then you may as well pick this novel up.
December 9, 2016
Hoshi is one of my favorite humanoid characters from Enterprise (Porthos is my favorite over-all) so I was really excited to find a book that focused on her. The storyline was interesting and well written. The main thing I disliked is the lack of Porthos in the story. Especially, since it doesn't focus solely on Hoshi and there are parts where I was wondering what the adorable beagle was up to in concerns with events in the story (sorry for the vagueness, but didn't want to give spoilers for a big plot point).
November 2, 2013
The Enterprise is attacked by an unknown race with a very hard language to decipher. A planet nearby has also had their ships attacked and the Enterprise visits it to share information. an intriguing storyline and the new races are well described. This is Hoshi's story about her internal battle to solve a problem against huge odds. A good read.
April 23, 2012
I didn't even manage to finish the book. It dragged on and on. Not very much action and no real surprises here. I guess if you are interested in Hoshi's character...read on...If you are like me and don't really find her character interesting....don't read.
December 20, 2012
Story is not a surprise, but character descriptions are great, they are almost in front of you... Available in English only, but not so difficult as others and who likes Hoshi Sato with all her strengths & weaknesses, go and read it.
September 24, 2010
Heehee, this is actually a tie-in novel for Star Trek Enterprise...that's all I have to say about this book.
February 24, 2015
Not the best one I've ever read. Kinda disappointed.
December 23, 2014
Not bad.
July 3, 2016
A good story in the Star Trek tradition.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews