Thin Air: New Earth #5

Star Trek: New Earth #5

by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Dean Wesley Smith

Many light-years away from the safety of the Federation, the Starship Enterprise™ stands guard over an alien world whose unique natural resources could change the balance of power throughout the galaxy. The ship's crucial assignment: to maintain a Federation presence on the Planet below, to defend the world's newly arrived inhabitants from hostile aliens, and to fight a solitary battle against all who would claim the planet's riches for their own.
Thin Air
Against all odds, Kirk and his crew have preserved the struggling Federation colony on Belle Terre, but their heroic efforts may have been in vain In a last-ditch attempt to drive the entrenched settlers off their new home, the alien Kauld have contaminated the planet's atmosphere with a destructive biochemical agent that will soon render the entire world inimical to human life. With only weeks to spare, Spock races to find a scientific solution to their dire predicament, while Kirk takes the battle to the enemy, determined to wrest the secret of their salvation from the very forces out to destroy the future of this new Earth!

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Ebooks, Space, Fiction, Star Trek Original Series, Novels

256 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2000

About the author

Kristine Kathryn Rusch is an award-winning mystery, romance, science fiction, and fantasy writer. She has written many novels under various names, including Kristine Grayson for romance, and Kris Nelscott for mystery. Her novels have made the bestseller lists –even in London– and have been published in 14 countries and 13 different languages.

Her awards range from the Ellery Queen Readers Choice Award to the John W. Campbell Award. In the past year, she has been nominated for the Hugo, the Shamus, and the Anthony Award. She is the only person in the history of the science fiction field to have won a Hugo award for editing and a Hugo award for fiction.

In addition, she's written a number of nonfiction articles over the years, with her latest being the book "A Freelancer's Survival Guide".

She has also published as:
Sandy Schofield (collaborations with husband Dean Wesley Smith)
Kristine Grayson - romances
Kathryn Wesley (collaborations with husband Dean Wesley Smith)
Kris Nelscott - mysteries
Kris Rusch - historical fiction
Kris DeLake - romances

Reviews

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Kauld are really too dumb to be convincing multi-novel villains.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first novel in the New Earth series that I genuinely really enjoyed! The authors have crafted a unique and fascinating problem for the characters to overcome, and the descriptions of the effects of the Kauld suffocation weapon were vivid and visceral. A great entry in the series, but it is quite unfortunate that it took five books to get here. Here's hoping for a strong finish in book six!

Full review: https://www.treklit.com/2019/07/tos93...

[Kreg · Rating 3 out of 5]

A vast improvement on books 3 and 4 in the series! Characterizations were pretty good for the most part, and even the treknology which was the downfall of the previous two books was done well.

[C.A. Craven · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've enjoyed this series of books as a whole, but in this one, I found myself really liking the minor characters, especially Tegan Welch and Captain Staerbaek (and their adorable romance).

[Ian Banks · Rating 3 out of 5]

The normally reliable Rusch and Smith deliver something of a curate’s egg here. The story is fine, the characters are ok… I just felt that the story either raced or plodded depending on where you were at it. There’s a great battle sequence at the end which is spoiled by some overly-long discussion about the strategy. A major non-Starfleet character in the series meets their end here - but frankly, this team of writers would be the only ones I would trust to do any kind of reasonable job with that sort of moment - and Kirk is presented as the sort of person that is competent enough to do the things he does, which is uncommonly rare in a series of books that deals with him as the main character.

I have some quibbles about how fast the colonists are able to evacuate or deal with their shelter in the evacuation - but they are mainly about how the authors are thinking about technology being a tool rather than a background detail, and again, this comes down to them being seasoned SF writers who have an idea about making reasonable extrapolations about how technology might work in the future. Long story short, this felt like they had thought about the setting sensibly.

A mixed bag but still very enjoyable.

[Octavia Cade · Rating 3 out of 5]

The best of the New Earth subseries thus far, and a vast improvement on the last two volumes. Rusch's book succeeds where they failed; that there are no problems with pacing is a great relief and makes for a far less stodgy reading experience. Similarly, this story isn't padded out with repetition and waffle... it's just a short tight novel with a clear focus, with characters taking centre stage instead of technobabble. I do think there's some failure with the science, and not enough focus on how the remaining ecology will respond to the suffocation resulting from the attack on the soil - plant cells need to respire, and they're not going to recover as easily as Thin Air suggests after being deprived of atmosphere for so long, for example - but even so it's a readable, likeable book.

[Kyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed part 5 of this set. A good story and a good plot. The Kauld have proven time and time again that they are not a truly viable threat to the federation at this time. After all these troubles you would think more of these colonists would want to throw in the towel and head back to federation space.

Looking forward to the final book in the set. Hoping it wraps up strong. I feel like there’s a lot left unanswered at this point.

[Veronica Lindsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this is my first Star Trek book. I found myself reading using the character's voice from the show!

[Stanley Sawtelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Good Read

This one was good. It answered some questions the other books left out. I enjoyedbit and would recommend this book.

[Christopher Riley · Rating 4 out of 5]

The kind of Trek book you can read all in one sitting. Cracking stuff.

[Jon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Poor.

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good novel. Very quick read. It's still on the level of Flaming Arrow. And yes better than Rough Trails.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book to be one of the more enjoyable ones in the series. The idea of death by suffocation is certainly one of the more novel alien-takeover strategies I've seen. There was also a reasonable amount of believable suspense going on until the end, where suddenly everything just solved itself without much explanation. ("Spock rigged up something to save the day"? Typical.)

I enjoyed seeing the characters develop in this book, especially Governor Pardonnet. It would seem that he matured greatly over the past four books, turning from a naive, idealistic man into a more responsible one who puts the safety and well-being of his colonists first.

[Tommy Verhaegen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very strong, exciting book. Not only is there the danger that the crew of the Enterprise has to face and defend against, this time there is also plenty of attention to the other side of the medal. Heroïsm, rescue, survival, etc. fo the one can mean a death sentence for the others. A generally beneficiary decision also can make its victims. And when you finally get to grips with the whole situation the real blow falls from a forgotten side. It is not a "funny" book but it packs action but also drama.

[Benjamin Plume · Rating 3 out of 5]

After the first book, these really changed tone. Since the first was about "getting there" there was a more epic feel, with problems A, B, and C to deal with in turn. After that each one had one problem and solution, really. I'm not arguing that one format is better than the other, but just know that there's a change, and for that epic feel to return you really have to think of books 2-5 as a unit.

[Steven Keith]

Happy Birthday Suze.

Kirk and the Enterprise in a far from Federation territory

[Michael Schulz · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the best ones in this series.