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Star Trek: Slings and Arrows #1
A Sea of Troubles
A new six-part epic covering the first year of service of the "U.S.S. Enterprise-E, " leading up to the events of the hit movie "Star Trek: First Contact." The "U.S.S. Enterprise-E" has launched, with Captain Jean-Luc Picard in command. In addition to many familiar faces, the new ship also has some new crew members -- among them, conn officer Sean Hawk and security chief Linda Addison.
But soon Picard is devastated to learn that there's a saboteur on board -- in the form of a changeling infiltrator from the Dominion Picard and his crew must learn who the changeling replaced and stop it before it destroys the fleet's finest ship...
A new eBook from the authors of "Enigma Ship" and "Spin "
But soon Picard is devastated to learn that there's a saboteur on board -- in the form of a changeling infiltrator from the Dominion Picard and his crew must learn who the changeling replaced and stop it before it destroys the fleet's finest ship...
A new eBook from the authors of "Enigma Ship" and "Spin "
81 pages, ebook
First published October 1, 2007
13 people are currently reading
140 people want to read
About the author
J. Steven York
56 books36 followersOriginally hailing from the piney woods along the Alabama/Florida border, J. Steven York has wandered between many genres (science fiction, fantasy, mystery) and points on the map.
Though he now lives on the Pacific shore in Oregon, his current mystery series "Panorama Beach," is set in the sunny Florida panhandle during the 1960s, and its fictional environs are inspired by his real-life ancestral roots there, and his happy visits to the gulf coast when he was a child.
Though he now lives on the Pacific shore in Oregon, his current mystery series "Panorama Beach," is set in the sunny Florida panhandle during the 1960s, and its fictional environs are inspired by his real-life ancestral roots there, and his happy visits to the gulf coast when he was a child.
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
March 3, 2025
As a Star Trek fan, I’m always looking for new stories that expand on the adventures of my favorite characters. When I picked up A Sea of Troubles, I was intrigued, especially because it bridges the gap between Star Trek Generations and Star Trek First Contact. I wasn’t familiar with the Slings and Arrows mini-series, so I was excited to dive in, though I’ll admit I was a bit hesitant at first because I didn’t recognize most of the authors. One of my concerns is that some authors have difficulty capturing the voices and mannerisms of the characters, but I needn’t have worried—this book did a pretty good job of keeping the spirit of the Next Generation crew intact.
The first thing that reassured me was seeing that Keith R.A. DeCandido was the editor for the series. DeCandido is one of my favorite Trek authors, so knowing he was involved gave me confidence in the quality of the storytelling. I’m pleased to say that my fears were alleviated when I started reading the book. The Yorks did a great job of capturing the voices and mannerisms of the main characters—Picard, Riker, Data, and the rest of the crew all felt true to their on-screen counterparts. The character interactions were spot-on, and it was clear the authors were familiar with the personalities and relationships within the Next Generation universe.
The story itself was interesting, though it did feel a bit rushed at times. This is likely due to the novella format, as the book is relatively short. I would have liked to see more interaction between Captain Picard and the Changeling, as I felt that part of the story had a lot of potential. The resolution of the plot also felt a little forced, which left me wishing for a bit more depth in that final act. However, despite these minor shortcomings, the book was still compelling enough to keep me engaged, and I’m eager to see how the rest of the series unfolds.
One element of the book that I really appreciated was the inclusion and fleshing out of Sean Hawk. While we know his fate from First Contact, it was great to see him play a key role in the story. It added an extra layer of depth to his character, and I found it enjoyable to see more of his backstory and his connection to the crew.
This was a solid start to the Slings and Arrows mini-series. While it may not have been as fleshed-out as I would have liked, especially in terms of pacing and plot resolution, it did a good job of capturing the essence of Star Trek: The Next Generation and kept me interested enough to want to continue with the series.
The first thing that reassured me was seeing that Keith R.A. DeCandido was the editor for the series. DeCandido is one of my favorite Trek authors, so knowing he was involved gave me confidence in the quality of the storytelling. I’m pleased to say that my fears were alleviated when I started reading the book. The Yorks did a great job of capturing the voices and mannerisms of the main characters—Picard, Riker, Data, and the rest of the crew all felt true to their on-screen counterparts. The character interactions were spot-on, and it was clear the authors were familiar with the personalities and relationships within the Next Generation universe.
The story itself was interesting, though it did feel a bit rushed at times. This is likely due to the novella format, as the book is relatively short. I would have liked to see more interaction between Captain Picard and the Changeling, as I felt that part of the story had a lot of potential. The resolution of the plot also felt a little forced, which left me wishing for a bit more depth in that final act. However, despite these minor shortcomings, the book was still compelling enough to keep me engaged, and I’m eager to see how the rest of the series unfolds.
One element of the book that I really appreciated was the inclusion and fleshing out of Sean Hawk. While we know his fate from First Contact, it was great to see him play a key role in the story. It added an extra layer of depth to his character, and I found it enjoyable to see more of his backstory and his connection to the crew.
This was a solid start to the Slings and Arrows mini-series. While it may not have been as fleshed-out as I would have liked, especially in terms of pacing and plot resolution, it did a good job of capturing the essence of Star Trek: The Next Generation and kept me interested enough to want to continue with the series.
January 12, 2025
The 'Enterprise - E' is undergoing shakedown and participating in wargames with the 'U.S.S. Samson' to test the resilience of the 'Sovereign' class starships. After a transfer of officers, the 'Samson' explodes and Captain Picard must come to terms with the concept that he's beamed a Changeling saboteur aboard.
A fast paced adventure story which introduces Lt. Sean Hawk as the 'Enterprise' Conn Officer. The story was written in 2007, but feels like a parallel episode of 'Deep Space Nine' from the correct time frame.
A fast paced adventure story which introduces Lt. Sean Hawk as the 'Enterprise' Conn Officer. The story was written in 2007, but feels like a parallel episode of 'Deep Space Nine' from the correct time frame.
June 22, 2022
Summer Reading Entry #4. "A Sea of Troubles" ("Star Trek: The Next Generation: Slings and Arrows, Book 1: A Sea of Troubles") by J. Steven York and Christina F. York (2007). The first of a six-book series of ebooks (still not available in print form as of this time) released in 2007 as part of Pocket Books' commemoration of the twentieth anniversary of the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" television series.
Each of the books in this series is written by a different author (or team of authors), and they all take place in the first year of service of the U.S.S. Enterprise-E (so, following the film "Star Trek Generations", in which the Enterprise from the tv series, NCC-1701-D, was destroyed, and prior to the following film, "Star Trek: First Contact", in which its replacement, the Enterprise NCC-1701-E, was introduced).
This first, well, short novel or novella--all of the books in this series are very short; "A Sea of Troubles" is listed at 149 pages long; four of the others in the series vary from as few as 44 pages to just under 100 pages long; Book II: "The Oppressor's Wrong" is the only other book in the series that has a page count over over 100 pages, that being 141 pages long--presents the setting for the overall series, taking place soon after the Enterprise-E's shake down cruise. Picard and company are in the midst of a ship-versus-ship exercise with another Starfleet vessel near a dangerous stellar nebula. The chase takes them into the nebula, causing problems for both ships.
Without going into too much detail, a Changeling spy (one of the Dominion "Founders" as seen on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine") ends up on board the Enterprise-E, it's apparent mission to steal vital technical information about this new class of Starfleet ship, the Sovereign-Class. Picard at first thinks he sees something different in this Changeling, in how it acts, and tries to negotiate with it, but at the same time realizes that it must be stopped from achieving its goal.
In addition to Picard, the primary focus in this book is on Lt. Hawk, the Enterprise-E helmsman, who was introduced in "Star Trek: First Contact". Here, we learn that Hawk has been assigned to the new Enterprise-E longer than anyone else, seeing it from it's construction all the way through its shakedown cruise to serving on it under Captain Picard. We find out a bit about Hawk in this book, but his primary connection here is that he had been close friends with, well, I don't know how to say it, so (SPOILERS!!!) the officer the Changeling takes the shape of to get aboard the Enterprise-E.
There really isn't much mystery to it, though. Hawk immediately suspects that there is something off about her (his friend) the moment she steps aboard. The short length of this book prevents the authors from giving much time to the process of solving the mystery. The crew figures out pretty quickly that they must have a Changeling spy on board and Hawk's suspicions that his friend is the spy turn out to be correct.
I won't go into any more specifics about the plot. Overall, it was a pretty average "Star Trek: The Next Generation" story. (Note: I don't mean bad when I say "average", just not one of the especially good or exciting ones.) As I said, it sets the setting for the rest of the series. Besides being the first year aboard the Enterprise-E for the "Next Generation" crew, it also parallels the build up on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" to the full fledged "Dominion War" story arc of that tv series' final two seasons. "Slings and Arrows" appears that it will be a version of what Picard and his crew were doing during this period and their involvement in preparing for the seemingly inevitable war to come. (There was another series of four novels released in 1998 under the title "The Dominion War", in which two of the four novels focus on war time activities of the USS Enterprise-E. These books take place about a year after the events of the "Slings and Arrows", during the actual war itself. I read these two novels back when they first came out and will be rereading them as part of my current "Star Trek: The Next Generation" post-"Generations" novels reading.)
Again, "A Sea of Troubles" was a decent start of this six-part series. I have a feeling that each subsequent book will focus on a different character or two (the covers seem to bear that theory out) in some story where they are the focus while at the same time furthering an overall threat "A plot" regarding the Dominion. I gave this first book in the series three out of five stars on GoodReads.
I have to reiterate that these are all very short books in this series and therefore I cannot give too strong a recommendation for anyone to go out and buy these ebooks at the full $6.99 price each as, especially with the later books in the series that get as low as forty-four to eighty and ninety something pages long, it may not seem worth the price to some. Again, I'm talking purely on a page count basis, not in regards to the quality of writing. I (thankfully) just got the opportunity to read these books at this time because my local public library system added then to their OverDrive ebooks collection at my request. I would recommend trying this, seeing if your public library already has then or if you can request that they add them, before buying them, at least to try the first couple books out. (Hopefully Simon and Schuster will also offer them as part of their monthly $0.99 Star Trek ebooks promotion that they've been doing for awhile now, where they offer around nine or so ebooks marked down to only $0.99 each for a month. They've only offered "Slings and Arrows" marked down once before, I believe, and that was several years ago.)
(Previous 2022 Summer Reading Entries: #1: "Star Trek: Avenger" by William Shatner (1997; novel); #2: "Batman vs. Ra's Al Ghul" by Neal Adams (2019-2021, six-issue comic book limited-series; 2021 collected hardcover edition); #3: “Superman: Birthright” by Mark Waid, Leinil Francis Wu, and Gerry Alanguilan (twelve-issue comic book limited series; 2003 to 2004; read on DC Universe Infinite, also available in hardcover and softcover editions).
Each of the books in this series is written by a different author (or team of authors), and they all take place in the first year of service of the U.S.S. Enterprise-E (so, following the film "Star Trek Generations", in which the Enterprise from the tv series, NCC-1701-D, was destroyed, and prior to the following film, "Star Trek: First Contact", in which its replacement, the Enterprise NCC-1701-E, was introduced).
This first, well, short novel or novella--all of the books in this series are very short; "A Sea of Troubles" is listed at 149 pages long; four of the others in the series vary from as few as 44 pages to just under 100 pages long; Book II: "The Oppressor's Wrong" is the only other book in the series that has a page count over over 100 pages, that being 141 pages long--presents the setting for the overall series, taking place soon after the Enterprise-E's shake down cruise. Picard and company are in the midst of a ship-versus-ship exercise with another Starfleet vessel near a dangerous stellar nebula. The chase takes them into the nebula, causing problems for both ships.
Without going into too much detail, a Changeling spy (one of the Dominion "Founders" as seen on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine") ends up on board the Enterprise-E, it's apparent mission to steal vital technical information about this new class of Starfleet ship, the Sovereign-Class. Picard at first thinks he sees something different in this Changeling, in how it acts, and tries to negotiate with it, but at the same time realizes that it must be stopped from achieving its goal.
In addition to Picard, the primary focus in this book is on Lt. Hawk, the Enterprise-E helmsman, who was introduced in "Star Trek: First Contact". Here, we learn that Hawk has been assigned to the new Enterprise-E longer than anyone else, seeing it from it's construction all the way through its shakedown cruise to serving on it under Captain Picard. We find out a bit about Hawk in this book, but his primary connection here is that he had been close friends with, well, I don't know how to say it, so (SPOILERS!!!) the officer the Changeling takes the shape of to get aboard the Enterprise-E.
There really isn't much mystery to it, though. Hawk immediately suspects that there is something off about her (his friend) the moment she steps aboard. The short length of this book prevents the authors from giving much time to the process of solving the mystery. The crew figures out pretty quickly that they must have a Changeling spy on board and Hawk's suspicions that his friend is the spy turn out to be correct.
I won't go into any more specifics about the plot. Overall, it was a pretty average "Star Trek: The Next Generation" story. (Note: I don't mean bad when I say "average", just not one of the especially good or exciting ones.) As I said, it sets the setting for the rest of the series. Besides being the first year aboard the Enterprise-E for the "Next Generation" crew, it also parallels the build up on "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" to the full fledged "Dominion War" story arc of that tv series' final two seasons. "Slings and Arrows" appears that it will be a version of what Picard and his crew were doing during this period and their involvement in preparing for the seemingly inevitable war to come. (There was another series of four novels released in 1998 under the title "The Dominion War", in which two of the four novels focus on war time activities of the USS Enterprise-E. These books take place about a year after the events of the "Slings and Arrows", during the actual war itself. I read these two novels back when they first came out and will be rereading them as part of my current "Star Trek: The Next Generation" post-"Generations" novels reading.)
Again, "A Sea of Troubles" was a decent start of this six-part series. I have a feeling that each subsequent book will focus on a different character or two (the covers seem to bear that theory out) in some story where they are the focus while at the same time furthering an overall threat "A plot" regarding the Dominion. I gave this first book in the series three out of five stars on GoodReads.
I have to reiterate that these are all very short books in this series and therefore I cannot give too strong a recommendation for anyone to go out and buy these ebooks at the full $6.99 price each as, especially with the later books in the series that get as low as forty-four to eighty and ninety something pages long, it may not seem worth the price to some. Again, I'm talking purely on a page count basis, not in regards to the quality of writing. I (thankfully) just got the opportunity to read these books at this time because my local public library system added then to their OverDrive ebooks collection at my request. I would recommend trying this, seeing if your public library already has then or if you can request that they add them, before buying them, at least to try the first couple books out. (Hopefully Simon and Schuster will also offer them as part of their monthly $0.99 Star Trek ebooks promotion that they've been doing for awhile now, where they offer around nine or so ebooks marked down to only $0.99 each for a month. They've only offered "Slings and Arrows" marked down once before, I believe, and that was several years ago.)
(Previous 2022 Summer Reading Entries: #1: "Star Trek: Avenger" by William Shatner (1997; novel); #2: "Batman vs. Ra's Al Ghul" by Neal Adams (2019-2021, six-issue comic book limited-series; 2021 collected hardcover edition); #3: “Superman: Birthright” by Mark Waid, Leinil Francis Wu, and Gerry Alanguilan (twelve-issue comic book limited series; 2003 to 2004; read on DC Universe Infinite, also available in hardcover and softcover editions).
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 21, 2015
A solid first entry in the series, A Sea of Troubles was a fascinating story showcasing a Changeling infiltration of the Enterprise. The story truly reflects the tension that was inherent during this period of "cold war" leading up to open warfare with the Dominion. We get a strong introduction to one of my favorite "minor" characters, Lieutenant Hawk, and some insight into an enemy that we were not really provided with before.
Full review: http://treklit.blogspot.com/2015/02/S...
Full review: http://treklit.blogspot.com/2015/02/S...
November 14, 2016
The Enterprise is on a training mission when it finds that is has a changeling on board. A decent enough story but the characters just don't feel quite right. The writing style felt stilted and didn't flow. An ok read.
February 25, 2024
I enjoyed it as a nice quick read. Plot was a little obvious in places but ultimately was an enjoyable and had enough surprises to get through. Sometimes characters weren't true to form. I liked that it didn't have to rely on battles to stay interesting. Overall, quite a simple plot, an easy way in to a set of books though not the most thought provoking or believable, definitely more engaging than some of the other titles in this set. LLAP
October 15, 2018
It's been years since I last read this. An excellent start to a series of books
June 28, 2020
Hmm it was okay...
July 1, 2021
too expensive for the number of pages..
July 6, 2021
I have the feeling, from what I’ve read so far, that this will be a “Season 8” of sorts for TNG.
June 7, 2022
Not great. It reads more like fan fiction then something true to the characters and setting. The length reinforces that.
On the plus side, I finished it in an afternoon
On the plus side, I finished it in an afternoon
January 5, 2013
I really managed to get into this book, for although it's short, it very much had an episodic TNG feel about it. A bottle show, to be sure, but cleverly executed in such a way that all the action stays aboard the Enterprise and the Enterprise stays in one place for a plot-relevant reason.
There were a few grammatical hiccups, and one wonders if an editor was out to lunch given that they can slip through the cracks considering the length of the book. There were also a couple of inconsistencies; i.e. the way the Changeling professed to like sampling life yet the duration of its stay as one officer, similarly, Picard having Hawke at their first arranged meeting yet relying on video monitoring afterwards. Arguably, these are all points of contention: the changeling, though primarily in one form, did change shape to suit its ends (as shown in the data recorder of the Samson), and Picard was playing mind games with the Changeling all the way through.
Overall, this was a very enjoyable novel; would've made a superb episode onscreen and provides an excellent, emotionally-charged precursor to the dominion conflict
There were a few grammatical hiccups, and one wonders if an editor was out to lunch given that they can slip through the cracks considering the length of the book. There were also a couple of inconsistencies; i.e. the way the Changeling professed to like sampling life yet the duration of its stay as one officer, similarly, Picard having Hawke at their first arranged meeting yet relying on video monitoring afterwards. Arguably, these are all points of contention: the changeling, though primarily in one form, did change shape to suit its ends (as shown in the data recorder of the Samson), and Picard was playing mind games with the Changeling all the way through.
Overall, this was a very enjoyable novel; would've made a superb episode onscreen and provides an excellent, emotionally-charged precursor to the dominion conflict
November 11, 2016
I got this for $1.99 on sale hoping to buy the others as well after reading it. The rest of the series has gone back to normal price at $7.99 per short story! At under 100 pages each, there is no way to justify the price... Very disappointing.
The story was interesting and well worth $1.99 but I will not continue reading the other installments and $7.99. There is no way to justify this price.
The story was interesting and well worth $1.99 but I will not continue reading the other installments and $7.99. There is no way to justify this price.
May 1, 2025
This novella, written by a wife-husband duo, packs a punch and feel like a good TNG episode. Of course there are drawbacks related to its shortness: little character evolution, almost no suspense and a nonsensical ending.
November 2, 2011
Way too short. It's a good story but not good value. If money is no object, then then order away.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews