The Centre Cannot Hold

Star Trek: Mere Anarchy #2

by Mike W. Barr

MERE ANARCHY

A new six-part epic covering thirty years of Star Trek ® history, continuing with an adventure that takes place during the historic five-year mission!

Book 2: THE CENTRE CANNOT HOLD

A few years after the disaster on Mestiko, the Payav are struggling to rebuild in the wake of the pulsar's damage. The Starship Enterprise returns with a plan to help restore the planet's atmosphere.

But the Klingon Empire has also taken an interest in Mestiko, and has come to the aid of one of the world's many factions. Captain James T. Kirk finds himself once again pitted against the Klingon commander Kor, with the fate of Mestiko at stake.

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Ebooks, Fiction, Novella, Star Trek Original Series

86 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Mike W. Barr is an American writer of comic books, and mystery, and science fiction novels. Barr's debut as a comics professional came in DC Comics' Detective Comics #444 (Dec. 1974-Jan. 1975), for which he wrote an 8-page back-up mystery feature starring the Elongated Man. Another Elongated Man story followed in Detective Comics #453 (November 1975). He wrote text articles and editorial replies in letter columns for the next few years. By mid-1980 he was writing regularly for both DC and Marvel, including stories for Marvel Team-Up, Mystery in Space, Green Lantern, and various Batman titles.

Legion of Super-Heroes #277 (July 1981) saw him take on editorial duties at DC, while writing issues of DC's Star Trek comic, for whom he created the native American character Ensign Bearclaw and a pacifist Klingon named Konom. In December 1982, he and artist Brian Bolland began Camelot 3000, a 12 issue limited series that was one of DC Comics' first direct market projects. In August 1983, Barr created what may well be his most enduring work, the monthly title Batman and the Outsiders with art by Jim Aparo. Barr wrote every issue of the original series, and its Baxter paper spinoff, The Outsiders.

His other comics work includes Mantra and Maze Agency as well as the 1987 OGN hardcover book Batman: Son of the Demon (with art by Jerry Bingham), proceeds from which reputedly "restored DC Comics to first place in sales after fifteen years." This title, and Barr's work on Batman with artist Alan Davis have been cited by Grant Morrison as key inspirations for his recent (2006) run on the Batman title.

In 2007, he wrote a two-part story for the pages of DC's JLA: Classified (#47-48, Jan-Feb 2008), returned to the Outsiders with Outsiders: Five of a Kind—Katana/Shazam #1 (Oct 2007), contributed to Tokyopop's Star Trek: The Manga, and relaunched Maze Agency at IDW Publishing. He has also scripted many of Bongo Comics' Simpsons titles, including a Christmas story for 2010.

In May 2010, the Invisible College Press published Barr's science fiction/fantasy novel, Majician/51, about the discoveries of a scientist working at Area 51.

Reviews

[K · Rating 3 out of 5]

Klingons are hard to get rid of.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not bad, but not outstanding. There were a few things that irked me a little about the story, including a lack of depth in exploring the environmental issues that are raised. However, this is a short e-novella, so it is understandable that space to go deeper is at a premium. I thought the character of Kor was a little wasted on this story, but it was still interesting to see him again. For the most part, a good outing for the TOS crew that represents this era in Trek history fairly well.

Full review: http://treklit.blogspot.com/2015/09/M...

[Jonathan Colan · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was fine, and I’m interested enough in the series to keep going, but this author didn’t capture the Star Trek characters well, and many of the plot points or decisions people make in the story don’t make much sense. It’s as if the author didn’t know the Star Trek universe well. If it wasn’t part of an interesting series, I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone.

[Frank Davis · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fantastic follow up to the events in the first story and now I can't wait to find out what happens next.

There was a bit of jumping around from ship to ship in the final chapters which I typically find frustrating to follow but for some reason it worked well this time.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

I actually liked it. It gave “The Errand of Mercy” vibes, plus it was engaging

[David King · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The Centre Cannot Hold” by Mike W. Barr is the second book in a six part Star Trek mini-series entitled “Mere Anarchy”. It is set a few years after the disaster seen in the previous novel which badly affected the planet Mestiko. The Enterprise has returned with a plan to help restore the planet’s atmosphere but the Klingon Empire has also now taken an interest in the planet and has offered to help. Kirk soon finds himself once again pitted against Klingon commander Kor, with the future of Mestiko at stake.

This was another enjoyable but short novel in the “Mere Anarchy” series. To be honest, it is probably best described as a novella although the pricing doesn’t seem to acknowledge this. The price I paid for the ebook was rather obscene when you consider the length and I would therefore advise people to look at the various options available to them in regards to reading this series. In particular they should consider buying the book which combines all the individual stories together as this is much better value.

The style and feeling I got reading it was very similar to what I encountered in the previous novel in the series which is quite interesting considering they were written by different people. Simply put, it is well-written and does feel like it would fit in well as an episode in the original series. In addition, the short length means we don’t gain anything new in regards to our understanding of the Trek Universe and its characters but it is a fun read none the less.

Overall, the “Mere Anarchy” series continues to entertain me and if you have read the previous novella you really need to pick this one up as well or just buy the combined edition.

[Rich Meyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great follow up to the first chapter of the Mere Anarchy 40th anniversary tale. Two years after "the Pulse" disaster on Mestiko, the Enterprise returns with a new method of cleaning the planets atmosphere, this time with McCoy and Chekov in the crew complement. Unfortunately, the Klingons are also interested in the planet, and Commander Kor hopes to finally get his "glorious" battle with Captain Kirk that the Organians prevented (in "Errand of Mercy").

Once again, a very well-written and well-plotted book, and another that reads like an episode of the original series. And, once again, recommended reading!

[Bill · Rating 3 out of 5]

Much better that the first book in this series. I'm not a huge fan of these multi-volume stories, or at least how they are often executed, apparently. But this one at least hit the right notes in terms of the characters and offered some fairly thrilling space opera action towards the end. This one felt like TOS, which is an issue I find with more recent TOS novels, which feel written through a TNG era filter. I'm now interested in what happens with the story arc, which is a plus.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

In part 2 of 6, the Enterprise returns to Mestiko to help in their rebuilding of their world. But the Klingons attempt to hinder the process of rebuilding to help their own agendas. It was a pretty good installment, that fits right into the era of TOS.

[Gene Coatney · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slightly better than the last, let's see what the next one brings

[Timothy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Set after where no man has gone before episode

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another good installment.