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Star Trek: Titan #4
Sword of Damocles
The fourth novel in the bestselling Star Trek Titan series! It is an idea as old as life itself. Do our choices shape the future, or is it the other way around? And if the path we walk is predestined—if the way we are to meet our end is knowable—what might that knowledge compel us to do? Titan's travels take it to a world at the edge of reason. Orisha is a planet whose people have lived for centuries beneath an unfathomable celestial body in their sky. From the moment it first appeared, the object was thought to be something unnatural, an ill omen that has made them feel watched, exposed, vulnerable—provoking a primal fear that has steered the course of their civilization. The Orishans call it "the Eye," and because it has consistently defied every scientific attempt to decode its true nature, many are convinced it represents an intelligence that is studying their world...and perhaps waiting to destroy it. But the secret behind the Eye threatens Titan as well as Orisha...and it holds a special meaning for one member of Captain Riker's crew in particular, whose lifelong quest to balance faith and scientific truth is tested against the harsh, unblinking glare of inevitability.
386 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 2007
56 people are currently reading
659 people want to read
About the author
Geoffrey Thorne
168 books73 followersGeoffrey Thorne is an American novelist and screenwriter.
Thorne was born in the United States and currently lives in Los Angeles, California.
After winning Second Prize in Simon & Schuster's sixth annual Strange New Worlds anthology with his story "The Soft Room," he went on to publish more stories in several media tie-in anthologies as well as the Star Trek: Titan novel Sword of Damocles.
As a screenwriter, Thorne has worked with Disney, Cartoon Network, STARZ, developing various properties. His TV work includes BEN 10: ULTIMATE ALIEN & OMNIVERSE, LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT and the hit TNT series', LEVERAGE and THE LIBRARIANS.
Thorne is the co-founder and writing partner in GENRE 19, a studio he formed with artist Todd Harris in 2008.
Thorne was born in the United States and currently lives in Los Angeles, California.
After winning Second Prize in Simon & Schuster's sixth annual Strange New Worlds anthology with his story "The Soft Room," he went on to publish more stories in several media tie-in anthologies as well as the Star Trek: Titan novel Sword of Damocles.
As a screenwriter, Thorne has worked with Disney, Cartoon Network, STARZ, developing various properties. His TV work includes BEN 10: ULTIMATE ALIEN & OMNIVERSE, LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT and the hit TNT series', LEVERAGE and THE LIBRARIANS.
Thorne is the co-founder and writing partner in GENRE 19, a studio he formed with artist Todd Harris in 2008.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 68 reviews
November 2, 2020
Another exciting yarn in this sequel series.
July 1, 2008
Star Trek novels used to be about whatever crew you were reading about showing up at a planet, finding something wacky and then spending the novel solving whatever crisis they stumbled across. You could jump in and out of the Trek novels without much knowledge of prior events beyond which characters you were reading about this week. Rarely did the novels build on one another and create some type of overall cohesive storyline or continuity.
Then came New Frontier and changed the equation. Now it seems as if every Trek novels wants to tie-in to either an on-going series or the entire novel line as a whole. And as with all things Trek, there are some that do it well (New Frontier, DS9) and some that just don't quite spark my interest (Voyager). Somewhere in the middle are the voyages of the Titan, a spin-off from Next Generation featuring the adventures of Captain William T. Riker and his crew. The Titan is an explortion vessel and after spending the first three books dealing with the fall-out of Nemesis, "Sword of Damocles" finally feels as if it's the first official stand-alone episode of this new series.
Not that you can't or shouldn't have read the first three to get everything that's going on here. There are some subplots that will be richer if you know the background, but on the whole this is the first truly independent Titan novel and the best of the series to date. The Titan explores a region of space that disrupts the ability to generate a warp bubble and power the ship. Finding a nearby planet is the culprit, Titan sends a shuttle (they work out some technobabble way to get there) to investigate and ask the planet's inhabitants to cease their experiments in order to allow the ship to go free. The storyline opens up some real-world implications in the application of the Prime Directive that are far more compelling than a lot of the standard Trek episodes that look at if a captain and ship have the right to interfere or not. The argument that it's a nice policy until it bites you out on the frontier is fascinating.
The story does involve time travel, paradoxes and the notion of fate and destiny. However, in a story that could easily have been muddles under the weight of its various eras, paradoxes and solutions, the story stays straight-forward and it's easy to figure out where the characters are and what is happening. The only bad part is that solution becomes fairly evident early on in the crisis and plays out pretty much as you'd expect for a Trek novel.
That's not say it's a bad thing. There's a comfort in the obvious solutions of Trek novels at times and this one is no exception.
Then came New Frontier and changed the equation. Now it seems as if every Trek novels wants to tie-in to either an on-going series or the entire novel line as a whole. And as with all things Trek, there are some that do it well (New Frontier, DS9) and some that just don't quite spark my interest (Voyager). Somewhere in the middle are the voyages of the Titan, a spin-off from Next Generation featuring the adventures of Captain William T. Riker and his crew. The Titan is an explortion vessel and after spending the first three books dealing with the fall-out of Nemesis, "Sword of Damocles" finally feels as if it's the first official stand-alone episode of this new series.
Not that you can't or shouldn't have read the first three to get everything that's going on here. There are some subplots that will be richer if you know the background, but on the whole this is the first truly independent Titan novel and the best of the series to date. The Titan explores a region of space that disrupts the ability to generate a warp bubble and power the ship. Finding a nearby planet is the culprit, Titan sends a shuttle (they work out some technobabble way to get there) to investigate and ask the planet's inhabitants to cease their experiments in order to allow the ship to go free. The storyline opens up some real-world implications in the application of the Prime Directive that are far more compelling than a lot of the standard Trek episodes that look at if a captain and ship have the right to interfere or not. The argument that it's a nice policy until it bites you out on the frontier is fascinating.
The story does involve time travel, paradoxes and the notion of fate and destiny. However, in a story that could easily have been muddles under the weight of its various eras, paradoxes and solutions, the story stays straight-forward and it's easy to figure out where the characters are and what is happening. The only bad part is that solution becomes fairly evident early on in the crisis and plays out pretty much as you'd expect for a Trek novel.
That's not say it's a bad thing. There's a comfort in the obvious solutions of Trek novels at times and this one is no exception.
October 10, 2021
Short version: Sword of Damocles is about religion. Slightly longer version: Sword of Damocles is about good faith, bad faith, lack of faith, and the how they interact. Star Trek has a very oddball relationship with religion. Part of this being due to Gene Roddenberry's belief that the universe would be a better place if everyone was irreligious. Obviously, this didn't really go over too well with all of the cast and writers. William Shatner, for example, wanted Captain Kirk to fight the Devil in Star Trek: The Final Frontier. Honestly, it couldn't have made that movie worse.
Ooo, burn! Yeah, folks, I'll be here all night. Actually, I'm probably the only guy who really LIKED that movie but that's beside the point. There are other examples too of Star Trek being pro-religion: "Bread and Circuses" is a love letter to Christianity and Deep Space Nine is more or less about God. Amusingly, Babylon Five which had four seasons devoted to analogues for angels and demons, was more agnostic than Deep Space Nine.
Still, the trouble with religion is always there. Worse, it leads to some pretty hackneyed plots. Robert Beltrane' s Chakotay was supposedly the first openly religious Star Trek character from an Earth religion. Yet, I say if you can't tell me Chakotay's tribe and what his specific religious beliefs are, he's no more actually Earth religious than Kira Nerys.
There's also been some dumb attempts to reconcile the more religious elements with Gene Roddenberry's vision. For example, trying to have Kira believe in a secular version of the Prophets when Sisko is fighting demons in the Fire Caves before ascending to become Space Jesus.
My own religious beliefs are an irreverent form of Christianity. How irreverent? I like to think Captain Kirk actually killed God in Star Trek: The Final Frontier. Which is ridiculous, I know. What does God need with a spaceship?
Anyway, my real-life faith isn't really relevant save for the fact that I have no trouble dissecting the occasionally strange nature of religion even while believing in God. Religion can lead people to do some positively dumb **** and I have no problem pointing that out. Still, science fiction talks about religion can often end up being heavy handed and problematic. Really, it's the fundamental nature of religion that causes the problem. Either you believe that religion has a place in the lives of human beings or you think it's nonsense.
It's the rare person who believes both and even then, he's not likely to win favor with those who take their belief (or lack there of) in God deadly serious. I think the only book about the nature of faith and its importance I actually enjoyed was Hogfather and that was written by an atheist.
Kudos to Mister Pratchett. You will be missed.
Sword of Damocles, despite not being up with Mister Pratchett's work, handles the issue surprisingly well. I believe this is due to the fact that the authors don't forget to tell a story in the midst of all the parable. On one hand you have the deranged religious fanatics of the week and on the other you have the religious members of the Titan crew. Contrasting this are the secular members of the Titan crew who find both of their views peculiar but respect their right to have them.
The plot suffers from a small aspect, however, which is the fact that it tries to be weird and deep. Honestly, I think it's better to stick with comprehensible and deep or weird and sanity-blasting. The book involves time travel, oddball spatial physics, and plenty of stuff which just complicates the issue of faith versus reason. There's also an obvious "twist" regarding the fate of the U.S.S Titan which is just telegraphed from the very beginning and so easy to figure out you feel sorry for the cast.
The book also ends a relationship I was actually looking forward to reading more about. I won't spoil it but it was something that left me feeling cold as opposed to moved. Call me crazy but I would have appreciated if they'd managed to keep the relationship going through the books indefinitely.
Overall, I very much enjoyed the book but felt the technobabble and oddity of the "final problem" undercut the book's message about religion. Likewise, I missed the interaction between Troi and Riker when they were split up for almost half the book. The book tackled a big science-fiction/real world issue and I applaud that but it was a harder read than I would have liked.
Ooo, burn! Yeah, folks, I'll be here all night. Actually, I'm probably the only guy who really LIKED that movie but that's beside the point. There are other examples too of Star Trek being pro-religion: "Bread and Circuses" is a love letter to Christianity and Deep Space Nine is more or less about God. Amusingly, Babylon Five which had four seasons devoted to analogues for angels and demons, was more agnostic than Deep Space Nine.
Still, the trouble with religion is always there. Worse, it leads to some pretty hackneyed plots. Robert Beltrane' s Chakotay was supposedly the first openly religious Star Trek character from an Earth religion. Yet, I say if you can't tell me Chakotay's tribe and what his specific religious beliefs are, he's no more actually Earth religious than Kira Nerys.
There's also been some dumb attempts to reconcile the more religious elements with Gene Roddenberry's vision. For example, trying to have Kira believe in a secular version of the Prophets when Sisko is fighting demons in the Fire Caves before ascending to become Space Jesus.
My own religious beliefs are an irreverent form of Christianity. How irreverent? I like to think Captain Kirk actually killed God in Star Trek: The Final Frontier. Which is ridiculous, I know. What does God need with a spaceship?
Anyway, my real-life faith isn't really relevant save for the fact that I have no trouble dissecting the occasionally strange nature of religion even while believing in God. Religion can lead people to do some positively dumb **** and I have no problem pointing that out. Still, science fiction talks about religion can often end up being heavy handed and problematic. Really, it's the fundamental nature of religion that causes the problem. Either you believe that religion has a place in the lives of human beings or you think it's nonsense.
It's the rare person who believes both and even then, he's not likely to win favor with those who take their belief (or lack there of) in God deadly serious. I think the only book about the nature of faith and its importance I actually enjoyed was Hogfather and that was written by an atheist.
Kudos to Mister Pratchett. You will be missed.
Sword of Damocles, despite not being up with Mister Pratchett's work, handles the issue surprisingly well. I believe this is due to the fact that the authors don't forget to tell a story in the midst of all the parable. On one hand you have the deranged religious fanatics of the week and on the other you have the religious members of the Titan crew. Contrasting this are the secular members of the Titan crew who find both of their views peculiar but respect their right to have them.
The plot suffers from a small aspect, however, which is the fact that it tries to be weird and deep. Honestly, I think it's better to stick with comprehensible and deep or weird and sanity-blasting. The book involves time travel, oddball spatial physics, and plenty of stuff which just complicates the issue of faith versus reason. There's also an obvious "twist" regarding the fate of the U.S.S Titan which is just telegraphed from the very beginning and so easy to figure out you feel sorry for the cast.
The book also ends a relationship I was actually looking forward to reading more about. I won't spoil it but it was something that left me feeling cold as opposed to moved. Call me crazy but I would have appreciated if they'd managed to keep the relationship going through the books indefinitely.
Overall, I very much enjoyed the book but felt the technobabble and oddity of the "final problem" undercut the book's message about religion. Likewise, I missed the interaction between Troi and Riker when they were split up for almost half the book. The book tackled a big science-fiction/real world issue and I applaud that but it was a harder read than I would have liked.
January 15, 2008
Best of the Titan books, although that's not saying a lot. How about: better than most non-Peter David Trek books.
The good: strong character development, interesting plot, they don't wipe out billions of people in this one (just hundreds of thousands)
The bad: Troi/Riker 'conflict' feels forced, the situation with the Charon seems contrived, new character comes off as a Mary Sue, borrows too heavily from Generations
Of course, the worst part is that you need to read the previous (sub-par) entries in the series to get to this one, because it focuses on characters discussed in those books ... so it might be too much to ask to have you read the previous books first. If you have read them, however, and weren't sure about this one, I'd say it's definitely worth a read.
One last minor nitpick: the resolution of the "Oracle" portion of the story seems to violate the laws of temporality as defined by Star Trek in previous novels/shows. Granted, I've always hated how Trek handles it, but it's weird they'd violate something so well-established.
The good: strong character development, interesting plot, they don't wipe out billions of people in this one (just hundreds of thousands)
The bad: Troi/Riker 'conflict' feels forced, the situation with the Charon seems contrived, new character comes off as a Mary Sue, borrows too heavily from Generations
Of course, the worst part is that you need to read the previous (sub-par) entries in the series to get to this one, because it focuses on characters discussed in those books ... so it might be too much to ask to have you read the previous books first. If you have read them, however, and weren't sure about this one, I'd say it's definitely worth a read.
One last minor nitpick: the resolution of the "Oracle" portion of the story seems to violate the laws of temporality as defined by Star Trek in previous novels/shows. Granted, I've always hated how Trek handles it, but it's weird they'd violate something so well-established.
December 14, 2015
This series frustrates me so. I want so badly to love it. Riker, Troi & Tuvok are among my very favorite Star Trek characters. Unfortunately the Titan series is just a dud. These familiar characters often take the back seat toa ridiculous menagarie of alien characters. Everytime I get to a line about Torvig the robotic ostrich boy or Hulian the tiny blue Carebear it just completely takes me out of the story. It's too much, I mean for heaven's sake the doctor is a T-Rex or whatever. Blah. I'm going to stick with it a little longer just in case they begin to even out. I have my doubts though.
I found this story in particular to be dull and uninteresting. The whole time-travel premise could have really been something. Instead it was uneven and confusing. And really, they were captured by giant bugs? Come on. So annoying. Here's hoping the series can get on track for future installments.
I found this story in particular to be dull and uninteresting. The whole time-travel premise could have really been something. Instead it was uneven and confusing. And really, they were captured by giant bugs? Come on. So annoying. Here's hoping the series can get on track for future installments.
February 4, 2023
I love that this ship is filled with non-humanoid crew members, which is something that's difficult to pull off on a live action series, but it does make it extremely difficult following some of the characters since my mind tends to blank over what they look like because I simply don't understand the description. Thankfully most of the characters here are the more humanoid kind.
USS Titan continues its journey into unknown space, encountering a weird thing in space that is threatening to destroy them. It's a pretty standard science fiction concept but has some nice twists and turns, and uses the characters well.
I would have preferred more focus on Riker and Troi, but a reasonably enjoyable stand-alone adventure.
USS Titan continues its journey into unknown space, encountering a weird thing in space that is threatening to destroy them. It's a pretty standard science fiction concept but has some nice twists and turns, and uses the characters well.
I would have preferred more focus on Riker and Troi, but a reasonably enjoyable stand-alone adventure.
April 17, 2012
What happens when you mix up theology, a downed ship, the Prime Directive, time phases and Paradox?
Read the darn book if you want to find out how it turns out, silly.
Read the darn book if you want to find out how it turns out, silly.
June 15, 2024
Star Trek: Titan #4: Sword of Damocles by Geoffrey Thorne
Adventurous, challenging, dark, emotional,
funny, hopeful, informative, inspiring,
mysterious, reflective, sad, and tense.
Medium-paced
Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75 Stars
Okay, this is my favourite within this series and the Trek-Lit Reading Flowchart.
This book did EVERYTHING right...when it comes to telling a story (obviously, from my perspective). It allowed the reader to grapple with the concepts that the crew of the Titan was put through, and while doing THAT, was able to speak to faith, and dedication to what each person believes...which allows us to live LARGER than our own life.
I will not spoil anything (not on purpose), but WOW did this story use character development...as its guiding principle to telling the story it wanted to tell.
Loved the way the alien creatures spoke/communicated with our Titan crew.
There IS death in this story, which is sad, in an of itself, but especially WHICH characters died.
There is tension that is used in this story, first to propell the narrative forward...for we do not know WHY these things are happening. We can ONLY deal with what we know, to answer/fix the problem/situation that is set before us (in-world and as the reader).
Multiple POV characters, and moments. The brief time we are in the aliens was also cool, for it was interesting how they translated that for us (the human readers).
Love the relationship with Riker and Troi. I love how Deanna was used in this story. She wasn't just emoting, but showed real character and grit.
I am also liking Commander (Number One) Christina Vale. Here character growth throughout this series has been really well told.
Loved the Bajoran philosophy and religious aspects.
Also, getting to know the Efrosian culture/characteristics was interesting, too. Not sure if it is just this character, or all Efrosians. However, it was fun to witness.
There were a number of character interactions within this story that transcended just a Star Trek narrative, but really made for good character interactions and sets the future novels in a better place, IMO.
I will now pivot to Star Trek: Destiny series in Gods of the Night by David Mack. That will be a refreshing change in my journey of 75+ books.
Adventurous, challenging, dark, emotional,
funny, hopeful, informative, inspiring,
mysterious, reflective, sad, and tense.
Medium-paced
Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75 Stars
Okay, this is my favourite within this series and the Trek-Lit Reading Flowchart.
This book did EVERYTHING right...when it comes to telling a story (obviously, from my perspective). It allowed the reader to grapple with the concepts that the crew of the Titan was put through, and while doing THAT, was able to speak to faith, and dedication to what each person believes...which allows us to live LARGER than our own life.
I will not spoil anything (not on purpose), but WOW did this story use character development...as its guiding principle to telling the story it wanted to tell.
Loved the way the alien creatures spoke/communicated with our Titan crew.
There IS death in this story, which is sad, in an of itself, but especially WHICH characters died.
There is tension that is used in this story, first to propell the narrative forward...for we do not know WHY these things are happening. We can ONLY deal with what we know, to answer/fix the problem/situation that is set before us (in-world and as the reader).
Multiple POV characters, and moments. The brief time we are in the aliens was also cool, for it was interesting how they translated that for us (the human readers).
Love the relationship with Riker and Troi. I love how Deanna was used in this story. She wasn't just emoting, but showed real character and grit.
I am also liking Commander (Number One) Christina Vale. Here character growth throughout this series has been really well told.
Loved the Bajoran philosophy and religious aspects.
Also, getting to know the Efrosian culture/characteristics was interesting, too. Not sure if it is just this character, or all Efrosians. However, it was fun to witness.
There were a number of character interactions within this story that transcended just a Star Trek narrative, but really made for good character interactions and sets the future novels in a better place, IMO.
I will now pivot to Star Trek: Destiny series in Gods of the Night by David Mack. That will be a refreshing change in my journey of 75+ books.
May 14, 2024
This Titan books are so interesting! They could easily sit back and tell Star Trek stories we've seen a million times but instead they really push the envelope! Plot: Titan is mapping out new space, answer a distress call and get caught in a sort of time loop where they can't use their technology and they're trying not to mess up a planet and, oh yeah, not get killed in the process. The multiple time lines was at times confusing but ultimately made sense and we super cool. It's so strange, at the beginning of each book in this series I'm like, "This will probably be the last Titan book I read." and then by the end they've always won me over!
August 27, 2019
Sword of Damocles is not a typical Star Trek novel. The style of the writing is a significant departure from the "norm," but in my opinion, the story is all the better for it. There is some great character work in this novel, and some interesting time-twisting adventures that, while maybe a little confusing, serve to make the story a fascinating one. I would have liked to have seen Geoffrey Thorne tackle more Star Trek novels after Sword of Damocles.
Full review: https://www.treklit.com/2019/08/sword...
Full review: https://www.treklit.com/2019/08/sword...
October 24, 2020
Intense, emotional, and designed to mess with your head; this isn't an easy read, but it's certainly a provocative one. You can cut the tension in this book with a knife, and while its relentless nature and its mildly psychedelic style requires more concentration than the standard Trek novel, it rewards with a feeling of exhaustion and exhilaration by its conclusion. It's also great to see the influence of DS9, as this book effortless mixes the spiritual and the religious with Trek's usual secular outlook.
April 10, 2023
Summary:
Part I
-------
Epilogue
Jaza crashed a shuttle on a planet in the middle of some sort of battle. Modan finds and heals him; he can't remember what happened to the shuttle (plasma storm) or the Titan.
--
Titan is studying dark matter beings, Occultus Ora. The sensors go offline in the middle of the study, ostensibly because Commander Xin Ra-Havreii ordered non-essential upgrades to the ship, even though Science Officer Jaza said their study takes top priority.
XO Vale meets with Troi to discuss Ra-Havreii, as he is a constant problem for many of the crew, and sure notices Troi seems to be on edge. Tuvok notices that something seems to be bothering Riker as well.
After studying the sensors glitches, Jaza realizes that the darklings were actually obscuring an emergency signal that appears to have been sent by the U.S.S. Charon, which is 27 hours away. Titans leaves to intercept.
En route, Titan is hit with some sort of warp blast wave, stranding the ship and leaving it all but defenseless. Ra-Havreii tries to get the repair crews to install some upgrades while they work on fixing the ship; Troi tries to counsel him and Vale takes over engineering, making sure repairs take priority. Analysis of the wave seems to indicate residual patterns of communication that have been severely compressed.
The communications are traced to the planet Elysia Incendae II, from an insectoid species called the Orishans, and insular species who worship the Eye of Erykon and have no desire for space travel, but do have warp technology that they use only for power.
Riker is on the fence about contacting them, since they are not space-faring. Jaza comes up with the idea of using the Picard Maneuver, warping a shuttle towards the planet while it's still in the dock, dropping an away team right next to the Orishans' planet.
Their plan works, but there is a nearly invisible sphere between the shuttle and the planet. They send a probe and immediately receive hostile messages from the Orishan, who decloak a massive ship in front of them. They fire some sort of warp plasma beam at the shuttle, but Jaza negates it by activating their own warp drive. The ship tells them the Eye of Erykon will judge them, and they're pulled into the invisible sphere, which suddenly they detect has mass like a planet. It shoots a beam of energy at the shuttle and Titan; both ships are pulled into the jungle planet's atmosphere. The shuttle auto-beams them to the planet before it crash lands; they see Titan breaking up in atmo.
Modan leads Jaza through the jungle, avoiding warring factions of Orishans. They come across the remains of Titan, and find that the warp core could blow at any moment. They make it back to the crashed shuttle and repair it enough to scan their surroundings: they are on Orishan, thousands of years in the past.
Vale thinks the energy mass was a shunt that warped them to Orisha instantly, though she didn't understand why the cities and technology are missing. She is eventually saved from a millipede-snake by Ranul, who takes her back to camp with Troi and Ra-Havreii. Their tech doesn't work on this planet for some reason, but Ra-Havreii gets a tricorder working and they use it to track the shuttle's warp core; however, it ends up being the charred remains of the Titan instead. Ra-Havreii says there's something off about the readings, but is captured by Orishans.
Jaza sends Modan to the wreckage of the Titan to retrieve a part of the warp core, but there is an earthquake and the sky catches on fire; the eye of Erykon appears and Jaza realizes it's a tesseract charged with chronitron energy. Modan is taken by Orishan soldiers. Jaza has a vision that this is where the Prophets foretold he would die.
Ra-Havreii is abducted by Orishans, then Ranul when he tries to rescue him. Troi shunts her emotions at the Orishan waiting to catch her, and Vale stuns it. They head to the Spire, a building as tall as a sequioa, that looks natural but is actually made of some sort of vegetation / metal resin. The Orishans build everthing like this to hide from their god, the Eye. They seem to have a hive mind. Troi and Vale are captured and taken under ground, where the actual cities are.
Vale is brought before the Mater A'yujae'Tak and questioned. She tells Vale that they live underground because at random intervals, the Eye opens and destroys the lands above. They aren't hostile, but terrified. They show her a view screen of Vale's shuttle in orbit, and she realizes that she's 2 days in the past. She watches the shuttle get shot down again, and the entire sky appears to catch on fire.
Vale is thrown in a cell with Ra-Havreii, who tells her that he's certain that the warp core they found belonged to a Luna class ship, but not the Titan.
Part II
--------
Titan is rocked by the alien energy wave, which nearly inverts the warp core until Torvig interfaces with the ship using his cybernetic components and starts bringing the ship's systems back online.
The Orishan ship tells Titan that they have enraged the Eye and it has destroyed their planet because of them. They fire a tractor beam to try and crush Titan, but the shields hold for now. The science team determines that the problem with local space is that the Orishans are using space-folding technology instead of warp bubbles, which has damaged space-time in the area. They also believe they can counteract the effect.
Xin uses his and Vale's comm badges to open the door to their holding cell. They easily free the others, as many Orishans have been crushed during the attack, and many more committed mass ritual suicide. They are attacked by A'yujae'Tak, but during the fight, Modan beams them aboard the shuttle, minus Xin, whose badge was taken by A'yujae'Tak.
Modan explains that Jaza decided to stay in the past where he could better analyze the tesseract and that he sent Modan back to the future to give the datab to Titan. Before she left, she also took an imprint of his memories, an ability her species possesses. She explains to the others that Jaza felt this is what the Prophets meant for him to do. Vale is furious that she left him behind. They go back to retrieve Xin and he says he can stabilize the Veil, which is a folding device.
Titan receives a live transmission from the Charon, which is the same one they received 4 days ago, because of the temporal effects of the region. Ultimately it is destroyed.
Titan sends out a probe that disrupts the Orishan ship's technology and brings it into normal space with them. They board the ship and find it is controlled by a single Orishan that has been fused into the ship itself. It is so horrified by them that it kills itself, but first transmits all it's logs to Titan.
Xin explains that the spires on Orisha are all folding space, and that the Eye is also Orisha--the devastation that occurs when the Eye "opens" is the other Orisha trying to phase back into normal space, but both versions of the planet cannot occupy the same space. Xin thinks they may be able to deactivate the spires gradually and phase Orisha back in. His plan is derailed when Titan tries to collapse the tesseract; he tells the rest of them to go tell Titan to stop.
The shuttle manages to punch through a hole in the space-time fluctuations and makes it back to the Titan. They are beamed aboard right as the shuttle's warp core explodes. Troi, using Jaza's memories that Modan passed to her, works with Tuvok to phase Orishan back to the present.
Titan helps the Orishans in their recovery effort. In the past, Jaza guides the Orishans, and keeps them away from the shattered place where the Charon crashed. He never knows if the Titan succeeded, but chooses to believe it did.
Part I
-------
Epilogue
Jaza crashed a shuttle on a planet in the middle of some sort of battle. Modan finds and heals him; he can't remember what happened to the shuttle (plasma storm) or the Titan.
--
Titan is studying dark matter beings, Occultus Ora. The sensors go offline in the middle of the study, ostensibly because Commander Xin Ra-Havreii ordered non-essential upgrades to the ship, even though Science Officer Jaza said their study takes top priority.
XO Vale meets with Troi to discuss Ra-Havreii, as he is a constant problem for many of the crew, and sure notices Troi seems to be on edge. Tuvok notices that something seems to be bothering Riker as well.
After studying the sensors glitches, Jaza realizes that the darklings were actually obscuring an emergency signal that appears to have been sent by the U.S.S. Charon, which is 27 hours away. Titans leaves to intercept.
En route, Titan is hit with some sort of warp blast wave, stranding the ship and leaving it all but defenseless. Ra-Havreii tries to get the repair crews to install some upgrades while they work on fixing the ship; Troi tries to counsel him and Vale takes over engineering, making sure repairs take priority. Analysis of the wave seems to indicate residual patterns of communication that have been severely compressed.
The communications are traced to the planet Elysia Incendae II, from an insectoid species called the Orishans, and insular species who worship the Eye of Erykon and have no desire for space travel, but do have warp technology that they use only for power.
Riker is on the fence about contacting them, since they are not space-faring. Jaza comes up with the idea of using the Picard Maneuver, warping a shuttle towards the planet while it's still in the dock, dropping an away team right next to the Orishans' planet.
Their plan works, but there is a nearly invisible sphere between the shuttle and the planet. They send a probe and immediately receive hostile messages from the Orishan, who decloak a massive ship in front of them. They fire some sort of warp plasma beam at the shuttle, but Jaza negates it by activating their own warp drive. The ship tells them the Eye of Erykon will judge them, and they're pulled into the invisible sphere, which suddenly they detect has mass like a planet. It shoots a beam of energy at the shuttle and Titan; both ships are pulled into the jungle planet's atmosphere. The shuttle auto-beams them to the planet before it crash lands; they see Titan breaking up in atmo.
Modan leads Jaza through the jungle, avoiding warring factions of Orishans. They come across the remains of Titan, and find that the warp core could blow at any moment. They make it back to the crashed shuttle and repair it enough to scan their surroundings: they are on Orishan, thousands of years in the past.
Vale thinks the energy mass was a shunt that warped them to Orisha instantly, though she didn't understand why the cities and technology are missing. She is eventually saved from a millipede-snake by Ranul, who takes her back to camp with Troi and Ra-Havreii. Their tech doesn't work on this planet for some reason, but Ra-Havreii gets a tricorder working and they use it to track the shuttle's warp core; however, it ends up being the charred remains of the Titan instead. Ra-Havreii says there's something off about the readings, but is captured by Orishans.
Jaza sends Modan to the wreckage of the Titan to retrieve a part of the warp core, but there is an earthquake and the sky catches on fire; the eye of Erykon appears and Jaza realizes it's a tesseract charged with chronitron energy. Modan is taken by Orishan soldiers. Jaza has a vision that this is where the Prophets foretold he would die.
Ra-Havreii is abducted by Orishans, then Ranul when he tries to rescue him. Troi shunts her emotions at the Orishan waiting to catch her, and Vale stuns it. They head to the Spire, a building as tall as a sequioa, that looks natural but is actually made of some sort of vegetation / metal resin. The Orishans build everthing like this to hide from their god, the Eye. They seem to have a hive mind. Troi and Vale are captured and taken under ground, where the actual cities are.
Vale is brought before the Mater A'yujae'Tak and questioned. She tells Vale that they live underground because at random intervals, the Eye opens and destroys the lands above. They aren't hostile, but terrified. They show her a view screen of Vale's shuttle in orbit, and she realizes that she's 2 days in the past. She watches the shuttle get shot down again, and the entire sky appears to catch on fire.
Vale is thrown in a cell with Ra-Havreii, who tells her that he's certain that the warp core they found belonged to a Luna class ship, but not the Titan.
Part II
--------
Titan is rocked by the alien energy wave, which nearly inverts the warp core until Torvig interfaces with the ship using his cybernetic components and starts bringing the ship's systems back online.
The Orishan ship tells Titan that they have enraged the Eye and it has destroyed their planet because of them. They fire a tractor beam to try and crush Titan, but the shields hold for now. The science team determines that the problem with local space is that the Orishans are using space-folding technology instead of warp bubbles, which has damaged space-time in the area. They also believe they can counteract the effect.
Xin uses his and Vale's comm badges to open the door to their holding cell. They easily free the others, as many Orishans have been crushed during the attack, and many more committed mass ritual suicide. They are attacked by A'yujae'Tak, but during the fight, Modan beams them aboard the shuttle, minus Xin, whose badge was taken by A'yujae'Tak.
Modan explains that Jaza decided to stay in the past where he could better analyze the tesseract and that he sent Modan back to the future to give the datab to Titan. Before she left, she also took an imprint of his memories, an ability her species possesses. She explains to the others that Jaza felt this is what the Prophets meant for him to do. Vale is furious that she left him behind. They go back to retrieve Xin and he says he can stabilize the Veil, which is a folding device.
Titan receives a live transmission from the Charon, which is the same one they received 4 days ago, because of the temporal effects of the region. Ultimately it is destroyed.
Titan sends out a probe that disrupts the Orishan ship's technology and brings it into normal space with them. They board the ship and find it is controlled by a single Orishan that has been fused into the ship itself. It is so horrified by them that it kills itself, but first transmits all it's logs to Titan.
Xin explains that the spires on Orisha are all folding space, and that the Eye is also Orisha--the devastation that occurs when the Eye "opens" is the other Orisha trying to phase back into normal space, but both versions of the planet cannot occupy the same space. Xin thinks they may be able to deactivate the spires gradually and phase Orisha back in. His plan is derailed when Titan tries to collapse the tesseract; he tells the rest of them to go tell Titan to stop.
The shuttle manages to punch through a hole in the space-time fluctuations and makes it back to the Titan. They are beamed aboard right as the shuttle's warp core explodes. Troi, using Jaza's memories that Modan passed to her, works with Tuvok to phase Orishan back to the present.
Titan helps the Orishans in their recovery effort. In the past, Jaza guides the Orishans, and keeps them away from the shattered place where the Charon crashed. He never knows if the Titan succeeded, but chooses to believe it did.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 15, 2025
The fourth book in the Titan series took on a darker tone- literally. The ship explored an area of space inhabited by "darklings" (estoteric energy creatures who literally blacked out the stars) and found the experience exhilarating until (surprise), something happened to interrupt their scientific exploration.
A message came through with their name in it, garbled by the darklings' natural state. While trying to trace it back to its source, the ship was hit by some sort of energy pulses that kept them from going to warp. The waves came from a nearby planet and turned out to be warp drive technology applied to planetary protection. They couldn't get a message to the planet through all the interference, and when they tried, they were knocked around by a huge construct.
Commander Vale led an away team by shuttle to the planet in a last ditch attempt at finding the inhabitants and convincing them to turn off their machinery long enough for them to be on their way. She, Lieutenant Commander Jaza, Commander Troi, Commander Keru, Dr. Ra Havreii and Ensign Y'Lira Modan had to survive on the planet long enough to find rescue for their ship. A crashed starship told them that they weren't the first to try. As usual, the story was fast-paced, the new alien race was intriguing and the stakes were high. Another good read, even though I hated the fact that one of the away team didn't get off the planet alive.
I enjoyed this book's focus on Jaza Najem- I've been wanting to see him as more than just "that guy Commander Vale has the hots for." This book gave us his backstory and a great insight into his character. I also enjoyed seeing Cadet Dakal in the spotlight as Jaza's protege. I figured he might have some struggles as low man on the totem pole, and it was interesting to see how the other scientists "hazed the freshman" so to speak.
More Titan, please!
A message came through with their name in it, garbled by the darklings' natural state. While trying to trace it back to its source, the ship was hit by some sort of energy pulses that kept them from going to warp. The waves came from a nearby planet and turned out to be warp drive technology applied to planetary protection. They couldn't get a message to the planet through all the interference, and when they tried, they were knocked around by a huge construct.
Commander Vale led an away team by shuttle to the planet in a last ditch attempt at finding the inhabitants and convincing them to turn off their machinery long enough for them to be on their way. She, Lieutenant Commander Jaza, Commander Troi, Commander Keru, Dr. Ra Havreii and Ensign Y'Lira Modan had to survive on the planet long enough to find rescue for their ship. A crashed starship told them that they weren't the first to try. As usual, the story was fast-paced, the new alien race was intriguing and the stakes were high. Another good read, even though I hated the fact that one of the away team didn't get off the planet alive.
I enjoyed this book's focus on Jaza Najem- I've been wanting to see him as more than just "that guy Commander Vale has the hots for." This book gave us his backstory and a great insight into his character. I also enjoyed seeing Cadet Dakal in the spotlight as Jaza's protege. I figured he might have some struggles as low man on the totem pole, and it was interesting to see how the other scientists "hazed the freshman" so to speak.
More Titan, please!
August 25, 2014
Sword of Damocles continues the adventures of the Starship Titan and her biologically diverse crew as they carry out their mission to "explore strange new worlds"
I've been reading the relaunched Star Trek books chronologically, using a list I've found online. For the most part I've enjoyed them..... unfortunately this book is the exception
Several chapters into this book I had the urge to put it aside and never look at it again, instead I persevered
Sword Of Damocles isn't so much a bad book as a highly confusing book.
It involves a lot of time travel concepts which normally would really interest me. I just got really lost and had trouble understanding just what the heck was going on
Overall I found the writing to be a little heavy handed and several of the point of view transitions confusing and a little jarring, though I am glad I finished this book as the ending has ramifications for further books
I've been reading the relaunched Star Trek books chronologically, using a list I've found online. For the most part I've enjoyed them..... unfortunately this book is the exception
Several chapters into this book I had the urge to put it aside and never look at it again, instead I persevered
Sword Of Damocles isn't so much a bad book as a highly confusing book.
It involves a lot of time travel concepts which normally would really interest me. I just got really lost and had trouble understanding just what the heck was going on
Overall I found the writing to be a little heavy handed and several of the point of view transitions confusing and a little jarring, though I am glad I finished this book as the ending has ramifications for further books
November 18, 2025
This story was a difficult read from a number of perspectives. The story is very convoluted-it does involve time travel and different time aspects. The characters are also strangely written there’s a lot of conflict between the senior officers mostly stemming from Troi and Riker but it bleeds into others. While there is a central issue involving the crew and the ship there is an antagonistic alien race that poses a threat but doesn’t get much in terms of fleshing out who they are and why they do what they do.
The other reading issue I had was with the formatting and font of the e book I was reading this from. It made it very difficult to get a good pace for the book and with a story that’s already difficult to follow it made it a very difficult read.
The other reading issue I had was with the formatting and font of the e book I was reading this from. It made it very difficult to get a good pace for the book and with a story that’s already difficult to follow it made it a very difficult read.
Read
July 28, 2011The fourth in the Star Trek: Titan series of novels, about a multispecies crew under the command of Captain Riker, Sword of Damocles is a deftly written novel that has an intriguing mystery and time travel problem to be solved. The characters, some of whom we "know" via aired Trek and some we've "met" via previous novels, are complex and relatable. I am not familiar with author Geoffrey Thorne's work but will be searching out his other stories. For the casual Star Trek fan, this novel might be a bit hard to get into and I would suggest starting with the first in the series, Taking Wing, and moving forward.
January 26, 2011
Overall it was a solid installment of Titan. I liked that they expanded Vale's role more. They should be utilizing her more often. The supporting cast got a fair shake and the life aboard ship felt real. Too often they only include characters that are pertinent, forgetting the other co-stars.
Riker and Deanna got a much needed breather.
The aliens, the Orishans, were interesting and not overdeveloped. The plot had some interesting twists and turns.
Overall I enjoyed the story.
Riker and Deanna got a much needed breather.
The aliens, the Orishans, were interesting and not overdeveloped. The plot had some interesting twists and turns.
Overall I enjoyed the story.
September 19, 2014
This was a great book Troi was very vulnerable so it was nice to see her bring down her guard a bit. But not so good that R/T are basically holding each other at arms length. They both are tested in parental decision making after a tragic loss of their first child due to a miscarriage mentioned but not witness 5 months prior. Both needed to make a difficult decision and of course Troi said no and Riker went along with her choice even though it was likely Troi would loose her life.
November 11, 2015
It starts with the destruction of the Titan, and then goes back to how it happened. This is an intriguing story involving a bit of time travel, and some great character development. The crew of the Titan is really coming to life now, and the interactions between them are very readable. There's some shocks, and some very nice plot twists. A good read.
August 16, 2022
Really struggled with this one but I don't know whether that is because of my headspace at the time of reading. Although I find the inclusion of new characters good fun, I have largely been reading these books for the old favourites from the TV show. I find all the new characters hard to remember and the general storyline just didn't connect with me this time.
June 21, 2017
This series is wonderful. Renews the spirit of Trek, and is satisfying for long-time fans and newcomers.
August 9, 2015
Love the story itself- but man this one dragged for me.
May 6, 2023
I wish I were enjoying the Titan series more than I am. What makes matters worse is I feel like this series has its legacy in the franchise, and yet I'm not gravitating toward it as much.
May 31, 2018
The previous Titan adventure, Orion's Hounds, left me with some hope that the series had finally gotten its legs and settled into a pleasing rhythm, outlandish and ridiculous alien crewmembers notwithstanding. Unfortunately, I was a bit disappointed in that regard.
Geoffrey Thorne's effort here is admirable- he seems to have done a lot of work towards learning the ins and outs of the U.S.S. Titan and its crew, and showed genuine imagination in crafting the plot. It's intended to be a romp through spacetime, with the crew not only separated by distance but by time as well. Although full of potential, it simply fell short on multiple accounts.
Rike, who has been quarreling with his wife Deanna Troi, takes the Titan to a world called Orisha, where the native Orishans live under the iron thumb of something called "The Eye." This Eye thing can warp spacetime, and creates a constant state of flux around the planet. The Orishans fear it with a religious fervor, and nervously attempt to please it and prevent it from wiping out civilization for the umpteenth time. These Orishans apparently don't like intruders, and have already downed a Luna-class ship that dared intrude into its territory, and try to do the same to Titan. One thing leads to another, and several of Titan's crew are trapped on the surface of Orisha (in some cases in the distant past!)
The storyline is simply not coherent enough to follow easily. I realize that a plot such as this is by default more complicated than others, but this one is too disjointed and convoluted to take hold of. The style of writing complicates this, as it does not lend itself to easy transitions or clear-cut explanations. Writing in a vague and/or ambiguous voice is a great narrative device when used properly, but in this case, I found it to be one more wrench in the works. Surely Thorne did not simply intend to leave these things to my imagination? I mean, what happened to x crew member, and where the heck are they? Finally, Thorne saw fit to "kill off" one of my favorite characters in the series, one of the few characters native to this series that I actually liked.
I wanted very much to like this book, but I found it to be mostly a wasted opportunity. Here's hoping Titan gets its space legs soon, because I'm not sure how much more I can take.
Geoffrey Thorne's effort here is admirable- he seems to have done a lot of work towards learning the ins and outs of the U.S.S. Titan and its crew, and showed genuine imagination in crafting the plot. It's intended to be a romp through spacetime, with the crew not only separated by distance but by time as well. Although full of potential, it simply fell short on multiple accounts.
Rike, who has been quarreling with his wife Deanna Troi, takes the Titan to a world called Orisha, where the native Orishans live under the iron thumb of something called "The Eye." This Eye thing can warp spacetime, and creates a constant state of flux around the planet. The Orishans fear it with a religious fervor, and nervously attempt to please it and prevent it from wiping out civilization for the umpteenth time. These Orishans apparently don't like intruders, and have already downed a Luna-class ship that dared intrude into its territory, and try to do the same to Titan. One thing leads to another, and several of Titan's crew are trapped on the surface of Orisha (in some cases in the distant past!)
The storyline is simply not coherent enough to follow easily. I realize that a plot such as this is by default more complicated than others, but this one is too disjointed and convoluted to take hold of. The style of writing complicates this, as it does not lend itself to easy transitions or clear-cut explanations. Writing in a vague and/or ambiguous voice is a great narrative device when used properly, but in this case, I found it to be one more wrench in the works. Surely Thorne did not simply intend to leave these things to my imagination? I mean, what happened to x crew member, and where the heck are they? Finally, Thorne saw fit to "kill off" one of my favorite characters in the series, one of the few characters native to this series that I actually liked.
I wanted very much to like this book, but I found it to be mostly a wasted opportunity. Here's hoping Titan gets its space legs soon, because I'm not sure how much more I can take.
May 30, 2018
Sword of Damocles continues on from the previous book with the crew encountering the Orisha who are a race who believe in the eye which in reality is disruption to space around them through using to much folding space technology that is causing temporal and spacial effects all throughout the local spacial area! :D
Sword of Damocles starts with the Titan's crew engaging in finally for them a continuation of their original mission when they receive a distress call from what they suspect to be the USS Charon one of the Titan's sister ships! :D On route they get caught in the very same temporal shifts that had trapped and as we find out destroyed the Charon! :D The way that the book lays all this out out of sequence due to the nature of the temporal phenomenon is brilliantly done with each part of the story coalescing and tying together as the story progresses giving the whole book a sense of mystery! :D
At the the same time the characters and world build are giving excellent attention! :D We get to see Riker and Troi having it out but still getting on with mission! :D This in turn enables Vale and Pral glasch Haaj to get serious screen/page time! :D At the same time Troi get to show how experienced she has become and Vale's reaction to her casual way of handling everything will have you laughing away! :D The way the entire ship is kept hopping with Xin Ra-Havreii antics as well with you in stitches! :D Jaza Najem destiny, if you will, is cleverly lade out and sets up potential plot points and mysteries to boot! :D
The civilisation of Orisha is brilliantly done as well with the underground city being really well laid out and the insect nature of the culture being mixed with an advanced tech level really is cleverly displayed but at the same time sets up the species as potential Federation ally or member for future books! :D
Sword of Damocles sets up a breakneck pace and mysteries to be solved from the get go and continues with this throughout keeping you guessing at every point with plot twists that you will see coming but due to the nature of the phenomena still makes sense as parts of the mystery start to drop into place as the book warps along at full whack! :D Sword of Damocles is a brilliant depiction of First Contact temporal manipulation, changing timelines, heroics and is action packed throughout! :D Crisp High Five! :D
Sword of Damocles starts with the Titan's crew engaging in finally for them a continuation of their original mission when they receive a distress call from what they suspect to be the USS Charon one of the Titan's sister ships! :D On route they get caught in the very same temporal shifts that had trapped and as we find out destroyed the Charon! :D The way that the book lays all this out out of sequence due to the nature of the temporal phenomenon is brilliantly done with each part of the story coalescing and tying together as the story progresses giving the whole book a sense of mystery! :D
At the the same time the characters and world build are giving excellent attention! :D We get to see Riker and Troi having it out but still getting on with mission! :D This in turn enables Vale and Pral glasch Haaj to get serious screen/page time! :D At the same time Troi get to show how experienced she has become and Vale's reaction to her casual way of handling everything will have you laughing away! :D The way the entire ship is kept hopping with Xin Ra-Havreii antics as well with you in stitches! :D Jaza Najem destiny, if you will, is cleverly lade out and sets up potential plot points and mysteries to boot! :D
The civilisation of Orisha is brilliantly done as well with the underground city being really well laid out and the insect nature of the culture being mixed with an advanced tech level really is cleverly displayed but at the same time sets up the species as potential Federation ally or member for future books! :D
Sword of Damocles sets up a breakneck pace and mysteries to be solved from the get go and continues with this throughout keeping you guessing at every point with plot twists that you will see coming but due to the nature of the phenomena still makes sense as parts of the mystery start to drop into place as the book warps along at full whack! :D Sword of Damocles is a brilliant depiction of First Contact temporal manipulation, changing timelines, heroics and is action packed throughout! :D Crisp High Five! :D
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 16, 2024
And, of course, the dream was also a kind of promise, one he'd tested over time and found to be true.
He'd been here before and would come again he knew, but each time he returned from the dream, whether he remembered every detail or not, he was forced to take moments to remind himself who he was, where he was and that, so far at least, he was still alive.
One day that would not be true. One day there would be no waking and no reassurances. One day the dream would not be a dream.
5 stars This book was so, so good! The story caught my interest right away with a very strong beginning starting with an epilogue(!) involving a hurt crewmember trying to remember what was going on, and then the dream mentioned in chapter one made my mind wonder in amazement. This was so well written. I loved it, and I felt from the very beginning that it would end up being either a 4.5 or a 5 star rating for me. In a way the best books are the ones where you get to feel like that from the beginning and then all the way through. The ones where you somehow read more than usual just because you don't want to put the book away.
This story made my head spin and was just my type of story. It involves a mystery civilization that seemed interesting from the start. It involves being thrown into the past. It involves faith, both with this civilization being a theocracy and the faith of the Bajoran crewmember Jaza. Speaking of him, I really like him as a character and him contributing to one part of the faith we're reading about just made me like him all the more. I'm a Christian, so faith is a big part of my life and getting to have that connect with Star Trek and science fiction was great.
In the end I feel like there might not be enough words to describe how much I loved this book, and I don't want to give too much away either so I'll just encourage you to read it if you haven't already.
July 14, 2023
A bit of a tough one, but it has enough intriguing ideas to work for me. There's no doubt that this is a confusing read. The Titan becomes trapped near a planet that is being pulled apart by space/time, and this leads to a clash of faith and science among the crew. Or for one in particular, at least. The writing makes this quite a muddled story where it can be difficult to understand what exactly is happening.
Once I settled into it, I began enjoying it. Yet, once again I'm frustrated by the characters. They are SO esoteric, weird and strange that I struggle to visualise them in any sensible way, making it hard to connect. And because a different author handles each book they feel completely different from novel to novel. Here, the character of Jaza finally came into focus but I was really having a hard time remembering him from before. At other points we'll be given a throwaway moment with some crewmember who is a cross between a rock and a tentacle, or something, and it's meaningless.
The tone of this one is also extremely downbeat. The crew seem to all be holding grudges with each other, or are just plain angry. One cadet seems to actually be bullied by his colleagues. It's very much in the wrong spirit, and when the issues are explored further they come across as incredibly petty.
A strange story, though not necessarily a bad one.
Once I settled into it, I began enjoying it. Yet, once again I'm frustrated by the characters. They are SO esoteric, weird and strange that I struggle to visualise them in any sensible way, making it hard to connect. And because a different author handles each book they feel completely different from novel to novel. Here, the character of Jaza finally came into focus but I was really having a hard time remembering him from before. At other points we'll be given a throwaway moment with some crewmember who is a cross between a rock and a tentacle, or something, and it's meaningless.
The tone of this one is also extremely downbeat. The crew seem to all be holding grudges with each other, or are just plain angry. One cadet seems to actually be bullied by his colleagues. It's very much in the wrong spirit, and when the issues are explored further they come across as incredibly petty.
A strange story, though not necessarily a bad one.
September 7, 2025
This was okay. I enjoyed parts, just enough to finish and give it a 3.
But I was leaning 2 or DNF for a lot of it.
This is the fourth book in a spin-off of Star Trek: the Next Generation, with Riker and Troi as familiar characters, and I hoped to enjoy it. It didn't really work for me. I would probably have enjoyed it more if I had read the first books, but this is the one I found in the used bookstore, so....
I found the action very slow, based almost entirely on characters talking about what they were doing or talking about how far along they were on doing it, with almost nothing heroic or exciting taking place. Most of the action was repairing broken technology or adapting technology, but in a very static way. Titan was trapped by strange waves similar to warp technology, and a shuttle sent to the planet surface was lost (actually split up across time, somehow) and Riker believes Troi has died. On the planet and on the ship, the crew members fight to get free of the phenomenon. Bad things happen. Good guys do their best. Not everybody makes it.
If more of the characters had been familiar to me, maybe I would have cared about them, and maybe it would have been more fun. I dunno. I might try others in the series, maybe hunt up the first ones. Not feeling it right now.
But I was leaning 2 or DNF for a lot of it.
This is the fourth book in a spin-off of Star Trek: the Next Generation, with Riker and Troi as familiar characters, and I hoped to enjoy it. It didn't really work for me. I would probably have enjoyed it more if I had read the first books, but this is the one I found in the used bookstore, so....
I found the action very slow, based almost entirely on characters talking about what they were doing or talking about how far along they were on doing it, with almost nothing heroic or exciting taking place. Most of the action was repairing broken technology or adapting technology, but in a very static way. Titan was trapped by strange waves similar to warp technology, and a shuttle sent to the planet surface was lost (actually split up across time, somehow) and Riker believes Troi has died. On the planet and on the ship, the crew members fight to get free of the phenomenon. Bad things happen. Good guys do their best. Not everybody makes it.
If more of the characters had been familiar to me, maybe I would have cared about them, and maybe it would have been more fun. I dunno. I might try others in the series, maybe hunt up the first ones. Not feeling it right now.
June 9, 2021
I really enjoyed the first 150 pages or so. It was a little slow, but very much a slice of life on the Titan. The general strong suit of the Titan novels has been the focus on exploration and science and that holds true here.
However, the middle portion of the novel is unnecessarily convoluted and confusing. The author does this thing where he writes entire passages that refer to characters as “she” or “he” without providing enough context to truly understand which character is being referenced. It was an attempt to keep the lure of mystery behind the scientific phenomena intact but it frankly does not work.
The last 100 pages or so pick back up and mostly clear up what’s happening in a compelling way, but not enough to have a satisfying resolution. There are a few characters whose fates I’m not entirely sure of at the end of the novel. This is the last Titan novel to precede the Destiny trilogy and I’m having a hard time connecting and reconciling what happens here with where we find the crew in Destiny. I am hoping that my next read, TNG: “Greater Than the Sum,” somehow addresses this, but I’m not sure how likely that is. Overall, I still liked the book but it is my least favorite of the Titan series so far.
However, the middle portion of the novel is unnecessarily convoluted and confusing. The author does this thing where he writes entire passages that refer to characters as “she” or “he” without providing enough context to truly understand which character is being referenced. It was an attempt to keep the lure of mystery behind the scientific phenomena intact but it frankly does not work.
The last 100 pages or so pick back up and mostly clear up what’s happening in a compelling way, but not enough to have a satisfying resolution. There are a few characters whose fates I’m not entirely sure of at the end of the novel. This is the last Titan novel to precede the Destiny trilogy and I’m having a hard time connecting and reconciling what happens here with where we find the crew in Destiny. I am hoping that my next read, TNG: “Greater Than the Sum,” somehow addresses this, but I’m not sure how likely that is. Overall, I still liked the book but it is my least favorite of the Titan series so far.
June 2, 2020
unfortunately I didn’t like this one at all. firstly, I did not jibe with the writing at all. it was very introspective and wordy which I can like on occasion but not with Star Trek?? it doesn’t really work for me. secondly, riker & troi are very much sideline characters in this. again, I could live with this even though they’re my faves and my reason for reading this series, IF the other characters are compelling. which they weren’t. not to mention that riker & troi are fighting and dealing with some pretty heavy emotional shit in this book and we barely get any insight into it because they are not the main POVs. this book also cemented my dislike of Vale. up to this point she was bearable but in this I couldn’t stand her. I dislike how she interacts with other characters, she always believes she’s in the right, and I really don’t like how she thinks/sees other characters. her observations and comments on Deanna and Riker/Troi especially were awful.
on to the destiny series/interlude. I’m hoping for a serious improvement; I’ve heard good things. but there’s more heavy emotional angsty shit for riker/troi which I’m not really looking forward to lol.
on to the destiny series/interlude. I’m hoping for a serious improvement; I’ve heard good things. but there’s more heavy emotional angsty shit for riker/troi which I’m not really looking forward to lol.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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