Shockwave

Star Trek: Enterprise #3

by Paul Ruditis

"Time shall unfold what plighted cunning hides..."
-- William Shakespeare

"The Vulcan Science Directorate has concluded that time travel is impossible."
-- T'Pol

The Starship Enterprise™ NX-01 has carried its crew farther into the reaches of space than any human has ever travelled. Commanded by Captain Jonathan Archer, they have charted new stars, explored planets, and made first contact with races previously unknown to even the Vulcans. And while it's true that they have made mistakes along the way, the crew of Enterprise have tried to live up to Starfleet's creed -- to boldly go.

The Paraagan deep-space colony was just another first contact, unusual only in two aspects: it was a matriarchal society, and the planet's upper atmosphere was filled with a highly volatile gas. But the officers of Enterprise knew how to handle their shuttlepod, and they understood the Paraagan landing protocols. As the shuttlepod descended into the planet's atmosphere, they closed the plasma vents, certain that nothing could escape and ignite the gas.

Thirty-six hundred colonists were vaporized in the blast. Every building, every living thing, everything on the surface was destroyed in the fireball. But how could it have happened? Every reading shows that the pod's vents were shut. Nevertheless, it could only have been the Enterprise crew who caused the destruction.

Recalled to Earth, Archer knows that the Vulcan High Command has convinced Starfleet of what they have long insisted. Humans are not ready for deep-space exploration. True, it was an accident. But considering the catastrophic loss of life, Starfleet must agree that deep-space exploration must wait just a little longer, perhaps another twenty years...or longer.

But these were not the events as history recorded them. No one died. Enterprise was never recalled. This is the startling information offered by the mysterious Crewman Daniels -- who claims to be from the thirty-first century and a foot solider in the temporal cold war. With a renewed sense of determination, Archer sets out to prove Enterprise's innocence, armed with the knowledge that if he succeeds, his ship will be safe, his future secure. But time is a swiftly moving river in whose deadly rapids Enterprise and her captain are now caught. Is there anything one very small starship can do against these forces?

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Star Trek Enterprise, Fiction, Ebooks, Adventure, Technology

305 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published October 1, 2002

About the author

Paul Ruditis also writes under the name P.J. Ruditis.

I was born and raised in Philadelphia where I lived a typical childhood with a far more interesting fantasy life. I mean, how many other eight year olds were sticking their Star Wars action figures in Ziploc bags filled with water and putting them in the freezer to recreate the ice planet of Hoth? (Really? That many? Never mind.)

After college, I moved to Los Angeles and was very lucky to get a job as a page at Paramount Pictures only months after I got into town. I worked as a tour guide and usher, and I performed temp office work around the lot.
Eventually, I took a position working in the studio's licensing department where I quickly worked my way up to middle management.

After a while, one of my friends in the publishing industry offered me the opportunity to write a Buffy, The Vampire Slayer short story for a collection she was editing. Well, when I heard how little money I could make as a writer, I immediately quit my job to try it full time. (Stupid, I know, but it kind of worked for me.)

I started out by writing books based on such wonderful TV shows as Star Trek, Roswell, and Sabrina, The Teenage Witch. I have since written over 30 books based some of the best shows on TV, adding The West Wing, Alias, and Prison Break to that ever growing list.

While I continue to work on these media tie-ins, I have also been focused more on my own original fiction, including my teen series DRAMA! and the Simon Pulse Romantic Comedy Love, Hollywood Style.

- Abridged Bio - Official Website.

Reviews

[Chris Townsend · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was okay. I haven't watched the episode in about fifteen years, which is long enough that I didn't really remember what was going to happen, but recent enough that it feels kind of familiar. The story was interesting enough, although the writing could have been better. And by that, I mean the prose. There was far too much expositional summaries. Still, I enjoyed it.

3.4 out of 5.

[Nadienne Williams · Rating 3 out of 5]

There really isn't much to say here. This was a novelization of the Star Trek: Enterprise episode of the same name...and, near as I can tell, a pretty much word-for-word interpretation of such.

There really wasn't too much elaboration on the characters' inner thoughts and feelings as one might expect from a novel. And what did exist was pretty easy to already infer from the episode or read on the characters' faces.

It wasn't bad. It was just as entertaining as the episode (if not a little more so, as I'm a bit of a book snob). But, there really wasn't anything that made it stand out, in my most humble opinion.

[Crystal Bensley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good novelisation!

[Alvaro Zinos-Amaro · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are some very enjoyable elements to this two-part episode, but it works much better on screen, alas, than in novel form, specially with this execution. Ruditis is fairly constrained regarding what additional materials he can work in to the story, and the little details he does add don't amount to much. More importantly, the writing isn't very good--often detached, and relying on summaries of events, when it should be involving and action-driven. Descriptive passages are bland, often generic. I also wasn't a big fan of using extended flashbacks in two chapters (to the episodes "Cold Front" and "Detained") to bulk up the page count. That was a surprising admission, in my opinion, of the thinness of the story as narrated here. For Enterprise fans, Carey's novelization of "Broken Bow" is considerably superior.

[Shadowdenizen]

3.5 stars.

A decent novelization of a pivotal episode. But, by definition, this doesn't bring anything particularly new or memorable to the table.

[Craig · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has never been my favourite episode of Enterprise so I wasn't too won over by the book either. There are just too many plot holes for me to turn off my brain and enjoy it. However, one gripe I had about the episode is that they didn't seem to care too much for the people that died at the start during the show and at least the novelization takes so time to feel sorry for what happened. In the show they only felt bad for having their mission cancelled and had not much thought for the lives lost other than at the start. Here, they took their time. However, speaking of taking their time there was an entire chapter dedicated to the Coles notes of a prior episode which really didn't need the time spent on it so that kind of annoyed me - it just felt like padding the length. Anyway, the book was okay regardless but there have been better episode novelizations done before.

[Nicolas · Rating 3 out of 5]

After an incredibly slow first half, this turned out to be a pretty exciting read.

We talked Trek in this vintage episode of the All the Books Show: https://youtu.be/cCFG4tUj5Yo

[Daniel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Meh

[Heather Domin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I stopped at about the 1/3 mark - it's a bit spoon-feedy, and I couldn't stay focused. I'll come back to it later. (If only there was a "Partially Read" shelf, sigh.)

[Jordan Scrivner · Rating 2 out of 5]

Enterprise: Shockwave

It's common knowledge that Star Trek in general has always suffered from more than Its fair share of studio interference. That was very much true when it came to Enterprise. But one thing I did happen to like about season one of Enterprise was the whole "temporal cold war" that kicked off the events of the show. This idea was "suggested" by the studio, for reasons that don't make a lot of sense and are unimportant for the purposes of this review. Suffice it to say, I'm a sucker for a good causality-based time travel story, which the Temporal Cold War certainly is.

Anyway, the TCW's season-long plot gets resolved, for better or worse, in Shockwave, a novelization of the season one finale / season two premiere. In general, the story works better on the screen than on paper which, to my understanding, is a common problem for novelization. And, out of the eight or nine Trek books I've read so far, this one by far has the most basic grammatical errors. Either they just didn't care that much or they got a bit sloppy at the end. Regardless, If I were still an English teacher, I would have marked this book quite a bit with "old red."

Once again, I would really only recommend this book if you are an obsessive like me and have to get everything that has the words "Star Trek" in the title. One highlight I did get out of it is when Archer is walking around the bombed out future Federation and starts to get mopey and reflective about what-might-have-been. Of course, this is a side of being a Starfleet captain we've seen before (and haven't seen before. I guess it's canon that Archer is the first Stafleet Captain to get mopey about his past.)

Of course, the ending to this story doesn't make a whole lot of sense. But that's par for the course of a good time travel story. But it's fun to see all the crew members come together for the first time… Also I don't really understand what Vulcans have against the very concept of time travel? Maybe that will be addressed in a future story. But probably not!

[Jay · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Enterprise is set to make contact with an alien colony when things go horribly wrong and they apparently cause the death of everyone on the planet! As a result, they get called back to Earth with the mission cancelled. But when they find out the Suliban may have been to blame, Archer and his crew begin a search for answers in earnest!

This is actually a novelization of the television show's first season cliffhanger and it's ultimate resolution at the beginning of season two. So the author is charged with seeing through the plot from the episode and adding a few additional things for flavor and to flesh out things that the episodes only get to gloss over. In that respect it's fairly decent as there are a few nice additions, but overall it's just kind of retread material.

As to the plot itself, I found the first part really interesting and I was anxious to see how the mystery was going to unfold. But the second part wasn't nearly as compelling and it kind of fell flat for me. This unevenness is really to blame on the TV team, but it made the novel a bit tough to finish. There are several logic gaps in the second part in particular that continued to pull me out of the story - I was more concerned with "how" something was happening then just coasting with the story.

Not the greatest novelization I've read, but certainly not the worst.

[Bug · Rating 2 out of 5]

The story wasn’t that bad, but the writing felt very amateur. There were no descriptions, the dialogue was choppy, and it didn’t flow well. It felt more like a Star Trek fan fiction than an actual novel.

[Ilúvatar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This had no right being so damn depressing one time.

I felt the same way after watching the episode. That crushing feeling the moment the shuttlepod dips into the atmosphere and ignites it and murders the colony. It’s so shocking.

[Scott Kenney · Rating 5 out of 5]

Couple minor typos and grammar errors, but it didn't take away from the story. I only watched the first few episodes of Enterprise when it came out in the early 2000's, but 23 years later I'm really enjoying the show.

[Gillian Weisgram · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not a particularly well-written novelization of a not particularly well-thought-out or well-written episode. The Admiral Forrest interludes are okay.

[Rachael · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

[Joe Sullivan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent novelization, but like all Trek books based on episodes/movies, if you've seen it, there's nothing to add by reading it.

[Jane K. Stecker · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Suliban are back

This book repeats the TV episode. Novelization allow extra descriptions and analysis of happenings. The author does a great job and the book is worth reading.

[David King · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Shockwave" is a novelization of two Star Trek episodes; namely the Season 1 Finale and the Season 2 premier. I have to admit that I found Shockwave to be one of the better stories in the initial few seasons of the show so I was looking forward to refreshing my memory with this novel.

The basic premise of the story is that the Enterprise manages to vaporise several thousand people in a major accident whilst visiting a planet. Then, as the Enterprise prepares to be recalled back to Earth, Captain Archer is visited by a time traveller who explains that history had never recorded this incident and it is all part of the temporal cold war that was previously mentioned in the first Enterprise novel; Broken Bow. Thus begins an adventure through time, ranging from several months back to thousands of years in the future as the crew tries to unravel what has occurred and why.

The first thing I have to comment on is that it does stick very closely to the TV show and there isn't really anything new added in terms of the story or characters that you couldn't have gained by watching the show, but to be honest that is not a new issue when it comes to novelizations. I did note that various flashbacks to earlier episodes in season 1 have been added to the story. It is a nice way of ensuring that people who haven't seen the show will still understand aspects of the story. I actually appreciated it myself as it was many years ago that I watched the show and can only vaguely remember some of the episodes.

Paul Ruditis, has written the story well enough with his descriptions really bringing you into the centre of the story and the plot is well paced. Basically, I found the novel to be just as entertaining and interesting as I remembered the episodes were.

In summary, this book is a very faithful adaptation of a very enjoyable double episode. However, in a way this is its flaw as I still believe Star Trek books mainly appeal to those who have watched the TV show. Therefore, most people who pick this up will already know the story and it doesn't really add anything new to the experience. So, if you have already seen the Shockwave episodes, the only real reason to pick this up is to re-immerse yourself in this enjoyable story in another form which is perfectly reasonable. If you haven't seen the TV series then I think you will find this a fun and light Sci-Fi adventure book, although I would advise that you read Broken Arrow first as it does give some background and set-up for the overall plot.

This and other reviews, along with book related discussions can be found on my blog: Books & Things

[Tammy · Rating 2 out of 5]

As a shuttle from the Enterprise lands on a mining colony, the atmosphere ignites killing all the colonists. All signs point to an engineering malfunction or crew error. The Soval, the Vulcan Ambassador, sees this incident as yet another sign that humans are not ready for space, and recommends the Enterprise be grounded.

This book is a novelization of two part episode of the season one finale and the season two premiere. I don't remember watching the episode although the scene where Hoshi gets volunteered to crawl in the ducts seemed familiar because they joke that she's the size of a child. I remember thinking that it didn't make sense to send the claustrophobic linguist when T'Pol was about the same size. (I looked it up; they're both around 5'6'', which really isn't that small. :p ) Then laughing my ass off when someone made a pointed glace at T'Pol's ample boobage. Maybe I misremembered and that part was just my mental improvement or... they reused the bit.

Anyway, the plot is very... convenient, and I didn't like the writing either. There was too much explanation as opposed to demonstration. It felt very simple, like a children's book. It was short and fast, but not very interesting.

Random fun fact. I read started this book almost ten years ago, and got about halfway through. It had a hold receipt dated September, 21, 2002 for the Compilers book stuck in it as a bookmark, which is a little strange because I think I took compilers in Spring 2004... I remembered nothing at all about the plot, so I started over.

[Robert Jenkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good adaptation of the TV episode. I though it was well-written and enjoyable, but somewhat on the short side. The best adaptations are the ones that bring something new to the story they are adapting, and this one didn't really do that. I'd have liked to learn more about Daniels and his organization. Still, that complaint aside, for what it is, it isn't bad.

[Tory Hendershot · Rating 3 out of 5]

I tend to really like the books based on episodes/movies. They get you into the characters' heads and let you know what's going on inside. They also give additional scenes that were cut. This one was good.

[Ky Buck · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book. I gives me an additional perspective to compare to my own. I like the fact that sometimes when I misread a director's intention, a different perspective is a good way to self-correct.

[Lynn Calvin]

ereader ebook

[Shendara · Rating 2 out of 5]

A rather poor novelization for a really good two-partner. The plot is okay, the writing... not so much.

[Joseph Barnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

What if the Enterprise really screwed things up at the beginning....What ifs...I love what ifs...Time travel is great! Good book!

[Jerry Wayne Hart · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't realize until halfway through that this is a novelization of an episode and, therefore, I already "read" it. Man, there are quite a few typos in this book.

[Viktor · Rating 2 out of 5]

Liked it. A nice novelisation of the book with some extra content. Really enjoyed it.