jdornoff's Full Review: David Mack - A Time to Kill
Background:
“A Time to kill” is the 7th of a 9 part series of books dealing with the events for the crew of the Enterprise leading up to the movie Star Trek: Nemesis. This is the first book in a two part subseries.
Plot:
Commander Will Riker has been offered his own command, the starship Titan, but he has not given his answer yet. This will probably be his last offer from Starfleet for a ship of his own but he also doesn’t want to look like he is abandoning Captain Picard when the chips are down.
Meanwhile the prime minister on the planet Tezwa has made threats against the Klingon Empire which of course does not sit well with the Klingons. In addition they have amassed a fleet of 24 ships and intend to attack a nearby Klingon colony and take control of it.
The Federation decides to send the Enterprise in to attempt a diplomatic solution, not wanting the Klingon Empire to find out that the Federation had armed the planet during the time when a changeling was impersonating General Martok and there was a threat of war.
The Enterprise will be accompanied by a fleet of Klingon ships as a way to appease the Klingon Empire. After the ships arrive at Tezwa Picard beams down from the Enterprise along with an officer from the lead Klingon ship. Upon arrival in the government chambers the Prime Minister orders them taken prisoner, and after a scuffle the Klingon officer is killed and the Enterprise crewmembers barely escape.
The Klingons respond by firing on the planet surface but then are blown to bits by weapons on the Tezwa surface. The Enterprise barely survives the onslaught but is able to get out of range of the weapons.
Now the Klingons are sending a much larger fleet to attack the planet while the Tezwa government plans to launch its attack on the Klingons. Meanwhile the crew of the Enterprise decides to launch small teams in attempt to disarm the mysterious weapons on the planet surface. Also Picard must ask Worf to betray Martok and get him the key to stop the Klingon fleet before it reaches Tezwa.
My Impressions:
This book is 338 pages which makes it one of the longest books in the series. It is written by David Mack, a very experienced Star Trek writer.
The book is much faster paced than any previous books in the “A Time to” series. There seems to be action from beginning to end. However, that doesn’t stop the author from building characters and once again the focus seems to be on some of the lesser known people on the ship.
David Mack does a good job of weaving events that occurred in our time and making them fit a situation in the future. How many times have we helped one country only to have it bite us in the butt?
Another nice thing about this book is that you do not need to read the rest of the books in the series to keep track what is happening. While there is mention of the Federation President and his assistant in the previous book, it is nothing that will hold you back from enjoying this book.
The only downside of the book is when the Enterprise sends teams to the planet surface. The author jumps around between the teams after a few pages and it does get a little confusing with trying to keep track of so much going on.
Final Thoughts:
This is the best book of the series so far. It is fast paced but with character development and plenty of action. It is part 1 of a 2 part subseries so it does end in a cliff hanger, but that is about its only downfall.
Casual or non-Star Trek fans may have a hard time figuring out some of the relations, especially if they did not follow Deep Space Nine, but that should not hold you back from reading this excellent book.
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