A Look at Star Trek:No Time Like the Past

Doing something different today folks. Gonna talk about a book I just read, which is truly a first for me. Warning-minor spoilers.

I saw the description of this book and just had to check it out. Why? It was a crossover featuring Kirk and Seven of Nine!! Only in a book could this be possible, and I was intrigued!

No Time Like The Past was written by Greg Cox who has written lots of Star Trek stuff. So what is the plot? A diplomatic mission is interrupted by some Orion pirates, and Kirk stumbles across a youg woman named Anika. This is Seven, who years in the future and many light years away had stumbled onto an odd artifact with the Voyager crew. In a flash Seven of Nine found her self with Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise. How did she get there? How can she get home? And what she should tell them about the future, if anything?

What a great premise! Does it deliver? Yes...and no!

There is a lot of good in this book. The mystery around how Seven got into the past is very well done. It involves Kirk and the crew helping her to find the answers on different planets and put the pieces together. It's a good mystery and the characterizations feel strong. The characters act as they should and having Seven with Kirk and co actually works.  I have read lots of Star Trek books where the characters don't feel like Kirk and co at all and here the feel is right. Of course along the way they debate what Seven should or should not reveal about the future, which is Star Trek at its best. There are also many callbacks to classic episodes which staid true to the original episodes while expanding on them very effectively. For the first 1/3 of the book I was hooked in and enjoying it.

What was so bad then? I don't want to give to much away but some of the scenes run a bit to long. And then the mystery which is really cool gets stopped cold for a very long space battle with the Orions. At this point the crossover kind of fades away and it just becomes a story of Kirk and the Enterprise fighting the space pirates. It is to long, Seven nearly disappears from the story, and quite frankly this has no impact on the main story aside from holding it off for a few chapters. I skimmed most of it and missed NOTHING. There is also a traitor in the story who was bloody OBVIOUS.

A few other gripes. The Voyager crew basically get a glorified cameo and that is a shame. I mean The Enterprise crew are there and all get something to do, why treat the Voyager crew like they were secondary characters? I mean would a chapter or two back with them discussing the situation from their point of view been so bad? Finally, the solution to the mystery was satisfying but the ending itself was kind of...well, let's just say I wasn't thrilled with how it ended. There was a lot of things Cox could have done and instead he took the safest way out.

So should you check it out? If you were a fan of Kirk or Seven of Nine than yes. There are some fantastic scenes between the characters. It's a crossover that makes no sense but the story works by focusing more on the characters then the action. It's also a pretty breezy read even if the book is a bit long. It just came out so feel free to pick it up or download it. These days good Star Trek books are hard to come by.

Let me know if you liked this and maybe I will try it again sometime.