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Much
to the amazement of Starfleet Command, and especially Admiral
Kathryn Janeway, the Borg were not destroyed when the USS
Voyager demolished
their transwarp conduits. Now, what is left of the Borg reveal
a power that no one suspected. The dark places that even the
drones never realised existed are turned outward against the
enemy they have never been able to defeat - yet. Seven of
Nine knows that she doesn’t have much time to stop this
new threat, and she’s going to need some help. Meanwhile,
Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise,
who barely managed to thwart the Borg during their last altercation,
turn to Ambassador Spock for assistance...
When
I review works of fiction, I usually try and stick close to
the blurb as it appears on the back of the book or disc in
question, rather than follow the press release or the blurb
on online stores, which aren’t always accurate. On this
occasion, however, I have made an exception, having cobbled
together the above synopsis from the press release, Amazon.co.uk
and just a dash of the back-cover blurb. This is because the
text on the back of the book doesn’t sell the story all
that well.
The
first three-and-a-bit paragraphs merely waffle on about the
Borg’s past history in Star Trek:
An
enemy so intractable that it cannot be reasoned with. The
entire race thinks with one mind and strives toward one purpose:
to add our biological distinctiveness to their own
and wipe out individuality, to make every living thing Borg.
In
over two centuries, the Federation has never encountered a
greater threat. Twice Starfleet assembled and threw countless
starships to stand against them. The Borg were stopped, the
price paid in blood. Humanity breathed a sigh of relief, assuming
it was safe. And with the destruction of the transwarp conduits,
the Federation believed that the killing blow had finally
been struck against the Borg.
Driven
to the point of extinction, the Borg continue to fight for
their very existence, for their culture. They will
not be denied. They must not be stopped. The old rules and
assumptions regarding how the Collective should act have been
dismissed. Now the Borg kill first, assimilate later.
When
the Enterprise manages to thwart them once again, the
Borg turn inward.
The
closing sentence is neither particularly exciting nor grammatically
pleasing: What
is revealed is the thing that
no one believed the Borg could do. Yuk!
All
this tells us is that the Borg will appear (which admittedly
is exciting enough for me). The Enterprise is mentioned,
so one can assume that Picard and company will also be in
the book (after all, it is being sold under the Next
Generation banner - more on that subject in
a moment). The front cover illustration leads one to conclude
that Seven of Nine will also play a major part. But why doesn’t
the blurb advertise other guest characters, such as Ambassador
Spock, Admiral Janeway (who undergoes a very surprising development,
which may upset some fans), the female Q, Sarek’s widow
Perrin, and a character or two from author Peter David’s
New Frontier series?
In
fact, such is the crossover appeal of this book that I wonder
why it has been pigeonholed into the Next Gen series
title. With the heavy involvement of Seven, Janeway and the
so-called Lady Q, this is as much a Voyager novel as
it is a Next Gen one.
The
author also refers back to his previous TNG Borg novel
Vendetta, which also included a planet killer from
the Original Series episode The
Doomsday Machine. In addition, he follows up
on events in the Next Gen episode I, Borg (which
Vendetta actually managed to pre-empt with its own
disconnected Borg drone character, Reannon), explaining why
the Endgame computer virus developed in that episode has never
been unleashed. He also suggests why only Picard, not Seven,
sensed the Borg in J. M. Dillard’s novel Resistance,
to which this book is the follow-up. Here it is Seven alone
who detects the Borg threat. Along the way, David also pooh-poohs
Dillard’s notion that all drones are androgynous.
It’s
refreshing to see some newer members of the Enterprise
crew standing up to Picard’s continual defiance of Starfleet
orders. However, I was a little disappointed that there is
no development of the potential T’Lana/Worf relationship
hinted at in Resistance.
The
book’s 400 pages contain some padding, but on the whole
this is a very exciting read - far more exciting than the
back-cover blurb would have us believe.
Richard
McGinlay
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