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The resignation of President Zife has created a huge power
vacuum at the top of the Federation. It creates the setting
for a fierce battle between two rival candidates, each with
their own views for the future of the Federation. The future
of the quadrant though also depends on the outcome, will it
be war or will it be peace?...
With the alliance with the Klingon Empire on a precariously
fragile footing events within both Empire and Federation may
yet bring the two to war. The true events and Federation involvement
on Tezwa may come to light and on Qo'noS the attack on the
Federation Embassy leads Ambassador Worf into a shocking discovery
that will force him to evaluate his role.
On
the Enterprise-E Picard and the crew must face one
more challenge. A team of inspectors have been assembled to
deal with the ship. The team, handpicked by the Admiralty,
all have reason to be hostile to the Enterprise's crew.
The disgraced Picard must face up to the harsh evaluation
of all his decisions good and bad, right and wrong, with the
outcome deciding his very future at Starfleet.
Well
this one was different The author has in his hands the ability
to write a well combined dramatic conclusion to a series of
excellent books. The ability to do justice to the great work
done by the other five authors and what's produced? What is
the stunning and dramatic conclusion? An election, nice. Worth
the wait? Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
A
Time for War, A Time for Peace has a promising start.
The attack on the embassy was well conceived. It doesn't,
however, fill its full potential - just like the book. It
was simply, average, boring at times.
All
the elements for a great Next Gen storyline are there.
The Enterprise under inspection, a close fought election,
a siege on Qo'noS. But somehow, Keith R.A. DeCandido systematically
drains every last single piece of emotion, tension and excitement
he can from the storyline. Thus it falls way short of the
book it could and really, really should have been.
The
candidates for the election were interesting, they seemed
complete opposites. One had views that seemed to threaten
war. I doubt the people of the Federation would fail to see
through the thinly disguised threats, especially after the
Dominion War. Even if they did you know the outcome of the
election simply because of the emotional link and amount of
time you spend with one candidate. By knowing the outcome
it ends the tension that could have been created as you worry
over who will win?
The
siege on Qo'noS ends much to soon, and lamely. It begins well
but seems to fizzle out. It does open a doorway into another
storyline that is boring. Sadly, the book fails to live up
to the hype.
Now on to the final thread of the tale - the inspection of
the Enterprise. One of the best features of A
Time to Be Born was the unfair treatment given
to Picard, as a big fan of the great man I felt aggrieved
and the book did a lot to inspire emotion. In A Time for
War, A Time for Peace this is tried but fails. There is
not enough to properly play with the emotions of the reader.
The
book is a huge anticlimax - in fact a series of small anticlimaxes
that combine to both bore and intensely annoy people like
me who expected better. A Time for War feels limited,
its only one book whilst other authors have had two volumes
to express themselves, DeCanidio had the mammoth task of summing
up the events of eight books in one - whilst still adding
something of his own into the mix. And whilst he gamely achieves
the first task he fails at the latter. This is because the
book feels like it is simply summing up event, a lame conclusion
rather than an exciting end. The feeling is compounded by
an overlong epilogue, that deserved to be explored in a second
volume.
Don't buy this book if you really want the series to end on
a high for you, because the previous book A
Time to Heal
by David Mack will do this well enough. Sad to say, but this
is the worse book of the series.
Charlie
Brine
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