Faces of Fire

I picked this book up randomly at a book sale, and I was very surprised to discover that I actually could relate to some of the plot. I've read very few Star Trek novels that aren't directly related to a TV episode, however this one is practically a prequel to one of the movies. This is well written Star Trek fiction, which means that it is very limited. While they have warp drives and phasers, they don't have cell phones or GPS! Surprisingly, while the crew has communicators, ordinary citizens don't. I enjoyed this quite a bit, it was well done, but I have to admit I find the inconsistent technology to be amusing.

(To be fair, they actually have 'reverse GPS' - the ship can always find them, it just can't ever tell them where they are....)

This made me want to rewatch the TOS movies, because I can't remember how Kirk reacts to David Marcus. Does he actually say that he didn't know Marcus was his son before? Anyhow, the children in this were only marginally annoying, but the Klingons really seemed old-fashioned given what point in the history of Trek this was written, long after Worf was established. I guess the Klingons don't really get humanized till DS9; how quickly I forget...

Kirk must try to rescue his former lover, Carol Marcus, and their son David at a terraforming colony attacked by Klingons. Interesting primarily for the relationships delved into anew, especially knowing about David's future fate at the hands of Klingons.

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