No Time Like the Past Star Trek The Original Series by Greg Cox
Series: Star Trek
Genre: Science Fiction
Pages: 386
Summary: No Time Like the Past is set in the world of Star Trek: The Original Series, but has a crossover with Star Trek: Voyager. Captain Kirk and the Enterprise are on a diplomatic mission to the planet Yusub to help handle the Orion pirate problem. But the diplomatic meeting is ambushed by Orion pirates and Yusub rebels leading to many deaths. As Kirk and Commissioner Santiago run into trouble a woman appears and saves them, shortly before Spock and security personnel from the Enterprise beam down. The woman introduces herself as "Annika Seven" and she is from the future.
In the future, Voyager has come across a Starfleet distress signal broadcasting from a lifeless planet in the Delta Quadrant and a team is going to investigate. The team made up of Captain Janeway, Tuvok, Neelix, and Seven of Nine, discover a rock face carved to look like Captain James T. Kirk's face. As they explore more they accidentally set off a trap that causes a blast that knocks them all out. Seven's Borg tech helps heal her injuries and she awakens quickly to try to summon help. But the trap also has set a force field around the area they are in, so that she can not summon help. As Seven tries to deactivate the force field she comes across a piece of time travel equipment, and is set back in time and across space.
Seven explains her story to Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy, and Commissioner Santiago, but won't go into details, because it might disrupt the timeline. Kirk respects her decision, but Commissioner Santiago doesn't. That discussion is put on hold to cover the bigger problem of finding a way home. Seven has discovered a piece of the time device on Yusub when she arrived. She believes if she finds the other pieces she can use them to get home, but she needs help to do it. With the diplomatic mission on hold, because of the attack the Enterprise is free to take her.
As the story unfolds the reader finds out there is an Orion spy aboard the Enterprise and the Orion pirates are now after the time traveler. The Enterprise must return to three different planets they have visited in the past; where Seven by herself and then with Kirk travel into the planet past to find the pieces of the device that they need. Along the way they battle with the Orions, travel into the Neutral Zone they share with the Klingon, and have crew members held as hostages; but they still make it to the third and last stop on their journey. Where the question becomes will Captain James T. Kirk make it back to his present to have a future, will Seven survive without the technology she requires to regenerate, and what will become of the Voyager team members if Seven doesn't return to the future to get them the required medical attention?
Characteristics of Science Fiction:
Story Line: The story line is speculative fiction that appeals to the reader's intellect (Saricks, 2009). No Time Like the Past is set in the Star Trek universe, which widely popular. It tells a story that was not seen on the TV show. It gives reader more of the story of a world they enjoy.
Frame/Setting: The frame or setting is evocative and visual (Saricks, 2009). No Time Like the Past is set on different worlds with different customs and people.
Characterization: Science fiction focuses on ideas and setting (Saricks, 2009). No Time Like the Past is about time travel and if Seven should change the past. Also it focuses on what happened to the three worlds that the Enterprise visited, and how they became what they are now. The story is about actions having consequences.
Pacing: Action in Science Fiction may be interior or exterior, with more action and adventure elements included (Saricks, 2009). No Time Like the Past has interior and exterior action. The interior action is the conflict inside Seven of wishing she could change the past, but not wanting to do damage to the future. The exterior action is the fight scenes between Starfleet and the Orion pirates.
Read-a-likes from Novelist:
Armada by Ernest Cline
Stargate Atlantis by Jo Graham
Halo by Karen Traviss
The Host by Stephanie Meyer
1636 by Eric Flint
Old Man's War by John Scalzi
Timeline by Michael Crichton
Contact by Carl Sagan
Author Read-a-likes from Novelist:
Peter David
S.D. Perry
Tim Lebbon
Yvonne Navarro
James Luceno
Aaron Allston
Matthew Woodring Stover
Karen Traviss
Troy Denning
Saricks, J. (2009). The Reader's Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction (2nd ed.). Chicago,IL: American Library Association.
Hi Lindsay! Have you read any other Star Trek books? I really love the books Peter David writes using the STNG characters, especially Q and his book about Riker & Troi, Imzadi. David writes with a lot of humor. Did Cox's story have humorous elements, like some sparring between Bones & Spock? Did you think he did a good staying true to the characters? What made you select this book? Yes, I have lots of questions :)
ReplyDeleteHi Katie,
ReplyDeleteI have read a few other Star Trek books, but not as many as I would like. I recently saw one that has Spock and Q in it that I'm going to have get sometime. Cox's story did have the humorous elements of Bones & Spock and Tuvok & Neelix. And I felt he did a good job of staying true to the characters and to the show. When I was reading it I could picture it in my head like one of the episodes. I picked this book because it had characters from The Original Series and from Voyager. Those two and Enterprise with Scott Bakula are my favorite.
Excellent annotation! You have a very detailed and rich summary and your characteristics are spot on. Full points!
ReplyDelete