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octavia_cade's review
3.0
A mostly enjoyable end to this particular sub-series; together with volume #5 it's the best of the bunch. Although the Enterprise crew isn't the real focus here, the characterisation, when they do show up, is excellent. Scotty shepherding a new commander through a disaster, Uhura completely outwitting a charismatic criminal, and Spock falling into difficulties without the presence of Dr. McCoy to balance out his tendency to excess. The characterisation in the main story is also good. Frustrating, but I think it's meant to be frustrating - up to a point at least. First officer Keller, of a new ship assigned to Belle Terre, has an insane captain, and he needs to get over his loyalty to the man long enough to mutiny.
Reader, I want to smack him. Captain Lake is clearly off his rocker, and the entire crew knows it. It's not Lake's fault - he's was exposed to a chemical that affected his neurology. But the why doesn't matter, as he's putting his crew in constant danger through a series of dreadful decisions, and more than one of the officers essentially beg Keller to take over. But for ages, for far more time than is credible, he minces and whines and angsts, and the upshot of his whole stupid prevarication is that the crew is pretty much slaughtered and the ship destroyed. And you know, for a very short while there I forgave the angst. Primarily because although Keller fucked up majorly, he knows it, and for a few pages the text knows it too... then he picks himself up and dusts himself off for the hero finish, at which point he's rewarded with a field promotion and command and all I can think is What the fucking fuck? How about promoting one of those officers who did realise trouble and was ready to act at the time, instead of the man whose inaction, both at the time Lake was contaminated and at the time he was insane, condemned an entire ship to horrible death. I think I'm supposed to be glad that the lesson paid by others was finally pounded into Keller's thick bloody head, but I'm pretty unconvinced by this apparent lightning redemption. Why does everyone keep trusting this moron? He failed pitifully as first officer, and suddenly he's failing up. He doesn't need a promotion, he needs a court martial for sheer incompetence. For someone who keeps dropping twentieth century references, "just following orders" is the one reference he absolutely fails to acknowledge.
I wonder, though, if my reaction is due in part to the pacing. It's off in more than this storyline - too much time on Keller's refusal to act, too little on earning trust back. The most egregious example is the ending of the book proper, which is almost entirely deus ex machina, after a powerful alien race comes along to set things almost instantly to rights. That's not a trope that delights many, and I'm one of the many. Still, for all my paragraphs of rant here, this was still a likeable enough read and, as I said, one of the two best books of the New Earth series.
Reader, I want to smack him. Captain Lake is clearly off his rocker, and the entire crew knows it. It's not Lake's fault - he's was exposed to a chemical that affected his neurology. But the why doesn't matter, as he's putting his crew in constant danger through a series of dreadful decisions, and more than one of the officers essentially beg Keller to take over. But for ages, for far more time than is credible, he minces and whines and angsts, and the upshot of his whole stupid prevarication is that the crew is pretty much slaughtered and the ship destroyed. And you know, for a very short while there I forgave the angst. Primarily because although Keller fucked up majorly, he knows it, and for a few pages the text knows it too... then he picks himself up and dusts himself off for the hero finish, at which point he's rewarded with a field promotion and command and all I can think is What the fucking fuck? How about promoting one of those officers who did realise trouble and was ready to act at the time, instead of the man whose inaction, both at the time Lake was contaminated and at the time he was insane, condemned an entire ship to horrible death. I think I'm supposed to be glad that the lesson paid by others was finally pounded into Keller's thick bloody head, but I'm pretty unconvinced by this apparent lightning redemption. Why does everyone keep trusting this moron? He failed pitifully as first officer, and suddenly he's failing up. He doesn't need a promotion, he needs a court martial for sheer incompetence. For someone who keeps dropping twentieth century references, "just following orders" is the one reference he absolutely fails to acknowledge.
I wonder, though, if my reaction is due in part to the pacing. It's off in more than this storyline - too much time on Keller's refusal to act, too little on earning trust back. The most egregious example is the ending of the book proper, which is almost entirely deus ex machina, after a powerful alien race comes along to set things almost instantly to rights. That's not a trope that delights many, and I'm one of the many. Still, for all my paragraphs of rant here, this was still a likeable enough read and, as I said, one of the two best books of the New Earth series.
bdplume's review
4.0
Having read the Gateways book first, I expected Challenger to be there from the start of the New Earth series. I'm kind of glad for the long wait, though, because it made me really appreciate this book.
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