REVIEW: Star Trek Into Darkness (spoilers)
Into Darkness SPOILER thread cont'd
Avoid the, "A little honesty, please thread if you DO NOT want SPOILERS.
‘Star Trek Into Darkness’ On Track For $27M Friday, $88M Weekend
A little honesty please! (SPOILERS)
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By BWilliams / 00:28, 8 October 2004 / Reviews - Books
Synopsis: A cataclysmic war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire has been miraculously averted, and a new government is finally in place on the planet Tezwa. But deadly secrets still threaten the fragile peace accord.
Review: In A TIME TO KILL, David Mack showed us a Federation that was not afraid to take action when necessary, even to the point of intervening in off-world military struggles. With A TIME TO HEAL, the eighth book in the nine-book NEXT GENERATION saga leading up to the events of NEMESIS, Mack shakes up the Enterprise crew "" and everyone else, for that matter "" with a hard-hitting and riveting story that doesn't let up.
Once again Mack dips into the pool of modern-day society, revealing to us a Federation that is undergoing massive political changes and shake-ups, daring to cross the line of its sacred Prime Directive and numerous other treaties, and indulging in underhanded cover-ups. The planet Tezwa, having undergone a preemptive military coup from the Federation in removing the vicious dictator Kinchawn from power, is now struggling to become a sovereign world with a democratic government in charge. Tensions between the Federation and the Klingons are at an all-time high as a result of this military action, all prompted because of the underhandedness of a few top-level officials who wanted to keep an eye on the Dominion and the Klingons by planting weapons of mass destruction on a neutral world. Shady deals on the side to keep the Federation on the winning side politically only add to the massive controversy that's brewing as a result of the Tezwan incident.
Like post-war Iraq, Tezwa is strugging with rebuilding its entire infrastructure, with the Federation playing the role of peacekeeper and military protector. But even in this newfound world of peace, elements of terrorism run rampant. Suicide bombers routinely take out innocent Tezwans and Federation personnel, and they don't care who gets hurt in the process. Mack paints Kinchawn and his Tezwan loyalists after Saddam Hussein and the many Muslim terrorist factions who want nothing more than to continue attacking Tezwan innocents for no other reason but to regain control of their dictatorship and terrorist groups, respectively.
Of course, all of this is the perfect mirror for what we are experiencing in our world's society today, and Mack isn't afraid to show the cost of such peacekeeping actions. Everyone on the Enterprise, from Captain Picard all the way down to deputy security chief Jim Peart, feels the tension mounting as a result of the Tezwan mission, viewing this as more of a military failure than a success. Taking Kinchawn out of power was one thing, but bringing him to justice for his crimes against both the Tezwans and the Klingons is another. When Peart loses an entire platoon as a result of a terrorist trap, we feel what Mack brings out: loss, anger, and guilt all mixed together in Peart's anguish. Mack brilliantly captures all of the emotions in each character, no matter if it's the more experienced senior officers, the medical team assigned to civilian aid, or the lowly grunts who put their lives on the line to keep Tezwa free. Mack also conveys, through A TIME TO HEAL, his excellent knowledge of military resources and weaponry, and this novel could have easily come from the pen of Tom Clancy or James Cameron, it's that brilliant.
But all of this is clearly a set-up to something even bigger, one that Mack taps into with his expert knowledge of the American political field, and one that will result in ripple effects in Keith DeCandido's concluding chapter, A TIME FOR WAR, A TIME FOR PEACE. David Mack clearly has his finger on the pulse of STAR TREK as we once knew it and as we know it now, elevating him into the top echelon of expert storytellers in both STAR TREK and in the world of literature itself.
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