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Mackenzie Calhoun, U.S.S. Excalibur MISSING IN ACTION in Latest NEW FRONTIER Adventure

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By BWilliams / 12:45, 23 March 2006 / Reviews - Books

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Star Trek: New Frontier - Missing in Action
Contributor(s): Peter David

Pocket Books MMPB
341 pages

Price: $25.00
Pub Date: February 2003

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5 stars


Synopsis: Lost in an unknown universe, the crew of the starship Excalibur must find a way home... but is home what they remember?

Review: Peter David certainly knows how to excite and stun his readers. At times humorous, at other times deadly serious, yet at all times he's in full command of both characters and plot that keeps the reader's attention focused on the action at hand. So it should be no surprise that MISSING IN ACTION, the latest installment in the NEW FRONTIER novels, solidly delivers all the action we've come to expect in spades, and then some.Shortly after the events of STAR TREK: NEMESIS, and immediately following the events of AFTER THE FALL, MISSING IN ACTION finds Captain Mackenzie Calhoun and the crew of the U.S.S. Excalibur, well, missing in action and lost in space (insert requisite groans here!). Catapulted into another universe, far from the New Thallonian Protectorate and Sector 221-G, the Excalibur finds itself in the middle of an ancient war between two powerful alien races, the Teuthis and the Bolgar. But Calhoun has no intention of staying put and must decide where his true loyalty lies, either to save an oppressed race from certain destruction, or ally himself with violent alien warriors if he ever wants to get the Excalibur home again. The only problem is, which race is the oppressed, and which is the oppressor?Meanwhile, Starfleet has declared Sector 221-G off limits, leaving Admiral Elizabeth Shelby and Captain Kat Mueller of the U.S.S. Trident to take matters into their own hands, ignoring orders by finding some way of getting to the Excalibur. But they never count on the most unexpected ally, an old friend whose shifting loyalties are put to the ultimate test even as a growing cataclysm looms.And that's just for starters. Si Cwan, the prime minister of the New Thallonian Protectorate, has got enough on his hands. Tiraud, the son of his long-time political rival Fhermus, is dead at the hands of Kalinda, Si Cwan's sister and Tiraud's bride-to-be. Out of this, civil war breaks out among the neighboring cities and continents of New Thallon, all at the hands of Fhermus. David brilliantly paints a modern-day allegory to the long-troubled crises in Iraq by giving us a world seesawing between peace and total war, a political madman in Fhermus who is unafraid to kill for the thrill of it, varying political factions trumping for power, and, somewhere behind the scenes, someone pushing everyone's buttons. Of course, sooner or later, someone's going to pay for it. David's highly aware of the current political and military crises, and like David Mack's hard-hitting Tezwa crisis in A TIME TO KILL and A TIME TO HEAL, he's not afraid of pulling his punches.MISSING IN ACTION is more than just politics and all-out fighting. It's about fighting for survival and making things right once again. The decisions Shelby, Mueller, and Robin Lefler make together is classic old-school TREK, and David serves up great fun by putting them in a quite funny drinking scene together. And Calhoun? He's still Calhoun, kicking ass before taking names, and we wouldn't have him any other way. When Calhoun is put into the middle of the Teuthis-Bolgar conflict, leave it to David to give Calhoun the way out of the long-standing whining and griping between the races who, like the Hatfields and the McCoys before them, have forgotten why they're fighting to begin with.Of course, all this comes at a price. By the novel's end, David has once again shaken up the NEW FRONTIER saga, leaving it changed forever as he did at the start of AFTER THE FALL.But don't take my word for it. You simply must read MISSING IN ACTION. Peter David shows us once again why he's one of the best STAR TREK writers around, and this new installment is no exception. It's fast-paced action, crackling with energy and character byplay at every turn. Too bad we have to wait awhile for the next chapter to arrive. I'm sure by then there will be even more changes in store to surprise and entertain us.

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By: GustavoLeao (Odo's file, contact, web site) @ 06:09:19 on Mar 24, 2006

Thanks for the review, Bill. I just got my copy of MISSING IN ACTION and I am loving every page of it (thanks, Amazon !). Peter David is one of the best Trek authors and I cant wait for his TNG novel featuring the Borg next year.

Gustavo


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RE: Review by Sam Cogley @ 09:45:27 on Mar 24
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