A Time to Finally Wrap-Up

The A Time To series reaches its surprisingly low-key climax in A Time for War, A Time for Peace. Most of the story threads from the past eight books come together for a sort of a "day in the life" of different elements of the Federation from its embassy on Qo'noS to a Starfleet vessel inspection to the election of a new Federation president. This makes for one of the more unique books in the series and while not the best (that honor still goes to A Time to Kill), it's still mildly entertaining, infuriating story turns and all...

I had to chuckle reading the backcover plot synopsis and how it describes Commander Riker's plans for a wedding and promotion "soured by a brutal, high-level inspection of the ship from which the crew may not escape unscathed." That was over-stating things just a tad bit as it really ended up being probably the least fleshed out story thread in the book and I never felt as if careers would be ruined over it. At least it was a chance for Scotty to come back onboard. The subplot at the end involving finding Kahless was interesting in reading his point of view, though I got the sense the book wanted to dump the character like the televised series liked to pretend that TNG episode never happened.

In general though, all of the different plots were amicable and enjoyable despite being noticably derivative of other films and shows like Die Hard and The West Wing. The former I didn't mind much, but I honestly have to say that I have never been a fan of Sorkin's show or his style and delivery of dialogue. It's always come across as very stagey and delivered by characters that I have never really found to be convincingly real. Unfortunately, some of that surfaces in the back-and-forth between candidate Nan Bacco and her manager and it can grow tiresome. Maybe it just sticks out more after all the talk of how the political show has influenced this and forthcoming Articles of the Federation. The inner workings of the Federation are briefly hinted at, including the election process. Part of me was saddened by how much of it was just today transplanted to the future and it makes me curious as to how the upcoming book will deal with the day-to-day running of the Federation.

However, the militaristic bent of Bacco's rival Special Emissary Fel Pagro struck me as rather odd in that it would seem to be so popular with the masses before the debates. Especially after even Min Zife on Federation-wide television had said that was not what was needed so long after the war. I have been an advocate of the Federation and Empire coming to terms over the fact that the Empire still conquers worlds and subjegates other species, but I felt that was done a disservice by having it brought up by one of the book's antagonists. Can this conflict of interest ever be tackled without the assumption that war will be the result? I'm not certain.

All of the characterization was pretty strong for everyone involved, although the twisting and contorting to get those characters into place for their appearance at the wedding of Riker and Troi didn't sit well with me. The nature of Wesley's appearance was groan-inducing and just plain bad. This being who can appear as anyone suddenly can't create a suit? I've always been dreading what would happen with Worf at the end of this book as I have never been a big fan of what Nemesis did to him by turning him back into a console jockey. So there ends up being a lot of quick development in the final chapters as Worf goes from ambassador to Lt. Commander to XO of the Titan within the span of about three pages. I have thought that if Worf had to return to Starfleet, him taking the XO position on Riker's ship (given his history with Riker and especially Troi) would be making the best of a bad situation and could make for some great storylines. I was quite frustrated that it's then thrown up in the air as to what will happen at the book's end. I've never been a big fan of Vale, who still registers as not having any real personality to me, so I hope she doesn't end up on the Titan.

In the end, all the threads of A Time for War, A Time for Peace are satisfying enough to make it recommendable. There is more of a sense of closure with this book than with Nemesis (jumping to the end of the movie in the book helps) as I register a bit more sense of loss with Data; namely in how he'll never be XO now and the opportunity wasted it represents.

Setting things up for the movie...

After nine books, it finally comes to an end. Keith DeCandido's A Time for War, A Time for Peace finishes off this long series that leads up to the movie Star Trek: Nemesis. In fact, the book even has an epilogue that takes place after the movie, leading into the new Riker book series, where he's captain of the U.S.S. Titan (as mentioned in the movie). The series has shown the Enterprise going through trials and tribulations that would break a softer crew. Old friends are moving on and nothing will be the same again. Thus, the book has a lot on its plate. It's amazing how little action there is in the book, considering everything that happens. In fact, this cluttered feeling is one of its problems.

This is almost a hodgepodge of a novel, with some politics thrown in, some grudges, backstabbing, hard memories and a little bit of intrigue. The characterizations, as in most DeCandido Trek novels, is flawless. Everybody from Picard to Chancellor Martok to Scotty is perfectly in character and interesting to read about. The plotting is also quite intricate, with multiple storylines coexisting almost flawlessly. DeCandido bounces from one to the other with great skill, bringing them together when the need arises. It was a hard book to put down (in fact, I didn't, really, finishing it in one night). He also resolves all the dangling storylines, such as Picard being in Starfleet's doghouse for the events at the beginning of the series, or Crusher's final decision on whether or not to take the job as head of Starfleet Medical. Riker and Troi are planning their wedding, with much interference from Troi's mother. Worf has to return to the fold somehow, since he's now an ambassador and he clearly wasn't in the movie. He even includes a reason why Wesley Crusher was in a Starfleet uniform at the Riker/Troi wedding reception in the movie. Finally, DeCandido has to ship off a few of the characters who don't show up in Nemesis, such as the wonderful security chief, Christine Vale. Thankfully, it appears that she will be back, either in the Titan series with Riker, or in the continuation of The Next Generation.

That's a lot of balls to juggle, along with the election, Klingon intrigue and the inspection. So it's not surprising that occasionally the balls get dropped. The book was captivating while I read it, but my neck also hurt because of the bouncing of my head from story to story. The book feels very packed and some of the stories feel tacked on. The Kahless story, while influencing the Worf storyline, is brought up and solved in a perfunctory fashion that didn't quite fit in with the rest of the book. The inspectors created a lot of anxiety for the crew, especially given their background and their past dealings with the crew of the Enterprise. However, we don't see a lot of them. There's a classic scene between Crusher and her inspector, who she has harshly criticized for years after what happened in the television episode "Ethics." However, other than that scene, we never see her until the end where we get the results of the inspection. The commander of the inspection, Captain Go, is fleshed out a little more, but not by much. The only inspector we see a lot of is Scotty, but that's for obvious reasons, not to mention because he is a sounding board for Geordi.

Given those weaknesses, though, the book is still a great read. One criticism of DeCandido I've had in the past is the tendency to include a lot of continuity references and then taking paragraphs to explain them. He really lessens that tendency in A Time for War, a Time for Peace. There are plenty of references, but the explanations are fluid and generally don't detract from the story. The epilogue, with Vale and Riker talking about the Titan, was very moving and showcased Vale's character wonderfully. In fact, Vale's part of the book is probably my favourite, from her joining the poker game with "The D Guys," (those crewmembers who served on the Enterprise D before it was destroyed) to her sorrow at what happened to Data in Nemesis, she is perfectly done, and I'm glad we're going to be seeing her again.

A Time for War, a Time for Peace is a fitting conclusion to the whole A Time to... series. It wraps up everything, leaving things perfectly placed for the movie, but it also tells an interesting tale. Even though you may recognize faults in the book, you will probably have a hard time putting it down if you're any sort of Trek fiction fan. It wraps you up in a lot of familiar characters, both from the television show as well as those introduced for the novels, and gives you a warm feeling inside. It also leaves things nicely laced for post-Nemesis books, making the wait very hard for the next book to come out. That's the mark of a standout book.

David Roy

Best Star Trek from Keith DeCandido

Star Trek author Keith DeCandido does an admirable job pulling together virtually all of the plot threads explored in the "A Time for..." series, chronicling events in the year prior to those depicted in "Star Trek: Nemesis". As such it works far better than the final "Star Trek: The Next Generation" film, giving us ample depth to characters as diverse as Picard, Riker, Crusher, Worf, Data and La Forge, to name but a few. DeCandido excels in exploring some of the ongoing intrigue on the Klingon High Council, but am a bit surprised he did not explore further possible ramifications between Federation and Klingon diplomatic relations in light of the Tezwa Incident. I found this book to be the most enjoyable I have read written by Mr. DeCandido and hopes he will retain this high quality in subsequent efforts in "Star Trek" fiction.