Brabbel's babble

Saw it yesterday - and while it was a good movie, it felt a bit like Star Wars with ST-injokes. But I'm glad I managed to avoid practically all spoilers (except for the Sulu-one which is to me a non-issue).

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Overall, Into Darkness had its flaws, definitely. It was a rip-off and Khan was ill-used there (the too many villains problem, I guess). But it carried some emotional punch, nonetheless (Pike!!). Which this movie didn't. Unfortunately. It's still a reasonably good movie, though, but nothing more. 6,5/10

"A Time to Kill" was quite a jump back into almost TV-Trek since it's set before Nemesis and everyone of the main characters of TNG is still on board the Enterprise. Actually, this novel is the 7th in a loosely connected series but apart from rough mentions of previous events you don't really need to have read the others - suffice it to say that Data had to choose between his service in Starfleet and his emotion chip (neatly tying loose ends about him not mentioning the chip in Nemesis) and that Picard fell into disgrace. I admit I read synopses of the mentioned 6 parts, but more to be better acquainted with the character background. The plot itself stands on its own.

So, what do we have here?

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A Time to Kill is just the first part of a duology, so, of course, it ends on a mean cliffhanger. I'm really looking forward to see all the plotthreads resolved - and I really hope Azernal will get what he deserves.

On to "A Time to Heal". 7/10

This was actually my third time reading this book - but the first time I actually felt like writing a review...

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Overall, Harbinger is one hell of a pilot to this new series. It shows a Starfleet that is willing to cross lines in T'Prynn, but also in keeping its operations and findings secret in order to be able to one-up their neighbours, it offers an enemy that's awakened due to the actions of curious scientists, and it shows that actions, however innocently taken, have consequences - on a small scale but also on a broad scale. Quite a colorful and nuanced picture Mack is painting here, perhaps a bit darker than what Star Trek has shown up until now. 9/10

So, this is it. The end of the books-only Trek series Vanguard. Is it a worthy ending to this very ambitious project?

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This has become quite a long review because of the vast amount of plotthreads that come together here - some could have been shortened or even dropped to the benefit of the bigger picture perhaps. And that's perhaps my main point of criticism here and the reason why I'm not 100% thrilled with it. 7/10

Declassified is an anthology of 4 novellas exploring key moments of the Vanguard story.

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The events in this story are again a game changer. Where will the Vanguard-saga go from here? Overall: 8/10

Despite the very prominent depiction of Spock on the cover, there's little of him physically in this novel - so don't be deceived by appearances. Rather, Cast No Shadow is on the one hand a rather fast espionage-thriller, featuring Elias Vaughn on his first... well... assignment as a field operative for Starfleet Intelligence is too strong a word since he shouldered himself more or less into this mission, and on the other hand Valeris' journey to reconciliation with who she is and what she's done. Being that the book deals with events between the TOS-movies and TNG, I'd rather have seen it labelled under the "Lost Era"-subtitle.

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Cast No Shadow, in any case, had an exceptional premise with its first very exciting 100 or so pages, then it tapered off a bit. I was sad to see Miller go but it was necessary to throw Vaughn into the deep end - being a mentor certainly doesn't bode well for a character... And, of course, the IMO overemotionalization of Valeris' motivations did not quite meet my expectations. In the end, what remains is a fun ride, sprinkled with Klingon politics, conspiracies and a bit of a glimpse behind the facade. Entertaining - but not outstanding. 7/10

Okay, it appears as though I'm back to reading Star Trek. What's strange is that I read the first part of this book-only series, Harbinger, years ago... and didn't really like it. Then I reread it... I guess, 2 years? ago and was reasonably entertained. I picked up part 2, Summon the Thunder, which again was rather underwhelming. But then, something happened. The first contributing factor is that I can't stand not completing a series. So on with part 3, Reap the Whirlwind, which really picked up the pace and rectified some of the more questionable events that happened in the first parts. So I was hooked and started to read Open Secrets which finally offered a bit of a breathing room and a glimpse into the aftermath of events. This is my review.

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8.5/10

What follows is my German review of the latest TNG-novel by Jeffrey Lang.

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Well, it had to come down to this. Star Trek has been such a huge part of my life that a list dedicated to its best episodes (at least IMO) had to follow here. *g*

( Favourite ST-episodes and honorable mentions, of course )

After quite some time I finished another ST-novel...

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Next, I'm going to immerse myself in the continuing duology Plagues of Night/Raise the Dawn - perhaps some of my questions will be answered there. 6/10