Spoilers Articles of the Federation by Keith R.A. DeCandido Review Thread

Articles of the Federation
Keith R.A. DeCandido
June 2005




Blurb
Following the surprise resignation of Federation President Min Zife after the disastrous Tezwa affair, Nan Bacco of Cestus III has won a hotly contested election to become the new chief executive of over one hundred fifty planetary civilizations and their colonies. But no sooner does she take office than the Romulan Star Empire falls into chaos. With tensions already high, a Reman refugee ship is sighted approaching a Federation outpost, its intentions unknown.

As the first year of the Bacco Administration unfolds, the Federation Council is slow to work with its new president, and not always supportive of her policies or her appointments to key council positions; a successful first contact suddenly becomes a diplomatic disaster; and the sins of President Zife prove difficult to lay to rest...as one celebrated Starfleet officer's career reaches a turning point.

 

Fantastic. One of my favorite novels. Though it felt weird at first, the chapers with random Federation citizens makes this novel stand out.

 

I love this book, and I love that at least some of the people introduced in it or the latter Time to... books got to show up in later works.

 

Nan Bacco was such a huge surprise for me. I had no idea she would end up to be such a great character. I've heard that some people felt she was 'too much' or 'too cynical' but I felt like she was a great contrast to most of the stuffy Starfleet higher-ups and politicians that dominate Star Trek's upper echelon heroes. And, despite being crass and sarcastic, she still held strong to the Federation's more idealized vision of morality and humanity. I would have LOVED another book with her and her administration.

 

One of my favorites. It was nice to get to see a part of the Federation outside of the usual starship crews.
Nan Bacco was one of the best Trek Lit characters created during the post-Nemesis era.

 

I too thought it was great and added a real bold change in style to the normal Trek books, it's a shame it's never had a true sequel and that @KRAD seems to be persona non grata when it comes to writing any Trek novels now.

 

Why is that? Just out of curiosity. I'm not too in-the-know about the real-world politics of treklit.

 

I don't think such information has been revealed, just speculated on.

 

That's entirely too bad. I've enjoyed his other books that I've read.

 

Different editors sometimes like to work with different authors. It usually has less to do with personal animosity and more to do with simply preferring to hire writers that they've previously worked with. In KRAD's case, editors John Ordover and Marco Palmieri liked to work with him. When both of them left (Marco due to layoffs caused by the Great Recession, not sure why Ordover left) the new editors stopped hiring him in favor of writers that they already had working relationships with.

It probably didn't help matters that, while KRAD's I.K.S. Gorkon novels, the follow-up Klingon Empire: A Burning House, his Klingon focused Lost Era novel The Art of the Impossible and Articles of the Federation are all beloved, they unfortunately didn't sell that well. It's a shame. People seem to really love his Trek stuff that went off the beaten path.

 

This is THE TrekLit I still need. It was released in a period where TrekLit wasn't my thing anymore. When I came back into it, I was able to trackdown a lot of the novels I wanted to read, either new or second hand. This one however, not. I really hope to find it someday, since Bacco is one of my alltime favorite characters in TrekLit.

 

I always hoped that the Romulan Admiral Mendak plot line would be expanded on in another book.Mendak was a great character,perhaps the most oily Romulan since Tomalek,it seems a pity that his story was resolved offscreen...or was it?

 

A pity that doesn't exist a sequel. Are there other similar novels?

 

Not really. Perhaps obviously, the best way to find books dealing with Federation politics on such a level is to look up Bacco's entry on Memory Beta and pursue the books in which she appears.

 

Guess the closest that comes to mind is Singular Destiny, also by KRAD.

I think this is the one of the only Trek novels that I double dipped on. I didn't get it when it first came out and ended up getting it from a US seller as it was rather difficult to get hold of. A bit later, it was re-released in the UK on e-book so I grabbed it then too. For me, I'd rate it as a superb

 

I was lucky enough to buy a used copy of this book a years ago at my local used book store before they went out of business. This novel was a great read I like Nan Bacco as President and this book was really intriguing. when came it to how the President dealt with Alien cultures and Starfleet too.

 

The e-book is available for US$8.99 from all three of the major e-book retailers, Google Play, Amazon/Kindle, and Barnes and Noble/Nook, and there's quite a few copies available on the Amazon Market place, with a copy in "good" condition as low as $0.50.

 

^ Mage is from the Netherlands, so US Marketplace is of little use.

 

Like Defcon said, I'm from the Netherlands. So finding a used hardcopy is pretty difficult here. Sure, I could look international, but with shipping and everything....
As for e-book.... Not a fan. I need my book to be a book, not a pixel. Call me oldfashioned. Perhaps one day my 35 year old ass will get with the program and join you youngsters in the 21st century.