Chapters three and four
We're back on Sauria for chapter three, with the plague spreading to multiple countries, and we have another Enterprise tradition brought into play - letter exchange between Doctors Lucas and Phlox (nice to see Lucas is still around). I'm enjoying the Sauria subplot - it's good to see a brewing crisis thread itself through several books instead of blossoming out of nowhere in whatever book brings this to its climax.
A small continuity point; we have a final smoothing out of the Kaferia issue, which explains where the Kaferians were in the Romulan War books.
Another point of familiarity: the Thamnos family! Long time no see (more than a decade, as a matter of fact). They're the same treacherous, merciless types they'll be two hundred years from now, completely unsympathetic and playing around with Rigelian Fever in ways they really shouldn't. I found the First Families fun to visualise - the wigs, etc. The slight comedy of the inbred buffoon detracts a little from the threat they pose, but Thamnos reminds us how dangerous these people are (particularly if we remember her distant descendants). Garos is also quite interesting. I'm actually wondering what happens with any Malurian remnant left alive after their civilization's annihilation. This series has offered a justification for their extinction-by-Nomad despite fielding large warp-capable ships a century earlier - their females rarely if ever leave home. It makes me wonder what sort of trouble bands of grieving, orphaned male Malurians caused in the mid-23rd Century, knowing they were the last generation of their race. As the Andorians have so memorably shown us, that sort of despair can be dangerous.
(Earth, you've got to stop sending things out into space that merge with aliens and then destroy planets. Borg, Nomad, V'Ger. We'll let you off with Friendship One, that was the Uxalis' own fault. But really. You're a menace).
In the next chapter, we see signs of the competition and mistrust that exists between the Three Sisters, as well as more insight into the tragedy of their existence - all they have is their biological "gift" and the power it brings them, underlings they can be cruel to or use, etc. They can't trust anyone they don't control, and while they act as a unit they're in natural competition with one another. It's a lonely life, and like Garos they're more complex and sympathetic than they first appear (in apparent contrast to the First Families, who thus far just seem so casually "inzamian" - if you'll pardon the expression - that they're really quite distasteful. How many centuries of thoughtless decadence lead to that sort of person?)
We get some in-depth exploration of Rigel next:
"This is where Rigel began; with an ill-considered reference to a real star that actually couldn't support life, let alone on multiple planets. Looking through their telescopes, later writers saw many, many worlds and species, some of which might have been the same as previously observed ones, others which didn't quite fit at all. It was all a bit of a mess. What was known is that here was intelligent life - lots of it. As they refined their scopes over the years, a sort-of-consistent Rigel took shape, though it migrated to a new star that was only pretending to be Rigel, and was far closer to home. The various worlds and species came together into a loose but workable union that joined the Novel 'Verse community while retaining its links to the TV setting of tradition. Finally, this book we're reading now decided to clarify all the information we'd gotten and flesh out Rigel once and for all".
"That's a fascinating history. Can I access your secret records now?"
"Yes. We're as anxious to get to the bottom of this whole Kalar/Kaylar Rigel VII thing as you are, to be honest. It's been confusing for far too long - we weren't even sure if we brought them with us or left them back at the real Rigel".
I really liked this book.I can't wait to see what will happen with the ongoing story in books3&4.I wonder what's going to happen with Trip being unhappy with Section 31 and the action he'll be forced to take he dislikes Harris as Much as Malcolm Reed did in demons& terra Prime.
. Some thoughts:
). With no Shran in this one (also 