Spoilers TLE: Serpents Among the Ruins By David R. George III Review Thread

[CT_Phipps]

Blurb
Discover the astonishing story of an infamous and deadly confrontation with this thrilling original Star Trek novel.

The year is 2311, a year of infamy for the United Federation of Planets. It is the year of the Tomed Incident, and its tale can at last be told. In the midst of escalating political tensions among the Klingons, the Romulans, and the Federation, Starfleet goes forward with the inaugural flight of the Starship Universe, a prototype that promises to revolutionize space exploration. But the Universe experiment results in disaster, ravaging a region of space dangerously close to the Romulan Star Empire, apparently confirming suspicions that the Federation has begun testing a weapon of mass destruction.

As the military buildup accelerates on both sides of the Neutral Zone, Captain John Harriman of the Federation flagship Enterprise NCC-1701-B is fated for a final confrontation with his oldest enemy at a flashpoint in history—with the Beta Quadrant one wrong move from the outbreak of total war.

About the Author

David R. George III

David R. George III has written more than a dozen Star Trek novels, including Ascendance, The Lost Era: One Constant Star, The Fall: Revelation and Dust, Allegiance in Exile, the Typhon Pact novels Raise the Dawn, Plagues of Night, and Rough Beasts of Empire, as well as the New York Times bestseller The Lost Era: Serpents Among the Ruins. He also cowrote the television story for the first-season Star Trek: Voyager episode “Prime Factors.” Additionally, David has written nearly twenty articles for Star Trek magazine. His work has appeared on both the New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller lists, and his television episode was nominated for a Sci-Fi Universe magazine award. You can chat with David about his writing at Facebook.com/DRGIII.

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Simon and Schuster link

 

[tomswift2002]

I remember reading this back in the 2004-2005 timeframe. It was also the origin story for Elias Vaughn from the DS9 relaunch, or at least a story set extremely early in his career.

 

[CT_Phipps]

I remember that I picked this book up when I was in college and I never got to read the paperback because my apartment flooded and it was destroyed. Later, about a couple of years ago, I found a copy in a second hand book store and that inspired me to finally give it a read. I am doing the official review thread for this because, well, there's a lot of threads discussing this in the Wayback Machine of the forum but no official one. Also, it was on my mind when I was thinking of Vulcan's Heart because that book referenced this as well as the "Tomed" incident.

Generally, this book is up there in my brain with Star Trek: Vanguard despite David R. George III not being among that series authors. Instead, what I mean by that is that it is as close to "gritty" and "cynical" as Star Trek can be while being still both uplifting in other places. It's a style that DS9 touched on and is why it's my favorite of the series but it's a very careful balance that I think (without getting into the hatedom or ridiculous complaining of many) that modern Trek sometimes trips over.

In simple terms, "This is a book where Starfleet does terrible things. I understand why they did them. They don't need to foster them on Section 31. I may even agree that they got the results they wanted and the universe is a better place because of it. It was still disgraceful that they were done." Which is a far more interesting way of discussing this story and its themes than "they did a dirty thing and it got great results" or "it was an evil thing they did and we should all wag our finger from our paradise positions."

Spoiler

Which is specifically that Starfleet does a False Flag operation that frames Admiral Tomed for a mass terrorist attack on the Federation, kidnaps the guy, and possibly brainwashes/lobotomizes his crew in the process. It's a thing that would absolutely fall apart if not for the fact this plot remembers that in the TOS era--even the far end of it--that space is huge and the Romulans as well as Federation as a whole are never going to be able to verify these details in person. Sort of like how no one is able to check up on Khan's world for decades.

It's an interesting use of Harriman because Bueller's best friend is not the kind of guy who any Star Trek fan was rushing to read a book about. Especially as he undoubtedly went down in-universe as, "the guy who got Captain Kirk killed." Making him the guy willing to do an atrocity of Vanguardian proportions to neutralize the Romulans for decades is the kind of thing that certianly makes his character INTERESTING in a way that, say, separates him from other captains. It also fits much better than whatever they were doing with Rachel Garrett in S31.

We also have the slow dissolution of all of Gorkon's progress in a realistic way that the Klingons eventually get sick of taking the Federation's charity (and are strong enough to not really need it anymore). I didn't think we really needed the, "Women aren't allowed on the High Council" line from Gowron fixed in this dramatic way and it's tragic but the entirety of the book is about Star Trek idealism failing in the face of politics. Things have to get worse after The Undiscovered Country enough that Rachel's sacrifice will be necessary to get them good-ish again (but never quite "good" as we see 1000 years later).

 

[The Gatekeeper]

I did a re-read of this a couple of years ago, so it's still relatively fresh in my mind. This along with other novels from The Lost Era series such as The Art of the Impossible and Well of Souls show best the period of experimentation Trek novels were in back in the early 2000s, particularly with the desire to expand the novels well beyond the TV shows. Indeed, this novel stands out as having no character who was main cast in any of the TV shows, as well, IIRC, Harriman and Demora Sulu are the only ones in the novel who were featured onscreen in at all, and even then, only about twenty minutes or so. It's unique in that there's something there to draw the die hard Trek fans, but it could also work somewhat for someone who had no knowledge of Trek at all. Though there are of course the kind of connections to the Trek lore novels are known to make, one prominent example, Harriman is good friends with Tom Paris's grandfather.

A mostly solid novel, though the ending doesn't really work, with the revelation the Tomed Incident is really just using a Romulan ship to destroy empty outposts and using the names of Starfleet officers who had died on black ops missions over the years as the list of victims killed in it. Really, I can't see that sort of thing standing up to scrutiny, least of which it implies Starfleet had thousands of personnel who had been dead for close to a decade in some cases with families still believing they were alive. That really shouldn't be possible to pull off without some rather disturbing implications about the nature of life in Starfleet and the Federation.

 

[CT_Phipps]

I did a re-read of this a couple of years ago, so it's still relatively fresh in my mind. This along with other novels from The Lost Era series such as The Art of the Impossible and Well of Souls show best the period of experimentation Trek novels were in back in the early 2000s, particularly with the desire to expand the novels well beyond the TV shows. Indeed, this novel stands out as having no character who was main cast in any of the TV shows, as well, IIRC, Harriman and Demora Sulu are the only ones in the novel who were featured onscreen in at all, and even then, only about twenty minutes or so. It's unique in that there's something there to draw the die hard Trek fans, but it could also work somewhat for someone who had no knowledge of Trek at all. Though there are of course the kind of connections to the Trek lore novels are known to make, one prominent example, Harriman is good friends with Tom Paris's grandfather.''

The Art of the Impossible and Well of Souls have been on my TBR list for awhile so I'm going to finally get around to reading them, which is a shame that it's taken so long as I love everything @KRAD has written so I have no real excuse.

A mostly solid novel, though the ending doesn't really work, with the revelation the Tomed Incident is really just using a Romulan ship to destroy empty outposts and using the names of Starfleet officers who had died on black ops missions over the years as the list of victims killed in it. Really, I can't see that sort of thing standing up to scrutiny, least of which it implies Starfleet had thousands of personnel who had been dead for close to a decade in some cases with families still believing they were alive. That really shouldn't be possible to pull off without some rather disturbing implications about the nature of life in Starfleet and the Federation.

This has been brought up before on these forums: https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/problem-with-serpents-among-the-ruins.298309/

But I actually disagree with the fact that it wouldn't work.

Spoiler: My theory on the Tomed Incident

Basically, I think that this attack doesn't actually have to pass that much scrutiny because the only people who would really know this amount of stuff would be Starfleet themselves. Which does fall apart as anyone looking up the names might spot someone they know but being CLASSIFIED, they wouldn't. Again, going with the sheer mind boggling size of space that was the TOS and movies era, there's not going to be much collaboration and the only people they actually have to fool aren't the families and friends of the people involved but the Romulans.

It does say something dark about Starfleet that they have the number of deaths and lost colonies that they can throw this kind of number but if we're assuming that things are as bad as in the TOS era then they probably do have the kind of deaths to say so many people died at the hands of Romulans instead of, say, Space Amoeba or Doomsday Machines. It's insanely risky but not so much as the fact they kidnapped Tomed's people in the first place.

Even so, I wouldn't have been surprised to find a Romulan storyline in another book that the Romulans fully believe this IS a false flag operation (and they have proof) but that there's no possible way they could ever successfully argue with the Klingons or other powers that the Federation did it. It's akin to Ned Flanders framing Mr. Burns. This is the sort of thing the Romulans would do and then lie about it. So that's why they withdraw because they have been outmaneuvered.

 

[JD]

I read this back when it first came out and absolutely loved it, but it's been a long time so I might have to give it another read and see if I still feel the same way.

 

[CT_Phipps]

I was inspired for this thread by the thread here that contained some good commentary (by me as well): https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/lost-era-serpents-among-the-ruins.197815/

I may read The Captain's Daughter by Peter David (RIP) next because of my need for more Harriman stories. A statement I never thought I'd make.

 

[The Gatekeeper]

One Constant Star, the other Lost Era novel featuring the Enterprise B also works well as a companion piece to this novel.

 

[Reanok]

This book I really liked alot and read it several times. I liked the spy versus spy intrigue with the Romulans and the chess game they were plotting Starfleet versus the Romulan empire that led to the Tomed incident.

 

[CaptChris42]

Possibly the best of David R. George's books, and among the first I also read.

Unlike his later work, the pacing stays crisp, fast and the focus is pretty tight. The characterization develops fine without being overdone or overwrought, and the political/spy thriller elements work really well.

There's some plausibility issues that can arise about how well the plan would really work, and the concealing of missing personnel - but that does little to detract from a very good overall work, that really gives good dimension and depth to Harriman, and deepens the Romulans as well.

Still could have had cloaked Federation ships in the finale stand off, though!

As with the Romulan War, I think today I like my Tomed Incident to be a mixture of different canons and ideas. Still, this was very enjoyable, and a decent step up from The Sundered, also.

As for One Constant Star - it wasn't as good, but still decent. Writing off a certain ship that way felt a little anticlimatic too, say - and is of course, easily contradictable later.

The Art of the Impossible is also a really good book and my second favourite of the Lost Era, until The Buried Age showed up and reordered the list for me. It's a more sprawling tale across a longer period, but still with great lore and backstory for a lot of characters (and more of a certain intelligence head too).

 

[Freman]

Does this book reference The Captain's Daughter at all?

 

[Turtletrekker]

Does this book reference The Captain's Daughter at all?

Yes.


Admiral "Blackjack" Harriman from The Captain's Daughter is in this book.

 

[CT_Phipps]

Yes.


Admiral "Blackjack" Harriman from The Captain's Daughter is in this book.

I appreciate the huge reversal of how character development is supposed to go.

Spoiler

Which is Blackjack Harriman remains a awful parent and jerkass to his son even on his deathbed.

*beat*

He never forgave his son for wrecking his classic shuttle.

 

[Saul]

I really enjoyed the book and it has some pretty cool moments. The only thing I didn't personally like was the end reveal that others have already mentioned in spoiler code.