After almost a decade of strife against foes such as the Borg, the Cardassians, the Klingons, and the Dominion, the United Federation of Planets is at the dawn of a new era. Starfleet is renewing its mission of peaceful exploration, diplomacy, and the expansion of knowledge. Among the starships spearheading that endeavor is the U.S.S. Titan, commanded by Captain William T. Riker and manned by the most biologically varied and culturally diverse crew in Starfleet history.
But their mission does not begin according to plan.
In the wake of Star Trek ® Nemesis, Praetor Shinzon, slayer of the Romulan Senate, is dead. The power vacuum created by his demise has put the Romulan Star Empire, longtime adversary of the Federation, at the brink of civil war. Competing factions now vie for control of their fragmenting civilization, and if the empire should fall, that entire area of the galaxy may destabilize.
To restore order to the region, Titan 's long-anticipated mission of exploration is delayed as Starfleet assigns Riker to set up power-sharing talks among the Romulan factions. But even as the first tentative steps are taken toward building a new Romulus, the remnants of the Tal Shiar, the dreaded Romulan intelligence service, are regrouping behind the scenes for a power play of their own. With no other help available, Riker and the Titan crew become the last hope to prevent the quadrant from falling into chaos.
Great Book.. The first in the Star Trek Titan Series, Taking Wing has an interesting story-line that is a quick followup to the last of the "old" Star Trek movies, Star Trek: Nemesis. This book focuses on the USS Titan, which is Captained by the newly appointed Captain Riker, and is the first ship to be staffed by an immensely diverse crew of aliens. One of my chief complaints about Star Trek, is if the Federation is truly a multi-alien based civilization, then why is it that humans or extremely humanoid looking aliens run everything from the presidency, to the starships, engine rooms, star bases, etc.. and this book STARTS the discussion about it.
The books main focus is on how the Romulan empire has been impacted after the actions of Shinzon, and what they mean for the future of not only the Romulan empire, but the Federation and Klingons as well.
I finished the book rather quickly, which means that it kept my interest the entire time.. however I was disappointed that the book seemed to mention past books so much, especially since this is a "first book" in the series... but it didn't hurt the overall story and I have already finished the second book.
A great read for anyone who likes Star Trek!
Not Bad . . . but Not Good Taking Wing is a mediocre start to the Titan series. The main issues are: 1) The simple and flat plot; 2) No strong feeling of drama or suspense; 3) The overdose of new characters that are of new or rare species so it's hard to picture them, much less keep track of all of them; 4) Not much moral or emotional struggle that usually sets Star Trek apart from other sci-fi.
That being said, the book isn't horrendous. Riker and Troi are true to character, and the book honors Trek continuity. Most of the new characters are entertaining, too. Riker also pulls off some pretty nifty diplomacy towards the end that's fun to read. Although Taking Wing could hardly be called a page-turner, Martin and Mangels write descriptively and attractively enough to make this pilot novel worth reading for hard-core Trekkies.
It's an interesting read, especially if you're a Romulan fan, a Riker/Troi fan, or if you just want to know what happens after Star Trek: Nemesis. Just don't go in expecting to be blow away by every page.
Terrible! We get it. It's okay to be gay and diversity is a good thing. Now, may we please have a story that is well written and does not spend all of its time developing characters that are unnecessary as well as totally ruining characters from TV that we love.
A great introduction to the series I'll admit it, this is the first Trek book I have finished reading cover to cover. I found it to be a very great read, and loved all the unique species that were either introduced, or expanded on in this novel. I do agree with others that the cast can be a bit much, but I found that the book was not heavy handed in showing off its diversity message. The ending was also a bit rushed, but hooked well into the second book.
I'd recommend this book to anyone who loves to read about fantastic aliens, but those who prefer their sci-fi with humans and humans with face puddy only, stay away from this one.
Peter David, Diane Carey, J.M. Dillard, where are you? Bear with me a moment, if you please. It may be unusual these days, but my family likes it when I read stories aloud during the evening, especially Star Trek stories. I've shared such stories by terrific writers: Peter David's wonderful series titled Star Trek: New Frontier crackles with great pace, clever plotting and wry humor. Diane Carey's stories are consistently excellent, with her great sense for accurate, insightful dialogue and deft building of tension. I've just begun reading an Original Series novel titled "Mindshadow" by J.M. Dillard, and immediately I can tell that her handling of detail, dialogue and rhythm is terrific.
J.M.'s novel comes as a welcome relief, because I've just spent the last several weeks struggling to get through Star Trek: Titan. My daughter insisted that I finish it, only because she found my nightly Titan-induced meltdowns highly entertaining.
Why the meltdowns? Because everything that makes those previously mentioned books so good is missing from this one. Let's start with dialogue. Titan handles conversations between two characters like this: One short utterance from one person. . .
"Do you agree?" . . .
followed by five paragraphs of what everyone was really thinking. Throw in a few more 100-word sentences with more parenthetical statements than you can say without stopping for oxygen, and you'll finally get to the second person's response: "Yes."
Action? Non-existent for the first 200 pages; it's all about character introduction, as Titan's crew celebrates diversity. Unfortunately, for the seemingly dozens of new, diverse characters introduced, NOTHING significant occurs involving that diversity. In contrast to Peter David's masterful ability to develop character within action, Titan labors under endless paragraphs of description, description, description.
Suspense? It has a cliff-hanger ending; how'll that work for ya? That's the only suspense in the book. I was amazed at the number of times there seemed to be the beginning of suspense, only to have a climactic scene bypassed altogether in favor of a character's retelling of the event.
There ARE the seeds of some interesting ideas in Titan . . .I like the idea of a crew containing a wide variety of species with unique needs and gifts. Maybe that's all the book was prescribed to do---jump-start the series. I just wish it had an ounce of jump to it.
Anything Goes Trivia
Megaton Man
Trevor
