World Famous Comics: Star Trek: Destiny: Lost Souls
Star Trek: Destiny: Lost Souls
By: David Mack Publisher: Star Trek Average Rating: Binding: Mass Market Paperback Label: Star Trek Number of Items: 1 Number of Pages: 464 Publication Date: November 25, 2008
Product Description: The soldiers of Armageddon are on the march, laying waste to worlds in their passage. An audacious plan could stop them forever, but it carries risks that one starship captain is unwilling to take. For Captain Jean-Luc Picard, defending the future has never been so important, or so personal -- and the wrong choice will cost him everything for which he has struggled and suffered.
For Captain William Riker, that choice has already been made. Haunted by the memories of those he was forced to leave behind, he must jeopardize all that he has left in a desperate bid to save the Federation.
For Captain Ezri Dax, whose impetuous youth is balanced by the wisdom of many lifetimes, the choice is a simple one: there is no going back -- only forward to whatever future awaits them.
But for those who, millennia ago, had no choice...this is the hour of their final, inescapable destiny.
Bitter Sweet Its sad to pick this book up, knowing its the last of the series. By this time I think everyone had figured out the inevitable conclusion, if not the exact mechanics of working it out. Its still a great read. Coming to the end of it, I wish David Mack could write all the follow ups as he really did add some dimension to what I thought had been a stale franchise. I havent purchased the next book, just because I know it will be dissapoint compared to Davids epic trilogy.
Very well written but... Like a lot of the other reviews said, this was a well written and thought out series. It wasn't as hit or miss as most of the other Star Trek expnanded universe books seem to be. My only true complaint, and the reason I wouldn't give this five stars, is the book series does have such a hollow victory feeling to it. Much like the Star Wars expanded universe books have done with the New Jedi order series and beyond it. I read these style books for the fun, the adventure and the hope of a wonderous future. I don't like it when I feel even more depressed for the Star Trek universe then I do for the real one. I have stopped reading Star Wars all together because of this, and pray that I don't have to do the same with Star Trek.
Dramatic happenings? Yes. Good storytelling? Occasionally. LOST SOULS is a mostly lackluster conclusion to the STAR TREK DESTINY trilogy. It does what it's supposed to do -- show us the origins of the Borg and tell us how the Federation, its rivals, and its allies manage to survive the Borg's drive to exterminate them.
In LOST SOULS as in the preceding volume MERE MORTALS, Captain Erika Hernandez steals the show. Hernandez emerges as a heroic figure, becoming perhaps the first Latina in the history of North American literature to save the universe. The novel's most exciting passage involves a daring operation that she and Captain Ezri Dax mount, using Hernandez's Caeliar-granted powers in an attempt to end the Borg assault.
There are other thrilling and even touching passages in LOST SOULS, but they are dragged down by mechanical treatments of what ought to have been some of the most affecting moments in any Trek book. Eighty billion people die with barely more than a "dammit!" and, as told here, the origins of the Borg are a total bore. The Caeliar acquire a bit more depth in this volume, particularly through the sympathetic scientist Inyx, but they remain a ridiculous caricature of heads-in-the-clouds idealists.
The STAR TREK DESTINY trilogy is important to Trek readers not because of its literary achievements but because of what it does to the 24th century Trek universe--and therefore to following Trek novels. The Borg are no longer what they once were, but their rapacious attacks on the Alpha Quadrant powers have left its major powers both debilitated and, to an unprecedented extent, united ... at least temporarily. The future of the future is wide open. Learning how this happened is why Trek readers should pick up the books that make up this trilogy.
One last remark: Riker and Troi married and began trying to conceive children at a relatively late age. A couple past prime reproductive age may well have to deal with miscarriages and infertility, especially if they've been exposed to the kinds of environmental hazards that Star Fleet personnel seem to run into all of the time. It's admirable that the author (or the Trek gods) opted to deal with the emotional and physical cost of infertility in a novel. However, I found the handling of Troi's horrific pregnancy in all three novels and its unlikely conclusion in LOST SOULS grotesque. I hope the series editors exercise more discretion in the future.
The Rise and XXXX of the Borg This is the final book of the "Destiny" trilogy and it brings together such disparate Star Trek characters as Captain Erika Hernandez from the Star Trek Enterprise series, Ezri Dax from Deep Space Nine, Jean-Luc Picard from Next Generation, and Will Riker and Deanna Troi, from that same series, now on their own ship Titan.
That's the kind of thing you can do in a novel. "Lost Souls" ties up a lot of loose ends from the first two books in the series, but it does a lot more. Against the background of a massive Borg invasion of the Federation, it explains the horrifying origin of the cybernetic assimilators.
And (SPOILER ALERT) it tells the story of their fall.
A really good story, but it should not be cannon The book is very well written, David Mack has talent, but I am not sure his vision of the Star Trek Universe follows cannon. The words "out of character" could be applied to many aspects of the series and many of the people. I have the hunch that he rushed the end. As far as the god like Caliaer, they were not convincing, as a god like species. The other thing that bothered me was the display of the Borgs genocidal intentions. Their sudden rush to destroy and the entirely drawn out yet unsatisfactory explination of their origins made them seem petty. Despite all their vile traits, and some might argue overuse, they have never seemed petty. I also felt the sudden "victory" cheapend what could have been a real victory of the federation over the Borg. I guess I have always believed that Star Treks true greatness was its insistence that humanity could and would overcome whatever evil the universe could throw at them.
I liked its exploration of the non human, and non humanoid species, as well as the depiction of Dax, and random steps into parts of the Star Trek Universe that have not been developed. It is worth reading, but it should not be a movie, and should not be Cannon.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
