Product Description: It's been said that for any event, there are an infinite number of possible outcomes. Our choices determine which outcome will follow, and therefore all possibilities that could happen do happen across countless alternate realities. In these divergent realms, known history is bent, like white light through a prism -- broken into a boundless spectrum of what-might-have-beens. But in those myriad universes, what might have been...is what actually happened.
A Less Perfect Union: More than a hundred years after the Terra Prime movement achieved its dream of an isolationist Earth, humanity is once again at a fork in the river of history...and the path it follows may ultimately be determined by the voice of a single individual: the sole surviving crewmember of the first Starship Enterprise.™
Places of Exile: Midway through Voyager's journey across the galaxy, Captain Kathryn Janeway and Commander Chakotay must choose whether to brave a deadly war zone or abandon their quest for home. But an attack by Species 8472 cripples the ship, and the stranded crew must make new choices that will reshape their destinies...and that of the Delta Quadrant itself.
Seeds of Dissent: Khan victorious! Almost four centuries after conquering their world, genetically enhanced humans dominate a ruthless interstellar empire. But the warship Defiance, under its augmented commander, Princeps Julian Bashir, makes a discovery that could shake the pillars of his proud civilization: an ancient sleeper ship from Earth named the Botany Bay.
Bashir story worth the price of the collection! Of all the stories in this collection; the one with the former Dr. Bashir was the most compelling of all. In this one it shows how he fought the decendents of Khan's Eugenic Wars. This one should have been expanded into a full novel! I wish the editor could have expanded this concept into a larger format. It certainly was the best of all of them and was hoping for more of a story.
Interesting change of pace. This book contains three mid-length stories, each set in an alternate timeline in which some major factor in the normal Star Trek timeline has happened differently. In the first story, some aspect of the Xindi war from the "Enterprise" series has happened differently (I'm not familiar with the episode in question, so I can't be more specific) and Earth has remained separate from, and hostile to, all the races that form what would have become the Federation in the more familiar timeline. Most humans are extremely Xenophobic (including James JKirk, in this timeline the first officer for Christopher Pike, who is still the Captain of the Enterprise, having never retired to teach because of the state of near-war which the fleet finds itself continuously in). The second story sees Chakotay persuade Janesway not to rush into the alliance with the Borg which resulted in Seven of Nine joining the crew; as a result, the ship is not in close negotiation with her Borg cube when species 8472 attacks, is not taken with that cube when it escapes into transwarp, and is crippled by the attacking ship. In the third story, we see a timeline in which Khan Noonien Singh won the Eugenics Wars, the known galaxy is dominated by an Earth full of genetically enhanced humans, and the Botany Bay is crewed by those who ESCAPED Khan, rather than by his people.
All of these stories are well-written, and an interesting change of pace from stories written in the usual timeline. The second one is, in spite of the fact that it ends well, too depressing for words for most of the duration of the story, and all of them have aspects to them that cause one to say, "would that REALLY be the case in a timeline that diverged in that way?" (For instance, I truly doubt that there would be a recognizable Julian Bashir, a Will Riker, a Miles O'Brien, or a Jean-Luc Picard, no matter HOW changed, in a timeline in which Khan had won.) But even if I don't believe some of the presumptions, the concepts do make for interesting thought experiments.
I would not like to see any of these timelines (or this type of story in general) on a regular basis, but for an occasional change of pace, they're interesting.
Great Stories What I enjoyed about the majority of Myriad Universes is that the stories told are not complete disasters resulting in the end of the universe or the death of tons of main characters (with the exception of one certain story from the following book which seemed to be written just to kill every main character across the board). The Voyager story was positive and showed an almost better timeline for the crew. I found it interesting, up lifting and touching. Once again, the last story with Bashir was positive and gave hope for a change for the better. Its nice to read some "what if" stories and see that there are other possibilities that turn out just as good, if not better, than the ones written for the TV. Both books are a good read.
2 out of 3 are either one worth the price! Alternate universes and what-ifs are -- obviously -- the life-blood of science fiction. Two of the three stories in this volume live, one just sags.
"A Less Perfect Union" features Christopher Pike at the helm and James T. Kirk as his second in command. Characters from throughout the original canon appear, including the animated series. I rated it tops until I read "Seeds of Dissent" the DS9 version in the book.
Again, capturing elements from earlier mainstream stories, it ranks as one of the few stories I've ever read that I could not stop once I had started it, and that is in the Trek universe or any other work of fiction -- and I write from the perspective of a 61 year old Trekker (I was there when it started). When Kirk banished Khan to Ceti Alpha 5, Spock wondered what it would be like to see what crop sprang from the seed they had planted. James Swallow lets us see what happened when Khan won the Eugenics War. Outstanding!
"Places of Exile," the Voyager installment, reads like one of the early Next Generation TV shows -- tea and talk. If you don't have anything else to read, read it, but you won't miss much by skipping it.
But don't let that stop you from buying this book!
Schmaltz Sandwich The wonder is not the "Myriad Universes" series itself but that it took this long for such a concept to emerge and be developed, at least beyond the assorted "Mirror Universe" tales. The very notion is pure "fan fic," and as a Trekker of forty years' standing, I say, "It's about time!"
Taking "Infinity's Prism"'s three novellas in order...:
1) "A LESS PERFECT UNION": What if Jonathan Frederick Paxton's verteron attack on Starfleet HQ in 2155 had been successful, and Earth had turned its back on the eventual Federation? William Leisner answers that question in a compelling and largely plausible tale that illustrates that while history can be detoured or postponed for a time, some trends really are inevitable.
HIGHLIGHTS: Realism. Earth doesn't turn "dark" or "evil". It's still a democracy and still advances culturally and technologically. But it's much more nationalist than internationalist. The Interstellar Coalition forms almost as a reaction to Paxton's attack, since their diplomats were all its targets. The two powers never become enemies, but they're far from friends. And the man that begins the process of rapproachment with Earth's local galactic neighbors isn't a starry-eyed dreamer, but a pragmatic businessman motivated by national economic self-interest. I just wish Leisner had used Harry Mudd for the role.
Characterizations. We see many TOS faces in subtley or dramatically different contexts. But the two centerpieces are an elderly, exiled T'Pol, embittered by how humans murdered her husband, Trip, and thwarted Jonathan Archer's Federation dream; and a young Jim Kirk who chose marriage and family over career and almost loses all three to his virulent anti-Vulcan bigotry (the scene where Dr. McCoy challenges Kirk's hatred of Vulcans is absolutely priceless). Yet despite Kirk's animus being exploited by yet another familiar face to try and sabotage Earth's IC membership, it isn't he who ends up doing the ultimate undermining.
No happy ending. After over a century of separation, hostility, and suspicion, one would not reasonably suppose that Earth could just join the I.C. overnight. It would take time to work out the details and build up the necessary trust. Leisner doesn't succumb to the Roddenberry to tack on a happy ending, but leaves matters believably unresolved - though if you're looking for the "hope of better days," the epilogue doesn't disappoint.
2) "PLACES OF EXILE": Not really an alternate timeline story at all, but far more of an "alternate present". Janeway never makes her "deal with the devil" (i.e. the Borg) from the "Voyager" episode "Scorpion," the Borg are not present to defend Janeway's ship from Species 8472 attack, and the fluidic space critters cripple Voyager, killing Paris and Tuvok in the process and rendering the Starfleet survivors refugees taken in by a species called the Vostigye, there to spend the rest of their lives in the Delta Quadrant.
Eh. The ensuing story wasn't a bad one, at least by "Voyager" standards. I did very much like Harry Kim's technobabble explanation of Species 8472's duplication predicament and how it fleshed them out into three-dimensional (and less rote villainous) characters. It was also interesting to see a Dominion ship hijacked to the Delta Quadrant by the Caretaker and the wild card that introduced into Janeway's (eventual) attempt to build a surrogate Federation in the Delta Quadrant.
What I didn't like was...Janeway's (eventual) attempt to build a surrogate Federation in the Delta Quadrant. Even less that it succeeded. I didn't buy that she would eventually accept defeat on the core mission of getting her crew (what was left of them, anyway) home. And the comprehensively syrupy ending made me want to hurl.
3) "SEEDS OF DISSENT": Standard "What if Hitler had won?" tale, only with our old friend Khan Noonien Singh as the ruler of Earth and, by 2376 (and posthumously), much of the galaxy as well. It flip-flops the "Botany Bay" device by putting "basic" humans in the role of escapees from the Eugenics Wars who are found by a Khanate starship. Several of them we recognize - Shaun Christopher, the son of John Christopher from TOS's "Tomorrow Is Yesterday"; Rain Robinson, the astronomer chick from "Voyager"'s "Future's End"; and Shannon O'Donnel, Janeway's look-alike ancestor from "11:59".
But they and their "secret weapon" are just the pawns in a long-running sting/contest between a staggeringly different (in character terms) Ezri Dax, a Trill deep-cover agent who has spent three centuries trying to overthrow the galactic Khanate, and an Augment Julian Bashir, who commands the vessel that finds the Botany Bay and is the glib bad guy that really believes his side's propaganda and eventually has his eyes opened by the efforts of Dax, eponymous "Bajoran terrorist" Kira Nerys, and Captain Christopher's crew.
Pluses: The Dax characterization is excellent. She is masterful, resourceful, intelligent, tough, and beats Bashir at his own game, yet not unscarred by the multi-lifetime ordeal, but rather bitterly and supremely motivated by it. The Rain Robinson character is her sadder but wiser "everywoman" reflection. And like "A Less Perfect Union," I appreciated that there was no grand resolution at the end, but tantalizing loose ends and jumping off points for future sequels.
Minuses: I wasn't quite convinced that Khan could have conquered Earth so easily; I was thoroughly unconvinced that he could have conquered the entire Alpha Quadrant at a stroke. Genetic enhancement could only take the Augments so far.
Also, while I suppose it made the story more accessible to have DS9 characters in the prime rolls, really, neither Bashir nor Miles O'Brien or Jake Sisko (or Benjamin Sisko and Jean-Luc Picard, who are referred to in the dialogue) could exist in a timeline where "Basic" humans were exterminated centuries back. And I'm just not buying a Ducat-Kira romance under any circumstances; their relentless kissy-facedness gave me the giggles from the first depiction.
"A Less Perfect Union" makes "Infinity's Prism" worth the price all by itself. As to its two companion novellas, read at your own risk.
Anything Goes Trivia
Trevor
Megaton Man
