Star Trek: Titan #2: The Red king [Mass Market Paperback]

The first book of the Titan series, "Taking Wing," was great. It was a nice follow-up to Nemesis, had the Titan crew coming together, playing around with Romulans politics. Great stuff. Yet, this one takes a rather odd step away. Don't get me wrong, it's not terrible, but it's also nothing to brag about. It's a rather average read that doesn't leave an impression like the first book did.

One problem, as described in other reviews, is the extensive list of characters. Who can keep up with all of them? It's not as if the last book came out a month or so ago so if you were to pick this one up, you may find yourself struggling to remember this or that unique character. What makes it so bad is that a lot of these characters are secondary or fill-ins. We haven't been given the chance to focus on the main group. I hardly can pin-point who the main characters are because everyone who appears is given equal importance. The crew is diverse, one of the most diverse in Starfleet history. We get it! It makes the book terribly hard to get through when you vaguely can recall or keep up with the two dozen or so characters that appear.

Second, there is no "gay agenda" going on. There's a gay character, so be it. Yet, I do feel that these authors, who do tend to include non-heterosexual characters in their works, are putting a bit too much emphasis on the character of Keru. What's the big deal about him? He appeared in "Rogue Agent" and wasn't exactly a ground-breaking character. He appears in the "Worlds of DS9." He appears in the Riker-Troi honeymoon story in "The Captain's Table" anthology. Yet, he's not terribly interesting. Yet, he's given the most attention perhaps out of any of the "new characters" and it gets annoying. We barely get to know anything more about Dr. Ree, nor do we get anymore on Melora Pazlar, who appeared in a DS9 episode.

As for the plot, this is another nit-pick. Why go from the stand-point of something truly original to revisiting one of your own novels? The Neyel are a race created by these same authors in the Excelsior Lost Era novel "The Sundered." It seems as if the authors simply wanted to do a follow-up to that novel and bring in the Titan crew. The entire "Red King" idea seems hard to understand simply because the authors never really focus in on it. It goes from being something intriguing to suddenly become another big-space threat that the crew must out-think. And they do, but even that seems to go too easily.

The authors make Keru's coma a big plot, yet the resolution is quick and simplistic. They make a big deal about the "Red King" but that plot comes off as unoriginal by the end. You feel as if you've seen it before, probably in a dozen Star Trek episodes. Even the Tuvok-Akaar conflict, once revealed, seemed a bit "Oh. That's all?" I wouldn't go so far as to call the book campy, but perhaps terribly predictable and under-whelming. There are some good plots that simply aren't carried out well. They seemed to realize there was no real humanoid threat or bad guy, so instead, they turn Donatra, who's been the rather good-Romulan with a lot on her shoulders, into the bad guy. Why destroy a good character like that? Why revisit "The Sundered" in a new series' second book? It seems a bit wasteful of space and money to find that the authors decide to hype up their past work more so than continue to build up the new series.

That being said, the book is okay. It's sort of a quick read, but feels slow due to all of the characters packed in and the hand-full of plots being tossed at you. Hopefully, when a new author's take on the series and characters coming up in "Orion's Hounds," Titan will be a tad bit more original and interesting than this installment. Buy at your own risk/interest.

This book was something of a chore to get through. First off, the book comes hot off the heals of the first book, which wasn't terribly interesting either. Second, the story takes place in the Small Magellanic Cloud with a race apparently introduced by these authors in an obscure Lost Era novel. (I say obscure as I've read the vast majority of Trek novels, but that one was beyond my notice.) The use of this "race" left me wondering what I'd missed in their back story, but really the Neyel are wildly unimportant. Third, the Red King conflict makes little-to-no-sense. The authors borrowed an idea from a DS9 episode, but the problem was they borrowed it from a bad DS9 episode. I'm a rabid DS9 fan, so trust me when I say that wasn't their best work.

There is a conflict between Tuvok and the admiral that doesn't really make a lot of sense. How can a Vulcan have a decades-old feud? The feud also brings up some kind of advanced mental prowess that the admiral and his race apparently possess. Basically, the whole storyline feels like it's reaching too far, a few hundred thousand light years too far.

The Red King doesn't make for a good story because the Red King isn't really a character or a villian. The conflict is strained. The characters just aren't compelling. The first and second Titan books spend far too more time describing wildly non-humanoid races than telling a story. Skip and go directly to Orion's Hounds.

Star Trek novels are known for introducing a variety of different species, cultures, and religions, but this series bombards the reader with so many at once that the storyline becomes muddled and one is left begging for a glossary. I hope that the third book, written by a different author, will narrow its focus somewhat.

I don't take issue with the authors for including a gay character in the books. It makes sense, with that many different species, that someone would be. What I find annoying is that they focus so much time on him and seem to feel the need to have one of the other characters either make a pass at him or give him that "knowing look" in each one of the books. He's gay, I get it! Get on with the the exploration and adventure!

And, please, no more crew introductions for a while. Let me get to know the ones you've already introduced.

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