The Flaming Arrow: ST: New Earth #4 (Mass Market Paperback)

They both have a very fluidic writing style and the pacing of the novel stays on an even keel the whole way through, making for a quick and compelling read. I especially like how they threw in little tidbits of Trek trivia without making them a focal point for pages and pages and without making them the "do you remember" kind of cliché's that so often pop up in Star Trek novels. They're characterizations are "dead on" good characterizations that don't leave you, the reader, questioning the responses by the characters.

The cover art for "The Flaming Arrow" is outstanding and it's good to see cover art that has gotten away from the "plaster a few character's faces on the cover and it'll be alright."

The premise:

After facing an alien armada bent on destroying them on the way to Belle Terre; the near destruction of the entire planet due to their moon threatening to explode and a massive flood caused by greedy olivium miners, the Belle Terre colonist face their largest challenge yet, a massive, planet killing laser beam fired at them by the Kauld.

Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise, having been charged with the safety of the colony and then later, upon the discovery of the massive deposit of olivium on the Quake moon, charged with protecting the olivium at all costs, and has successfully defended both in all cases, must now come up with the impossible; how to stop a massive laser beam from destroying Belle Terre and its colonists, or evacuate them all and take their chances returning to Federation space.

What follows from there, as stated above, is the best of the first four New Earth novels. I would definitely recommend this novel to any and all fans of the genre. Whether you choose to read the first three in the series is up to you though... {ssintrepid}

Spock takes longer to think up a way to cancel out the effects of a laser than does the average reader. A little boy dreams up the concept of a starship holodeck. The authors have taken their space-battle imagery straight out of "Babylon 5," and their characterization of Kirk ("Report!") from "Voyager." Even by STAR TREK standards this is not a good book.