Star Trek: The Lost Era: Art of the Impossible: Amazon.ca: Keith R. A. DeCandido: Books

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Product Description

THE YEARS ARE 2328-2346

To the Cardassians, it is a point of pride. To the Klingons, a matter of honor. But the eighteen-year cold war between these two empires -- euphemistically remembered in later years as the Betreka Nebula "Incident" -- creates a vortex of politics, diplomacy, and counterintelligence that will define an age, and shape the future.

What begins as a discovery that would enable the Klingon Empire to reclaim a lost piece of its past becomes a prolonged struggle with the rapidly expanding Cardassian Union, which has claimed dominion over a region of space that the Klingons hold sacred. Enter the Federation, whose desire to preserve interstellar stability leads Ambassador Curzon Dax to broker a controversial and tenuous peace -- one that is not without opponents, including Lieutenant Elias Vaughn of Starfleet special ops.

But there are wheels within wheels to the drama unfolding in the Betreka Nebula. Within the shadowy rooms of the Cardassian Obsidian Order, Klingon Imperial Intelligence, and even the Romulan Tal Shiar, secret scales are being balanced -- and for every gain made for the sake of peace, there will come a loss.

About the Author

Keith R.A. DeCandido was born and raised in New York City to a family of librarians. He has written over two dozen novels, as well as short stories, nonfiction, eBooks, and comic books, most of them in various media universes, among them Star Trek, World of Warcraft, Starcraft, Marvel Comics, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Serenity, Resident Evil, Gene Roddenberry's Andromeda, Farscape, Xena, and Doctor Who. His original novel Dragon Precinct was published in 2004, and he's also edited several anthologies, among them the award-nominated Imaginings and two Star Trek anthologies. Keith is also a musician, having played percussion for the bands the Don't Quit Your Day Job Players, the Boogie Knights, and the Randy Bandits, as well as several solo acts. In what he laughingly calls his spare time, Keith follows the New York Yankees and practices kenshikai karate. He still lives in New York City with his girlfriend and two insane cats.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
"Entering standard orbit around the fifth planet." Read the first page

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Concordance

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Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover

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Customer Reviews

10 Reviews

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Average Customer Review

4.9 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Very intriguing, Jun 16 2004

By	Eric (New York) - See all my reviews

Though I was never a big fan of the Star Trek incarnation "Deep Space Nine", I was glad to see Dax attempting to do the impossible in keeping the Klingons and the Cardassians from warring over a region of space claimed by both. Of course this wouldn't be a great Star Trek space opera without internal intrigue from the Federation itself. Great read! I have added it to my other "Star Trek" series books as well as: "Stranger in a Strange Land", "Puppet Masters", "Foundation", "2001", "2010", "Rendezvous with Rama", "Ringworld", all the "Star Wars" books, as well as books as new to the genre as "Advent of the Corps" and others.

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5.0 out of 5 stars One shifts left to right, Jun 3 2004

By	Kevin G. Summers (Leesburg, VA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book was the first Trek novel I've picked up in a while. It was spectacular. Honestly, I was expecting to be bored. Political books are not usually my thing, but the balance between the cold, heartless leaders and the real people who served under them was just right. I didn't find myself siding with either empire. Instead, I cared about what was happening to Vaughn, Troi, Dax and Mogh. The familiar faces were enjoyable, especially Vaughn. This character has become one of my favorites in the entire Trek universe, and when I read Avatar, I wasn't even sure I was going to like him. He is so unlikable, and that is certainly part of his charm. He's the antithesis of Will Riker. It was also nice to see Curzon Dax, and the reverence he's held in by, well, most of the Klingons. The references to other events throughout Trek history also gave this particular book a depth I wasn't expecting. It makes me want to read the Lost Era novels on either side of it in the timeline. After six months or so not reading Star Trek novels, this was the ideal book to return on. One more thought, the epilogue was wonderfully ironic. We always see Cardassians as spies and military dictators, but this chapter showed just a touch of their human side. My compliments to Keith.

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5.0 out of 5 stars ST - The Lost Era: The Art of the Impossible 2328-2346, April 13 2004

By	Joe Zika "Khemprof" (Cincinnati, Ohio) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

Star Trek - The Lost Era: The Art of the Impossible 2328-2346 written by Keith R.A. DeCandido is a story told well, with charater development and vivid charatization. This story is character driven but has action-adventure and is detailed. This book starts at 2328, thrity-five years after the presumed death of Captain James T. Kirk aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise-B in "Star Trek: Generations." It concludes in 2346, eighteen years before the launch of the Enterprise-D at "Encounter at Farpoint."

"The Art of the Impossible" is mainly a character driven book and the characters are those that we've either read about briefly in books or comics or have heard about in the movies, television. This book takes it's basis from a conversation between Bashir and Garak about the eighteen-year Betreka Nebula incident between Cardassia and the Klingons in the ST: DS9 episode "The Way of the Warrior."

"The Art of the Impossible" is a remarkable book as it starts out about a long past Klingon space exploration project and then a cold war between the Cardassians and Klingons developes and the discovery of and ancient Klingon wreck on a planet next to the Betreka Nebula and then the story gets resolved as both sides finially come to their respective senses. So, we have a book that is divided into three sections but there is seamless continuity as Keith R.A. DeCandido writes a well-crafted story.

Some of the characters you'll read about that get fleshed out are K'mpec, Kor, Ian Troi, Sergey and Helena Rozhenko, Kang, Curzon Dax, and Lwaxana Troi. Others in this adventure are K'Tal, Corbin Entek, Tokath, Enabran Tain, General Worf, Koval, Legate Kell, Vance Haden, L'Kor, Kahlest, Sarek, Uhura and Rachel Garrett. Rachel Garrett is the main character in the next novel in the series "Well of Souls" and I will review that book when I'm finished reading it.

"The Art of the Impossible " is a book with great detail but also, it is written in a style that is easily readable and you'll finish the story quickly. If you like to read Trek this is a story you will NOT want to miss as it has some mystery and intrigue sprikled into for some spice, but foremost, the characters are well-written and you can visualize them speaking from the book. This book fills in the missing pieces from snipets of information about the adventures in the TREK universe before Picard and after Kirk.

I gave "The Art of the Impossible" a solid 5 stars for a very well-told adventure that will pique the interest of the reader with detail and is masterly crafted. You will not be disappointed reading "The Art of the Impossible." Keith R.A. DeCandido does a wonderful job of telling a story that is both detailed and interesting.

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Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the best in the "Lost Era" series
Keith DeCandido's "The Art of the Impossible" is devoted to the Cardassian-Klingon cold war remembered as the Betreka Nebula "Incident", which would involve... Read more

Published on Mar 3 2004 by John Kwok

5.0 out of 5 stars The first "Lost Era" novel to deliver on its promise
This is exactly what I expected from series of Star Trek novels that promised to tell us about the "Lost Era". Read more

Published on Jan 8 2004 by Jeremy Jacobs

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, a fantastic Lost Era book.
Lost Era books seem to be divided into two sections of differing quality. I am glad to report that this one is divided into the great first half and the even better second half... Read more

Published on Nov 23 2003 by R. Spottiswood