TOS #32: Chain of Attack by Gene DeWeese
TW: Suicide
Book Jacket’s Summary:
“While mapping a series of gravitational anomalies, the USS Enterprise is suddenly hurled millions of light years through space, into a distant galaxy of scorched and lifeless worlds… into the middle of an endless interstellar war.
With no way back home, the crippled starship finds itself under relentless and suicidal attack by both warring fleets! And Captain Kirk must gamble the lives of his crew on his ability to stop a war that has raged for centuries – and ravaged a galaxy…”
Yeaka’s Notes:
Despite the title and bookjacket,
this story leans heavily on Star Trek’s roots of true exploration. It begins
with a scientific survey, progresses into being caught impossibly far from the
Federation, falls into more space exploration, and finally into trying to
initiate peaceful contact with incredibly warlike aliens. The main command
staff, mostly Kirk, Spock, Bones, and Scotty are center stage, handling their
stranded situation as well as Janeway. However, they have a Federation civilian
on board who uses every opportunity available to ruin everything. He’s wildly
foolish and villainous, but as he’s so clearly meant to be taken that way, he
provides the reader with more comic relief than tension. There are a few times
where it seems like he’s going to destroy everything, but Kirk can handle him.
Kirk can handle a lot of nonsense.
There are three separate sets of new aliens and all of them are difficult, two
borderline impossible. Everybody shoots first and doesn’t bother asking
questions later, but Kirk is steadfast good-hearted and does his best to push
for communication. It’s an enjoyable read for that aspect—Kirk insisting things
work out despite awful odds, and his crew fully behind him. The plot is smooth
and develops well, with new mysteries cropping up often despite the relatively low
page count. A few parts are predictable, but most isn’t, and the combination of
things is new. For that continuing adventure and the likeable characters, I
quite enjoyed this book.
Noteworthy moments:
- Ch2/p27 Chekov has a friend in the environmental section who wants to help him
lose his accent
- Ch5/p66 An ensign fresh out of the Acadamy is upset with the way their peaceful
mission’s gone awry and Kirk’s decisions, despite idolizing him before, and an
civilian passenger plays politician and takes advantage of that to encourage
dissent against Kirk
- Ch10/p122 Contemplating mutiny, a civilian dismisses the rumours of Kirk being
“a ladies’ man” but happily thinks Bones and Kirk hate each other and it’ll be
easy to coax Bones and Scotty to mutiny; Bones, Sulu, and Chekov disagree with
Kirk, civilian openly challenges Kirk at phaser point
- Ch14/p166 Kirk doing calisthenics on Bones’ insistence
- Ch19/p215 Through a remote mind meld, Spock feels Kirk’s pain over losing Edith
Keeler (TOS: “The City on the Edge of Forever”), Bones’ pain over losing Natira
(TOS: “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky”), and his own pain
over Pike