Having finished the entirety of Star Trek: Enterprise, I was itching for more adventures with this crew I really got close with.
But every time I would see the novels for this show the prices were downright disrespectful for an old, single, and used novel.
Then we here at Castle Nerd Blitz stumbled across a seller that was offloading them for just under cover price and the future was saved.
But I started worrying almost as soon as I got my grubby peter pullers on them.
I loved Enterprise so fuckin’ much…but what if the tie-in novels suck?
While I didn’t have much issue with the controversial Broken Bow novelization, this is the first ORIGINAL Enterprise novel.
We have all gathered here in the hallowed halls of Nerd Blitz-dom to find out where I land on this book, so let’s not draw this out any longer than is necessary.
This is your super serious and official ***SPOILER ALERT***
With a couple of missions under their collective belts, Archer and the crew of the NX-01 Enterprise have come across a rigidly scructured civilization and a race of humanoids called the Fazi.
Excitement builds across the ship as they attempt to make another first contact.
When it goes less than well, a lot of downtime and study is ahead for our crew.
Through that study, they find another race of being, this a cross between crabs and spiders, called the Hipon.
Now, with TWO first contacts up in the air and an obstinate Vulcan questioning his every move, Captain Johnathan Archer must rely on his still fresh faced crew of the best and brightest Earth has to offer to get through before anybody else ends up in sickbay.
I’m not gonna bury the lead any further here, gang.
This book is a perfect example of why I loved this show: this crew is scrappy, they don’t even have the protocols of Kirk and the 1701 in place yet, all they do have is their wits, a hunger to explore, and a healthy dose of persistence.
When faced with a challenge they have to set the precedent, whether it’s the right one or not, and go forward as best they can.
Under the steady pen of well known Trek writers such as Kristine Kathryn Rasch and her husband Dean Wesley Smith, an author who has been covered before around these parts, there is no doubt that this crew is gonna come off looking their absolute best.
But the down fall of doing tie-in novels like this so early in the run of a show means that some continuity hiccups are bound to crop up.
With this dropping halfway through the first season, there is one glaring issue that is integral to the plot that the show had already contradicted between the time Smith & Rasch wrote this and publication.
In the book, Crewman Cutler gathers Ensign Mayweather, Crewman Novakovich, and one or two others to play a Sci-Fi Roleplaying game in the mess because the ship has no real entertainment onboard other than what little the crew was able to bring on with them.
From a 2022 perspective, where I have the benefit of seeing all 97 eps of the show, that threw me off for a second because I know they held movie nights in the very same mess hall the game takes place in.
My research tells me they only had the first three scripts to use as a jumping of point to mold this story from.
Though I have dedicated a lot of digital ink to this issue, I must admit that this is a very minor quibble that I extrapolated simply because it is literally the only issue I have with this book.
For having only three stories/scripts (technically four hours of TV to pull from), these two NAILED this goddamn show.
Trip and his almost jovial reaction to his long time buddy Archer being thrust into uncomfortable situations, while not something that was a hallmark of the series, feels perfectly in character.
The same goes for T’pol and Archer’s combative relationship, Hoshi’s fish out of water nervousness, and Mayweather’s bright eyed optimism.
It all feels perfectly in character and I loved every page of it.
If this book is at all indicative of what’s to come in the other Enterprise novels, the crew is in for some good shit.
If you, like me, loved this particular series, this is a must read.
search it out and have a good time, same as I did.
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