After the side-step of Harm's Way, my journey through Star Trek: Vanguard finally reaches the last three volumes of the series which I (kind of) bought as they came out, but never got around to reading—and thus, my whole rationale for this reread.
Declassified is intended, I think, as a prelude to the two-part finale. It's a new format for the series, an anthology made up of four novellas, each by one of the series's main creative forces: three are by regular authors Dayton Ward, Kevin Dilmore, and David Mack, while the fourth is by series co-creator Marco Palmieri, who was the editor of the earlier books. (I think Open Secrets was the last one he edited, going by the books' Acknowledgements pages.) The novellas span the Vanguard saga, going from before book one to after book five.
Star Trek: Vanguard: Delassified |
 |
|
Published: 2011 Acquired: February 2013 Read: August 2026 |
The first is "Almost Tomorrow" by Dayton Ward, which is set shortly before the first book, Harbinger. Harbinger and book two, Summon the Thunder, start with a lot of the world of Vanguard already in place: Commodore Reyes and Captain Desai are dating, T'Prynn is carrying out with Anna Sandjeso, the Klingon double agent, and so on. This book does the prequel thing of telling us how a lot of that came about. Unfortunately, it also falls victim to the prequel thing of revealing that "how that came about" is not interesting and book one made the right call of beginning with it already having been done. How did Reyes and Desai end up in a relationship? Well, the shocking answer to that question is that they met, he thought she was attractive, and they went on some dates. "Almost Tomorrow" doesn't answer any of its prequel questions interestingly, or give any insight into the personalities of its main characters.
The second story, Kevin Dilmore's "Hard News," is set between books three and four and brings the focus onto Vanguard's resident journalist, Tim Pennington. I was grateful for this, because I saw a lot of potential in Pennington in the first few Vanguard novels, but weirdly, after his big journalistic coup at the end of book three, the books totally move away from him doing any actual journalism: in book four, he helps M'Benga find medical assistance for T'Prynn, while in book five, he just tags along with her as she goes on special ops missions. (And our previously ferociously-devoted-to-the-truth journalist is just like, nah, I'm not gonna tell anyone about this.) So it was good to see Pennington doing some actual journalism again. This one has a bit of a noir-ish vibe, too, which I appreciated. I did wish Pennington was a bit less... grumpy; there are a few too many Vanguard characters whose shtick seems to be thinking about how much they don't want to be talking to the person they're talking to, and he also doesn't seem very active at times, but overall, I enjoyed this story.
I also enjoyed Marco Palmieri's "The Ruins of Noble Men." This one has two parallel tracks: in the present, it's shortly after book five, and Desai and Doctor Ezekiel Fisher are sent to figure out what's up with a separatist colony. In the past, it's the time of the Federation's conflicts with the Klingons, and Fisher is serving alongside then-captain Reyes and Hallie Gannon (who would later become captain of the USS Bombay, destroyed in the first book). There's a lot here about our connections to people and how they change over time; Fisher mourns the actual death of Gannon, which this mission reminds him of, but Desai mourns her loss of Reyes, who has seemingly betrayed the Federation. There are some neat twists and turns in both plotlines and solid character work. (I would definitely rip off the present-day storyline for a Star Trek Adventures scenario!)
The last story, David Mack's "The Stars Look Down," alas, leans into some of the stuff I don't care for in both Vanguard in specific and Mack's writing in general. Cervantes Quinn and Bridy Mac are romantically involved... but I don't really know why. What does she see in him? What does he contribute to her emotionally? Clearly they have hot sex... but is that a basis for settling down with someone? Bridy Mac comes off as Quinn's prize for figuring himself out. Former drunk makes good: what other role would a woman have in his story other than to bunk with him to demonstrate his growth? It seems indicative we never really get any writing about the relationship from her perspective; this is a bit Mack would pull again with Okona in Collateral Damage.
But it turns out she does have another role in the story: she's the woman who gets killed off to show how bad things are for our male hero. This tired trope? In a David Mack story?? Surely not??? Sigh.
No comments:
Post a Comment