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| Cover by Mark Gerber |
| ARTICLES OF THE FEDERATION Keith R. A. DeCandido New York: Pocket Books, May 2005 |
Rating: 5.0 High |
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| ISBN-13 978-1-4165-0015-5 | ||||
| ISBN-10 1-4165-0015-4 | 402pp. | SC | $7.99 | |
This looked good to start. The cover art is inspired, and inspiring. But as I got into it, the deluge of politics and the many alien character names in the first chapters were hard to follow. It obviously would have helped to watch Star Trek: Nemesis and to read some other novels mentioned in the Historian's Note.
I stuck with it, and was rewarded. There is nothing remarkable about the events depicted. They include hostilities between Romulans and Klingons, diplomatic disputes among Federation member worlds, and first contact with a new species whose representatives inexplicably start misbehaving when they appear before the Federation Council. This is all pretty much standard fare, for Star Trek fans of whichever vintage.
The really enjoyable thing about this book is the interactions among the major characters: Nanietta Bacco, newly elected President of the Federation; members of her senior staff; certain members of the Council and Star Fleet officers; some reporters; and a Klingon or two. President Bacco must deal with these and other problems while overseeing the ongoing recovery from the war with the Dominion (which the Federation won) and of Cardassia (which the Dominion devastated) and keeping contentious members of the Council happy — or at least not too unhappy.
An added bonus for the Star Trek-savvy reader is that several familiar names show up in these pages. They include Kathryn Janeway, back from the Delta Quadrant, William Riker, Ambassador Spock, and "an infamous captain" named Jean-Luc Picard. Some less well-known names also appear. A few of them are Commander Bruce Maddox and Councilor Leonard Aka'ar. Yes, that would be Leonard James Aka'ar of Capella, complete with back-story. I've tried to collect these in a list below, with the page numbers where they appear.
In my first review of Keith DeCandido's work — the novelization of Resident Evil: Extinction — I as much as called him a hack. I will now have to revise that opinion upward.
To contact Chris Winter, send email to this address.