It's difficult not to concede that in the past few years, Pocket Books' Trek output has drastically improved. It's not that long ago that we were being inundated with formulaic, uninspiring dross which, with a few honourable exceptions, reeked of the production line. Today, we can look back to 2001 and point to the success of the DS9 relaunch, the continuing success of New Frontier, a neat line in anthologies including the ever-improving "Strange New Worlds" tomes, the "Lost Era" series and, now the "A Time to..." novels. Conceptually, they're a neat idea; in terms of execution, they are invariably competent; and they have built inexorably towards a conclusion which is ominous, at best.
How does "A Time to Hate" fit into all this? Over the course of the last four books, as the incident at Rashanar depicted in "A Time to Be Born" has receded into the distance, the sense of foreboding and disgrace which haunted the decks of the Enterprise-E has dissipated a little. By the end of this novel, though, it's back in spades, as it's revealed that certain persons in the Federation hierarchy have conspired to manipulate the population of Delta Sigma IV beyond anything Picard and his crew imagined. Indeed, the Enterprise has been sent to pick up the pieces after Starfleet Medical and Command bungled badly - another "plum" assignment for the starship and her troubled crew. By the end of the novel, Picard can take no more and he vents his fury on Admiral Upton, who is less than receptive ("At least you didn't bang up the ship for a change," he smirks). Frankly, I would be surprised by now if the captain wasn't at the end of his tether, and it's about time Starfleet's smug higher-ups got an ear-bashing. After their performance in both this series and the Voyager relaunch, I was smirking myself once Picard had given voice to what I've been thinking for months.
Both this book and its predecessor, "A Time to Love", have been predominantly about Riker and, to some extent, Troi. By the end of this novel, Riker has received the offer to command U.S.S. Titan from Admiral Janeway (who manages to put her foot in it by making an enormously inappropriate joke within seconds of appearing on screen). But it's the bulk of this text that forms a real assault on Riker's character and psychology. After tracking down his father at the conclusion of the last novel, Will spends this one flying around with him like a guardian angel, swooping in to deal with trouble spots while the planet goes to hell around them - until father and son are finally broken apart.
One particularly effective scene has the two Rikers move in to save children in a primary school from an arson attack. While Will deploys his latent paternal instincts to coax the kids to safety, the elder Riker seeks out those responsible for the fire - and brutally murders them. When Troi and Vale come across the bodies later in the novel, they are horrified, and they insist that Kyle must answer for the crime of killing them. It's a reminder that behind the rather cuddly, if steely, exterior that Kyle wears, there is a ruthless tactician who can put aside any and all qualms to achieve an objective. We're reminded of that when, at one point, he clubs his own son unconscious. Unfortunately, such moments of crude violence are difficult to reconcile with the Kyle we're presented with in the rest of the novel - a man carrying the burden of the fact that he allowed his work to break up his family. When he and Will finally manage a reconciliation, it's all too brief and bittersweet. Whether it would have survived Kyle's being hauled over the coals for his more sadistic acts is another question.
So where does this novel leave Will? At a crossroads. He has reconciled with his father only to lose him again; he has been offered command - his last bite at the cherry; and Troi has proposed to him. At long last. He's pretty much a broken man, which is precisely the opposite of that which the Enterprise crew needs - the ship is still in the doghouse with the admiralty and, with nine crew dead from the Delta Sigma IV mission, morale is at an all-time low. It's certainly not what Picard needs, because by the end of this novel he's in a strange place as far as Dr Crusher is concerned.
Beverly has spent what seems like forever vacillating over whether to accept Yerbi Fandau's offer of the position of Chief of Starfleet Medical. (The fact that she should get offered the position at all when Medical is falling over itself to conspire against UFP member worlds is a puzzle, at best.) In these two books, the Dancing Doctor has faced a real challenge to her prowess and to her medical ethics, and she's not entirely sure that Picard makes the right decision come the end of the book. Personally, I'm with the captain, and I don't see what Bev's problem is (everyone is clearly going to tear each other to bits if Picard doesn't do his duty), but that was often the case in the TV series when these sorts of clashes came up. Distressingly, Greenberger seems to have overplayed the clash of views a little, in that it's hard to sympathise with Crusher's objections. I'm not even convinced that she believes them, let alone that I should. Still, an argument there is, and the end result is that the doctor's in a strop and PIcard won't be meeting her for breakfast for a while.
I enjoyed "A Time to Hate", but this particular duology has felt a little stretched - it was a story which could and probably should have fitted into one novel. It also feels a little familiar: we've seen medical crises (which only Dr Crusher can solve) before, and we've seen the Riker/Freud storyline too, in TNG's "The Icarus Factor". Rarely, however, have we seen death, racism and general chaos envelop a planet quite so quickly or with such bloody results - certainly never in the TV series. Although in its later years the franchise has moved towards a more realistic portrayal of politics, largely thanks to DS9, it only really ever went in for outright sadism on three occasions: DS9's "The Siege of AR-558" and "To the Death", and Voyager's "Memorial". Here, the Enterprise crew comes very close to being overwhelmed as all hands are spread thinly across the planet, trying to deal with an explosion of race war. To his credit, Greenberger doesn't flinch from portraying this at its most horrific - exemplified in the death of a newborn baby crushed in a mel�e. The man who killed the infant simply stands over the mother and snarls, "Dorset bitch." A traumatised Starfleet officer promptly pummels him into submission. This is not your classic Roddenberryian fare.
One thing that particularly pleased me about this novel was the way in which it explored Christine Vale's character. She's a tough security chief in the Tasha Yar mould, and she's a welcome replacement for Worf and any of the other ten-a-penny tactical officers we've seen on the bridge of the Enterprise in the movies. Greenberger, and Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore in the previous duology, have managed to imbue her with just the right combination of aggression and femininity. She makes a good foil for Troi, she's loyal to the point of blindness to Picard, and if Riker wasn't getting hitched he'd be all over her. I hope that she doesn't die a horrific death to make room for Worf come the end of the "A Time to..." series (because, of course, Worf has to return to duty from the Klingon Empire to square things with Nemesis). I'd like to see her assigned to the Titan, ready for Riker to take over. I'm not confident, however, that I'm going to get my wish.
I still have some bones of contention with this whole endeavour - Geordi has been peripheral for the majority of the time, bar some asteroid-jumping in "A Time to Sow"/"Harvest"; the removal of Data's emotion chip was well set up in "A Time to Be Born" but fumbled in "A Time to Die"; and the admiralty are behaving like spoilt brats. But none of that is to detract from what Pocket is doing with this series. As I said back in March, they are performing a service to Trek fans who were pretty well cheated by the powers that be when Nemesis presented them with umpteen unanswered questions. The authors are doing a fine job teeing up Shinzon and his Reman coup d'�tat. Now all that remains is three months' worth of "stunning conclusions", as the blurb would have it - namely, bringing Worf home and relating modern-day politics and politicians to those of the 24th century. I can hardly wait. |
