James Swallow – Lady Book Dragon

The Dark Veil by James Swallow

Blurb

The Alpha Quadrant is mired in crisis.

Within the United Federation of Planets, a terrorist strike on the shipyards of Mars has led to the shutdown of all relief efforts for millions of Romulans facing certain doom from an impending supernova. But when the USS Titan is drawn into a catastrophic incident on the Romulan-Federation border, Captain William Riker, his family, and his crew find themselves caught between the shocking secrets of an enigmatic alien species and the deadly agenda of a ruthless Tal Shiar operative. Forced into a wary alliance with a Romulan starship commander, Riker and the Titan crew must uncover the truth to stop a devastating attack, but one wrong move could plunge the entire sector into open conflict!

Review

Having read and loved the first book in the Star Trek Picard series I was really excited to read this book especially as it was to feature two of my favourite characters, Riker and Troi.

As soon as the book arrived through the post I started to read it and got very excited with the opening scene where we see Riker standing on trial. However, I will be honest my excitement soon waned with this book. I loved reading about my favourite characters and meeting Thaddeus, Riker and Troi’s son, but I just found that the story was very slow moving and frustrated me because of the lack of pace.

Riker with a family was wonderful to see and the times where he was torn between duty to his ship and crew and duty to his wife and child was very moving. Troi was her usual calming and caring self who brings calm and order to any situation.

I loved learning more about the back story to the TV series Picard and what has happened a year after the attack on Mars and I found the Jazari fascinating and wanted to learn more about them. I also felt rather sorry for them because due to living so secretly from other species it all sounded rather lonely. Zade was my favourite Jazari and his relationship with Thad was very sweet.

My biggest problem with this book was the lack of pace and at one point I did consider quitting but I am glad I continued reading because once I was past half way the story really picked up and I couldn’t put it down till I had finished it. After finishing this book I realised that I had had the same experience with Swallows book Fear Itself from The Discovery series. I give this book 3 out of 5 Dragons.

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Purchase Links

Amazon | Book Depository | Foyles | Waterstones | Wordery

About the author

James Swallow is a New York Times, Sunday Times and Amazon #1 bestselling author and scriptwriter, a BAFTA nominee, a former journalist and the award-winning writer of over fifty books, along with scripts for video games, comics, radio and television.

Star Trek Discovery: Fear Itself by James Swallow

About the author

James Swallow is a British author who is a BAFTA nominee, a New York Times and Sunday Times bestseller. He is also the only British author to work on the Star Trek television series. He has written several Star Trek books, scripted the video game Star Trek Invasion and over four hundred articles in Star Trek magazines. He currently lives in London.

Blurb

Lieutenant Saru is a Kelpian, a member of prey species born on a world overrun by monstrous predators… and a being who very intimately understands the nature of fear. Challenged on all sides, he is determined to surpass his origins and succeed as a Starfleet officer aboard the U. S. S. Shenzhou.

But when Saru breaks protocol in order to prove himself to his crew mates, what begins as a vital rescue mission to save a vessel in distress soon escalates out of control. Forced into a command role he may not be ready for, Saru is caught between his duty and conflicting agendas of two antagonistic alien races. To survive, he will need to seek a path of peace against all odds, and risk compromising the very ideals he has sworn to uphold…

Review

I found this book a really hard read, I struggled to get into it and kept forgetting what I had read and had to re read certain parts. I am pleased I stuck with it though as towards the end I began to enjoy it and got into it. I am not sure whether it was the writing style I struggled with or just the general storyline but I just couldn’t gel with the story.

This was an interesting story focusing on Saru and it helped me understand him a bit more, as so far watching his character in the TV series and reading about him in the previous two books I have not liked his character and found him unfeeling to others and a bit of a wet blanket. This book however showed that he did have feelings towards others and that he can be brave, decisive and commanding.

I enjoyed the character of Captain Georgiou. She is fast becoming a favourite and I would have liked her to feature a little bit more in the story. I also liked how Saru found her an inspiration and always thought of what Georgiou would do when trying to decide his next course of action. Michael Burnham also started to show her human side in the book which was nice to see.

The character I did not enjoy and was pleased that he did not feature greatly in the book was the Shenzhou’s first officer Commander ch’Theloh. I found him bad tempered, grumpy and way too hard on his underlings.

The storyline was a good storyline and I enjoyed meeting the Gorlans and Peliars and would have liked to have found out a bit more about both species and what happened to them.

Overall I found this book to be quite a let down after Drastic Measures, and I did not enjoy the book nearly as much. It was hard work to read and follow and at times rather boring. Sadly this book only got 2 out of 5 Dragons. It has not put me off the series though and I am looking forward to reading the next.

To buy this book from Waterstones click here.

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