A Flag Full of Stars by Brad Ferguson

A Flag Full of Stars by Brad Ferguson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Admiral James Kirk seems to be happy in his new role, he has just over seen the initial refitting of the Enterprise and the world watches as the saucer is flown into orbit for attaching to the engineering section. However all is not well, his marriage to Admiral Lori Ciana is crumbling and he is still estranged from his friends from his time on the Enterprise.
As the world looks to celebrate the 300th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landings which will include an epic flyby of vintage spacecraft including a retrofitted Space Shuttle Enterprise a Federation naturalised Klingon scientist named G'dath makes a breakthrough in energy generation. Thus the players are in place for a action based and politically charged clash of intelligence and Starfleet services as the fruits of G'dath's creation are up for grabs.
A Flag Full of Stars continues the storyline brought to us in the novel Lost Years and expands upon Kirk's time in the admiralty before the arrival of V'ger. We see that his time wasn't wasted and he is responsible for some major changes in procedures within the fleet thanks to the benefit of his experience and insight. We also see that the wanderlust is still within him and that as much as anything leads to his failed marriage. The addition of G'dath a Klingon who finds a home on Earth thanks to the Organian intervention was eye opening as is the more real world Federation Brad writes about. I have to be honest and say it may not offer the most "Trek" like conclusion to the paths some of the characters tread in the narrative but it makes sense in terms of how they have been presented to us so you'll come away satisfied if not too happy.
Oh and credit to Brad for making me question my own opinion of the presence of families onboard the Enterprise D :)

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Crisis on Centaurus by Brad Ferguson

Crisis on Centaurus by Brad Ferguson
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

Crisis on Centaurus is a strange beast, there is a lot of the novel that is Star Trek but quite a bit that feels out of the place given what we understood the Federation to be at the time of the original series. In that respect I always felt like I was reading a scifi book that just happened to have the original series Trek characters within but that aside it's fine but maybe not what you would be expecting. Perhaps in the early days of the Pocket Books there was room for far more variety and interpretation after continuity be damned in Trek publishing:)
The story concerns a politically inspired terrorist attack on the world of Centaurus and an already damaged Enterprise being forced to intercede, complications rise when they discover the planets automated defence system is attacking any ships that approach leading to the the destruction of medical ships which reached the planet before Enterprise. This novel if I recall was my first introduction to Joanna McCoy and I quite like her character and how it shaped the "Bones" backstory and the return of Samuel T. Cogley was most welcome. Overall though the novel doesn't really delve into the complexity of what would drive a political splinter group to using WMD's nor the culture that gave birth to them, seemed out of place but again not if this was a non-Trek novel. Alas you will always be scratching your head a little over the events that occur but if you can let them slide it's not a bad read at all.

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