Review of
Rise of the Federation: Tower of Babel
Published:
March 2014
Reviewer Rating:
Avg User Rating:
(3.08)
The fledgling Federation is looking to expand, and that brings the worlds of Rigel under consideration. While Archer attends a conference on the issue at the diplomatic facilities on Babel, the crew of the Pioneer is learning more about the cultures and peoples of the Rigel system itself. The Orion alliance is determined to confound any of the Federation's attempts at growth and work to undermine the Rigel admission at all costs.
Bennett treats us to the continuing story of the growth (and growing pains) of the Federation. To look inside the politics, agendas, and philosophies of this early era and see how it colors futures generations of Trek is compelling. We're often treated to Trek that is "clean" and "noble," but it's nice to know there are some darker parts to history that allowed the more noble aspects to develop. We see bits of that in this book with the campaigning for political office and the activist groups that think the Federation is growing too fast and impinges on individual culture.
The typical Enterprise cast mostly get involved in the story enough to keep fans interested and involved. But some of the new characters that Bennett introduces or develops really shine. Valeria Williams gets some nice time to shine here, and a new character, Antonio Ruiz - a miner or Sauria - is the highlight of that small plot which isn't fully realized in this book. They actually get more "page time" than some of the main characters and it pays off in well-rounded, likeable characters. I look forward to more of these two in future novels.
I have to admit I had a bit of a tough time getting through this one. The cast is spread thin over geography and storylines. Oftentimes it seems this book is kind of an excuse to tour of the Rigel system (which has 10 habitable planets along with colonies) than to present a tightly-told story. Now I applaud Bennett for his exhaustive research and attempts to solidify every reference to Rigel throughout Star Trek history and make it work. He does that extremely well and there are some fascinating aspects to this world-building, but I don't think we needed to see everything in one book!
There were also a few cliched elements to the overall story that felt a little tired and that made things a bit of a slog at times. It was difficult to stay engaged when the stories are pretty transparent. The world-building aspects and some of the character bits pulled me through.
Overall, I think this was a solid building-block in the early Federation era and I enjoyed the overall product. I do think it was a little packed with characters and locations over story, but the detail was incredible.
Bennett treats us to the continuing story of the growth (and growing pains) of the Federation. To look inside the politics, agendas, and philosophies of this early era and see how it colors futures generations of Trek is compelling. We're often treated to Trek that is "clean" and "noble," but it's nice to know there are some darker parts to history that allowed the more noble aspects to develop. We see bits of that in this book with the campaigning for political office and the activist groups that think the Federation is growing too fast and impinges on individual culture.
The typical Enterprise cast mostly get involved in the story enough to keep fans interested and involved. But some of the new characters that Bennett introduces or develops really shine. Valeria Williams gets some nice time to shine here, and a new character, Antonio Ruiz - a miner or Sauria - is the highlight of that small plot which isn't fully realized in this book. They actually get more "page time" than some of the main characters and it pays off in well-rounded, likeable characters. I look forward to more of these two in future novels.
I have to admit I had a bit of a tough time getting through this one. The cast is spread thin over geography and storylines. Oftentimes it seems this book is kind of an excuse to tour of the Rigel system (which has 10 habitable planets along with colonies) than to present a tightly-told story. Now I applaud Bennett for his exhaustive research and attempts to solidify every reference to Rigel throughout Star Trek history and make it work. He does that extremely well and there are some fascinating aspects to this world-building, but I don't think we needed to see everything in one book!
There were also a few cliched elements to the overall story that felt a little tired and that made things a bit of a slog at times. It was difficult to stay engaged when the stories are pretty transparent. The world-building aspects and some of the character bits pulled me through.
Overall, I think this was a solid building-block in the early Federation era and I enjoyed the overall product. I do think it was a little packed with characters and locations over story, but the detail was incredible.
