Review of
By the Book
Published:
January 2002
Reviewer Rating:
Avg User Rating:
(3.44)
I read most of this book on airplanes flying to and from a conference. It was a good read for that sort of trip: engaging but not too demanding. In the Star Trek timeline, this story falls in the first quarter of season 1 of Enterprise, after the events of "Strange New World." Crewmen Cutler and Novakovich from that episode both play important roles in the plot.
The Enterprise comes to an M-class planet inhabited by a humanoid species called the Fazi. The Fazi have just made a successful warp-drive test and are unaware that there are other sentient species in the universe. The Enterprise is thus in a first-contact role analogous to the one played by the Vulcans just after humans achieved warp capability. Captain Archer wants to "do better" than the Vulcans, who refused to share information and technology humans desired in the decades following first contact. However, his attempts to engage the Fazi involve several missteps that lead him to doubt the wisdom of that approach.
The book's main subplot involves several crewmen who use their downtime to develop and play a role-playing game apparently inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter series. This subplot has a minor influence on the main story; its chief significance is its contribution to the Enterprise's realization that the crew has a need for recreation on a ship where there are no recreational facilities.
The Enterprise comes to an M-class planet inhabited by a humanoid species called the Fazi. The Fazi have just made a successful warp-drive test and are unaware that there are other sentient species in the universe. The Enterprise is thus in a first-contact role analogous to the one played by the Vulcans just after humans achieved warp capability. Captain Archer wants to "do better" than the Vulcans, who refused to share information and technology humans desired in the decades following first contact. However, his attempts to engage the Fazi involve several missteps that lead him to doubt the wisdom of that approach.
The book's main subplot involves several crewmen who use their downtime to develop and play a role-playing game apparently inspired by Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter series. This subplot has a minor influence on the main story; its chief significance is its contribution to the Enterprise's realization that the crew has a need for recreation on a ship where there are no recreational facilities.
