Product Description

Imagine "Alias" combined with "Star Trek" and you a have the idea behind for Vanguard, a new concept for "Star Trek" fiction that takes it in a compelling new direction, presenting a new perspective on the classic "Original Series" era, with novels running parallel to Kirk's original five-year mission. Vanguard is a Starfleet space station charged with the exploration and colonization of a region of space that holds a highly coveted, mysterious, and potentially cataclysmic secret - one that the Federation must solve before anyone else. The race is on and at the centre of this intrigue is an eclectic mix of Starfleet and civilian protagonists unlike any crew previously seen in "Star Trek". Their turbulent lives aboard the station and on the ships they travel are painted against the backdrop of an evolving storyline that will gain momentum as the series progresses and the layers of ancient mystery are steadily peeled back, one after another.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #108981 in Books
• Published on: 2005-09-05
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 388 pages

About the Author
David Mack has received story credits on two televised episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. His work on Star Trek books includes the 'minipedia' guide to the New Frontier universe that accompanies Peter David's New Frontier series.

Customer Reviews

"It took our best minds two years to figure out what that was."
Pocket Books continue their series of novels based on classic Star Trek with the launch of a new series set in that universe, Star Trek: Vanguard.
This novel has a prologue which is set in 2263 but the rest of the book takes place in 2265 between the classic episodes `Where No Man Has Gone Before' and `The Corbomite Manoeuvre'.
Following the death of Gary Mitchell and Elizabeth Dehner on Delta Vega, the Enterprise limps it's way back into Federation space. On their way they find that a Starfleet starbase is a lot closer than they believed when they receive a signal from Starbase 47, known as Vanguard.
Docking there for repairs Kirk and Spock soon become involved in a conspiracy of silence that surrounds Vanguard. The creation of a massive base so close to the uncharted Taurus Reach is strange enough but when one of the ships assigned to Vanguard is destroyed and a nearby base is attacked, Commodore Reyes enlists Kirk's help to find out what is going on in the Reach. However, what they discover is a part of an ancient puzzle that threatens all life in the galaxy.
Vanguard is a great story set in the Star Trek universe and brings us a whole new crew and a new area of space to explore. Kind of like classic Trek's version of Deep Space Nine, Vanguard is a huge city in space with an intriguing crew from the complex commanding officer Commodore Reyes, JAG Captain Rana Desai, the elusive and secretive Vulcan T'Prynn and a host of other humans ranging from FNS reporter Tim Pennington, traders like Cervantes Quinn and the deliciously notorious Orion, Ganz, with his crew of assorted alien bodyguards and eliminators.
The story itself actually weaves into the continuity beautifully and there are several nods to events mentioned in classic Trek and it also features appearances from characters like M'Benga and D'Amato. Scotty's first encounter with `green' is priceless.
The story has a lot to lay down and sets the roots out for the coming books and gives the reader a taste of the mystery that lies at the heart of the Taurus Reach. The ideas are fresh, the dialogue sharp and the overall feel is that of a good solid action packed Trek episode.
All this plus appearances from both the Klingons and the Tholians and you have a highly entertaining read. At over 400 pages of small text it's enough to hold your attention and it will certainly have you reaching for Vanguard: Summon The Thunder as soon as you've turned the last page.
Engage!

An interesting new Trek series
Pocket Books has launched a new series of Star Trek books, set during the early period of Kirk's time. The series is Star Trek: Vanguard, and the first book, Harbinger is an excellent start. Written by David Mack, one of the premier authors of the line, it carries an interesting concept, some rather unique (at least for Star Trek) characters, and some wonderful plotting. It definitely leaves me waiting impatiently for the next book.

Starbase 47, also known as Vanguard, is a station way out beyond Federation space, in a zone sandwiched between the Klingon Empire and Tholian space. Built very quickly, it also has a secret purpose, one which only a few members of Starfleet's hierarchy know. Captain Kirk is bringing the Enterprise back from the edge of the galaxy, after the events of the television episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before." The ship is battered, his friend is dead at his own hand, and Kirk just wants to get home and refit. He discovers that the Vanguard station is along their way home, and is much closer than limping back to Federation space, so he takes the Enterprise there. When he gets there, his suspicions are aroused by the reluctance of Commodore Reyes to answer his questions about why the station is out there, and he becomes determined to get to the bottom of what's going on.

Let me start right away by saying that, while a lot of the description of the above was about Kirk, this is *not* his book. Kirk and the Enterprise are only in this book to do a "hand-off" to the crew and characters of Vanguard, much like the appearance of Picard in Deep Space Nine's pilot. This is the raw rookie Kirk, not yet the legend, and people don't kowtow to him (though he isn't above bullying his way in anyway). Reyes shoots him down quite quickly when Kirk begins demanding answers. I quite liked Reyes' character, as he has quite a few flaws, but he is loyal to his crew and to Starfleet, as well as harboring a secret or two of his own. I loved the scenes between Kirk and him, where Mack illustrates the differences between the two commanders.

Mack handles the other characters brilliantly too, introducing them all in scenes that don't sink to "info-dump" level, instead having their initial scenes flow from the characters themselves. Pennington, the Federation News Service reporter, is having an affair with one of the officers on the Bombay (a ship assigned to Vanguard), whose husband happens to be a crewmember on the Enterprise. He's a reporter with a keen eye for a story, and a willingness to dig very deep if necessary. Throughout the book, Pennington's life goes from a great high at the beginning of the book to a deep low as events happen. By the time the inevitable happens and he begins to think his life can't get any worse, the reader has grown to care about him a great deal. He is probably one of the best new characters in the book, but he is not the only one.

This crew is not your typical Star Trek crew. This is a time where the utopia of the Next Generation series hasn't happened yet, and the Federation is still in danger of falling to an outside threat if they're not careful. The characters are not perfect, and some have really deep flaws. Not only that, but Mack doesn't present us with the normal "captain, first officer, chief engineer, etc" crew. Reyes is the commander, we briefly see the first officer, but he's not a main character. Instead, we have a reporter, a merchant/smuggler (for those of you familiar with the old Trek series, think Cyrano Jones), an Orion crime lord, a Federation diplomat and his assistant (the assistant also being a Klingon spy) and a Starfleet Intelligence agent, among others. This eclectic mix just adds to the story possibilities.

As for the plot, Starfleet has discovered something mysterious and potentially valuable in the Taurus Reach (the area of space where Vanguard is), and it must be kept secret from the Klingons and Tholians. They desperately want to know what it is. This storyline will continue through the series, so we're not given too much information about this find, other than it appears to be a massive amount of raw data. The way Mack has written this first book, the ideas for where this story can go are endless, and they don't all have to revolve around this overarching plot. That's the sign of a good series, and I hope it continues.

In typical Mack fashion, Harbinger has quite a lot of death and destruction, but uncharacteristically, this only takes place in one scene. The rest of the book is quite character-based, introducing all of them and showing us how they are related. Mack writes these scenes almost flawlessly, with each one building strongly on the ones before it. He switches effortlessly between the numerous character threads, having them interact occasionally, and parceling out their secrets like he's awarding treats to the reader. It's quite effective in making you keep going, and I finished this book much more quickly than I usually do, as I couldn't put it down.

Harbinger makes a wonderful beginning to the Vanguard saga, and as Kirk and company head off back to Earth, I'm quite confident that the crew and residents of Starbase 47 can stand on their own numerous feet. David Mack's given them a good start, and the stars are the limit for where they can go. This is one of the best Trek books of the year.

David Roy

A promising start
A new addition to the Star Trek universe, set during Kirk's first mission, sees a new Federation station rushed into operation in a remote region of space. A mysterious find by a Federation survey mission creates the need for Vanguard as a research outpost backed up by three starships for research and border patrol. There are the usual alien races on offer but the most promising is Vanguards Vulcan intelligence officer who is good for a few surprises in a most un-Vulcan like way.
You might be thinking DS9 and there are similarities, instead of Cardassians and the Dominion we have the menace of the Klingons and the enigmatic Tholians bordering the space around Vanguard station. One of the highlights is probably the finest and heroic space battles I have encountered in a Trek book, the Author having a good grasp of when to focus on the combat, strategy and engineering side of things.
All in all well worth a read.