Product Description

The Taurus Reach: a remote interstellar expanse that holds a very old and potentially cataclysmic secret, the truth of which is feared by the Tholians, coveted by the Klingons, and dubiously guarded by the Federation. At the centre of this intrigue is Vanguard, a Federation starbase populated by an eclectic mix of Starfleet officers and civilians whose lives are forever altered as they explore the layers of mystery surrounding the Reach and steadily peel them away...But deep within the Taurus Reach, an ancient and powerful alien mind has awakened prematurely from aeons of hibernation, alerted to the upstart civilisations now daring to encroach upon the worlds in her care. With the stakes for all sides escalating rapidly, the alien lashes out with deadly force against the interlopers, propelling the Vanguard crew on a desperate race to understand the nature of the attacker and to prevent the Taurus Reach from becoming a war zone.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #197643 in Books
• Published on: 2006-08-07
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 420 pages

About the Author
Kevin Dilmore has been a contributor to Star Trek Communicator magazine since 1997. Teaming up with Dayton Ward, their several Star Trek novels include two of the popular Next Generation A Time To... series: A Time to Sow (0743482999) and A Time to Harvest (0743482980)

Customer Reviews

"Oh my god, the planet's going to explode!"
Pocket Books continue their series of novels based on Classic Star Trek with the second in their new Vanguard series, Summon The Thunder written by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore.
This novel is set one month after the events of the first book, harbinger, which makes it around the time of `The Corbomite Manoeuvre / Mudd's Women' in the show.
Following on from the repercussions of Harbinger, Commodore Reyes finds that Starfleet has only just begun to uncover the mystery of the Taurus Reach and the meta genome. Lt. Xiong is dispatched to the frozen world of Erilon when the research team there are attacked by an unknown alien life form and the ship is destroyed by some planetary defence weapon. With help from the SCE, he is determined to find out what these ancient artifacts are.
The Klingons and Tholians are also on the brink of war and Ambassador Jetanien has his hands full with the race's respective delegations on the station. When a Klingon world in the Reach is also attacked, the fires of war threaten to overwhelm the sector.
Cervantes Quinn has taken FNS reporter Tim Pennington under his wing. Feeling somewhat guilty for what he did to him Quinn finds himself between a rock and a hard place when conflicting favours from both T'Prynn and Ganz place both him and Tim in a nasty situation.
When relations between the Tholians, Klingons and the Federation dissolve, the Taurus Reach looks set to become a battleground and another race is observing them all, waiting for its chance to strike.
Like Harbinger, this book is a great read, well paced, sharp dialogue, interesting characters and really draws the reader into the world that has been created. The relationships between the characters are further developed and more pieces to the meta genome puzzle are slowly delivered in a way that makes you read on to find out what happens next.
Ward and Dilmore handle the complex group with skill and give us a couple of excellent battles as well. The end of the book leaves you wanting more and you'll be getting your hands on the third book `Reap The Whirlwind' as soon as possible.

A strong sequel
This had a lot to live up to, being the sequel to David Mack's Harbinger, and I think it largely succeeded.

I've seen complaints that a lot of main characters play too small a role, in favour of new secondary characters in this book. While I think that's a fair assessment, I also don't think it's a bad thing.

With the station and its main characters now established, the authors have done a superb job of carrying on with the main mission - to unlock the mysteries of the Taurus Reach, while introducing us to other main players (such as the crew of Endeavour). Dilmore and Ward manage to tease us with some pretty big plot developments, but still leaving more than enough intrigue for the overall arc.

There's plenty of action in the book, and the scenes, by and large, are well paced. There's still a considerable body count in this book, as with Harbinger, which again gives that sense of danger and urgency - and is also quite reminiscent of the redshirt death count in the original series.

Two main characters that I believe benefited from this book have to be Pennington and Quinn. Their storyline in this book added some well placed humour, and they've taken on a kind of Odd Couple dynamic, which is quite interesting and reminds me of the antagonistic relationships such as Odo and Quark or Neelix and Tuvok.

I do have some minor niggles about this book though: It took me a while to get into this, and the first couple of chapters felt like hard work. As soon as I was into the main action though, the book gathers a lot of momentum that doesn't really let up until the end.

There was a little too much repetition for my liking; lots of people 'musing', for instance. The recaps from Harbinger did occupy some sizeable paragraphs, especially early on in the book. Also, these thoughtful wanderings would appear in between two lines of speech, forcing me on a few occasions to backtrack to see what was originally said.

Some paragraphs - and even sentences - went on too long, which sometimes broke the pace of a chapter, and on occasion the word order of certain sentences seemed a little back-to-front, causing me to stumble over a sentence. This especially seemed true during some of the action scenes; the one with Quinn and Pennington on Broon's ship losing me completely, for instance.

In its favour, the book is divided into relatively easy to read chunks, at around 50 chapters, and is definitely a worthy sequel to Harbinger. I'm looking forward to Reap the Whirlwind picking up from where this book left off.