The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh

March 14, 1974-November 9, 1989

A must for die-hard Trekkies, volume 1 of the Eugenics War books fills in the origins of Khan (TOS- which I believe is now referred to as the Prime Universe as opposed to the Alternate Universe of the new films) as well as filling in all of the gaps of the 1970 and 1980's Trek Universe history.

The book focuses on Gary Seven and his assistants Roberta and the mysterious cat Isis, characters who had originally been meant to have their own television series. Greg Cox nicely fulfills the potential of the characters by fleshing out a variety of situations that fit the campiness of the sixties spy duo without sacrificing the seriousness most fans feel about the continuity of the Trek timeline.

The largest complaint about this book is Cox's constant pop culture references, inserted to validate the chronology of the stories (which are already updated at the top of each chapter). Although occasionally cute or relevant, they mostly serve to prove that Greg Cox has a tongue-in-cheek humor and knowledge (or wikipedia access) to the top movies and books of the seventies and eighties.

The most satisfying part of the book is, in fact, Khan's growth into adulthood. The Rise of Khan, arguably the point of the novel, is a difficult task to tackle, having recently been so mishandled in the origin of his contemporary Anakin Skywalker. Although Cox borrows many of the same pages from Lucas, Khan gets his chance to be a bad-ass Sikh, and it is thoroughly enjoyable- and never drawn out.

Destroyermen

March, 1942

Destroyermen


My thumbnail review:

An entertaining read with equal parts science fiction escapism and a loving treatment of WWII naval heroes, Into the Storm was fun enough to continue on with the series but too light for a serious recommendation.

If that satisfies your curiosity, you should stop reading here. If the word 'Lizardmen' peakes your interest, read on.

Once again, militarism smacks me in the face with technical lingo and a lot of sweaty men living together on a boat in this Navy based saga. But these books are a loving tribute to the Destroyers of old, and even when the details should bore me I am held rapt by a narration rich in respect and tribute for World War II sea craft.

The main characters are straight out of some kind of old fashioned black and white serial adventure. The strong and silent captain, aided by the resiliant nurse, both of them aching with longing for each other but afraid of the ramifications of their emotions. Where the battle scenes thrive on a love of high seas adventure, so do the crew and their "lovable" personalities. It should all be very cliche', and yet it works because the author so fully believes in it himself and simply wants you to share in his fun, camp as it may be.

Oh yes, and there are lizardmen. The plot is simple and probably written on the dust jackets. WWII Navy Destroyer disappears in battle with the Japanese, only to reappear in an alternate history earth populated by lemur-cat people who are systematically being slaughtered by a race of lizardmen. The sailors, for lack of something better to do (like getting home or finding human women) pick a side and join in battle.

The lemur-cat-people were my biggest turn-off. A lot of time is spent describing how beautiful and great their primitive culture is, but furry primitives will always bring me back to how the Ewoks killed Star Wars by regressing a culture that was so great because of how alien and advanced it was. Now, it's not to say the lemurs aren't in some ways cool and fun characters, but you know me- I want something crazy and different to take me to the next level. I guess I prefer a blaster to hokey religions.

Now the lizard dudes: Yes, yes yes. For the most part these guys are also predictable (well, we've seen evil lizards before, right?). But this particular batch of dinosaur descendants are especially cruel and awful, in a way that makes our fun sailors throw up on each other when they see the slaughter houses. Everyone loves an enemy that you can hate- it's a simple formula but one that too often gets diluted or forgotten.

I won't review each issue of the first trilogy- they pretty much carry on an ongoing serial about the adventures of US sailors in an alien land. There is a second series out now, but I probably won't read it until I come back around to WWII when I have grandchildren. I very much enjoyed these fun stories, but can wait another ten years to find out what happens.