Michael A. Martin’s Star Trek: Enterprise: The Romulan War – Beneath the Raptor’s Wing takes place shortly following the events of the fourth season of Star Trek: Enterprise, in which Romulan aggression caused the Humans, Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites to band together for mutual protection. Martin’s novel picks up following further Romulan conquests, including the destruction of the Kobayashi Maru in a battle where Captain Jonathan Archer of the Enterprise NX-01 discovered that the Romulans have the ability to remotely seize control of opposing ships and use them against the crews. Vulcan further complicates matters as they withdraw from the Coalition in order to safeguard the secret of their common heritage with the Romulans and the fact that the Romulans can easily control Vulcan ships due to this heritage. Unknown to the Andorians and Tellarities, they share this weakness as they developed some of their technology from reverse-engineering Vulcan technology. Starfleet struggles on, trying to counter Romulan hostilities both to protect Earth and the human colonies as well as to maintain the Coalition.

Martin includes various references to Trek characters from throughout the early continuity, with some characters appearing or being mentioned previously on Enterprise, others in prior Pocket Star Trek novels, and even Tobin Dax, an early host for the Dax symbiont on Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. He creates an epic scale worthy of Game of Thrones by moving throughout the galaxy, with scenes playing on on Romulus, Vulcan, Andor, Tellar, Earth, various colonies, and behind the closed doors of political briefings as well as on the frontlines with war correspondents. At times, the regular use of alien words phrases from several different fictional cultures can disorient the reader, but it also adds a certain verisimilitude. My only complaint is that the promotional description of the novel did not adequately make clear that it takes place in a story already underway. Though Beneath the Raptor’s Wing is the second in the Romulan War duology, it draws extensively upon Martin and Andy Mangels’s three previous Enterprise novels, Last Full Measure, The Good That Men Do, and Kobayashi Maru. Other than this, the story is a worth continuation of Star Trek: Enterprise and gives readers a glimpse of the fifth season the show foreshadowed. ( )

I tried to think of a concise way to relate the initial plot of this book. The problem is, (besides my lack of writing skills) is that this novel is half a story that takes place after one or two other novels. (Not to mention four seasons of television episodes.) Although Mr. Martin does bring the reader up to speed, I'm a bit stymied as to how to pull off a similar feat here. So let me simply put it this way: The crew of the Earth ship Enterprise (NX-01) fight against Romulans. Mr. Martin tells the tale in a way I liked from Harry Turtledove's Timeline-191 series, capturing the events of the larger conflict from the viewpoints of different characters. However, I didn't find many of the characters very compelling and would much rather have read a tale that only featured the Enterprise crew.
--J. ( )

While there was no formal declaration of war between the Earth Coalition forces and the Romulan Star Emprire, they are at war. Learn why the Vulcans were reluctant to enter the war on Earth's side. Yet learn how their spies wreaked havok on the Romulans See how the Enterprise and Captain Archer earned redemption after the Koyashi Maru affair. Learn how Politics inside of the Romulan Empire influenced decisions in the war. ( )

It's been a few years since I have read a Star Trek book, something that I attribute mainly to the fact that there have become too many different titles of Star Trek books floating around.

I started up again with Star Trek: Enterprise: The Romulan War: Beneath the Raptor's Wing (and can you get any more colons into a book title than that?). I am not a fan of military science fiction, or really military books of any sort. However, I did enjoy watching Star Trek: Enterprise, and the subject of the Romulan War is an interesting one, despite the fact that novels are never concerned canon.

Making this book more interesting to me is the political intrigue throughout the book, and the fact that it doesn't follow only the Enterprise, or even the major characters of the series. It contains the aspect from Earth and Mars, journalists covering the war, and the Tellarite, Vulcan, and Andorian political angles, as well as what is going on in the Romulan empire.

The book does not contain the entire aspect of the war, with it ending in such a way that it's apparent there will be at least a second part of the war, if not a complete series.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, and it was a good welcome back to the Star Trek universe for me. ( )