I've never totally loved the Original Series of Star Trek, just always seemed quite lame to me. And I'm not talking about the special effects. But this series of Star Trek Novels is just very cool on multiple levels.

This one is the fourth in the series. It both ties up a lot of the loose ends that the first trilogy brought up. Diego Reyes goes on trial for various things that resulted from him and Pennington, a journalist, doing some things during all the craziness.

Doctor Carol Marcus is added to the story as well. Which I thought was interesting. She being the one in one of the Star Trek Movies who created the Genesis planet.

That's one of the things that I really like about the Vanguard series. How well the authors weave the show's canon with what they're writing and make it semi-believable.

And the character I started reading the series because of, T'Prynn, also has a story line in this one. I'm not sure why, but I find that in general, whether it be Spok, Tuvok, or this T'Prynn, I always find the Vulcan characters very interesting. They have a delightful dichotomy to them. Very cool. Can't wait to get my hands on Precipice. The next book in the series. ( )

As far as action goes, I'd have to say this is the slowest of the Vanguard series so far. It's not bad, it just didn't catch me like the others did. T'Prynn's fate is somewhat resolved, as is Commodore Reyes'. Quinn is completely absent, though, and Pennington's involvement is minimal - a shame, really as I enjoyed these characters the most. ( )

Decisions made in the reach has repercussions to the Captain and crew.

An interesting side story to the Startrek universe but it seems somewhat forced as they cram to many side characters into the story. ( )

The Vanguard series continues from the cliffhanger at the end of Reap the Whirlwind, and that plotline was probably my favorite of the many strands running throughout this book. Though Commodore Reyes seemed less than active in his own defense, I feel that despite (or because of) that we learned more about him in this one book than in the previous three. The other plotlines continue to chug along, perturbed by the events of the Federation-Klingon War (as seen in "Errand of Mercy") but otherwise not incredibly remarkable, with the exception of the Pennington/T'Prynn story, which added another interesting layer to my favorite journalist. I'm never quite sure what to think of Vanguard, but I'll certainly be continuing along to Precipice.