David Mack (undifferentiated): Star Trek : Vanguard #1 : Harbinger (2012, Pocket Books)
400 pages
English language
Published Jan. 6, 2012 by Pocket Books.
Returning from its historic first voyage to the edge of the galaxy, the damaged USS Enterprise journeys through the Taurus Reach, a vast and little-known region of space in which a new starbase has been unexpectedly established. Puzzled by the Federation's interest in an area so far from its borders and so near the xenophobic Tholian Assembly, Captain James T. Kirk orders the Enterprise to put in for repairs at the new space station: Starbase 47, also known as Vanguard. As Kirk ponders the mystery of the enormous base, he begins to suspect that there is much more to Vanguard than meets the eye. It's a suspicion shared by the Tholians, the Orions, and the Klingon Empire, each of whom believes that there are less than benign motives behind the Federation's sudden and unexplained desire to explore and colonize the Taurus Reach. But when a calamity deep within the Reach …
Returning from its historic first voyage to the edge of the galaxy, the damaged USS Enterprise journeys through the Taurus Reach, a vast and little-known region of space in which a new starbase has been unexpectedly established. Puzzled by the Federation's interest in an area so far from its borders and so near the xenophobic Tholian Assembly, Captain James T. Kirk orders the Enterprise to put in for repairs at the new space station: Starbase 47, also known as Vanguard. As Kirk ponders the mystery of the enormous base, he begins to suspect that there is much more to Vanguard than meets the eye. It's a suspicion shared by the Tholians, the Orions, and the Klingon Empire, each of whom believes that there are less than benign motives behind the Federation's sudden and unexplained desire to explore and colonize the Taurus Reach. But when a calamity deep within the Reach threatens to compromise Starfleet's continued presence in the region, Kirk, Spock, and several key specialists from the Enterprise must assist Vanguard's crew in investigating the cause of the disaster and containing the damage. In the process, they learn the true purpose behind the creation of Vanguard, and what the outcome of its mission may mean for life throughout that part of the galaxy.
a good start to a series, but definitely slow as they introduce every character in turn.
the pacing throughout this and the following books picks up which is good.
This is the first book in the Vanguard series. Set in the early days of the original series at the very beginning of Kirk’s command of the USS Enterprise this series focuses on Vanguard, a huge space station perched at the very edge of Federation territory in an area of space known as the Taurus Reach, located between the Klingon Empire and the Tholian Assembly.
As a means of introducing Vanguard and it’s crew to readers they bring the Enterprise limping into base after the events of the episode “Where No One Has Gone Before”. In spite of the fact that this was written well before the re-imagining of Star Trek by J.J. Abrams, the portrayal of Captain Kirk as a skirt-chasing hothead seems to fit very well with Chris Pine’s Kirk.
There are certain parallels between Vanguard and DS9, including the fact that it’s a big space station at …
This is the first book in the Vanguard series. Set in the early days of the original series at the very beginning of Kirk’s command of the USS Enterprise this series focuses on Vanguard, a huge space station perched at the very edge of Federation territory in an area of space known as the Taurus Reach, located between the Klingon Empire and the Tholian Assembly.
As a means of introducing Vanguard and it’s crew to readers they bring the Enterprise limping into base after the events of the episode “Where No One Has Gone Before”. In spite of the fact that this was written well before the re-imagining of Star Trek by J.J. Abrams, the portrayal of Captain Kirk as a skirt-chasing hothead seems to fit very well with Chris Pine’s Kirk.
There are certain parallels between Vanguard and DS9, including the fact that it’s a big space station at the Federation’s edge, with a diverse cast of characters that is introduced by bringing the flagship there and having the crews mingle. On the other hand, in some ways it’s even darker than DS9, while at the same time retaining a bit of that... something special that made a campy tv show from 4 decades ago still a driving force in the cultural and media landscape.
