Star Trek #1644: Age of Unreason

PUBLICATION: Star Trek: S.C.E. #26, Pocket Books, March 2003

CREATORS: Scott Ciencin

STARDATE: None given, but following Wildfire, at the same time as Home Fires

PLOT: In the wake of the Wildfire disaster, anthropologist Carol Abramowitz and linguist Bart Faulwell are heading for their short leave options when they are diverted to Vrinda for a mission. A Federation citizen - an old rival of Carol's - is in custody for murder, and the dead scientist left only coded instructions on how to counter his newest invention, a bracelet that allows you to be several places at once, like a semi-tangible ghost. The Starfleet officers (Soloman joining them) agree to help two factions set up the counter antenna so that neither side has access, at a special peace ceremony which Carol must conduct. But she also needs to solve the murder lest her old enemy be executed by the barbarian warlord in charge. She only manages it by using the duplicating tech, which makes her realize the scientist isn't dead after all. Dodging literally shadowy assassins, Carol rumbles the scientist at the ceremony, exposing his plans to set up not a counter-agent, but a booster that would give everyone in the sector these powers.

CONTINUITY: Carol has a bottle booze she got from Rom. Before the mission, she's heading for a conference on Pacifica, a world mentioned a couple of times on TNG, most notably in Manhunt.

DIVERGENCES: I suppose we should mention how Carol's rival is named Martin Mansur, which sound a lot like another con man rival, Martus Mazur (from, funnily enough, the DS9 episode Rivals), but there is no connection between them.

SCREENSHOT OF THE WEEK - Jason Momoa as Lord Farhan Tanek

REVIEW: There is just way to much happening in this short ebook, which is, I must stress, even shorter than most of the S.C.E. series. And that's a problem when you're asked to understand an alien culture - it's based on being honest about your emotions, but I wanted to see more of an impact on their society - AND a complicated technobabble mystery (it all seems like magic to me). Not even sure what the "Age of Unreason" really is beyond the buzz word. A good role for Carol, but Soloman doesn't speak (or show up much) until the epilogue. He's just a tool because there's no way Bart can figure out the tech alone, so wasted in this series of "character builders". We learn something new about her at least - that she was robbed of discoveries by Mansur - but we don't really explore it beyond that. For only a few pages more, we could have made sense of their relationship and even his motivation (or did he just go mad?). I think the biggest disappointment is the character of Ian, who she meets in the first chapter. A lot of romantic potential and I liked their banter, but the mission interrupts them and he never reappears in the book series. I'm left with the Carol I started with: Someone I don't know very well, but who's job aboard ship interests me. Why is she so angry? We only see the tip of the iceberg. Definitely one of the S.C.E.s that make me feel the length, but the sad thing is, it didn't NEED to be THIS short.