Savage Trade (Star Trek: The Original Series)

The latest in a ever-growing line of updated TOS stories, this one centers around the Excalbians. The episode is memorable enough even though I hadn't seen it in quite some time. The Enterprise is pulled to an alien world where the inhabitants who are basically living rock put Kirk and Spock through a game in which they test the unknown concept of good and evil.Now, apparently, this encounter had a lasting effect of the Excalbians. The Enterprise is called to a remote nebula where an outpost has gone silent. They find that the outpost was raided by pirates and the personnel taken to be sold as slaves. The Enterprise goes into the nebula and manages to defeat the pirates and rescue everyone, but are surprised when they find that one of the ships is under siege from within by some very recognizable characters from Earth's history. It turns out some 50 odd Excalbians had escaped their world and sought asylum with the federation, out of fear the rest of their people would seek to destroy them. They have taken on the personas, most notably of George Washington, Benjamin Franklin, Galileo, and Admiral Nelson.While the Enterprise is returning everyone to the outpost and helping them upgrade their defenses, another ship arrives carrying a Vulcan woman named Valek, who was given administrative control over the situation and what to do about the Excalbians. It turns out she and her twin brother grew up with Spock, and there is a lot of backstory about how Valek was opposed to Sarek and Amanda's marriage and Spock being able to be with other Vulcan children because he was half human. Her twin on the other hand became Spock's friend and lab partner.Sulu and Chekov go on a reconnaissance mission into the nebula and find that there is more pirate activity, get into a fight with them, get damaged, and have to limp back at low warp with no communications. Their journey takes five weeks. The book mercifully fast-forwards through this time. There are a lot of discussions between Kirk and George Washington, Spock and Benjamin Franklin, and Kirk and Valek, who have a rather odd human-Vulcan flirtation. The middle part of this book frankly drags, and you'll be at least somewhat happy when it gets back to the action.Eventually Sulu and Chekov make it back, and the Enterprise with the Excalbians along for the ride in the captured pirate shops go into the nebula to confront the pirates. Many of the Excalbians are conveniently killed off in the firefight, but they prevail.When they return from the nebula, they find that Valek and the ship she came in were abducted. They track them down to find that the Excalbians have come looking for their missing people, but they themselves have been nearly destroyed by an entity called the Deimurge that feeds on consciousness. The Excalbians are about to give up, the Deimurge are unstoppable, but in true TOS fashion, Kirk makes a speech that gets them all riled up. In the ensuing battle Spock and Ben Franklin use a device stolen from the pirates that somehow defeats the Deimurge and at that point everybody basically lives happily ever after.Unfortunately this story is an example of what I've come to expect from these TOS "whatever happened to" stories. It's boring at times, has implausible plot lines, and in the end Kirk makes a speech and everything is wrapped up in a neat little bow and everything goes back to the way it was. It's possible that there is simply nowhere left to go with TOS and its characters. The main characters have been exposed for nearly 50 years, put through every situation imaginable, and at this point just about anybody could define who they all are and how they would react to anything. If any plotline at this point dared to stretch one of these characters beyond what is expected of them, they would be vilified. I suppose as a dedicated trekkie I'll keep reading these stories, but my enthusiasm is starting to wane and eventually I'm going to have to rethink spending my hard-earned money on these inferior stories.

The story was taken for an Original Series story line and then moved out a few years. The read was easy but I did have 3 real problems with the story line. The first being, without giving away anything, the way they took care of the aggressor alien in the end. The story didn't really explain very well how that was done. I could have missed it but still if it didn’t set in my mind was it really explained. The second was the Vulcan ambassador. She seemed too un-Vulcan like. There seemed to be a duality in her that was almost human. I think they tried to give the impression that being around Spock’s family may have had something to do with it. Lastly, they had a mash up of different story lines to being everyone together. Truthfully I’m not sure if it was 4 or 5 topics. I think I would have liked it better if they had concentrated more on one main topic with only a sub topic to fill in. They might have made a sequel or a trilogy out of it if they’d developed the story line a little more.As with most of the new writers today, writing about the old characters of the OS, I don’t get the impression that they even understand what made the team click. As you read the stories you don’t hear the voices of the characters. If they want to change a few things up even going with the revamped versions would still limit them on the changes to the characters. Some authors who wanted to expand have had new/other characters in the Trek universe with the main characters in the background. I think, maybe that it’s a confusing time for writers in the Trek world. They may not think so but someone watching the old shows and reading the original stories has a feel for the flow that someone just coming into the franchise does not get.

Tony Daniel's "The Savage Trade" brings back a race of creature we haven't seen since an episode of the Original Series, the Excalbian (last seen in "The Savage Curtain"). The concept for the most part is simple with the Enterprise traveling to Zeta Gibraltar trying to find out why it wasn't answering messages. Okay sounds like it could be a decent mystery and hopefully something will happen, right? Yes and no.When the Enterprise arrives they are greeted by a Vulcan named Valek, who has to the make the decision to allow the fleeing Excalbians asylum into the federation fold.Most of the book spends time on the crew getting to know the Excalbians and figuring out why they ran away and what they are up to. I found this part of the book really interesting as the Excalbians took the shape and form of our Founding Fathers (George Washington, Ben Franklin..etc)The writing seemed okay for all the character, except McCoy seemed a little off and most of this interacting was with a female excalbian that he was constantly having sex with and in between wondering if Captain Kirk has one of these women under his "belt". Very unlike McCoy to be honest.I guess the author was a big Bones fan and wanted to see him "get some" for once? (shrug)I will not ruin the rest of the book, but it was a good read up until the last few chapters when the author unveils the reasons behind everything and leaves you questioning everything.Will I read this again? No. Will I tell a friend to read this? Sure.

The author knows how to tell a story well, knows his science and history facts, and knows Star Trek intimately. What more could I ask for!

Esse, lamento dizer, foi difícil de terminar a leitura. Excalbians encarnam personagens da História da Terra, com variações de posições e atitudes num vai e vem sem fim. Achei cansativo e entendiante. E olha que TOS é uma paixão minha. Por isso, lamento ter que fazer essa avaliação, ainda que curta.

Totally enjoyed this novel.

Fine story expanded from an episode easy to get into really enjoyed it. Hope they write more looking forward to seeing more

A good addition to the Star Trek story cannon. Nicely worked story with accurate characterisation. Felt the introduction of a random baddy , the Demiurge in the last couple of chapters was a bit of a stretch but overall enjoyable.