STAR TREK _ DEPARTMENT OF TEMPORAL INVESTIGATIONS - WATCHING THE CLOCK

Pocket Books

Written by Christopher L. Bennett

Copyright © 2011 by CBS Studios Inc. Star Trek and related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. All Rights Reserved.



In Watching the Clock, written by Christopher L. Bennett - the first book of the Department of Temporal Investigations series - a series of temporal incursions threatens to open up a new front line from the Temporal Cold War. This has DTI agents Lucsly and Dulmur using their unimaginative government discipline in stopping the war.

This book makes reference to every time travel story that were ever written for Star Trek - from the books, the movies and all of the TV series, including stories from the animated TV series. You get to know DTI agents Lucsly and Dulmur, who were originally just minor characters from the Deep Space Nine TV episode Trials and Tribble-ations. Lucsly and Dulmur are now the major characters in both the book, and as well as in the Department of Temporal Investigations.

In the book you get to see the origin story of Dulmur, whose home life turns into ruins and eventually joins the Department of Temporal Investigations, that has it's origins on Earth, to effect temporal justice when Dulmur's efforts to catch a thief is thwarted by a temporal experiment which affected all of space by Dr. Paul Manheim.

As a fan of time travel stories, I happened to enjoy this book. While some of the science behind all the time travel theories may be over my head, I like the fact that Bennett involved all of the time travel stories - including the animated TV series which a lot of people do not really consider as really part of the Trek universe. While I find agent Lucsly rather rigid, his devotion to maintain a stable timeline is important in the temporal scheme of things. The villain at the very end of the book did not seem as strong as a villain as I would have expected the villain to be, but he seemed logical. The villain is definitely evil enough, especially when he targets a DTI agent.

Pancho 
All people smile in the same language.
 

YELLOW EYES

A Bean Books Original

Written by John Ringo & Tom Kratman

Copyright © 2007 by John Ringo & Tom Kratman



In Yellow Eyes, written by John Ringo & Tom Kratman - which is part of the Posleen War series/Legacy of the Aldenata - the Panama Canal is the target of the alien race Posleen. Without access to the Canal, the U.S. is doomed to defeat and starvation. With the U.S. already stretched to the limits in defending itself from the alien race Posleen, they can only afford to send some soldiers in advanced Armoured Combat Suits, some old rejuvenated U.S. Veterans and three old naval warships - and one of the warships is haunted.

It was great to see that the U.S. military worked with the local forces in defending Panama. I have never really understood or liked the fact that in the book there were traitors amongst the people of Central America to the human race and worked with the Posleen. And having an American soldier being forced to become a dictator to a country was rather disturbing to me, but at least the American was still fighting the Posleen.

The battle scenes are intense - and sadly there are consequences with the war amongst the spouses and girlfriends when several of the characters get killed. Rejuvenating old worn-out seniors from Panama into young combat ready veterans and having them leading the people of Panama is an awesome idea that I have rarely seen. The closest idea to this that I have seen was from the TV show Stargate SG-1. I liked the fact that one of the warships, the heavy cruiser U.S.S. Des Moines developed a personality when it was accidentally outfitted with an insane Posleen AI after it was refitted and the Des Moines eventually fell in love with her captain. The images the Des Moines AI created was very hot and the Des Moines eventually cared deeply for her crew, similar to how Rommie acted and felt in the TV show Andromeda.

Pancho
All people smile in the same language.