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The Rings Of Time (2012)

by Greg Cox(Favorite Author)

3.84 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

1451655479 (ISBN13: 9781451655476)

languge

English

genre

Science Fiction

publisher

Pocket Books/Star Trek

review 1: The Rings of Time brings together a superbly rich tapestry of Trek lore from across the vast tapestry of the Trek Universe and a space program in our not to distant future. The book opens with the crew of the USS Lewis and Clark engaging in their first manned flight to Saturn. The 2020 NASA space flight is manned by astronaut Colonel Shaun Christopher whose surname may be very familiar to Trek fans, he is the son of Captain John Christopher, a U.S. Air Force pilot who had a brush with the U.S.S. Enterprise after the ship went through a time warp that brought them to the late 1960s in the episode Tomorrow Is Yesterday. This character gets mentioned by the crew of the Enterprise later in the book, more on that in a moment.The author, Greg Cox, is renown and lauded for hi... mores well researched novels, not only in all things Trek, but any other items he will need to tie into a story. The Rings of Time is an exceptional example of this. I was astounded by the brilliantly detailed ship, launch, departure and flight of the USS Lewis and Clark, but also but the intensely alluring view of the crew as they move through the solar system and arrive at Saturn. This detail is drawn from a plethora of material that Cox cites in his bibliography at the end of the book.Whether the reader is a newbie to Trek and this is their first novel, or a veteran Trekkie picking it up, the allure is in the opening sequences and its relative closeness to our own time. We are presented with many similar issues the 2020 crew has with the NASA space program as we do today. In 2020 many private companies are now leading in the development of space flight, currently happening, and the social and political climate is relatively the same if not a tad worse. In a similar vein this 2020 flight to Saturn is a much a drive to drum interest in the NASA space program as I feel the current news about the Mars Curiousity rover is today. There are enough references to Khan, and related Trek items, plus a lot of pop culture references to keep the reader drawn in and connected to. The item that syncs the two stories together is the probe. The Enterprise rushes to the aide of a ringed planet, not entirely dissimilar from Saturn, which has a mining colony on the orbiting moon that is being assaulted by the destabilizing rings. Each crew, Christopher's and Kirks, both encounter a strange alien probe in their respective timeframes. The book flips back and forth between the events of 2020, the Enterprise and both Kirk and Christopher. As each crew sets outs to examine the strange probe, Kirk and Christopher both touch the alien hieroglyphs on the probe, and BLAM! This is how they manage to swap bodies across time and space.When this occurs and we have Kirk's memories and mind in the body of Christopher and vice versa it is fully believable to me to envision each character within the body of the other. I mean that when we have Kirk in the body of Christopher and interacting with the 2020 crew I don't see Kirk in my mind, I see Christopher with Kirk animating it. This is how it is described and what ensues are the problems with Kirk's knowledge of the future and his struggle to maintain a course within the limits of 2020. This is also the case when Christopher awakes in Kirk's body and his anxiety of the situation. Only certain crew members know what is going on, plus you have those Enterprise staff who recall the encounter with Shaun's father, the Captain in Tomorrow is Yesterday.The events of each era present challenges not only to the crews involved but primarily how Kirk and Christopher react and can assist in their respective time frames. I really felt that the struggle of Kirk and Christopher, not only in swapped bodies but in different time and space, was exceptionally written, plus the mutual respect each gain for the other's surroundings. How this gets resolved I will not spoil, it appeared to be the natural and logical choice on how to swap Kirk and Christopher back. I did feel that the end was too neatly tied up and the cause of the challenges each crew experienced a bit to easy. This very successful, fantastically told story has a bit of twist at the end that some previous reviewers were not entirely happy with and I have to agree, it is a bit to pat and neat. Overall tho' I give it 5 stars and highly recommend it
review 2: Star trek meets classic sci-fi story-telling...,I really liked this approach of showing a new facet of the star trek universe; if the mission of the USS Lewis & Clark in 2020 reminded me many times of Arthur C. Clarke's ground-breaking Space Odysseys, so had it much more characterization and philosophy in it, which always were part of good star trek yarn. But the story also takes political, social and economic issues in account, such as the ramifications the present day economic crisis would have to such an ambitious space mission merely 8 years from now and mixes it with star trek historic footnotes. Also the problems to body and mind Colonel Shaun Christopher and Captain James T. Kirk experienced respectively, misplaced in time with the unfamiliar environmental conditions they find themselves in was believable described. The plot paced at Stardate 7103.4 at the mining colony Klondike VI, which is orbiting a ringed gas giant not unlike Saturn read like an Action scifi-movie full of special effects and offers the reader a glimpse how an astronaut out from 2020 may experience the future of the 23rd century . All in all one of the best classic Star trek yarn I was reading in a while and maybe of the best in respects of classical science fiction I can only highly recommend "The Rings of Time" by Greg Cox. less

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