Rate this book

The Romulan War: Beneath The Raptor's Wing (2006)

by Michael A. Martin(Favorite Author)

3.65 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

143910798X (ISBN13: 9781439107980)

languge

English

genre

Science Fiction

publisher

Star Trek

series

Star Trek: Enterprise

review 1: After vague hints in other Star Trek lines, this finally details the Earth/Romulan war. This is so early that it pre-dates the Federation, set in the era of the Coalition of Planets. The Enterprise is the NX-01 under Jonathan Archer.The batle is grim, and Earth and Starfleet have many challenges ahead of them, especially when Vulcan pulls out of the fight. There are vague references to things that come up later in Kirk's era, and even a DS9 foreshadowing. It's an enjoyable book about the early days of the Star Trek universe. My only complaint is that, like so many other sci fi series, politics is starting to outweigh action.A good read for Star Trek and general sci fi fans.
review 2: Beneath the Raptor's Wing is next in the Romulan War series of books with... morein the Star Trek Enterprise franchise and continues the narrative following Kobayashi Maru. The war is not going well for the Coalition, all of the advanced races within it are vulnerable to the Romulan telecapture weapon leaving Earth to stand largely alone. Meanwhile, the Romulans are dealing with their own internal political issues concerning the war. Vulcan is helping the war effort, but not directly and Andoria and Tellar are taking devastating losses due to their vulnerability to the telecapture device.This book is a little difficult to read in that it jumps around quite a bit and has a large number of characters to keep track of. Further compounding this is the authors constant use of the Romulan language leaving the reader to guess as to the meaning. As for the content, parts of it are a bit baffling, especially that of Travis Mayweather who has no idea what a no win situation is nor does he understand why Archer did what he did with the Kobayashi Maru and thus pouts until he is reassigned. Indeed, the Kobayashi incident is resonating with many crew members who apparently would have wanted Enterprise to be captured with the Kobayashi Maru rather than retreating and leaving the freighter to its fate.Beneath the Raptor's Wing views the ongoing war from multiple sides. The reader has the chance to see it from the perspective of the Romulan's, or at least their political leaders and fleet commanders. With Earth, we see two different news correspondents present the war from different perspectives, one favoring pacifism the other screaming about Starfleet not being everywhere every time. This leads to military leaders pressuring the news publication to have them tone it down or else they will have their access pulled. On Vulcan, and by extension Trip, events are not always as they appear and that opens up more story elements regarding his, hopefully temporary, career change.This was certainly an "Okay" book if you don't mind the jumping around or mile-long list of characters introduced. I did find the crew of Enterprise, and Starfleet's, response to the Kobayashi Maru incident a bit odd. Archer faced either the destruction of his ship AND Kobayashi Maru or just the Kobayashi Maru, there was no way to save them and keep Enterprise out of Romulan hands, when the ship's systems were slowly being taken over by the telecapture device. Several on Enterprise don't understand this and demand to be put off the ship. Starfleet makes the incident known, but doesn't release information on the telecapture device, thus leaving Archer to becoming one of the most despised people in Starfleet. However, we do see the explanation of how we go from the Star Trek Enterprise look to the more retro look of the Original Series because of the telecapture device. Beneath the Raptor's Wing is worth a read, but don't expect too much out of it. less

Download links for: The Romulan War: Beneath the Raptor's Wing

Advertising