After 20 years of story… the ending begins here.
It’s tough not to feel a rush of melancholy popping open the cover of the first book in the Star Trek: Coda trilogy, the fabulous Moments Asunder by Dayton Ward.
I have been a loyal fan of Star Trek books and the expanding efforts by Simon & Schuster, CBS, and a legion of authors to continue the stories of our favorite characters beyond their respective series, from the moment that they launched.
I vividly remember receiving my copy of the first book in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine relaunch series, and being immediately enraptured by the possibilities that the books would hold by continuing the story of Deep Space Nine and its characters beyond the end of “What You Leave Behind.”
As the years went by, that excitement only grow – eventually The Next Generation and Voyager would get their own relaunches – and as the literary continuity grew, so did the book lines that all tied into one overarching narrative. The Star Trek literary continuity, the shared story that developed over the last 20 years, has been a constant presence in my life and served up so many terrific moments.
Whether it was seeing things we’d never seen before on screen — like a fist fight between a Jem’Hadar and a Hirogen, sweeping action packed adventures that totally shook up the Star Trek universe like Destiny, or introspective character pieces that allowed for relationships that the shows never cultivated, like that between Janeway and Chakotay —the books have served up as many thrilling adventures that have filled my imagination as Star Trek on television has.
And they helped keep my love of Star Trek alive, when Trek itself was off our television screens between the finale of Enterprise in 2005 and the launch of Discovery in 2017. Don’t get me wrong, I am thrilled to have Star Trek back on television more than I can say, and loving every moment of this new take on the expansion of the franchise and its legacy. But I cannot deny a certain sadness that the Star Trek literary continuity must end as a result, and so it took me a few minutes after sitting down to begin reading Moments Asunder, to actually open the book and begin to read.
As we discussed in our interview with Dayton Ward earlier this week, this trilogy is designed to provide a rousing finish to fans of this 20 year narrative. And though this is only book one, and the end game for how everything will be wrapped up is still unclear, I am pleased to report that this series is off to a terrific start.
Much to my embarrassment, I’ve never been a particularly fast reader. And it’s the rare book that will suck me in so completely that I am unable to put it down until I have finished it. David Mack’s Destiny trilogy accomplished that, as did the Section 31 novel Control. But I can now add Moments Asunder to that list, because it grabbed me in chapter one and wouldn’t release me all the way until the end.
Moments Asunder is a gripping book, imbued with shocking events, a surprising villain, some welcome character returns, and some gutting character deaths. The book focuses primarily on the Enterprise-E, and provides some important wrap up to lingering story threads from Ward’s TNG relaunch novels that he has been writing since 2015. In addition, the Aventine under the command of Captain Ezri Dax also has a sizable role to play in the story, but to say more would be to spoil it.
The whole story is imbued with a persistent and delicious sense of dread that hangs on every page. Dayton Ward masterfully used my melancholy about the end of the book series to magnify the ominous mood that clings to Moments Asunder. I was genuinely unsettled by it, in the best way, and its story is sitting with me a feel week after I finished.
In our interview, Ward expressed his hope that Moments Asunder would be accessible to new readers, even if it is the last chapter of a 20-year story. I was initially skeptical about that, and I wondered if it would feel like reading the last chapter of a book rather than an entry unto itself.
But I am pleased to report that I thought Moments Asunder was highly accessible to new fans who want to jump in on the excitement of this book series and see what all the fuss is about. You will obviously enjoy this story more if you have that background in the books, but a handy timeline of major events up front will set you straight. In addition, there’s nothing so dense or obscure in here that the only way to understand it is to read 17 previous novels.
If you want to get in on the action and see what everyone’s raving about and you’ve never read one of these novels in the Star Trek literary continuity, you won’t be lost starting with Moments Asunder.
To go deeper in my review, at this stage, would be to risk spoiling you, and I think this book deserves diving right in headfirst without knowing who the villain is, who the surprising character returns are, and who dies in shocking fashion. Dayton Ward is making a play in this novel to claim the title of ‘Angel of Death’ from his fellow collaborator David Mack, who was given that moniker for never shying away from killing characters.
There are a lot of deaths — but I won’t say any more about this here. My review of the next Coda novel, James Swallow’s The Ashes of Tomorrow, will have more details on what happened in Moments Asunder, but for now… buckle up!
Star Trek: Coda #1 — Moments Asunder is in stores now. James Swallow’s Star Trek: Coda #2 — The Ashes of Tomorrow arrives in October, followed by David Mack’s Star Trek: Coda #3 — Oblivion’s Gate in November.