Titan Books continue their series of novels based on classic Star Trek with #25: The Abode Of Life by Lee Correy. This novel is set some time in the fourth year of the Enterprise's five year mission (despite cover art to the contrary) and also sits between novel #1: Chain Of Attack and novel #18: The Final Nexus.
The Enterprise is exploring strange gravitational anomalies along the edge of the galactic arm when a massive gravimetric disturbance hurls the ship into the void between the Sagittarius and Orion arms, crippling the engines and leaving the ship stranded over 125 years away from the nearest planet.
As the crew make repairs and begin to limp their way back they detect a single star with a solitary class M planet in orbit. The world may just turn out to be their salvation but what they find is a people who believe that they are the sole life in the universe. When Kirk's landing party are captured by the Proctors and taken before the Guardians they discover that the world, Mercan, is deeply divided and on the verge of civil war.
To make matters worse, the sun, Mercaniad, is prone to violent solar activity and is now beginning to enter and active phase which will flood the whole system with a hyper concentrated form of berthold radiation.
Now Kirk must try to negotiate for the materials needed to repair the ship without breaking the Prime Directive or adding fuel to the fires of revolution that are already beginning to burn.
The Abode Of Life is a standard and entertaining piece of classic Trek fiction. Correy creates and interesting world in Mercan and populates it with some great characters which give the Enterprise crew some interesting people to play off. The dialogue is well written, McCoy has some great comebacks and the plot speeds along without getting too bogged down in ideological philosophy.
My only complaint is that the book doesn't really end. You know what will happen to the crew from the moment you end the first chapter but the return to home space is alluded to without actually being done which leaves you feeling like the story is missing the epilogue.
That aside, it's still a good read. Enjoy!
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- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 July 2008
