Notice...

The purpose of this blog is to have a little fun. It is NOT to start arguments. I don't profess to be an expert on Sci-fi, nor do I aspire to become an expert. You are welcome to comment on any and all content you find here. If my opinion differs from yours, as far as I am concerned, it's all okay. I will never say that you are wrong because you disagree with me, and I expect the same from those that comment here. Also, my audience on the blog will include some young people. Please govern your language when posting comments.

Posts will hopefully be regular based on the movies I see, the television shows I watch, and the books I read as well as what ever strikes me as noteworthy.


***SPOILER ALERT***
Spoilers will appear here and are welcome.

Autograph Collecting

Monday, May 23, 2022

Moments Asunder - Star Trek: Coda Book 1 by Dayton Ward - Mayhem Ensues From An Old Foe

Moments Asunder - Star Trek: Coda Book 1 by Dayton Ward

On April 23, 2022, I made a trek to Kansas City to attend Planet Comicon. My mission was two-fold; first I took part on a panel with my friend, Troy Rutter on Autograph Collecting. The second part of my mission was to meet Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore, authors of Star Trek literature. The panel, while not well attended, was a success. Meeting two of my favorite authors was also successful, and I returned home with an autographed copy of Moments Asunder, the first book in the new Coda series penned by Dayton. The next two books in the series include The Ashes of Tomorrow by James Swallow and, finally, Oblivion's Gate by David Mack.

This story introduces a conundrum with the return of a nemesis from ST: TNG, who has become stronger and more dangerous. In reality, this series avoids a problem of breaking continuity in the Trek timeline and resolve new ideas that have been presented in the Picard television series. So, moving forward, there will be continued consistency in future books.

It is hard to write about Moments because nearly everything I might say would be a spoiler. This story is so full, it never slows down and all the while urged me on to reading more. If you read this book, don't blink, you'll miss something. 

Moments is, as always, with Dayton's stories, well written, logical, engaging, and highly entertaining.

In order to avoid any undue spoilers, I'll quote the blurb from the back of the book...

Starfleet's Finest faces a challenge unlike any other...

Tomorrow is doomed...

Time is coming apart. Countless alternate and parallel realities are under attack, weakening and collapsing from relentless onslaught. If left unchecked, the universe faces an unstoppable descent toward entropy.

Wanderer, Oracle, Ally...

Scarred and broken after decades spent tracking the escalating temporal disaster, while battling the nameless enemy responsible for it, an old friend seeks assistance from Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the Starship Enterprise. The apocalypse may originate from their future, but might the cause lie in the past?

Everything that will be...

Identifying their adversary is but the first step toward defeating them, but early triumphs come with dreadful costs. What will the price be to achieve final victory, and how will that success be measured in the futures as yet undefined?

What is most impressive about Moments is how Dayton dovetails the past books and episodes from Trek into this one opening tale in the continuing adventures of the Enterprise. All the characters we have come to know over the years are in play here along with those we have also come to know through the literary continuation in the expanded universe.

Lives and situations have changed over the years, but the characters have grown through their experiences. With introducing multiple timelines in this book, we get an array of varied living situations that is satisfyingly familiar to those of use who have taken the time to read the many books in the expanded Trek universe.

This alone is a strong point in Moments, but there is so much more.

My favorite point of plot for this amazing story is the opening of the book. We return to a place from the past where a character is trying to get answers, but the answers are all couched in unspecific riddles that only breed more questions. "By all that was. By all that will be," is all the questioner will get. The rest of the story shows the meaning of this cryptic statement.

In the pages that follow this opening, there are more twists and turns that San Francisco's Lombard Street and would be nearly as difficult to navigate without the brilliant writing by the author. It is Dayton's depth of knowledge in the Trek universe that drives this story forward. It is a complicated story made clear. Let's face it, stories set in multiple timelines can be difficult to understand, but that is not the case here.

My takeaway from Moments Asunder is that the past is prologue. Whatever has come before will come again. This tale most assuredly illustrates that quote from Shakespeare's play, The Tempest.

Moments Asunder is loaded with great character driven story, familiar characters (it's almost like getting a visit from old friends), and plot twists galore all wrapped in a package that moves at breakneck speed. Once you pick this one up, it will be nearly impossible to set aside. Yeah, it's that good.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐


Dayton, me, and Kevin
Planet Comicon 2022

"Dayton Ward understands and forgives readers who skip over the "About the Author" pages. It's easy to gloss right past them. Besides, a lot of them can be kind of pretentious, with the author listing everything they've ever written, along with the names of every cat they've rescued from a tree. Dayton hates being that guy, even though he really digs cats.

"What Dayton can tell you is that his first Star Trek "expanded universe" story was written in the early 1980s, and you'll be thrilled to know it remains unpublished. Indeed, the story itself doesn't even exist anymore. All copies have been burned, and all witnesses have been silenced. You're welcome.

"If you've made it this far, let Dayton know by visiting him on the web at DaytonWard.com, where you can read about all the stuff he's written and thank him for sparing you the pain of yet another long, drawn-out "About the Author" page."

That was from the end of Moments Asunder. In reality, Dayton Ward is the New York Times bestselling author or coauthor of nearly forty novels and novellas, often working with his best friend, Kevin Dilmore. His short fiction has appeared in more than twenty anthologies, and he’s written for magazines such as NCO Journal, Kansas City Voices, Famous Monsters of Filmland, Star Trek, and Star Trek Communicator, as well as the websites Tor.com, StarTrek.com, and Syfy.com. A native of Tampa, Florida, he currently lives in Kansas City, Missouri with his wife and two daughters. Visit him on the web at DaytonWard.com

Well, there it is...

Qapla!

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