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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