• Prometheus (#1)
• Part of the post-Nemesis Litverse
• Originally published in German
• English edition published by Titan in 2017
• A Space Opera
• 378 pages

As the Federation begins to rebuild after a period of political turmoil, a new threat emerges in the Lembatta Cluster. Eager to avoid another crisis so soon, a joint force of Federation and Klingon ships investigates . . .

The Prometheus trilogy is something of an oddity among Star Trek books. For one thing, it’s not published by Pocket Books, the usual imprint for Trek fiction at the time of writing. Instead it comes from Titan, a publisher well-known (at least in the UK) for their tie-in novels, as well as plenty of space-based original science fiction. The other key element is that this book was originally published in German. I haven’t been able to determine of the two authors on the cover co-wrote both versions, or if one translated the other’s words, but either way, they are both the authors of the version read for this review. It turns out that Star Trek, and the novels in particular, are massively popular in Germany. So it was really only a matter of time before they started releasing their own original tie-in novels.

Despite all of this, Prometheus is rooted in the Litverse (for those not keeping track, this was the continuity of novels written between the end of Enterprise, and the release of Picard). In fact, it builds directly off the events of The Fall, with everything just starting to settle down. This being the Litverse, however, there is little time for Starfleet to return to peaceful exploration before another threat to the Galaxy emerges. I have to say, as good as these novels are, I prefer Star Trek when its about exploration and curiosity to when it becomes another military space opera. What we get is still good, but I can’t help wishing we got something else instead.

Fire With Fire follows in another fine Litverse tradition, bringing together characters from various series. Impressively, this is here done in a way that doesn’t shrink the universe down too much. With some of the appearances being rather minor (a two-page cameo being all we get of Ezri Dax), it feels entirely plausible that the characters could run into each other. I dare say this series will have some of the most interesting use of Worf’s son Alexander in the whole franchise, and even the legendary Spock doesn’t overshadow the new names. If I had one complaint in this regard, it’s that we probably didn’t need another relative of Kirk’s floating around, but I suppose sprawling family trees are the cost of doing Trek business.

The Prometheus trilogy is very much a single story spread over three volumes, so much of this book is setup for events further down the road. That being said, it’s a strong and exciting entry that is absolutely the equal of its Anglophone neighbours. I look forward to reading the rest of the trilogy.

If you enjoyed this book, you might also like:
Taking Wing, by Michael A. Martin & Andy Mangels
Full Circle, by Kirsten Beyer
Revelation & Dust, by David R. George III