Teaser

Rachel Garrett, captain of the USS Enterprise 1701-C. An often overlooked hero of Starfleet. This is only one of her stories . . .

Review

I love the concept of the Lost Era. A set of standalone novels that fill the gap between the end of the Original Series and the start of the Next Generation. There’s plenty of space here for good storytelling. All those future historical events that were only ever referenced offhand. The origins of all those much-loved characters. The fates of those who went missing along the way. Telling the story of the Enterprise-C is a great idea, as all we know if it we glean from a single episode. This book really had everything going for it. Unfortunately, it didn’t go anywhere with those opportunities.

At risk of being kicked out of Trek fan clubs across the globe, I never really understood the appeal of ‘Yesterday’s Enterprise’ – the episode in which Garrett and her ship first (and on-screen last) appeared. It’s a decent episode, but certainly not in the same hall of fame as ‘Measure of a Man’ for example. Nevertheless, I do think taking the chance on this little-known ship was a good choice. After all, surely a ship by the name of Enterprise has some good stories to tell.

My main problem is two-fold. This is a very long and very dense book, packed to the rafters with new characters, new worldbuilding, new narratives. It’s chunky and more than a little overweight. That can be a problem even for some of my favourite authors. Unfortunately, Ilsa J. Bick is not one of those authors. Right from the first few pages, I knew I was in trouble with Well of Souls. It’s one of those books I just didn’t click with, and a lot of that is down to the prose. Bick spends a lot of time in people’s heads, even giving Garrett conversations with a literal inner voice. It all felt incredibly inorganic to me. Couple that with Bick introducing an entre new crew and determining to detail as many as possible, and you’ll start to see some of the book’s bloat.

There is some interesting material in here if you’re willing to persevere, however. The evolutionary history of the Cardassians, for example, which neatly dovetails with Andrew J. Robinson’s A Stitch in Time and the other Lost Era work the Terok Nor trilogy. There are some great set pieces in a no man’s land-style border world that add much needed action to the book. Unfortunately, these are all just moments that fail to liven up the remainder of the book anywhere near enough.

As a completionist, this is worth reading, and there are worse books out there in the Trek canon, but there are also much better ones. All in all, an unfortunate misfire for the Lost Era.

Book Stats