Aftermath (Star Trek) (Starfleet Corps of Engineers #29)

I'd have preferred if they had simply stepped up the pace at which they put out mass-market paperbacks, rather than going to the Trade Paperback format in order to fit in more stories; I find trade paperbacks to have all of the worst characteristics of both mass-market paperbacks & hardcovers: they're awkward & bulky, inconvenient to carry around, like hardcovers, and they wear out quickly, like trade paperbacks. In fact, they wear out MORE quickly, because it's harder to find convenient ways of carrying them so they tend to get crammed into spaces that a regular paperback would fit into nicely. But the stories themselves are about par for the course for this series, which is to say above-average science fiction, if not outstanding enough to rate five stars.

After the events of Wildfire and Breakdowns, I was looking forward to seeing the crew move on to new adventures with new crewmates. Some of the stories here are good--"Collective Hindsight", I think, is the best---but some are disappointing, particularly, for me, "Buying Time". Too much time is spent telling us that the character Tev is brusque and hard to deal with, but no one ever sits him down and explains to him the need to adjust his interactions with humans, or, for that matter, explains to the humans the similar need on their parts. Also, in some stories, much time is spent setting up the problem to be solved and too little time is spent on the resolution of the problem. It's just "Poof! Problem solved!" with little sense of the details. I hope to see better in the future.

Captain Gold and the crew of the U.S.S. da Vinci are back in S.C.E. series eight to save the Universe from invasions from subspace, terraforming gone awry, runaway spaceships and a Ferengi with a time machine !!! Worth reading if you have enjoyed the other SCE books.

If any book title was any more apt... This book is, of course, a continuation of the Star Trek SCE/Corps Of Engineers ebook series in paperback form. Ebooks are, from what I understand, the equivalent of books as PDF files (using PDF as a generic idea of a document in image form), using a specialized PDA. I've only ever read the paperback versions. The main theme for this edition is not the technical problem solving, although you'll be surprise by some of the solutions: Playing 'hide-and-seek' by deliberately parking an alien spaceship in the middle of a sun? The theme is... beginning to deal with the 'aftermath' of losing so many familiar crew members from the previous episodes/chapters. As such, while I personally found it to be somewhat slow- Can you say "sequel"?- it's a good start to the next stage.

Everyone should buy at least 2 of this book.........one to keep, and one to give away to a deserving friend!!