Renegade

For nearly a hundred years, the planet Chrellkan IV has enjoyed a peaceful relationship with the colony on the third planet of its star system. However, relations between the two worlds take a deadly turn as rebel colonists take over Chrellkam III and turn against their mother world. To prevent the conflict from escalating into full scale war, Starfleet orders Captain Kirk and the Enterprise to moderate the dispute. On arrival, Kirk sends Spock and McCoy to investigate the rebel's claims. But seconds after beaming down, the two officers are taken hostage and then according to sensors killed. Devastated by his loss, Kirk must try to learn the truth behind the mysterious rebellion that has claimed the lives of his two closest friends. Kirk's investigation leads him to uncover a dangerous plot against the Federation a plot driven by revenge that may make the Federation's highest law, the Prime Directive, an instrument of violence and destruction.

Clever plot, including tie-ins to at least one TV episode; convoluted enough to be interesting, without going overboard. Good handling of the characters, good pacing, enough action to be enjoyable without devolving into a shoot-em-up or a brawlfest, high tension, good resolution. Probably not of interest to those not familiar with the genre, but certainly a must for any follower of Star Trek.

Star Trek: Renegade by Gene Deweese is a Kirk, Spock, McCoy adventure. Starfleet sends the Enterprise on a fact finding mission to find out why two seamingly peaceful planets are now on the verge of all out war.Chrelkan IV is the mother world and the Chrelkan III is the colony world, but a rebel insurection has relations between the two worlds takeing a deadly turn. As Kirk sends Spock and McCoy to investigate the claims of the rebels, they vanish and are presumed dead. Now, Kirk has got to resolve this dispute all alone.The Enterprise is strangely experiencing difficulties, the sensors and other systems are unreliable. Soon to be down completely, Scotty is working to find out why, all of a sudden, this is happening. Why, indeed... This is where it gets interesting as the Klingons, who are the cause of all this strife, mystery and intrigue become evident.I liked the story and it was told well. The discovery and resolution of the Klingon meddlesome ways was classic TREK.

I liked the plot to this book. It sends the reader to a vague dispute between rebellious colonists and an enraged mother world. The overly excited, paranoid, and distrusting nature of the homeworld representative, and the unproven, yet almost justifiable "terrorist acts" on the part of the colonists leaves you wondering who is the good guy and who is the bad. What makes this an interesting plot is that McCoy and Spock have been kidnapped by God-knows-who, and the fact that this is not a Federatin world or race, keeps Kirk from doing much about anything for fear of breaking the Prime Directive. Meanwhile, the Enterprise is having major malfunctions and nobody knows where the malfunctions are coming from or what they have affetcted, just that there was a malfunction someplace... Kirk can't even trust the ship's sensors anymore, much less control the ship, and he doesn't know why. THe whole book was great, my only problem with it was with the length, and that it all wrapped up too quickly. Deweese could have been able to drag it out a little more, but besides the shortness, this is a great Star Trek book.