Rosetta

As an official Star Trek geek, I will point out that there is no way that the Klingons had an entire fleet of cloaked ships by this point in time -- I doubt that they had cloaking technology at all, given that they got it from the Romulans, who were only experimenting with it at this time. However, that's a quibble that only a geek would care about, and otherwise, the story was excellent. Characterizations, plot, pacing, language are all excellently handled and there are virtually no careless proofreading/editing goofs. Undoubtedly the best Enterprise novel I've read so far.

This story is set in the "Star Trek" universe during the period of Archer's "Enterprise." To be precise it is set between 27th December 2254 while the Orion women were passengers on the Enterprise as described in "Bound," and January 19th 2255 when the events of "Demons" take place. As the title and cover indicate, the most important character in the book is Ensign Hoshi Sato, and her work translating alien languages is central to the story. The book starts with a strange and very powerful alien race blocking trade routes in defence of what they appear to regard as their territory. Both Enterprise and various other star nations attempt unsuccessfully to communicate with them. Can Archer, Hoshi and the Enterprise prevent the situation spiralling down to a devastating war ? Not everyone will like this book - a few of the plot devices have been over used in the series and are a bit tired - but I thought it was one of the better Star Trek Universe books that I have read.

Star Trek: Enterprise, Rosetta written by Dave Stern is a book about tranlations and the origins of the universal translator. The main plot is about confrontation and understanding as Captain Jonathan Archer and the Starship Enterprise crew are traveling in uncharted space and run across a race of beings called the Antianna. The Antianna have complicated language and it falls upon Ensign Hoshi Sato to translate this language and find out whether they are friend or foe. As Archer stears clear of the Antianna and gives Hoshi some extra time to translate the Antianna language they run into the Thelasian Trading Conferderacy headed by Governor Maxim Sen who is all but going to war with the Antianna. The events in this book take place between December 27, 2154 - while the Orion womem were passangers on the Enterprise ("Bound") and January 19, 2155 - when a xenophobic group tries to stop the formation of an alliance between Earth and several alien governments ("Demons"). Jonathan Archer and Ensign Hoshi Sato are the main characters in this book, but Hoshi's character could have been written better as she didn't shine that well throughout this book. The book is wordy in places and get bogged down a little in the plot. Although I found that it was a fast read but the substance wasn't there and left me with a hollow taste. This book could have been written much better, but with most of the Star Trek: Enterprise series, could use a rewrite to make it more interesting. There was action-adventure, mild as it was. There was dialog and character interaction making up most of the book, but as to deep insight this book was lacking. I gave this book 4 out 5 stars as it was better than most in the Star Trek: Enterprise series, but it missed the mark as to the standard in the other series in the Star Trek universe. It is worth reading as you get a feel for why spacefarers need a universal translator.

In this novel we get to see how the universal translator started. While one reviewer did mention how a major character was killed and later is revealed to be alive..that is true. However it's what I expected from this show so it's nothing new. Dave Stern is better than most in writing Enterprise Trek so I'd have to give it 4 out of 5 stars because of the plot device we all know is standard Trek.

I genuinely enjoyed reading the book. The story line was entertaining and well thought through. It grasped my attention, meaning I did not have to push myself to finish the book. It's certainly worth your purchase.