Star Trek: Titan #5: Over a Torrent Sea

It always amazes me when a person gives a Star Trek novel a bad review. I mean, how could it be bad? It's *Star Trek!* These are novels that go creatively and delightfully outside the box of the television franchise, and - in Titan's case - WAAAY outside the box. They are great fun to read, educational at times, even, and I don't believe they need to have any deeper meaning than that. It was clear to me Chris Bennett did a great deal of research to put this novel together, to create a water world that was believeable and tracked scientifically. A quick check of his Acknowledgments will reveal that. That research alone is worthy of five stars, IMNSHO. To me, his grasp of the Trek Universe (in particular Riker and Troi's place in it) is phenomenal, on par with DeCandido and David. The inclusion of their struggle with conception, their marital strife, and even the mention of Riker's past dalliance with the novel's focus character keeps things real, gritty, and mighty uncomfortable at times. Those who gripe about the overmention of "high school crushes" and the crew bedding each other have clearly no understanding of what it must be like to live in a closed community such as a starship. These people have developed their own language, jokes, and, of course, manner of behavior that would not occur if they were on an inhabited, developed planet. I applaud Bennett's inclusion of it. The story itself may not necessarily be unique, but the way it unfolds and resolves definitely IS. Droplet's in peril due to a mistake made by Titan, and the crew fights to correct it before the planet dies, along with Riker and Lavena, who are trapped on it. Fold into that the physical loss and emotional upheaveal many of the crew are experiencing due to the Borg invasion, and you've got one swell read. Oh, and did I mention the birth? One word for it: Yay!

'Over a Torrent Sea' was given the tough task of coming in after the end of ST:Destiny, and manages to do so by not distrubing the main story line very much. Mabey it was because I read the book Directly after reading Destiny, but whats done is done. As a tie in to destiny, It was almost all but ignored, Possibly a requirment considering the nature of the series, but another reason could be this book being written the same time Destiny was... But hey, "Titan" is 'Space cowboy's turning over rocks to see whats underneath', and I'm willing to leave fixing the Federation to the Big E (To its credit though, the character's mention being upset about this as well). The book though, Compared to the other Titan books, Stacks up quite well, and provides an interesting story. I was very glad to see a book that had more Riker in it. I supose it's been an attempt to focus more on the crew rather than the captain, but I've felt in the last few novels they've been avoiding him myself. This book does do a bit to fix that. Also, the character of Ens. Lavena (I think I spelled that right) is highly developed in this story, and was quite interesting. Also, the Author does a very good job in creating a unique world. A lot of thought and work went into its creation and this is very easily identified while reading the book. As some have said, the Subplot of Troi's Birth has to be one of my favorite moment's in Titan's History, and is almost worth the purchase of the book alone. Overall, I don't consider it as good as his last entry to the series (Orion's Hounds), but it is not a bad book at all, and does a good job of advancing the TITAN storyline, even if it has to bypass a lot of the posibilites could have come up (and/or derailed the series) from the Destiny events.

I love this series and while waiting 2 years for this book to come out I had a lot of time on my hands. I went back and re-read the first 4 books so when I preoredered this item in November. I never thought February would get here. Then when I got the note saying the book was shipped it was the longers 7 days of my life! Seriously this book was everything I was looking forward to. I even read all the books released that also delt with Titan. As for the book it started off really slow like most books. Especially when I was so eager to read it; though a great deal of Troi's pregnancy (Months 2-8) was skipped it was still very good. It has some confusing items like Dr. Ree and his reaction to Troi's pregnancy near the end. Though I must say the way Troi went into labor was hysterical and again they skipped the birth but I could picture it.The sweetest thing is the first name they picked for their daughter...Natasha. Wonder if she was named after Tasha Yar? I hope they come out with another book for this great series I just hope they don't take 2 years to release it. The wait is excrusiating!

This book is a just a lot of fun and wonderful jumping on point for anyone whose interest in picking up the Titan series is related directly to the events of Destiny. Its classic Star Trek. Exploring a new world, stumbling into a Prime Directive situation and then having to face down an asteroid that threatens the planet. The characters are fully developed, believable and fleshed out. Character growth occurs and the dealing with the aftermath of the Borg is handled nicely without being heavy handed. This may well be my favorite book in the Titan series so far and its wonderful to see all the different Trek series finally dealing with the same current events, so to speak. Trek fiction has most definitely increased in quality lately and the book is no exception. I can only hope this trend continues.

I really liked this book. This book is set after the 3-part Destiny series of Star Trek books. The book is focused on the USS Titan returning to its mission of exploration. The exploration this time centers on a water planet where Ensign Lavena can utilize her skills. There is a little exploration in the book regarding the previous relationship of Riker and Ensign Lavena. This book further develops characters on the USS Titan. This book also focuses on the birth of Riker/Troi's daughter, which is quite sweet, particularly Tuvok's filming of the event (I don't want to spoil it for you!). This book is really good, lots of action, etc. I enjoyed as I enjoy all of the Star Trek Next Generation books. If you are a fan of the Star Trek Next Generation, you will enjoy this book.