Synthesis (Star Trek: Titan #6)

I have read all all of the Titan novels in the series, including Star Trek Destiny. When it comes to strictly Titan novels, this one takes the cake. The plot was excellent. One thing I sort of missed compared to other Titan novels was a deeper character development that we've seen in previous novels.

Once more, Star Trek's Titan sails into the unknown, this time at the hand of James Swallow, and James does not disappoint. Since I'm not crazy about three-book series or crossovers that span three or four different Trek incarnations, the relatively stand-alone nature of the Titan books are right up my alley. In this story, Titan becomes heavily involved with a society of AI's who are not much like any artificial intelligence they've seen before. I found myself cheering for what occurred (thinking "Andromeda, finally!") and was only mildly disappointed by the ending. That's not to say the ending was disappointing, only that it wasn't what I was hoping for. In between, we have the crew of Titan: wonderfully new, incredibly diverse, and *always* mighty interesting. Oh, and the cover art, by Cliff Nielsen, is gorgeous and fits with the story - er, for the most part, anyway!

This book was awesome. Very well written, and a great story-line. If you haven't yet, start at the beginning of the Titan series, you will enjoy all of them.

Book 6 (Synthesis) of the Titan Series is good as the others. This book is a continuance of the Titan mission with Captain William Riker, Commander Vale, Commander Tuvok, and Commander Troi. The book takes place a few months after book 5. Titan is continuing its mission of exploring the unknown. This mission is an exploration of a society of all computers/artificial intelligence. Like all the other Titan books, its an enjoyable read. I highly recommend it.

Swallow's entry in to the STAR TREK: TITAN series is an interesting twist on sentient machines and AI, along with an original threat that is comparable with other "high concept" sci-fi novels out there. Combined with Swallow's excellent capture of the crew's voices and wonderful drama, SYNTHESIS is a novel that lives up to the core values of TREK: the wonder of exploration and adventure. Highly recommended.