The Red King (Star Trek: Titan, Book 2)

Why do Troi and Riker have to be so obviously straight? I'm sick of having heterosexuality rammed down my throat. And those knowing looks they give each other.....

The 2nd book in the series is just as good as the 1st one, following the mission from Romulas, the Titan crew start their mission to explore the furtherest part of our Milky Way Galaxy, the run into "alien" species that is "harvesting" the "star-jellies" from the NG "Encounter at Farpoint" and that is not all they find, they find more interesting species. Now Riker and the crew of the Titan must find away to re-balance the hunt for the species native to this area to survive.

You know, when I picked up the first Titan book ("Taking Wing") and saw that every other paragraph introduced an otherwise unheard-of species to the crew, I thought "okay, too much." But as I continued to read, I realized how important this was. Too many reviewers have said it should be "taken for granted" that the Federation would employ beings from many species, and that all this mention in the Titan crew is overdone. While that's fine to say, the truth of it is, "taken for granted" has largely been defined as "not mentioned hardly at all," so I loudly applaud Andy and Michael's work to actually get it on the page. Okay, so it requires a scorecard to keep track. Big deal. At least you can be sure it's not the "same old Star Trek" aboard Riker's Titan. This goes not only for the species diversity itself, but also for their relationships and discussions (homosexuality, human bias, and genetic engineering, to name a few). The Red King once again lifts up and celebrates all that diversity, while at the same time delivering a believable, fast-paced story that remains entertaining right to the end. I'm really looking forward to the next installment.

As an avid STNG fan I have been waiting for years for Riker to have his own ship - so far Titan has totally hit the mark in what I wanted to see. The storyline arc for Taking Wing (book 1) and this one, Red King, was an awsome first adventure for Riker and his crew. While there are many different charecters to learn, it would be just like reading a STNG book and not knowing who Data is...luckly, Titan takes many old ST people from the entire galaxy and places them on the ship so we have an idea of who to picture. While I wish there was more Riker/Troi development, it is to be expected that it is not the most important feature, but still highly prevelent. I agree with all who say this should be made into a movie...I know I would love to see it!

I have to say that this book would have made a great TV script. Why didn't the producers have a Titan TV movie or series? Riker is a great character and with Martin and Mangels as the writers he's finally get his due. Without spoiling the ending I do have to say that this is one of the better Treks out there. If only they were more frequently published. The only disadvantage to Trek not being on the air is the time lag for the books. If this were being published during the TV show parts one and two would only be a month apart. Perhaps more giant novels or three part series are the answer. I think the days of the 9 part "A Time To" series are long gone.....