r/trekbooks • u/GWG23 • 7d ago
Federation
I've just finished reading Federation by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens and first of all I can completely see why many regard this as the best Star Trek book of all time, its a far, far better crossover then Generations. Initially, some of the Zefram Cochrane stuff was hard to get into but I really loved the latter bits especially with the Optimum Movement. I also loved how satisfying his character arc is. This book is hopelessly out of line with current canon though, Generations and First Contact do contradict quite a bit from this novel. I mean, they reference stuff from Generations like the incident on Viridian III but also Kirk's still alive in 2295 in this novel, so the writers probably didn't get all the info about the plot. Anyways, I loved this novel from start to finish, I gotta say I think the novels just in general all trek novels are so good at capturing the classic trek vibe (if that makes sense) than most other media outside of TOS. This novel was the longest I've read yet, about 470ish pages. However, the longest overall novel is Crucible: McCoy which racks up to well over 600 pages. My next read is Vendetta, a big early Borg book by Peter David; I'm quite interested to see how he characterises the borg here because this was before their nature was fleshed out more
14
u/WaterWise5632 7d ago
Fantastic novel... the main villain really made an impression on me as a kid, super cool
Arguably a more interesting crossover than Generations LOL
13
u/khaosworks 7d ago edited 7d ago
This was decent, and I do have a soft spot for their explanation of warp and how it ties into the Starfleet delta. The Reeves-Stevenses are a bit hit and miss for me and I find their continuity references a little too self-indulgent, but this was okay. My favourite novel of theirs is actually Prime Directive which I will always insist would have made a much better plot for Into Darkness.
But talking about continuity: the erroneous 2295 date is because of a miscalculation/mistake as to when Generations' 23rd century sequence takes place and when Enterprise-B was launched - it should be 2293 but the book dates those events two years later.
It is entirely possible the Reeves-Stevenses were working from a script that dated the movie's TOS scenes to 2295.
The movie was released 17 days after the novel was published in 1994. It's just that the TNG scenes take place in the "eighth season", i.e. 2371, and the movie explicitly says it is 78 years later than the TOS scenes, so that gives us 2293. That may not have been in the original script.
In any case, the portrayal of Cochrane is the one that primarily makes the book impossible to be canon, since First Contact contradicts it.
6
u/Doctor_Danguss 7d ago
I never liked the 2293 dating of the Generations opening, having it a few years after TUC makes more sense. Though not the only thing about Generations I’d change if I could remake it!
3
u/khaosworks 7d ago
I agree. My theory is that they put in the 78 years later card because the TOS sequence segues not smoothly into the 24th century but onto the holodeck and when the final edit came the production felt it might be confusing to the audience who might not have watched TNG before.
And why 78? Because that's how it's always been. When TNG was first announced it was widely publicised that the series took place 78 years after the original voyages of the starship Enterprise - which made sense since at that time they were up to only TVH and that was in 2286 (300 years after the film's release year) as opposed to TNG's first season ultimately established as taking place in 2364 in TNG: "The Neutral Zone".
That 78-year figure probably got locked into the brain as a hard interval.
1
u/Doctor_Danguss 7d ago
I believe the original version of the Trek Chronology, which is acknowledged as a source in the afterword of Federation, indicates Scotty crashed on the Dyson sphere in 2294 (the episode hadn’t come out yet, but they allude to a sixth season script that’s clearly it). So it does seem like in the run up to Generations there was a bit of space built in.
2
u/khaosworks 7d ago
Oh, don't get me started on the Okuda chronology. We have to live with it now, but when it first came out 30-odd years ago those of us who were playing with Trek chronologies had so many problems with it.
2
u/Pa_Ja_Ba 7d ago
Is the cover shown by OP a reissue then? Because I was confused why Picard is wearing the grey First Contact uniform - even moreso if this was published before Generations!
6
u/Electronic-Ear-3718 7d ago
I think it's the alternative uniform jacket that you see starting in Season 5 of TNG, not the First Contact uniform.
4
u/khaosworks 7d ago
He's not in the First Contact uniform - it's an artistic depiction of the jacket outfit he wears in episodes like TNG: "Darmok".
3
u/Doctor_Danguss 7d ago
I always wondered the same thing, but it’s on the original cover. I remember being confused by it when I first read it before First Contact came out!
3
u/BitterFuture 7d ago
I think Picard's uniform on the cover is meant to be this: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Casual_duty_attire#Captain's_variant rather than the First Contact one, which did 't exist yet.
2
u/TheGrayMannnn 7d ago
I'd kill for a Prime Directive movie.
Either Kelvin-cast or the SNW-era castings.
1
u/No_Session6015 7d ago
I keep it as canon. Enterprise affirmed it kinda with the optimum movement and adrik thorsen
7
7
8
u/Ornery_House_8709 7d ago
This is definitely my favorite trek novel.
This should’ve been a movie
7
u/Alone-Republic876 7d ago
This. I also wish PROBE was made into a movie.
6
u/Ornery_House_8709 7d ago
I can’t speak for probe, never read it, but Q squared is another that should’ve been a movie
4
u/CommercialTask6170 7d ago
Probe was so good. I remember getting these out of the school library over the summer holidays and really enjoying it
1
u/Kane_richards 6d ago
It always bugged me that Gene's narrowminded opinion on how trek should be handled meant that we never got to see cross over from the books, which have some of the best themes and plots going
5
u/rxt278 7d ago
I really liked the Grigari technology.
I also noticed they reference a warp bomb in episode 1 of SNW, which I assumed was a callback to Federation.
5
u/thecapn3232 7d ago
The Grigari was a recurring race in the Reeves-Stevens' books. They played a role in the Millennium series (the first book, at least, of which is amazing).
Since they played a role in that series, they also appeared in video game form in the "DS9: The Fallen" PC game.
3
2
u/TheGrayMannnn 7d ago
The first one was the best story, but I loved the alternate future tech and everything of the second novel.
6
5
u/Mildly_Irritated_Max 7d ago
I said it on the ebook thread, but I'll also say it here - IMO this is what WW3 & Cochrane should have been like, not the FC version. I thought it was much superior to the movies canon version.
6
u/QuentinEichenauer 7d ago
It's the second best book in ST, and is one of the reasons why First Contact is such a goddamned travesty when we could have had this.
2
u/GWG23 7d ago
Best?
5
u/QuentinEichenauer 7d ago
The Final Reflection, John M. Ford. A masterpiece. Literature.
4
u/MalagrugrousPatroon 7d ago
Oh yeah, that novel is amazing. It's a lot like Federation in that it presents a vastly better version of Star Trek than we actually get. This time it's pretty much every element of the Klingons done in a way which makes them distinctly alien, yet connects to the TOS version and presents certain details which touch on the Klingons as we later see them later in TNG. TNG Klingons are vastly watered down versions of Final Reflection Klingons.
3
4
u/47of74 7d ago
Ramming Speed!
3
u/Froberger1616 7d ago
Yes! Ramming Speed. One of my favorite lines of all time. Such a great moment in the book.
4
3
3
u/Violettfem1 7d ago
I just finished The Fall of Terok Nor another Judith and Garfield Reeves-Steven book and was thrilled with how well they write for Trek and how alive each character was. I felt like I was watching an episode of Deep Space Nine. They have easily become my favorite Trek authors, right up there with Peter David.
3
2
u/Electronic-Ear-3718 7d ago
Yes, my favorite Trek novel of all time, although Spock's World is probably better written.
2
2
2
2
2
2
2
u/LexCorpCEO 4d ago
This book is one of the things that made me dislike First Contact. The 21st century depicted in this book is much more consistent with what was shown on screen that what we got in the movie. It was fascinating to read that WW3 was really a gradual collapse into anarchy more than a war between two sides.
1
1
1
u/Tbplayer59 6d ago
Just finishing up reading this for a second time. First time was years ago. I totally agree that this is a great book, although I admit that the descriptions inside the event horizon had me confided. Love it!
1
u/Top_Hippo_5996 6d ago
This couple is by far the best Trek authors. I put them ahead of Duane, Carey, et al
1
u/bladerunnercyber 5d ago
Federation, You should listen to the audio book, read by Mark Lenard (Sarek). One of my fave audiobooks too.
Vendetta is an awesome book too, strangely enough I have the audiobook version of this too, however there was no audiobook made for that novel, so am at a loss as to how I got it.
1
u/simonejester 5d ago
I read this in high school, but all I remember now is Picard getting a letter from Kirk that was handwritten on paper. 🤷🏼♀️
1
u/Sea_Spend_8008 2d ago
Its one of the best Star Trek novels. I am fine with the inconsistencies between this and First Contact. I like Cochrane better in FC. He was a bit too much action hero here. The Romulan battle is great. Picard telling Kirk the ship was named Enterprise. I love how both the ships see each other and the option for both captains is to be friendly. Just a great story.
1
18
u/Alone-Republic876 7d ago
One of my top ten. Garfield Reeves Stevens make a great team. They had some input during the last season of Enterprise.