Amazon.co.uk Review
Volume six of the Gateways series stars Peter David's creation, Captain Mackenzie Calhoun of the starship "Excalibur". Along with his new wife, Elizabeth Shelby, now captain of the "Trident", Calhoun finds himself in the middle of a centuries-long dispute between two non-space-faring peoples who used to inhabit the same world. The Thallonians separated them when they could not be made to talk peace, but now each planet has been provided with a portable Iconian Gateway, which allow instantaneous travel across interstellar distances. The Markanians use theirs to slaughter most of the ruling Aeron family, the Aerons launch a retaliatory raid, and it looks as though the war will escalate once again. Calhoun steps in with his usual cavalier approach to Starfleet protocols, and attempts to stop the bloodshed. The story is well told in David's inimitable style, with several entertaining sub-plots involving the appointment of a new first officer to "Excalibur", two temporally displaced crew trying to catch up on the decades they've lost, and a Bolian Ensign Pheytus, whose name, pronounced "Fetus", provokes much hilarity in Engineering. David has always brought a refreshingly tongue-in-cheek approach to his writing, and this is no exception, bringing a light touch to a story that has its serious side too. And, predictably by now, it ends with captains Calhoun and Shelby passing through a Gateway to face the unknown in the final volume of the series, What Lay Beyond. --Elizabeth Sourbut
Product Description
Scattered throughout the galaxy are Gateways which link star systems across unfathomable distances. The technology that built them has been lost for tens of millennia...but that doesn't mean that it can't be found again. Missing for two hundred millennia, the legendary Iconians have returned, bringing with them the secret of interdimensional teleportatin across vast interstellar distances. Awakened once more, their ancient Gateways are rewriting the map of the galaxy, and nowhere more than in the New Frontier...A century ago, the imperial Thallonians separated two feuding alien races, depositing each of them on a new world safely distant from that of their ancestral enemies. Now, however, the Gateways have made it possible for the long dormant blood feud to begin anew. Captain Mackenzie Calhoun of the U.S.S. Excalibur and his partner, Captain Elizabeth Shelby of the U.S.S. Trident, find themselves fighting a losing battle to keep the horrific violence from escalating, even as they gradually realise the catastrophic danger posed by the Gateways themselves!
About the Author
Peter David is a prolific Star Trek author whose novels include Imzadi, Triangle, Q-In-Law, Q-Squared and the New Frontier series, featuring Captain Mackenzie Calhoun and the crew of the USS Excalibur, specially created for Pocket Books.
