- Paperback: 320 pages
- Publisher: Star Trek; paperback / softback edition (1 Oct 2001)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0743418565
- ISBN-13: 978-0743418560
- Product Dimensions: 16.8 x 10.4 x 2.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 439,047 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Gateways #3
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
The "Gateways" series is expanding to encompass the entire Star Trek universe, and this third volume, Doors into Chaos, is only distantly linked to the first two, One Small Step and Chainmail. They were both set in Kirk's time, while this story takes place after the film Insurrection. Across the galaxy, the ancient Iconian Gateways have re-activated, allowing instantaneous travel between star systems. Meanwhile, delegations claiming to be Iconians have approached all the major powers, offering to sell their technology. Admiral Ross instructs Captain Picard to put together a fleet of ships from the Federation, Klingons, Romulans, Gorn and others and attempt to negotiate. Picard is excited by the idea of actually meeting descendants of the almost-mythical Iconians, but they turn out not to be at all what he expected. Despite the promise of the book's idea, this contribution to the series is very weak, its main problems being far too many characters and a rather poor writing style that stops the story from flowing smoothly. The Enterprise crew is spread across several ships and there are so many new bridge officers and alien ship's captains that it's hard to keep track of them all. There's a big space battle when Picard's fleet encounters the "Iconians", who immediately open fire, but the motivation of the mysterious aliens for firing first is never made clear. However, this story is one piece in a larger picture, and it seems that all the events of the first six books will come together in the final volume, What Lay Beyond. --Elizabeth Sourbut
Product Description
Left behind by a long-vanished civilisation, the mysterious portals known as the Gateways can enable spacefarers to reach the very furthest corners of the galaxy. Their discovery opens the door to a whole new era of exploration...and who knows what may be on the other side? More than 200,000 years have passed since the Iconians first created the network of interdimensional gateways across the stars. Known to those who came after them as 'the Demons of Air and Darkness', the Iconians vanished from time and space millennia ago -- or did they? Summoned to an emergency briefing at Starfleet Headquarters, Captain Jean-Luc Picard is stunned to discover that the legendary Iconians have returned at last, and are offering to sell the secrets of their long-lost technology to the Federation. To prove their sincerity, they have reactivated their dormant gateways...but the result has been conflict and chaos throughout the Alpha Quadrant. Warring Klingons and Romulans are among the hazards Picard and his crew must contend with as they seek to discover the sinister truth behind the Iconians' mysterious return.
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THE FIRST THING they noticed was the stench. Read the first page
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THE FIRST THING they noticed was the stench. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
A gripping continuation of the Iconian story which began onboard the Enterprise D some years before this book. The idea of an alien race, extinct for hundreds of years, returning to sell their technology is proposterous to the captain who has studied the Iconian myths and legends for years. His belief of frauds is supported by Star Fleet and the real adventure begins! With space fights and the culmination of all the major races in the Alpha quadrant combating one enemy, its amazing the twists and turns the story takes. With suprises along the way for die hard trekkies and storys containing characters and races from Deep Space 9 and Voyager, its a must read for all who have a place in their heart for Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the new Enterprise NCC-1701-E!
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
10 reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
I'm not sure I like Star Trek's "miniseries" kick
3 Sep 2001
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
If you narrow it down to just the two mass market paperbacks each month in the Trek series, what percentage of them are one book/ one story? Not many, I'm afraid--this seven-book cycle will turn out to be more than 1/4 of the annual GSTP (Gross Star Trek Product), and that's not counting other multi-book series within the Trek universe this year. It's a tendency towards grandiosity that's a step away from the old fashioned "space opera" format that made Trek the 35-year phenomenon which transcended the vast wasteland of TV where it has its roots--where boredom operates at tachyon speed. Okay, this book has a lot of the aspects that made TNG a success. Like Picard doing his usual thing of gaining the respect of cultures who think the Ferderation is otherwise populated by wusses. This trait in Picard makes him (don't you dare call me disloyal to Kirk!) the best skipper any Enterprise has ever had. We get to see Troi successfully command a ship in battle--being that I'm an admirer of hers, I like to see this strong but delightfully feminine woman get to prove she's more than just a shrink. And I get a kick out of watching her daddy's girl/ doting papa relationship with Picard. Worf shines here as a Federation statesman worthy of a Kissinger or Lodge--I like seeing him as more than just a skillful pair of hands with the bat'leth. But this whole idea of (blaring trumpet fanfare) "major sagas" is not what Star Trek is all about--why not leave that to descendants of Frank Herbert? Followers of Herbert and other "highbrow" SF have always sneered at Trek as being lightweight. Fine--I think of them as elitists and pseudo-intellectuals, got that? I've been a member of the Trek fanbase for all 35 years it's been around--why don't the people back in the real-life Trek Aitch-Cue listen to us like they used to. No more huge sagas! No more huge sagas! No more huge sagas! Or at least fewer of them, okay?
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
A series again?
11 Nov 2001
Format:Paperback
I have to agree that this trend toward series of books going through all the "Treks" is annoying. I have tended to not buy them even though I have a huge Star Trek book collection. I am a ST:TNG fan and do not enjoy reading the other series books as much. It seems like the publisher is trying to force me to read them in order to make sense of any single title.
I understand the marketing strategies here but I wish there were more stand alone titles in any single Trek series. Making me wait 6-8 months for a new title leaves me looking for other types of reading material and not Trek.
This book is okay but is a little to confusing for most of us. I recommend skipping it and waiting for a book you can sink your teeth into without 6 other for backround material.
I understand the marketing strategies here but I wish there were more stand alone titles in any single Trek series. Making me wait 6-8 months for a new title leaves me looking for other types of reading material and not Trek.
This book is okay but is a little to confusing for most of us. I recommend skipping it and waiting for a book you can sink your teeth into without 6 other for backround material.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
apparently the copy editor was sick that day...
11 Sep 2001
Format:Paperback
"Doors into chaos" is right, but I don't think I'm thinking what they were thinking.
It gets three stars for being an OK story, but the grammar was so messy, so often, that I kept getting lost. I know about myself that I am a little picky about this sort of thing, so I try to forgive the first few typos and other similar errors I see in any given book, but this was a mess. There were run-on sentences I wouldn't have gotten away with in the sixth grade, sentence fragments that didn't even make sense, and commas run amok. Yow. It was so irritating I even stopped reading the story in the middle to email the publisher to complain, and it's not all that often I willingly put down a book midway. So. If you are willing to tolerate these errors (or wait til they get around to fixing them in another printing, perhaps?), it's a decent story, and it does start to make sense of the set of books, between which I had previously not seen the relationship, and it does have the advantage of being a Star Trek book. Your call.
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