The Rise & Fall of Khan Noonian Singh: 1 (Star Trek: The Eugenics Wars) [Hardcover]

Star Trek: The Eugenics Wars Volume 1 is the 16th classic Trek hardback and one of the best stories written to date. Greg Cox deserves tremendous praise for the painstaking research that he's done to make one of the biggest events in Trek history blend seamlessly with events from the last 4 decades with stunning accuracy.
The story centres around Kirk's mission to the Sycorax colony, a world inhabited by genetically altered human beings and whether they should be allowed to join the Federation, causing a lift in the ban on genengineering. When Kirk arrives, he finds his old nemesis, Koloth has also been making overtures to the colony about joining the Empire.
However, this is merely the small B story to the primary one, Kirk's research into the Eugenics Wars on 1990's Earth.
Told through the eyes of Gary Seven and his partners Isis and Roberta Lincoln, characters that Cox obviously loves and writes so well for, the novel starts in the 1970's as Seven's investigations into missing scientists leads him to the mysterious Chrysalis Project and the creation of genetically engineered children, one of whom is the infamous Khan Noonian Singh.
When Space Seed was written in the 60's, the idea of global warfare by the 90's didn't seem so farfetched but we all know that it didn't happen. The book brilliantly matches up events of the story with actual historical events and gives subtle and alternate meanings for some of them, much in the same way that the excellent Dark Skies television series did in the 90's.
He writes all the characters with genuine passion and you can see the events playing out in your head as you read as he skilfully describes the scenes.
He also links in several anomalous events of Trek history caused by time travel and ties them together in such a way that makes absolutely perfect sense. With links to Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, Requiem For Methuselah, The Neutral Zone, Little Green Men, 12:01, Tomorrow Is Yesterday, The Changeling and of course Space Seed, Trek fans will find themselves grinning with all the nods to certain characters and missions.
The book has a fast pace which keeps the reader interested, indeed I did not want to put the thing down once I'd started.
I'd highly recommend this to any Star Trek fan, especially those of Classic Trek as one of the best examples of Trek fiction and a must have for any collection. Enjoy!

This book seeks to relate the tale of Khan's part in the Eugenics Wars. The main protagonists are Gary Seven and his assistant Roberta Lincoln who discover a secret well funded project in India to develope a superhuman race. They infiltrate the organisation and destroy the project but show mercy on the surviving children and arrange their adoption. Khan is recruited as a teenager by Seven and then has a falling out wherupon he sets of alone to change the world to his liking.

Ricardo Montelban played the role in the original Star Trek series and a movie as a strong charismatic leader, but there is no trace of this in the book. The characters are wooden and one dimensional and the narrative is halting and difficult to read. The action scenes are slow and unconvincing and the dialogue just doesn't feel right.

There are constant and annoying cross references to Star Trek episodes. This is unecessary and a character such as Khan should stand alone.

What a wasted opporunity. Khan could have been given depth and emotion and a place in the real world. Instead he is portrayed as a musclebound arrogant B movie heavy.

The story itself starts with a framing story in which Kirk and his crew are heading to a colony that has been practicing genetic engineering on humans. This inspires the captain to research the historical records from the late 20th century which was when a group of genetically engineered super-humans attempted to take over the planet. The book then moves onto the main story which follows the exploits of Gary Seven and his colleagues, Roberta Lincoln and Isis in the late twentieth century as they try to ensure that humanity doesn't destroy itself. Together they begin an investigation into some missing scientists which leads them to a secret group known as the Chrysalis Project who have managed to create several genetically engineered children, one of whom is the infamous Khan Noonian Singh. Gary Seven and his team therefore begin to keep tabs on the super-human children over the following years with a specific interest in the charismatic Khan in the hope that none of them use their intellect and strength to threaten humanity's future.

I found the novel to be interesting read that explores some of the back-story to one of Star Trek's most infamous characters and builds up a little bit more information about his history. Cox writes the novel with an obvious love for Star Trek and its lore as he includes various characters from other Trek stories within this novel and I did quite enjoy seeing the odd cameo in the novel. However, I do feel that Cox perhaps overdid it a little bit as by the end of the book I was finding it a little bit ridiculous the way in which everything happening seemed to involve some sort of meeting with another characters from the Trek Universe. Some people will love these constant references but I just found there was a little bit to much of it.

Cox also goes a little bit further than just using elements from other Star Trek stories in the novel; he also uses real life events from history as well. It was at times quite interesting to view the manner in which he linked these various real life events such as the Bhopal Disaster into the story in a manner which gave them an enhanced effect and reason for occuring beyond the real thing. In a way though, I think this was a little bit of a missed opportunity as personally I would rather have seen how things had gone differently because of Kahn being around instead of how his and other actions were hidden etc.

The main issue I did have with the novel though was that I found the story to be a little bit slow at times. It takes quite a while to even get to Kahn's introduction and even then he is just a toddler so other readers shouldn't expect an action packed novel full of battles and destruction. In addition, I think the concentration on Gary Seven in the story kind of ruined the entire premise of the novel. It mainly felt like a spy novel following his team's exploits than being about Kahn and his super-human colleagues.

Overall, I did enjoy the novel and it was nice to get some more information on Kahn and how he became the person he did. I doubt however that the book will really appeal to anyone not already aware of the Star Trek universe as there is so many elements that will appear random and pointless to the reader unless you understand the links to other stories. This is a shame really as the entire Eugenics War premise would be an interesting topic for any Alternate History novel and could have also appealed to non Star Trek fans if the novel had been aimed slightly differently.