The final volume of the Invasion series is a pleasant surprise and makes for a fitting conclusion to the self-proclaimed "ultimate Star Trek saga." In Book One, Jim Kirk stops the advance guard of the Furies while Jean-Luc Picard prevents the next attempt at invading the Alpha Quadrant. Book Three, the best of the series and one of the best Star Trek novels I have ever read, has Benjamin Sisko and his crew dealing with the creatures that cast out the Furies from the universe five thousand years earlier. With Book Four we come to Kathryn (I think that spelling was used the most) Janeway discovering the next threat from the Furies. What makes "The Final Fury" so fascinating is that Dafydd ab Hugh provides not only some interesting Star Trek science problems but also give Janeway the biggest moral dilemma in Star Trek history.
There are 27 billion Furies living on a planet-like starship, having prepared for centuries to reconquer the Alpha Quadrant. They are going to make their sun go nova, harness the energy, and use it to transport themselves to the heart of the Federation when they will use their fear weapon to re-enslave everyone everywhere. While Voyager's crew grapples with the technical question of how to stop this from happening, Janeway has to deal with the responsibility that if they succeed they will kill every being on the planet. The trite philosophical chestnut, "If you could go back in time and kill Hitler as a baby, would you do it?" is transformed into a very real question for Janeway. The debate among the characters is very interesting, and quite surprising in several regards.
The main sub-plot has to do with B'Elanna Torres having a severe crisis of confidence. Although you have to remember this is early on in the Voyager storyline (Book 9), this is a bit contrived, but you have to respect the effort to develop the character a bit more in terms of being Human/Klingon, which the series failed to do until the last couple of seasons. Of course, the technical aspects of the storyline will ultimately depend on her. I also liked the way a minor but pivotal character from an earlier Invasion series makes surprise reappearance.
Overall, this is a more than adequate payoff for the Invasion series, which is pretty impressive because usually the endings are never quite up to the set up, a complaint I have been making ever since I first saw "Apocalypse Now." This volume ends with a series of words from the authors that are fairly interesting and provide more insights into what they were up to with each of their novels than you usually find in Star Trek books. Of course, if you have gotten this far you have already made up your mind on whether the entire series was worthwhile, but for me three out of four sure ain't bad.
