Greg CoxNo Time Like the Past (Star Trek: The Original Series)

A long big book that keeps you on the edge of your seat throughout.

Kirk and the Enterprise are on a mission to escort a diplomat to negotiate a treaty at the edge of Federation space. Just as the meeting started Orion raiders appeared, killing many of the participants. All seems lost for Kirk and the landing party when suddenly a woman appears to turn the tide....Across the universe and years into the future Captain Janeway and the Voyager crew are following an ancient Star Fleet distress signal. Seven of Nine has discovered a clue pointing to the origin of the distress signal when Neelix triggers a booby trap that nearly kills them all. Suddenly Seven is thrown in a strange transport that lands her in the middle of a battle on a planet she does not recognize and face to face with James Kirk.This is a typical tie-in novel, one that spins a tale involving characters and situations from a TV show or movie. The quality of these novels varies, ranging from less than fan fiction, to professional quality novels that tell a story with familiar characters. This one is on the higher end of the spectrum. Cox has not violated any of the rules of the ST:OS or STV universes. He has a good feel for the characters, and does not make them say or do anything out of character. The story touches on three episodes from the Original Series, which anyone even remotely familiar with the series has probably seen. The action is typical for a Star Trek story, either on screen or in print - battles in space, on board and planet side, questions of loyalties to Star Fleet regulations and the greater good, angst over choices made in the past etc. The author has handled the story well but there are some annoying plot holes so four rather than five stars.

If you're a fan of TOS then you will definitely enjoy this one. It is filled with references to past events that Kirk and Crew experienced throughout the show's three season run and I enjoyed seeing what happened after the Enterprise had moved on at those places.Give this one a read if you are interested in seeing how things go.

Before i commence my review, i would like to make a comment. Other reviewers have criticised the book for having no evidence of character development. I would like to ask how this can be possible in, of all things, a Star Trek novel. The answer is, it isn't. If it were, then the characters would not be recognisable for the icons they are, and there would be absolutely no consistency from one star trek novel to the next. And those writers developing new ideas and new stories would find it almost impossible to keep doing so if it were. It is only in representing the Federation in a generic sense that Kirk, Spock et al can boldly go, where no one has gone before, and not the characters in their own right.On with my review ...Mr Cox has long been one of my favourite Star Trek writers. One of his earlier efforts - ASSIGNMENT ETERNITY - is considered by many to be a classic. Consequently i have been salivating in anticipation of this book's release.The book opens with a diplomatic mission with Kirk and Commissioner Santiago to the planet Yusub, with the aim of promoting a path for potential membership of the Federation. Things soon go awry, with duplicity and betrayal by parties unknown, and Kirk's life is saved by - of all people - Seven Of Nine when she appears on the scene just in time. It takes a while for the book to explain to the reader how this was managed - four chapters to be precise - but the story telling contained within this part of the book is highly entertaining (in many ways) and full of memories for long term fans of both arms of the world famous science fiction franchise.By the start of chapter five, the reader knows as much about what is going on as does Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Seven. I will say no more of the plot so as to protect future readers. But it certainly is fascinating and is well worth your money.The book is relatively long for a star trek novel at almost 400 pages and is a complex read. The characterisation is excellent and obviously emotional attachment is a given. The plot is outstanding as i have already said. Humour has a strong role to play in the book, too. Overall I give this story four stars.Looking forward to more books from Mr Cox!BFN Greggorio!

I enjoyed this adventure as it had pretty good interactions between Seven and the original classic Trek crew. The plot was fair and simply a rationalization for the basic idea, which was to have an Original Series/Voyager crossover in which Seven of Nine meets Kirk and friends.The plot, while time travel-related and thus paradoxical and headache-inducing, was enjoyable. The interactions between characters were great and believable. The descriptions were vivid and enticing.The ending wrapped everything up neatly, leaving both the past and the future intact. I felt there was too much reference to old episodes, places , and races to give the story more familiarity with the old crew.Nothing too original. read is you have nothing better to do and you like star trek alot.I hope my review was helpful to you.

I enjoyed the story very much! Time travel in the Star Trek universe is always fun. Putting Seven on the Enterprise with its original crew made a fun story which kept me turning pages.

Having just read a Trek time travel novel (and reviewed it, it being a certain Mr. Dayton Ward's boring attempt at cashing in) I was a little wary but need not have been. This book was much more like it, visiting 'planets' and characters first presented in episodes in the Kirk/Spock Shatner/Nimoy series. As a bonus for Voyager fans, the sexiest (in my opinion), almost Vulcan like Seven of Nine featured as the catalyst in a time travel treasure hunt within an almost Indiana Jones style adventure and it has that page turning quality missing in many similar books. Not going to spoil it for anyone but, it's story plays out over time and space with underused villains, characters that you may have forgotten but are brought gleefully back to life here and is reinforced with a storyline that starts, continues and ends at warp speed. My advice? Buy!

Seven of Nine meets a Starfleet legend in his prime, about a century before her part of the story begins. Through accidental activation of a time travel device which moves across space AND time...Voyager, still travelling through the Delta Quadrant, discovers a carving of what can only be a young James T. Kirk on a planet is is, supposedly, impossible for him to have ever set foot upon. So, Janeway being curious of course, they investigate-and are caught in a trap that brings down the entire Away Team and disables them and their communications. Excepting Seven herself, whose Borg technology protects her. With no other way out and the rest of the team in need of urgent medical attention, Seven is forced to activate the device...Which leads to her meeting a young Captain Kirk and crew. So follows an eventful trip through a massive swathe of space and time that revisit classic original series episodes, previous books by other authors and, at one point, a very personal interlude for Seven herself. It's all a massive build-up to something, which the book makes you race through to discover the answer to.One of the best and most interesting Star Trek crossover stories I've read. Also, a solid setting in time and space occurs every "shift" as Sevens journey continues, with the author taking the chance to show ugly, even horrifying ideas can go back millennia even with other species. Sometimes a happy ending was never an option...

The storyline made me read faster than I wanted to read, back in the seventies as a teenager I read all the original tv series paperback startrek books, I must say Greg Cox captured all the characters perfectly, my anticipation for what would happen next surprised me in the most satisfying way, and I'm very happy with the outcome, may very well read it again to digest and salivate the intriguing plotline at Impulse power instead of warp eight.Awesome read.Regards Mikey

I used to read lots of the STNG novels back when the series was new. This reads like a Voyager meets Original series crossover of one of those. A fun adventure with familiar characters in the established worlds. Some things are a bit predictable, some a bit silly but all zips along at a fun and quick pace. This was a lucky 99p daily Kindle deal for me. Bargain! Thanks to the time travel nature it all ends in an "it was all a dream/paradox" type ending but still fun to be had. More please!

This book describes itself as an epic crossover tale. I would certainly agree with the last two words but ‘epic’? I think that’s overstating it a bit. Entertaining, certainly; engrossing – yes, if you can overlook a couple of minor flaws (of which more in a moment). My definition of ‘epic’ is something more, a story or stories that have a major influence on the timeline. Something more like the "Destiny" or "Fall" series. Those were gamechangers…Anyway, semantics aside, I did enjoy this book. Ever since Spock made an appearance in the reunification episodes of TNG, the Trek writers have been looking for ways to bring the ‘old’ and ‘new’ characters together and this is another example of this genre. It was enjoyable revisiting certain memorable episodes of TOS, albeit at different points in each timeline, with the added interest of a physically deteriorating Seven of Nine present (no Borg alcoves back then!)Now to the first of my niggles. Without giving too much away, much of the narrative is set during Kirk’s era and involves traveling to places that TOS crew had been before, to retrieve artifacts left by another character. This person had spread a number of these all over the Alpha quadrant, but then for no obvious reason had traveled tens of thousands of light years to leave just one in the Delta quadrant, where it is happened upon by Voyager, during its original journey there. It just seems to me that if this person truly wanted to scatter the artifacts around the Galaxy (to make them harder to find and assemble together) then surely they would have included places in the Beta and Gamma quadrants as well. Perhaps I am just being pedantic.Second niggle. Once Kirk and his senior crew have accepted Seven’s presence and her story as genuine (a bit too easily in my view) they then wholeheartedly embrace the concept of the Temporal Prime Directive and go well out of their way to avoid polluting the timeline by revealing Seven’s presence to anyone else, or using her knowledge of the future for their own era’s benefit. Whilst laudable, this seems to go against character at least so far as Kirk is concerned, as he has on a number of occasions had few qualms about time travel, or interacting with characters from another era. Had they even heard about the TPD back then???Anyway, moans over. Ignore these and this was an entertaining read. There was a slight element of ‘press the reset button’ at the end as all the alternative timelines presumably just ‘disappeared’ (as they tend to do in such circumstances), but I guess this was to be expected given the nature of the story. Worth a read.