Star Treks with DD!

[Just catching up - I've read the Wounded Sky multiple times - some ways the most "Narnian" of Duane's Trek books (think "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader"), and - at last I read The Empty Chair.  Romulans done right!]



Wounded Sky (Star Trek TOS #13) by Diane Duane


An alien scientist invents the Intergalactic Inversion Drive, an engine system that transcends warp drive -- and the U.S.S Enterprise™ will be the first to test it! The Klingons attempt to thwart the test, but a greater danger looms when strange symptoms surface among the crew -- and time becomes meaningless.

Now Captain Kirk and his friends face their greatest challenge -- to repair the fabric of the Universe before time is lost forever!



The Empty Chair (Star Trek: Rihannsu, Book 5)
by Diane Duane


THE CULMINATION OF A SAGA

TWENTY-TWO YEARS IN THE MAKING.

They call themselves Rihannsu -- the Declared. To the Federation, they are the Romulans. By any name they are adversaries as formidable as they are inscrutable. Self-exiled from Vulcan in ages past, they retain an ancient martial philosophy and a code of conduct that has sustained them through centuries of hardship, warfare, and thwarted ambition.

Now their empire is gearing for war once again. Armed with the revolutionary Sunseed technology, which can destabilize entire stars, a Romulan vessel is warping toward the heart of the Federation. Its target: Earth's sun.

But this offensive comes at a perilous time, as a growing number of Romulan worlds are joining a revolution -- one led by the renegade Commander Ael t'Rllaillieu of the warbird Bloodwing, with the aid of Captain James T. Kirk of the Starship Enterprise™ and the Hamalki physicist K's't'lk, the Federation's foremost authority on Sunseed technology. As the threat to Earth looms ever larger, Bloodwing and Enterprise lead an armada toward the Romulan homeworld for a final reckoning that will decide the future of the Rihannsu people.

Red Shirts

Redshirts: A Novel with Three Codas

by John Scalzi

Overview
Ensign Andrew Dahl has just been assigned to the Universal Union Capital Ship Intrepid, flagship of the Universal Union since the year 2456. It’s a prestige posting, and Andrew is thrilled all the more to be assigned to the ship’s Xenobiology laboratory.Life couldn’t be better…until Andrew begins to pick up on the fact that (1) every Away Mission involves some kind of lethal confrontation with alien forces, (2) the ship’s captain, its chief science officer, and the handsome Lieutenant Kerensky always survive these confrontations, and (3) at least one low-ranked crew member is, sadly, always killed.
Not surprisingly, a great deal of energy below decks is expendedon avoiding, at all costs, being assigned to an Away Mission. Then Andrew stumbles on information that completely transforms his and his colleagues’ understanding of what the starship Intrepid really is…and offers them a crazy, high-risk chance to save their own lives.

Wow.  What a lot of fun.  Scalzi is, of course, a terrific writer - from Old Man's War on, he's produced fun and thoughtful SF by the bucketload.  This is a delightful diversion - a satire on the worst excesses of space opera in the Star Trek universe.   But it is actually more than that - he weaves in some poignant moments and considerations on what it means to have "agency."  And when the story is over, he keeps going with three clever and meaningful "codas."