Past Prologue: The Janus Gate Book Three [of Three](Star Trek The Original Series)

Rating:
Summary: Not a bad book.
Review: But not without its flaws, the largest of which is that the rear cover blurb is totally inaccurate, so if you might be inclined to pick up this book in order to see some in-depth background on the experiences that young James Kirk had on Tarsus IV (a tie-in to the original series episode, "The Conscience of the King") don't. The point in his past that Kirk is sent back to is a completely different one, one that does NOT form a tie-in to any episode. If I had to guess, I'd guess that the original plan was to tie in to Tarsus IV, and that original plot synopsis is what the rear cover blurb was based on, and then in the course of writing, the details were changed. Perhaps the creator of that episode objected to the use of their concept; who knows?

Of course, another flaw is that this book is not a complete story by itself; it is a story fragment relatively meaningless without books one and two of the series, so don't start with this one. And the third major flaw is that the concepts of time paradoxes are handled in a somewhat dubious way; but that's almost a given in the genre. It's nearly impossible to handle temporal paradoxes in a way that DOES make sense.

On the good side, the basic plot is fairly interesting (if illogical), there are some interesting tie-ins with various episodes from the original series which are handled quite well, and the characterization is smoothly handled and interesting.

As a whole, I'd say that the trilogy is worth reading for any fan of the original Star Trek series, but don't expect perfection. There are better Star Trek stories to be had, but there are far, far more worse ones.

Rating:
Summary: Right Up To The Oddly Implausible Ending...
Review: Finishing up the three-book Janus Gate series (and still without an accurate back-cover description), "Past Prologue" winds up the numerous temporal paradoxes for the crew and sets the stage for Pocket Books' relaunch of their Original Series novel line.

Building on the events of "Present Tense" and "Future Imperfect", "Past Prologue" follows Kirk's trip into his past as he comes to terms with a life-threatening embassy visit his family made when he was 14. Kirk and his father must hunt for his younger self (not knowing he's been thrown to Captain Kirk's present) through a city on the verge of civil war and in the midst of a Federation withdrawal. Back on the Enterprise, both Sulus, both Chekovs (alternate future and present), Spock, Uhura and the 14-year old Kirk must find a way of reactivating the Janus Gate's time-travel capability without alerting the race who has come to seal it off.

The novel moves more quickly than it's predecessors, but it does so at the expense of some interesting character development. Both sets of the Sulu/Chekov duo work well together on paper, but any effective scenes between older and younger counterparts are brushed aside. Likewise, Kirk's efforts in the past with his father open some rather large dramatic questions that never get adequately answered.

Ultimately, the pacing and style of the book overcome much of that, but the oddly unsatisfying ending wrecks much of what Graf has built throughout three novels. Without giving it away, the ending comes off as unsatisfying and repetitive of previous Trek works (without having the interesting spin that went with many of the recycled ideas up until there). If you've come this far, you might as well finish the series - it's certainly not a complete waste of time to do so - but it certainly doesn't live up to what Graf built in Books One and Two.

Rating:
Summary: Good story - but not clean ending
Review: I enjoyed this series of three books and liked this (the last) best - which would have been much better as 1 long story as none of the three books in the series can stand alone.

As setup by the first two books, the Enterprise and its' crew were propelled 3 days into the past while cold starting their warp engines while falling into a planet's gravitaion well. Kirk and Spock decide to lay low so as not to conflict with their existing ship during the three days and go to recover a shore team they left on Tlaoli, but while there they encounter the Janus Gate. The Janus Gate is a very advanced combination time machine, transporter, and healing unit system left by a long gone advanced race. Sulu, Chekov, and Kirk get swapped out with different versions of themselves. Kirk with himself 19 years younger and Sulu and Chekov with 20 year older versions of themselves. As book 3 starts the Enterprise team has both Sulus and Chekovs with them and the younger Kirk. This book deals with getting the real Kirk back and trying to resolve the time conflicts, which makes an interesting story. However, with the alternate times (paralell universes? whatever) the story resolves the regular Enterprise, its crew and timeline but kind of ignores the second timeline/universe and I also wonder why only different one - seemingly the young Kirk and older Sulu and Chekov come from the same paralell universe - timeline but why not 2 or 3 different ones.

I enjoyed the book and if you have invested time in the first two - you need to read the third. If you haven't read the first two; do not bother to read this or them until you have read many of the previous books - prefferably where you get the whole story in one book.

Again as in the first book the blurb on the cover explaining the book has nothing to do with the story in the book.

Rating:
Summary: Actually 4.5 stars- excellent book
Review: Star Trek: The Original Series Past Prologue: The Janus Gate Book Three by L.A. Graf is the concluding book to this trilogy, "Present Tense, Future Imperfect, and Past Prologue," and what a conclusion it is.

The book is fast paced and full of action revolving around the unanswered questions about James T. Kirk. The book fills in, clarifies and resolves the issues left in book two. We were left with a future and present Sulu and Chekov, a doppleganger paradox, and a 14 year old James T. Kirk. Spock was trying to bring the time distortion into alignment and alleviate the paradox but was interupted by the Shechenag, a cybernetic race of beings, hell bent to close the Janus Gate, and demanded that Spock and company to leave the Tlaoli system in ten hours as time rapidly counts down on the three day time bubble that was created on Psi-2000 after the cold start of the warp engines.

As you can see, time is the weighing factor here and time is running out... will Spock and the Enterprise crew come through?
Will James T. Kirk live his life in his past or worse yet has he already changed the future. As I mentioned, in my reviews of the previous books, the key here is the time bubble. This bubble allows the Janus Gate only to replace those found to be in the life events around Kirk, Sulu, and Chekov as Spock unravels this mess.

As mentioned, James T. Kirk is time-transported to a life changing event of his past and his past self is now in his present. Captain Kirk is on Grex as the Grexxen are in the middle of a civil war with his father George Kirk. George Kirk is a Commander with Starfleet and is posted on Grex of three months and brings his family with him. All hell breaks loose on Grex, as Captain Kirk has to remember his long forgotten past. It is interesting to read the interplay between Captain Kirk and his father. This could have been extended a little more in the book, but would make an interesting book in an of itself someday.

As Grex was once under the control of the Orions, Starfleet got control of the planet through treaty, but as expected the Orions never give-up easy. As you can see there are a lot of things in play here.

James T. Kirk has to be brought to his present and his childhood counter part returned to the past. This is the key to the whole time paradox. If you correct this, that resolves the future imperfect, book two. Spock has to work to bring this to a resolution, but will he have time and can he figure out how to do it in a rapidly collapsing time frame.

The book gives us "a view" of the future Sulu and Chekov albeit an imperfect view, but the general qualities are there. Spock has always given himself and option to resolve contingencies and this book is no different... hence the way the book resolves the paradox... but remember this... if the Kirk parallel is resolved, then what we read about the future of Sulu and Chekov will change.

If you read the first two books in this trilogy, you have to read book three, just as you can't read book three without reading the first two. The way this trilogy is crafted, it weighs heavy on what has been written and builds to and exciting conclusion, remember to pay attention as the timelines get involved.

This is an interesting concept, to bring in the crew and their perspective to events as they happen... also this is, as noted on the title of the books, not just Star Trek, but Star Trek: The Original Series... so there is a clue there as well.

This is borne out in the next series as well, The Errand of Vengeance : The Edge of the Sword... also a trilogy. I'll see around for that series as well... live long and prosper.

Rating:
Summary: ST: TOS Past Prologue: Janus Gate Book Three
Review: Star Trek: The Original Series Past Prologue: The Janus Gate Book Three by L.A. Graf is the concluding book to this trilogy, "Present Tense, Future Imperfect, and Past Prologue," and what a conclusion it is.

The book is fast paced and full of action revolving around the unanswered questions about James T. Kirk. The book fills in, clarifies and resolves the issues left in book two. We were left with a future and present Sulu and Chekov, a doppleganger paradox, and a 14 year old James T. Kirk. Spock was trying to bring the time distortion into alignment and alleviate the paradox but was interupted by the Shechenag, a cybernetic race of beings, hell bent to close the Janus Gate, and demanded that Spock and company to leave the Tlaoli system in ten hours as time rapidly counts down on the three day time bubble that was created on Psi-2000 after the cold start of the warp engines.

As you can see, time is the weighing factor here and time is running out... will Spock and the Enterprise crew come through?
Will James T. Kirk live his life in his past or worse yet has he already changed the future. As I mentioned, in my reviews of the previous books, the key here is the time bubble. This bubble allows the Janus Gate only to replace those found to be in the life events around Kirk, Sulu, and Chekov as Spock unravels this mess.

As mentioned, James T. Kirk is time-transported to a life changing event of his past and his past self is now in his present. Captain Kirk is on Grex as the Grexxen are in the middle of a civil war with his father George Kirk. George Kirk is a Commander with Starfleet and is posted on Grex of three months and brings his family with him. All hell breaks loose on Grex, as Captain Kirk has to remember his long forgotten past. It is interesting to read the interplay between Captain Kirk and his father. This could have been extended a little more in the book, but would make an interesting book in an of itself someday.

As Grex was once under the control of the Orions, Starfleet got control of the planet through treaty, but as expected the Orions never give-up easy. As you can see there are a lot of things in play here.

James T. Kirk has to be brought to his present and his childhood counter part returned to the past. This is the key to the whole time paradox. If you correct this, that resolves the future imperfect, book two. Spock has to work to bring this to a resolution, but will he have time and can he figure out how to do it in a rapidly collapsing time frame.

The book gives us "a view" of the future Sulu and Chekov albeit an imperfect view, but the general qualities are there. Spock has always given himself and option to resolve contingencies and this book is no different... hence the way the book resolves the paradox... but remember this... if the Kirk parallel is resolved, then what we read about the future of Sulu and Chekov will change.

If you read the first two books in this trilogy, you have to read book three, just as you can't read book three without reading the first two. The way this trilogy is crafted, it weighs heavy on what has been written and builds to and exciting conclusion, remember to pay attention as the timelines get involved.

This is an interesting concept, to bring in the crew and their perspective to events as they happen... also this is, as noted on the title of the books, not just Star Trek, but Star Trek: The Original Series... so there is a clue there as well.

This is borne out in the next series as well, The Errand of Vengeance : The Edge of the Sword... also a trilogy. I'll see around for that series as well... live long and prosper.

Rating:
Summary: Timely Return To Form
Review: The final book in this time travel trilogy is another excellent effort from Graf who has restored my faith that people can still write exciting Star Trek adventures instead of the usual soap opera stuff that plagues much of the modern material. Here we have an interesting story that delves further into Kirk's past, including his relationship with his father, but never loses sight of the overall plot. How easy it would have been for this to become a "Next Generation" or "Voyager" style story with the characters "getting in touch with their feelings" and all "having a group hug" - but no, this is a serious story, and thankfully the author allows the characters to resolve the drama in an adult fashion. The overall conclusion to the Janus Gate side of the story back on Tlaoli IV is also brilliant, although a bit convoluted at times (*but then most time travel stories are !!!), and again I must praise the author for the way she cleverly brings it all together at the end. On a side note I must add my voice to the other readers who have complained about the synopsis that Pocket Books has provided for each of these novels. Only book two contained a synopsis that was remotely close to the actual story of the novel, while book one and three in fact were a load of garbage. Do the publishers actually read the books ?!! And if so who is responsible for the totally inaccurate synopsis writing ?!! Maybe the readers would like to start a letter writing campaign to Pocket Books to ensure that consumers are actually getting what they pay for when they buy a book instead of something completely different !!! Anyway at least this was one of the really worthwhile titles, and one of the better series of Star Trek books, regardless of the lousy synopsis on the back cover. A thoroughly enjoyable read which I would recommend to anyone, and I only hope Kevin Ryan's "Errand of Vengeance" trilogy will prove to be as good.

Rating:
Summary: A bit of an oops in research
Review: There's a comment in this book by scientist Anne Mulhall about the "Irish legend of Brigadoon". Maybe this implies that three centuries from now historians won't remember that this legend is Scottish in origin, not Irish. Or maybe Graf can't tell the difference between the two cultures, I don't know. But passages about a 14-year-old Jim Kirk are of interest, as is the friction between the middle-aged Chekov and his younger self. The Generation Gap run amuck, I guess--the idea of the intolerance of older people for the young even applying to their younger selves. Graf even hints at the older Chekov's Russian accent fading slightly over two decades. Nice touch there--other authors might have had his command of English as his second language remaining the same over the years without improvement. Hey, you speak a new language longer, you speak it better, you know? Another cute linguistic twist is how members of the crew use their command of other Earth languages at one point to fool enemy aliens--the only human language they know is English. Not that the crowd who think that immigrant Americans should never use their mother tongue here would approve--I guess the Federation would be too multicultural for their taste.

Rating:
Summary: Actually 4.5 stars- excellent book
Review: This is the best book of the three, but the Janus Gate sucking the power out of the Scheenag is a bit obvious. Uhura does an awesome job commanding the Enterprise, and the twist at the end is very good. However, the back of the book once again had nothing to do with the story, and I was disappointed that the authors decided not to use Tarsus IV. (Kirk had a bad life at 14-Gaxx and then Tarsus IV)

Rating:
Summary: Another excellent book in the Star Trek series!
Review: This Original Series book brought a great end to the three-book series and proved that, even in written form, all Star Trek works bring to life that feeling that only this particular soap opera can do and do it so well that it belongs with other such books: "2001", "Rendezvous with Rama", "Childhood's End", "Foundation", "Ringworld", "Advent of the Corps", and so forth.