Book Review — Star Trek: Coda, book III - Oblivion's Gate, by David Mack.
A review of the final book in the Star Trek: Coda novel trilogy, which is itself the final book in a two-decade Star Trek novels saga.
Note: I try to avoid major spoilers while talking around the book here. There is one section I highlight you might wish to skip to remain spoiler-free for the ending of the book.
Generally, tie-in fiction to TV and film series is quite accessible. While obviously aimed at fans of the series, I am sure you could read this novel, and this trilogy, with no former knowledge of events in Star Trek. However in this particular case, I think you’d have a poorer experience, because this book is not just the last in a trilogy, but effectively the last in about 20-years of Star Trek story-telling in novels.
For those not familiar with that history, a quick recap: In the early 2000s on-screen Star Trek appeared to be dead; the golden age of Trek TV in the 1990s fizzled out with the end of Star Trek: Enterprise in 2005, and so the fates of the crews from The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise fell into the hands of Star Trek novelists, who did continue to tell new stories.
What followed has shaped Star Trek for book-readers for the last couple of decades. Previously Star Trek novels all tended to leave…
