Breakdowns

Starfleet Corps of Engineers #7

by Scott Ciencin, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Kevin Dilmore

After the catastrophic events of Wildfire, the SCE crew of the USS da Vinci is in disarray. Half of the ship's complement were killed at Galvan VI, and the survivors must put their lives back together. Corsi, accompanied by Stevens, tries to make amends with her long-estranged father. Abramowitz attempts to lose herself in her work, only to be confronted with an old rival – and her own emotional fears. P8 Blue goes home to find her world confronting a crisis that threatens the Nasat's very existence.

But it is Captain Gold and Commander Gomez who face the most difficult trials, as they find the road to recovery a difficult one. Each confronts demons from the past and the uncertainty of the future, leading to a bitter confrontation from which neither may ever truly recover...

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Fiction

320 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2005

About the author

Scott Ciencin was a New York Times best-selling novelist of 90+ books. He wrote adult and children's fiction and worked in a variety of mediums including comic books. He created programs for Scholastic Books, designed trading cards, consulted on video games, directed and produced audio programs & TV commercials, and wrote in the medical field about neurosurgery and neurology. He first worked in TV production as a writer, producer and director. He lived in Sarasota, Florida with his wife (and sometimes co-author) Denise.

(Also wrote under the pseudonyms Nick Baron and L.J. Oliver)

Reviews

[Craig]

Another group of novellas that deal with the repercussions of Wildfire and in some cases specifically Duffy's death which shouldn't be a spoiler if you are reading this book as it's on the cover... and I had to explain that to my 7 year old daughter who read it. Well here's how I rate each work:

Home Fires - 4 stars - Great story of healing and a cool insight into Ross's career before the Cardassian/Federation border wars. However, why do some writers forget when telling a story from a person's perspective that they don't know the thoughts and feelings of other people at the time? The story should have been told solely from Aldo's perspective as he was the one telling the story. This was easily done later on in this collection in Balance of Nature when everything in that story was told solely from P8's point of view. I would have given this potentially 5 stars but that bothered me too much.

Age of Unreason - 1 star - Am I supposed to know what is going on here? Story and planet seem stupid. Astral projection doesn't belong in Star Trek. Forgetting this one. Moving on...

Balance of Nature - 4 stars - Interesting mystery and good insight into the Nasat culture and planet. Also liked seeing how P8 ending up deciding why she joined Starfleet. Being away and returning to your home and not quite fitting in is actually something I can relate to so empathized with her there.

Breakdowns - 5 stars - The titular book and what was expected after the events of Wildfire - Gold and Gomez dealing with their side of the story and both coming together. Surprisingly short but effective storytelling here. Gold is dealing with the fallout of the events of Wildfire happening under his command and Gomez is dealing with her emotions and self after Duffy's sacrifice. I appreciated how both stories were resolved and how both are moving forward as we all have to do when someone we love dies. Some questions are still left unanswered and I don't think they ever will be and that's okay.

[Daniel Kukwa]

The story involving Pattie didn't do much for me...but the rest proves what the TNG episode "Family" demonstrated years ago: quiet follow ups to epics full of emotional trauma make for evocative storytelling.

[David]

This series gets better and better with each book. I love the Corps of Engineers.

[Christian]

Ending August with Book 7 of the SCE series. This book follows the aftermath amd devastation of the Wildfire story. Specifically, we get to follow some of the crew as they cope with grief and loss in a variety of circumstances.

I had a single SCE book on my shelf for about 2 years before I found this group. I knew it was part of a longer series but I didn’t have a real understanding of what this series entailed. The format of these shorter stories gives us the opportunity to get to know many different members of this crew in such a variety of scenarios. I loved getting to see more of Corsi’s family dynamic and learning more about P8 Blue’s home world and culture. I was also moved at how Gold and Gomez struggled with their grief in the final story. Now we move on to the larger deluxe paperbacks for the remainder of the series.

[Eric]

Strongest of the series to date.

[Jonne Steen Redeker]

This book gives us what we so rarely get in star trek, the full aftermath. Something shocking has happened, the crew will never be the same, they have PTSD and survivor's guilt to deal with, and need to figure out where to go from here.

One by one the crew goes home to lick their wounds, some get tangled into a new problem, others are simple dealing with their baggage. Corsi and Stevens go to visit her parents, a big ask of Corsi who's estranged relationship with her father is rather stressful indeed, Steven's motivations are even less clear but he seems to be questioning his role in Starfleet.

Carol, Bart and Soloman go on a joined emergency mission, and find themselves questioning what is real while also still realling from what hey experienced.

Pattie goes home to find her home under attack, and discovers that history is important to know, even though her society shuns it. In doingh so she makes a little history herself. We also get a fascinating look into Nasat society.

And Gomez and Gold are on earth, struggling to find their way after what they went through. Gold finds sollace in his large extended family, while Gomez mostly projects her own survivor guil onto Gold. Can they ever function as CO and XO again?

If there was one thing I would critique this book for it would be that it simply is not long enough. I wanted more stories like this, but they do not often sell well. It also feels like less material having it all bound in one paper book, rather than the ebooks I originally read.

All in all a great set once more, and I look forward to the next one.

[Tommy Verhaegen]

This book is a necessity after wath happened in S.C.E. #6, both for the characters as the readers. That said, i ranked it much lower than the previous books, just because it concentrates mostly on psychological healing and less on the typical S.C.E. adventures. Up to the nest one.