Chainmail

Star Trek: Gateways #2

by Diane Carey

Dangerous remnants of an extinct interstellar civilization, the Gateways connect the Alpha Quadrant with the farthest reaches of the galaxy. Hidden away in various corners of the universe, the ancient portals could be the future of space travel, but they may also provide a open doorway for an invasion from beyond! Twenty years ago, in the space near Belle Terre, a caravan of alien vessels disappeared into a gigantic Gateway. Now the descendants of those aliens have returned, armed with incredible new weapons and abilities. Captain Nick Keller of the "U.S.S. Challenger," already struggling to maintain peace in the troubled sector, must now cope with a fleet of hostile aliens driven by their own fanatical agenda!

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Fiction, Ebooks, Science Fiction Fantasy, Media Tie In

334 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published August 1, 2001

About the author

Diane Carey also wrote the Distress Call 911 young adult series under the name D.L. Carey.

Diane Carey is primarily a science fiction author best known for her work in the Star Trek franchise. She has been the lead-off writer for two Star Trek spin-off book series: Star Trek The Next Generation with Star Trek: Ghost Ship, and the novelization of the Star Trek: Enterprise pilot, Broken Bow.

For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Carey

Reviews

[Jonathan Koan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Full discussion will be in the Literary Treks episode:

This book really felt like it was split into 3 parts:

The opening section was entirely on this alien ship and was quite interesting. The whole "Grave Ship" concept was fascinating to me, and I wanted to know how the worldbuilding here worked. I will admit the plot was just ok here.

The second section takes place on the Challenger, and was fantastic. I really liked the command decisions that Captain Keller has to make, when Shucorion and the Blood are threatening action against a crewmember who purportedly did a mutiny.

The third section, unfortunately, was where the book really fell apart for me. I thought there was too much happening at once, and none of it really landed sadly. And I'm even more confused about the Gateways concept than I was after book 1.

Overall, the book is all over the place. Some good, some bad, some ok. Mostly ok as a whole. I'll give the book a 6 out of 10.

[A.K. Johns]

***If you only care about the Challenger crew, you don’t need to read the other stories and can skip ahead to ‘What Lay Beyond’.

Thank God I finally finished this book, what a drag! Another one in a series of stories that have no ending of their own in order to make you buy the next one. I just hope Book 3 of the Gateways series is better than this one. I was hoping to have finished the whole series by Christmas, but this made me fall asleep every night after just a few pages.

To start with I need to say that this is possibly the worst book for errors I have read since I attempted to get through “Fifty Shades”. Has it been proof read at all? Even by the author? Or is this actually just the first draft ever written? There is so much missing, it’s like Diane Carey has forgotten that we don’t know what’s going on in her head and has therefore omitted or missed out a lot of crucial information, but yet there are also chapters of just one man’s thoughts, spanning 30 seconds, that take up 10 pages just to fill out what could have been a much shorter story. Was the editor on holiday when this book was sent in?
The writing also feels more conversational than literary adding to my feeling that it has been written as if from a dictaphone without proofing and it’s quite repetitive. There are lots of times where we get the same statements twice or even three times.
Not to mention the places that just seem to be gibberish and the massive errors where the author can’t seem to remember where she’s left someone? One minute they’re on the bridge and the next in a turbolift with no explanation, before they’re back on the bridge again.

I also don’t like the constant references to the 20th century or earlier. Keller is from a farm, but it’s still a 23rd century farm, he’s not backwards or stuck in the past! It’s fine in Voyager when Tom Paris makes these references, because we know he has an interest in that part of his history, but there’s no frame of reference for it here.

I don’t like the crew, the whole rag tag bunch of misfits really doesn’t work. The only one with any potential interest is Zane Bonifay and we don’t really get to find out much more about him than we did in the “New Earth” book. In fact there’s still so much information missing about the crew as a whole. How do Zane and Keller know each other? Is there something more between Keller and Ring? for instance.

Shucorion is a very unlikeable character that causes a ridiculous problem, that is probably what makes the book so unenjoyable. The situation is actually just quite ludicrous and not what you’d expect from the future we’ve come to enjoy in Star Trek.

Keller is not only bad at being a Captain/Commander (Field Commission), but I’m not sure I’d want him as my second officer either. He hasn’t got that Starfleet factor about him, although I think they are trying to make him a bit Kirk like. They failed.

There is also the idea of Gamma Night, which is a terrible plot device that really slows down the flow of the story and again it drags it out longer than necessary.

I would normally have given up on this book after about 100 pages, but as it’s part of a series I persevered, otherwise it would have been on eBay a month ago.
I’m not scoring it, because it doesn’t even warrant a score of 1! I’m only glad to see that they never followed up with this crew again, except, I assume in book 7 of the gateways series.

[Graff Fuller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Star Trek: Gateways: Challenger 02 Chainmail by Diane Carey

challenging dark hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense

Medium-paced

Plot or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters are a main focus? Yes

3.25 Stars

Learning about the different ways the Gateway has been used and interacted with...has been interesting.

I wish that I had read the New Earth series BEFORE reading this book (in the Gateway series). There is only so much an author can tell a new reader...about a crew and ship, that have had six novels to accumilate.

Other than the disfunction of not knowing the backgrounds/interactions from the past...within the crew of Captain Nick Keller and The Blood that coexisted in this story...it would've (I believe) been better...if I had read the series where they were introduced and went on adventures.

The story within this novel was nightmarish, but also well developed. The tension between not knowing what in the hell was going on, and then eventually getting a grasp on it...and then fighting back...was cool to read and experience.

So far, two main characters SEEMED to have made bold (and possibly) or wrong decisions near the end, but I feel that at the end of this series...we will see the other portion of the story...from their perspective. Just a thought.

Now, on to Star Trek: Gateways: TNG 03 Doors into Chaos by Robert Greenberger.e

[Chris Fieldhouse · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you ever wondered what people meant when they described something as "deathless prose..."

[Jason Fawkes · Rating 1 out of 5]

Deathly dull entry in the Gateways sub series based around Carey's Libertarian Space Wild West Settler Challenger spin off. Apart from a couple of passing references to Kirk and Scotty there's nothing here that links to Star Trek, it's a Trojan Horse for the story that Carey wants to tell, that doesn't work for me.

[Chris McCown · Rating 5 out of 5]

To summarize everything I'm about to say, this was a very good book that didn't belong in this series.

Diane Carey has a fantastic writing style. She is able to fully realize aliens species that have a wholly different way of thinking as opposed to the slightly-different method most other authors use, including those who write for the tv show. She also uses the show, not tell method that most other authors lack.

This book is a great read for these reasons. However, I say it doesn't belong because it barely deals with the Iconian gateway crisis at all. In fact, the theme that seems to tie the other book together (The Petraw) are completely absent. She instead uses this book to tell a very good story that furthers the story line of the New Earth series. At the time of me writing this, I haven't read What Lay Beyond, but this seems to be almost a complete self contained story to the Challenger story line. While all other books use the Iconian gateways the way the tv show used them, this book uses them as a portal to another dimension as well as another time.

That should detract from it, but the story is so good, I just can't make myself care.

Keller is a commander I wish we had gotten to know better. I'm very sad that this is the first and last of the completely self contained Challenger series (not counting the New Earth series). As I mentioned early, Carey's writing style is one of the best examples of show, not tell that is used in Star Trek lit. It's not until the very end of the book that you realize that Keller hasn't really been acting like a Captain at all, which makes his sudden, yet welcome, decisive actions a very enjoyable read.

This series is what the show should have been more of. Truly alien races against (or with) a Federation ship out on the edge of space. Likewise, the motivation for the aggressors is actually quite understandable. Carey takes time to make their actions understandable given their circumstances. You can't condone their actions, but you understand why their doing them.

Like I said, I enjoyed this book immensely. However, make sure you read the New Earth series before you read this one, or you will be as confused as some of the people who commented before me.

[Daniel O'donovan · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is awful! It's a collection of terrible metaphors, bad writing, poorly defined characters, and a confusing plot.

This book is the second book in the Gateways series.

Star Trek books are often new adventures with the established crews from the TV shows. This has new characters. There is nothing wrong with that but the author writes as if the reader should understand and know who these people are. There is a group called Blood - I've gleaned that much.

There have been other adventures with these characters. This novel needs to stand as part of the Gateways series and in that it fails miserably. Finally after 100 pages more information starts to be given. The crew isn't all Star-fleet and there are factions aboard the ship. Exactly how this factions interact is still a mystery to me. On the cover it mentions 'New Earth' but it doesn't seen to come up in the novel itself.

One example of the bad writing is 'With the hot potato safely gone.' This in reference to a troublesome crewman being removed from the room.

The division in the crews is quite well done. I didn't understand the background but I liked how the Blood crew refused to follow orders at one point. It shows Carey making used of this difference in the crew - this was something that Star Trek: Voyager failed at.

I've read another book by Carey, the novelisation of Sacrifice of Angels - that too was bad.

[John · Rating 1 out of 5]

Meh. An unfamiliar cast of characters in an unfamiliar but vaguely Star Trek setting face a "gateway"-themed challenge. No connection to the gateways of the first book are apparent, but maybe that's coming in the conclusion to this story in the seventh volume.

So far this looks likely to be six unrelated, incomplete Trek novels, all to conclude in book seven.

Meh.

[Christopher Riley · Rating 1 out of 5]

You can see why Challenger failed as a series. The opening is just mush. I really struggled with it. Ended up skipping ahead, which I never do with Star Trek books. Don't regret not wasting more of my time.

[Ossy · Rating 1 out of 5]

i don't get it at all....

[Chad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really a very mediocre entry with Keller's crew and the Challenger. I really really wanted to like this one more, but it just fell flat and boring.

[Francis C. Fischer · Rating 1 out of 5]

Made no sense!

Sou Diane! I've enjoyed your other books but I couldn't make head nor tales of this one! It just didn't make any sense!

[Octavia Cade · Rating 3 out of 5]

It seems to me that there are three main storylines going on here, and two of them work for me and the third really doesn't.

The two that work both really lean into exploratory elements. In the first, a human/Federation captain clashes with his alien first officer. The alien, along with a handful of his compatriots, are assigned to a shared ship not very long after first contact between the two civilisations. They both have extremely different ideas of what constitutes acceptable behaviour and Carey makes a genuine effort to present both sides as decent, rational people who dislike the ongoing cultural conflict but can't avoid the necessity of it. It's more tension-filled than it sounds, but the challenges of truly engaging with an alien practice and way of thought is fairly well-done. Also well-done is the third civilisation, who - after being stranded in an environmentally impoverished dimension - have built a society around survival and sacrifice. It's not an always pleasant society, but it is, under the circumstances, a convincing one.

The problem is when these two storylines come together. There's really nothing about that particular part of the book that garners any interest. Compared to those two initial strands, it lacks a sense of emotional or narrative credibility - at least it does for me. I can't help but think that there might have been two excellent short books here, if only they were allowed to stand on their own instead of being mashed together and forced into a less satisfactory whole.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow, I actually took a break of over a year before trying to finish this book in earnest. The New Earth/Challenger setting was just so difficult to get into, I guess.

Setting aside, this little adventure really didn't get sufficient development to be all that interesting. We have Pompeii the mysterious grave ship full of metallic mummy-like bodies. Some seem to resemble some of the races that consist of the Challenger's unique crew based on the area of space they call home and it's up to their leader Nick Keller to figure this puzzle out while still navigating the complex political landscape of his diverse crew.

This book features some oddly long chapters that are difficult to get through. It doesn't help that every chapter must include multiple references to the ship being assembled from many other ship components that weren't meant to work together. Seriously, it's like anything that goes wrong is because of the cobbled-together nature of the ship and even one of the weird character-based conflicts is complicated because that character knows most of the ship's systems better than anyone else.

There is some definite curiosity and wonder in the actual mystery of the book, but all the other drama gets in the way of things. I hope the rest of the Gateways stories flow better regardless of the characters involved.

[Jessica Edmonds · Rating 1 out of 5]

Diane Carey must have been related to someone at Pocketbooks. There is no other way to explain why they would keep giving her writing jobs. She writes like someone that never even saw Star Trek. She doesn’t know how to write for the existing characters, and she also does not know how to make compelling or likable original characters. This felt like a first draft that had no oversight by an editor. No proper structure to the flow of any story. Just cobbled together nonsense and plodding dialogue or inner monologues. Characters speak in modern slang and references. She doesn’t seem to know the technobabble terms in the Star Trek universe. There is a reason this is the first and only book in the “Challenger” series. It’s embarrassingly awful. It’s gotten to the point whenever I start a new Star Trek series and I see one of the books is written by her I know it’s going to derail everything and be a slog to get through.

[Tamara · Rating 2 out of 5]

I first have to say that I did not read this book because it was a Challenger book, but because it was a Gateways book. Maybe if I had read those first I would feel different about it than I did. As it stands though this was not a Star Trek book. Just slapping the name on a book does not make it so. Even for a sci-fi book it was fairly disjointed. The plot was ok but not great, the characters were not inspiring, and I can't say this enough this was not Star Trek.

[Quinten · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last chapters were great but I had a really hard time getting into this book since it doesn't in any way follow up on book 1 from this series.
Besides that, the book had a really slow start, things only started moving forwards when I was halfway through the book. Which left very little space for a plot.

[Cathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Gateways #1 was much better

If this book had started in the middle and continued from there, it would have been a
much easier to understand

[Daniel · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the second installment in the "Gateways" series of Star Trek novels. Unlike the rest of the books, this one takes place in a franchise developed solely for the use in this series of Star Trek books. Challenger is completely unattached to any of the existing franchise properties and, sadly, is the only book in the Challenger series. Given the different nature of starship Challenger from that of Enterprise, some concepts are a bit foreign such as, there are no science stations but sci decks, the ship is an amalgam of salvaged parts, the crew isn't all Starfleet, or even aligned with them, and the command crew also seems to be a bit more relaxed with less of a military background. Captain Keller does appear in other Star Trek novels, mainly those in the "New Earth" series, but otherwise the crew is brand new. In fact, I would go so far as to say that this book could just as easily exist outside the Star Trek universe. The novel does a very good job at creating a backstory for these new characters while continuing the theme of Gateway. Setting a Star Trek novel in such a region of space hasn't been done, but it would have been nice to see what may have happened if the Challenger line continued. Overall, this is good book, but it is annoying that you don't get a proper ending until last installment in the "Gateways" series.

[Marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

If I didn't want to read the whole Gateways series, I would not have finished this book. As it is, it took me three tries to get into the darned thing. It seemed as though the author did everything she could to keep from giving away the twist, but instead of being intriguing, it alternated between being a mess of random terminology and philosophy and being just plain boring.

Also, the author apparently just found out what a thesaurus was and couldn't put it down. An example - here are just some of the words that were used instead of the word "said": commented, warned, spoke, muttered, attempted, wheezed, supported (?), cautioned, insisted, offered, soothed, grumbled, gasped, announced, gulped, mentioned, blurted, drawled, admitted, scolded, observed, instructed, barked, intoned, promised, predicted, contradicted, gagged, stammered, mused, and my personal favorite, activated. I suppose the variety wouldn't be so bad - or even noticeable - if not for the awkward, forced, and even inaccurate usage. I mean really, "activated"? In no way can that word be used in place of "said".

The plot itself picked up toward the end, but it wasn't enough to make up for the blah beginning and middle. I just hope that the rest of the series isn't a waste of time.

[Erica · Rating 3 out of 5]

Before I considered reading the Gateways series I had never even heard of Challenger, and I haven't read the books (the ones about New Earth, right!?) that lead up to Challenger either. So this was all new to me, and I'm not completely sure that it was my cup of tee. At least not really. I still love the concept with the Gateways, and I do like some parts of the story in this book mainly due to that. I like the story with Riutta and the other Living, but I would have loved to get even more of a backstory to them. And perhaps something about them in relationship to the gateway, cause I sort of felt that I couldn't quite grasp how it all came together. Hopefully I'll get enough of a closure in the ending in book seven, though. When it comes to the Challenger crew, who are really the main characters here, I felt that they were okay enough. I probably wouldn't read any other books about them, although I have nothing against them either. Diane Carey does a great job with writing their story, so for me I guess it was just a case of the fact that every crew and every story and so on can't be what you like the most every single time...

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

It really is a shame that Challenger didn't take off as a series, and Chainmail remains the only Star Trek novel under the Star Trek: Challenger name. Diane Carey is a supremely talented writer, and her take on the "new crew, new ship" paradigm is quite unique and interesting. However, I suppose there just wasn't room for a new series in Trek lit that featured entirely new characters. Truly a shame.

Chainmail itself was well-written and a pleasure to read. However, its impact on the rest of the Gateways series seems limited. The Petraw, who are the main aggressors througout the rest of the series, are not even mentioned in this story. I suspect that this decision was made so that it could easily be skipped by people who weren't familiar with Challenger or the New Earth series. While this story is not essential to the overall Gateways narrative, I am glad I did not skip it. After the disappointment of One Small Step, Chainmail was a welcome breath of fresh air.

Full review: http://treklit.blogspot.com/2012/02/c...

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think that this book is one of the best ever written. It contains a wide selection of words, and has many descriptive moments. These moments seem so real that I can almost "see" what is happening in the book. It is in these moments where the amount of detail is almost overwhelming. The word choice is different. The phrase:"'Chain mail' she said, tasting the word..." is a phrase that I have never seen before. The plot- line in this book is unique. More and more problems begin to pile up on Commander Keller, and it seems that all hope is lost until the final conclusion comes. The final conclusion is completely unexpected, and when it finally does come, it really keeps you on the edge of your seat. Overall, I give this book five stars, because it has an incredible amount of detail, exotic words and phrases, and a dramatic conclusion.

[Angela · Rating 3 out of 5]

The crew of Challenger find a strange ship that looks like a graveyard, it also has traps for intruders. The crew of the Challenger are interesting, and the story behind its creation intriguing. The Gateway link seems tenuous, with it being used to introduce a new species. A good read.

[Tammy]

Annoyingly, the endings of all the books in the series are in 'What Lay Beyond'.

[Benjamin Plume · Rating 4 out of 5]

Love the Gateways concept. Some tales turned out better than others.

[James Wood · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was not as good as the first book in the series, but as expected, it ended in a cliff hanger, so I will have to keep reading them.

[Christopher Preiman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked the new ship and crew, it's a pity i didn't like their story. Perhaps if they had gotten a better first book we would have another great Trek book series.

[Ryan Mckenzie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Horrid, and she's one of my favorite Star Trek writers.

[Casey Pettitt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Want to hear my thoughts on this book? Listen to Literary Treks episode 385.