What do you think?
Rate this book
Star Trek: The Original Series (IDW) #10
Star Trek: Romulans - Pawns of War
Collecting legendary creator John Byrne's tales of Star Trek's Romulans, this six-issue volume includes his Alien Spotlight, the two-part "Hollow Crown" story, and the concluding, three-part Schism series. Mystery, intrigue, and war abound in this compelling tale!
164 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2010
55 people want to read
About the author
John Byrne
2,974 books366 followersLibrarian note:
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
John Lindley Byrne is a British-born Canadian-American author and artist of comic books. Since the mid-1970s, Byrne has worked on nearly every major American superhero.
Byrne's better-known work has been on Marvel Comics' X-Men and Fantastic Four and the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics’ Superman franchise. Coming into the comics profession exclusively as a penciler, Byrne began co-plotting the X-Men comics during his tenure on them, and launched his writing career in earnest with Fantastic Four (where he also started inking his own pencils). During the 1990s he produced a number of creator-owned works, including Next Men and Danger Unlimited. He also wrote the first issues of Mike Mignola's Hellboy series and produced a number of Star Trek comics for IDW Publishing.
There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name
John Lindley Byrne is a British-born Canadian-American author and artist of comic books. Since the mid-1970s, Byrne has worked on nearly every major American superhero.
Byrne's better-known work has been on Marvel Comics' X-Men and Fantastic Four and the 1986 relaunch of DC Comics’ Superman franchise. Coming into the comics profession exclusively as a penciler, Byrne began co-plotting the X-Men comics during his tenure on them, and launched his writing career in earnest with Fantastic Four (where he also started inking his own pencils). During the 1990s he produced a number of creator-owned works, including Next Men and Danger Unlimited. He also wrote the first issues of Mike Mignola's Hellboy series and produced a number of Star Trek comics for IDW Publishing.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
June 22, 2016
Outstanding! Romulans: Pawns of War is actually a collection of stories containing all of John Byrne's Romulan stories, which are Spotlight: Romulans, The Balance of Terror (told from the Romulan perspective), The Hollow Crown #1& 2, & Schisms #1-3. This was a great story arc, with great characters & development & excellent artwork. The story takes place within the time frame of the original five year mission but Kirk & the crew of the Enterprise only appear very briefly. I thoroughly enjoyed this & although these stories were originally released separately they all pick up were the previous story left off & tell a continuous story about how the Klingons use the Romulans as a means of circumventing the Treaty of Organia to make war on the Fedaration. Highly recommend to all ST fans & if TOS is your favorite then this is a must read.
May 2, 2016
This is the third volume featuring John Byrne's Star Trek work over at IDW, and it opens up with the very first Trek story, which first saw the light of day as the Alien Spotlight: Romulans one-shot. I had read this story before, and it was, in fact, what convinced me that I really needed to keep an eye out for more Trek work by Byrne.
The one-shot, which sets up the basic plot for the entire Romulans trilogy, is then followed by a previously unpublished, twelve-page re-telling of the Star Trek episode "The Balance of Terror", naturally seen from the perspective of the Romulans here. It is a small extra which serves as a bridge between the one-shot and the two-issue mini The Hollow Crown (i.e. the second part of the trilogy) for anyone who has not watched the original episode (or who might not have it fresh in mind).
The Hollow Crown consequently takes place after the events of "Balance of Terror" and introduces the Klingons into the now imminent conflict between the Federation and the Romulan Empire. Among the Klingon we see both Koloth and Kor from the original series making appearances.
In the concluding part of the trilogy, the three-parter Schism, the Federation itself is drawn more thoroughly into the conflict, and here Byrne draws upon his Crew mini, as the character of number one, now a commodore (and referred to simply as "the commodore" or "commodore" throughout, so as to maintain the established unknown of the character's actual name), plays a part in the drama in its concluding chapters.
All in all, this is yet another Star Trek story by Byrne that has really convinced me to go for the original series. This, in short, is what it was all about. Warmly recommended!
The one-shot, which sets up the basic plot for the entire Romulans trilogy, is then followed by a previously unpublished, twelve-page re-telling of the Star Trek episode "The Balance of Terror", naturally seen from the perspective of the Romulans here. It is a small extra which serves as a bridge between the one-shot and the two-issue mini The Hollow Crown (i.e. the second part of the trilogy) for anyone who has not watched the original episode (or who might not have it fresh in mind).
The Hollow Crown consequently takes place after the events of "Balance of Terror" and introduces the Klingons into the now imminent conflict between the Federation and the Romulan Empire. Among the Klingon we see both Koloth and Kor from the original series making appearances.
In the concluding part of the trilogy, the three-parter Schism, the Federation itself is drawn more thoroughly into the conflict, and here Byrne draws upon his Crew mini, as the character of number one, now a commodore (and referred to simply as "the commodore" or "commodore" throughout, so as to maintain the established unknown of the character's actual name), plays a part in the drama in its concluding chapters.
All in all, this is yet another Star Trek story by Byrne that has really convinced me to go for the original series. This, in short, is what it was all about. Warmly recommended!
July 4, 2024
Good solid stuff by John Byrne. I am not a huge Star Trek fan but know enough about the series to be able to follow what is going on. There are probably 'Easter Eggs' for the diehard Trekkies, but I was still able to follow this with ease.
Read
January 3, 2023I read this as individual issues.
June 7, 2023
The Romulan back story was less fun for me than the adventures of the Yorktown. More of that please. More detailed review later.
January 24, 2012
I kind of missed the oily devious Kligons from the old Star Trek after they evolved into big wrinkly-headed vikings. John Byrne not only brings back the old school Klingons in this collection, he even uses the characters who appeared in old episodes like Kor from "Errand of Mercy" and Koloth from "Trouble with Tribbles". The plot adds a back story and afterward to the episode "Balance of Terror". An especially nice touch is the use of Christopher Pike's unnamed female first officer from "The Menagerie" as a Commodore, but still unnamed.
January 1, 2014
My brother and I have been reading tons of graphic novels this year.... It's been a lot of fun. Our local Gresham library has an entire wall with hundreds of them... I'll be reading more this next year for sure. Just finished this one this morning. It was a fun read... the artwork was ok... the story was entertaining... the story wove and connected several of the old, original Star Trek series shows into one story. This graphic novel fills in the gaps. If you like Star Trek I would recommend it....
March 26, 2010
This is the second time I have been very pleasantly surprised by John Byrne's work this year. Yes, its licensed work. Hopefully this encourage Byrne to cage his ego a little bit and launch out into the realm of creator owned work again soon. This story nicely bridges the time from the Romulans appearance in the first season of Star Trek TOS, and gives an explanation for the Romulans seen in ST:TNG. Byrne also throws in a nice Easter Egg cameo for Trek fans. See if you can spot it.
May 20, 2018
Interesting short story with Koloth and Kor as some of the main cast (along with the original "#1") about the federation and a cloaking device, and a feud of a romulan with Kirk that leads to the dissolution (some might say "schism" ;-) ) between the romulan and klingon empires. Now...why do the Klingons have an emperor in this story? I thought it had been ruled by a council even before this time.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 16, 2013
A very enjoyable read including the Alien Spotlight that John Byrne started his Star Trek run with. While reading it (as the individual issues as they came out, I do not own the collection), I couldn't help but think of Star Trek: Nemesis and wish the people behind that film had tried to delve as deep into Romulan culture and politics as Byrne did here. Would've made a better film.
July 4, 2020
Reread. A so-so follow up to The Hollow Crown in what is now basically the Byrneverse (Alien Spotlight, Gary Seven 5-parter, Crew). Year Four is still fresh in my mind and both have similar plotlines in terms of the Klingons (Kor in particular) and Organians with different settings (and published within 2 years of each other).
July 6, 2012
John Byrne’s ambitious and interconnected Romulan tales collected. Wonderful political intrigue, character study and culture sci-fi compressed into a tale that keeps you engaged and offers intelligent storytelling.
July 30, 2010
Didn't like this one. Coulda cared less about it or the characters.
January 31, 2011
More good from John Byrne, but rarely a fan of war.
July 27, 2012
An interesting book that takes a peak behind the curtain known as the Neutral Zone.
September 27, 2012
JB helps to fill in many gaps from the original series regarding the Romulans.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews