Live by the Code

Star Trek: Enterprise: Rise of the Federation #4

by Christopher L. Bennett

The “fifth season” saga of the Star Trek: Enterprise TV series continues with this action-packed original novel!

Admiral Jonathan Archer has barely settled in as Starfleet Chief of Staff when new crises demand his attention. The Starfleet task force commanded by Captain Malcolm Reed continues its fight against the deadly Ware technology, but one of the task force ships is captured, its Andorian crew imprisoned by an interstellar Partnership that depends on the Ware for its prosperity. Worse, the Partnership has allied with a renegade Klingon faction, providing it with Ware drone fleets to mount an insurrection against the Klingon Empire. Archer sends Captain T’Pol and Endeavour to assist Reed in his efforts to free the captured officers. But he must also keep his eye on the Klingon border, for factions within the Empire blame Starfleet for provoking the Ware threat and seek to take revenge. Even the skill and dedication of the captains under Archer’s command may not be enough to prevent the outbreak of the Federation’s first war!

™, ®, & © 2016 CBS Studios, Inc. STAR TREK and related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Star Trek Enterprise, Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy, Space Opera

383 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published March 29, 2016

About the author

Christopher L. Bennett is a lifelong resident of Cincinnati, Ohio, with a B.S. in Physics and a B.A. in History from the University of Cincinnati. A fan of science and science fiction since age five, he has spent the past two decades selling original short fiction to magazines such as Analog Science Fiction and Fact (home of his "Hub" series of comedy adventures), BuzzyMag, and Galaxy's Edge. Since 2003, he has been one of Pocket Books' most prolific and popular authors of Star Trek tie-in fiction, including the epic Next Generation prequel The Buried Age, the Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations series, and the Star Trek: Enterprise -- Rise of the Federation series. He has also written two Marvel Comics novels, X-Men: Watchers on the Walls and Spider-Man: Drowned in Thunder. His original novel Only Superhuman, perhaps the first hard science fiction superhero novel, was voted Library Journal's SF/Fantasy Debut of the Month for October 2012. Other tales in the same universe can be found in Among the Wild Cybers and the upcoming Arachne's Crime, both from eSpec Books. His Hub stories are available in two collections from Mystique Press.
Christopher's homepage, fiction annotations, and blog can be found at christopherlbennett.wordpress.com. His Patreon page with original fiction and reviews is at https://www.patreon.com/christopherlb..., and his Facebook author page is at www.facebook.com/ChristopherLBennettA....

Reviews

[reherrma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dieser Roman aus der Frühzeit der Förderation, als sie immer noch ein fragiles Gebilde war, das von Innen und ganz besonders von Außen ständig bedroht wurde, setzt die Handlungsebene um "Die Ware" aus den letzten beiden Bänden fort. Die Ware wurde in einer Folge aus der 2. Staffel "Star Trek: Enterprise" bekannt, als sie als interstellare, robotische Reparaturstation, gegen Ware die schwer beschädigte ENTERPRISE 01 in Rekordzeit repariert hatte. Allerdings hatte die Station den Sternenflotten-Offizier Travis Mayweather entführt, seinen Tod vorgetäuscht um sich in dessen Gehirn einzuklinken um die Rechenleistung der Station zu erhöhen. Daraufhin zerstörte Captain Archer damals die Station.
Jetzt hat sich herausgestellt, dass Die Ware anderen Spezies ihre Dienste seit Jahrhunderten angeboten hat und sie auf diesem Wege abhängig gemacht hat. Die Förderation versucht nun, Die Ware zu bekämpfen, jedoch sind viele Spezies bereits so dermaßen von ihr abhängig, dass sie ohne ihre Dienste nicht überlebensfähig sind, außerdem haben die Klingonen inzwischen mitbekommen, dass sie von der überlegenen Technologie der Ware profitieren können, ein Konflikt mit der Förderation ist vorprogrammiert...
Ich empfand diesen Handlungsstrang um die Ware als eine Kapitalismus-Kritik, die ganz im Sinne von Gene Roddenberry gewesen wäre. Auch der andere Handlungsstrang um den denebulanischen Arzt Pholx, könnte als Kritik zur aktuellen amerikanischen Politik unter Trump verstanden werden. Denebula und Antares sind seit Jahren verfeindet, sie haben sich gegenseitig unzählige Kriege und Massaker angetan. Deshalb ist Phlox auch stolz, dass seine Tochter einen Antaraner heiraten will. Sein Sohn, der Phlox aufgrund seiner Tätigkeit als Arzt auf dem Förderationsschiff ENTERPRISE hasst, hat sich einer radikalen, rassistischen Gruppe angeschlossen, die auch vor Attentaten nicht zurückschreckt. Während der Hochzeitsfeier wird ein Attentat auf einen Antaranischen Politiker durchgeführt, bei dem Phloxs Sohn der Haupttäter war, er wird daraufhin festgenommen. Das Attentat führt zu einem Anschwellen des Konfliktes zwischen Denebula und Antares, weil auf beiden Seiten radikale Kräfte an Zuspruch gewinnen, da beide Spezies nicht Mitglied der Förderation sind, kann Admiral Archer auch nicht viel tun, aber Phlox versucht den Konflikt zu verhindern...
Ich finde, diesen 4. Roman um "Star Trek: Rise of the Federation" war einer der besten dieser Reihe, spannend, nachdenkenswert und es macht immer Spaß den Personen, die man bereits bei "Star Trek: Enterprise" liebgewonnen hat, wieder zu begegnen.
So kommt es zur Wiederbegegnung von "Trip" Tucker, als Agent der Sektion 31 mit T'Pol, Hoshi Sato und Captain Reed haben wichtige Parts und sogar der ehemalige Gegenspieler und jetzige Freund von Archer; der Andorianische General Shran sind im Boot, bei der Suche nach den Schöpfern der Ware. Die Klärung dieser Frage ist ein eindringliches und nachdenkliches Detail, über das ich hier nicht spoilern will...

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm really enjoying these novels. It's nice to have some form of continuation after the early cancellation of a series just as it was getting good.

This novel feels more personal, dealing with Phlox and his son's xenophobia, extremism and hate groups. Okay, so that's not exactly personal, but overall the stories feel more self contained. It also deals a lot with Archer's feelings of uselessness while behind a desk and Trip and T'Pol's frustration at their situation.

I'm also enjoying the budding romance between Samuel Kirk and Valeria Williams. I love that Williams is the dashing action hero while Kirk is the more subdued historian.

The storyline involving The Ware comes to a head and in a direction I wasn't expecting, but one that certainly works for the early days of the Federation.

It's nice that Christopher Bennett was allowed to write all of the Rise of The Federation novels, it gives the series a solid feeling of consistency and it's obvious there are storylines that he's gradually allowing to develop across the series.

[C.T. Phipps · Rating 5 out of 5]

STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE: RISE OF THE FEDERATION: LIVE BY THE CODE is probably my favorite of the Christopher Bennett sequels to the original series. It's also the darkest, even though the vast majority of said darkness is only via inference. Sort of like how Captain Kirk witnessed multiple genocides (xenocides?) of species while he was heading the Enterprise but it was all just off camera. Here, the Federation screws up and it screws up badly with the result being something arguably worse than extinction.

The premise for the book is the hunt for the Ware. The Ware are a semi-sentient set of self-replicating equipment which has spread throughout the Alpha Quadrant and sucked several smaller species dry in its relentless lust for neural-organic interfaces. Our heroes have successfully "freed" a number of races from the Ware's lust for minds but the consequences for this has been terrible because so many races are utterly dependent on the Ware's goods as well as services. It gets worse when an Andorian crew is taken hostage by the Partnership, a Federation-like group of races which is utterly dependent on the Ware. Meanwhile, a group of Klingon Augment Virus outcasts realize the Ware is a potential source of vast power.

I have to say I was really intrigued by the Partnership as it is a sci-fi concept I don't think I've actually encountered before which is really intriguing: races which don't evolve tool-building capacities but are fully sapient. That's kind of a horrifying concept for Star Trek because according to the Prime Directive, these races are never going to be able to move past their subsistence existence, let alone enter into space. It highlights a historical element of why trade and tool-sharing was important in the past. The fact the Partnership is not seen in the future of Trek and is too large not to be an important element implies what's going to happen to them by the end of the novel from the beginning but left me scared for them throughout.

We also get the final moment where Section 31 moves from arguably justified anti-heroes to purely evil when they make plans to annihilate the Ware because of its potential danger to the Federation. The sheer callousness and ease which they're planning to enact multi-
species genocide more or less eliminates any argument they have a reason to exist. I like this because while Section 31 planning to kill the Founders was arguably justified in DS9, this is just evil and entirely believable as a product of S31 leader Harris' mind.

I really give Christopher Bennett props for coming up with a lot of interesting ideas in this book that I wish he'd have a chance to explore in other books. The Partnership is only briefly encountered but it really does embody a lot of the Federation's ideals even more than the Federation does as is kind of alluded to. The Ware is certainly dangerous but so is nuclear power and it's something to be studied versus destroyed.I also liked the origin he created for the machinery, albeit the idea iy's just a bunch of malfunctioning machinery is something I thought would be the "first" thing people came up as an idea of versus the last. Apparently, the idea of a "Grey Goo" end of the world scenario never occurred to
humans in this reality.

I both liked and disliked the portrayal of the Klingons in this book. The conflict between the ridgeless and ridged Klingons is something which I really want to learn more about but both sides are deeply unsympathetic during all of this. Then again, the Klingons are a species prone to conquest and slavery so what was I expecting? I do love the idea we Klingon coffee is actually something they made from regular coffee, though. That's the kind of interconnected universe I love.

In conclusion, I strongly recommend getting this book if you've read the previous installments of "Rise." It has a lot of good character development and is excellent sci-fi all round.

[Kyle McNally · Rating 1 out of 5]

Wow, the 1/3-1/2 of this book was sooo boring... Everything Klingon was ugh... Drudged through this one.

[Nimrodds]

ספר אחד לפני הכי מאוחר לפני סיום הסאגה, האמת שהתחלתי כבר את האחרון

[James · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like the problem with this mini-series is that the narratives are way too busy, and that's certainly true of this one. Probably could've done without the Phlox plot. But other than that, it was a good conclusion to the Ware plotline.

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

With Live By the Code, it is clear that Christopher L. Bennett has his eye on the big picture. Not only is he continuing the stories of the individual characters we know and love from Enterprise, he is revealing the origins of many things that will shape the future of the Federation in the centuries to follow. I very much look forward to what he has in mind for the next Rise of the Federation adventure.

Full review: http://treklit.blogspot.com/2016/06/L...

[Bjoern · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good book with a storyline that takes a bit of time to gain speed but then reaches surprising depth (at least compared with its own first quarter) and as conclusion to a 3 or 4 book storyline gives us a highlight of the Enterprise-Series as of now.

Sadly this book was a bit weighed down due to its extreme degree of fragmentation... taken all together we must have been at 11 or 12 storylines, roughly spread out over 4-6 bigger theaters of action... I'm pretty sure the narration of the rest would have benefitted from leaving out the klingon and denebolan/antarian storylines and publishing these as stand-alone novellas and/or as parts of an Enterprise themes anthology. As it is the major "main" plot somewhat flickers out instead of going strong to the end, like it had to be choked off after finding out there would be no more books in this plot-arc and the space had to suffice to tell it completely, which puts a rather indignant note over the final to the Ware and the just introduced in this book "Partnership of Civilisations" - both getting axed from continuity to explain their later absence from other ST series...
Besides that most of the smaller storylines do not really find a satisfying end... T'Pol/Tucker is left hanging completely in the air, their problems with maintaining the telepathic link is thematized but never explored or explained after a short eye-to-eye discussion of the two about it and what it might mean... Kirk's granddad or great-granddad gets a small romance subplot which kind of is ended on a temporary "happy end" note, but it could have used a bit more depth and character development to really deserve its relative spotlight position in this book.
The klingon anti-ware campaign and the interwoven connection of it to their internal struggle for succession takes up a lot of space, but never really leads anywhere, it is just there to break off the other storylines through introducing danger and taking the whole region out of "availability"... the one POSITIVE note of it is a bit of preparatory work for the legendary Kirk Era Klingons and their "foreheadless" status, his namesake grandparent does Kor all honor and could have been Colicos in person. Still, measured at the important role in "cutting off" the loose threats and making tabula rasa in regards to the whole "Ware" subject the weight of the klingon scenes seems to lie too much on the "with" & "without" ridges conflict and the renegades supporting the smooth headed faction, while the real campaign and fights are just vaguely touched upon in aftermath reports and short mentions... Half as many foci might have improved how this motivation would have played out and reduced the plainly too large cast to manageable numbers. The only thing worse than this klingon "Game of Thrones" parody is a novel set on Vulkan where the variation of names is even more limited than with the warrior race...

So we're down to the main show... the Ware and how the federation tries to solve the problem, only to get once more betrayed and embarrassed by Section 31 committing horrible warcrimes and turning everything the Federation is based upon on the head. I REALLY liked both the Partnership, once we got to know them better by seeing the interactions between their government officials and the multitude of species collectively trying to find a way of harmlessly cooperate with the Ware without sacrificing life or quality of life of their "tributes" too much. They have basically found a rotation scheme a bit like a draft or voluntary service which leaves every individual only as a processor for limited time before too much damage can be done to their brain and in exchange have "lifted up" (to abuse David Brin's legendary SF Universe based on the same thought) dozens of species that ordinarily wouldn't have any chance at ever becoming spaceborn due to lacking limbs or being unable to vocalize and work out higher mathematical concepts on their own... with the Ware as technological wonderhorn delivering goods without the need for being able to create them yourselves, they managed to become a highly developed politically and culturally sophisticated and most important of all things peacefully coexisting melting pot of very different beings all united by the good the Ware did do to them.
Initially horrified by the clumsy attempts by the Federation task force to simply shut down all ware and in an unintended disaster killing off large numbers of enviromentally not compatible lifeforms on a world where the Ware allowed them to live by Lifesupport mechanisms, long debates and negotiations finally help find a compromise, helped by a Federation mission finding the origin of the Ware in a region of space controlled by "the Silver Armada", a race originally also subjugated to the virulent technology but successful in destroying its hold on their civilization... on the nearly sterilized life- and technologyless planet where the creators of the Ware lived a sad story is discovered about the background of this technology...
Originally created as the perfect vending system for a technology conglomerate of several species the Ware was based on highly developed computer technology and Equipped to perfectly deliver whatever was needed to serve the customers' needs... it turned out to be TOO perfect. Seeing how the technology was basically self-sustaining the corporation soon reduced personnel and stopped paying the education of new employees, leading to both a complete reliance on the Ware as backbone of their civilisation and an inability to maintain any aspect of it without the ware helping in the task.
When ultimately even the highly developed computer systems started to show failures and had to be replaced nobody was able and the Ware could not self replicate the core calculators, only produce lower quality hardware itself, too intricate were the necessary components to be replicable, too vulnerable to retro-engineer, now that no living being knew any more how they were constructed in the first place. But the Ware could adapt, it developed the techbase for the organic brain interfaces as replacement for its original mainframes and quickly found ways to sneakily get access to new processor bodies without the victims getting suspicious.
But this led to it more and more devolving into a self-serving apparatus without real awareness of the original purpose of generating capital for the corporate masters, its algorhythms demanded of it to "serve" and suggested viable methods of payment, but they did not contain a hardwired role for its masters and did not really explain logic or reason behind the actions of service and payment... which led to the masters becoming customers of their own technology and when their civilisation had been bled dry by paying for its basic needs with processor-bodies and ressources that finally were exhausted, the Ware stopped servicing their needs. The species died out, their last remnant being the one data refactory the Armada showed to the Federation explorers...

Based on this information about the problem behind the Ware kidnapping living beings and using them as CPUs Reed and the still working undercover alias of Trip Tucker create a plan suggesting to replace the abducted organic processors in the Ware-ships and installations with biotech computermodules imitating living brains but not being alive in the same sense... A good idea, should it work, but not exactly feasible with both the current federation- or Partnership standards of Technology... Experimental replacements fail, but show that it might be possible to find a working solution based on the concept. But just when the project gets close to the desired breakthrough the Klingons conspire with S31 and attack in force to eradicate all traces of the dangerous technological virus dubbed "Ware" without any mercy or sympathy for the partnership nations. The sacrifice of the Antarian ship Vol'Rala (meaning "Enterprise") which carried responsibility for the catastrophy on that first Partnershipworld helps giving an evacuation armada enough time to leave the system and bring as many beings as possible to the de-wared world of the first contact situation where by now relief efforts have created a non ware connecte techbase and at least will save this one last planet for a multitude of species as new home. Then the Ware bringing them there has to be destroyed so the Klingons won't bombard the world to remove all traces...
Section 31 also deleted all computerdata on the Ware and its component technologies in Federation computerbanks with worms inserted by hidden agents, so the destruction of the Partnership is complete and the potential revolution for transporter, replicator and medical technology that could have come from long term study of the available Ware specimens is lost.
Well nearly all... the agent that tricked Trip Tucker by stealing the destructive viral code that shut down the Ware without warning like on the planet where it killed tens of thousands of civilians and inserted the Worm into the Taskforce's computernetwork was not truly on the side of Section 31, but worked for a mysterious industrial magnate called Abramson, who turns out to be the very "Flint", Kirk would later have a meeting with on Holberg 918-G and he has both saved a copy of the information dump and protected many of the alien scientists involved in the various Ware projects and the klingon war against the Ware, creating a kind of scientific task group of his own. He also has connections to Arik Soong who has switched from genetic mutations to help speeding up the human evolution to an interest in cybernetics and robotic design (thereby foreshadowing his later offspring Noonien Singh and the Data-Type humanoid cyborgs...)

Lastly the almost catastrophy Federation interceding into Ware-Cultures led to, has convinced Admiral Archer that a non interference policy should be enacted, preventing Starship Captains from similar mistakes in unknown situations and leaving the decision to ask for help to the aliens in question. Not every of his peers is supportive of this stance and it is implied that a long period of political infighting will ensue from this new initative of Archer's. With the former Ware-Worlds now conquered if not annexed by the klingon Empire and Starfleet disgraced over the leaked involvement with Section 31s betrayal and therefore the causation of the total eradication of the Partnership any relief efforts aimed at helping the various former partner species now reduced to primitivity if not even almost animal lifestyles are out of the question and the whole chapter of Federation history ends in shame with the valiant but ultimately not very successful sacrifice of Vol'Rala as the only exonerating element of the tragedy.
As a last insidious bit of revenge Section 31 implies Tucker/Collier himself had been the one to give the lethal code to the Klingons and Trip has to leave this identity behind, now sternly opposed to his former masters and their dishonorable ways... It looks almost as if the "protectors of the Federation" have turned into predators searching for "last resort" opportunities to justify their own existence and the extreme measures they are prone to use by instigating extreme situations and abusing the "out of the chain of command" position they are in... Sadly our knowledge of the Dominion War proves that Section 31 will survive even the enmity of Archer, Tucker and their closest friends without really changing its spots...


Looking back, the big twist was more an emotional piece of art than really all that deep or logical... why would the Ware civilisation lose the knowledge of how to build a computer just because they had no longer any engineers themselves? The Data how to do it should still be preserved somewhere and if you know how organic lifeforms built and assembled the first models it should be easy to if not re-construct the parts themselves so to at least build a factory that can do so under computer/Ware control... If you have access to the right sort of knowledge a primitive tool like an axe or even a sharpened flint tool will suffice to gradually work your way up to stages like a lithe and ultimately metalworking and higher sophistication machines. As in theory the Ware-builders have access to at least Federation standard of production machines they wouldn't even need that many steps to construct robots that can replace their old and worn down computer cores with brand new ones... actually a really advanced design of near-automated factory and vending stations like the Ware should already include a constant replacement mechanism for all of its own spare parts and the production facilities for those.
So yeah, i like the plot twist a lot despite it making no sense at all and being a lazy way out of the problem "why would anybody use living bodies as computer replacements"? Maybe it would even have made more sense to turn it around, that originally the "processors" were the purpose of the Ware and it served kind of like a combined Life-support for its constructers and Matrix like VR generator to uncouple their thought processes from relying on physical bodies. with the original creators dying off new processors were needed to keep the Ware witha purpose and the trading scheme developed to enable the quasi viral technology to attract new victims and keep supplied after losing the original resource base and not being adapted to mine themselves... I guess the moral would have been the same... a tragic miscalculation by the creators and their demise resulting in a uncontrollable growth and expansion of the Ware without true purpose and just for continuation of its programs sake... But where the "we can't build a new CPU" explanation is critically flawed the "we ran out of creators to care for" way would work, after all a computer can hardly make new lifeforms with new consciousnesses to put in a vat and hook into its own network, can it?

Despite this flaw the story was entertaining after it had gone over the the first few bumps in the narration, mostly caused by the overly numerous storylines and characters and while i'm a bit saddened to see the first really GOOD aspect of the Ware plotarc vanish into thin air and the Partnership to "die" I'm also pretty relieved that we'll finally get past this bit of ENTERPRISE lore and are open for new themes and opponents. The whole concept had grown old one or two books ago and compared to "what problems might a freshly declared federation face" took on far too much importance and pagespace. THAT was the one beautiful aspect of the Phloxx sideplot... it did not really go that far beyond personal character growth and fattening a bit the meagre data about the denebolan race, but it showcased a beautiful example for internal conflicts that would plague an ambitious project like the peaceful alliance of nations when a lot of its members had a history of violent conflicts about who's property which system might be and who'd own which ressources. It's a bit the adult version of the Bajor/Cardassia plot, matured and mostly mellowed out by centuries of time going by since the last major warlike confrontation... and yet there still was enmity and old grievances that hadn't been aired and still festered below the surface of mostly peaceful coexistance. That it involved the quirky but absolutely gentlemanly Denebolans was just the icing on the cake... A not yet cooled down conflict like the lukewarm wars between Andor and Vulkan would not have worked that way, these wounds had not yet time to really scab over and go faint... SO while i'd say in general that bit was distracting from the plot as whole and should have been exported to an ebook format as standalone it was also a very nice arc in itself and gave us some of the best insights into character's psyches of the whole book.

The klingons... the less said about them and their "honor" the better. My personal high point in the disastrous flood of back and forth attacks was the creation of a somewhat grudgingly accepted status quo with the ridgeless Klingons getting their own "real estate" close to the Federation border, laying the Groundwork for Kirk 100 years later not having any clue about the true physiology of klingons when confronted with Kor, Koloth or Kang... besides that, it mainly was the klingon equivalent to jacking off over buzzwords... Honor this, honor that and ultimately everything goes as long as your rhethoric will involve honor as reason to do it. An unpleasant concept and one that Deep Space Nine already bored us to death with and Voyager and the TV version of Enterprise not being shy to wallow in either. Maybe it could work better as a religious comparison... Klingons like to fight and their core belief is that they need to have honor to do so... There is a lot of similarity to other ideologies using words like "glory of god" "forgiveness" or "mercy" instead of honor, but acting very similarly to the Klingons that only use it as excuse or justification for what they wanted to do anyways. So by changing nothing whatsoever it just proves its own unimportance to the ones talking about it the most.

And to end this off... it's now more than ten years "in the ST universe" since ENTERPRISE ended on screen... and yet any really important characters from the TV series has to die... the crew is spread out but including the dead and buried Trip Tucker very alive and going on strongly in new, higher ranks and responsibilities. And while the Romulan War has come and gone and the Federation has taken over, we still take most of the plots from what we've seen in the series. Oh, there is a lot of variation of motives and as seen with the klingon succession problems or the Ware, the background is deepened far beyond the mere hints and implications a television series manages to give in a few, short episodes about so large subjects... but we still see how the staff plays it safe by going back to what the audience knows and loves. THAT makes the going back on intriguing new elements like the Partnership so disappointing, because they were new and exciting, when compared to yet another fifteen klingons we do not care about being introduced and sometimes also written out again before we even bothered to remember the names. ENTERPRISE as a TV series was the best, when it played in waters we already seemed to know from "future" sneaks into the ST Universe and it had a fabulous last season full of such moments and "Prequels" to TOS and other series playing later in time... But to keep going back to this concept means to limit the creativity and variability of the authors, to put them into chains that keep them from going where their inspiration leads them just to keep the formula alive and the things connected. How much longer can that concept work out for an audience that not just has access to the official books but also to comics and the whole world of fanfiction treading in the same shallow waters?
When will "familiarity" turn into creative "Incest"?

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

The taskforce led by Captain Reed and the Pioneer is searching for the creators or the Ware while attempting to dismantle the many stations throughout this sector. But when a local Partnership of planets hired Klingon mercenaries to defend against the Federation, things really start to go sideways. Phlox has brought many friends home to Denobula for his daughter's wedding, but the festivities are interrupted by his estranged son and the Antaran hate group he's associated with attempting to kill the groom!

Honestly, there's a lot going on in this book! And that's actually a good thing! Principally, Bennett continues the stories from two television episodes of Enterprise ("Dead Stop" and "The Breach") and brings them to worthwhile and satisfying conclusions. Bennett has been excellent at picking up these plot threads and building on them to create rich stories that are deep and compelling to read. I've really enjoyed the comprehensive plotting he does to include so many elements from disparate sources to create a really unified Star Trek universe.

I love that a big section of this book was devoted to Phlox. He hasn't seemed to get the greatest exposure or use in the novels, so this was a real breakout. It expands not only on his character, but on the culture and complete nature of Denobula which we were never able to see on television. This was a fun piece of world building that I am glad we get here. We also get more growth for Phlox himself as the story of the Antaran conflict is expanded and his role in the acceptance of the two peoples is truly revealed. We also get to see more of his personal side by seeing him interact with his family (really BIG family), as well as the relationship with his estranged son. Of course that bubbles into a major plot point and explores the idea of hate groups and racism.

The Ware story is kind of tragic to say the least. The book begins with one of the Andorian ships in the task force disabling the Ware on a planet only to cause a major collapse of their civilization. This ups the ante for a resolution to the Ware crisis, but that's not so easily accomplished. It really brings about more discussion about the idea of non-interference, even with the best of intentions.

There's a lot of things to think about in this book, and that's what makes for good science fiction! A really entertaining read that kept me engaged all the way through.

[Dan Foster · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book, like many of the “Season 5” (thought I think it is reasonable to assume we are on Season 6 or 7 at least now, possibly 15 if we consider a season a year since this book is in 2165) suffers from trying to fit about a season’s (year’s) worth of material into its length. I think the ENT books would be well serves by focusing more on a single story, even if we miss out on some of the characters as they have spread through the infant Federation. I would really love to see a good in depth single adventure of Captain Reed on the Pioneer or Captain T’Pol on the Endeavor without bouncing to the other plots open from earlier in the series.
That being said, I do enjoy the series, and this book more than most did a fine job of examining some moral issues relevant to today. The ongoing drama around Trip and Section 31 is sufficiently tense, and indeed all the characters feel like they should. The story of the Ware (the automated station from the S2 episode “Dead Stop” and the continued struggle of Klingons suffering the augment virus (from S4) are good callbacks to the show while continuing to bring us closer to the 23rd Century.
This is certainly not a book one could just jump into without a working knowledge of the three that immediately precede it, or the Romulan War books before that; but if you do love Enterprise like I do, and really wish it had more of a chance to grow, the series is great. And this volume is one of the better entries we’ve seen. Stick with the first couple of jumpy chapters, and it will entertain you.

[Rocky Sunico · Rating 4 out of 5]

This fourth book in the Rise of the Federation series is a bit of a mixed bag. But it does bring in some very interesting ideas but doesn't quite bring everything together in a super satisfying way. Good plot lines involve The Partnership, which is a group fo aliens who have found a way to live almost symbiotically with the Ware. We have Klingons who lost their forehead ridges after the Augment debacle trying to prove themselves within the empire. Dr. Phlox has a wedding in the family. And the list goes on.

The ending felt a little hastily pulled together in a way to make sure we didn't leave too much of a mess for the TOS canon to need to reconcile. It still makes sense, but it does make for a not all that happy ending. It still makes sense but I was hoping for something else.

Then again, the Federation of these books is still not the Federation we came to know in TOS and TNG. So we have stories like this that try to outline why it ended up with the principles and directives it had later on. It has a function in the greater story, but it does make this particular book feel closer to okay than great.

[Graff Fuller · Rating 4 out of 5]

 Live by the Code by Christopher L. Bennett

Challenging, emotional, hopeful, inspiring,
reflective, sad, and tense.

Fast-paced

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

4.25 ⭐

This story was a tick better than the previous one, which was really good. 

The philosophical musings was well explained and explored.

The Partnership wasn't the mustache twirling enemies. The Klingon's were not either.

The real enemy, though they staved off a war with the Klingon Empire, but it was Section 31...and many paid the price for it, both corporately and individually.

This story also showed that Trip is possibly one step closer to coming home...which many will be happy to see.

The Klingons, both those in power and the QuchHa'. I really think they are dealing with this offset really well in the Star Trek franchise. What was in the '66-'69 TV series to what we know in the TOS movies and the TNG era is being played out really well IMO.

I am SO looking forward to reading the final book, though it is going to be bitter/sweet.

[Ron Turner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm a big fan of the author's. Not just because he's a local guy from Cincinnati and I've ran into him before at conventions, but because he's a nerd's nerd. Go to his website and you'll find extensive annotations of all of his books.

He's done a great job at showing the early days of the Federation. Archer pushing Starfleet to focus on exploration and diplomacy. Trip dealing with the original Section 31. Reed, as a captain of his own ship, battling everyone from Klingons to Orions. The origins of the Prime Directive. More background information on the Andorians, Arkenites, Denobulans, Antarans and Tiburonians. Lots of throwbacks to The Original Series, including Kirk's grandfather.

I especially enjoyed the Partnership, a Federation-like group of mostly non-humanoid races that used the advanced automated space station technology first seen in the Enterprise episode "Dead Stop." I'm always happy to see unique aliens.

I look forward to reading the next book which comes out in August.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Live by the Code certainly starts off interesting, with a Klingon succession drama looming, and an Andorian ship named after the Enterprise, one which has a distinct Andorian feel despite its mixed-Federation crew. There's a lot of little things going on, but the main drama involves "The Ware", the system of self-replicating stations and drones that rely on biological lifeforms for their sustenance and brainpower. Although Starfleet regards them as strictly parasitical, here they encounter civilizations who insist that they and the Ware are symbiotic. We also get a little more flavor to the Klingon no-head drama. Distracting from this is a lot of book devoted to Phlox's daughter's wedding, which attracts some violent terrorist people because it's a mixed-race thing. This section shares a theme with the Klingon stuff, namely: racism is bad, mmkay? The book also references part of the background for "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield", so the theme is consistent, but given the target audience of Star Trek books, it seems like preaching to the choir.

[Jonne Steen Redeker · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Federation continues finding out exactly what they are, and exactly how severe the consequences of early missteps can be.

As starfleet goes deeper into Ware controlled terriory they intend to "save" more cultures from what they see as exploitation. In doing so they make a horrible mistake, which will cost a lot of lives, and really sours future prospects for the federation in that region. One ship's crew looks likely to pay a very high price indeed for this mistake, and maybe that is only appropriate.

Bennet continues to impress in his ability to describe this early trek era. He manages to tie up loos ends from the canon that we didn't even realise were there, but seem blatantly obvious in retrospect. There are also potential plot holes raised by this book itself, which bennet also manages to wrap up quite nicely. This is what makes these books so amazing. They make for a better canon than the screen universe they were based on.

This was a fantastic read, and it promises more to come. My only regret is that there is only one book left in this series.

[Caiden · Rating 3 out of 5]

The penultimate Enterprise adventure continues the threat of the Ware that began in Uncertain Logic, with T'Pol and her crew joining Reed, Tucker, Vabion, Val Williams, and the impressively developed crew of the Pioneer, with the inclusion of the Partnership asking difficult questions about the Federation's right to interference. The Klingons have a power struggle and the combination of those two plot lines results interestingly.

I thought that plot was okay, but I found more interest in Phlox's plot thread. I enjoyed the description of Denobula and its culture, but I wish it got more than the share of the book than it did. I did not miss the Orion intrigue.

I could not put this book down, but my rating will be a little lower this time. I don't have any specific reasons why, but all of the other ones were better. Maybe I am experiencing fatigue. Be assured that this is a high three stars. I am excited for the conclusion.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I only have one issue with this book: there's actually too much plot. I gobbled it up, but I had to go back a few times and double check I wasn't missing anything. Klingon leadership succession, the battle against the Ware, the marriage of Phlox's daughter and issues on Denobula, as well as smaller plots about Section 31 and the various starship crews, and life at Starfleet Command. This book almost exploded from all it contained (even the font seems microscopic), and I think I would have sliced off the Phlox plot for another book on its own. All that said, I still enjoyed this continuation of "Enterprise" far more than I ever enjoyed the TV series...but I'd like less of a nuclear explosion of story elements. I find Mr. Bennett to be a supreme master of "Star Trek" fanwank, but the balance just seems to be more comfortable in the previous "Enterprise" novels.

[Apostolos · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good conclusion to the "ware saga" (or so it seems). Of note in this book, we see Archer coming around to the Vulcan's "logic" of non-interference (aka, the "prime directive") based on the events that happened with the Saurians. We also see Trip seriously looking to take down Section 31 (which we know doesn't happen from what we see on screen anyway). We also are introduced to a species that wouldn't have developed their mechanical adeptness if it not for the Ware and their enhancements of them. This does pose some interesting questions about intelligence, ableism, and galactic citizenship.

[Burns Book Reviews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fighting the Ware again- and Klingons too!
Live By the Code is a perfect sequel to Uncertain Logic evolving the threat of the Ware in a fascinating way. Imagine if Captain Picard found a planet where the Borg were used to help people- that’s essentially what happens with the Ware in this book. As if the Ware weren’t complicated enough, the Klingons are also eager to attack the Federation amidst this crisis. Their efforts aren’t successful though, because there is still so much interspecies conflict amongst the Klingons after the augment crisis.
I would give this book high praise for the Ware plot alone, but the inclusion of the Klingon Empire elevated the story even more, leading into how we see the Klingons in TOS.

[Kristina Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stunning level of detail. This series deals with monumental events in canon history - the titular rise of the Federation of course - but in this particular book also the tensions with the Klingon Empire, the necessity of establishing the Prime Directive and the realities of section 31. Beyond the large scale events though, fans will recognise other references, namely Theta Cygni XII, the immortal Akharin with the memorable Soong, and the budding relationship of Sam Kirk and Valeria Williams. Its a series you can happily lose yourself in.

[Jackie Cain · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an excellent science fiction books with some really interesting alien species, shaped by their environments. It makes you question just how easy it is to interact with them and how easy it is to do ill with the best of intentions. There are many characters who are truly multidiamensional, not simply goodies or baddies. Having said that, it is still set within the Star Trek universe so I don't know how accessible it is to non-fans. It should be; put aside your prejudices and enjoy it!

[Christopher Lutz · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good continuation of several story threads from both the Enterprise relaunch series as well as the TV show itself. My only issue was that it was sometimes a too heavy handed when it came to incorporating modern political and social issues. Trek thrives on analyzing such issues, but often things here felt hastily added instead of naturally evolving from the plot. It was distracting. An enjoyable Enterprise story none the less.

[Jimyanni · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is competently written, and the characters are handled well. The pacing is good. The only problem is that it is extremely depressing, and serves as an explanation and attempted justification of the origin of the Federation & Starfleet's "Prime Directive", and there is no justification for that. In the arguments on the subject between Archer and Shran, I'm 100% with Shran. The non-interference policy is a cheap cop-out, and always has been.

[Drake Tungsten · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was okay. It was interesting in that it showed how the Prime Directive came about. A scenario unfolds that has the Federation interfering in another civilization's affairs, only to have their interference essentially cause that civilization's downfall. And there's an interesting cameo by Flint from the Original Series. But overall, the book was nothing special.

[Judith Paterson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Same author, same characters, following on from the story in the last volume but it wasn't as gripping. I'm not sure why. On a practical level the print seemed smaller and more difficult to read, especially last thing at night when I mostly read. I will read the next one in the series, so it is a good read, just not as good as the last one

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like these "Rise of the Federation" books. I read the previous one back in 2018, so I wasn't sure I'd be able to hop back in to the series, but it didn't take me too long to remember who was who and what was going on. I really like what Bennett does with the Ware here. They could easily have been just a Borg knock-off, but he does some interesting stuff with the concept.

[Ray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bennett’s writing is very methodical, even plodding at times, but he gets the story told and connects all the dots by the end. He has a knack for pulling all the disparate Star Trek threads together into compelling stories that maintain and enhance ST continuity.

[Bill Riggs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to follow the characters after the series ended and to see how the Federation manages, but it does seems that parts are very long winded and not necessary. If it was edited down it would be a much smoother and focused story.

[Robert Hazelwood · Rating 3 out of 5]

incredibly boring.

[Brad · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book.