Final Frontier by Diane Carey (Star Trek Giant Novel #3, January 1988)

Commander George Kirk is the head of security at a starbase. He's not very imaginative, but he is dependable, and he loves his two boys back home on Earth even if he doesn't get along very well with his wife, or visit them very often. Kirk and his lieutenant, Drake Reed, are kidnapped, but soon find themselves in the company of StarFleet Captain Robert April, an Englishman with a gentle manner and an odd habit of wearing a cardigan sweater over his uniform. April has had Kirk brought to Earth spacedock to become first officer of something completely new: a starship!

Just off the drawing board and untested, the new starship is needed to rescue a shipload of space colonists caught in an ion storm. No current ship can make it through the turbulence, but the new ship with its state-of-the-art warp engines and massive computer can do the trick. Or so they think. When the warp drive is activated, the ship hurtles out of control, and all power is shut down right in the middle of Romulan space. Captain April is an explorer, not a warrior, so it is up to Kirk's battle experience to get the newly-christened Enterprise back to Federation space safely, to rescue the helpless and dying. That won't be easy with a group of Romulans fighting what they see as an incursion on their territory.

Carey makes a much better effort here than her two previous novels, "Dreadnought!" and "Battlestations!" (complete with overwrought exclamation points) both starring her "Mary Jane" character, Piper. No Piper here, thank goodness, although Doctor Sarah Poole comes a bit too close for comfort, but has a small role. More likely that Captain April is patterned after Carey's husband and collaborator, Peter Norwood. A cardigan sweater over a StarFleet uniform? And someone so pacifist in a quasi-military organization like StarFleet? Unlikely. Especially not at captain's rank. There are improbabilites here, but there are also many things right with the story.

While I think including Kirk's father was a cheap gimmick, as he would seem more likely to be at home in Iowa on the farm, it does provide a character of interest to the casual reader. Using Robert April, a glimmer in Gene Roddenberry's eye as captain in early proposals for the TV series, was a good idea. April's stepping aside at the end of the book for Robert Pike, the captain of the original series pilot, is also a nice touch.

Not sure why the Romulans were deemed necessary here, but Carey wisely uses the structure set up by Diane Duane in her Rihannsu books for the other culture. The characters here are all original, as the time frame is before the original series. The only reference to established characters is the framing sequence, set just after the episode "The Guardian of Forever" as Kirk mourns Edith Keeler and ponders leaving space and raising a family. It oddly foreshadows the episode of Next Generation when Picard visits Earth in the aftermath of being taken by the Borg. That is only a small part of this book, though.

The characters here are a bit two-dimensional, especially the secondary characters. George Kirk never really emerges as a full person, and Reed is mostly comic relief. Oddly, Captain April and Romulan Field Primus T'Cael are the most fully-formed characters in the book. Perhaps it is their authority that defines them.

Not a great book, but not a bad one. An interesting look at early Federation history. Most has been superseded by the current series "Enterprise," which I always thought should have used April as the captain. Oh well.