Invasion: First Strike by Diane Carey (Star Trek #79, July 1996).

A Klingon ship witnesses, and barely survives, a crisis as mass in the solar system they are monitoring suddenly drops to nearly zero. When that happens, particles accelerate to light speed, and matter explodes. Able to shield themselves against the last bit of the mass drain, the ship survives to see a vessel emerge from a tear in the fabric of space. Klingon General Kellen beams aboard the ship, and sees creatures that are the stuff of nightmares. To fight these "demons," he decides to summon one of his own: Captain James T. Kirk.

The Klingon ship streaks to gather the Enterprise, which is engaged on a planet with a hostile group of Klingons. Several crewmen are killed and Spock is badly injured, when General Kellen calls a stop to the fighting. He leads the Enterprise back to the new ship, and is disappointed when Kirk does not immediately try to destroy it. Instead, Kirk tries to communicate with the ship, which claims to hold species who were driven from this part of the galaxy over 5000 years ago. Now, they want their space back....

This was the first book of a series, conceived by author Carey and Pocket Books editor John Ordover, to work across the various Star Trek series. This volume was issued first, followed by books with the crew of the Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager. The books sold well, and the process has been repeated several times.

This book is a normal Diane Carey book. There are those who like Carey's books. I am not among them. I find her writing style to be tedious, overwrought, and boring. Her tendency to dwell in the minds of some characters, in this book Captain Kirk, tends to make things move very slowly. We often seem to explore every single thought of Kirk through the whole sequence of events. Plus, a description is made, and then in the next chapter altered to make it a bit less dangerous. The science is played fast and loose. The whole process is frustrating to me.

For this and other reasons, this was the last of my consecutive run of Star Trek novels purchased. The frequency was diminishing, as publishing efforts were spread across four franchises. No longer was there a monthly novel, but instead three or four a year of the original characters, and others of the newer versions. I was more interested in the old characters, especially while the newer ones were still available on screen. Plus, too many of the books were of poor quality. Franchised stories can be frustrating. So, this ends my consecutive writing of reviews, posted here and repeated on Epinions whenever they are listed at that website.

I will post a few more reviews, of books not quite sequential as well as those from other series. The big run, however, is ended.