Star Trek: Destiny: The Complete Saga

eBook, 786 pages

English language

Published Sept. 7, 2013 by Simon & Schuster.

ISBN:: 978-1-4767-3333-3
Goodreads:: 17139968

(1 review)

The omnibus edition of an epic crossover trilogy uniting characters from every corner of the Star Trek universe, and revealing the shocking origin and final fate of the Federation's most dangerous enemy--the Borg.

DESTINY #1: GODS OF NIGHT THE BORG RETURN--WITH A VENGEANCE.

Blitzkrieg attacks by the Borg leave entire worlds aflame. No one knows how they are slipping past Starfleet's defenses, so Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise have to find out--and put a stop to it.

Thousands of light-years away, Captain Riker and the crew of the Titan follow bizarre energy pulses to a mysterious, hidden world. But what they find there is a figure out of history: a Starfleet captain long thought dead.

At the same time, in the Gamma Quadrant, a new captain and her crew investigate the wreck of the Earth starship Columbia NX-02, missing in action for more than two centuries.

Four …

The omnibus edition of an epic crossover trilogy uniting characters from every corner of the Star Trek universe, and revealing the shocking origin and final fate of the Federation's most dangerous enemy--the Borg.

DESTINY #1: GODS OF NIGHT THE BORG RETURN--WITH A VENGEANCE.

Blitzkrieg attacks by the Borg leave entire worlds aflame. No one knows how they are slipping past Starfleet's defenses, so Captain Picard and the crew of the Enterprise have to find out--and put a stop to it.

Thousands of light-years away, Captain Riker and the crew of the Titan follow bizarre energy pulses to a mysterious, hidden world. But what they find there is a figure out of history: a Starfleet captain long thought dead.

At the same time, in the Gamma Quadrant, a new captain and her crew investigate the wreck of the Earth starship Columbia NX-02, missing in action for more than two centuries.

Four starships. Four captains. Four lives about to intersect--and discover their shared Destiny.

DESTINY #2: MERE MORTALS IT'S A CLASH OF CIVILIZATIONS.

The Borg have found a secret passage through subspace and are using it to attack the Federation. But the passage is one of many that the Enterprise crew finds inside a nebula, and Captain Picard and Captain Dax must find the right one--and lead a counterstrike to stop the impending Borg invasion.

Meanwhile, Captain Riker and the Titan's crew are held captive by the reclusive and powerful aliens known as the Caeliar. The Titan's freedom hinges on the action of fellow prisoner Erika Hernandez, commander of the long-lost Earth starship Columbia.

Hernandez has lived among the Caeliar for centuries--enduring disasters, accidental time-travel, and interstellar exile. After so long as their prisoner, will she dare to fight for her freedom? Or is an eternity in captivity her inescapable Destiny?

DESTINY #3: LOST SOULS THE FINAL BATTLE HAS BEGUN.

An armada of several thousand Borg cubes has wiped out a fleet of ships sent by the Federation and its allies. The Collective's goal this time isn't assimilation--it's extermination.

Captain Picard, Captain Riker, and Captain Ezri Dax unite in a final desperate bid to halt the Borg's genocidal march through known space. But their three starships--the Enterprise, the Titan, and the Aventine--are no match for the Borg armada. Or are they?

With them is Erika Hernandez, former captain of the Columbia. She has powers and insight gained from centuries of living with the aliens known as the Caeliar. She can end the Borg threat forever--or transform it into an unstoppable menace that will devour the galaxy.

Destruction or salvation--only one can be her final Destiny.

1 edition

Elena. reviewed Star Trek: Destiny: The Complete Saga by David Mack (Star Trek: Destiny, #1-3)

Epic, intense, satisfying -- one of the best Trek books.

5 stars

Content warning Star Trek: Destiny - The Complete Saga -- Spoilers

This is epic. No doubt one of the best Trek stories I've ever read or watched. But it is also intense. Very intense. I am exhausted.

Especially book 2 had me in pieces. I cried, with tears running down my face, about the heartbreaking events around Hernandez and her crew, especially in their later years. I cannot imagine how Hernandez lived through this massive guilt she must have felt, and with the disappointment her crewmates felt towards her all those decades. Or how the other women endured their lives in Axion, some of them coping better than others.

In book 3 we then learn about Mantilis and the rest of the Columbia away team. I had a hard time reading those chapters. How did the Columbia deserve this fate? Reading their story I remembered that I had read about that book before, and that the origin of the Borg were survivors of the Columbia on a planed they crashed down on. I never liked that. I didn't want our heroes to be the origin of a people like the Borg. But Mack found the right words to tell that story. I was heartbroken and felt compassion for them all the way.

And that's why I loved the solution at the end to liberate the Borg drones and to bring them back to the Caeliar. To offer them a new kind of collective, one where they are still connected, but also free. It reminded me very much of the Borgati collective of season 2 of Picard. I was not happy with that when I watched it. Especially because I wanted something else for Jurati, who's a character I can identify a lot with. But seeing Hernandez choosing a similar place for herself made me appreciate the Borgati solution so much more. It's all in the way you tell a story. Or rather: in how you perceive or experience a story. (I am very well aware of the restrictions of a tv show compared to a novel.) To see Picard and Seven be finally liberated is beautiful. I'm curious to find out how that affects later stories. (I also like that on tv we can see a different path. It's always fun and interesting to think through some "what if" scenarios.)

As a big fan of both Jadzia and Ezri Dax, I loved seeing Ezri becoming and being a captain of her own ship here. I had this (small but not insignificant) revelation while reading the scene with her and Worf in the transporter room, that is a bit too personal to share here. But I want to say that it brought me a step forward on this path I'm walking. I absolutely need to read all the books she's in from here on out (maybe minus Coda 🫣).

I enjoyed all the stories around the crew outside of the main plot. Getting to know them may not be important for the plot but it makes them feel more real and alive. And it's always nice to get a little breather between all the heavy stuff. I especially love when minor characters on screen make the jump to the page, as e.g. here with Melora Pezlar and Simon Tarses, and get bigger stories that way. The only big minus point for me here is that I didn't get enough Tuvok. Though I loved his scene on Deneva with his wife. To see the old fashioned way of the man as the cold and strong one and the woman as the emotional and weak one to be reversed here was good. It just shows that how a person copes with tragic events like loosing a child has nothing to do with gender. (It also doesn't mean that just because a person isn't showing emotions, they in turn don't have any.)

This book is, even if it is not hard canon, but who cares anyway, a very important one for the whole of Star Trek. I mean, it gives us the origin story of the Borg and ends them for good! And it was a woman who did it. Again. 💪

I'll continue with "A Singular Destiny" soon. But first I need some lighter reading. 😅

David Mack talked to Dan Gunther and Bruce Gibson on Literary Treks about this book and the trilogy as a whole. As always, this is absolutely worth a listen. Alone for Mack talking about the techniques of story telling. Thumbs up!

PS I know that I gave the individual books 4 stars each and that would not calculate to 5 stars for the whole trilogy. But I don't care. This story is so epic and fundamental it deserves nothing less than 5 stars.

#StarTrek #StarTrekBooks #StarTrekNovels #TrekLit #StarTrekDestiny