James Review -- Star Trek: Titan: Fortune of War

This week I decided to review Star Trek: Titan: Fortune of War by David Mack. The story opens with a short chapter showing the extermination of the Husnock species, which was mentioned in the Next Generation episode "The Survivors". It then jumps forward twenty years. The Federation has been secretly trying to find the worlds of the Husnock to study their technology ever since the attack on Delta Rana IV which led to their extinction. A Husnock colony has been found, but as the linguistics team is preparing to announce that they have discovered how to program the written Husnock language into the universal translator. 

But a group of Nausicaans, dedicated to restoring their civilization after their homeworld was destroyed by the Borg, raids the camp, kidnapping the linguistics team and killing many other scientists.  A task force led by Admiral William Riker is dispatched to pursue them but soon find themselves facing a more powerful Breen fleet that is seeking to obtain Husnock technology.

Meanwhile, a group of Pakleds have discovered an automated Husnock weapons factory capable of producing weapons that can destroy planets and even star systems. But they are driven from the factory by a team loyal to the fugitive Ferengi arms dealer Gaila, who is being pursued by his former business partner turned bounty hunter Brunt.

The Titan’s task force finds itself outmatched in a desperate battle against a Husnock fleet that is being remotely operated by the Breen. Gaila works to negotiate a deal with the Breen even as the Pakleds move to claim vengeance and Brunt moves to claim his prize. And soon the fate of the Federation and its allies depends on a desperate mission to the Husnock homeworld as the Breen-controlled armada moves ever closer to its destination.

I give this book 9 out of 10. I thought the author did a great job weaving the various plots together, and there was a nice variety of problems for the various characters to deal with and I found the characters well-written. However, I wish we had gotten to see more of the scientists studying the Husnock, and there were a few points where I found things occurring that were suspiciously convenient, like how easily the various groups that gained access to Husnock technology were able to bypass any security measures on it. Also, there were a few points where it seemed like previous technological developments elsewhere in the setting were being ignored, with one very strong example of this occurring near the end of the story.