Just a Review: Starfleet Academy: Delta Anomaly

Summary from the back book cover:

After a rough week at Starfleet Academy, James T. Kirk and his friends blow off steam at San Francisco's hottest new club. Their good times come to a screeching halt, however, when one of the cadets is attacked by someones who seemingly appears out of thin air.

Bones and his medical team save the cadet's life, but they uncover the horrifying consequences of the attack. Meanwhile, Starfleet's investigation reveals the assailant is actually a brutal serial killer from the past–a mysterious entity known only as the Doctor. Who is the Doctor, and why has he returned after disappearing more than twenty years ago?

At the urging of Commander Spock, Cadet Uhura is called to decipher a message from the Doctor. Spock has no idea that by enlisting Uhura's help, he has placed her firmly in the Doctor's sights.

Before long Kirk, Uhura and Bones are caught up in the Doctor's dangerous web as they race against time to stop the killer before he strikes again.

My thoughts
If you haven't seen JJ Abrams Star Trek  movie reboot go rent a copy  to get a little acquainted with the established main characters.



Now, I understood why this one was the first book of the Starfleet Academy series and not "The Edge" as I thought. This was because one minor character was mentioned here will make a re-appearance in "The Edge."

I thought showing the Academy life to the cadets' downtime outside the Academy walls increased the fascination of the books for me and the thrill too since it didn't confine the characters too much. I also like to picture a very ultramodern Presidio, and the rest of San Francisco too. ☺

The writing was concise making an enjoyable read. There were few sprinkles of several high-tech instruments and just a dash of techno-babble that it doesn't bog the pacing of the story unlike other sci-fi books I've read in the past. The parallelisms and several foreshadowing scenes fitted well and gave enough tension to make me remember that danger was ever-waiting in the wings. Of course, finding out who the enemy later on, I thought Barba's preparation for it was good. It matched how this enemy have been shown in the..spoiler (The Next Generation Series) however, I'm intrigued in Barba's interpretation of a theory that also came to me after watching the movie.

Fans of McCoy will be very happy since he get to do a lot here. Kirk, fighting the rigors of Academy life was either riding the wave of success with his team or sinking low from defeat from his No. 1 opponent in Command College. There are also for fans of Uhura & Spock (me included) too. While it was great to see a strong, independent, young woman; it sort of bugs me that Uhura was just a bit self-assured already. I thought it would be interesting to see her confidence waver once in a while when dealing an assignment.Yet this was somehow countered too when we were shown that Uhura was a conscientious student with her studies and have designed language programs that would assist her with the current assignment. I still would have like her to see her grow along the way into a fine Starfleet officer, we know one day she'll be.

The ending left me wanting me for more. ☺

As always, I usually end my review with my storycasting. I often put faces when I read books but this time around, I'll post my story cast in the next post since it's not done yet. Watch out that space!☺