‘THE ROOT OF ALL RAGE’ (PROM)
Please feel free to comment on my review.
The Voyage in the Lembatta Cluster Continues
Is the ‘Day of the Dove’ alien responsible for what’s going on in this book/audio trilogy?
I don’t know if it’s me, but I find the middle chapter of a trilogy difficult to digest compared to the first chapter. It’s what I’ve found with checking out the original ‘Thrawn’ trilogy in the ‘Star Wars’ saga and it’s what I’ve found with reading and hearing ‘The Root of All Rage’ in ‘Star Trek: Prometheus’.
Now, that’s not to say ‘The Root of All Rage’ is awful. Far from it! But it wasn’t as exciting and interesting compared to ‘Fire with Fire’. Maybe because it’s the same story involving the Federation and the Klingon Empire dealing with the Renao in the Lembatta Cluster that’s part of the problem. 😐
As I find with the ‘Star Trek: Prometheus’ book trilogy and the original ‘Thrawn’ trilogy in ‘Star Wars’, there’s not much variety in terms of storytelling. If this was a ‘Doctor Who’ trilogy of books with three stories in three different settings in time and space connected by an overall story arc, it’d be better.
If the ‘Star Trek: Prometheus’ trilogy were three stories in three different settings connected by an overall theme, I think that’d be better too. As is, we’re continuing where we left off in ‘Fire with Fire’ with the starship Prometheus and the Klingon ship Bortas venturing deeper into the Lembatta Cluster.
As far as I’m aware, there haven’t been more ‘Star Trek: Prometheus’ books featuring Captain Adams and his Prometheus crew. I know the book trilogy was released in 2016 to promote ‘Star Trek’s 50th anniversary, but you’d think there’d more of the Prometheus crew to follow on from that. 😐
And it’s not like trilogies of ‘Star Trek’ episodes can’t be done without variety. I enjoyed the ‘DS9’ trilogy of episodes ‘The Homecoming’/’The Circle’/’The Siege’ to keep my attention. Then again, I haven’t had enough exposure to ‘Star Trek’ trilogies in book form to appreciate their development. 😦
Perhaps the audiobooks of the ‘Star Trek: Prometheus’ trilogy would’ve been better as full-cast audio dramas instead. Even a hybrid of audiobook and audio drama like the latest ‘Thunderbirds’ books/audios by Anderson Entertainment/Big Finish would be welcome. It’s a missed opportunity. 😦
It’s a shame that the range of ‘Star Trek’ audios by Big Finish appears limited, even if the ‘Star Trek: Prometheus’ audiobooks were co-productions between Big Finish and Bastei Lübbe. I would’ve thought more ‘Star Trek’ audio productions by Big Finish would be made, like for ‘The Original Series’. 😐
Even audiobook versions of ‘The Next Generation’, ‘Deep Space Nine’ and ‘Voyager’ novels would be welcome. I suppose Big Finish were lucky to get the chance to record audiobook versions of the ‘Prometheus’ novels back in 2017/2018, despite how successful or unsuccessful the audiobooks were when received by the fans.
The German edition of ‘The Root of All Rage’
Once again, ‘The Root of All Rage’ is by Bernd Perplies and Christian Humberg, who previously wrote ‘Fire with Fire’, the first book of the ‘Star Trek: Prometheus’. These two authors must be really into their ‘Star Trek’, especially considering the books were translated from German into English editions.
Unlike ‘Fire with Fire’ which had 37 chapters, a prologue at the beginning and an epilogue at the end, ‘The Root of All Rage’ has 30 chapters, a prologue at the beginning and an epilogue at the end. The prologue and the epilogue are also shorter in ‘The Root of All Rage’ compared to ‘Fire with Fire’.
The audiobook is read by Alec Newman, who previously read the ‘Fire with Fire’ audiobook. Unlike the ‘Fire with Fire’ audiobook, Alec Newman is mostly reading what’s in the text of the book and he isn’t diverting with reworded text from what he’s reading compared to what I’d be reading in the book.
Perhaps Big Finish/Bastei Lübbe learnt their lesson from diverting the audio a lot from the book’s text in ‘Fire with Fire’ compared to matching it all up in both audio and book for ‘The Root of All Rage’. Perhaps the audio producers worked from a revised version of ‘Fire with Fire’ or something. 😐
Anyway, in ‘The Root of All Rage’, the starship Prometheus and their Klingon allies aboard the Bortas ship race in the Lembatta Cluster to discover the culprits of the terrorist attacks across Federation and Klingon space, caused by the Renao. But as they venture deeper, a very dangerous evil is flourishing.
The Renao fanatics called the Purifying Flame are trying to start a galactic war. The Klingons are baying for blood, especially the captain of the Bortas called Kromm. The crew of the starship Prometheus have to work out what’s going on and why they and the Klingons are getting aggressive.
There’s a sense of tension and unease featured throughout the book, concerning why the Starfleet personnel of the Prometheus and the Klingon crew of the Bortas are becoming aggressive. It’s suggested there’s an odd form of radiation affecting them that’s coming from the Lebatta Cluster. 😐
As the story progresses however towards its conclusion, Spock makes the discovery that it’s actually the alien that he, Captain Kirk, the Enterprise crew and Kang and his Klingon crew encountered in the ‘TOS’ episode ‘Day of the Dove’. It was nice to have that revelation given when reading the book.
We never saw what became of that alien that affected the Enterprise crew members and the Klingons. It left after Kirk, Kang and everyone else apart from Spock were being happy and merry to make it go away. It sort-of went off into space afterwards. It’s interesting to know what became of it here.
I’m looking forward to how this story develops and how the Prometheus crew and the Bortas crew are going to thwart the alien’s attempts to tear them apart as well as influencing the Renao Purifying Flame to make attacks on Federation and Klingon space. I’m hoping the next book will be satisfying.
It’s also nice to have that call-back to the Valiant crew that appeared in the ‘Fire with Fire’ prologue. I wondered what became of it or what their purpose was to the overall story in ‘Star Trek: Prometheus’. It’s nice that it ties to the Prometheus crew’s predicament when in the Lembatta Cluster. 🙂
As before, we have the Prometheus crew led by Richard Adams. He’s described in ‘The Root of All Rage’ as having grey hair. So, whilst not exactly the Captain Ed Mercer from ‘The Orville’ as I imagined, I was still able to visualise Adams easily with Seth MacFarlane’s face, if that’s acceptable. 🙂
It was interesting how he dealt with the Renao crisis and coped under pressure when the supposed ‘radiation’ from the Lembatta Cluster affected him. Adams takes all things into account and does his best to see all viewpoints. He especially supports Jassat ak Namur as one of his Starfleet personnel. 🙂
There’s also Dr. Geron Barai who’s having an affair with security chief Lenissa zh’Thiin, and there’s quite an intense sex scene between them. Honestly, I felt the holographic doctor Trik was doing most of the sickbay work as opposed to Barai. I could visualise Robert Picardo as Trik in this story. 😀
Whilst I don’t think the first officer named Roaas has standout character moments in the ‘Prometheus’ trilogy so far, he does have some nice exchanges with Adams in this trilogy’s particular instalment. The same thing can be said for Sarita Carson, the second officer aboard the Prometheus.
Jenna Kirk also has less standout moments in ‘The Root of All Rage’ compared to ‘Fire with Fire’, though she does seem frustrated in being reminded that James T. Kirk was her ancestor. It’s interesting Jenna Kirk went into being an engineer unlike James Kirk who became a starship captain.
The ship’s science officer Mendon has more to say in ‘The Root of All Rage’ compared to ‘Fire with Fire’, especially in determining the radiation coming from the Lembatta Cluster. Mendon is a Benzite, a species Wesley Crusher met in the ‘TNG’ episodes ‘Coming of Age’ and ‘A Matter of Honor’. 🙂
It also turns out Mendon was in ‘A Matter of Honor’ and he was played by John Putch in the episode. Not that I’m expecting anyone to know that, as I’ve only just found out about it in this review. It’s incredible how minor guest characters in ‘Star Trek’ end up aboard the Prometheus in a book trilogy.
Another example of a minor guest character in ‘Star Trek’ appearing in ‘Prometheus’ is Chell, a Bolian male who was in the ‘Voyager’ episodes ‘Learning Curve’ and ‘Repression’. He’s also been in the video games ‘Star Trek: Voyager – Elite Force’ and ‘Star Trek: Elite Force II’. This is so uncanny for me.
Jassat ak Namur’s journey in ‘Prometheus’ continues to be interesting in this book trilogy, especially when he’s trying to cope with the prejudice laid against him by other Starfleet officers because of his association with the Renao. Jenna Kirk defends him when they confront someone in the mess hall. 🙂
Adams also defends Jassat ak Namur when someone is becoming prejudiced against him in the mess hall. There’s also Paul Winter, the communications officer aboard the Prometheus, who gets more dialogue to say compared to ‘Fire with Fire’, although his scenes aren’t really that standout for me. 😦
Had more ‘Prometheus’ stories been produced, whether they’d be in book or audio form, it would be nice to get to know each of the characters individually, since it’s often a struggle to identify who’s who in each of the books so far. ‘Prometheus’ is short-lived compared to ‘TNG’, ‘DS9’ and ‘Voyager’.
There are the Klingon characters including the Bortas’ captain Kromm as well as Drax, Klarn, L’emka, Rooth, etc. Honestly, it was struggle to know who each of the Klingon characters were and Kromm was the only one who stood out for me, especially when he became aggressive, as he was looking for a fight.
I was expecting to Kromm to end up becoming an all-out villain by the end of ‘The Root of All Rage’ with the ‘radiation’ overwhelming and taking him over. It would’ve provided a dramatic twist with the Prometheus crew having to fight Kromm and the Klingons in a big effort to protect the universe.
Sadly, that doesn’t seem to be the case here. It was nice to read Lwaxana Troi’s story in the ‘Prometheus’ trilogy, especially when she’s in Paris on Earth, acting as the Federation ambassador for Betazed. It was so unusual to see Lwaxana in more political endeavours rather than being ‘sexualised’ in ‘TNG’. 🙂
Lwaxana also reflects on the attacks made by the Jem’Hadar on Betazed during the Dominion War. I often wondered how Lwaxana and Deanna Troi reacted when their homeworld was being invaded by Dominion forces. It’s nice to explore that from Lwaxana’s point of view in this ‘Prometheus’ book.
It was nice to have a brief appearance of Jean-Luc Picard in the story when Lwaxana meets him at his vineyard in La Barre, France. It’s revealed that Picard and Beverly Crusher are married by this point, presumably before the ‘future’ events of ‘All Good Things…’ happened and before ‘Star Trek: Picard’.
Worf even makes a brief appearance in the story when attempting to talk with Chancellor Martok of the Klingon Empire to change the Klingons’ endeavours to fight against the Renao when working alongside the Federation. It’s a shame Worf’s appearance in this book didn’t last beyond one scene.
As stated, Spock continues to appear in the ‘Prometheus’ trilogy as does Alexander Rozhenko, Worf’s son and the Federation ambassador for the Klingons. Interestingly, Alexander and Spock switch ships, as Alexander goes with the Prometheus and Spock goes with the Bortas in their mission.
The book concludes on an open-ended note with Adams and Kromm determined in their own ways to thwart the alien menace that’s threatening to tear the Federation and the Klingon Empire apart as well as influencing the Renao with aggressive thoughts. One can imagine how grisly this will soon turn out.
By the way, Alec Newman, whilst a good narrator of the ‘Star Trek: Prometheus’ books, tends to mispronounce words used in ‘Star Trek’ that are said differently by actors in certain TV shows and movies. One of these words is the Klingon coffee ‘Raktajino’, which Alec Newman says differently on audio.
‘The Root of All Rage’ has been an enjoyable instalment in ‘Star Trek: Prometheus’. It’s not as good as ‘Fire with Fire’ and, so far, I can’t say this is the best ‘Star Trek’ trilogy of books I’ve come across. It would have been a lot better to adapt the books into full-cast audio dramas instead of audiobook readings.
Despite that, I have enjoyed the ‘Star Trek: Prometheus’ trilogy so far, both as books and audiobooks by Big Finish/Bastei Lübbe. I’m looking forward to more. Incidentally, ‘The Root of All Rage’ audiobook is 8 hours and 58 minutes whereas ‘Fire with Fire’s audiobook is 11 hours and 5 minutes.
‘The Root of All Rage’ (PROM) rating – 6/10
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