The fate of the galaxy continues to darken in the second instalment of the Star Trek: Prometheus novelised serial by Bernd Perplies and Christian Humberg, once again read by Alec Newman (from the miniseries adaptation of Dune in 2000 and its 2003 sequel, Children of Dune).
Newman again does a fine job with characterisation, although the pace of his reading feels too slow for an action adventure. Recalibrating the playback speed to 1.5x output enhanced the playback enormously.
As the terrorist group called The Purifying Flame continue to ravage the quadrant, the crew of the Prometheus lead a Federation envoy to the isolated Lembatta Cluster. The usually peaceful inhabitants have become aggressive however. As more of the Federation’s allies and members also begin showing signs of paranoia and aggressiveness, the crew realise the mysterious radiation released at the start of the first book is the cause behind the race towards a galactic war.
The action is set circa 2370, during the time of the Deep Space Nine and Star Trek: Voyager television serials. The cast of characters is large, with the newer personalities often overshadowed by the significant involvement of canon characters such as Kirk, Spock and Lwaxana Troi. Picard also appears from the Star Trek: The Next Generation television series.
The ode to those who have boldly gone before is nice for fans but distracts enormously from a story that is already so swamped with characters that much of it takes place away from the Prometheus and its crew. We don’t really get a chance to know or bond sufficiently with the supposed central characters. In true Star Trek fashion however, a significant portion of the story revolves around politics and race relations with issues of xenophobia and fear-driven ideologies playing up front and centre.
The Root of All Rage continues on from the first volume, Fight Fire with Fire. It’s an ongoing adventure, with the third volume due to be released in December this year. While the amount of action has picked up from the first story, it’s yet to allow us to bond with the main players.
The audiobook runs for approximately nine and a half hours with the adventure left hanging in the balance until volume three.
Reviewed by Rod Lewis
Twitter: @StrtegicRetweet
Rating out of 10: 7
Distributed by: Big Finish Productions
Released: July 2018
RRP: $12.99 Digital Download
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