Star Trek: That Which Divides
The Original Series
By Dayton Ward
Pocket Books
Release date: February 28, 2012
Paperback | Kindle

Star Trek: That Which Divides is an example of a great Star Trek story. It takes us to the era of The Original Series with Kirk, Spock, Scotty, and McCoy all in the officer’s lounge playing a poker game in which Spock is cleaning them out. Kirk aboard the Enterprise is en route to the Kondaii system to investigate a spatial rift that is surrounding a planetoid that is a key mining colony and to investigate a Federation vessel that crashed there and look for survivors. The rift opens up every three years allowing trade between the small planetoid and the other inhabited planet in the system. The species in the system are called the Dolysians and they are humanoid. They have low level warp technology which allows them to send ships through the rift.

While the crew of The Enterprise is investigating the operation as well as the crash, the Romulan Empire gets wind of what is going on and sends a small scout ship to investigate the Federation presence as well as the rift. The ship is lead by a female commander named Vaethrel who has a command style almost exactly like that of Captain Kirk. While Kirk and Spock are on the planet they find a huge underground complex that was abandoned thousands of years ago by a race of advanced aliens known as the Kaladans (who Kirk and the rest of the crew had encountered before). It turns out the Kaladans had created the rift and had built an advanced planetary defense system should the Kaladans find themselves in trouble in anyway. The Romulans stumble upon the facility after trying to ambush Kirk and then it is on.

I must say that Dayton Ward is such a great writer when it comes to Star Trek. This is such a fun and action-packed story that really captures what the television show was about. That Which Divides has everything from witty dialogue to intense shoot outs and intense space combat. Not only do I like seeing Kirk return to the spotlight, but I welcome seeing the spotlight shine on Scotty and Chekov a lot as well. McCoy is one character that really stands out to me in this too, because the reader will see he takes his job as a doctor seriously and cares for his patients no matter what race they are.

I can’t say enough great things about this book. It really is a fun read that any science fiction fan would love. I found myself forcing myself to put this book down because of how quick and exciting the pace is. I recommend highly recommend this book — c’mon, it has The Original Series crew!!! You can’t go wrong with that at all.