2008-11-05 "Oh my god, the planet's going to explode!"

Pocket Books continue their series of novels based on Classic Star Trek with the second in their new Vanguard series, Summon The Thunder written by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore.
This novel is set one month after the events of the first book, harbinger, which makes it around the time of `The Corbomite Manoeuvre / Mudd's Women' in the show.
Following on from the repercussions of Harbinger, Commodore Reyes finds that Starfleet has only just begun to uncover the mystery of the Taurus Reach and the meta genome. Lt. Xiong is dispatched to the frozen world of Erilon when the research team there are attacked by an unknown alien life form and the ship is destroyed by some planetary defence weapon. With help from the SCE, he is determined to find out what these ancient artifacts are.
The Klingons and Tholians are also on the brink of war and Ambassador Jetanien has his hands full with the race's respective delegations on the station. When a Klingon world in the Reach is also attacked, the fires of war threaten to overwhelm the sector.
Cervantes Quinn has taken FNS reporter Tim Pennington under his wing. Feeling somewhat guilty for what he did to him Quinn finds himself between a rock and a hard place when conflicting favours from both T'Prynn and Ganz place both him and Tim in a nasty situation.
When relations between the Tholians, Klingons and the Federation dissolve, the Taurus Reach looks set to become a battleground and another race is observing them all, waiting for its chance to strike.
Like Harbinger, this book is a great read, well paced, sharp dialogue, interesting characters and really draws the reader into the world that has been created. The relationships between the characters are further developed and more pieces to the meta genome puzzle are slowly delivered in a way that makes you read on to find out what happens next.
Ward and Dilmore handle the complex group with skill and give us a couple of excellent battles as well. The end of the book leaves you wanting more and you'll be getting your hands on the third book `Reap The Whirlwind' as soon as possible.