Book Review | The Good That Men Do

The Good That Men Do
The Good That Men Do

My first reaction to The Good that Men Do, is that there is very little I can say about this controversial book without it being spoiler-ridden.  So with that in mind, this post will be a spoiler.

Alrightly then last chance to turn back we are going to dive into a spoiler post her.  I don’t do these often so I have given you plenty of warning.  On the show:

In the last episode, when Shran’s former associates track down Enterprise and board the ship, they demand that Archer take them to Shran, but the captain refuses. The aliens are about to kill Archer, so Trip, thinking fast, tells them that he will take them to Shran. When Archer protests, the aliens knock him out. Trip leads the aliens into what appears to be a harmless utility closet — he tells them it is simply a com station and he is going to get Shran to come to them. Trip tells them he just needs to connect a couple of things, but when he brings a pair of conduits together, a massive explosion erupts, taking out both Trip and the aliens. Trip is fatally wounded.

All that is from this Wikipedia entry.  I just didn’t want to write all that out.  So, yeah Trip is dead or at least we all assume he is.  That is where The Good That Men Do is different from that last episode.  It continues to tell the story.  Instead of dying, Trip goes off on a top secret mission to save the galaxy from the Romulans.

Being a fan of the show I think the last episode was all wrong.  And I’m not alone in that.  So, while this was better than the last episode because Trip doesn’t die and I don’t remember it having Johanthan Frakes in it, in that whole strange looking back in time thing they did.  I think Frakes is awesome, but the whole holodeck reliving stuff was lame.

These are the Voyages, Star Trek: Enterprise
These are the Voyages, Star Trek: Enterprise

The book moved slow, too slow.  It was really long for what it was trying to do, 464 pages, maybe the author was trying to give Trip the ending he deserved and felt pressured to do that and he gets carried away with all the verboseness.  The story just dragged.  There was some action in it which was a breath of fresh air during a lot of internal dialogs the characters were having.

I gave this Star Trek novel 4 out of 5 stars because I liked the interactions between T’Pol and Trip mostly.  I also like that the story continued to be told instead of ending.  This was the 11th book in the Enterprise series and the last one that the show actually covered, so I’m very excited to see where things go next in the 12th book Kobayashi Maru.