Last Full Measure (Star Trek : Enterprise) (ISBN 1416503587)

Spend your money elsewhere:
It started with the dedication. Okay, okay! The authors do not (I mean really do not) like the war in Iraq. I should have taken it as a harbinger of things to come. This book has no soul, it is not engaging, and it has a ridiculously idiotic notion of how real militaries act and work together. I'll make just two points about the latter and then summarize. 1.) Enlisteds do not berth with officers. Officers will double (or even triple) up with officers to clear bunk space for enlisteds, but otherwise they do not share the same social space. Thus Ensign Mayweather sharing a bunk with Corporal Chang just doesn't cut it. 2.) No enlisted personnel ever calls officers "scared rabbits" in an "attempt to shut them up" and corporals especially do not call ensigns that. I was a squid for a while, and whenever I encountered a marine corporal, he was obsequiously polite to me, the ensign. There was a lot more of the same in this novel. I finally gave up on it around page 164. Spend your hard-eared money somewhere else. This book does not deserve your attention. As for me, I have personally sworn off these two losers. I'm not interested in hearing what they have to say.

Well what did you expect from these guys?:
This book shares its title with Jeff Shaara's concluding book in his trilogy. I would guess that most of the participants in that book would be offended by this one. Beginning with the outrageous dedication to the pitiful dolt Cindy Sheehan it is apparent that this is going to be a book that will find praise from those who share the same views on Iraq and on alternative life styles and distain from those who don't. Count me among the latter.

Not bad, not great.:
This is not a bad story, but it isn't all that great, either. For one thing, it shares a major problem with the series, one that is a major potential problem with any prequel: if you don't have any major events occur, it's boring, but if you DO insert major events to spice things up, the question arises of why these major events were never alluded to in the previously written, later-set stories. In the case of Enterprise, this trap is sprung when the series has the Xindi kill seven million people in a major attack, and the entire third and fourth season are spent trying to prevent them from finishing the job of wiping out humanity. Is it REALLY likely that in 78 original series episodes, (plus 6 movies) over 150 Next Generation episodes (plus 4 movies) over 150 Deep Space 9 Episodes, and over 150 Voyager episodes, numerous of which deal with events in the history (Genetics Wars, General Green & the third world war, the Bell Riots, First Contact, the Romulan War, etc) there is NEVER even a MENTION of a little thing like an alien attack that killed 7 million people, and ALMOST resulted in the destruction of all life on earth? I just don't see it. Yet this book, being set as it is during the period in the series that this takes place, suffers from this major flaw of the series. Further, the majority of the plot merely rehashes much of what was dealt with during this period in the series: the conflicts between the Starfleet personnel and the MACOs, and the gradual acceptance of those two groups for each other. If you are completely unfamiliar with Star Trek, and thus could not possibly care less about the lack of continuity between Enterprise and the previously established canon, you may enjoy this as simply a fairly decent action-adventure space opera with some character interaction. But if you are a fan, even if you don't care as much as I do about interseries continuity, if you've watched episodes of Enterprise during the third and fourth seasons of the show, there's nothing much new here.

Very Good Action Adventure Tale On Enterprise's Xindi Hunt:
Writers Michael A. Martin and Andy Mangelis have crafted a very good action-adventure tale in their novel "Last Full Measure (Star Trek: Enterprise)". It is commendable primarily for demonstrating how the MACO team of soldiers finally began bonding with Captain Jonathan Archer and his Starfleet crew aboard the USS Enterprise (NX-1) during their pursuit of the Xindi and their planet-destroying beam weapon in the Delphic Expanse. As such it is a fine bit of "Star Trek" fiction that will entertain anyone interested in "Star Trek" or is interested in a quick, enjoyable bit of literary entertainment. On the other hand, I would agree with one other Amazon.com reviewer who noted that the sociological aspects of the two military groups as depicted in the novel did not correspond with real-life militaries or, for example, such elaborately detailed space operas like David Webber's popular "Honor Harrington" series.

Making The Argument for Fiction As Canon:
I had heard that the new "Star Trek" movie (XI) would be using sources outside of the TV shows as Canon. (JJ Abrams made this decision - it is still contrary to the thoughts of Gene Roddenberry, but I've never understood why Roddenberry wouldn't accept some of the better written books as Canon.) This is one of the books that is used as Canon for the new movie. It tells a story that takes place after the episode "The Xindi". It explores the relationship between the Starfleet Crew and the MACOs, and there is a framing story which contains some very interesting revelations. With a cast of characters you'd be familiar with having seen the show "Enterprise", there is information about one of the main characters of that show, as well as one of the main characters of TOS that serves to remind us that good fiction should be Canon. You'll want to follow this book with "The Good That Men Do (Star Trek: Enterprise)" as it is also considered as Canon and makes an excellent companion story to this - revealing more and concluding some "Enterprise" plot lines nicely.