Star Trek: The Original Series: Foul Deeds Will Rise

This story takes place in between the fifth and sixth Star Trek movies. The latest in a string of TOS novels set in the gaps in between the movies to "fill in the blanks". The Enterprise is hosting a peace conference between two warring neighboring worlds, hosted by the former Lieutenant Kevin Riley, now an Ambassador. The delegates are immediately at each other's throats. Kirk and McCoy go to one planet to provide relief supplies, while Spock and Scotty go to the other planet to function as weapons inspectors.While on the planet, Kirk finds Lenore Karidian. My recollection of TOS is a little rusty, but she was the daughter of Kodos, and when he came to the original Enterprise under an alias as an actor trying to get on with his life, she was his insane daughter that was killing all of the survivors of his massacre. Kirk was one, Kevin Riley was another. For some reason Kirk is taken with her, and ends up inviting her back to the Enterprise for the official reception, much to McCoy's chagrin.Sure enough, with Lenore around, delegates start dying. People find out about her past and start blaming her. Her mental health is fragile, she even starts to doubt her own innocence.Meanwhile, Spock and Scotty discover that one of the deadly warheads they were brought in to verify was destroyed is missing, stolen by a rogue element of the government. The murder of the delegates threatens the fragile peace and they are placed under guard. On the other planet the relief workers are taken hostage briefly, only to be quickly rescued by a covert mission led by Kirk and Chekov.Long story short, the murderer turns out to be one of the junior delegates, Lenore gets her redemption by stealing a shuttlecraft that ends up destroying the warhead before it reaches the other planet, and everybody lives happily ever after.Overall it was a good read, but what stood out for me during most of the book was the fact that there was absolutely no surveillance to fall back on when the murders happened. Given that it would be quite easy to place cameras in the hallways today, one could imagine now that by the 23rd century it should be pretty easy to have a video record of who was coming and going from the area, especially after the first murder. That realization made the storyline kind of fall apart a little. It just shouldn't have been that hard to know who was doing what and when, especially when the plot twist that reveals that the murderer used the transporter to split herself into two and the other half was loose in the ship setting booby traps for three days without getting detected!

I'll be the first to admit that I usually don't have high hopes for novels that tend to bring back characters we've not seen in a while since usually that ends up being the case. However, Greg Cox surprised me in a good way with the return of Lenore Karidian in "Foul Deeds Will Rise". The book itself set in 2288 (another rarity in the Original Series fiction lately) involves a peacekeeping mission between 2 worlds, Pavak & Oyolo, who are attempting to end a devastating world. With both delegations aboard the Enterprise, Kirk along with McCoy go to Oyolo to deliver supplies & check out things there. While visiting a relieve organization & seeing a production of "The Tempest", Kirk recognizes one of the actresses as Lenore Karidian (last seen in "The Conscience of the King") who is going by the alias Lyla Kassidy as to protect her past. Kirk eventually invites her aboard the Enterprise as part of a reception for the 2 delegations. When the head of the Pavak delegation turns up dead she turns out to be the prime suspect almost by default especially to now Ambassador Kevin Riley. Elsewhere, Spock & Scotty are on Pavak overseeing the destruction of that planet's missiles. When one of them sneaks through inspection as a fake tensions heat up there as well since the Pavakians were sure this wasn't supposed to happen. Things get more heated when "Lyla"'s true identity is leaked to the public after the murder of the head of the Oyolu delegation.Cox does an extraordinarily good job of at times keeping up with the tensions among the delegations as well as just how fragile this tentative peace is between these 2 worlds. While the majority of the focus at times stays on Lenore & her sordid past only Kirk remains skeptical that she's still capable of being the person she was 20 years before. From hostage situations, a raid, a general willing to defy authority no matter the cost & an eventual killer who employs a transporter trick not seen since "The Enemy Within", Cox crafts a story that progressively gets better throughout & even at its climax offers a solution that is breathtaking & surprisingly well done. It's nice to see Karidian not only be used as a plot device, but as also a woman who doubts that someone even as evil as herself can turn into something good which the ending provides.Overall, "Foul Deeds Will Rise" is just more than a follow-up to one of the better episodes of the Original Series, but it's also about the chance to prove that evil can be redeemed as well as showing that there can be good in every bad situation. The book itself is also a nice change being set in the movie era & with a good use of events to this point. For this reader who has at times been highly critical of the novels set in the original Star Trek, I've found this one a pleasant surprise & hope we see more works like this in the years ahead.

Achtung Spoiler!!Kennen sollte man vor Lektüre des Buches zumindest die Folge "Kodos, der Henker" und die Ereignisse rund um das Massaker von Tarsus IV.Plot:Auf der Enterprise finden Friedensverhandlungen zwischen 2 benachbarten Planeten statt unter der Leitung von Botschafter Kevin Riley. Beim Besuch eines der Planeten, der vom anderen rohstoffmäßig ausgebeutet wird, trifft Kirk auf Lenore Karidian, die inzwischen als rehabilitiert gilt und Mitglied einer Hilfsorganisation ist. Er lädt sie auf die Enterprise ein (sehr zum Mißfallen von Riley), wo prompt die Anführer der Verhandlungsdelegationen umgebracht werden. Da die Mordwaffe bei einem Mord das Medikament ist, das Lenore zur Stabilisation ihrer Psyche verordnet bekommen hat, gerät sie unter Verdacht, und beide Planeten verlangen ihre Auslieferung. Spock und Scotty, die in der Zwischenzeit auf dem anderen Planeten den Abbau von Massenvernichtungswaffen überwachen, geraten ins Zentrum von Unruhen aufgrund der Ereignisse - und entdecken, dass eine der Waffen fehlt.Review:Ich hatte mir diesen Roman wegen der Fortsetzung der Tarsus-Geschichte gekauft. Hm. Im Nachhinein ist man immer klüger. Dies ist mein erster ST-Roman von Greg Cox - und wird wohl auch mein letzter bleiben. Denn ich habe lange kein so vorhersehbares und aufgeblähtes Buch gelesen wie dieses.Da ist auf der einen Seite Lenore. Ist sie nun von ihren mörderischen Tendenzen geheilt? Oder doch nicht? Leider ergeht sich dieser Handlungsfaden zu sehr in Melodrama und Selbstzweifel (und Shakespeare-Zitaten), als dass er wirklich interessant ist. Noch dazu wird unglücklicherweise versucht, die damalige Romanze zwischen Kirk und ihr wieder aufzuflammen, ignorierend, dass 20 Jahre vergangen sind und beide, Kirk und Lenore, nicht mehr die sind, die sie damals waren. Ich hätte mir hier ein Kennenlernen ohne Hintergedanken gewünscht.Und die Verhandlungen/Attentate? Spätestens mit Chekovs Niesen war klar, wer der Mörder ist... und das ziemlich am Anfang des Buchs. Alles andere ist Beiwerk, um Seiten zu bringen, nicht mehr und nicht weniger. Außerdem stellt sich einige Male ein Fragezeichen: Das Flagschiff der Föderation hat gerade mal 2 Shuttles? Und keiner kommt auf die Idee, das verbleibende Shuttle zu verwenden, um eine Katastrophe abzuwenden (wäre da nicht Lenores Selbstopfer/Initiative)? Oder auch den Transporter, um den Mörder dingfest zu machen? Ist schon klar, dass innerhalb der Enterprise eine Verwendung des Transporters fragwürdig ist - aber eine Nutzen/Risiko-Abwägung im Lichte der Situation auf der Enterprise wäre wohl angebracht gewesen.Ich glaube, das Buch hätte besser funktioniert als Kurzgeschichte. Vieles vom Beiwerk (angefangen von der Geiselnahme) trägt nichts zur eigentlich Handlung bei, sodass eine Straffung ohne weiteres möglich gewesen wäre. Das einzige, was wirklich funktioniert, ist die Charakterisierung der Hauptpersonen und kleine/größere Hinweise auf Vergangenes und Zukünftiges. Das hat mich über den wirklich schwachen Plot hinweg gerettet.Fazit: Bei der Qualität der derzeitigen ST-Romane ist dies leider wirklich ein unterdurchschnittliches Werk. Daher keine Empfehlung von mir. Gerade noch 2 Sterne - leider kann man keine Halbsterne vergeben...

I've been reading quite a bit of Greg Cox this year and I've been very impressed with his writing but this story of Kirk and crew post original mission fell a little short of the standard I've come to expect. It's not a bad Star Trek story to be honest and makes full use of the existing crew and merges a classic story from the original series seamlessly but it lacked some of the depth and complexity I've seen in previous work. In this tale two worlds (Oyolo and Pavak) are suing for peace with the Federation providing the mediation, the Enterprise is positioned halfway between the two worlds which exist in the same solar system and providing logistical support both as hosts for the negotiations and to supervise the disarming process. After a frosty first meeting of the two parties and the Federation representative (former crew member Kevin Riley) on board the Enterprise gets an unexpected visitor with ties to Kirk, Riley and the ship but then a delegate is murdered and the fuse is lit as fingers are pointed and weapons armed.Foul Deeds Will Rise stands on decent footing when judged against the decades of published Star Trek original series novels it just lacks that little bit of a certain something that would have had me giving it a five star rating but it certainly hasn't soured me to reading more of Greg's work.

Interesting 'sequel' to the classic episode "The Conscience Of The King", even if the 'disrupted peace negotiations' theme grows a little repetitive.

Very good story, well researched. Lots of nods to the original episodes, including characters from the main cast and others. The ending wraps everything together very well, no loose ends. Very enjoyable read, would recommend to any Star Trek fan.

Filled with action. Based on Star Treks past. Good reading.