The novel follows two parallel chronological tracks: the first manned mission to Saturn in the far future year of 2020, and the Enterprise coming to the aid of a beleaguered Federation colony 250 years later. The 2270 plotline takes a little while to become interesting, but the 2020 one is pretty good right from the off. I think it pushes belief that a vlogger could smuggle herself onto a NASA mission, but once you accept that, it's a reasonable near-future realistic space story along the lines of The Martian or whatever. There are some obvious connections between the two time periods, with both concerning gas giants with strange hexagonal disturbances at their poles where the rings begins destabilizing.

The book kicks up a gear at the one-third mark, when Captain Kirk switches places in time with Shaun Geoffrey Christopher, commander of the Lewis & Clark. This is done Quantum Leap-style, so physically, the crews of both ships do not see a difference. I had fun imagining this on screen-- I bet Shatner would be hammy in just the right way as Kirk pretending to be an astronaut. (Though you'd probably also want to imagine Shatner as Christopher pretending to be Kirk, which isn't terribly consistent.) Captain Kirk having to blend in in the past always yields good comedy (e.g., "The City on the Edge of Forever," The Voyage Home), and Cox milks that well here. I laughed when Kirk tries to remember what the computer network of the 21st century was called and comes up with "the Interweb."

At first I thought it was a little much that there are two female guest characters in this book and they both have the hots for Colonel Christopher, but when the swap happened, I got it. Nothing is quite as good as Captain Kirk being in the dilemma of there being two sexually available women but he doesn't know which one to sleep with because he might destroy the timeline if he makes the wrong choice.

The plot here is kind of like whatever. It's not bad; it's just a structure to hang time travel hijinks and risky EVAs off of. It's all a bit The Martian like I said, but when Cox wrote this (presumably) in 2011, The Martian was just an above-average self-publishing phenomenon, and probably not on Cox's radar. Cox captures the original Star Trek crew well, and writes brisk action; I breezed through this thing in about two nights and had lots of fun in the process. That the Human Extinction League could have such an effect did seem a little hard to believe, but of course their comeuppance at the hand of the Enterprise crew was pleasing.

The only thing I didn't like is the revelation of what/who caused the time travel phenomenon, which felt like a cheat and a non-answer.

Continuity Notes:

• There are some callbacks to Cox's The Eugenics Wars novels: Christopher was supposed to pilot a DY-100 sleeper ship back in the 1990s, but someone (i.e., Khan and company) stole it from him.
• Cox also does a good job setting this in the early 21st century, blending references to our real world Great Recession with the sanctuary districts of Deep Space Nine's "Past Tense" (set in 2024).
• I do have one quibble here: the Earth-Saturn probe doesn't feel as significant as Spock made it sound in "Tomorrow Is Yesterday." It's hard to imagine the future of human spaceflight being thrown off course without Colonel Christopher's presence. This should feel as monumental as the Apollo missions! Of course, in the real early 21st century, it's hard to imagine any manned space missions happening at all, alas.

Other Notes:

• If I'm not mistaken, The Rings of Time was the second-last original series novel published without "The Original Series" branding on the cover and title page, the last being Dayton Ward's That Which Divides. Allegiance in Exile was actually the first to have it. I'm not a fan. (The 50th anniversary Legacies trilogy also didn't have it, actually; I assume because Star Trek: The Original Series: Legacies: [Actual Title] is a bit on the clunky side. Though this is the line of books that used to give us titles like Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Gateways, Book Four of Seven: Demons of Air and Darkness, so what exactly could be too clunky?)

Back on the Star Trek books! Unfortunately, this is, overall, another 'miss' from Greg Cox, full of the usual character catchphrases and references to episodes from the original series (almost like the author is trying to prove he's done his research). The plot, once the action hit warp speed, was fast-paced and quite interesting - I learned a few facts about Saturn, anyway - but oh dear, the characters, both familiar and original, were woeful. Kirk is straight from pop culture/Abrams-verse, and the dreadful twenty-first century 'intrepid reporter' and her twenty-fourth century counterpart are straight out of fan fiction. The 'twist' just made me cringe.

And what is the plot? The same plot Star Trek covered repeatedly (and Cox naturally throws back to the relevant episodes) - Captain Kirk trades consciousness AND gets displaced in time, with the son of the pilot from 'Tomorrow is Yesterday' for bonus Trekkie points. I managed to overlook the holes - everybody else sees and hears the same person, but Christopher couldn't detect that he was talking like Kirk? - but the cheesy writing ('Their hands busily explored exciting new lifeforms'), dodgy backstory and THAT twist finally earned this adventure a decided thumbs down. ( )

Fun read. Interesting way to tie the story in with a TOS episode. ( )

Rings of Time, by Greg Cox, is a 2012 novel that takes place in the original Star Trek TV series universe. The complex storyline makes it more like a Star Trek movie then a TV episode. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Mr. Scott, Sulu, Checkov, Nurse Chapel and others are present in this adventure across space and time. Two storylines are developed in this book. Earth’s space program makes its first voyage to Saturn under the command of Colonel Shaun Christopher in 2020 and Captain James T. Kirk and the U.S.S. Enterprise responds to a distress call from a colony in the Klondike system in 2270. The colony is located on Skagway, a moon orbiting Klondike-6, a ringed gas giant similar Saturn. The planet’s rings are degrading, threatening the colony and its inhabitants. Likewise Colonel Christopher and his crew discover that the rings of Saturn are degrading. Suddenly Kirk finds himself in an antiquated space suit above Saturn. He must struggle to cope with the 2020 technology, win the cooperation of the 21st century crew, survive the potentially lethal sabotage of the ship, and try to get back to the Enterprise and his own time. Meanwhile the Enterprise, with Spock in command, must try to cope with the panic of a colony that is being sucked into the ringed gas giant. This novel includes several very interesting characters in addition to the familiar crew of the Enterprise and the author’s portrayal of the original Star Trek characters is absolutely spot on. The book also includes much suspenseful life-threatening action and an unexpected ending that I found very satisfying. I also enjoyed the many references from the original Star Trek TV series that Cox included. It’s a very entertaining and interesting book and I intend to read more Star Trek books written by Greg Cox. ( )

Really good stuff particularly for TOS era! I liked it. ( )