A few years ago, Pocket Books came out with a series of six Star Trek books that were called Captain's Table, each a story of one of the series' captains at that time (Picard, Janeway, Sisko, Calhoun, Kirk, and Pike). That series was quite successful, but there have been quite a few more captains in the series since then. Thus was born the latest Trek anthology, Tales from the Captain's Table, edited by Keith R.A. DeCandido. This is a series of short stories about our new captains, told in a bar (called "The Captain's Table," of course) where only captains are allowed, and the price of your drinks is a story told to whomever will listen. This bar is timeless, with one story including a captain from the future. You can also find the entrance to the bar on any planet.

As with most anthologies, the quality of the stories varies. I can say, however, that they are all enjoyable, even the ones from authors I have questioned before. DeCandido does a wonderful job tying all of the stories together, almost giving them a sequence as one captain leaves and another comes to the bar. With a mixture of tall tales, tales of "dubious credibility," and a couple of stories that fill in a hole or two in the respective series, Tales from the Captain's Table is definitely a must read for any Trek fan. Who knows? You may find a series that you like and decide to go read it.

The Stories: (The text in bold is the name of the book series the captain is from)

"Improvisations on the Opal Sea: A Tale of Dubious Credibility" by Michael A. Martin & Andy Mangels (Captain Riker, Titan)
This story is quite a good start for the book. Riker is a new captain, so Picard takes him on his first visit to the Captain's Table. For his drink, he decides to tell the story of his honeymoon with Deanna Troi on a water planet. Unfortunately, this planet has a number of pirates, and in a case of mistaken identity, they kidnap Riker. Troi and the rest of the crew that followed along (they were all going on leave, so came to the same planet) come to his rescue. But Riker ends up having to save them in the end, using his musical ear to improvise the mistaken identity just long enough for Troi (who had been captured in the first rescue attempt) and him to be saved. I found this story enormously funny, from the way Riker tells it to the incredulous interruptions of the other captains (Klag, Picard, and a couple of others). Watching Picard's face fall when it looks like Riker has broken a few Starfleet regulations is great. The story, as the title suggests, is highly suspect, but it's great fun. Now, we just need the *real* story of their honeymoon, as what self-respecting fictional character can actually have a honeymoon where nothing weird happens?

"Darkness" by Michael Jan Friedman (Captain Picard, Stargazer)
Picard is asked to provide his own tale, and he tells the story of what happened just after he had lost his own ship, the Stargazer. He is very depressed after the inquiry into the loss of the ship, as even though he was acquitted of any wrong-doing, he still feels responsible. He's on a journey to see an old friend, to see if she can offer any solace and advice to him on where to go from here. On the way to her planet, he passes through an ion storm that ends up messing with his engines, forcing him to ditch his ship. The population of the planet he lands on is being subjugated by the Skillig, ruthless raiders, and he ends up getting involved with them. Helping them and discovering a forgotten portion of his past brings him to a decision point about his present and future. As with many of Friedman's stories, I found this one kind of forgettable, though it is well-told. The twist at the end is well done, but otherwise it felt much the same as other stories I've read. There's not really a lot different here. To show how forgettable the story was: most of these mini-reviews, I've had to look at the story again to get a detail or a name right. This story, I had to look at the story again to remember what happened in the story. That's not a good sign.

"Pain Management" by Peter David (Captain Shelby, New Frontier
Shelby is one of my favourite New Frontier characters (what I've read of it, anyway), so I was looking forward to this story. Here, the Trident is in for refit and repairs after being damaged in a massive ambush during the Selelvian/Tholian war. At the starbase, Soleta, science officer of the Exalibur, happens to be there for a conference and offers her a ride back to Excalibur to see her husband while the Trident is being repaired. On the way, they are shot down by an Orion ship and crash land. Surrounded by Orions in a cave, Soleta does what she has to do to take them out, knowing that either she will die, or her horrible secret (she's half-Romulan) will be revealed. Shelby must choose between an oath to a friend, and loyalty to that very same friend. And she's not happy about it. This story is also quite good, filling in a little bit of backstory on both Shelby and Soleta, detailing how Soleta's heritage came to be known. There's a little bit of that old "Peter denying Jesus" feel at the end, where Shelby has to choose whether to deny knowing about Soleta's secret in order to save her own career. The action is well done, and David's characteristic humour is there for all to see. He manages to make Soleta both very Vulcan and yet very sardonic at the same time. At times tense, at times heart-wrenching, this story is one of the good ones.

"IoDnl'pu vavpu' je (Brothers & Fathers)" by Keith R.A. DeCandido (Captain Klag, IKS Gorkon)
DeCandido has managed to do it again. I'm not really that interested in Klingon-centric stories, but he impresses me yet again with this Klingon story of two brothers, and the father that one of them denies after he returns from Romulan captivity. Klag tells three stories that all tie together. First, a story of two Klingon boys taking on a prey that is much bigger than they are, disregarding instructions by their mentor. Then, of a woman and her lover, with the woman bent on avenging the murder of her husband despite the fact that she never loved him. Finally, the story of those same Klingon boys all grown up, the older as first officer of a ship and unwilling lap dog to his captain, and the youngest going his own way, and of a father who returns from Romulan captivity and doesn't take back his warrior's life. The two brothers quarrel over this, and perhaps one of those brothers was the murderer of the woman's husband? This is a story of honour, loyalty, and how pride can go so far as to barricade one from ever seeing the father that he once loved ever again. While the three stories were quite good, I actually enjoyed the interplay at the Captain's Table between Klag and his audience even more. The Romulan was hilarious, with his scoffing of another tale of Klingon honour, and his constant insults directed in Klag's direction. The beginning is even better, with Klag starting to tell the story he's told every time he’s in the bar (the one also told to us in Tales of the Dominion War) and getting shouted down. DeCandido manages to keep the Klingon interesting, and the wonderful twist at the end makes it all worth while.

"The Officer’s Club" by Heather Jarman (Captain Kira, Deep Space Nine)
A great story from an author I have criticized. I greatly enjoyed her last short story (in Tales of the Dominion War), but this one was even better. It's a story of Kira's time in the resistance, where she has to infiltrate an officer's club run by collaborators, apparently including her brother, in order to kidnap one of the Cardassians' greatest communications techs in order to stop the upgrading of communications in the Bajoran sector. What she discovers there is not what she expected, as apparently the club is a front for another resistance cell. Or is it? Who can Kira trust? And is her brother the collaborator she thought he was? Kira will have to sacrifice a lot in order finish her mission, and she will not remain unaffected by it. This story is even better than the previous Jarman story I mention above. It has a completely believable Kira, who hasn't been completely hardened by the circumstances of her life yet, though she's well on her way. It has betrayal, intrigue, and wonderful characters all the way around. It's the longest story yet (though it's not the longest in the book), so Jarman has space to create these characters, manipulate them, and make us care for them. There are also enough twists and turns that the reader is kept guessing until the very end what the truth really is. This is probably my favourite story in the book.

"Have Beagle, Will Travel: The Legend of Porthos" by Louisa N. Swann (Captain Archer, Enterprise)
This story, on the other hand, is extremely light and fluffy. While it's not bad, it didn't really grab me too much. I haven't read any Enterprise stories in print yet, so perhaps I was hoping for something with more substance. I don't know. Shran, Captain Archer's Andorian friend and sometimes adversary, takes Archer into the Captain's Table, along with Archer's dog, Porthos. A few of the patrons (including one cat-like alien) would love to have Porthos for lunch, so Archer tells the tall tale of Porthos double oh one, and the Beagle Brigade. Archer and Porthos are on a mission to find a missing scientist, kidnapped by Naussicans. Porthos is the experienced one in the bunch, and it ends up falling to him to save the day. While the story was funny (especially the reactions of the bar patrons), it wasn't as fun as Riker's story, and was equally inconsequential. Enjoyable, and thankfully short.

"Iron & Sacrifice" by David R. George III (Captain Demora Sulu)
This story is the longest in the book, and it's a story within a story. Sulu comes into the bar chasing a man with vital intelligence who would be willing to blow himself up to keep Sulu away from his wife (who he stole the intelligence for). Sulu tells a story that is directed at him, though he is only one of the audience. It's the story of the time she was called to the planet where her grandmother was dying, a world that had turned its back on technology. Her grandmother is sour, self-sufficient, and stubborn, and refuses all of Sulu's help. But she thinks back to a mission gone horribly wrong, and the death of a wonderful family man, and realizes that she has to stay and help her grandmother anyway, to do what is right. Thus, we hear not only the story of her grandmother, but also the story of the mission. George tells this story in his wonderfully verbose way, which has grated on some readers (I've read some complaints). Usually, I don't like overly wordy stories either, but I seem to like George's writing, and can forgive his stylistic excesses. George also does a neat workaround on Sulu's father, Hikaru. He deftly avoids revealing whether or not he's dead (George just says that there's no way he could come). I do have to say that the story dragged in spots, so perhaps the usual criticisms of George do come into play with this story. But I loved the characterization of Demora and found the story very enjoyable.

"Seduced" by Christie Golden (Captain Chakotay, Voyager)
Another story by an author I have criticized before, this story only made me cringe at the very beginning (and when I saw the title). Golden is known for her emotional style, and I have severely disliked all of her Voyager re-launch (post-television) books because of that. However, this story, of Chakotay's first meeting with Captain Demora Sulu, the woman who sponsored his entry into Starfleet and took him away from the backward ideas of his people. It's a coming of age story for Chakotay, and it's told with a minimum of mysticism and emotional language (though there is definitely some there). She captures a young Chakotay wonderfully, the grating feeling of his people's backwardness against him coming through perfectly. Sulu is also good, an older and much wiser woman (who isn't captain of the Enterprise, which I found interesting, considering the Enterprise was her first captaincy), very comfortable with herself. She sees something great in Chakotay, if he isn't afraid to see it himself. Overall, this is a great story, with only one minor niggle: I found it very unlikely, even if he was extremely busy, that Chakotay's father would go what appears to be weeks without ever discovering that Captain Sulu is female. It strained credulity for me. But when this is my only problem with a Golden story, you know it's good.

"An Easy Fast" by John Ordover (Captain Gold, Star Trek: S.C.E.)
To round out the stories in this book is a fable told by Captain Gold, about revenge and how it can eat a man up in side. It's told to a captain from 200 years in the future, to help him on his quest for revenge, and thus it is quite effective. It's the story of a Starfleet officer who is conned on a run-down planet, and when he fights rather than repay the debt, he ends up getting killed. Thankfully, it's right then when he's transported away, and his ship's doctor manages to save him. Through the years, he looks for revenge on the three people who set him up, but each time circumstances reveal that revenge isn't always as tasteful as it may appear. While I did enjoy this story, I was disappointed with it. I don’t read the S.C.E. (Starfleet Corps of Engineers) books, so I was looking forward to a story about Gold that would highlight why I should maybe start picking them up. Instead, we only see Gold in the Captain’s Table scenes (there's no indication whether any of the actions in the fable actually happened, but it's doubtful). It is a well-told story, though, and it has a kicker of an ending.