Title: Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers, # 47 Creative Couplings, Book One Authors: Glenn Hauman and Aaron Rosenberg Release Date: January 2005 Format: eBook ISBN: 0-7434-9688-4 Title: Star Trek: Starfleet Corps of Engineers, # 48 Creative Couplings, Book Two Authors: Glenn Hauman and Aaron Rosenberg Release Date: February 2005 Format: eBook ISBN: 0-7434-9689-2

I have to admit that I have anticipated reading Creative Couplings from the moment I read the description and learned that one of the plot elements was going to be the first ever Klingon-Jewish wedding. By the time I was finished reading Creative Couplings I was impressed by the ability of authors Glenn Hauman and Aaron Rosenberg to pull off a tension filled story with lots of twists and still manage to answer the burning question: Is gagh kosher?

In this two-part Starfleet Corps of Engineers tale, the U.S.S. da Vinci travels to Earth so that Captain David Gold can attend to family matters. Specifically, Gold's granddaughter Esther is getting married...to Khor, the son of the Klingon ambassador. Gold will need to draw on all his years of experience as a Starfleet officer as he finds himself forced to reconcile the demands of two cultures while somehow managing to avoid either an interstellar incident or divorce proceedings.

Meanwhile Fabian Stevens convinces Tev to use his leave time to join him at Starfleet Academy where he has promised to help an old friend and some eager young Academy cadets test a new prototype vessel, the Hyperion. Unfortunately, there is a practical joker among the cadets and the jokes begin to turn deadly when the holodeck failsafes are overridden trapping Stevens, Tev and a shipload of cadets inside. Commander Sonya Gomez must help her crewmates solve the riddle, find the culprit, and free them all before more damage is done or someone gets killed.

The dual plot lines run concurrently in Creative Couplings and make for a highly entertaining story that nicely balances tension and conflict with humor. The scenes that involve the wedding planning are priceless as Gold finds himself caught in the middle between Khor's father Lantar and his wife Rachel. The compromise he finally manages to hammer out will no doubt forever be a milestone in Klingon-Human relations.

Despite the amusement afforded by the wedding, what I found most noteworthy about Creative Couplings was Hauman and Rosenberg's fresh and inventive approach to the "things go horribly wrong in the holodeck" plot device. Their take on it is both original and interesting.

There are numerous small touches in Creative Couplings that will delight both regular readers of this series and newcomers alike. You don't need an extensive familiarity with the characters or their recent backgrounds to be able to enjoy the story. It is also obvious as you read that the authors had a heck of a lot of fun writing this story and that translates into a wonderfully entertaining yarn to read.

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