Brad Ferguson's a Flag Full of Stars is a Book Full of Flaws

In 1989, 10 years after the theatrical release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture and two after the debut of the syndicated Star Trek: The Next Generation television series, Pocket Books committed itself to the publication of The Lost Years series of novels set in the nebulous two-and-a-half year-long period between the end of the original Starship Enterprise’s five-year mission and the events depicted in ST: TMP. Starting with J.M. Dillard’s The Lost Years, , Pocket Books had at least two other novels either ready for publication or in pre-production – Brad Ferguson’s A Flag Full of Stars and Irene Kress’ The War Virus. (This latter book, for some reason, never was published; instead, the publisher released a book named Traitor Winds. )

Although far from being perfect, Dillard’s The Lost Years was at least a somewhat interesting account of the final moments of Capt. James T. Kirk’s five-year-mission, his reluctant promotion to flag rank, the departures of Spock and Dr. McCoy from Starfleet, and the beginnings of Kirk’s relationship with Vice Admiral Lori Ciana, an ambitious woman whose plans to become Starfleet’s diplomatic liaison to the Federation Council hinge greatly on Kirk’s acceptance of admiral’s stars and the success of their first mission together. These important story threads were interwoven with a plot involving Romulans and the return of a power-hungry Vulcan mind-lord whose katra had been imprisoned because he had opposed Surak’s philosophies of peace, the casting out of “animal passions,” and the pursuit of logic.