Waiting on Wednesday – 2021 Star Trek Tie-in novels

On April 8, 2021 By The Unseen LibraryIn Extended Universe, Science Fiction, Star Trek, Tie-in Novel, Waiting on Wednesday5 Comments

Welcome to my weekly segment, Waiting on Wednesday, where I look at upcoming books that I am planning to order and review in the next few months and which I think I will really enjoy. I run this segment in conjunction with the Can’t-Wait Wednesday meme that is currently running at Wishful Endings. Stay tuned to see reviews of these books when I get a copy of them. In this latest Waiting on Wednesday article, I highlight three amazing sounding upcoming Star Trek tie-in novels that I am particularly excited for.

Now, those people familiar with my blog will know that I like a good tie-in novel and I routinely read and review novels and comics that are extensions of several popular fandoms, including Star Wars, Warhammer, and Firefly. While I have been a major fan of a number of franchises for years, one particular fandom that I have only really gotten into in the last couple of years is Star Trek. Thanks to some of the recent mainstream Hollywood movies, a flurry of reruns on Australian television and some of the newer shows appearing on Netflix, I have started watching more Star Trek stuff in recent years, and I have quickly gotten drawn into this fun franchise. For example, last year I ended up probably watching the most Star Trek I ever have, especially with some of the awesome new shows that came out, (I really enjoyed both Picard and Lower Decks). Unsurprisingly, this increased interest in Star Trek shows and movies has also resulted in me checking out more and more Star Trek novels and even some comics, most of which I have then reviewed on this blog. Many of these, such as The Captain’s Oath by Christopher L. Bennett, Agents of Influence by Dayton Ward and the Star Trek: Boldly Go comic by Mike Johnson and Tony Shasteen, have been very impressive reads, and I am now actively trying to find and review any new Star Trek novels that come out.

2021 is shaping up to be another awesome year for Star Trek tie-in fiction, and I have been keeping a keen eye out for several upcoming Star Trek books. While I still need to check out Star Trek: Picard: The Dark Veil by James Swallow, which came out in January, there are several further books coming out in the next few months that I am quite excited for. Each of these upcoming books sound pretty cool and I am rather keen to check them out, especially as two have been written by some of my favourite authors of Star Trek fiction.

The first upcoming Star Trek novel that I am looking forward to is Star Trek: Discovery: Wonderlands by Una McCormack. McCormack is a fantastic author who has written several great Star Trek novels over the years, including a previous Star Trek: Discovery novel, The Way to the Stars, and the first Star Trek: Picard tie-in novel, The Last Best Hope. I was a particularly fan of The Last Best Hope when it came out last year, especially as it provide an amazing bridge between The Next Generation and Picard television series. As a result, I am very excited to see this great author’s next novel, especially as it is another Star Trek: Discovery novel.

Synopsis:

In a desperate attempt to prevent the artificial intelligence known as Control from seizing crucial information that could destroy all sentient life, Commander Michael Burnham donned the “Red Angel” time-travel suit and guided the USS Discovery into the future and out of harm’s way. But something has gone terribly wrong, and Burnham has somehow arrived in a place far different from anything she could have imagined—more than nine hundred years out of her time, with Discovery nowhere to be found, and where the mysterious and cataclysmic event known as “the Burn” has utterly decimated Starfleet and, with it, the United Federation of Planets. How then can she possibly exist day-to-day in this strange place? What worlds are out there waiting to be discovered? Do any remnants of Starfleet and the Federation possibly endure? With more questions than answers, Burnham must nevertheless forge new friendships and new alliances if she hopes to survive this future long enough for the Discovery crew to find her….

Wonderlands, which is currently has a release date of 18 May 2021, looks set to follow the protagonist of Star Trek: Discovery, Michael Burham, during the period when she was trapped in the desolate future without her friends. This setting opens up many plot opportunities and it will be interesting to see what sort of cool story that McCormack comes up with for this book. Based on her previous novels, I am extremely confident that McCormack will come up with an exciting and compelling read, and I am hopeful that she takes full advantage of the darker story elements of the Star Trek: Discovery series to create something truly memorable.

The next Star Trek novel that I am looking at in this article is the intriguing Shadows Have Offended by Cassandra Rose Clark, which will tie into The Next Generation television series. Shadows Have Offended, which is currently set for release on 13 July 2021, will be the first Star Trek novel from Clark, an author I am relatively unfamiliar with, although I have been meaning to check out her young adult Halo series, Battle Born. Based on the plot details that have been released, Shadows Have Offended will primarily follow Dr Beverly Crusher, Deanna Troi and Worf, as they encounter multiple problems during a seemingly routine mission.

Synopsis:

The USS Enterprise has been granted the simple but unavoidable honor of ferrying key guests to Betazed for a cultural ceremony. En route, sudden tragedy strikes a Federation science station on the isolated planet Kota, and Captain Jean-Luc Picard has no qualms sending William Riker, Data, and Chief Medical Officer Beverly Crusher to investigate. But what begins as routine assignments for the two parties soon descends into chaos: Picard, Worf, and Deanna Troi must grapple with a dangerous diplomatic crisis as historic artifacts are stolen in the middle of a high-profile ceremony… while nothing is as it seems on Kota. A mounting medical emergency coupled with the science station’s failing technology – and no hope of rescue – has Doctor Crusher racing against time to solve a disturbing mystery threatening the lives of all her colleagues…

I quite like the sound of this upcoming The Next Generation novel, especially as Clark has come up with two cool sounding separate storylines, including a medical mystery and a theft, and it will be interesting to see how these come together. I am also curious to see a novel that focuses more on Crusher and Troi than some of the other Star Trek books I have read in the past and it will be interesting to see this story unfold from their perspective. Overall, this should turn out to be a great read and I am quite excited to check it out.

The final Star Trek novel I am looking at here is the next Picard book, Rogue Elements by John Jackson Miller. Miller is another veteran author who has written several exceptional Star Trek books over the years. I absolutely loved Miller’s 2020 release, Die Standing, which, with its complex protagonists and clever plot, was easily one of the best Star Trek books of last year. His next novel, Rogue Elements, is possibly the 2021 Star Trek book I am most excited for, as it will feature one of the best new characters from the Picard show, Cristóbal Rios.

Synopsis:

Starfleet was everything for Cristóbal Rios—until one horrible, inexplicable day when it all went wrong. Aimless and adrift, he grasps at a chance for a future as an independent freighter captain in an area betrayed by the Federation, the border region with the former Romulan Empire. His greatest desire: to be left alone.

But solitude isn’t in the cards for the captain of La Sirena, who falls into debt to a roving gang of hoodlums from a planet whose society is based on Prohibition-era Earth. Teamed against his will with Ledger, his conniving overseer, Rios begins an odyssey that brings him into conflict with outlaws and fortune seekers, with power brokers and relic hunters across the stars.

Exotic loves and locales await—as well as dangers galore—and Rios learns the hard way that good crewmembers are hard to find, even when you can create your own. And while his meeting with Jean-Luc Picard is years away, Rios finds himself drawing on the Starfleet legend’s experiences when he discovers a mystery that began on one of the galaxy’s most important days…

This sounds like it is going to be particularly impressive Star Trek read and I am looking forward to this book. As I mentioned above, I really enjoyed the character of Cristóbal Rios, the damaged private starship captain and his crew of emergency holograms, each of them an alternate version of his own personality and distinctive accent, and I am very keen to see a book follow his early exploits. Rogue Elements also looks to explore some fun crime elements in this darker period of Star Trek history and I love the idea of seeing Rios going up against gangsters, power brokers and relic hunters. Based on the cool sounding plot, the great source material in Picard and Miller’s outstanding writing history, I know I am going to love Rogue Elements and it should be an awesome read.

As you can see, there are some very cool Star Trek books coming out later this year and I truly believe that I will enjoy all three of the above entries. Each of these books sounds extremely impressive and I look forward to seeing what unique stories they contain. I will have to keep an eye out for any addition Star Trek novels later in the year (I know that there is a new Deep Space Nine novel coming out called Revenant, although only limited details are available at this time). Until then, make sure to check out some of my reviews for other Star Trek novels and let me know which Star Trek tie-in books are your favourites.

Star Trek: More Beautiful Than Death by David Mack

On December 22, 2020August 20, 2022 By The Unseen LibraryIn Alternate Timeline, Audiobook, Extended Universe, Science Fiction, Star Trek, Tie-in Novel2 Comments

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio (Audiobook – 11 August 2020)

Series: Star Trek – Kelvin Timeline – Book Two

Length: 8 hours and 16 minutes

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5

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Prepare to once again dive into the alternate timeline version of the Star Trek universe, known as the Kelvin timeline, in this latest exciting tie-in novel from acclaimed author David Mack, Star Trek: More Beautiful Than Death.

Set shortly after the events of the 2009 Star Trek film, in which the planet of Vulcan was destroyed by the mad Romulan Nero, Captain James T. Kirk is now captain of USS Enterprise. Given a new mission, the Enterprise and its crew are ordered to rendezvous with Spock’s father, Ambassador Sarek, and escort him to the planet of Akiron. Akiron, a resource-rich world containing a substantial amount of dilithium, has recently sent out a distress signal to the Federation, who are hoping to exchange aid for favourable trading rights.

Arriving at Akiron, they find the planet in a state of chaos as the population are under attack by demonic dark-energy creatures, known as wights, who strike from the darkness, eat energy, and appear to suck the life right out of any living being. Determined to save the people of Akiron no matter what, Kirk begins his preparations to investigate the wights. However, before he can act, Sarek orders Kirk to abandon the mission and leave Akiron.

Refusing to obey Sarek’s orders, Kirk attempts to find the cause of the terrible events on Akiron and save who he can. With the help of an old mystic who believes that Kirk has faced the wights in his prior lives the Enterprise crew are soon able to discover the source of the wights on Akiron and the deadly potential their invasion has. As Kirk and his crew attempt to save the entirety of the planet they must overcome several deadly attacks as well as the sinister agenda of Sarek’s Vulcan aide, L’Nel, who hatches a dangerous personal plan to kill Spock. Can the Kirk and the Enterprise succeed, or will darkness engulf everything it touches?

Over the last couple of years, I have had a great pleasure of reading/listening to several amazing pieces of Star Trek fiction and I always love seeing the unique and varied tales that the talented team of tie-in authors can come up with. More Beautiful Than Death is an excellent example of this as it features a fantastic and captivating tale of exploration and desperation within an interesting part of the Star Trek canon. This latest novel is written by a true veteran of Star Trek fiction, David Mack, who has not only written a ton of different tie-in novels but who also has writing credits for two episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. More Beautiful Than Death is set in the alternate timeline introduced in the 2009 film Star Trek, known as the Kelvin timeline. This is the second Kelvin timeline novel I have read this year after previously enjoying The Unsettling Stars, and it set between the events of Star Trek and Star Trek: Into Darkness. More Beautiful Than Death ended up being an impressive and exciting Star Trek novel, and I had an amazing time listening to it.

Mack has come up with an excellent narrative for More Beautiful Than Death which sees the crew of this alternate timeline Enterprise attempt to defend an alien planet from a series of demonic creatures. The author writes this much like an episode of a Star Trek series, with the crew arriving at the planet, analysing the situation, facing all manner of conflicts, getting beat up and then engaging in a course of action to save the day. I felt that this worked extremely well for the novel and readers are treated to a captivating and dramatic science fiction story that easily keeps the attention from start to finish. The stakes are high throughout More Beautiful Than Death, and Mack keeps the tension and excitement going through much of the book, focusing both on the mission at hand and on the contentious personalities aboard the ship. There are a number awesome action-packed sequences throughout the book, and I especially enjoyed the various scenes that showed the Enterprise being attacked by the wights, forcing the crew to flee from an opponent they cannot even touch. There is also a particularly good subplot around the Vulcan characters aboard the Enterprise, with the mysterious character of L’Nel apparently plotting to kill Spock. I really enjoyed the way that Mack explored this subplot, showing L’Nel’s attack on Spock as a prelude to the rest of the book, and then slowly exploring the events that led up to it in the main story. This subplot combined with the main narrative extremely well and the result is a deeply compelling overall novel that I had an amazing time listening to.

Like many Star Trek tie-in novels, More Beautiful Than Death is best enjoyed by those readers who have some familiarity with the franchise. However, I felt that Mack made his latest book extremely accessible to new readers, and anyone can have a great time enjoying the fast-paced and intriguing novel with minimal knowledge of Star Trek lore. There are a lot of fun Star Trek elements associated with this novel, and I really enjoyed the author’s intriguing additions to the canon. Not only does this book serve as an excellent follow-up to the 2009 movie, showing the early missions of this younger Enterprise crew, but Mack also utilises the alternate timeline setting of this novel to come up with clever alterations to the classic Star Trek lore. One part of the book’s narrative ends up being an extremely ingenious homage to a key episode of The Original Series. Mack cleverly inserts this compelling altered version of this episode throughout the book, and it was deeply fascinating to see it unfold, especially as the events of the Star Trek film have ensured it is sufficiently different. This revision of a classic Star Trek episode was extremely impressive and it was one of my favourite parts of the entire book. All of this makes for an amazing Star Trek read, and fans of the franchise are in for a real treat with this book.

In addition to some cool call-backs to The Original Series, Mack also does an exceptional job bringing the Kelvin timeline versions of the Enterprise crew to life. The author ensures that all of the main characters in this book are portrayed slightly differently to how they are in The Original Series. For example, Kirk is a lot more impulsive, younger and combative than the classic version. Spock is a little stiffer, as he has only been influenced by Kirk a short while. Uhura is a lot more combative and emotional, mainly due to her relationship with Spock. Scotty is a lot more humorous, channelling his inner Simon Pegg, while McCoy is a lot gruffer and even more reluctant to get involved in the usual crazy Enterprise adventures (if that was possible). All this makes for a tie-in novel that is a lot more in line with the newer generation of films and I personally appreciated the effort from the author. I was tad disappointed that Sulu and Chekhov were not featured as heavily as the other major characters in the novel (something I have noticed in other Star Trek tie-in novels), but this was still a great novel for Star Trek characters.

I also appreciated how Mack takes the time to explore the psyches of several of his major characters, especially as it produces some compelling and dramatic results. This includes a deep dive into this version of Captain Kirk, such as exploring his mental state after the events of the 2009 film, with a particular focus on the guilt and hopelessness he felt over watching the destruction of Vulcan, which has made him more determined to save entire worlds. There is also an intriguing inclusion about Kirk’s past lives, with a couple featured as part of the plot. This leads into some great discussion about how the character is destined to be thrust into great and tumultuous events, which I quite enjoyed. Spock also gets a major focus in More Beautiful Than Death, thanks to the author’s inclusion of other Vulcan characters like Sarek and L’Nel. Spock’s complicated relationship with his father and other Vulcans is a major theme throughout the novel, and aspects of his life aboard the Enterprise, particularly Spock’s romantic attachment to Uhura and his loyalty to Kirk, increase the tension. This adds an excellent amount of drama to the narrative and it plays extremely well into the clever subplot around L’Nel, resulting in an intriguing and compelling narrative arc. I had a great time diving down into several of these characters, and it helped to produce a much more complete and emotionally driven narrative.

As I do with most Star Trek books, I ended up checking out More Beautiful Than Death in its audiobook format rather than getting a physical copy. The More Beautiful Than Death audiobook has a run-time of just over eight hours, making it an extremely easy audiobook to get through quickly. I had an amazing time listening to this audiobook, especially as it features the vocal talents of the outstanding Robert Petkoff. I have mentioned Petkoff before in several my reviews as he is the go-to narrator for any piece of Star Trek fiction that gains an audiobook format, due to his fantastic ability to perfectly replicate the cast members of both The Original Series and The Next Generation television shows. Petkoff did another exceptional job in More Beautiful Than Death, expertly bringing every key member of the Enterprise’s crew to life and providing fantastic voices for each of them. While they do sound more like The Original Series cast than the actors from the 2009 Star Trek film, this was still excellent work from Petkoff, and listeners are well aware which character is speaking at every point in the audiobook. I also liked the voices that Petkoff utilised for the various supporting characters in More Beautiful Than Death, and there are some great differentiation in tones between the various alien species, such as for the Vulcan characters Sarek and L’Nel. All of this makes for an epic listen, and Star Trek fans are strongly advised to check out More Beautiful Than Death in its audiobook format.

With his latest novel, David Mack continues to explore and add to the Star Trek expanded universe, this time diving into the intriguing Kelvin timeline. More Beautiful Than Death is an excellent and entertaining read that takes the reader on a gripping adventure in space. Thanks to the author’s excellent use of characters, Star Trek elements and his fantastic and unique narrative, More Beautiful Than Death is a fantastic Star Trek tie-in novel which will really appeal to established fans of this franchise. Highly recommended.

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Star Trek: Discovery: Die Standing by John Jackson Miller

On November 10, 2020August 20, 2022 By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Extended Universe, Science Fiction, Star Trek, Tie-in Novel8 Comments

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio (Audiobook – 14 July 2020)

Series: Star Trek: Discovery

Length: 12 hours and 15 minutes

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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One of the leading authors of media tie-in fiction, John Jackson Miller, returns with his second Star Trek: Discovery novel, Die Standing, an awesome and captivating read that follows the adventures of an excellent protagonist, the evil version of Michelle Yeoh’s Philippa Georgiou.

After the dramatic conclusion of the first season of Star Trek: Discovery, Emperor Philippa Georgiou, former ruler of the Terran Empire, a power-hungry and xenophobic human interstellar empire from a twisted alternate universe, has been stranded in the main Federation’s universe. Biding her time while trapped on the Klingon home planet of Qo’noS, Georgiou is finally given a the opportunity she has been waiting for when Starfleet’s covert spy organisation, Section 31, offers her a chance to work as one of their agents. However, Georgiou is far more interested in gaining her freedom and plotting to use Section 31’s resources to flee beyond Starfleet’s control.

Georgiou’s plans change when she receives news about a mysterious attack on one of Starfleet’s military vessels by a malicious and dangerous cosmic entity, one that her counterpart in this universe may have seen years before. Intrigued by the description of the attack, Georgiou decides to remain with Section 31, especially as it bears a striking similarity to a powerful superweapon that was kept from her when she was Emperor.

Determined to use this weapon to regain her stolen power and take control of this weaker universe, Georgiou accepts Section 31’s proposal to travel to an isolated section of space where the creature was first witnessed. Travelling with two mismatched minders who are already well out of their depth, Georgiou attempts to contact an old flame of this universe’s Georgiou, one who has a lot of influence in this quadrant of space. Forced to conduct a subtle investigation amongst the secretive alien races of the sector, Georgiou and her companions follow the clues that will lead them to the entities they seek. But what will happen when the former Terran Emperor has ultimate power within her grasp? Will she ensure the safety of the Federation she despises, or will another universe bow before her might?

This was a fun and impressive new novel from bestselling author John Jackson Miller. Miller is an interesting author who has a lot of experience writing tie-in stories, having previously written several pieces of Star Wars fiction as well as some notable Star Trek novels. I have not previously read anything from Miller before, although I think that will have to change due to how much I enjoyed Die Standing. Miller has written a couple of books that have been on my radar for a bit, including a previous Star Trek: Discovery novel, The Enterprise War, and the Star Wars: A New Dawn novel, which ties into the Star Wars: Rebels animated show. This latest novel from Miller is an exceptional read, as he has come up with a wildly entertaining and clever novel based around the excellent character of Philippa Georgiou. Backed up with an extremely compelling story, some interesting side characters and some wonderful universe-building, this is one of the better if not the best Star Trek novels of 2020, and ended up being an awesome read.

At the heart of this fantastic novel is a captivating and intense narrative that sees the protagonist and her companions venture into an unknown area of space in search of a creature with deadly potential. This was an extremely clever and well-written character-driven story that features an excellent Star Trek narrative, filled with all manner of espionage, betrayal and war. I really liked the way that the author blended together familiar Star Trek elements with a thrilling espionage narrative, especially one that was centred on a morally ambiguous protagonist who plans to betray everyone she encounters. This makes for a number of great scenes, and I really liked the fascinating and clever places that the story went. There are a number of particularly good twists featured throughout the book, and while I was able to predict where some parts of the story were going to go, I found myself pleasantly surprised and intrigued at some of the other reveals. I also enjoyed the way in which Miller worked in some compelling comparisons between the two mirror universe, one mostly good and the other mostly evil, and it served as a clever and distinctive part of the book, especially as Miller does a lot with only one scene set in the Terran universe. All of this makes for an exciting and powerful story that readers are going to have a wonderful time reading. I really enjoyed the dark, thrilling and twist laden narrative and it honestly did not take me long to become hopeless addicted to this incredible Star Trek novel.

Die Standing is one of those tie-in novels that require some prior knowledge of its associated content to fully enjoy. In this case, readers really do need to have a good understanding of the Star Trek: Discovery television show, as much of the story is derived from key events in the first and second seasons. In particular, knowing the full tale around the character of Philippa Georgiou (both versions) is quite essential to fully appreciate the book’s story elements and character work. At the very least, having some general knowledge of the Star Trek universe and the events of some of the shows would be useful, especially as the book is fairly dependent on some established story elements, such as the evil alternate universe. That being said, Miller does do a really good job making this novel accessible to those readers whose knowledge of the genre might be lacking, and many of the key elements are explained in sufficient detail to follow the story and enjoy it. However, this is definitely a novel most suitable for established Star Trek fans, especially as the author loads it up with a ton of fun or clever references to Star Trek: Discovery and some of the other television shows. For example, this novel features the great inclusion of a younger version of the Dax symbiont (see more below), and I personally really liked how a major part of the book’s plot revolved around a key moment from Captain Kirk’s backstory (from The Original Series episode Obsession), not only showing the event from a different perspective, but also adding in some explanation for its origins and the reaction from Starfleet. Die Standing also serves as a rather good bridge between the first and second seasons of Star Trek: Discovery, and it does an excellent job setting up the main character for her reintroduction to the show.

While this book did have an exceptionally captivating story and some cool Star Trek elements, the absolute highlight of this book has to be its wonderful protagonist (and occasional antagonist), the evil Terran version of Philippa Georgiou. Die Standing features Georgiou in all her evil glory and she quickly makes an impression of the reader, especially after one particularly brutal and entertaining prison break sequence at the start of the book. Pretty much every scene that features Georgiou is highly entertaining, and the snarky, arrogant personality she displays to anyone she meets proves to be spot on to how she is portrayed in the television show. While I really enjoyed this character in Star Trek: Discovery (she is easily one of the best parts of the show) I personally felt that Miller actually helped to make Georgiou an even more compelling character throughout the course of this book. The author really dives down into her personality and motives, showing just how twisted and self-serving she can be while also reflecting on all the things she has lost and the changes she is forced to deal with. Georgiou goes through some fascinating self-examinations in Die Standing, especially when she is confronted with the legacy of her dead counterpart in this universe, and this serves as a fantastic emotional centre of the book. The author’s impressive use of this fantastic character works extremely well, and it certainly helps Die Standing stand out from some of the other Star Trek novels of 2020.

Die Standing also features an excellent cast of side characters who add a lot to the story. There are two characters who particularly stand out, Emony Dax and Sean Finnigan, who both serve as alternate protagonists, with significant parts of the book told from their perspective. While Dax and Finnigan are nowhere near as dynamic as Georgiou, they are both distinctive in their own ways, and Miller does a good job at making them both likeable and compelling parts of Die Standing. Emony is a young Trill gymnast who is the third host of the Dax symbiont. This makes her an earlier incarnation of the Dax character who appeared in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine television in two different guises (Jadzia Dax and Ezri Dax). Thanks to her youth, both as a symbiont and a host, this version of Dax is a little more unsure and scared then her later counterparts, but is determined thanks to the terrible things she witnesses at the start of the book. While she is initially extremely cowed by Georgiou’s overwhelming personality, Dax grows throughout the book and is eventually able to influence Georgiou. Deep Space Nine fans will no doubt enjoy seeing this earlier version of Dax, and I rather appreciated the excellent character growth she experienced. The other main character, Sean Finnigan, is definitely one of the more entertaining characters in this book. Finnigan is an unashamedly Irish character who serves as the book’s comic relief. A wild and unruly former Star Fleet officer, Finnigan is drafted into the mission due to an interesting connection he has to Georgiou, as a murderous, brainwashed version of himself served as the Emperor’s assassin in the mirror universe. While Finnigan is a mostly entertaining character, joking, drinking and socialising with all everyone he meets, there are some deeper elements to his character, especially as he spends a good part of the book trying to balance his real personality with the more insane version of himself that Georgiou tries to bring out. Dax and Finnigan form a compelling team with Georgiou, and they ended up being an extremely good trio the anchor the story around.

I also quite enjoyed the intriguing Star Trek universe-building that Miller featured throughout Die Standing. A key part of this book’s story is set within an isolated section of space that is home to three distinctive alien races who are attempting to stay separate from the Federation. All of these species are quite intriguing and inventive, and include a race of giant living spindles, an intensely warlike species of living tanks and a group of gaseous psychics. Miller does an exceptional job exploring each of the three new alien species throughout the course of the book and giving them each unique characteristics, histories, and personalities. Not only are these aliens quite fascinating in their own right but each of their specific traits plays into the overall story extremely well, with some fantastic twists tied into them. In addition, Miller also spends time exploring some of the differences between the main Star Trek universe and the mirror universe that contained the Terran Empire. Not only is there an excellent opening sequence set in this mirror universe that showcases the brutal nature of this alternate reality, but there are a number of fantastic discussions that examine how different these universes could be. Miller ensures that the protagonist Georgiou spends a good amount of time recounting some of the horrifying details of her universe to her companions (mostly to unnerve them), and it proves quite entertaining to hear all of her various stories, especially as most are apparently not exaggerated. I also loved the fun way that Miller altered famous historical quotes to show how different the universes could be, with a number of classic lines twisted into something far more brutal and cynical, such as “Let them eat field rations” from General Antoinette. The book itself is also broken up into five separate sections, based upon the Terran stages of grief (for coping with a loss of status): defiance, murder, plundering, destruction and vengeance, with each sections starting up with a quote from the Terran universe that describe its history. Needless to say that Star Trek fans are going to love the cool additions that Miller works into the expanded universe in this novel, and I personally had a wonderful time seeing all the inventive and entertaining things that the author could come up with.

Like most of the Star Trek books I have had read in the past, I chose to check out Die Standing’s audiobook format. This was, as always, an excellent way to enjoy this clever Star Trek novel, and I had a wonderful time listening to the story unfold. Die Standing has a run time of 12 hours and 15 minutes, which is actually the longest Star Trek audiobook that I have so far listened to, but I was still able to breeze through it in relatively short order once I got hooked on the story. In order to tell this amazing book, Die Standing makes use of the vocal talents of narrator January LaVoy. This is the first audiobook I have heard narrated by LaVoy, although she did voice a minor character in Star Wars: Dooku: Jedi Lost. She has also served as narrator for several books I have physically read, such as Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge: Black Spire, Star Wars: Last Shot and The Night Swim, and she has also narrated a couple of books I am hoping to checking out in the future, including Star Wars: Phasma. I have to admit that I was initially a little thrown to have LaVoy as narrator, as this was the first Star Trek audiobook I have listened to that was not narrated by Robert Petkoff. However, it makes a lot more sense to feature LaVoy as narrator due to the female lead, and I really enjoyed listening to her narration of this book. LaVoy did an incredible job bringing the characters to life throughout Die Standing and she ascribed some very apt and distinctive voices to each of them. I was particularly impressed with the fantastic voice she utilised for Philippa Georgiou, and I felt it was very similar to how the character was portrayed in the television show. LaVoy makes sure to channel all of Georgiou’s scorn and sarcasm to the reader, and it was an absolute treat to listen to her villainous rants throughout the book. I also quite enjoyed the voice that LaVoy utilised for Sean Finnigan, Irish accent included, and it helped to enhance him as a fun and entertaining character. All of this leads to quite an exceptional Star Trek audiobook and I would strongly recommend this format to anyone interested in checking out Die Standing.

Star Trek: Discovery: Die Standing is an amazing and impressive Star Trek novel from John Jackson Miller that was an absolute joy to read. Miller has crafted together a captivating and clever narrative for this book that follows several excellent protagonists on a high-stakes adventure through all manner of intrigue and betrayal. Featuring some compelling story elements, fantastic world-building and an awesome evil protagonist, Die Standing was an exceptional novel and it ended up being one of my favourite Star Trek novels I have so far had the pleasure to read. A highly recommend piece of tie-in fiction, fans of the Star Trek: Discovery television show really need to check this fantastic book as soon as possible.

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Star Trek: Agents of Influence by Dayton Ward

On October 15, 2020August 23, 2022 By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Extended Universe, Science Fiction, Star Trek, Tie-in Novel2 Comments

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio (Audiobook – 9 June 2020)

Series: Star Trek: The Original Series

Length: 11 hours and 41 minutes

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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One of the leading figures in the Star Trek expanded universe, Dayton Ward, returns with another exciting and compelling novel about the Enterprise, Star Trek: Agents of Influence.

For years, the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire have been engaged in a dangerous cold war, with each side trying to gain an advantage over the other through any means necessary. Starfleet Intelligence has launched an ambitious secret plan to infiltrate the Klingons with surgically altered spies. Thanks to radical surgery, advanced technology and intensive cultural and linguistic training, these undercover agents have managed to infiltrate the highest echelons of the Klingon government, obtaining some of the most sensitive intelligence about Klingon technology, military plans and political ploys.

However, Starfleet’s three most highly placed agents have somehow been discovered. With their cover blown, the agents manage a daring escape from the Klingon home world and engage their emergency extraction procedure. The agents successfully make their rendezvous with the USS Endeavour at the edge of Klingon space before everything goes terribly wrong. A Klingon warship suddenly engages them in combat while mysterious energy fluctuations ensure that both ships are destroyed.

With hostilities between the Federation and the Klingons building, Starfleet dispatches Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise to the crash site in the hope of salvaging the situation. Forced to comb through some of the most dangerous territory in the entire galaxy, Kirk hopes to find the remnants of the Endeavour and any survivors of their crash. However, mysterious events are occurring within the border zone and the Enterprise soon encounters unnatural conditions, pirates, Klingon warships and a top-secret weapons experiment. Kirk and his crew must navigate through all these dangers carefully if they are to avoid another destructive war. However, it soon becomes clear that Starfleet are not the only ones with highly placed spies and Kirk must find a way to uncover an enemy agent if his crew are to survive.

Dayton Ward is a veteran science fiction author who is easily best known for his work on the Star Trek expanded universe. Ward has written a significant number of Star Trek novels over the years, which tie-in to several of the different Star Trek television series and movies. I have so far only read one of his books before, Star Trek: The Next Generation novel, Available Light, which I really enjoyed. This new novel from Ward, Agents of Influence, is a brilliant standalone novel that follows the Enterprise during the period that Star Trek: The Original Series was set.

One of the things that I really like with Star Trek extended fiction is the amazing range of different stories that the authors can produce within the expanded universe. Agents of Influence is a really good example of this, as Ward has come up with an excellent story that highlights a very interesting aspect of life in this universe: espionage between the various alien races. This proves to be a really cool plot basis which the author utilises to his full advantage by producing an exciting and action-packed narrative. This is a fast-paced book that sees the various characters involved in all manner of danger and intrigue as they attempt to extract the spies and thwart the efforts of their Klingon opponents. There are several excellent action sequences designed to get the blood pumping, including a couple of fights between starships and one particularly cool pitched battle between two large opposing forces in spacesuits in the bowels of an asteroid. There is also a really compelling storyline that sees the protagonists attempt to locate a spy aboard their ship, with a number of potential suspects adding in intrigue and drama as a result. The author makes effective use of multiple narrators to tell his story and this ensures that the reader gets to see every side of this exciting and enjoyable narrative, including from several antagonist characters. This helps to really pump up the intrigue and action, and I really appreciated seeing the different sides of the conflict, especially as you get to see rival plans go up against each other. The various character perspectives also helps to build up all the major side characters present throughout the book, allowing the readers to get a good idea of who they are and what their stakes in the plot are. All of this comes together into an exciting and compelling overall read that is very easy to enjoy.

Agents of Influence was also excellent piece of Star Trek fiction, set during the events of Star Trek: The Original Series. Ward once again does an incredible job capturing the tone and feel of the original Star Trek television series into this book and it actually felt like I was watching an episode of the original show. The author is really talented at bringing iconic Star Trek characters to life in his novel and each of The Original Series characters featured in this book gets their chance to shine throughout the narrative. Like most novels that tie in to a particular media franchise, Agents of Influence is a book that will mainly appeal to dedicated Star Trek fans, who will appreciate Ward’s latest contributions to the extended universe. There are a variety of fun references to various episodes of The Original Series, including some of the episodes that featured characters using plastic surgery to alter their appearance and disguise themselves as members of other species, such as the iconic episode The Trouble with Tribbles. Ward also makes several references to some of the other novels in the Star Trek expanded universe, especially those featured in the Star Trek: Vanguard series of books. This includes the USS Endeavour and its crew, who previously appeared in these novels, with some of their previous adventures and their interactions with the Enterprise explored throughout the course of the book. However, all of these references are really well explained to the reader and even people who have less familiarity with Star Trek and some of the expanded fiction should still be able to enjoy this novel without any issues.

I ended up checking out the audiobook version of Agents of Influence, which turned out to be an extremely fun and easy way to enjoy this fantastic book. The Agents of Influence audiobook has a run time of nearly 12 hours and is narrated by Robert Petkoff. This is a fairly typical length for a Star Trek audiobook, and I found that I was able to power through this one’s intriguing narrative in rather short order while getting a feel for the plot and the characters. One of the main reasons for this is the exceptional narration provided by Robert Petkoff, who is easily the most prominent narrator of Star Trek fiction. Petkoff is an amazingly skilled narrator whose work I have really appreciated in a range of previous Star Trek audiobooks, including The Unsettling Stars, Picard: The Last Best Hope, The Captain’s Oath and The Antares Maelstrom. Petkoff has the amazing ability to replicate the voices of the various cast members of The Original Series (as well as the cast members from The Next Generation), and this is on full display in the Agents of Influence audiobook. Petkoff once again did an outstanding job bringing all the key Enterprise crew members to life, and at times you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between some of the voices he did and the original crew. This, combined with the amazing species specific voices that Petkoff produces, really helps to bring the reader into the story, and I had an awesome time listening to the story unfold.

Star Trek: Agents of Influence is a compelling and clever standalone Star Trek tie-in novel that takes the reader on a bold new adventure back with the cast of The Original Series. Dayton Ward has produced a slick and enjoyable Star Trek novel chock full of action, intrigue and references, that I had an amazing time listening to. A highly recommend read for those fans of the Star Trek franchise which will also appeal to more casual viewers and science fiction readers.

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Throwback Thursday – Redshirts by John Scalzi

On September 11, 2020March 22, 2023 By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Comedy/Satire, Science Fiction, Star Trek, Throwback Thursday13 Comments

Publisher: Audible Frontiers (Audiobook – 5 June 2012)

Series: Standalone

Length: 7 hours and 41 minutes

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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Reviewed as part of my Throwback Thursday series, where I republish old reviews, review books I have read before or review older books I have only just had a chance to read.

Prepare to dive into one of the most meta and entertaining novels you will ever read with Redshirts by John Scalzi, a fun and clever Star Trek parody that explores what it must be like to be a background character in a science fiction series.

John Scalzi is a well-established and highly regarded science fiction author responsible for a number of impressive and expansive series. Some of his best-known works include his Old Man’s War series, his Lock In novels and his The Interdependency series, the last of which I have been eying off for a couple of years now and have been meaning to check out. Each of these series sounds really exciting and have received a lot of positive praise from readers and reviewers. In addition, Scalzi has also written three standalone novels, each of which has a very fun concept behind it, including the focus of this review, Redshirts. While I am extremely interested in some of Scalzi’s other works, the moment I found out that he had written a Star Trek parody novel told from the perspective of a redshirt, I grabbed myself a copy of its audiobook format and I have been looking for a chance to listen to it. Last weekend I had a long car trip with my wife/editor Alex, and we decided that listening to Redshirts would be the perfect entertainment for the drive.

Redshirts takes place in humanity’s far future, aboard the flagship of the Universal Union, the starship Intrepid. The Intrepid is the pinnacle of human ingenuity and exploration, containing only the most talented crew and scientists that humanity has to offer. In all respects it seems like the perfect posting for newly commissioned Ensign Andrew Dahl, but it does not take long for Dahl to suspect that there is something seriously wrong aboard the Intrepid. Not only does the lab that Dahl is assigned to have a magical box which solves every major problem that the ship runs into (with only seconds to spare, without fail), but the entire crew is terrified of the captain and his senior officers, actively trying to avoid them and the near constant away missions. The crew has come to realise that the away missions are guaranteed to be lethal, with any crew member who joins likely to die while the senior officers constantly walk away without a scratch (with the exception of the unlucky Lieutenant Kerensky). Now a great deal of energy is place into avoiding an away mission at all cost, with new transfers to the ship kept in the dark until it is too late.

As Dahl and his friends begin to realise the full extent of the terror that has engulfed the ship they attempt to find some sort of answers for what is going on. However, the more deadly adventures that they go on the more obvious it becomes that some mysterious force is controlling their actions and causing their deaths. With the lives of every crewmember aboard the Intrepid at stake, Dahl and his friends are left with only one crazy plan, to hunt down the beings controlling them and convince them to stop no matter the cost. However, what happens when these expendable redshirts end up meeting their own creators?

I am going to say right of the bat that both Alex and I absolutely loved this book and we had an incredible time listening to it. A good indication of how much we enjoyed it can be seen in the fact that we easily and eagerly powered through it during the two halves of our car trip without any breaks, laughing our asses off the entire time. Redshirts is an extremely funny and clever novel that acts as both a parody of and a love letter to the Star Trek television show. Scalzi has come up with a truly awesome and enjoyable novel that combines an amazing amount of humour and parody with a clever and heartfelt story. This results in a memorable and addictive tale which you cannot help but enjoy, especially if you are a major fan of Star Trek.

For this great novel, Scalzi has come up with a very compelling and enjoyable story that acts in many ways like a unique combination of Galaxy Quest, The Cabin in the Woods and The French Mistake episode of Supernatural. The story focuses on Ensign Dahl and his friends as they begin to work out the issues aboard the Intrepid. This is a very fast-paced narrative and the reader is soon introduced to all the mysterious events occurring on the ship, from the terrified crew, the weird science, the exceedingly dangerous and improbable away missions and the strange characters who seem to have the answers. All of this is shown to the reader in a very clever way, and while you are expecting many of these events occur, especially if you are familiar with Star Trek, seeing these characters react to the various odd occurrences with realistic shock and scepticism is a great source of entertainment. Following the initial introduction, you get several chapters of the protagonists humorously traversing a chaotic ship full of self-aware redshirts desperately trying to avoid their fates. The various attempts by the characters to understand what is going on and change their fates are amazing, if a little tragic in places, and this is a very comedic part of the book loaded with some of the best jokes at Star Trek’s expense. The story then takes a very interesting change of direction as the protagonists undertake a desperate plan (inspired by a classic Star Trek film) to save the ship and prevent their upcoming deaths. This third part of the book is exceedingly meta, and fans of both Star Trek and surreal, self-referential fiction will love where the story goes and various clever character interactions that occur. These distinctive parts of the book come together extremely well and form an intricate and captivating overall narrative that fits a lot of story elements into a relatively short novel. I had an amazing time listening to this complex story, as not only did it make me laugh, but it also made me care about the various characters who are introduced throughout the course of the book (something which the author is aware of and sadistically exploits at times, especially with that last joke at the end of the main story).

In addition to the main story, Scalzi also features three substantial codas at the end of the novel. These codas are essentially short stories that follow side characters the protagonist meets during the course of the main narrative. While I would normally be a little concerned about some concluding material taking up so much space from an already shortish novel, these codas are extremely well written and contribute a great deal to the book. Titled Coda 1, 2 and 3, the codas are told in the first, second and third person narrative respectively, and contain some truly impressive and touching character-driven narratives. These extremely clever codas really dive down into the psyches and emotions of their respective characters, showing their own complex histories and how their encounter with the protagonist had such a major impact on them. Of the three, my favourite is probably Coda 1, which is easily the funniest, containing a very humorous series of blog posts, although Codas 2 and 3 are both emotionally rich and heart-warming. While some readers may be tempted to skip these codas after the main story is finished, I would very strongly recommend checking each of these out as you are guaranteed to come away being extremely attached to each of these great side characters and also feeling a lot better after hearing each coda’s happy ending.

While Redshirts also has its own unique and captivating story at its heart it is an extremely funny parody of the iconic Star Trek television show. Scalzi is clearly a fan of the series as he expertly works all manner of fun jokes and references to the show into the novel. The Intrepid and its bridge crew are clear parodies of the Enterprise and the main characters of The Original Series, and Scalzi does an amazing job working his narrative around them, emphasising all their iconic character traits and showing just how ridiculous they and their actions are to the eyes of a normal person. This includes the captain’s dramatic tone and way of over exaggerating events, and the poor junior officer with a Russian accent who gets the crap kicked out of him every single episode and yet is fully recovered by the next adventure without a hint of injury or PTSD. Redshirts contains all manner of references or parodies to the over-the-top, badly written or ridiculous elements of the show, and Scalzi lovingly features and critiques them in an amazingly funny way; everything from the evolutionarily questionable alien monsters, the repetitive space battles (those poor people on decks six to twelve!) and the high death toll of the normal crew. The highlight of the book has to be the terrified and disbelieving reactions that each member of the crew has to the events going on around them, and the fun and exaggerated attempts to survive them. I also really loved the comedic metafiction elements of the book, which allowed Scalzi to take some humorous shots at the writers and creators of shows like Star Trek. While this humour is obviously geared towards Star Trek fans, you really do not need to have a lot of in-depth knowledge of the series to appreciate the humour. Anyone who has a passing knowledge of Star Trek and its tropes will find this book deeply amusing and hilarious and you are guaranteed to have a fun time getting through it.

While I absolutely loved Redshirts’ story, I did find that the dialogue was a little clunky in places. While most of the conversation is quite fun and snappy, the overabundance of dialogue tags and the extreme overuse of the word “said” gets repetitive and distracting, especially in scenes where the conversations fly thick and fast. In some heavy dialogue scenes, “character 1 said”, “character 2 said”, “character 3 said” repeats about 20 times in a minute, which is really distracting. If Scalzi had used more variety in indicating which character said what, this book would have been pretty damn perfect. But the story and the comedy were strong enough to overcome most of these issues, and I chose to focus on them instead. However, I can easily see other readers getting a little frustrated with this, which would be a real shame as this is a very fun book.

The audiobook format of Redshirts ran for 7 hours and 41 minutes, although it is a closer to six hours if you decide to skip the codas at the end of the book. This was an extremely easy audiobook to listen to quickly and we absolutely flew through it. One of the main reasons that we were so interested in this book is because the audiobook is narrated by Wil Wheaton. Now, there is obviously a lot of appeal to Wil Wheaton, or any cast member of a Star Trek television show, getting involved in a parody like this, but Wheaton did a pretty good job narrating this audiobook. Wheaton had a great voice for this novel, and he was able to keep the audience’s attention through the entirety of the story. While he did not really change his voice from character to character, the listener was generally able to tell when someone new was talking (ironically thanks to the author’s overuse of “said”). Wheaton was, however, extremely adept at expressing the relevant emotions of the characters through his voice, and the fear, anger, frustration and sheer disbelief of the protagonist and the people he encounters really shines through. I also really enjoyed his portrayal of the Intrepid’s senior crewmembers, each of whom is a parody of the main characters from Star Trek: The Original Series. I particularly had a lot of love for the Captain’s “dramatic voice” that Wheaton did, which really captured the over-the-top tone Kirk had when he was excited or animated. Overall, the audiobook format is a fantastic way to enjoy Redshirts and I would definitely recommend it to anyone interested in checking this novel out.

Redshirts by John Scalzi is a masterful and hilarious novel that presents the reader with a wonderful and clever parody to the classic Star Trek television series. While there are some style issues associated with the dialogue, the story is loaded to the brim with all manner of great jokes, interesting characters, compelling plot elements and a whole lot of meta comedy. An absolutely fantastic read that will appeal to all manner of Star Trek fans or people in need of a good laugh, Redshirts comes highly recommended and I can guarantee that Wil Wheaton’s audiobook format will serve as a great form of entertainment for a long road trip.

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Star Trek: The Unsettling Stars by Alan Dean Foster

On May 4, 2020August 17, 2022 By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Extended Universe, Science Fiction, Star Trek, Tie-in Novel5 Comments

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio (Audiobook – 14 April 2020)

Series: Star Trek: Kelvin Timeline – Book One

Length: 8 hours and 5 minutes

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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My continued exploration of the fun and entertaining genre that is Star Trek fiction continues, as I check out the latest tie-in novel, Star Trek: The Unsettling Stars by Alan Dean Foster, an intriguing read which serves as a tie-in to the alternate Kelvin timeline, the spinoff timeline that occurred during the 2009 Star Trek film.

The Unsettling Stars is a rather interesting Star Trek read that is the first original novel set in the Kelvin timeline, except for official film novelisations and the Star Trek: Starfleet Academy young adult miniseries. This book was originally set for release back in 2010 under the title Refugees, but it was pulled from publication along with three other proposed novels that tied in to the most recent Star Trek movies. Another one of these books, More Beautiful Than Death by David Mack, is set for release later this year, and no doubt the other two proposed novels from 2010 will be published at some point as well. The Unsettling Stars is the third Star Trek novel released this year (behind The Last Best Hope and The High Frontier), and it is the first one in a series of Star Trek novels I identified in a recent Waiting on Wednesday article. As a result, I was rather pleased to get a copy of the audiobook format of this novel, especially as this book was written by the acclaimed author Alan Dean Foster.

Foster is a veteran science fiction and fantasy author who has been writing since the 1970s. He has written a multitude of novels over the years, including books set in his long-running Humanx Commonwealth Universe, The Damned trilogy, the Spellsinger series, The Taken trilogy, The Tipping Point trilogy and a huge range of standalone novels. Foster also has a large amount of experience writing tie-in novels to popular franchises, having written the official novelisations to several series, including the Alien movies, the Transformers movies, Terminator Salvation and The Chronicles of Riddick. Foster also has a deep connection with the Star Wars franchise, having ghost-written the official novelisation for the original Star Wars movie. He also wrote Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, which was intended to be a low-budget spinoff from Star Wars if the first movie did badly in the box office. Seeing that Star Wars was a major success, Splinter of the Mind’s Eye was released as the first official Star Wars novel, meaning that Foster started the Star Wars expanded universe (which has become a major staple for this blog). Foster has since gone on to write a second Star Wars novel, The Approaching Storm, and he recently wrote the official novelisation to Star Wars: The Force Awakens, nearly 40 years after he first got involved with the franchise.

Foster also has some rather interesting connections to the Star Trek franchise. While The Unsettling Stars is the first original novel that he has written for Star Trek, he has produced some official novelisations of several shows and movies over his career. Back in the 1970s, he wrote the official novelisations for Star Trek: The Animated Series, contained in 10 separate books. He also wrote the official novelisations for the 2009 Star Trek film, as well as for its sequel, Star Trek Into Darkness. However, his most significant contribution to the Star Trek universe has to be the fact that he wrote the story for the original Star Trek film, 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture. As a result, Foster is definitely an interesting author to check out, and while I have not had the pleasure of reading any of his stuff previously, I was rather intrigued to see how this novel would turn out.

Years ago, a time travelling Romulan ship attacked and destroyed the Federation starship the U.S.S. Kelvin, killing the father of James T. Kirk. The changes which occurred following the destruction of this ship resulted in a whole new timeline, similar to the main Star Trek universe in most ways, but with a number of key differences. In this new timeline, Kirk, with the help of his young crew aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise, was eventually able to defeat this powerful Romulan ship, but not before it destroyed the Vulcan home planet. Now, after being promoted to captain of the Enterprise, Kirk and his crew embark on their first mission together.

With their ship repaired after the battle with the Romulan ship, the crew of the Enterprise take it out of spacedock in what is seen as a simple shakedown cruise. However, not long after they set out, they receive a distress signal from a ship just outside of Federation space. Arriving at the source of the signal, they find a single colony ship belonging to an alien race known as the Perenorean. Appearing to be peaceful refugees, the Perenorean request help as they have sustained damaged and are lacking the resources to travel to their original destination. But within moments of contact between the two ships, a second group of unknown alien ships arrive, determined to wipe out the Perenoreans. Despite not knowing the full history of this conflict, Kirk eventually comes to the aid of the Perenoreans, sending their attackers running, although not before they give the crew of the Enterprise a cryptic warning about the people they just saved.

Meeting with the Perenoreans, Kirk and his comrades discover that their new acquaintances are an extremely advanced group of beings whose capacity to learn and innovate seems limitless. Extremely grateful and determined to repay those who have helped them, the Perenoreans endear themselves to the Enterprise’s crew, who decide to help them relocate to a nearby planet. However, not everything is as it seems with the Perenoreans, whose desire to help and improve everything around them comes with its own unique set of issues. Can the crew of the Enterprise find a solution to the problems their new friends are causing or have they unwittingly unleased a terrible scourge on the Federation?

The Unsettling Stars proved to be a compelling and exciting Star Trek novel that I was able to get through quite quickly. Foster comes up with a rather clever and entertaining central story, set in the unique Kelvin alternate timeline, that revolves around a classic Star Trek first contact mission, with some interesting twists to it. The author crafts together a great story that spends a good amount of time with the key members of the Enterprise crew, with a particular focus on Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura and Scott, as well as introducing several other new members of the crew, who each have a couple of scenes. The Unsettling Stars comes across like a typical Star Trek adventure, featuring a good blend of action, adventure, diplomacy and scientific discussion, similar to an episode of one of the shows. No real prior knowledge about the greater Star Trek universe is needed to enjoy this book, although it is geared more towards those readers who have a greater appreciation for the franchise, and who have at least watched the 2009 Star Trek film. Overall, The Unsettling Stars is a gripping and enjoyable Star Trek novel with a great story that I had a fantastic time listening to.

One of my favourite elements of this book was Foster’s inclusion of the new alien race, the Perenoreans. The Perenoreans are a group of extremely friendly aliens that the Enterprise rescue and help relocate to a new colony planet. The Perenoreans are an interesting new alien species in the Star Trek canon, characterised by their great intelligence, ability to adapt and evolve to any situation, and their desire to help anyone they come across. While it is also intriguing to see a new fictional alien species, a large amount of this book’s narrative lies around the crew discovering the true intentions and motivations of this species. While they seem friendly, you just know that they are going to turn out to be sinister or problematic in some way or another. The way that they genuflect is way over the top, and there is no way a whole race of people is that friendly. Also, there would not be much of story if they did not turn out to be problematic in some way. Foster does an excellent job of slowly hinting at their true nature, and it helps build up a good amount of tension throughout the course of the book. The eventual reveal of their secrets is rather fascinating and makes for a great payoff after all the build-up. I also really liked the conclusion to their whole arc, especially as it made use of a fun, but seemingly unimportant story element to wrap the whole thing up. These aliens are an amazing part of this book’s story, and it was one that made me enjoy The Unsettling Stars a whole lot more.

I also think that Foster did a good job of writing this book like it was set in the Kelvin timeline. The Kelvin timeline is filled with all manner of intriguing differences to the main Star Trek timeline, and the author spent a bit of time incorporating these differences into The Unsettling Stars. While at times the book did a feel a little like a tie-in to The Original Series, Foster was always quick to showcase some key elements of the Kelvin universe. Kirk is a little more arrogant and eager for glory in this book, and there are several discussions about his rapid promotion to captain, which results in a bit more scrutiny from Starfleet. McCoy is a bit more of a grump in this novel, and he has a bit more of an antagonistic relationship with Spock. There is also a bit of time spent exploring the new relationship between Spock and Uhura, and there are several mentions about Spock’s new dynamic as a member of a refugee species. I liked seeing the return of Simon Pegg’s fun version of Scotty, whose inclusion makes for several entertaining and enjoyable scenes. I also have to highlight the excellent reference to Star Trek: The Motion Picture that occurred in this book, as the crew of this version of the Enterprise come across a key item from this film well before it becomes a problem. It’s not often that a writer gets to erase the entirety of a film they scripted over 40 years previously, and I quite liked how this event turned out as part of the larger story. I had a fantastic time exploring the Kelvin timeline in this book, and I look forward seeing more of it in the future novels set in this timeline.

As I mentioned above, I ended up checking out The Unsettling Stars in its audiobook format, which was narrated by Robert Petkoff. This is a rather short audiobook, which runs for just over eight hours. While it took me a few days to get through (mainly due to lack of listening time than anything else), most readers should be able to listen to the whole book rather quickly, especially once they get engrossed in the intriguing story. Like every other Star Trek book I have so far listened to, The Unsettling Stars audiobook featured the vocal talents of Robert Petkoff, who seems to be the primary narrator for Star Trek audiobooks. Petkoff is an amazingly talented narrator who has come up with some incredibly realistic voices for key members of the various Star Trek television shows. In particular, he has come up with some fantastic voices for the members of The Original Series, which he uses throughout The Unsettling Stars to great effect, bringing the main crew of the Enterprise to life, while also coming up with great voices for some of the additional members of the crew and the various aliens that they encounter. All of this is really cool, and hearing these similar voices helps bring the reader into the Star Trek zone. If I had one criticism, though, it would be that Petkoff uses the same voices here that he uses for all the other audiobooks based around The Original Series. While I appreciate that the characters in the Kelvin timeline are supposed to be versions of the cast from The Original Series, hearing the Kelvin timeline characters speak in the same voice as their counterparts was a tad disjointing, and it made me forgot at times that this book is supposed to be set in an alternate timeline. A little bit of variation from Petkoff could have potentially helped this, although I am uncertain about what exactly he could have done to set this apart. Despite this minor criticism, I still really enjoyed listening to the audiobook version of this book, and I would recommend this format to anyone who wanted to check out The Unsettling Stars.

The Unsettling Stars is an excellent and exciting new Star Trek novel from the legendary author Alan Dean Foster. I had a great time unwrapping the cool mystery around the new race of aliens that Foster came up with for this novel, and it was fun to see a story in the Kelvin universe. This was a fantastic addition to the Star Trek canon, and I would recommend this to any fans of the franchise who want a clever new read.

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Waiting on Wednesday – Upcoming Star Trek Novels

On April 1, 2020 By The Unseen LibraryIn Extended Universe, Science Fiction, Star Trek, Tie-in Novel, Waiting on Wednesday8 Comments

Welcome to my weekly segment, Waiting on Wednesday, where I look at upcoming books that I am planning to order and review in the next few months and which I think I will really enjoy. I run this segment in conjunction with the Can’t-Wait Wednesday meme that is currently running at Wishful Endings. Stay tuned to see reviews of these books when I get a copy of them. In this latest Waiting on Wednesday entry, I look at three fantastic sounding Star Trek novels that are coming out in the next couple of months.

Over the last year or so I have found myself really getting into Star Trek tie-in fiction, mainly because I’ve been watching some of the superb television shows like Discovery and Picard. The Star Trek expanded fiction range is truly impressive in its scope and popularity, and they have produced a massive number of entertaining books and comics over the years. I have been lucky enough to pick up and read some rather excellent examples of Star Trek expanded fiction in the last year or so, including Picard: The Last Best Hope by Una McCormack, The Antares Maelstrom by Greg Cox and The Captain’s Oath by Christopher L. Bennett, just to name a few. They have all been rather fantastic tie-in novels, and I am looking forward to reading more Star Trek novels in the future. There are actually several exciting-sounding Star Trek books coming out in the next few months, and I need to pick up the recent release, The High Frontier by Christopher L. Bennett. However, for this article, I am going to look at the next three Star Trek books that are coming out.

The first is The Unsettling Stars by Alan Dean Foster, which is set for release in two weeks’ time on 14 April 2020. The Unsettling Stars is first entry in a new series of novels set in the Kelvin timeline of the Star Trek universe, the alternate timeline that occurred in the 2009 Star Trek film. There have been some rather good pieces of fiction in this timeline of the Star Trek universe, including a particularly enjoyable comic book series, so I am looking forward to seeing how The Unsettling Stars unfolds.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Taking place in an alternate timeline created when the Starship Kelvin was destroyed by a Romulan invader from the future, this bold new novel follows Captain James T. Kirk and an inexperienced crew commandeering a repaired U.S.S. Enterprise out of spacedock for a simple shakedown cruise. When a distress call comes in, the Enterprise must aid a large colony ship of alien refugees known as the Perenorean, who are under siege by an unknown enemy. But Kirk and his crew will find that the situation with the peaceful Perenorean is far more complicated than they bargained for, and the answers as to why they were attacked in the first place unfold in the most insidious of ways…

The second book in this article is Agents of Influence by Dayton Ward, which contains an extremely intriguing and compelling plot synopsis. Agents of Influence, which will be released in early June 2020, is set during the events of The Original Series and will follow the classic crew of the Enterprise. I read one of Ward’s books last year, Available Light, which turned out to be a rather amazing tie-in to The Next Generation television show. I am particularly interested in checking out Agents of Influence, and I really like the novels cool premise which will see classic Star Trek characters and ideals clash with a dark spy thriller.

Goodreads Synopsis:

For years, Starfleet Intelligence agents have carried out undercover assignments deep within the Klingon Empire. Surgically altered and rigorously trained in Klingon culture, they operate in plain sight and without any direct support, while collecting information and infiltrating the highest levels of imperial power. Their actions have given Starfleet valuable insight into the inner workings of Klingon government and its relentless military apparatus.

After three of Starfleet’s longest serving agents fear exposure, they initiate emergency extraction procedures. Their planned rendezvous with the USS Endeavour goes awry, threatening to reveal their activities and the damaging intelligence they’ve collected during their mission. Tasked by Starfleet to salvage the botched rescue attempt, Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise must discover the truth behind a secret weapons experiment while avoiding an interstellar incident with the potential to ignite a new war between the Federation and one of its oldest adversaries.

Last, but certainly not least, is Die Standing by John Jackson Miller, a tie-in novel to Star Trek: Discovery, which is set for release in mid-July 2020. Despite being a relatively new Star Trek show, there have already been a number of fun and clever tie-in books associated with Discovery, including last year’s release, The Way to the Stars by Una McCormack. However, Die Standing sounds particularly fun, as it features the evil alternate universe version of Philippa Georgiou, former ruler of the Terran Empire, as she runs amok in the main Star Trek universe. This one sounds like it is going to be a rather interesting spy thriller, and I look forward to seeing the events that brought the evil Philippa into the fold of Section 31.

Goodreads Synopsis:

No one in the history of histories has lost more than Philippa Georgiou, ruler of the Terran Empire. Forced to take refuge in the Federation’s universe, she bides her time until Section 31, a rogue spy force within Starfleet, offers her a chance to work as their agent. She has no intention of serving under anyone else, of course; her only interest is escape.

But when a young Trill, Emony Dax, discovers a powerful interstellar menace, Georgiou recognizes it as a superweapon that escaped her grasp in her own universe. Escorted by a team sent by an untrusting Federation to watch over her, the emperor journeys to a region forbidden to travellers. But will what she finds there end the threat—or give “Agent Georgiou” the means to create her old empire anew?

As you can see from the above entries, there are some pretty awesome-sounding Star Trek novels on the horizon. Each of these three upcoming books sounds really cool in their own way, and I am looking forward to reading all of them. This is honestly only the tip of the Star Trek tie-in iceberg for 2020, but I have extremely high hopes for these next three books, and I cannot wait to see how they turn out.

Star Trek: Picard: The Last Best Hope by Una McCormack

On March 4, 2020August 20, 2022 By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Extended Universe, Science Fiction, Star Trek, Tie-in Novel13 Comments

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio (Audiobook – 11 February 2020)

Series: Star Trek: Picard – Book One

Length: 11 hours and 40 minutes

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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Get ready to dive back into the Star Trek universe with Picard: The Last Best Hope by Una McCormack, the latest Star Trek novel which ties into the events of the Picard television show. The Last Best Hope is an outstanding novel that serves as a bridge between Star Trek: The Next Generation show and the current Picard series.

Nearly 20 years before the events of Picard, both the United Federation of Planets and the Romulan Star Empire faced an unprecedented calamity. Scientists have just discovered that the Romulan sun is in the process of going supernova, turning into a destructive force that will devastate the Romulan home system and have significant negative follow-on effects on the remaining planets within Romulan Space. In order to ensure the evacuation of their people, the Romulans grudgingly request aid from the Federation, who assign Jean-Luc Picard to the mission.

Picard, promoted to the rank of admiral, quickly finds himself in charge of the largest and most difficult operation in Starfleet history. The evacuation mission is a vast undertaking, requiring Starfleet to relocate hundreds of millions of Romulans to distant planets in only a few short years. Lacking resources and manpower, Picard begins the evacuation process as best he can, with the invaluable help of his new first officer, Rafaella “Raffi” Muskier. Meanwhile, back in the Federation, Geordi La Forge attempts to come up with new ways to increase Starfleet ship production on Mars. The best solution is the creation of a new, synthetic workforce, and La Forge calls in an old colleague, the brilliant scientist Bruce Maddox, who reluctantly halts his lifelong work on artificial life to help build these new synthetics.

As the evacuation progresses, Picard takes solace in every small victory his team can achieve, but this mission seems doomed to fail. Debates from ambitious Federation politicians, distrust and fear from the Romulans they are trying to help, and interference from the Tal Shiar, the Romulan secret police, all hinder the mission. However, Picard is not one to give up easily and is determined to save every Romulan he can from the impending disaster. But even the great Jean-Luc Picard is unprepared for how his mission will end. Everything is about to change, and Picard and the galaxy will never be the same again.

Star Trek is one of those popular franchises that always produces a ton of extra content each year in the forms of novels and comics, so it was no surprise that material related to Picard would eventually be released. The Last Best Hope is the very first Picard tie-in novel, although I expect that additional books will come out in the future. Indeed, IDW has already released a Picard tie-in comic, Countdown, which I will probably check out at some point. This first Picard novel was written by veteran tie-in author Una McCormack, who has previously delivered several great Star Trek books, including last year’s Star Trek: Discovery tie-in, The Way to the Stars. McCormack does an amazing job with The Last Best Hope, producing a captivating and incredible read that expertly leads into the new show.

Before I dive too deep into this review, I think that it is necessary to point out that this book was released on the 11^th of February, between the third and fourth episodes of Picard. That means that this book contains quite a few mentions of events and reveals that occur in the initial episodes of the show, especially as McCormack clearly had early access to the show’s scripts. While this ensures The Last Best Hope a much more complete and in-depth tie-in novel, it does mean that this book contains some spoilers for the television series. In addition, as I have been religiously watching Picard every week, my review is influenced by the events of the first six episodes and it also contains some spoilers from the show.

The Last Best Hope is a wide-ranging Star Trek canon novel, set across several years of Star Trek history (2381 to 2385) that explores one of the biggest prequel events mentioned within Picard, the explosion of the Romulan sun and the attempts by Picard to evacuate them. This leads into a powerful and clever novel which shows all the trials and tribulations associated with this exercise, as well as several other events that lead into the show. McCormack makes excellent use of a number of different character perspectives to create a full and rich narrative around this plot, which also explores some major Picard characters. While I did think that parts of the story ended rather suddenly, with no real lead-in to the disaster on Mars that changes everything, this book is a first-rate novel which I powered through in extremely short order.

One of the major appeals of this book is the fact that it serves as a prequel to the events of Picard and provides readers with additional background and context to the adventures currently happening in the show. This is done in a number of ways, from providing the reader with greater background about certain characters, showing the origins of a number of the storylines from the show and serving as a bridge between the events of Picard and The Next Generation. The Last Best Hope features an excellent introduction to several of the newer characters in the show, such as Agnes Jurati, Raffi, Elnor and the Qowat Milat nuns, and it was intriguing to see how these characters slotted into the pre-history of the show. At the same time, McCormack also examines what happened to several established characters from The Next Generation after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis, including Picard, Bruce Maddox, Geordi La Forge and even a little bit about Worf (he becomes captain of the Enterprise!). McCormack also provides an explanation about several key occurrences and storylines that are touched on within the show, such as the creation of the synthetic workers that destroyed Mars, Picard’s resignation from Starfleet and the extent of several key relationships. There are also some potential hints at where the show might go in the future, and I will be interested in seeing if those pan out at all. I was pleasantly surprised with how much background that McCormack was able to fit into The Last Best Hope, and the different revelations and expansions on the information provided in the show make this a fantastic read for those currently watching Picard.

The Last Best Hope features some very impressive character work, and I feel that McCormack did an excellent job capturing the personalities and histories of several key characters from the new show. I really appreciated her portrayal of Picard, and this book featured several key aspects of his character, such as his dark moods, his determination and his ability to inspire absolute loyalty in his subordinates. I liked how the reader gets to see how Picard deals with the seemingly impossible task assigned to him, especially as his emotions throughout the book range from hope to absolute despair, as multiple obstacles and problems seem to dog everything he does. One of the major parts of his character explored in this book is the way that Picard’s ideals and beliefs seem a little out of touch with the world he lives in. This is something that is shown throughout the Picard television show, as the old-school captain is now living in a much darker and more desperate world. I am really glad that McCormack tried to capture this in her novel, and it was really compelling to see Picard being completely oblivious about the darker realities of the galaxy. All of this is really compelling to see, and I think that it serves as a good basis for some of the ways Picard acts in the current show.

Aside from Picard, a number of other characters are featured throughout the book, many of whom have some really interesting and compelling stories. I personally found the tale of Raffi, Picard’s new first officer, to be particularly good, as the reader gets to see how she became so messed up and obsessed with proving that the Romulans where behind the destruction of Mars. You also get a better understanding of why she was so mad that Picard quit on her and the mission, especially after she sacrifices everything for him, thanks to the way he inspired her. McCormack also spends significant time exploring the character of Bruce Maddox, and it was especially intriguing to see this character between his appearances in The Next Generation and Picard. You also got to see the origins of his relationship with Agnes Jurati (indeed, based on release dates you learn about this relationship in this book before it is mentioned in the show), and it was great to see how it unfolded and how close the two of them were. Of course, this also has a more sinister and heartbreaking edge to it if you look back at this relationship after the events of the fifth episode of Picard. I also liked the Geordi La Forge storyline; it was interesting to see his struggle to increase Starfleet ship production. However, the best part of this portrayal occurs at the end of the book, and I will be curious to see how they show off his survivor’s guilt if the character ever appears in Picard.

One of the things that I really enjoyed about this book was the way McCormack slowly starts to alter the tone of the novel to represent the change between the lighter The Next Generation and the darker Picard shows. At the start of the book, the story is more in line with the tone of The Next Generation, with Picard embarking on a humanitarian mission with his idealism and belief in the greater good intact. However, as the mission progresses, things start to get darker, as the various obstacles to the Romulan relief mission become more apparent. The dark and callous manipulation of the Romulan leaders and Tal Shiar as well as the xenophobic politics of certain Federation politicians becomes more and more apparent, resulting in a darker tone. McCormack also attempts to replicate the more adult tone of the current show with a greater reliance on swearing (never have I seen so many F-bombs dropped in a Star Trek novel, oh the humanity!) and hints of mass murder, genocide and extinction-level events. All of this makes for a slightly different Star Trek tie-in novel experience, and I personally enjoyed some of the subtle changes McCormack made to the tone.

I personally really enjoyed seeing the entirety of Picard’s attempts to evacuate the Romulans from their soon to be exploding sun. This has been one of the most fascinating events mentioned in the show, with several parts shown or alluded to in Picard. McCormack really dived into this event, showing many of the various aspects of such an operation, including the science, politics and diplomacy associated with it. From the start, this whole mission is painted as a near impossibility, not just because of the scale of calamity and the number of people affected but because of the mindset and suspicion of the Romulans they are trying to save. To put it into context, this operation would be like the United States trying to evacuate a similar sized country that had North Korean levels of state led secrecy and distrust towards the organisation trying to save them. The sheer scale and difficultly of this mission are constantly raised, and yet Picard and his team seem to find a solution to many of the problems presented to them. Of course, anyone who has seen the first episode of the show knows how this is going to end, so seeing the characters getting so invested in their mission is a bit of an emotional blow. That being said, this book contains a lot more context for some of the Federation’s decisions, and in particular the character of Admiral Kirsten Clancy (Starfleet’s CNC in the second episode of Picard), comes across as a whole lot more sympathetic. Overall, I felt that this was an amazing expansion on the events mentioned in the show, and it was really cool to see how the whole operation unfolded.

Another great facet of The Last Best Hope which made it such an intriguing book was its compelling examination of the Romulan people. McCormack really dives into Romulan culture and society in this book, presenting some intriguing details about this race. In particular, she examines the Romulans’ deep-seated need for privacy and secrecy, which is a defining part of their species. McCormack does an excellent job highlighting how this desire for secrecy impacts them as a race and a culture (secret multi-room Romulan music for the win!), and how they barely trust other members of their own species, let alone members of the demonised Federation. Seeing how this obsession with lies, secrecy and the appearance of saving face with the Federation impacted the species’ chance for survival is a compelling and intriguing part of the book. McCormack also dives into other parts of Romulan culture and society, mainly the role of the Tal Shiar, the Romulan secret police, who have long been a shadowy force within Star Trek lore. Seeing the fear and apprehension that this organisation causes amongst ordinary Romulan citizens, as well as the lengths they will go to maintain secrecy and security, is pretty crazy and it certainly enhances an established Star Trek antagonist species. I also enjoyed seeing more of the Qowat Milat, the Romulan warrior nuns who Picard befriends and helps evacuate from Romulan space. The Last Best Hope contains several encounters with the Qowat Milat, and we get to learn a bit more about them, the role they play in Romulan society and how they interact with the Tal Shiar, with whom they have an adversarial relationship. All of this is deeply, deeply fascinating, especially for those readers who love learning about Star Trek lore, and I really enjoyed seeing all the Romulan inclusions featured in this book.

I ended up listening to the audiobook version of The Last Best Hope, which is narrated by Robert Petkoff. This new Star Trek audiobook runs for 11 hours and 40 minutes, which can be listened to fairly quickly, especially once you get stuck into the compelling story. I really enjoyed listening to The Last Best Hope, mostly thanks to the incredible voice work of Robert Petkoff. Petkoff seems to be the go-to narrator for all things Star Trek these days, as he has lent his superb vocal talents to a huge number of other Star Trek audiobook adaptions in recent years. I have previously enjoyed his work on such books as The Antares Maelstrom by Greg Cox, The Captain’s Oath by Christopher L. Bennett and Available Light by Dayton Ward. In each of these previous books, I have been greatly impressed by Petkoff’s ability to recreate the voices of key characters from the Star Trek television shows, including most of the characters in The Original Series and The Next Generation. He continues this amazing voice work in The Last Best Hope, providing near-perfect impressions of characters like Picard and La Forge, which really helps the reader immerse themselves into the story. While his impressions of some of the newer characters from Picard are not as accurate (keep in mind Petkoff would have recorded this book before Picard aired), he does provide clear and distinctive voices for each of the characters utilised in the books. I also love the accents he provides to the various alien races and nationalities in this book, and I especially enjoy hearing him attempt to replicate the speech patterns of certain aliens, like the Vulcans. Thanks to this incredible voice work, I absolutely loved listening to the audiobook for The Last Best Hope, and I would strongly recommend this format to anyone interested in this latest Star Trek novel.

Picard: The Last Best Hope by Una McCormack is an excellent and deeply captivating read which serves as a perfect prequel tie-in novel to the current Picard show. There is so much information and detail about the Star Trek universe prior to the events of the current television series contained within in this novel, and I loved seeing the author expand on the intriguing new universe that has been hinted at in the show. This is a must-read book for all Star Trek fans, especially those who have been loving Picard, and even non-Star Trek fans will enjoy this book’s powerful story and the fantastic plot device of the Romulan rescue mission. The Last Best Hope is probably the best Star Trek novel I have had the pleasure of reading so far, and I am extremely excited to see what other tie-in novels they release around the awesome new Picard series.

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Star Trek: The Antares Maelstrom by Greg Cox

On September 10, 2019August 17, 2022 By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Extended Universe, Science Fiction, Star Trek, Tie-in Novel4 Comments

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio (Audiobook – 13 August 2019)

Series: Star Trek: The Original Series

Length: 11 hours and 34 minutes

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

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My bold new voyage down into the depths of Star Trek extended fiction continues as I review the latest exciting novel tied into Star Trek: The Original Series, The Antares Maelstrom by Greg Cox.

Get ready for a good old-fashioned “gold rush” on the outskirts of Federation space, as vast quantities of a rare and valuable mineral vital for energy production is found on the remote planet of Baldur-3. The sparsely populated planet is quickly overrun by a horde of opportunists from all over the galaxy, seeking to make their fortunes as miners and prospectors. Hailing from a variety of planets and made up of a number of different species, these determined but often under-prepared prospectors are pushing Baldur-3’s infrastructure to its limit. Despite not being part of the United Federation of Planets, Baldur-3 requests assistance from Starfleet, which dispatches Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise to help in any way they can. However, upon their arrival in the sector, Kirk discovers several major problems that require him to split his personnel.

While Kirk and the Enterprise remain above Baldur-3, Sulu and a small contingent of the ship’s crew are left behind at the local Deep Space Station S8 to help manage the prospectors in transit to the planet. While there, Sulu is forced to deal with a multitude of issues, including a malevolent saboteur, the return of an old romantic flame, and foolhardy adventurers attempting to cross the dangerous Antares Maelstrom to find a fabled shortcut to Baldur-3. At the same time, Spock and Chekov travel to a nearby planet, inhabited by a pre-spaceflight race of humanoids, where alien items have started appearing in the hands of the locals in what is clearly a severe violation of the Prime Directive. As Spock and Chekov investigate, they find themselves dragged into a sophisticated smuggling ring involving a rare tea that could prove disastrous for the planet’s future development. Each of these groups will experience mortal peril as they attempt to uphold the values of Starfleet and assist all those in need.

I have really been on a roll with Star Trek novels lately, having already read several fantastic pieces in the last few months, including The Captain’s Oath by Christopher L. Bennett, Available Light by Dayton Ward, The Way to the Stars by Una McCormack and the first volume of the Boldly Go comic book series. The Antares Maelstrom by Greg Cox is another fun and enjoyable Star Trek novel that I had a wonderful time listening to on audiobook. Cox is an experienced writer of tie-in fiction, having written novels related to a number of different media franchises, such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Alias, Underworld, The Librarians and titles from DC and Marvel comics. However, his most consistent body of work has been his Star Trek tie-in novels. Since 1995, Cox has written around 20 Star Trek books, set across the various television series. He has already written several books related to The Original Series, as well as three books that show the life and times of iconic franchise villain Khan.

This particular Star Trek adventure is set during the Enterprise’s five-year journey (2265 – 2270), meaning that this story occurred around the same time as the episodes of The Original Series. The Antares Maelstrom turned out to be an interesting change of pace from some of the other Star Trek books I have previously read, as it is a standalone novel that does not seek to explore character backgrounds or continue several ongoing storylines from previous novels. Instead, the episode reads a lot like an episode from The Original Series, with the crew of the Enterprise getting involved with a number of adventures in space and helping those in need.

Cox has populated his latest book with three separate storylines, each of which features various members of the Enterprise’s main crew. This includes Sulu’s stay aboard Deep Space Station S8 and Spock and Chekov’s investigation of the tea smugglers on the nearby planet. Both of these storylines branch off from Kirk’s storyline as he, Scotty, McCoy, Uhura and the Enterprise stay above Baldur-3 and provide assistance to the surface. Each of these storylines is quite interesting and has a number of great moments. While Spock and Chekov’s storyline is one extended adventure, the other two parts of the book feature a series of interconnected adventures and mysteries. This is a very interesting blend of stories, from the examination of a futuristic “gold rush” in space, to a covert investigation on an alien planet. I personally enjoyed Sulu’s storyline the most, as it featured a number of exciting moments between spaceships, a compelling investigation, several great new characters and a huge amount of action. The other two storylines are really good, and in my opinion the story benefited from having this great mixture of storylines, which did not dilute or overwhelm the overall quality of the book. Indeed, all of the storylines form a compelling overarching narrative which I found to be extremely fun and surprisingly addictive, and I was firmly glued to the story.

Like most tie-in novels, The Antares Maelstrom is intended for fans of the franchise it is based on, meaning that this is an ideal read for hardcore Trekkies. However, no great knowledge of the original series is required to enjoy this book. There are no real pre-existing storylines to follow, and anyone who has a basic knowledge of the show or who has seen the latest trilogy of movies will be able to follow along without any issues. Cox does pepper the story with a number of references to some of the past adventures of the Enterprise, and there is even a major connection to one of the more interesting episodes from the first season. The book does feature the first appearance of the titular Antares Maelstrom, which itself is a rather obscure reference to the second Star Trek movie, The Wrath of Khan, as the Antares Maelstrom is featured in one of Khan’s iconic monologues. While these many references and call-backs to previous episodes will prove to be enjoyable to fans of the franchise, most of them have no real bearing on the plot, and any that do are well explained.

I also felt that Cox did a fantastic job of capturing the original tone of the Star Trek television show in this novel. The focus on the prospectors arriving on Baldur-3 is used by the author to mirror the bold explorative and chance-taking stance that the crew of the Enterprise undertake, and there is a lot of discussion about new opportunities and venturing into the unknown. While these prospectors are initially viewed as greedy and reckless, they eventually come together as part of the book and show how, deep down, people are basically good. All this focus on unity, compassion and logic is classic Star Trek, and Kirk makes sure to accompany many of these examples with his trademark speeches, talking about the ideals of Starfleet and his crew. In addition to this, each of the major characters is strongly featured throughout the book, and the author makes sure that each of them gets a substantial amount of story time. Cox does an amazing job capturing the various personalities of the original series cast members, and it was great seeing them back in action in this new book.

As I mentioned above, I ended up listening to The Antares Maelstrom on audiobook, narrated by Robert Petkoff, which ran for 11 hours and 34 minutes. I absolutely flew through this audiobook, and I really enjoyed having this cool story narrated to me. Petkoff is still an impressive narrator, and I have previously mentioned how much I enjoyed his work narrating the voices of The Original Series cast members for The Captain’s Oath. In The Antares Maelstrom, Petkoff continues to amaze, coming up with a huge range of different voices for the various characters featured throughout the book. Just like in the previous book, his Kirk, Spock, Sulu and McCoy are darn near perfect, and I was really glad I got to hear a lot more of his Scotty, as he manages an awesome Scottish accent. I also got my first real experience of Petkoff’s Chekov in this book, and I have to say it was near perfect. The narrator expertly captures Chekov’s Russian accent, and there were a number of amazing instances where Petkoff had to imitate Chekov’s classic mispronunciations of English words. This is truly some first-class voice work and it really helps make the entire audiobook stand out. Petkoff seems to be one of the main Star Trek audiobook narrators at the moment, as several recent and upcoming books all feature his talents, and this makes me a lot more eager to check out these books in the future.

The Antares Maelstrom by Greg Cox proved to be another amazing piece of Star Trek fiction. It presents the reader with three fantastic adventures that come together to create an exciting and captivating book. While probably best read by established Star Trek fans, this book can be easily enjoyed by readers who have less Star Trek experience but who love sci-fi, intriguing mysteries, iconic characters and fast-paced action. Another great outing from Cox, The Antares Maelstrom is really worth checking out, especially in its audiobook format.

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Star Trek: The Captain’s Oath by Christopher L. Bennett

On August 30, 2019August 13, 2022 By The Unseen LibraryIn Audiobook, Extended Universe, Science Fiction, Star Trek, Tie-in Novel9 Comments

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio (Audiobook – 28 May 2019)

Series: Star Trek

Length: 11 hours and 58 minutes

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

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Prepare to venture boldly into a new Star Trek: The Original Series tie-in novel which not only tells a deeply compelling story but also looks at several pivotal moments of Captain Kirk’s early Starfleet career that made him the captain we all know and love.

Captain James Tiberius Kirk is known throughout the galaxy as a great warrior, diplomat, explorer and hero. His story as the captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise is legendary, but how did a relatively young and inexperienced captain gain the right to take command of Starfleet’s most advanced and famous ship? What drives the young captain to be the best? And where did he get the tendency to bend Starfleet’s many rules in order to do the right thing?

Over three separate timelines set between 2261 and 2265, The Captain’s Oath follows Kirk’s early career as a captain. Looking at both his first command aboard the U.S.S. Sacagawea to his initial missions with the crew of the Enterprise, this book highlights several major conflicts and explorations that Kirk was involved in which shaped his personality and command style. From early conflicts with the Klingons, first contact missions that tested Kirk’s dedication to follow the Prime Directive to the letter, and diplomatic missions that had the potential to lead to war, these experiences will turn him into a captain worthy of the Enterprise.

I am fairly new to the world of Star Trek tie-in books, having only previously read two Star Trek novels that were released earlier this year, The Way to the Stars and Available Light. I was massively impressed by The Captain’s Oath, which was a spectacular and massively compelling read. Veteran Star Trek author Christopher L. Bennett, who has written a large number of Star Trek tie-in novels since 2004, crafted an excellent novel that not only showcases the past of an iconic character from the franchise but presents an exciting adventure at the same time.

The overarching narrative of The Captain’s Oath is told in three separate timelines. The first of these timelines starts in early 2261 and follows the early day of Kirk’s captaincy of the Sacagawea. The next timeline is set between 2262 and 2264, and also features Kirk as the Captain of the Sacagawea; however, this timeline starts after an undisclosed destructive event that crippled the ship and killed several of Kirk’s crew in the previous timeline, and follows Kirk’s adventures after this event. The final timeline is set in 2265 and starts the moment Kirk takes command of the Enterprise. It follows his first real mission as captain of his iconic ship, and ends just before the start of The Original Series television show. The book features lengthy chapters, with various adventures in different points of time spread throughout the course of the novel. These adventures are also usually shown from the perspectives of Kirk and some of the Starfleet personnel serving with him, although there are occasional scenes featuring characters aboard other Starfleet ships.

I did initially find it a little tricky to get my head around the use of multiple timelines, especially as I was listening to the audiobook format of The Captain’s Oath. However, once I got track of each of the three major timelines, I was able to appreciate what Bennett was doing with this writing style and how he wanted to tell the story. By using these multiple timelines, Bennett succeeds in telling a story that is much more complex and compelling than a linear story would have been. These multiple timelines allow the reader to get a much better sense of the main character and how he became the person he was in the first episode of The Original Series. By showing various stages of his time as a captain, Bennett is able to examine a number of key events that formed Kirk’s personality and command style. Through a series of intriguing missions and a ton of different scenarios, you get to see how Kirk reacts to both his success and his failures, and what lessons he takes with him. As the book progresses, you get to see how these earlier experiences affect his actions in the subsequent chronological missions. This was an extremely clever way to write the story, and I felt that the multiple timelines work extremely well together and helped create a powerful narrative that did a fantastic job showcasing the character of Captain Kirk.

I also really enjoyed the huge variety of Star Trek missions that Kirk and his crew went on throughout the course of the book. This book featured an amazing range of different missions that Starfleet are known for, including diplomatic undertakings, rescues, exploration, first contact and military missions in defence of the Federation. Some of these missions are quite complex in their individual content and in the way that most of them flow through and connect with later missions in the chronology. Bennett has come up with some truly unique and fantastic scenarios for this book, and through these various missions the reader is treated to some intriguing mysteries, intense battles and deep examinations of humanity and life. I really got into a number of these missions, including a fascinating mission where Kirk and his crew get trapped on a pre-spaceflight planet whose government is using propaganda to frighten the populace with non-existent invading aliens. However, the best scenario is a series of missions set during Kirk’s days as captain of the Sacagawea where he and his crew encounter an unusual group of aliens who are invading Federation space in some unique ships (the one on the cover). The various missions involving these new aliens not only result in some impressive space battles but also feature some intriguing diplomatic meetings and fascinating discussions about different forms of life, as the beings Kirk and his crew encounter are so alien that a number of key concepts such as territory and galactic borders are untranslatable to them. Each of the missions featured in this book were pretty amazing and are a testament to Bennett’s imagination and appreciation for the underlying material.

One of the things that I enjoyed about this book was the sheer amount of Star Trek references and lore that Bennett has managed to fit into this story. Fans of Kirk and The Original Series will be intrigued by this new look at Kirk’s early career as a captain and several of the pivotal adventures he undertook. The Captain’s Oath also features Kirk’s first meetings with several key characters from the series, including Spock, Sulu, Scotty and McCoy. Not only does the reader get an idea of the early relationship between Kirk and Spock, which only began when Kirk took command, but you also get to see Kirk befriend McCoy and then eventually talk him into becoming doctor for the Enterprise. In addition to the look at the major characters, there are also a number of great examinations of minor characters from the series. A great example of this is the inclusion of the Klingon character Captain Koloth, the villain of The Original Series episode The Trouble with Tribbles. While he was only in the book for a short period of time, it does answer a question about how Koloth and Kirk knew each other, as they recognise each other in the episode, and it shows why they disliked each other.

Perhaps the most interesting part of The Captain’s Oath was the inclusion of Gary Mitchell throughout the course of the book. In the show, Mitchell only appeared in one episode and was the original helmsman of the Enterprise before becoming the eventual antagonist of the episode Where No Man Has Gone Before. In this episode it is explained that Mitchell was one of Kirk’s oldest and closest friends, and Bennett spends a lot of time exploring this friendship in this book. Mitchell is shown to be a major influence on Kirk’s personality during the early days of him being a captain, helping him relax and become less beholden to Starfleet’s rules and regulations. Their friendship is an important part of the book, although it is a little tragic when you consider how it is destined to end. The book also features a few scenes with Lt. Kelso, who is killed by Mitchell in Where No Man Has Gone Before, and it is interesting to see some of his interactions with Mitchell and Kirk, considering his appearances in the show. It is curious to note that Bennett appears to have switched the roles of Mitchell and Kelso around, as Kelso is portrayed in the book as the helmsman, while Mitchell is the navigator. Nonetheless, the author uses the inclusion of Kelso to explain why Sulu was the ship’s physicist in this episode rather than helmsman, and why he was given the job in subsequent episodes.

Bennett has included some pretty deep Star Trek lore in this book, but do you need to be a major Star Trek fan to enjoy The Captain’s Oath? In my opinion, you do not. Obviously, hardcore Star Trek fans will get a lot more out of this book, no doubt appreciating all the references, minor characters and the backstory that Bennett has concocted. However, this book is easily enjoyable for people who only have a passing knowledge of the Star Trek shows or universe. Bennett makes the story extremely accessible, and many features from the franchise or history relevant to the story are explained in full detail, ensuring no one is left in the dark. Indeed, due to the awesome story, connection to The Original Series and the focus on such an iconic character, this is a great book to check out if you are curious about Star Trek books and want to see what they are like, and a lot of general science fiction readers will like some of the unique scenarios explored throughout the book. This would also be a really interesting book for those people whose only exposure to Star Trek has been the recent movies set in the alternate timeline, as this book shows a very different version of Kirk. Overall, I think that quite a wide audience can appreciate The Captain’s Oath, and it is a fantastic Star Trek tie-in book to check out.

While I did receive a physical copy of The Captain’s Oath, I decided to check out the audiobook version instead in order to fit it into my reading schedule. The audiobook format of this book is narrated by Robert Petkoff, who has a narrated a large number of previous Star Trek tie-in books, as well as several Star Trek novels coming out later this year. The Captain’s Oath audiobook runs for a pretty typical length of time for a Star Trek book, at just under 12 hours long, meaning that dedicated listeners should be able to get through this quite quickly. I really enjoyed listening to the audiobook format of this book, and I found that listening to the story helped enhance certain aspects of the plot, such as making the action sequences more exciting and providing the full impact of several of Kirks inspirational speeches. Petkoff is an excellent narrator whose work I have previously enjoyed when I listened to Available Light a couple of months ago. I noted back than that Petkoff did an amazing job imitating several key members of the Star Trek: The Next Generation cast, and I was very curious to see how he would go with characters from The Original Series. Petkoff’s voice work in The Captain’s Oath was pretty impressive, as he did an exceptional job bringing characters such as Spock, Scotty, Sulu and McCoy to life and making them sound very similar to their original portrayals in the show. Petkoff also did a pretty good Kirk, and I liked how he attempted to reproduce the captain’s iconic speech patterns from the show. Petkoff also had the opportunity to bring a huge range of different nationalities and alien species to life, and these were also very impressive, as he was able to produce some distinctive voice types from the show, including the specific vocal patterns of the Vulcans as well as several distinctive human accents. All of this made for an incredible listen, and I fully intend to check out the audiobook formats of any future Star Trek books narrated by Petkoff. Indeed, the next audiobook I am planning to listen to, The Antares Maelstrom, is narrated by Petkoff, and I look forward to listening to this latest book.

Star Trek: The Captain’s Oath is an exciting and captivating novel that does an outstanding job exploring the early life of Captain Kirk and examining some formative events that made him the character we all know and love. Author Christopher Bennett has created a compelling story that utilises multiple timelines and a series of intriguing missions to tell a complex tale that I had an amazing time reading. This is an excellent piece of Star Trek extended fiction that I would whole-heartily recommend for anyone who has ever been curious about learning more about Kirk’s story and the Star Trek universe prior to The Original Series.

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