Star Trek Reader's Log

Star Trek novels: the Final Frontier. These are the voyages of one woman who endeavors to read all the novel and short story tie ins of the Starship Enterprise in chronological order. Her mission, to read, have fun and poke fun at one of her favorite IP's. To explore new plot lines and characters. To boldly read what no one has read before!

[startrek-readerslog]

Hello!

    This is my first blog post and I have no experience blog posting anywhere (tumblr reblogging, I feel, does not count). I am starting this endeavor because well, I am recently post college and while I am employed I feel a little lost. I want something to bring me joy and constancy.

The Why

     The idea for this blog came to me in stages. I have been a Star Trek fan since middle school when I watched the Original Series with my mother after school. I have seen bits of most of the series, but haven't watched many of them fully. I started rewatching Star Trek: The Next Generation while doing some household chores as background noise. Then while listening to Sawbones, one of my favorite podcasts, on the way to work I heard an advertisement (that I didn't quite skip all the way) to the Greatest Generation. This is a podcast where two dudes watch and comment on every episode of TNG and eventually DS9.  So I started to follow through the series with them, watch enough episodes during the evening that I could listen to the podcast on my drives too and from work. Then while in a used book store with a cousin who was selling some old comics, I spotted a shelf chock full of Star Trek novels.

      When I say chock full I mean that there were maybe 50-75 unique novels. I knew that these novels existed, but I never really contemplated reading them. An ex-girlfriend had even given me one of them as a gift, but we were in college and I didn't have time to devote to reading for fun. I joked to my cousin while we were looking through them that I should make it a challenge for myself to read them all in order. Then I pulled out my phone and tried to find a definitive reading order, and oh boy was the internet full of opinions on what order the novels should be read in. I was overwhelmed at the store and didn't walk out with any of those books, but the idea really stuck with me.

     I decided that if I am to take on such a challenge I needed some kind of accountability so that I did not simply loose interest. I thought about podcast format but I sadly do not have another nerd to join me on this quest and a one woman podcast wouldn't be very fun to me. So I turned to blog format. Even if no one ever reads this, it is a note from me to me chronicling my thoughts and opinions. I actually have seen a few Star Trek novel blogs out there, and I am happy to add my contributions to one of the oldest fandoms on the internet.

     Star Trek is full of promise of a bright future, and I think I need a little bit of that right now. If you want to follow along you definitely can! Although I am not convinced right now that I recommend it. The list ahead of us is long and full of, I am sure, lots of used paperbacks.

The How

    I settled on in universe chronological order as the most simple option. I will be using the website Star Trek Reading Order to do that. This website miraculously chronicles every single piece of Star Trek media it seems, from short story to TV episode to movie to comic to novel. I am still settling on the bounds of my media in this challenge. I think I will stick to the written format, but I am unsure if I will include the comics as honestly they seem like they will be a pain in the ass to track down.

   The order seems pretty straightforward, although when I get there I think it would be fun to take a tangent into the Abraham-verse of Star Trek and also read those novelizations. The website has those listed as entirely separate timelines, but eventually in universe we will get to 2255 which is when the Abraham-verse is set. I genuinely enjoyed some bits of the reboot, although I know that will ruffle some feathers, but this gal just loves herself some good special effects. We can talk about that more when we get there!

    It seems like this endeavor will cost me only a few bucks a book! And I am always happy to grow my personal library. It might be fun (and a little ridiculous) to keep a running tally of how much I have spent on this endeavor.

So thanks for stopping by! I have set up my plans for what comes next, and already ordered our first short story Strange New Worlds VI.

LLAP,

    Rae

[startrek-readerslog]

Rise of the Federation: Patterns of Interference by Christopher L. Bennett

Last Rise of the Federation book, last Enterprise book. Big moves!

The Author

Well Chris, it's been fun. He does have other Star Trek books so we will meet again one day my friend.

The Summary

I think I am going to lighten up these summaries a little. As least this series of books has so many deep side plots they are hard to keep track of. Okay, let's go!

We start off with some couples, check in on Sam Kirk and Valerie Williams and Hoshi and Takashi. Sam and Valerie's struggles will be with Valerie's dad Admiral Williams approval while Hoshi and Takashi's problems will be with his severe disability that he endured a few books ago. After checking in with the couple we meet with the majority of the Enterprise crew in secret as they decide they need to take down Section 31. Trip goes MIA to do this.

We recenter the main plot on Maltuvis on Sauria. He is committing genocide, fueled by Orion technology to gain control of the whole planet while the federation decides if it wants to intervene or not. Trip recruits his old Orion friend Devna to help him meddle on Sauria and pin the blame on Section 31. Side note, Hoshi is called to a planet with only plant life to determine if the trees have sentience and has some uncomfortable sexually charged moments with someone there.

Through a lot of different machinations, they end up taking down Maltuvis, but not exactly how they planned. Section 31's existence gets leaked to Starfleet's head honcho's and they move to take them down. However, as we know, the takedown doesn't happen all the way. The book ends with Porthos dying which is a thread running through Archer's story the whole book.

My Thoughts

I have to say that this was a great wrap up to the Rise of the Federation series. I wish we got a real reunite with T'Pol and Trip, but I know from other books they have their happy everafter. Porthos dying was very touching, I know the pain of losing a beloved pet and I feel like it was portrayed with love and care.

Honestly the best part of the book was the side plot with Hoshi and the space boomers figuring out if the trees have sentience. The books give Star Trek the ability to really explore new life forms without having to worry about the budget of making them incredibly different from us. You don't always have complex conversations about sentient non human looking life in Star Trek. Also exploring the space boomers more I thought was so cool as it is such an underdeveloped piece of the Star Trek lore.

I am giving this one 9/10. Next we go to Star Trek Discovery with Dramatic Measures!

[startrek-readerslog]

Rise of the Federation: Live by the Code by Christopher L. Bennett

This was book 4/5 of the Rise of the Federation Series. This one (I hope) wraps up the Ware as a plot line. To me it feels we have explored all there is to see here with them. Let's dig in.

The Author

Still our friend Christopher L. Bennett! He seems fairly active on BlueSky if that interests you.

The Summary

There are about 17 plot lines in this book. So forgive me, this summary is rough.

We start with the Vol'Rala which is captained by Sh'Prenni and they are continuing on the Ware taskforce. They are going Ware Station to Ware Station and waking up the occupants so that they can shut it down. However, these occupants don't want to shut it down they take turns in the brain eating machine for the betterment of their people. Their people are sentient but their form or the planet environment prevented their technological advancement so the Ware stepped in. They aer "the Partnership"

Archer floats in and out of this book to be perplexed by moral quandaries, and that's really all he does.

We see Lokog, the Klingon with no head ridges, he is almost killed by his lover and takes that as inspiration to be a little bit more than a pirate. So he helps comes up with a deal to protect The Partnership from Star Fleet. Also our old friend Vabion escaped and helped orchestrate this deal.

The Vol'Rala crew are taken by the Partnership and Star Fleet reinforcements are sent in to try and arrange their release through the legal system. This brings in the Pioneer crew to try and sort that out. The Endeavor brings Phlox to Qo'nos to deliberate over the death of the previous Chancellor, turns out he was murdered but that's not our problem! Time to go to the wedding of Phlox's daughter. We spend a delightful time on Denobula and see a beautiful wedding ruined by the racism of one of Phlox's other kids. Phlox stays back to deal with that situation.

We find the home of the Ware and turns out they are no longer with us and the Station's actions are the consequence of bad coding.

The Klingon Empire comes and tries to conquer the Partnership planets as a show of strength, and the crew of the Vol'Rala is released to help stave them off. They may or may not die in the resulting fight. Starfleet retreats, beaten, with little to show for their efforts.

My Thoughts

By far my least favorite piece of this book was the inter-Klingon politics. I don't have any compelling connection to those characters that are involved from the show, so I found their story the least interesting to follow. I understand, however, that there is a brewing Klingon War that must be set up.

The best parts of the book were the parts on Denobula with Phlox! Phlox is by far one of my favorite characters from the series, and I found the fleshing out of the Denobulan culture to be fascinating. It feels rare in the show that Phlox got his own plot lines, and it felt like he got justice here. I loved getting to know his family and a reunion, if not an overwhelmingly happy one, with his son.

The background plot of Sam Kirk and Val Williams is also very fun in this book. Small feeble man loves his muscley protectress is a good trope, I stand by it.

This book also feels the gayest of the previous books in a great way! Lots of gay and trans characters just because that is the way that they are. Its the future that I want. There is no coming out, no worry of prejudice just having feelings. That's the Star Trek that I love.

[startrek-readerslog]

Strange New Worlds: The High Country by John Jackson Miller

I took a little bit of a break from reading Star Trek (combo of a crazy personal year and burnout), and to get back into the swing I decided to read one of the Strange New Worlds Novels in honor of Season Three coming out in just a few weeks. I know this is out of order, but I felt like this would ease me back in, and SNW is one of the next series chronologically.

The Author

John Jackson Miller in the afterword says that he was approached to write the first SNW novel. Given his work with both Star Trek and Star Wars IP, it is not surprising that he was top of mind. He has written 7 other Star Trek Novels in both the new Trek universe of Disco and Picard as well as the TNG era. He seems to be a very pleasant life long nerd who weirdly went to high school with Chris Hardwick (of Nerdist fame), and apparently was assigned to torture him during Freshman Initiation Week. We will certainly be seeing him again!

The Summary

We join some of our favorite Enterprise crew members on a fancy new shuttle, the Eratosthenes, as they prepare to descend on an away mission. Included on this mission are Pike, Una, Uhura, and Spock. They are on their way to FGC-7781 b, a planet that was the last known location of a lost civilian anthropological mission, Braidwood. They quickly realize why Braidwood is lost because all of their systems start to go haywire. Enterprise that has La'an on the conn, tries to come and get them, but they also start to have their electrical systems go crazy. The shuttle begins an uncontrolled descent, and the best the Enterprise can do is attempt to beam them to the surface and regroup.

All the crew members get booted (mostly safely) to the surface. Immediately our crew is split. Una is up a tree, Spock is drowning, Uhura's environmental suit is melting, and Pike lands on a farm to calls of fire.

Pike wakes up to a barn fire, and helps Jennie Maggie rescue her father Joe Magee from a burning barn that he does NOT want to leave. Pike is informed that the Magees took him in after he fell out of the sky on their property. The fire was odd and not burning anything living, but Pike doesn't know what to make of that.

Una gets rescued from the local wildlife but Mountain Man, Celarius, who tells her this planet is called Epheska. Celarius is obviously smitten with her, and they hitch a ride in an air balloon out of the forest.

Pike learns that his cover is already blown, and he learns that this whole planet is settled by people that the Skagaran have "saved". The Skagaran believe that technological progress will be the downfall of the planet so it is banned. There are people from dozens of worlds including Earth. There is also something called the Baffle that keeps electronics from working. This is all revealed through a psychic communication device called the rondures. Pike gets pitifully kidnapped by a group of people called the Menders who want to talk to him about their inventions and space. Pike uses the Menders to contact the Enterprise using large format Morse Code.

Una's cover is also quickly blown, and once she realizes that Mountain Man is the prince of the world she entreats his help to try and find the rest of the crew. For the most part she is the "guest" of his father the Conservator General.

The Menders get into big trouble and become essentially outlaws on the run. Oh yeah and the Sheriff of this town is Lila, the woman who taught Pike how to ride a horse on Earth (she was a last minute addition to the Braidwood crew). So with Lila in pursuit, Pike leads the Menders out of town. Spock uses the rondures to tell Pike a place to meet him by the sea. They are chased all the way there with the Enterprise helping in any way that they can. Once at the rendezvous Spock shows up with an armada of sailing vessels and takes the Menders, Pike, and an injured Lila aboard. The vessels are crewed by a Vulcan crew who got stuck on the planet, but originally were going to go spice things up with the Andorians a hundred years ago before the United Federation of Planets. The captain agrees to help and they follow some clues to a secluded rondure that says that the Baffle can be taken down or expanded catastrohpically which Lila thinks would be a lovely idea because she has beef with the universe.

Back with Una they find Uhura! She was wandering around the volcanic wastes with a flame friend she calls an empatherm. She knows they are sentient and sees the Skagarans ripping them away from their homes.

Lila escapes and informs the Conservator General of the plan to take down the baffle and it is a race to see who gets there first. Pike sails to a new settlement and convinces them to help him. The Enterprise sends down Hemmer with what is essentially a huge horse powered ski sled to get to the essential rondure in the North. They race the CG, Lila, and quickly after a short stint in prison where they find the crew of the Braidwood Una and Celarius are also on the way.

Ultimately Uhura and her empatherm friends end the Baffle. The novel ends with working with the survivors to help everyone figure out their next steps. The Vulcan crew help ferry Skagaran refugees, Celarius helps rehab a ruined Skagara, the Menders go to acclimate to modernity, the CG is to be sentenced for his crimes on Epheska, and Lila is on Vulcan helping with children refugees of the Klingon war.

My Thoughts

This was rather long for a ST novel, but was incredibly engaging. It felt like a very well done episode plot. The Skagarans are from ST: ENT, and that call back was incredibly fun. I thought that Miller did a great job with all the characters. I think Una sounded a little weird, but I think her character before the reveal that she is an Illyrian is tough to do. I really wish that we spent more time with Spock and Uhura, but for Spock's reveal to be dramatic we needed to stay away from his story line.

There is a very cute scene at the end of Pike helping Uhura work through her feelings about this away mission and the loss of the empatherm who got her through Epheska that I really enjoyed. That kind of debrief for an inexperience crew member shows that care that Pike has and the kind of captain that he is. This novel felt very emotionally aware in general for a ST novel. I think following everyone through to the completion of their stories involving Epheska is evidence of that.

I give this one a 9/10. Next we head back to ENT with Rise of the Federation: Live by the Code by our friend Christopher L. Bennett.

[bugbashir]

When I was a very suicidal trans activist in Texas, Benjamin Sisko saying “sure, you would [die for your people]. Dying gets you off the hook. The question is: are you willing to live for your people?” changed and possibly saved my life. It’s up there with “if we are going to be damned, let us be damned for who we really are” from Picard. Star Trek not only shows us a better world, it teaches us how to make it there

[startrek-readerslog]

Rise of the Federation: Uncertain Logic by Christopher L. Bennett

Wooo I am super on top of my deadline for this month! We continue the Rise of the Federation series chronicling the challenges of the early Federation in this one. Bennett continues to weave together novels with like 5-6 individual stories in them that also have a strong continuity to the rest of the Enterprise books and the shows.

The Author

It's still our old pal Bennett. I have discovered zero new information about him and we have two more books to go at least in this Enterprise series. Nothing to report (〃･ิ‿･ิ)ゞ

The Summary

So our multiple story lines in this one include:

Reed's ship the USS Pioneer on a mission to find out what the fuck is up with the Ware. An alien technology that kidnaps people to use as computing power (as seen with Travis in ENT S2E4).

On Vulcan the Kir'Shara (original writings of Surak as discovered by Archer in ENT S4E8) has been replaced by a fake and thus destabilized the peaceful prosperity of the Vulcan government founded on its teaching. Archer and T'Pol must testify, and they put Hoshi and her paramour Kimura on the task of finding out what happens.

Devna, an Orion slave girl we have seen across multiple novels now is sent to help discover how best to exploit a new race that has powerful sex stuff going on, the Deltans.

Captain Bryce Shumar did first contact with these Deltans, and they accidentally blissed out some of his crew. He is dealing with the aftermath of this.

T'Rama and Skon are going to have a baby! And Skon is the one who found the fake Kir'Shara so they have their own story line. They also are hosting a Cardassian and our dear friend Dax.

Reed and Travis rescue some people from the Ware only to have them taken back. Their head of engineering, Dax decides to take a break from space, and they manage to recruit Trip under a new identity to be their engineer. Travis is pissed that he didn't know Trip was alive. They go from planet to planet that the Ware have landed on in order to better understand them. Travis does some recon on a planet being taken over by the Ware. Archer and T'pol answer a lot of stupid questions about things that happened 15 years ago. T'Rama, Skon, Hoshi, and Kimura are all on the case of the fake. Devna has no luck in manipulating the Deltans for information.

The sleuth squad figure out how the Kir'Shara was replaced with a fake even though the room it was stored in had MAXIMUM (tm) security. It was done using some Romulan hologram technology (that's suspicious). While this is happening Travis makes contact (or rather get caught by) some indigenous life while investigating the Ware on the planet Vanotli. He struggles with how much to tell them. Back on Vulcan they track down one of the perpetrators of the fraud to a safe house and a combined Vulcan and Starfleet team go in. There is a lot of needless death, and Kimura gets badly injured. Also T'Rama and Skon's house gets bombed in a plot to lure Archer and T'Pol to their aid. It works and Archer and T'Pol get kidnapped while Skon gets sent to the hospital. It is revealed that it is V'Las who is behind all this nonsense, the guy who was super fucking weird in those ENT episodes about the Kir'Shara. He goes all big bad guy on Archer and T'Pol and is going to manipulate their memories with mindmelds. The horrific use of the mindmelds freaks out one of his accomplices who contacts Starfleet. Starfleet works with the Vulcan government to recover T'Pol and Archer, and the original Kir'Shara which was left behind as V'Las escaped. They also find his master forger who admits to everything. Dax helps diffuse a bomb and he gets some of his confidence back.

Travis was forced to reveal the truth of where he was from because on another attempt to infiltrate one of the Ware factories he and his native friends get caught. They are forced onto an Andorian ship that was monitoring them by Vabion, the guy orchestrating the Ware on the planet. They get a little bit closer to the mystery by finding a species that while they didn't make the Ware is propagating it. Vabion plugs Travis back into the machine but eventually encounters Trip and co who are trying to shut it down. Vabion gives them a way into the computer and Trip uses it to wake Travis up. Travis then wakes up every station in reach and the Ware is effectively crippled.

The Orions kidnap some of the Deltans even though Devna has some mindblowing sex with them and feels bad about it. The Deltans call on Starfleet for aid and Captain Shumar helps out. Devna seems to want to escape Orion slave life.

The final scene was a very cute one with T'Rama and Skon's son, Sarek (yes THE Sarek). T'Pol, Phlox, Hoshi, and Kimura all get a cute scene. Kimura now chronically disabled asks Hoshi to marry him and she says yes.

My Thoughts

God so much is packed into this one too! One of my favorite parts of the novel was actually spent with Dax and the Cardassian at a public debate house. There they listened to the pacifist Syrannites debate the conservative Vulcan faction that favored isolation and violence. The most interesting parts of this novel revolved around Vulcan politics and the meaning of truth. A lot of these speeches were actually really compelling. There were several points in the book where the "big speeches" actually worked pretty well!

I loved getting more backstory on Skon and T'Rama. Apparently T'Rama was matched with Skon after her childhood arranged marriage announced that he was gay. Skon's first wife died in an unnecessary fight created by the old government. I think both those stories give so much motivation to each character and say so much about them. Also a little about "remarrying" in Vulcan society.

While definitely the least central, the deep C plot of the Deltans and Orions was compelling. We have seen a lot of Devna, but she finally I think was given an experience that showed her that there was another way, that she didn't want to keep hurting people anymore. The Deltans showed her what empathy felt like, and that's so big.

In the end Archer feels more sure about his next career steps, Trip is rethinking his spy life (which let's be honest he was ill suited for to begin with), Devna is defecting, and we are one step closer to Spock.

I give this one 8.5/10 stars! It really was quite good! The next is the fourth Rise of the Federation Book: Live by the Code (also by Christopher L. Bennett)

[cornflakesdoesart]

For @majormiles for the @startrekwintergiftexchange, sorry for the delay and I hope you'll like this piece! :)))

[startrek-readerslog]

Rise of the Federation: Tower of Babel by Christopher L. Bennett

I know I am a few days late of my monthly deadline, but I had a busy January. This one is the next in a series of five novels in this Rise of the Federation Series. They are all by our dear friend Christopher L. Bennett! This one continues the themes of Federation expansion and the constant meddling of Garos and the Orion sisters. Let's go!

The Author

Yep, its still Christopher L. Bennett. I did notice that this book had a QR code that lead to a "more about the author" kind of page. Here it is if you are curious. Apparently his degrees are in history and physics which makes a lot of sense to have as a writer of Star Trek fiction.

The Summary

This one bounces around a lot like the last one. We have Archer on T'Pol's ship, the USS Endeavor, that is going to a conference about the Rigellian Trade Commission joining the Federation. We also have Reed's ship, the USS Pioneer, which is sent to do some recon about the Rigellian system to learn more to let the Federation have more facts before they admit them. There is also some stuff going on on Sauria which is a planet we spent some time on a few books ago. If you remember Sauria had a lot of mineral wealth but was not a politically united planet, and one massive ass of a dictator named Maltuvius. Well they have a plague now. On top of all of this, the Federation is in the throws of its first election year.

So Archer is T'Pol take a delegation of Rigellians to Babel, a planet that has a history of being used as a neutral discussion zone. The Rigellians have a complex history as there are several habited planets within their solar system with several distinct species. There are the Chelon's (a turtle like species from Rigel III), the Zami (native to Rigel IV), the Kalar (native to Rigel VII, but they are very insular and not in the Trade Commission). There are also more inhabited planets that have been colonized in the system. They already have their own like local Federation in the Trade Commission, which is the governing body that is being approached by the Federation. The politics of this place are kind of insane.

We learn that Garos has intertwined himself with the First Families of Rigel, basically feudal lords, in order to push for them not to enter the Federation. Oh we also spend some scenes with the Orion sisters, but don't know the extent of their involvement in anything yet. Also Trip and T'Pol had a fight about Section 31.

Malcolm is doing his recon about the culture of Rigellians and Samuel Kirk and their Tellarite comms officer, Grev are kidnapped in their archives. That sends them on a chase around the system to find where they went. They were kidnapped to decipher a log of secrets that the Trade Commission uses to blackmail the system into order.

T'Pol comes back to help with the search party while Archer stays at this conference. He sleeps with the Zami representative named Sendra Hemnask, and that morning an assassination is attempted on one of the presidential candidates that clearly tries to frame Archer. Sendra does not provide him his alibi.

While all that is happening, Trip goes to Sauria to try and figure out what is up with this plague. It is clear that the plague was manufactured by Maltuvius so that he could come to the rescue of other nations which means occupy them. We learn the plague was given to Maltuvius by the Orions, and that Maltuvius doesn't want to stop at conquering the planet. Trip is recalled to let the politics of Sauria settle as they are.

Trying to find Sam and Grev, the gang splits up and looks for clues. Travis gets lightly kidnapped but reveals the truth about the Malurians to the Chelon who were conned into helping. But they can't help with the Sam and Grev situation. Valeria Williams infiltrates the First Families to try and find their angle, but gets caught after helping a battered servant escape. Valeria is eventually brought to Garos who upon learning that the First Families will destabilize the system helps them with info to get Sam and Grev back. Also in there somewhere some of the crew while looking for the two of them gets stranded on Rigel VII with the Kaylar.

In the end, they get back Sam and Grev (with yet another failed romantic tension between Sam and Valeria). Archer's name is cleared and Sedra is unveiled as having ties to the First Families that caused her to become involved with Archer as a political ploy orchestrated by Garos (partially thanks to T'Rama, Spock's grandmother). The assassination was orchestrated by an Orion syndicate.

My Thoughts

Wowie that was such a long summary and I still didn't really hit everything that happened in this book, including some in fighting among T'Pol's crew between her first mate and Hoshi (and their cute resolution at the end). It wasn't even that long of a book! I think that Bennett still really made the incredibly amount of POVs work in this book. It was fun to see how they all tied together, because at the beginning there was a lot of disjointed POVs that didn't feel connected.

Unlike the last novel this one felt way more plot driven than character drive, which was ashamed because I feel like Bennett does that well. There were some nice moments of introspection from Archer about his work life balance, and dating life. As well as some good character development for Thanien in learning to trust Hoshi. However those beats felt so small in comparison to how many emotional moments there were in the last book. I think seeing the messy history of the Federation helps it feel more real as an organization. Of course the first election was a political mess, with some even doubting its mission (just like the first US Presidential Election). It makes sense that they want to strengthen their numbers, but also they can sometimes make decisions for economic reasons instead of moral ones like continuing to trade with Maltuvius on Sauria.

I didn't like it as much as the previous novel, but I will still give it 7.5/10 stars! The next one is another Rise of the Federation Novel: Uncertain Logic!

[startrek-readerslog]

Rise of the Federation: A Choice of Futures by Christopher L Bennett

Now we are chugging along.

I had some time and decided to make a spreadsheet to track a few things. The first thing on the sheet was my budget which I said at the very beginning I was interested in tracking and the second is my overall completion in terms of owning and reading all the novels. If you are curious feel free to take a look here! You can see how incredibly many books there are and how little progress I have made 🫠.

The Author

Christopher L. Bennett is the author for this one, and this is our first time meeting him, but like many other authors we have encountered it won't be our last! It looks like he has written a profuse amount of Star Trek tie in media, not only this Rise of the Federation series that is next on the docket, but also TOS series, TNG series, and a series about the temporal war. He also has written for Marvel. I couldn't find much about his personal life except that he is a lifelong Ohioan.

The Summary

It seems like the Suliban are back? jk it's just a ploy to break up the Federation. The new Federation's tech doesn't all quite work together yet, but don't worry Dax(!!!) is on the case. Also transporters are a little wack and have caused some permeant damage to Archer and Reed. The crew of the Enterprise have split up now that the Enterprise is a museum exhibit. T'Pol captain's her own ship that is the USS Endeavor, the current flagship while Reed is given his own vessel, the USS Pioneer. Hoshi and Phlox stay with T'Pol while Reed takes on Travis as his number one.

The story cut back and forth between these two vessels and Archer at a diplomatic conference dealing with a species they have dubbed "The Mutes" who have no voices nor eyes. Oh there are also evil Orion ladies and their servant Garos who are also plotting to take down the Federation. The Mutes have been disabling and stealing ships and people are...pretty mad about it. The Federation makes a task force to deal with them, hopefully peacefully, that involves the Endeavor, a few Andorian ships, and Garo's ship. Garos and one Andorian ship respond to a distress call sent out by people disabled by the Mutes. Garos mercs the Andorian ship and says the mutes have done it.

T'Pol investigates and finds some inconsistencies but no proof. She then has her own run in with the Mutes and they manage to capture two of them to bring aboard, along with the other ships taking their own hostages. They make some observations about their communication style and purpose. T'Pol mindmelds with one of them to learn more. They communicate using infrared and electrical signals, and are mainly just curious scientists. They see most humanoids as less than because they cannot communicate with them in the same way. They decide to return all the hostages and send T'Pol and Hoshi back with them in order to continue to facilitate communication. T'Pol and Hoshi establish contact and begin negotiations while Trip and Archer uncover an Orion scheme to influence Federation members into more aggressive postures.

Oh while all that was happening Malcom and his crew were falling into a planet, but don't worry they were saved by sentient sky whales and they solved the combining different society's tech problem :)

My Thoughts

I think this one knocked what a Star Trek novel should be out of the park! It was a space mystery tied into bigger ideas about politics and ethics, where our beloved characters have to make some hard decisions to do the right thing. It read more like a plot line of an episode or two and that format is incredibly digestible, and I think what made it so successful.

The characters felt perfectly reasonable and in character about all the decisions that they made. T'Pol especially it was cool to see in the captains chair. There was a fun side story about her getting along with her Andorian number one. They learn to trust each other and put aside feeling from their races previous war. Thanien was a cool character I am sure we will get more of. There was a lot of fun emotional moments that felt really right to me. Reed learning how to unwind a little bit and show his feelings, Hoshi going to T'Pol for emotional regulation, and Travis helping two young ensigns figure themselves out. I really enjoyed Bennett's writing style. It was descriptive without being flowery and over the top. I also just felt the plot very well thought out. We did an appropriate amount of jumping between POVs. He is also the first one I think to really get Trip right as a spy! His version of spy!Trip is a little banged up and broken in a way that made his spy business more believable. I am sure we will get more of this. Also we meet Kirk's great grandparents? I think? It was so fun and cool and subtle. I love when the novels are given the latitude to do that.

At the end the author in the acknowledgements laid out all the references from the series that he made which I thought was super cool! He even credited the writers who wrote the episodes that he stole stuff from. He also acknowledged that this section of the timeline is murky and there are other novels with it going differently which I thought was very reflective of him to acknowledge that that is an aspect that makes the novels fun.

I give this one 9/10 stars! Really just good old fashion Star Trek fun. The next one is Rise of the Federation: Tower of Babel by Christopher Bennett, let's see if it is as good!

[startrek-readerslog]

Starfleet Year One by Michael Jan Friedman

It is becoming clear to me that the optimum length for a Star Trek novel is around 300 pages. Long enough to tell a story, and short enough to not be cumbersome. This one was interesting, not belonging to any particular Star Trek Series, but instead being unrelated to any on screen character. Let's get into it!

The Author

I wanted to look a little bit into this author because this is his debut on this blog! It appears it won't be his last as he has written a massive number of tie in novels for Trek (around 30 or so). He has also written for a variety of different properties including X-Men, Lara Croft, and Alien. He also co-wrote a Voyager episode ("Resistance" which I remember enjoying quite greatly). His website doesn't contain any really personal details about him that I could find.

The Summary

Okay first we have to get something kind of confusing clear. This book was written and published at least 4 years before Enterprise was airing. The note at the beginning says that this originally was published serially and then expanded and compiled into this novel, so that means that it doesn't line up with the plots of the other books I have read so far. It takes place at the end of the Romulan War (which we just saw in The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm). The final battle takes place at Cheron. This is where we were for tRW:tBtS, so that got me wondering if that was a nod to this book made by Martin or what. Some digging on the Memory Alpha says it was mentioned in ENT as the end of the war, so the only logical conclusion is that the thought originated here and was put into the show and then in tRW:tBtS! Which is so cool and fun. Back to the main point, I am going to consider this a like companion piece to what may have been happening while Archer was doing his own thing. The names of all the Federation representatives are different but oh well! I can hold two truths in my head.

Okay real summary time. On Earthbase 14 we meet Shumar, the current head honcho, his security officer Kelly, Corabyn who is a Rigelian running cargo, and Dane who is a Cochrane pilot running protections for him. They fight of a little Romulan attack. Shortly afterward Six Earth Defense captains go to Cheron in order to put on a final offensive against the Romulans. One doesn't make it but the rest of them get the job done. Some of them are then all tapped to be the beginning of Starfleet after the Federation is created.

It is very clear the fledgling Starfleet needs some soul searching and parameter setting on what it's mission is. They tap three military personas (Matsura, Stiles, and Hagedorn) and three civilian perspectives (Dane, Shumar, and Corabyn) to be Starfleet's first captains. The next generation of ships is being built with the USS Daedalus the first to be ready, and only one of them is going to be in the captain's chair. Whoever gets picked truly sets the tone for the rest of Starfleet, military or science, that's the question.

The captains get their crews together (that need to have an alien quota). They are given current Chrisopher class ships to start getting Starfleet's name out there in the federation. They make decisions more or less along party lines while they are out there, but some of the science minded folk get military experience. The military captains disregard their crew's want to explore and discover. Lot's of tension all around. The captain's run into each other a few times and express (civilly) their different opinions. Corabyn tries to seduce Kelly (for the second time, he tried at the very beginning of the book too).

They are called to the Orieas system as there are human colonies there that recently experienced an attack. The military folk go in there guns blazing looking for the attackers and trying to destroy them. The Starfleet vessels appear to be outmatched by the unknown attackers. Matsura and Shumar figure out the these are the descendants of ancient inhabitants to these world that are upset the colonists disturbed some burials. They find a peaceful solution, and then Matsura is named captain of the Daedalus, but it is clear that they are a team now, bringing different backgrounds to a common goal. Starfleet will have fire power, but pursue peace and science as primary missions.

My Thoughts

I thought this one was great! Characters well defined even though none of them are on screen friends. I was concerned that it was going to feel like these characters were forgettable, but they were each distinct enough that they were memorable. My favorite of the captain's was Corabyn. At some point it is told to him that he only got the job because he was an alien who tolerated and wanted to work with humans. He understood that was the logic behind his placement, but was excited about the opportunity because of his optimism and curiosity. His flirtations with Kelly were also very fun and good.

The conflict was very clear from the beginning, brains vs brawn. There were big power players in the higher ups that each had their reasons for wanting one or the other. I was excited to see how Friedman got us to the Star Trek I know and love. One of exploration and peace seeking. I like thinking of how you go from a military to an organization like this because that is a pivot that we will have to make as a society.

In terms of writing style I enjoyed Friedman's blunt prose as opposed to Martin's more flowery prose. I am excited to see what he does in more established Trek.

I give Starfleet Year One 8/10! Next up is back into Enterprise with Rise of the Federation: A Choice of Futures by Christopher L. Bennett.

[startrek-readerslog]

The Romulan War: To Brave the Storm by Michael A Martin

Okay I think part of the issue with the last one was that it was too long!! This one was only 300 pages, and much easier to get through. Spoiler alert I liked it a lot better than the first one!

The Summary

This one jumps off basically where the last one ends. The Enterprise is on patrol duty around Earth and nobody's super happy about it (they want to be out there pew pewing at Romulans). But they get to just do nice things for passing vessels in distress which feels very Star Trek! They do rescue and repair missions. It is a really smart part of diplomacy, people are more likely to help you if they like you, and well everybody kind of hates Captain Archer because he left the Kobayashi Maru to die. They go on a few formal diplomacy missions and get denied official help.

We bop around a bit and see what Trip is up to (being a bad fake Vulcan) and the search for the killer of Surak's katra, what's going on with Gannet (being mad that she isn't covering the war), some politicking, and some Romulan POV. The Romulans deploy a bioterrorism weapon and try to bomb Mars with some meteors (don't worry they don't succeed). Trip is behind Romulan lines once again, and he let's T'Pol know where the next big offensive is going to be. Also Travis rejoins at some point here. T'Pol and Archer convince Starfleet to let them go to where the Romulans are staging and they do some fighting! They get back up from unofficial Andorian and Klingon vessels, as well as really sanctioned Vulcans. They win (Trip is once again presumed dead). The story ends at the beginning of the federation. The afterward is Trip and T'Pol's cute little family 25 years later.

My Thoughts

This one was genuinely good! It felt so much more Star Trek than the previous war novel. It was mainly the Enterprise doing good things and helping others while the bigger plot progressed around it. We got to see multiple POVs that allow us to glimpse what is happening in the Romulan government, in the United Earth parliament, and on Vulcan, but none of them take up enough story to really feel oppressive. Our main concern lies with the Enterprise and her crew, which is in my opinion as it should be. This novel's pacing felt better in that regard. I think it helped that the book itself was much shorter than the last one, probably about half the length accounting for formating. I literally sped through this one in a way that I could not for "Beneath the Raptor's Wing".

Because we know that Starfleet wins the Romulan War because of TOS, I think it is an interesting dilemma to make this story feel like something compelling. I do think that this book succeeded in that. I really enjoyed this book's exploration of the Vulcan's pacifism. T'Pau made for an interesting POV to read from. In general I still think Trip makes literally the worst spy, the man is nothing but a Southern Gentleman and is really bad at covering it up. I loved the epilogue, getting to glimpse him and T'Pol and their happy little family.

I give this one a 8/10! Really loved it actually. Next up is Starfleet Year One which apparently is only new character, so I am interested to see if it can capture my attention.

[startrek-readerslog]

The Romulan War: Beneath the Raptor's Wing by Michael A Martin

Another one where I read this book over the course of a few month (I was reading A LOT outside of the Star Trek Universe and I got caught up in a few series), so my thoughts on this one are also a little scattered. I think I want to make it my goal going forward to read (and post) at least once a month to keep me on track!

The Summary

In the last book we started a war, which now we are losing! Very fun! Archer goes to try and get the Klingons in on our side but the response a little tepid. On the way back to Earth from that mission Travis is losing some morale and no longer wants to be on the Enterprise because he didn't like how Archer dealt with the Kobayashi Maru in the last novel. Hoshi is uncomfy but it convinced to stay. The Vulcans weigh in on this war and decide to stay out of it, which does not bode well. Gannet Brooks makes appearances to shit on Earth from the front lines of the war.

(can you tell this one jumps around a lot?)

Trip is rescued by Vulcans and is going to spy on Vulcan now. T'Pol goes to Vulcan and resigns so that she is just a member of the Enterprise now (because of the aforementioned Vulcans pulling out of the war), but what is ultra weird is that it is because Surak's katra is in T'Pau?? There is a lot of Romulan politics I didn't super care about and don't remember! There is some fighting where we meet back up with Travis who is piloting a different vessel. This fight goes poorly and the Andorians and Tellarites both also decide to back out of the fight.

My Thoughts

I think similar to the last one, this book focused a lot more on plot than it did on characters in a way that didn't do it for me. When there was a character focus it felt a little off? Sometimes? It felt like Travis was very angry in a way that was OOC for me. I kind of get where the author was going with this, but idk leaving seemed like a lot for him. I think T'Pol continues to be a super interesting character with motivations that we don't quite understand and I want to understand her better.

Also Trip, dude I love this guy, he's my favorite character on Enterprise, but the man is NOT a spy. Let him go hang with his friends in peace. Let them all hang with their friends in peace! Star Trek is about peace and science and exploration, and look I get that that is in the future and first we need to get there, but that's what I love about the franchise. War novels are just generally not my thing.

I give this one 4.5/10 stars, but let's go finish up this story line in To Brave the Storm!

[startrek-readerslog]

Kobayashi Maru by Michael A Martin and Andy Mangels

I love the Kobayashi Maru as a concept in the Star Trek universe. I am interested to see how that idea is fleshed out in the novel. Just a general disclaimer, I read this novel over a few months and picked it up on and off so I feel like my thoughts are more scattered than they usually are.

The Summary

This story is again like the last one is told in multiple POVs. You have Trip's on Romulus, Archer and T'Pol's on the Enterprise, occasionally you have the Romulan POV, the crew aboard the Kobayashi Maru, and the members of the Coalition of planets. Trip's job is to discover some new and secret Romulan technology that will let them reach warp 7. He tries to accomplish this by pretending to be the student of the scientist who is working on the project who is a little addled. Of course lots of things go wrong, and Trip ends up under the scrutiny of Valdore, the Romulan head honcho. While this is going on ships and world allied to the Coalition keep getting attacked by "friendlies". That seems really fishy to Archer and he urges the Coalition that all is not what it seems. He is right, the Romulans have a remote piloting technology that they are using.

As Trip gets into deeper and deeper shit, T'Pol's spidey senses go off and she and Reed go on a rescue mission to try and make sure Trip is safe. Once rescued he heads back into Romulan space despite the danger. Trip gets caught up with the Vulcan/Romulan operative Sopek who knows T'Pol, and is convinced he is actually working for Romulus. Sopek and Trip end up going out to meet up with the Kobayashi Maru, but it is clear that the ship was only a distraction to get the Enterprise into remote control range. Trip manages to tip off Archer and crash the Romulan ship he is on into an asteroid. The novel ends with a declaration of war.

My Thoughts

I think this novel had less emotional oomph than the last one. I missed those emotional scenes between T'Pol and Trip. It felt much more plot focused than character focus. I think these two writers still have a fairly flowery writing style for my taste. Also who the fuck thought it was a good idea to send Trip in there with like 0 spy skills. The man is lovely, but a horrible spy. He had nowhere near enough intel for it to be a successful mission and like 0 ability to improvise. We did get some fun back story on T'Pol and her previous life as a Vulcan intelligence operative though which I did enjoy.

I think ultimately not a lot about this novel stands out sadly. That may be because I read it over such a long period of time, or it may be that it took me so long to read because it never captured my attention fully.

I give this one a 5/10. The next one is about the war that they just started: The Romulan War: Beneath the Raptor's Wing. This one is just by Martin so let's see how he reads solo!

[startrek-readerslog]

Short Story Dump 1

Let’s try out the short story dump! I will include all the story titles and authors in the tags.

Cabin E-14 by Shane Zeranski: 

Dr. Phlox is deemed the best person to decontaminate the crew quarters of resident time traveler Daniels. 

A light hearted yet interesting Phlox POV! I think it was a little Phlox depth with a loved one he loved and lost along with a little foreshadowing of Tucker’s demise.

8/10

Rounding a Corner Already Turned by Allison Cain:

Porthos and Malcom switch bodies.

I love my Star Trek with shenanigans. There is a silly chase scene, funny moments of both human in dog body and dog in human body. This is my first home run.

10/10

Insantiy by A. Rhea King:

The crew comes in contact with a device that makes them live their worst fear.

A little bland, a little forgettable, but well written. Each of the crews fears was interesting to think about.

6/10

Savior by Julie Hyzy:

The Enterprise runs into a time traveler trying to change the future of his planet, they try to stop him.

Wow I really had to read about Space jesus and what would have happened if we all were Christians huh? This Jew is a little sad about that.

2/10

Have Beagle Will Travel: The Legend of Porthos by Louisa M. Swann:

Porthos is a legendary spy.

I hated this one. It was almost unintelligible. I hated the premise. This is also a professional commission work! Not fanfic!! How was it so bad?

1/10

Earthquake Weather by Louisa M. Swann:

Trip can’t sleep but everyone else sure can.

Given this is the same author as the last one I was apprehensive, but it was benign. A little mystery moment that felt reminiscent of the show.

6.5/10

Hero by  Lorraine Anderson:

Janitor saves the day.

This is certainly one of the shortest stories (4 pages). The idea of a person who doesn’t have any special talents still having a place on the ship makes my heart a little happy.

7/10

Mother Nature's Little Reminders by A. Rhea King:

Tornado on an away mission; Trip has some flashbacks.

Wow making Trip responsible for the death of his grandfather because he loved his dog too much is like...a lot. Cute T’Pol and Trip moment tough.

5/10

[startrek-readerslog]

The Good That Men Do by Andy Mangels and Michael A Martin

Finally back into a Star Trek novel swing! This one actually totally caught my attention because it is about Tucker and his you know general state of not being dead.

The Summary

Tucker and T’Pol are on Vulcan burying their kind of daughter. They meet back up with the e. Shran asks the Enterprise for help after his semi girlfriend gets captured by Romulan (at least he thinks that’s what happened). The idea is that the Romulans kidnapped some Aenar to use as remote weapons pilots. Archer is given orders to ignore them and come back to Earth for the signing of the Coalition. Trip is super angry about their inability to do anything. Malcom puts Trip in contact with someone in Star fleet intelligence and Trip gathers a few key members of the crew to fake his death (however this doesn’t involve T’Pol). They organize his death and everyone believes it (except T’Pol). He gets assigned to a covert Romulan mission where his body is physically altered to appear like a Romulan scientist who is believed dead. He goes to rendezvous with the Romulans to plans for a warp 7 engine from a Romulan scientist. Things go south, and him and the scientist escape but the scientist figures out Trip isn’t who he says he is. Trip gets knocked out and the scientist escapes but promises to keep Trip’s secret. While this is happening Shran and Archer are disobeying orders to go after the Aenar that have been kidnapped. They get most of them back and at the request of the ones they couldn’t save kill them so they can’t be used as weapons. Trip contacts Archer to warn him of an attack on a Coalition hopeful and archer passes on the message but not quite in time. The story ends at the opening of the coalition talks and Trip says hello to Archer and tells T’Pol the truth.

My Thoughts

This is the first of the novels that I think the plot actually really excited me!! In the show Tucker’s death feels so worthless. Random aliens board the ship, he dies taking them down so that Archer can live. It felt very out of the blue and like it wasn’t necessary. It felt not real which sounds silly, but the books really add something here. So far the books have been not really adding anything to the canon. Just little in between bits, but this makes that plot feel whole.

Both parts of the plot felt relevant, but the Enterprises plot felt a little more fleshed out. I was super stressed for Trip the whole time. I think the best scenes in the book were the more emotional ones where him and T’Pol interacted at the beginning and the end. Burying a daughter you never got to have was appropriately emotional. I was pissed when he didn’t tell her about his fake death, and felt vindicated when he decided to fill her in. This isn’t a love story but I always love a good romance under current. I hope we get some more midnight trysts between the two of them in coming volumes.

Mangles and Martin have a very flowery writing style which I don’t think is horrible but was at times distracting when I had to look up a word to understand what was happening. I think they make a great team as far as putting together a story with heart which is what this and their previous novel share.

I give it an 8.5/10. This really got me back in the Star Trek novel groove. Next up by the same authors is Kobayashi Maru.

[startrek-readerslog]

Rosetta by Dave Stern

After a little bit (read three month) break, we have returned with our friend Dave Stern for a Hoshi centric book. The idea of a book about Hoshi really excited me. I think she is an extremely under utilized character in the show, and needed a little depth.

The Summary

This book takes place around an alien trade coalition called The Confederacy. They pop into the Thelasian Confederacy before going back to Earth for a peace conference (that may be the beginning of the United Federation of Planets???). While they pop on on the Confederacy they run into hostile ships which they learn are called the Antianna. Communication attempts fail, and they turn to Hoshi to try and decode a repeating message that they received from the new comers. Hoshi recently back from her stint with the Xindi is still shaken emotionally and mentally. She looses all confidence in her abilities, and this isn't helped by her inability to translate the new message.

On the Confederacy's main planet they meet this obviously shady leader. Hoshi connects with their mediators who are tasked with decoding the same message, and they meet an Andorian who survived a meeting with the mystery species. A lot of politcal nonsense happens, but basically Archer (and shady leader) are blown up and presumed dead. Hoshi goes and spends some quality time with the mediators and the Andorian, Theera. Tucker is in charge of the Enterprise, but doesn't quite want to leave and get to the conference like Star Fleet wants him too.

Eventually we learn that Archer and shady leader are alive (no surprise). Hoshi after a lot of effort (and Theera giving some clues while being tortured) does crack the code of the Antianna. She goes over to their ship with a mediator to try and negotiate peace. The deal is the aliens are AI remnants of an ancient civilization who thought they were still fighting a war. Theera is an android created by them based off of real Theera who died in an attack. The aliens apologize for their destruction and leave. We end with the Enterprise crew back together and off to the conference.

My Thoughts

I read this book with kind of a long pause in the middle so it is hard to really get my thoughts together on this one. I feel like I appreciated Hoshi's trauma from her abduction getting to be explored a little more than it did in the show. It makes sense that this would have a lasting impact on her and her confidence in her abilities. I am also just a sucker for translation stories and things that tend to be academic puzzles at heart. I really appreciated how this author read up a little on linguistics for the novel. I am sure an expert would have seen flaws, but as a casual enjoyer of linguistics I thought it was fun.

I think that Tucker got to shine as a comedic relief in a way that I think is hard to pull off in a book. While he was in many ways the comedic relief I think that it was cool to see him as captain. He is always one of my favorite characters and I think he was super well written in this book.

I think the most impactful moment of this book to me that was really skimmed by was when Theera was reabsorbed???? We had a full "but I want to stay" moment before she was absorbed into basically the Borg. Well not the Borg but they were very Borg like. She reached a state of consciousness that meant she wanted to live her life away from the collective. We didn't really get a moment to mourn for her, or any follow up about her husband she left behind.

I give this book a 6.5/10. It wasn't enough to always keep me really pulled in. Next we pop back to Martin and Magels with The Good That Men Do. Tucker is on the cover so I'm excited!

[startrek-readerslog]

Last Full Measure by Martin and Mangels

So we have skipped some time in the series and now are in the Expanse after the Xindi attack on Earth. Which honestly really surprises me, as it felt like the Xindi was something that could have really been explored in the novels, but maybe because it was so thoroughly explored on screen it shut out a lot of room for story in a novel. Anyway, let’s get into it!

The Author(s):

 Upon some simple googling it looks like these two write their Star Trek novels TOGETHER. I found only a few that Martin wrote a few novels by himself and that Mangels wrote only one short story without his pal Michael Martin. It looks like the two of them wrote a lot of DS9 comics together, as well as stuff for the Titan series which follows Riker post-TNG. 

The Summary:

The MACOs are annoying the hell out of the Enterprise crew, and the Enterprise crew would like to annoy the hell out of the Xindi. To back up a little the intro takes place way after the Xindi incident and at the Star Fleet monument to those who died in war. Its from the POV of someone who we don’t know. Jump back to the Enterprise in the Expanse. They are trying to find anything that they can about the Xindi’s home world and where they are building a weapon. So the captain and some MACOs head down to a trading planet on some intel, while T’Pol has the helm. (A lot of main crew are incapacitated due to an anomaly in the Expanse, so Tucker and Hoshi effectively get written out of the book) While on the Enterprise T’Pol picks up traces of the Xindi fuel and sends Travis and some MACOs out to see whats up. 

So we have an A story line and a B story line. In the A story line they find someone who has been moving packages for the Xindi and kidnap him to take them to where he takes the packages. He does this a little too willingly because he is being paid by the Xindi to bring them there. They make a near death escape and blow up the fake station. In the B story line they find out that the trails are because there is a processing plant nearby for the Xindi fuel. With some loss of life they manage to blow it up, and almost everyone aside from a few metaphorical red shirts make it out. 

My Thoughts:

So this book was 40 dollars...which is a little ridiculous for a 16 year old Star Trek paperback. That was a steal compared to the 80 dollars some people were asking, so I was coming into this book with some anger that I paid 40 dollars for it. However I think this is the best full length novel that I have read so far. 

First of all it is strongest in its ability to recreate the feeling of an episode of the show. It has that classic A story line and B story line that feel indicative of almost an episode of TNG. Following different story with different POVs was really a strong suit of this novel.

Second the authors really took the time to develop almost every character we met, even the ones who died. This made their deaths feel like they have a little more meaning and affect. It also kept me guessing who of the side characters was going to live and die.

Third, it explored something new and interesting that they didn’t get to explore in the show! The relationship between the MACOs and the crew was tense at times especially with Reed, but really we didn’t hear more about it. None of them were developed enough for me to care about. In this novel I felt the authors realistically explored the relationship between the MACOs and the crew and also got to develop that relationship. It makes sense that they would hate each other, and also make sense that they have bonding moments.

LASTLY TUCKER IS ALIVE?????? EXCUSE ME I THOUGH THAT THE NOVELS WEREN’T ALLOWED TO CHANGE CANON LIKE THAT.

I give this book a solid 8/10, fun read that I genuinely enjoyed! Next in the novels we are back to our old friend Dave Stern for Rosetta.