BookWyrm.World

Elena. reviewed Star Trek: Sarek by A. C. Crispin (Star Trek)

A. C. Crispin: Star Trek: Sarek (AudiobookFormat, 2012)

Spock's mother, Amanda Grayson, is dying, and Spock returns to the planet Vulcan where he …

My eyemuscles weren't powerful enough to keep a straight and beautiful pokerface.

1 star

The amount of eyerolling, sighing, facepalming, and "Oh god, what!? No!" and similar commenting I did was too high to count. I thought about giving this 2 stars, but the longer it went on the more frustrated I became. So 1 star is all I can give.

A lot of this book is a regurgitation of scenes and quotes from TOS episodes and films. It sometimes feels like a badly re-enacted clip show. It's just too much. By a lot. The part about Amanda dying (no spoiler, it literally says on the blurb) left me cold, and her diary entries are beyond juvenile. (I am an avid journaler myself. A journal should never ever be censored or edited. Be as juvenile as you want in yours. I know that I am, and it is very cathartic. But I don't think it makes for good literature.) The part about Peter's stay …

The amount of eyerolling, sighing, facepalming, and "Oh god, what!? No!" and similar commenting I did was too high to count. I thought about giving this 2 stars, but the longer it went on the more frustrated I became. So 1 star is all I can give.

A lot of this book is a regurgitation of scenes and quotes from TOS episodes and films. It sometimes feels like a badly re-enacted clip show. It's just too much. By a lot. The part about Amanda dying (no spoiler, it literally says on the blurb) left me cold, and her diary entries are beyond juvenile. (I am an avid journaler myself. A journal should never ever be censored or edited. Be as juvenile as you want in yours. I know that I am, and it is very cathartic. But I don't think it makes for good literature.) The part about Peter's stay with the Klingons was the most eyeroll inducing of it all. Good grief!

I think the basic story about KEHL and a possible conspiracy behind it, sounds interesting. The execution however did not satisfy me one bit.

I acknowledge, respect, and appreciate the narrator's skill for producing accents and speech patterns. His Sarek was excellent, I also enjoyed his McCoy. However, most of the rest I found a bit too much. Speaking of the narrator: It is not Mark Lenard (as even stated on Simon & Schuster's website), but Nick Sullivan.

#StarTrek #TrekLit #StarTrekNovels #StarTrekBooks

Elena. reviewed Star Trek: Double Helix Omnibus by Christie Golden (The Next Generation, #51-56)

No cover — Christie Golden, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Peter David, Diane Carey, Dean Wesley Smith, John Gregory Betancourt, John Vornholt, Michael Jan Friedman: Star Trek: Double Helix Omnibus (2002, Simon & Schuster)

Like a strand of mutating DNA, a deadly conspiracy winds its way through the Alpha …

Not the medical drama I expected

3 stars

A mixed bag. Some books were good, especially "Vectors", some were average, though all of them had good parts and elements that I liked. I liked that we get to see well known on-screen characters before we meet them in their respective shows. I especially liked to have Dr. Pulaski as the main character in one book, "Vectors". That was great and as I said in my comment about that book, I'd love to have a series called "The 6 husbands of Katherine Pulaski".

When I started reading this series I expected medical drama, which I got in the first two books. But after that the virus was only there to make the story start and the hunt for the maker and the reason they made the virus was the main story.

#StarTrek #StarTrekBooks #StarTrekNovels #TrekLit

Elena. reviewed Articles of the Federation by Keith R. A. DeCandido

A year in the life of the president of the United Federation of Planets

5 stars

Content warning largly spoiler free review with a small but not insignificant spoiler at the very end, specially marked, with space before and after, so you almost can't read it accidentally

This is a really good, never boring look into the Federation government, which unfortunately we don't ever really see on screen, with a few short exceptions. Without a doubt, this book is one of my favourite Trek novels. It's so good.

The book follows the newly elected president throughout one year, January to December, with one or two month breaks in between. The way that was done I found to be a cool way to tell a story.

Each segment (=month) of the book is lead by a chapter of civilians of various planets watching the political commentary and discussion show "Illuminating the City of Light". There the participants discuss the crises and their outcome, that we just read about in the segment before. I liked that a lot.

I also liked the extensive number of races and characters that appear, just as it should be in a Federation of over 150 member states. There are quite a few cameos, some shorter than others, some of more importance than others, some of on screen characters, some of books-only characters.

After the Strange New Worlds episode "Ad Astra Per Aspera" left me wanting a Star Trek legal show, I now want a political show as well. Maybe combine the two themes. Maybe make it a limited series, taking the structure of this book as model.

I discovered one mistake: On page 184 Starfleet's motto "Ad astra per aspera" is translated as "To the stars for hope". That's wrong. The correct translation is "To the stars through hardship". Unfortunately a whole speech is based on that wrong translation.

Interview with the author on Literary Treks podcast: www.trek.fm/literary-treks/265

SPOILER further down . . . . . . . . . . . . . SPOILER AHEAD

There is one thing however that I did not like at all: The involvement of Section 31. It is never named, but I guess that “they” are meant to be Section 31. The more I think about Section 31 the more I dislike it. I want it out of Star Trek. I want it completely dismantled and never to re-surface again. That would be a great episode of Star Trek.

END of SPOILER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . #StarTrek #StarTrekBooks #StarTrekNovels #TrekLit