Though I'm posting these reviews of the "Kelvin timeline" comics and novels as complete units, I've actually been jumping around them chronologically. There's a four-month gap between chapters 9 and 10 of The Unsettling Stars; following a timeline I found on the TrekBBS, I inserted into that gap these stories in this order:
- IDW issues #56-58 (Legacy of Spock, parts 2-4)
- More Beautiful than Death
- IDW issues #1-6 (Where No Man Has Gone Before / The Galileo Seven / Operation: Annihilate)
- IDW issues #15-16 (Mirrored)
- IDW issues #7-8 (Vulcan's Vengeance)
Surprisingly, given that I think there was no coordination between the IDW comics and the Simon & Schuster novels, it all hung together! This does mean I wrote up The Unsettling Stars in two parts.
Star Trek: The Unsettling Stars |
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| Published: 2020 Acquired: May 2023 Read: November 2025 |
Chapters 1-9
The first half of this book chronicles what the Enterprise was
doing on its shakedown cruise while Spock Prime was off hanging out with
his people. On its very first mission, supposed to be a calm cruise
around the edge of Federation space, the Enterprise comes across an alien ship carrying refugees under attack from another group of aliens. The Enterprise
defends the refugees, then helps them resettle on the closest
uninhabited inhabitable planet, a moon belonging to yet another group of
aliens.
As a story, it's fine so far. I feel like not a lot has actually
happened: the aliens are essentially friendly, but capable of learning
thing surprisingly fast, and have a tendency... not to lie per se, but to not reveal relevant information until forced by circumstances. This makes the Enterprise
vaguely suspicious but there's nothing concrete for them to point at.
This is reiterated again and again and again in a variety of ways, and
soon it starts to drag a bit. This half of the book ends with the Enterprise
resuming its shakedown cruise; presumably events will call them back in
the second half.
What I did enjoy was Foster's grasp of the characters. Foster is a Star Trek writer of the old school (few older), so he of course knows them well, but he adapts them well to the new circumstances of the Kelvin
timeline. His Kirk and Spock speak dialogue that is recognizable, but
with a twist—these are younger, less experienced versions of the
characters. His Kirk, for example, is confident in his battle tactics,
thanks both to acing Academy classes and his showdown with Nero, but
nervous about his continued presence as captain of the Enterprise,
and wondering if he has what it takes when it comes to, say, diplomacy
and making first contacts, and thus eager to prove himself with an easy
win. His Spock is also recognizable as the character we know of old, but
disturbed by the great tragedy that befell his people. Uhura is
probably the other character who is the most different; she doesn't play
a big role here, but Foster captures what we saw of her in the movie
just fine.
McCoy seems like basically the same person in both realities, but I found Foster's McCoy
fun; his Scotty is recognizably the Simon Pegg version rather than the
James Doohan one per se. (The idea that Kirk has ordered Scott to
give up drinking because when Kirk first met Scott he was drinking on
duty is an interesting one I hadn't ever really thought about!) Sulu and
Chekov don't play big roles here, but get some good banter.
So, it's a little thin but it's also better than I expected; I had found
Foster's novelization of the 2009 film weak, but the character touches
here made this more fun and enjoyable than I anticipated.
Chapters 10-16
As was obvious
from the first half of the book, the Enterprise is summoned back
to the planet of SiBor, where they resettled the Perenoreans. Like the
first half of the book, it's a bit thin as a premise: the Perenoreans
are helpful to a fault, and here the crew must fight back against them
before their "help" endangers the autonomy of the Federation itself.
It's a perfectly fine premise for a Star Trek story, but I didn't really feel there was enough of interest to sustain a novel. Weirdly, though, it all wraps up very
fast; given how short this book feels, surely there was room to expand
the ending some! But once the story climaxes, there's a short little
chapter of wrapup and then it's all over.
Foster writes Chris Pine's Kirk with almost parodic levels of
self-aggrandizement. When the admiral at the beginning of this section
calls Kirk up to chew him out over the situation he caused by leaving
the Perenoreans on SiBor, Kirk thinks he's being called to receive some
kind of amazing commendation. It felt over the top... though I guess
given the last time Kirk violated orders he got promoted from cadet to
captain, maybe it's natural he would think this way!
This is the fifth in a series of posts about the Kelvin timeline Star Trek comics (and novels). The next covers Star Trek, Volume 3. Previous installments are listed below:
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