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A review by strikingthirteen
Star Trek: Mere Anarchy by Christopher L. Bennett, Keith R.A. DeCandido, Dayton Ward, Dave Galanter, Margaret Wander Bonanno, Kevin Dilmore, Mike W. Barr, Howard Weinstein
4.0
It's taken me a little bit to get through (due to time constraints, not because the book is hard) but it was a well worth trip. Mere Anarchy takes six eBooks collected into one volume. Each novel takes place during a different time period in Star Trek history (from one of Kirk's first missions on the Enterprise to the first mission of his friends without him) and follows the saga of one planet. In this case Mestiko, which is quite close to the Klingons.
Mestiko is originally just a mission of Kirk's to stop a terrible, planet devastating event. They are only partly successful in this goal but Mestiko and the Federation (namely Kirk) continue having to check in with the planet and its people and deal with any brushfires that come up. It's a neat way to commemorate the franchise's 40th anniversary.
My favourite ones have to be the ones that take place during those gaps in between films. The one before the Motion Picture ("Shadows of the Indignant"), where Kirk uses his clout as an Admiral to get McCoy to help him run a covert mission. I loved the look at how fractured everyone is before the reunion in TMP. "The Blood Dimmed Tide" (set 18 months before "The Undiscovered Country" and featuring Spock in a role that maybe should have given his shipmates a clue) and "Its Hour Come Round" (In which, fresh after Kirk's death, Ambassador Spock, Dr. McCoy, and Uhura attend a Summit as to whether or not Mestiko will join the Federation and some grieving takes place or doesn't). That one felt the rawest to me and most in character. Case and point: Neither Uhura or McCoy are needed in the mission but Spock asks for their presence anyway but will not deal with his own grief anyway but privately.
The best one of the lot is probably the multi-year spanning "The Darkness Drops Again"
It's a long book/collection but well worth it to see the ages pass with Kirk and company and see how much and how little has changed in many ways as the story goes on.
Mestiko is originally just a mission of Kirk's to stop a terrible, planet devastating event. They are only partly successful in this goal but Mestiko and the Federation (namely Kirk) continue having to check in with the planet and its people and deal with any brushfires that come up. It's a neat way to commemorate the franchise's 40th anniversary.
My favourite ones have to be the ones that take place during those gaps in between films. The one before the Motion Picture ("Shadows of the Indignant"), where Kirk uses his clout as an Admiral to get McCoy to help him run a covert mission. I loved the look at how fractured everyone is before the reunion in TMP. "The Blood Dimmed Tide" (set 18 months before "The Undiscovered Country" and featuring Spock in a role that maybe should have given his shipmates a clue) and "Its Hour Come Round" (In which, fresh after Kirk's death, Ambassador Spock, Dr. McCoy, and Uhura attend a Summit as to whether or not Mestiko will join the Federation and some grieving takes place or doesn't). That one felt the rawest to me and most in character. Case and point: Neither Uhura or McCoy are needed in the mission but Spock asks for their presence anyway but will not deal with his own grief anyway but privately.
The best one of the lot is probably the multi-year spanning "The Darkness Drops Again"
It's a long book/collection but well worth it to see the ages pass with Kirk and company and see how much and how little has changed in many ways as the story goes on.