A review by octavia_cade
Wagon Train to the Stars by Diane Carey

3.0

James Kirk is on a milk run, escorting colony ships to their new home, and we know going in that it's all going to go horribly wrong (else where would the story be?). But it's not the battles and various action sequences that stood out for me here, it's the tone. Kirk's getting old, looking back on his life and the sacrifices made by others to get him where he is, and there's a really quite visceral sense of quiet loss and of poignancy running through the story that I didn't expect. Where it doesn't stack up so much for me is the broad strokes - the main villain of the piece, Billy Maidenshore, is a caricature on legs and every time he's on page the whole thing drops and I get ever more irritated. I hope he dies soon in this series, because I'm sick to death of him already. There's enough genuine, thoughtful conflict with the alien wars and the disagreement between colonists (and between colonists and Starfleet) to propel the narrative without going back to the cartoon villain well again and again and again. I was really close to giving this 4 stars, but the quite excellent tonal restraint doesn't extend to the plot on this point.