52/2024 – ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Almost four stars…but not quite. There are three connected storylines (it’s not a spoiler if it’s in the back cover blurb, right?): A modern-day (2024) true crime podcaster investigating the mysterious disappearance of one Gillian Taylor in 1986, Kirk and company in the third year of their original voyage rescuing an abducted scientist, and Kirk and company escorting envoys to a conference shortly before the events of The Undiscovered Country. Of the three storylines, I found the latter two to be fairly standard Trek adventure, and would occasionally get confused as to which point in time I was in for a moment when I switched chapters. However, the first storyline, as the podcaster tracks down various minor characters from The Voyage Home to try to figure out what happened to Gillian is great. I really enjoyed the glimpse into what happened on Earth after the events of the movie, and it was a lot of fun to build on many of the gags from the film. That storyline is by far the strongest, and the middle story is the weakest, with yet another “landing party beams down to a pre-industrial society and — surprise! — makes a complete hash of the Prime Directive” situation.
Still, even the weaker parts are entertaining, and Cox ties in lots of little nods to a lot of Trek true canon and beta (book) canon.
(This reaches my goal of 52 books read this year, nice and early! We’ll see how many I end up with in a few more months.)
