STAR TREK: STRANGE NEW WORLDS: ASYLUM - Una McCormack


 Una Chin-Riley is the poster girl for Starfleet: smart, driven, and dedicated. She's a by-the-book student, not afraid to ask questions and to quote the manual when she thinks something is being done incorrectly.  And like all really good students, she's also active in extra-curricular activities.  She's often the lead in the Academy-produced opera and she has sympathies for displaced peoples and works with groups to help people seeking asylum.

Christopher Pike is an ensign, having only recently graduated from the Academy, he's back at Starfleet waiting for a hearing for an incident during his short tenure on the ship.  He's asked to give a lecture to students ... he's closer in age to them  (compared to the usually retired people who lecture) and yet he's got actual starship experience.

Pike takes a liking to Una, despite her being so by-the-book and his realizing 'the book' doesn't have all the answers out in space.

25 years later, Christopher Pike is captain of his own starship and Una is his Number One and they are on assignment to settle a trade agreement when there is a terrorist attack. But the attack and the trade agreement are the least of Una's worries when she discovers that she knows the attacker from her days at the Academy helping those who sought asylum. The attacker was someone she helped and someone who knows too much about her own history.

This was the first book I've read by Una McCormack, and my first Star Trek: Strange New Worlds novel, and I found it quite well written. I'm a fan of the Star Trek: Strange New Worlds series and I thought the characters here acted and sounded the way we would expect them to, having watched the series. I'm not generally a fan of multiple timelines in a book and I would have been happy with just the Academy era storyline, but this worked well - the Academy story being a bit stronger and more interesting.

There is something from the Starfleet Academy days that is rather legendary in the Star Trek lore (I don't want to give too much away) that has its origins here. It's a fun bit for Star Trek fans.

This is precisely the sort of book I'm looking for when I read a Star Trek novel ... something that gives me more insight to the characters I already know and am familiar with, while giving me a solid story in the process.  I'm definitely interested in reading more works by McCormack.

Looking for a good book? Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Asylum by Una McCormack is a well written Star Trek story with characters that sound and act like those we're familiar with.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Edelweiss, in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars

* * * * * *

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Asylum

author: Una McCormack

series: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds #2

publisher: Galley Books

ISBN: 9781668051368

hardcover, 320 pages

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