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keptinonzebridg's review against another edition
3.0
how many side characters are too many side characters? just pick up this book and you’ll get your answer. I wish we’d gotten to see more of the Enteprise crew, instead of all those different stories that barely entwined at the very end.
neilrcoulter's review against another edition
2.0
I’m not a huge Trek fan—I love the original series, and I’m somewhat familiar with The Next Generation and a few of the movies—but I really enjoyed the first season of Strange New Worlds. To me, it felt like exactly what Star Trek should be, and out of eight episodes in the season, only one was not good.
When I saw a Strange New Worlds novel, I didn’t have much hope that I’d love it, but I was curious to see how a novel would expand the characters I’d grown to love in the series. Predictably, the novel was not at all the “expand the characters” that I was looking for. There is something to be said for the taut, streamlined episodes of less than an hour. That’s the kind of adventure in which the characters can shine. This novel, by contrast, takes more time to read (I listened to the audiobook) and takes more days for the characters than the entire first season of the series. It’s just so, so long. And tedious. And convoluted. The story actually seems closer to a classic Doctor Who story, but even then, it’s like one of the six-episode stories where I feel that five—or even four!—episodes would have been adequate.
I found the story in The High Country very hard to follow and impossible to invest in. The new characters introduced in this book are corny, and the situation on the planet where the Enterprise crew are stranded seems completely implausible. The TV series rarely demands that I know every detail about other Star Trek series, but this book has what I assume are important connections to someone named Jonathan Archer and something he did in the past, presumably in an episode of a series I’ve never seen. Not much fun to hear people talking about Jonathan Archer and have no idea what they’re referring to, and the novel was not nearly intriguing enough to make me spend time looking around for explanations online.
At best, a Trek novel should enjoy more space and a broader canvas to consider questions of colonization and the Prime Directive that have to be sidelined or simplified in a TV episode. And The High Country has moments like that. But those good moments are overwhelmed by what I would call “frantic tediousness.” This is not a contemplative novel, but it’s also not a particularly exciting one.
The audiobook narrator puts his all into the reading, but even though he very accurately captured each character’s accent—eerily like the TV actors in some cases—I wasn’t drawn into the reading. All the female characters sounded whiny, which is exactly wrong for Una and annoying for all the others. The reading makes the book sound like an endless stream of wry quips, and that became annoying well before the end of disc 1 (of 13!).
What I learned: Strange New Worlds is great TV, but not great literature. Not a surprise. Really glad to be done with this book.
When I saw a Strange New Worlds novel, I didn’t have much hope that I’d love it, but I was curious to see how a novel would expand the characters I’d grown to love in the series. Predictably, the novel was not at all the “expand the characters” that I was looking for. There is something to be said for the taut, streamlined episodes of less than an hour. That’s the kind of adventure in which the characters can shine. This novel, by contrast, takes more time to read (I listened to the audiobook) and takes more days for the characters than the entire first season of the series. It’s just so, so long. And tedious. And convoluted. The story actually seems closer to a classic Doctor Who story, but even then, it’s like one of the six-episode stories where I feel that five—or even four!—episodes would have been adequate.
I found the story in The High Country very hard to follow and impossible to invest in. The new characters introduced in this book are corny, and the situation on the planet where the Enterprise crew are stranded seems completely implausible. The TV series rarely demands that I know every detail about other Star Trek series, but this book has what I assume are important connections to someone named Jonathan Archer and something he did in the past, presumably in an episode of a series I’ve never seen. Not much fun to hear people talking about Jonathan Archer and have no idea what they’re referring to, and the novel was not nearly intriguing enough to make me spend time looking around for explanations online.
At best, a Trek novel should enjoy more space and a broader canvas to consider questions of colonization and the Prime Directive that have to be sidelined or simplified in a TV episode. And The High Country has moments like that. But those good moments are overwhelmed by what I would call “frantic tediousness.” This is not a contemplative novel, but it’s also not a particularly exciting one.
The audiobook narrator puts his all into the reading, but even though he very accurately captured each character’s accent—eerily like the TV actors in some cases—I wasn’t drawn into the reading. All the female characters sounded whiny, which is exactly wrong for Una and annoying for all the others. The reading makes the book sound like an endless stream of wry quips, and that became annoying well before the end of disc 1 (of 13!).
What I learned: Strange New Worlds is great TV, but not great literature. Not a surprise. Really glad to be done with this book.
twistedspyder's review
adventurous
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
allisonnaut's review
I've been trying to read this all year and couldn't get into it
kbrsuperstar's review against another edition
Yeah I'm not feeling this audiobook narrator, oh well
jonwesleyhuff's review against another edition
4.0
I read a lot less media tie-in books these days. Mostly, it's just because there's so much I want to read. So reading stories about characters I can watch in another media feels like an indulgence, it that makes any sense. Plus, a lot of tie-in books can be well done but ultimately feel a little light on substance.
All that being said, I love Strange New Worlds, and the characters we've gotten to know over the first series. So, I snapped this right up, eager for another story with this crew. If you're looking forward to seeing the great chemistry of the cast on display sparking off one another you're... uh, not going to get much of that. Not because Miller doesn't write the characters well. Just the opposite, when they do get to interact, or just the time we spend in their heads here, they all feel on-point. I'm excited for Miller to write another SNW book with the full crew for that reason. In this book, however, the crew is splintered early on. It's mostly a Pike book, with Number One and Uhura getting secondary spotlights. This is not a bad thing.
Getting Pike back up on a horse and leaning into the "Wagon Train to the Stairs" roots of Star Trek makes sense for the first book (of what I hope are many!) and Miller plonks the crew in a situation with no easy answers. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and world of Epheska. It's an intriguing premise, building off Trek history in a fun way, and allows Miller to give the adventure a large globe-trotting scope.
The scope maybe gets a little too big toward the end, as character-work (and characters we've gotten to know well) get a little pushed into the background so that the mechanics of the story can clatter toward resolution. There's a sense this almost could have been a two-book story, as we're told about very exciting things after they happened a couple times. All that being said, I'd rather a book be too ambitious versus playing it safe, and I thought it was an incredibly fun ride. I remember, as a kid, reading the first TNG original novel (Ghost Ship) and being so excited to read more adventures of the characters that had come to mean so much to me so quickly. The High Country did that for me again.
All that being said, I love Strange New Worlds, and the characters we've gotten to know over the first series. So, I snapped this right up, eager for another story with this crew. If you're looking forward to seeing the great chemistry of the cast on display sparking off one another you're... uh, not going to get much of that. Not because Miller doesn't write the characters well. Just the opposite, when they do get to interact, or just the time we spend in their heads here, they all feel on-point. I'm excited for Miller to write another SNW book with the full crew for that reason. In this book, however, the crew is splintered early on. It's mostly a Pike book, with Number One and Uhura getting secondary spotlights. This is not a bad thing.
Getting Pike back up on a horse and leaning into the "Wagon Train to the Stairs" roots of Star Trek makes sense for the first book (of what I hope are many!) and Miller plonks the crew in a situation with no easy answers. I enjoyed getting to know the characters and world of Epheska. It's an intriguing premise, building off Trek history in a fun way, and allows Miller to give the adventure a large globe-trotting scope.
The scope maybe gets a little too big toward the end, as character-work (and characters we've gotten to know well) get a little pushed into the background so that the mechanics of the story can clatter toward resolution. There's a sense this almost could have been a two-book story, as we're told about very exciting things after they happened a couple times. All that being said, I'd rather a book be too ambitious versus playing it safe, and I thought it was an incredibly fun ride. I remember, as a kid, reading the first TNG original novel (Ghost Ship) and being so excited to read more adventures of the characters that had come to mean so much to me so quickly. The High Country did that for me again.
taaya's review
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Oh boy, that was a hard read. It took AGES - the last 100 pages took me five hours of constant reading, and they're the quickest part to read in the book. (Usually 100 pages would take an hour or two.)
Okay, on to the story. While the characters started off as themselves they didn't have any chance to behave in their normal ways for most of the book. Pike was neither the Dad nor the huge teddy bear nor the witty charmer - not even the struggling victim of knowing his own future. And Una hinted at her people, but we didn't see any of her actual resourcefulness. And while Hemmer started off as the lovable grump, he also lost his character trait later on. (Spock and Uhura remained truer to their on-screen personalities, but also felt a little off from time to time.)
And then... Where was the FUN? The found family vibes? Hell, even in the second gorn episode (1x9) and even in "Hegemony", the darkest episodes in SNW so far, we got lots of fun and Pike lightening the mood, and characters just being one big family and here... Nothing. But that's the heart of SNW.
Instead the book splits up our beloved crew and all of them have to struggle on their own.
And Pike having been drawn to a Luddite lifestyle? Just because we've seen him cook and ride a horse in the show? (He did watch SciFi even when he was struggling!) This felt off. (And yes, I know, Anson Mount does pottery, builds furniture from scratch,... But Pike and Mount are two different people.)
So, no. Even though the book got better in the last 100 pages and earned itself another star in my book, this was far from what I hoped we'd get as an SNW book. This could've worked with Archer, where the crew doesn't feel really close to one another. But with SNW, where the charm lies in having the crew interact? This book ain't it.
Okay, on to the story. While the characters started off as themselves they didn't have any chance to behave in their normal ways for most of the book. Pike was neither the Dad nor the huge teddy bear nor the witty charmer - not even the struggling victim of knowing his own future. And Una hinted at her people, but we didn't see any of her actual resourcefulness. And while Hemmer started off as the lovable grump, he also lost his character trait later on. (Spock and Uhura remained truer to their on-screen personalities, but also felt a little off from time to time.)
And then... Where was the FUN? The found family vibes? Hell, even in the second gorn episode (1x9) and even in "Hegemony", the darkest episodes in SNW so far, we got lots of fun and Pike lightening the mood, and characters just being one big family and here... Nothing. But that's the heart of SNW.
Instead the book splits up our beloved crew and all of them have to struggle on their own.
And Pike having been drawn to a Luddite lifestyle? Just because we've seen him cook and ride a horse in the show? (He did watch SciFi even when he was struggling!) This felt off. (And yes, I know, Anson Mount does pottery, builds furniture from scratch,... But Pike and Mount are two different people.)
So, no. Even though the book got better in the last 100 pages and earned itself another star in my book, this was far from what I hoped we'd get as an SNW book. This could've worked with Archer, where the crew doesn't feel really close to one another. But with SNW, where the charm lies in having the crew interact? This book ain't it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Death, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and Alcohol
Minor: Slavery, Violence, and War