Reviews

Star Trek Into Darkness by Alan Dean Foster

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shermanberry's review against another edition

3.0

I enjoyed reading this book but that was largely because I love Star Trek and liked the movie.
It reinforced my opinion that when movies are novelised (rather than existing novels being filmed) the movie is way better than the book.
One for fans only.

noll's review against another edition

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3.0

I have several bones to pick with this book and none of them have anything to do with Leonard McCoy. That being said, the overarching plot, provided by the movie which I already knew I loved, was still the same so three stars is where it sits.

I'm not sure if my opinion and overall audience experience with reading it would have been better or worse if I hadn't seen the movie first but more than once I found that the things that were added or changed either didn't fit with my own personal interpretations of characters and their actions in the movie, or directly contradicted things that I considered to be vital points of character development and therefore were very important to my perception of said characters and events.

The biggest problem I had was his characterization of Jim. At first it was small things like going out of the way to describe that he pushed people aside to make way for him to walk, but then I got to the part where

Spoiler

he makes the announcement to the crew about their mission. In the movie he makes the decision on his own (though at the last moment and only after being forced to question the morals of the situation) to lead a landing party onto Qo'noS to capture Harrison alive instead of killing him without confrontation despite his orders. In the book, Jim doesn't decide to go against those orders until the malfunction with the warp core. He made the call, not because he decided it was the right thing to do, but because he literally had no other choice, thus negating any moral brownie points he might have earned had he actually chosen that route on his own.

It really, I felt, detracted from Jim's character. The change, on top of being unnecessary, actually damaged the character and my enjoyment of the book.

There were other smaller changes that I disagreed with, some for mere personal preference and my own interpretation of characters and their emotional reactions to events, others because they just seemed sloppy.

Spoiler

When Jim and Khan do the space jump from the Enterprise to the Vengeance, Jim is on the- shall we say- stage right side, so later when Khan says Kirk is at his one o'clock and should come to his left, the line makes sense. In the book, Foster goes out of his way to specify that Khan is on the right but he doesn't change any of the wording of that bit of dialogue so it makes zero sense. Why? Just. Why?

That being said, there were several things that were added that I really appreciated and enjoyed. The fact that, more than once, Khan and Spock were written as being similar, was really cool. The movie hints at drawing those comparisons, but the book just takes it a step further and it made for an interesting dynamic. There's a part where Jim describes one of Khan's actions as "disarmingly Spock-like" and I actually had to stop and just let that sink in for a bit. I also found it interesting that Khan was repeatedly described as looking at Kirk with pity which is an emotion I tend to consider outside of Khan's personal inventory, both in AOS and TOS, but it added a layer to the character that I'd never really considered before. Still not sure I agree but I don't strictly... disagree either. If that makes sense.

Other great lines include:
'But that was a long time ago, and that bitch reality kept poking him in the side with the ugly stick of immediacy.'
Scotty: "What'd you do to me core?"
Chekov: "Nothing. You can have it back!"
Jim is referred to as a game piece in the midst of a drawn out metaphor about Khan and Spock playing chess with each other.
Jim, to Spock: "[...] When Pike tells us we've been selected for the mission, I promise to exercise moderation by saying 'I told you so' only one time. Per day. For no more than several weeks, whose absolute number shall remain indeterminate until you express contrition."

So overall, the book offers some interesting insights and entertaining bits of dialogue and narration and, aside from a few glaring inconsistencies that may be frustrating to some (myself included) I would consider it worth the read if you want to delve a bit deeper into the universe of the movies. I personally found it to be more of a "take what you want from it as canon but leave the bits you don't like" experience, and after coming to that conclusion, I found reading it to be much more enjoyable.

captperfecthair's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

beckykirk's review against another edition

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4.0

I like how this fills in some small holes from the movie, like Dr. Marcus accent!!

draeprice's review against another edition

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2.0

Skip it.

mary_r_m's review against another edition

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4.0

It's basically the movie, which I loved, so there you are. I liked that it is narrated by the gal who plays Carol Marcus in the movie. She did a great job with the different characters' voices too.