Within the new novel Star Trek: Unusual New Worlds: The Excessive Nation by John JacksonMiller, available from today at Gallery Books (a Simon & Schuster imprint), the crew of the Enterprise discover themselves caught in a world the place the legal guidelines of physics appear to have left the constructing!
The Excessive Nation is the primary prose ebook to characteristic Unusual new worlds crew, and followers of the collection will devour it as they eagerly await the flagship’s return in SNOW season 2. Learn on for our spoiler-free evaluate of The Excessive Nation.
Unusual new worlds
As quickly as you take away the jacket from The Excessive Nation, there is a fairly clear color-coded trace relating to which character will function the novel’s principal protagonist. That is because of the hardcover ebook’s quarter binding, which incorporates a black material backbone paired with a gold paper cowl. The affiliation of colours evokes the uniform worn by Captain Christopher Pike (Mount Anson) on the Paramount+ collection.
It is price alluding to Pike with the duvet, not simply because the USS Enterprise The longest-haired captain of NCC-1701 is the collection character who performs crucial function on this novel, but additionally as a result of it is the voice that Miller captures most skillfully. Pike’s perspective (and penchant for puns) is clear all through the story.
This blends properly with the plot and setting of the novel, which sees the EnterpriseThe staff outdoors has been stranded on a planet the place expertise is forbidden (and the legal guidelines in query are the legal guidelines of physics). As the one individual in Starfleet who can credibly problem Kirk’s place as probably the most horse-aligned captain, which means Pike is by some means in his factor…a truth expanded upon by his fascinating historical past, which performs an necessary function right here.
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I hesitate to incorporate too many plot particulars, primarily as a result of the best way they unfold all through The Excessive Nation was a delight for me as a Trekkie. I might hate to spoil all of this for different like-minded potential readers.
Suffice it to say, Miller does a superb job of tying this novel’s plot to the continuity of Franchise. This consists of hyperlinks to all ten episodes of Unusual new worlds which have been revealed to this point, between two of which this novel takes place.
Whereas SNOW could also be an episodic collection, it additionally has closely serialized parts. The Excessive Nation takes benefit of the truth that some subplots have been unresolved by the point of the season by which it takes place, intelligent storytelling conceit. It additionally means Chief Engineer Hemmer (Bruce Horak) could seem, an at all times welcome addition to any SNOW historical past.
As well as, readers with explicit preferences amongst Enterprise The crew can be happy to see that just about each named character that appeared on the ship in Season 1 will get at the least one line over the course of the ebook. And whereas some crew members play lead roles whereas others tackle supporting roles, this East solely the primary SNOW prose ebook. Pike and his command staff are such compelling characters that they deserve a while within the highlight.
These aren’t simply episodes of SNOW alluded to The Excessive Nationneither…however once more, I would not deny any reader the beautiful pleasure that happens when latinum drops and also you understand precisely mountaineering the collection is referenced. most mountaineering you’ve got watched (and skim), the extra you may respect these revelations.
The land of excessive fantasy
However other than the barrel connections, there’s so much to take pleasure in in The Excessive Nation in itself. A part of that’s the fantastical contact Miller brings to the story, strengthened largely by the maps that accompany every of the novel’s 5 elements.
If, like me, certainly one of your favourite style conventions is the inclusion of a map that you simply dive into as you savor the attitude of the story unfolding on the land depicted therein, these map inclusions are primarily caitaine-nip. Better of all, the explanations for his or her inclusion are fascinating and can slowly perplex because the story unfolds.
Moreover, The Excessive Nation makes use of the distinctive nature of prose storytelling to discover a planet that would probably not seem on display on SNOW, as a result of time and budgetary constraints of tv storytelling. This ends in a setting that has a various vary of environments and a collection of sudden ship varieties, certainly one of which is an unbelievable inclusion that may be significantly troublesome to painting in dwell motion.
One other aspect of prose storytelling that The Excessive Nation take benefit, it is a chance to glimpse the interiority of the characters. This, in flip, offers texture to the prevailing one. SNOW episodes, giving us a glimpse of what Pike could also be considering as he offers with these adventures. A very becoming passage has Pike reflecting on how the breathless tempo of Starfleet exploits is not conducive to full contemplation of the various planets they go to, an fascinating commentary that provides depth to any captain’s journal.
The Excessive Nation
However maybe most necessary of all, The Excessive Nation is an addictive learn full of beautiful character beats and loads of superior settings. All of that is embedded in a setting and story that examines a few of the mountaineeringcrucial themes, together with forming unity within the face of adversity and emphasizing empathy for opponents.
The Excessive Nation is out there at an area bookstore and/or public library close to you beginning in the present day!
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