Star Trek: Starfleet Academy by Mike JohnsonMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
I downloaded this coverless edition from Netgalley. I don't usually pick up Star Trek expanded universe books, but I thought to give this one a go.
The book is essentially along two plotlines, one from 2258 with Uhura at the centre of a conspiracy, and another one in 2261 which features heretofore unknown cadet T'Laan going through some turmoil.
Per se the story is quite interesting and the 100 pages read pretty fast (even for a comic book). The art is very clean, which made the reading easier. I hate it when I spend more time deciphering the action than reading what's going on. The artist also got the Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto resemblances down quite well. Chekov's brief appearance looks like the late Anton Yelchin, but it's pretty uneven from time to time. Uhura, though, looks nothing like Zoe Saldana - not sure why.
The trouble with this story is that it takes off from the 2009 Star Trek film, which I don't like. The creators of this series don't try to deviate from the inherent problems from its originating film series. In Uhura's storyline there are next to no other women around her; and none that add to the storyline. Uhura's story also requires her to lean heavily on the main cast of male characters we're used to (well, they're all male, so that's a restriction the writers couldn't escape). Also, the Uhura-Spock romance plays a pivotal role in this book, which just angers me more. Never should have happened!
In the 2261 there are thankfully more female characters. Three of the main group of cadets are girls and the Academy president or head is also a lady.
Problem is all the female characters are drawn exactly the same. We have weird-looking male aliens and males of all shapes and sizes, but the ladies are all the same stick figures; no variation. It gets to a point where it becomes hard to make out the difference between all of them, especially when they're in spacesuits, because they're identical.
Also, the central conceit of the 2261 storyline didn't work, at all. The character T'Laan wants to be with her people on New Vulcan but her Starfleet Academy CO (or whatever designation he had) blackmails her into staying and competing in the centennial celebration competition. This really didn't sit well with me. I'm pretty sure no sane person (human or alien) would stop a person, especially a student, from returning to their newly-established home planet, especially after it was decimated so recently. What kind of heartless person does that? Of course, the creators of the book seem more than happy with this course of action, because, SPOILER ALERT, not only does T'Laan compete, she saves a long-lost ship of people and remains at Starfleet Academy and makes friends! What an arc! Vulcans, they're just like us. No never mind that she hasn't visited her new homeland or received a chance to come to terms with how her entire race was decimated. The humanisation of Vulcans must continue (because anyone who's different can't be normal). END SPOILER
What irked me about this book was the writing. Awful, expository dialogue gave this entire book an amateurish feeling. I've been reading a variety of comic books this year, and despite it being a dialogue-heavy medium, there are ways to portray character emotions and provide information that doesn't involve telling it like it is. It's not bad enough that the writer inserts a species that can speak nothing but exposition (how lazy is that?), but the rest of the characters, who have no excuse for speaking like this, do so anyway.
While the story is fun, this book still tows the familiar, comfortable tropes, which makes it annoying. The writing is poor and that detracts from the overall quality. This is definitely not Star Trek at its best.
PS: SPOILER: I'm so confused about there being a character in 2159 named Juliette Bashir. I can't make out whether she's an ancestor of Dr. Julian Bashir. It's a cool nod to an awesome character, but ultimately wasted because it has no reason to be there. END SPOILER
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