Book 8: Rise Like Lions (Star Trek: Mirror Universe)

          Rise Like Lions by David Mack is the latest Star Trek book for me.  This book reminded me of the play I recently saw (Through the Night) wonderfully acted but the writing was lacking. The book tried to do so much it filled in all the broad strokes and the characters seemed good but it was lacking those tiny details that really make a story.  

          The Mirror universe is a series I tend to neglect. While I loved the mirror universe episodes, there was something about that alternate timeline that seemed hard to translate into a book. It’s like reading about super heroes prose, there is usually something that is lacking so instead of being disappointed it’s just easier to stick what is done right-graphic forms. Although I will admit that I did enjoy a Mirror universe story in Seven Deadly Sins. But aside from that story and watching the ds9 episodes back in the day, reading this book was like Alice falling into the rabbit hole. This book takes place several years after the DS9 episodes and tries to include the Voyager crew and Capt Mac M’k'n’zy Calhoun

         

          One of my biggest problems is that this book didn’t feel like mirror universe and had some real gaps in continuity. I never got how Kes and Nelix made it from the Delta Quadrant. But all in all it failed to have that real gritty feel to the whole book. It definitely felt like an alternate universe but more like an alternate universe that is a half step between mirror and the normal Trek universe. It’s like the Star Trek movie for the continuity.

Then there were just gaps in general in the timeline. This book tried to do soo much. Unify all the different Trek people still alive together in one book. Get the politics to a better spot. No mention on how Duras made it to challenge to rule all the Empire except he was there.

This review is sounding really negative. But I did enjoy the book. It was fun to see Kes alive and interacting with Tuvok, Smiley and Picard. It was one of the few times you could see all that happen. Plus I like the broad strokes to the book. It was a great way to let the Terran Rebellion to triumph over the Alliance.