By James Swallow

Simon & Schuster, out now

In an attempt to impress his crewmates on the Shenzhou, Lieutenant Saru takes precipitate action – not a wise thing to do anywhere near the borders of the Tholian Empire…

We’re very short on Star Trek original fiction at the moment, with Pocket Books’ line only producing a Voyager story from Kirsten Beyer and three ties-in with the new series. Luckily, all of them have been of high quality, and Jim Swallow’s focus on the Kelpien Saru is as intriguing and involving as David Mack and Dayton Ward’s tales.

Like those two earlier books, this is set prior to events in the TV series, with Saru and Burnham both serving under Captain Georgiou. The majority of the scenes are told from Saru’s point of view, and Swallow does an admirable job in portraying the emotions and standpoint of Saru’s character and race; although it’s always a risk that the tie-in writers face, I really hope that the just-announced Short Trek featuring Saru builds upon the information given here – particularly the, shall we say, unusual way in which Saru faces his fear on board ship.

With plenty of action amid the character moments, this is a strong addition to the line. There are various disparate plot and character threads through the book, and Swallow ties them all nicely together in the final act. He introduces two further new races to the Trek universe, both of whom it would go to visit again – when we get them again, a TNG-era story would be fascinating. There’s a degree of foreshadowing throughout the story, in terms of the behaviour of Saru (and indeed Michael Burnham), although we do get a couple of less subtle moments to tie in to Discovery episodes near the very end.

Verdict: An involving story that fleshes out Saru in sometimes unexpected ways. 9/10

Paul Simpson