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A review by kgagne
Burning Dreams by Margaret Wander Bonanno
3.0
Although I enjoyed getting to know the previous captain of the Starship Enterprise a bit better, some aspects fell a bit flat. The author makes a point of drawing a contrast between Pine and Kirk, yet they struck me as more similar than dissimilar: young men heavy with the burden of command, quick to action, with a love for women and horses. I suspect when Roddenberry's first pilot was canned, he recast the role but didn't rewrite the character description — hence the similarities.
The story also bounced around across multiple time periods. Originally the story is framed as a flashback of Pine's life as he relates it to Vina, shortly upon Spock returning him to Talos IV. But this device is eventually dropped, and we never see present-day Pine again — what happened to him? Even within a single chapter, it wasn't unusual to start with the end of that vignette then back up to how Pine got there — and then end with a tease of what the implications would be years later. It struck me as an inconsistent narrative.
Overall, it was a fun, pulpy action book, but not one that did much to expand my awareness or appreciation of the Star Trek universe.
The story also bounced around across multiple time periods. Originally the story is framed as a flashback of Pine's life as he relates it to Vina, shortly upon Spock returning him to Talos IV. But this device is eventually dropped, and we never see present-day Pine again — what happened to him? Even within a single chapter, it wasn't unusual to start with the end of that vignette then back up to how Pine got there — and then end with a tease of what the implications would be years later. It struck me as an inconsistent narrative.
Overall, it was a fun, pulpy action book, but not one that did much to expand my awareness or appreciation of the Star Trek universe.