Teaser

No Starfleet vessel has ever explored the Odyssean Pass before. So why is it that Captain Picard has been warned of the next world he will visit? And what does Lieutenant Taurik know of this world’s history?

Review

People often complain about a book being too tropey. Oh no, they’ll say, not another first contact with a species that’s clearly hiding something. Or, oh no, not another love triangle. The truth is that tropes are not inherently bad. A trope is just an idea that’s been used before. And every reader has tropes they enjoy as well as ones they despise. I love so many of the tropes of Star trek. The one where the crew get amnesia. The one where the crew get possessed by energy-based beings. But there are also tropes I intensely dislike. Foremost among these is the one where the crew visit our present day. ‘Future’s End’ is entertaining, but not one of the greats of Voyager. Season Two of Picard is the exact opposite of what I want Star Trek to be. The less said about ‘Carpenter Street’ the better. I want Star Trek to take place in the future, not the present. The creators, writers, and authors, however, clearly have different ideas.

The good news is that Hearts and Minds doesn’t actually throw our protagonists into their past. Instead, we have a series of lengthy sections set in the 2030s on Earth that eventually crosses over into the 24th century. In these Earth-centric chapters we see just about every 21st century character imaginable. Characters from ‘Assignment: Earth,’ ‘Future’s End,’ and ‘Carbon Creek,’ among others whose provenance I am definitely forgetting. These sections fall prey to the greatest failing of the Litverse: the need to tie everything together. It takes a series of episodic adventures that were never intended to connect and attempts to weave the into a single narrative. The result is a headlong stumble into another trope I dislike. The idea that human history has been directed by a shadowy organisation. To be fair to Aegis, their interference is minimal. Yet at the same time, it’s a concept I’ve never found all that plausible. Conspiracy theories are laughable for a reason, after all.

When we’re not caught up in continuity snarls and contradictory canon, Hearts and Minds is actually rather good. Everything that happens in the 24th century is great. Picard makes contact with an alien world, only to be put on trial for crimes committed by Earth in the past. It’s a phenomenal idea, with shades of ‘Friendship One,’ though far better executed. Picard is at his best when working toward an ethical resolution to a diplomatic question. Even without the added gravitas of Patrick Stewart’s portrayal, this is what the man excels at. These chapters have everything I want in Star Trek. Aliens who aren’t just two-dimensional caricatures. The whole crew having an opportunity to stand in the spotlight. A meaty moral dilemma. A handful of phaser blasts. Magnificent stuff, but it’s only half the book that is this good. Honestly, a conversation or set of journal extracts could have conveyed the information from the past to far greater effect, and left us with more time spent with the main characters.

Hearts and Minds then, is a book of two halves, one very good, and the other less so. Worth reading for the former, while the latter is something that won neither my heart nor my mind.

Book Stats

• A Novel of The Next Generation Relaunch
• Published by Pocket Books in 2017
• A First Contact Thriller
• 386 pages