Somewhere to Belong (ST: DSC) by Dayton Ward
Genre: sci-fi
I read it as a(n): paperback
Length: 333 pp
Her Grace’s rating: 2.5 stars
Spoilers for anyone who hasn’t watched the show.
Now that the threat from the Emerald Chain is dealt with and the source of the Burn has been identified and corrected, Burnham and the crew of Discovery are able to take some down time to reflect on what the implications really are for them now that they’ve arrived in the 33rd century. Dr. Culber had been standing in as the counselor for the crew, but now that they’re at a starbase, a temporary replacement counselor has been assigned. Then they all get sent out to continue their mission of reconnecting with formerly allied planets that had been cut off from the Burn. They answer a distress signal and discover a ship of Xaheans, staunch allies of the Federation in the 22nd century. Only now, the Xaheans have by necessity become a wandering society and are isolationist on the verge of xenophobia. Capt Burnham has to try her hand at diplomacy to resolve a potentially deadly situation from exploding, and taking her ship and crew with it.
I have never taken so long to read a Star Trek book in my life. I was carting this around with me for the better part of a month! It was barely 300 pages, it should have taken me maybe a week even with work. It was. So. S L O W. I have never DNFed a Trek book but I came very close to doing so on this one. It was so out of character for Dayton Ward’s novels that it was kind of shocking how fucking bored I was with this one. It felt like he wrote himself into a corner and had no options for resolution other than cheesy and unbelievable ones.
The overarching theme in the story is, of course, finding where one belongs. Ward explores the topics of what makes a home, how we create a found family, if home is a place or a feeling, and so on. At times, the exploration was a bit ham-handed. It felt sermony, which is usually reserved for Burnham although she managed to refrain from sermonizing this time.
Also, this is kind of a weird observation. To be fair, I haven’t read every Trek book Ward has written so I could be wrong. But this book makes me think that he does not know how to write gay male characters. Stamets and Culber were definitely not right in this book. They were always saying something petulant or acting moody. Even though the characters recognized that and corrected it, it was still the first thing that was described. None of the other characters were handled that way. Maybe he just doesn’t like Culber or Stamets, which is fine if so. We don’t have to like all the characters. But I hope he figures out how to write those two characters better if he writes more Discovery books in the future. And I DO hope he does! He wrote Drastic Measures, which is one of my favorite Disco books, partly because it focused mainly on a young Lieutenant Gabriel Lorca, and he’s played by Jason Isaacs who I’m in love with. And partly because of that little tidbit at the very end that was obviously a confused and scared Prime Lorca stuck in the MU and I want to read that story!
Her Grace's Library 