STAR TREK: PICARD – THE LAST BEST HOPE / AUTHOR: UNA MCCORMACK / PUBLISHER: POCKET BOOKS / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
We’ll say this straight off the bat – if you’re enjoying the new Star Trek: Picard show, then this prequel novel is well worth your time.
Set a few years before the Romulan sun went supernova, The Last Best Hope tells the full story of Jean-Luc Picard’s crucial role in the evacuation mission. We get backstories for the new characters in the show (including Picard’s colleague Raffi Musiker and cybernetics expert Dr Agnes Jurati) and we check in with Geordi La Forge and Bruce Maddox to see the creation of the synths, whose rebellion set the whole show in motion.
The new characters, such as popular politician Olivia Quest (who threatens secession from the Federation to provoke reform in the organisation) and a Romulan scientist who is forced by his government to disagree with his own findings even to the end, are all very believable with understandable motives and there are very few capital-b Bad guys. Like the characters, you feel very confused as to why the Romulans are actively making Starfleet’s mission harder. But I would argue that the real villain of the book is ‘the concept of leaving Romulans to die’.
Author Una McCormack proves why she was a good choice for this gig. She tells a compelling story, which does the impossible and convinces you that Picard can be successful in his mission, even when you know exactly how it turns out. Her treatment of Picard is pitch-perfect; he feels exactly like he did in the original TV show. His determination, even in the face of colossal setbacks, carries you along until it goes horribly wrong. Essentially, it’s a story of what happens when even the best plans don’t work out.
Some people have a problem with the way that Picard is treating the world of Star Trek, saying that it’s too dark, too action-focused and departs from Roddenberry’s vision. You may be one of those people. But if you read this, you’ll get a clearer sense of how the universe ended up the way it did.
