Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: Asylum

De: Una McCormack

Narrado por: Robert Petkoff

A new Star Trek adventure based on the thrilling Paramount+ TV series Star Trek: Strange New Worlds!

When Una Chin-Riley and Christopher Pike meet at Starfleet Academy after one of his lectures, they immediately become friends. A stellar student, Una is the “poster girl” of her class, and Pike is determined to become a Starfleet captain with his own ship, rhetorically assembling his dream crew. As their friendship evolves, Pike also suspects Una is involved with the Euxhana, a Chionian cultural minority, who are seeking asylum in Federation space, leading to more questions than answers.

Twenty-five years later, Una and Pike are working together on the USS Enterprise to settle a Chionian trade agreement when a pro-Euxhana saboteur launches a terrorist attack. When the suspect is taken into custody for interrogation and is discovered to have a history with Una, her past associations resurface, threatening to expose a secret she’s been harboring all these years…

©2024 Una McCormack (P)2024 Simon & Schuster Audio

True to the show and engaging.

A much stronger addition to the Strange New Worlds story. As where the first book to accentuate this excellent Star Trek show seemed like it could take place completely separate from the overall timeline, this book takes place distinctly after a specific episode of the show (Ad Astra per Aspera) and relies slightly upon the reader’s existing knowledge of those Season 2 events. Well written and engaging, this tale focuses primarily on Captain Pike and Una Chin-Riley (No.1), switching between their academy days together and the current mission. Appropriate for genuine Star Trek, there’s not a lot of action, but more focus on philosophical, political, and dramatic themes. It’s very good character-building, and, if you enjoy the tv series, this well-constructed and well-told story will interest you.

SNW are the best of the books

Two into this series and the writers have both captured the heart of the show better than other series in the past. Looking forward to the next!

All talk, no action

It’s just a series of conversations with no action in between; not what you expect from a Star Trek book.

Excellent Full of great Character Backstory

I enjoyed learning more about Una and Pike’s development as working partners. I hope next season of Strange New Worlds delves a bit into their past like this book did. Excellent narration.

long forgotten history

It was way too slow and never real picked up. It does have a very good message and has an uplifting feeling about it.

Great book!

Una writing about Una was amazing. She’s one of my favorite Star Trek authors! Started out a bit slow but was captivating.

Great story, if a little on the nose

I really liked this story, one of the better Star Trek books I’ve listened to. Not surprising as the author is often one of my favorites. I see there’s some negative reviews and I think it’s probably gonna vary based on what you’re hoping for.If you’re looking for a story with lots of action, this one is not for you. If you’re looking for a story with interesting character development, then it might be. Although I agree with the message of the book, I did feel it was a little on the nose. I do get a bit sick of Robert Petkoff narrating nearly every Star Trek book, so that’s why I knocked this rating down a bit. Really wish they’d get more of variety.

A-Typically boring for a Star Trek story.

Horribly boring story. it was like reading a Tom Clancy book that never got to a point. There was way too much character development and background that I lost the point the plot. Maybe there never was one. I finished only out of principal.

Slow reading (listening)

I loved the first book in the Strange New Worlds series, so I was excited to get the second. I was very disappointed... Robert Petcoff did an amazing job at narration (as usual) but the story felt long and dragged out. It was cool to hear the backstory of Una Chin-Riley, but there was so much time dedicated to the intricate details of each and every character that I had a hard time keeping interested.

Interesting concept marred by patronizing politics

Some of Star Trek (The Original Series) best episodes were ones taught us lessons about overpopulation, the horrors of war, racism, and even geo-politics. These "lessons", however, were in service to an entertaining story that happened to be thought provoking. This novel, however, slams its political lessons on your head chapter after chapter in a way that provides too much backstory and not moving the story.

Star Trek Strange New Worlds (the TV series) has, for me, many of the same elements as ST:TOS - episodic (vs. giant story arcs), entertaining stories, with a well defined cast of characters. While this novel has some sections has some entertaining and Trek history origins (no spoilers), the story moves too slowly due to the focus on the in-this-story-only-characters (that, I hope, we'll never ever see again) and their politics.

Note that voice actor Robert Petkoff does a great job of telling the story (such as it is). The voice acting kept me pushing forward during sections when i felt like abandoning the novel altogether.