Shadows on the Sun (Star Trek)
by Michael Jan Friedman

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Book Reviews of Shadows on the Sun (Star Trek)

Book Review: Characterisations too flat
Summary: 2 Stars

Just to complicate matters further, one of the negotiators that the Enterprise transports to the planet happens to be Bones' ex-wife, who he hasn't seen in 40 years. The book is divided into three sections, with Bones' trepidation at metting seeing her again filling up the first hundred pages. The second section, a flashback to his days as a young doctor on his first space mission, is by far the most interesting part of the book, mainly because the author has a chance to introduce some new characters, while in the other two sections he struggles to convince with his characterisations of the Enterprise crew, especially Bones himself. This is a big problem when he's the main character.

Another problem with this book is the plot. Whilst the idea of a planet with legalised assassination is a fascinating one, Friedman fails to make anything of it, with far too much time spent focusing on the predictable and pretty uninteresting relationship between Bones and his ex-wife. Even with Bones being my favourite Star Trek character, I was bored with this book.

Whilst it's great that he got a book focusing on him, I wish they'd picked a different setting for it: if this book had the troubles on Ssan as its main plot, there would have been more time to focus on the fascinating (at least to me) premise, but as it is, the chance is wasted, and the resulting novel is readable but not half as good as it could have been.

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