Long before the 2009 reboot author Vonda N. McIntyre penned this non-canon telling of the first adventure of Captain Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Scott Sulu and Chekov as they are united for the first time aboard the Enterprise.

James Kirk has just been given command of the Federation flagship, and is looking forward to a deep space exploration assignment from Starfleet. He wants his friend Gary Mitchell as his first officer, and is friend Bones McCoy as the ship’s surgeon (if he can find him in time).

Strafleet has other ideas about all of the things, letting the ship’s previous Science Officer, the Human-Vulcan hybrid, Spock pull double duty by taking on the role of First Officer as well.

Kirk’s assignment is to travel to a series of far flung starbases, carrying a vaudeville company on a tour.

Kirk is furious, and one can hardly blame him. It seems like a waste of talent and ship to have the Enterprise make a run like this. I was as upset by it as he was.

Along the way the crew begin to unite, and even a mission expected to be dull and unexciting takes an unexpected turn, as a rogue Klingon stirs up problems while being pursued by the Klingon fleet, they encounter an emotional Vulcan and a strange new life form arrives on the scene.

There are nice tie-ins to the Original and Animated Series as well as McIntyre’s other Trek novels, but it doesn’t feel quite as epic as you would think their first adventure would. Yes, there is a first contact, and yes, there are some interesting moments amongst the crew, it’s nowhere near as captivating and thrilling as you would expect their first adventure to be.

I mean it’s right there in the title, adventure. It just doesn’t feel as grand as it should be.

I will say this… I love the cover.

Now don’t get me wrong, I didn’t hate this entry, in fact McIntyre is a solid storyteller, but I think the story she decided to tell was a bit of a let down. But how could it not be no matter who told the story? No matter how they envisioned it, it wouldn’t be as exciting as the one in your imagination.

I recall reading this one when it first came out, and rather enjoying it. Though before I started it anew, all I remembered was something about flying aliens. This time I recognised more tie-ins, especially with my revisit of the Original Series fairly recently as well as the novel series.

I do like how she envisioned most of the crew coming together, I just wanted a little bit more of an exciting story.

Still, the Human Adventure continues…