There are times. Not often, but every now and then, that despite my love for the subject matter, I can’t get into a book. This is what happened with my latest foray in to the Star Trek novels. I loved the sound of it, I’m enjoying my time with Kirk and company as I go on countless non-canon adventures with them, and I love that there are so many to read.

I just couldn’t get into this one.

It may be time to do a quick change-up in reading material, or maybe this one was just a misfire for me.

Here it is. Don’t be taken in by the cover, the story is set between The Motion Picture, and The Wrath of Khan and the new burgundy jackets are the uniform of the day. As are new assignments, like Chekov as security chief.

The Enterprise is called to a remote ice planet to investigate missing staff from a research station (a pharmaceutical company’s research station – something I would think no longer existed in the 23rd century, or at least not in the incarnation we have now, which seems to be reflected in the characters of the book).

We are given a solid enough arc for a number of characters, but Kirk and McCoy, and Chekov and Uhura get the lion’s share, which is great to see. McCoy and the captain are investigating a strange mental illness that is plaguing the researchers, and haulers that work the station. They seem to tip over into madness, and then right themselves, but never completely heal.

Meanwhile Chekov and Uhura are investigating the missing crew, and the shuttle that carried them, leading them to interact with the unique lifeform that inhabits the icebound water world.

There are nice character moments for our leads, but I just couldn’t find my way into the story, which is too bad, because this one sounded like it would be right up my alley; the crew is a little older, we get to explore a strange new world, and character moments with not just Kirk, McCoy and Spock, but Uhura and Chekov who, even in the novels don’t get as quite as many stories of their own as they should.

I don’t think I need a break from Trek stories, and we all know how much I enjoy them. Maybe it was just a matter of this one just not clicking for me. The Human Adventure will continue though, because there are more Trek adventures to come and I will continue to boldly go…