Taaya 's Reviews > Corona

This novel ignores too many Star Trek facts (Pon Farr, routine medical exams on Federation science outposts, that Vulcans do not touch easily, ... ) to be counted as a well researched novel. And even the storyline has been used for episodes and novels way too often to be of much interest.

But my main problem with the book are the sexist and racist tendencies in storytelling. Sexist because for Bear every woman in Starfleet has to be called Mister as well. Which might have been meant as a was to make men and women equal seems more like a patriarchalic action.
And while nobody else's clothes are described, Uhura has to wear an african looking dress in her free time. Again we could assume that Bear wanted to give Uhura the freedom to still live her culture even on board of a spaceship. But in reality this sets her apart from the other characters and seems therefore rather racist than actually helping against racism.

Therefore in total this novel does not only ignore Star Trek, but also denies and damages the ideal of equality and peace between cultures and species that Star Trek stands for.

2 stars just because apart from ignoring canon compliance and setting a very bad example for how to write diversity in your novel, the story is told in a non-boring fashion.