The Higher Frontier

Star Trek (2020) #3

by Christopher L. Bennett

An all-new Star Trek movie-era adventure featuring James T. Kirk!

Investigating the massacre of a telepathic minority, Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise confront a terrifying new threat: faceless, armored hunters whose extradimensional technology makes them seemingly unstoppable. Kirk must team with the powerful telepath Miranda Jones and the enigmatic Medusans to take on these merciless killers in an epic battle that will reveal the true faces of both enemy and ally!

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Fiction, Audiobook, Science Fiction Fantasy, Ebooks, Adult

352 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 10, 2020

About the author

Christopher L. Bennett is a lifelong resident of Cincinnati, Ohio, with a B.S. in Physics and a B.A. in History from the University of Cincinnati. A fan of science and science fiction since age five, he has spent the past two decades selling original short fiction to magazines such as Analog Science Fiction and Fact (home of his "Hub" series of comedy adventures), BuzzyMag, and Galaxy's Edge. Since 2003, he has been one of Pocket Books' most prolific and popular authors of Star Trek tie-in fiction, including the epic Next Generation prequel The Buried Age, the Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations series, and the Star Trek: Enterprise -- Rise of the Federation series. He has also written two Marvel Comics novels, X-Men: Watchers on the Walls and Spider-Man: Drowned in Thunder. His original novel Only Superhuman, perhaps the first hard science fiction superhero novel, was voted Library Journal's SF/Fantasy Debut of the Month for October 2012. Other tales in the same universe can be found in Among the Wild Cybers and the upcoming Arachne's Crime, both from eSpec Books. His Hub stories are available in two collections from Mystique Press.
Christopher's homepage, fiction annotations, and blog can be found at christopherlbennett.wordpress.com. His Patreon page with original fiction and reviews is at https://www.patreon.com/christopherlb..., and his Facebook author page is at www.facebook.com/ChristopherLBennettA....

Reviews

[Ken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having really enjoyed exploring Kirk's early career in Bennett's The Captain's Oath last year, I was excited to discover more about the events between the first two movies.
The book certainly helps fills in gaps between Kirk's transition from The Motion Picture to The Wrath of Khan!

Aswell as being a thrilling adventure that raising some interesting analogies to the present day, the book is chock full of nods to various iterations of Trek.
It feels like every aspect of the show is referenced at some point!

This is the perfect tie in novel that fans can really geek out on.

[Dave Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Intellectually exhilarating! emotionally adequate
first off, and right out of the gate Christopher L. Bennett knows his Trek. this book is an absolute masterwork at tying together Enterprise, the Animated series, DS9, Even Discovery and a smidgen' from Picard. all the the "facts" and trivia are accurate and WOW! they all hang together.
If I'd met Christopher L. Bennett at a party and he layed out his fan theory to me over the course of the evening I'd have flipped my lid over the complete attention to detail. the over all detail compliance is humbling. You Christopher L. Bennett get a Vulcan salute. Your service honors us.
Second. I almost quit this book. (Glad I didn't) because I had no idea where it was going, What it was trying to say, or why I should care.
This book takes a wile to get cooking and I did not squee like a fan boy, but I will be thinking about the ideas presented here for years to come. That is the final point here. This is not a Pew Pew lazer, popcorn roller coaster. This is a book with big ideas that challenged the way I think and view things and I am a better person for having read this. And that is core trek.

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Andorian subspecies, the telepathic Aenar are attacked, bringing Dr Miranda Jones and the Medusan Ambassador Kollos back to the 'U.S.S. Enterprise'.

As Kirk and his crew investigate the massacre, they must come to terms with their own prejudices and reassess their place within Starfleet.

Bennett's politically charged novel makes for an exciting read, leading from the events of the V'Ger encounter into Kirk's assignment to Starfleet Academy.

[Chris Townsend · Rating 5 out of 5]

When I recently discovered there were 12 years in-story between The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Khan, I immediately set out to find all the books in this period. Most were just stand-alone stories that added little to the canon of the universe, but this book and the author's prior work, Ex Machina, are both essential reading. Whereas Ex Machina takes place directly after The Motion Picture and sets up the start of the second five year mission, this book concludes that five year mission and transitions into the period where Kirk oversees the academy with the Enterprise used as a training vessel, as we saw at the beginning of Wrath of Khan.

So, how was the actual story? Well, fantastic! Though the story started so slowly, I was beginning to think Ex Machina was just an aberration. Once it starts picking up steam, it's great through to the end.

Before reading this, you may wish to rewatch the Original Series episodes Where No Man Has Gone Before and Is There in Truth No Beauty, along with the Animated Series episode Yesteryear and the Enterprise episode The Aenar.

This book is well worth your time.
5 out of 5.

[Daniel Pitterman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Unfortunately it is becoming the norm for these Star Trek books to fall short of my low expectations! I read them all ( to torture myself?) and thought highly of Christopher L. Bennett’s previous novels. This one is at the level of mediocre fan fiction. Just too much retcon-ing for me. Too much referencing old episodes and movies. I said this in a review of another recent Star Trek book : I am not impressed by a reference on just about every other page of an episode. I watched all the episodes too. Move along.
This book does a real disservice to both Gary Mitchell’s story and Miranda Jones’s story. Both original episodes had interesting messages which gets completely diluted by attributing everything to a previously unknown entity. Skip this one unless you are as OCD as me.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is packed to the gills with plot, and packed to the gills with fanwank...in fact, this is fanwank overload worthy of a "Doctor Who" writer. Luckily, we're in the hands of a master of Trek fanwank, and the end result is a novel that tells an exciting story, and a novel that fills in numerous gaps and answers numerous continuity questions. It takes an expert to sew this tapestry all together while avoiding the creation of a shapeless lump of fabric...and Christopher L Bennett manages this task with aplomb.

[Jacqueline Langille · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I enjoyed the writing style and the comfort of the Star Trek world, this plot was too violent for me. 2.5 I guess, if I'm honest.

[Brian Stuhr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bennett has a knack for weaving different threads of Trek nuggets to make great stories that are as good as the 3rd Doctor's scarf!

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

As we have come to expect from Christopher L. Bennett, The Higher Frontier serves to weave together bits of disparate Star Trek continuity in ways that are both surprising and entertaining. Add to that strong character work for both major and minor characters and a story that takes place in a unique period of Star Trek history, and the result is another terrific story from an author whose work is always a joy to read.

Full review: https://www.treklit.com/2024/01/THF.html

[C.T. Phipps · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE HIGHER FRONTIER is an excellent "Movie Era" The Original Series novel and I very much enjoyed it as a sequel to EX MACHINA, which is written by the same author. Christopher Bennett has the true Trekkie hardcore fan's love of continuity and effortlessly weaves together hundreds of references as well as continuity nods without actually needing to know what's being referred to in order to enjoy the story. Your enjoyment is enriched by knowing who Miranda Jones, the Medusans, the Aenar, and other things are but not reduced if you only happen to be passingly familiar.

Indeed, much of the book's "continuity humor" for me is based around the fact that this seems to be a large-scale homage to the novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture's opening, which is something I only know because the book was in my high school library. It talked about a different sort of Federation than was shown on screen where "New Humans" were space hippies engaged in nudism, vegetarianism, group consciousness, and other New Age beliefs that left Kirk's generation as a bunch of dinosaurs. Roddenberry imagining the development to TNG being a free love as well as more Vulcan-like (albeit hornier) future.

The chief subject of this book is psychic powers in the Star Trek universe. Circa 1960s, they were considered to be more than pseudoscience, but have (as much as anything can be) proven to be nonexistent. This seems to bother the author, justifiably so, and he creates an elaborate and fascinating plot that deals with subjects like Gary Mitchell as well as other human-based "espers" within the Federation. I would have accepted the "humans mutated post-WW3" theory that was thrown out earlier but this proves to be a much more interesting as well as elaborate plot than that. I also won't spoil.

I admit, my favorite part of the book was actually the problem the New Humans have with fitting in with normal humans who hate as well as fear their new powers. Well, hate may be a strong word, as this isn't the X-men. Some do feel that way but most are just strongly annoyed and off-put by the New Humans' seemingly bizarre behavior. It doesn't help the New Humans are snooty and disdainful of regular humanity. If you claim to be the next step in evolution, don't be surprised if people act like you're claiming you're better than them.

There's also a really great moment where Uhura, Checov, and Sulu watch what is implied to be Star Trek: The Original Series and make jokes about the bad special effects as well as Checov's hair. It's a nice little nod to the fact Roddenberry himself said TOS was a "simulation" of the real thing. It also nicely references a bunch of side-material that is apparently "mostly made up." Given I feel like people who complain about Klingon appearances and the fact the Enterprise in DISCOVERY isn't made of cardboard, I felt that was a very good line.

Much of the book is based around the idea that a second five-year-mission followed the events of ST:TMP with Admiral Kirk being demoted from Chief of Naval Operations to Captain again followed by being bumped up back to Admiral in order to be Starfleet Academy Commandant. Which we know will result in him being demoted AGAIN to Captain after the events of The Search for Spock. I feel that's a bit of a convoluted answer but I don't think it's a bad one either. Certainly, it sets up the events of The Wrath of Khan.

I really enjoyed this book and while I kind of wish that the ending hadn't "wrapped up" the New Humans and their inability to fit in among normal humans so effectively, I don't blame the author for choosing that path. I've always been a bigger fan of the more complicated sociological elements of Star Trek and it's a book with a lot of that.

4 1/2 stars out of 5

[Jimyanni · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting story, managing characters and pacing quite well and generally well-written. I'm a bit dubious about the changes it makes to established canon but it does do so fairly plausibly, and the dilemma of what do do with the individuals who knew what had happened and couldn't be truly trusted to keep the secret as was intended was not truly addressed; it was mentioned but glossed over, and this reviewer finds that a bit hard to accept. But other than that, the story is tight and makes for a good read.

[Tim Ristow · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’ve heard a lot about how Christopher Bennett’s Star Trek novels are some of the best. So I was eager to jump into The Higher Frontier. Unfortunately I really had to push myself to get through it all.

I do love the way Bennett takes different threads of elements from all across Star Trek lore and weaves them together into the narrative. But there are almost too many of them within this novel. It stretches credibility a bit to think that all these differing threads are all connected the way Bennett uses them in this story. But I can suspend my disbelief. It’s a Star Trek novel, after all.

But Bennett lost me with his nearly total reliance on a plot-heavy story that spent too much time slogging through talk about New Humans, psionic abilities, telepathy and multidimensional space.

While it was great to visit uncharted periods of the Trek timeline and fill in the gaps while connecting some dots, there just wasn’t enough character development going on. When there was, it was largely with new or secondary characters that, frankly, I just didn’t care much about. Kirk & Spock are there but almost seem like secondary characters instead of primary. Was Scotty even in this book? (He is. Barely.). The alien character names were a bit overly complicated and difficult to remember. There were so many of them that after awhile it made it confusing to remember who was who.

I did enjoy seeing some familiar faces pop up in this novel but disappointed in how some were handled. When Captain Terrell of the USS Reliant is a part of the story, you hope you’ll get to see his character fleshed out more. That doesn’t really happen. Chief DiFalco is handled well and probably has the best character arc of almost anyone in the book. But the retcon to Gary Mitchell’s character really did a disservice to the original episode. I get it. But it was an unnecessary alteration that just didn’t ring true for me and destroyed part of the premise behind his character in that episode.

All in all just an ok read. Kind of a mess, really. Generally I like Bennett’s style of writing, just not his story or character choices in this particular book. Maybe I’ll give Captain’s Oath or Deus Ex Machina a try as I’ve heard better things about those stories.

[Aidan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm divided on if this is a two or three star book for me, on the one hand I enjoyed it more than A Contest of Principles, on the other hand this book didn't really feel like Star Trek at times. I got Doctor Who, Star Wars, and Power Ranger vibes at times which really killed the mood of the story. For me Star Trek is somewhat scientific with some fantastical elements, but Bennett really turned up the more fantastical aspects of Star Trek that made it feel like something different.

I really do hope none of this is ever apart of actual Star Trek canon, and by actual canon I mean being in one of the many current airing tv shows, because I really hated some of the choices made by Bennett. I mean when I said this didn't feel like Star Trek at times I mean it. If Bennett had decided to write this novel with his own characters in his own scifi universe, I probably would have liked it more, but because it was Star Trek I am more judgemental.

This certainly was something. Good on Bennett though for writing this story and addressing serious topics and discussing ideas around identity. I think he can write a good story because I did enjoy the first half of the book, but he needs to not try to mess with the canon in so many ways all at once.

[Daniel · Rating 2 out of 5]

It is apparent that, although CLB had permission to write a Star Trek novel, what he really wanted to write was something more in the vein of Kamen Riders or The Power Rangers. Indeed, a lot of the annotations from his website have references to the Kamen Riders (and one annotation to the Power Rangers).

I was hoping for something more consistent with his other epic works such as Ex Machina, Greater Than The Sum, and The Buried Age. This wasn't it. I struggle to give this even 2 stars. Those other named works are among my favorite Star Trek novels. Needless to say, this was a letdown. He's a wonderful writer, but, in my view, his heart wasn't in it.

[Dirk Wickenden · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not a very good Trek novel, the pacing is poor and it's all over the place in tone and not 'Trek'. Plus the author hits us over the head with his unsubtle LGBTPDQ nonsense, trying to say the New Humans are like the LGBT community. The author single handedly destroyed the Where No Man Has Gone Before pilot, as well as Is There In Truth No Beauty? with his silly Lords and Spectres incorporeal aliens. Trek lit has become 'woke'.

[Frank Davis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing. Bennett has drawn together so many concepts from various Trek sources into one beautifully constructed story. (The Medusans from TOS. New Humans from the novelisation of TMP. The Aenar from ENT.)

Our familiar crew are evolved in this story, yet maintain their personalities and felt as real to me as they ever have.

[Laurie Kazmierczak · Rating 3 out of 5]

Convoluted and beyond belief in several categories. While the book tried to explain ESP phenomenon and humanity's revulsion of those who had it, the storyline was too drawn out and the relationships between our beloved characters were hard to embrace. The "Higher Frontier" is an apt title and it did have some interesting theories. The Medusans play into the story fairly well.

[Rebekah Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this one after I finished Christopher L. Bennett's A Captain's Oath. So I was expecting a lot. Unfortunately it wasn't as good as A Captain's oath. Although I still enjoyed it. I was a little overwhelmed with how many diverse character names I had to follow but the overall story was good.

[Alvaro Zinos-Amaro · Rating 3 out of 5]

First half to two-thirds were a solid 4 stars.

[Ryan · Rating 2 out of 5]

The concept was cool, the execution, horrible. It took more than half the book to set up the main story. It was like they were desperately trying to for it all into the movies.

[David Palazzolo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some thoughts on The Higher Frontier by Christopher L Bennett

Last (as of this review) of five novels featuring The Original Series cast at various points of their careers ranging that I have yet to read. Sadly, I did not realize the arc to these stories until it was too late to try to read them in order so I really don’t know how they hold together as a whole, but Bennett is a meticulous author so I have little doubt they mesh well. The range extends from Kirk’s very first day on the USS Enterprise to shortly before Wrath of Khan).

For fun (and to anticipate a later desire some years down years down the road to reread these in order) here are my best guess of the correct order of books: Captain’s Oath (Kirk’s First Day), Face of the Unknown (transition of TOS to The Animated Series), Ex Machina (right after V’Ger), Higher Frontier then Living Memory (reading order here based solely on the ship that Chekov happens to be assigned to). They are not the publication order. Hope this also helps any curious fellow Trekkies. This book takes place in the 2nd Five Year mission that occurred between the Motion Picture and Wrath of Khan movies—specifically near the end of the fifth year.

Parts of this novel touches on the various interactions with human psionic potential that TOS had chronicled, drawing most heavily on the third season episode “Is There no Truth in Beauty?”—in some ways being a sequel to it. This is also one of the few Star Trek stories that seem to even acknowledge the possibility of “ancient alien contact” with earth. Additionally, we have the presence of the V’Tosh ka’tur, who are a Vulcan minority who reject the teachings of Surak and the way of logic. If I’m not mistaken, Spock’s half brother Sybok from Star Trek V was a member of this minority

The novel also deals with Andorian/Aenar relations on various levels ranging from the personal to government bureaucracy. And the broad structure of the bureaucracy reminds me of how the structure and history of the US Government and the many nations of Native Americans—lots of red tape, frustration and deliberate incompetence (to say the very least). For context if one does not know, the Aenar are a small, very isolated subspecies of Andorians who were thought extinct or a myth until an enclave of them were discovered during the time of Captain Archer and the NX-01 Enterprise. The discovery that the Aenar in fact existed brought great upheaval to Andor

In the notes, Bennett talks about being inspired by the classic tokusatsu series Kamen Rider. He went on to say that he left off talking about all but the most salient of the Kamen Rider easter eggs in his annotations because they would be extremely numerous and that he was doubtful there was a strong enough cross traffic in the Trek-Rider fandoms. Having said that, the Kamen Rider influence is easy to see once it gets really going…

I really regret not reading these novels in order—I really can’t stop focusing on this. Higher Frontier sets up so much for the following two novels, I feel a certain amount of chagrin for not realizing the correct reading order earlier. Having said that, in order to bring us these future set ups, Bennett had to have the 2nd FYM end with the slight bitter taste of failure, which the eternal fanboy Trekkie in me rails at despite how much my more rational side can take it in stride. In some ways this is analogous to my reaction to the Enterprise’s destruction in Star Trek VI: Search for Spock.

All things considered, this was an interesting read, but not sure the tokusatsu world fits well with Trek, but Higher Ground is hardly the first time we’ve had crossovers like this (and yes, I do consider this to be essentially a crossover, but with a genre, not a franchise). There’s been two with the X-Men, two with the Green Lanterns, one with the Legion of Superheroes (and would love to see one with the extended Batman family) and Higher Ground is easily one of the better offerings

[Andy Stjohn · Rating 4 out of 5]

TOS: the Higher Frontier by Christopher L.Bennett

This was an ok to decent book. Having taken a brief hiatus from Trek books to read Dune and a Walter Cronkite biography, this was my brave return to the final frontier. And it was a fine trip, but not the home run I was hoping for. I’ve been disappointed with a lot of the Trek books I’ve read this year outside of episode novelizations and short stories collections. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve read too many Trek books over the years and it’s lost some of its lustre but that’s ok. My enjoyment of various things waxes and wanes over the years.

I was surprised to learn this was a sequel to Ex Machina, Bennett’s first Trek novel. I wasn’t the biggest fan of that book but I’ve enjoyed the DTI books and Face of the Unknown so I was willing to give this a try. Also, if promised to explore the Medusans from TOS, so that had me hooked. I was really looking forward to exploring them more. However, we don’t really get to do that until the last 125-130 pages of the book so I felt like it had been misleading advertising with the synopsis on the back of the book.
This also serves as a sequel to Where No Man Has Gone Before, the Aenear from Enterprise and obviously Is There No Truth in Beauty?

The exploration of races that have telepathy was interesting but the reveal of human and Aenear telepaths was because of beings called Spectres was convoluted. I just liked the idea of Gary Mitchell evolving to become a Q better then what was revealed n the book as implied in other novels than this one.

The brief time we send exploring Medusa is interesting and the various dimensions was interesting, but I would have loved to spend more time there. Bennett did a really good job of exploring the First Federation in Face of the Unknown, and I wish the same amount of detail and time was spent there as in this first book. The Naazh were decent bad guys and I was interested in the mystery behind them.

Overall this book was a 7/10 for me

[Robert D · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is more of 2 novellas hung together on theme. Time line wise this takes place between Star Trek the Movie and Wrath of Khan. The first part of the book details the Enterprise returning home and goes into how Kirk was to be made head of Starfleet Academy. It then jumps ahead a bit and has Admiral Kirk using the Enterprise to take the medusan, Kollos, to Andoria. The Aenar have been recently targeted by a terrorist attack and the medusan wishes to help. As the Aenar are gathered up and placed in protective custody the plot continues to unfold. (I'm purposefully not spoiling this mission.)

At the conclusion of that mission more time passes in the book and we jump around a bit as various former Enterprise crew have taken up positions on other ships. There's some background given to build things a bit. Then the theme hook pops up as the terrorist that originally attacked the Aenar appear to be targeting human telepaths. All the members of the TOS crew are slowly united on their ships as they being the effort of trying to pick up and transport the "new human" telepaths to a secure place in medusan territory. All the while trying to discover who the terrorists are and to stop them from their genocidal attacks. And then of course, there's the HUGE plot twist.

It was okay. The author definitely knows his Star Trek lore and likes to drop it in reference. There was one scene where it seems that he got Sulu's and Chekov's character's confused when Chekov comes across a person that was a love interest to Sulu and seems to act more like Sulu would have on seeing her again. The only other flaw was the amount of time that passes between sections of the book, I understand why the author did it, I'm just not really a fan of it.

[Eric Troup · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is much to love about this book, especially if you’re a hard-core Original Series fan. I used to think I was such a fan, until I read this book and realized how much I’ve missed. Bennett incorporates elements from TOS itself, the Animated Series, numerous novels (even those penned by other authors), and even some comic books. On one hand, I enjoyed the attention to detail. On other hands, though, it sometimes felt like the effort to align all these different threads, some of which would seem to contradict each other, dragged the book’s pacing down. I wish the story had been a bit shorter, but then, I’m glad it wasn’t rushed. This epic takes place over a year, and so, deserves some room to breathe.

Unfortunately, even the epic nature works against this story in at least one way: There are catastrophic events depicted herein, but by story’s end, many of them have been “fixed.” I didn’t care for this in “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” and I didn’t care for it here. If actions have consequences, those consequences should stick. I was blown away by what I thought were great risks being taken, only to find that they really weren’t taken at all.

Still, this is an engaging read. I would have given it 3.5 stars if possible, but since it isn’t, and since I did find the amount of threads woven into this tapestry impressive, I opted to go with 4 stars instead of rounding down to 3.

If you love TOS, you will at least really like this book. Wish I could heap more praise on it, and if some of the events had been allowed to play out as they lay, while the story would’ve had to be much different, I think it would have made for a much more epic ... epic.

[Austin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely a LOT weaker than Captain's Oath. The antagonists of the book are built up to the degree that there's only one solution that *can* defeat them, and sure enough that's what ends up doing it, so it wasn't a surprise to see how the book concluded. I understand that we want the protagonists to be in danger, overcoming obstacles, etc. but when the obstacles are miles high, it makes it far less surprising when the end actually happens, because fewer and fewer options for victory become available, therefore it's just a process of elimination at that point.

The morality and lessons were also ham-fisted and literally said out loud by the characters at almost every point (and some felt like pointed self-inserts from the author), instead of letting the audience just read what's happening. I found this particularly noticeable when referring to Kirk's love interests across the TV series, it seemed to introduce concepts from today's social struggles; so the book felt *very* preachy at multiple points, which took me out of it immediately, each time with an emphatic eye roll.

Combined with needless retcons from the TV show, the juice was not worth the squeeze this time. The enemy was not nearly interesting enough for all of this trouble (and frankly, the enemy and their technology make zero sense; obscurity to avoid spoilers) and with too many woke overtones, it felt decidedly soulless.

The first 2/3 was decent, but the ending was anticlimactic and predictable because of the overly large stakes.

[Travis James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful!!!!

Absolutely wonderful.

Cannot say enough good things about this book.

The novel takes place in the very, very rarely explored part of the Star Trek franchise in between “The Motion Picture” and “The Wrath of Khan”. So many secondary characters never seen in canon after an appearance in both TOS and in TMP and TWOK are featured here and are given multilayered treatment. And as an added bonus we FINALLY get to learn a little bit more about the wholly nebulous Medusans!!! I suggest rewatching the TOS episodes “Where No Man Has Gone Before”, “Is There in Truth No Beauty?”, “Yesteryear”, from the Animated Series, and the “Enterprise” episodes dealing with the Aenar and the Augments, TMP & TWOK before reading this novel, though, just to refresh your memory RE: characters and situations that are germane to this particular tome.

Many twists and turns in this novel, as well, that you never saw coming. This author DEFINITELY knows Star Trek history and has a perfect grasp of the behavior(s) of all of the players in this novel.

It was sheer pleasure for every chapter!

Five *****’s stars!!!!!!

[Chris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is set at a really interesting time in the Star Trek chronology taking place between The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Kahn. There are so many differences between the two films that are never explains and this book filled in a lot of the blanks we given get a dig about them changing uniforms so often.
This book is absolutely jam packed with call backs to earlier films, episodes and books. To begin with this was great as we got returning characters and a lot of answers to questions raised from differences between The Original Series, Enterprise and even Discovery and The Animated Series. Sadly after a while this got to be a bit of a drag because it just happening over and over again. There was also a lot of retconning about some The Original Series episodes to try and justify the events, opinions and actions that were very much 'of their time'.
The story itself is pretty good but suffers a bit from poor pacing and having a lot of memories dealing with the above.

[PrincexofxFlowers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Usually when I finish a book, I think to myself about how much I liked it or didn't like it, or how well the characterization and growth was handled, but I don't usually find myself thinking a book was important after I finish it.

The Higher Frontier is a really important book.

The plot's engaging and there are so many interesting and fun characters to get to know but beyond that I just feel like, given the current climate in the world (my country specifically) it really brings light to a lot of issues that are going on. Bennett lays things out and then just asks you to think about them. And you do. It's a really poignant book and I think it would do a lot of people quite a lot of good to read it.

[Audiophile · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic deep dive into diversity and inclusion - exactly what I needed given the current state of the world. Lots of race and cultural variety. Only the smallest touch of LGBT+ representation, but it's present very powerfully in the metaphors.

The fight scenes were awesome! And... and somehow managed to make me sad when OC redshirts got killed off? How. Howwww did you do that??

There are a LOT of great callbacks to events in the series in relevant and sometimes rather amusing ways.

Could have done with more Spock, but, like, when is that ever NOT true.

Overall: quality writing, kickass narrator for the audiobook, solid plot, can't actually find anything to complain about!

[Eve · Rating 5 out of 5]

After the events of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, James T. Kirk retained command of the U.S.S. Enterprise and he and his trusty crew were assigned a second 5-year mission to explore new worlds. In Star Trek: The Higher Frontier, a new story in The Original Series timeline, Christopher L. Bennett weaves of tale of hatred, destruction, and betrayal, as a group of peaceful telepaths are hunted to near extinction by phantom killers and it’s up to the Enterprise crew to figure out who’s behind these attacks and how to stop them.

Read the full review at
https://geeksofdoom.com/2020/04/29/bo...