Living Memory

Star Trek: The Original Series

by Christopher L. Bennett

An all-new Star Trek movie-era adventure!

While attempting to settle in as commandant of Starfleet Academy, Admiral James T. Kirk must suddenly contend with the controversial, turbulent integration of an alien warrior caste into the student body—and quickly becomes embroiled in conflict when the Academy controversy escalates to murder. Meanwhile, Captain Spock of the USS Enterprise and Commander Pavel Chekov of the USS Reliant are investigating a series of powerful cosmic storms seemingly targeting Federation worlds—unstoppable outbursts emitting from the very fabric of space. Endeavoring to predict where the lethal storms will strike next, Spock and Chekov make the shocking discovery that the answer lies in Commander Nyota Uhura’s past—one that she no longer remembers….

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Audiobook, Fiction, Novels, Space, Adult Fiction

320 pages, Paperback

First published June 15, 2021

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

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 5 out of 5]

It starts off a little slowly, but in the end this novel transforms into something powerful and beautiful. There are two parallel plots at work here, but they explore both sides of the Trek universe: the action/adventure/continuity side, and the philosophical/Roddenberry side. The follow-up to the events surrounding Uhura's memory wipe in "The Changeling" is a beautiful tale of family and emotional relationship torn asunder, while the story of the genetically-engineered warriors being sent to Starfleet continues the battle between the two aspects of the service: it's military obligations, and its diplomatic/exploratory nature. There are no easy endings here: just like real-life, it's messy and full of unexpected consequences. It also uses fanwank beautifully, especially when it ties-in present day events (the racial tensions in the post-Trump USA) and does the unexpected (taking Nichelle Nichols' key part in recruiting more diversity into NASA in the 1970s and creating a Trekverse equivalent for Uhura). All in all, this is a wonderful example of what "Star Trek" does best: inspire.

[Dirk Wickenden · Rating 1 out of 5]

I approached this with trepidation, as of late, Literary Trek has been Woke Trek, especially with Bennett and somewhat with Greg Cox. Well, Bennett has again written a wokefest, it's laced through the story of the Warborn and towards the end of the book, McCoy spouts the stuff about transgender and non binary people, which is not really scientific (though there are those born with both genitalia , it is rare and one or both organs will be non functional) but just feeding the mentally ill and satanic agenda. Uhura's filling in her memory gaps after the Nomad incident years before this post-V'Ger story was quite boring and there have been better Uhura-centric books in the 1980s. None of the characters 'sounded' like their screen counterparts and the 'vacuum flare' story was as bad as Discovery's red angel and all dilithium exploding nonsense stories. The ruin of True Trek continues unabated on the printed page and on the screen. I did enjoy the little reference to Ike Eisenmann's character of Scott from The Fantastic Journey, as there was a reference to Mr Scott's nephew Peter Preston, played by Ike in Wrath of Khan. I liked Bennett's earlier post-V'Ger novel Ex Machina but he has not lived up to that in his other TOS/original crew film era books since.

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

A series of spatial anomalies endangers planets in the Federation, causing death and destruction. When analysis first points out that the 'U.S.S. Enterprise' is the connection, Spock and Admiral Kirk act swiftly to find the source.

Kirk is shocked when the source is identified, leading to a major alert being raised by Starfleet Command and the resolution to the galactic threat points to a catastrophic event in the past.

Meanwhile, the Academy must welcome an alien class of Augments, leading to a serious examination of the Federation's belief system.

Bennett writes another wonderful entry in the 'Star Trek' series, choosing to focus on interpersonal relationships over the intergalactic threat, to the benefit of the novel as a whole.

[Yvette · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book. It’s always good the know Nyoghtay
WOW! This is what happens when you write a review in the middle of the night. HA!

This book was a welcome read after trying to get through the post Nemesis cannon books. I loved the attempt to fill out the Nyota Uhura character (A character I have always loved). There are two enjoyable storylines here and it is an easy read. I really enjoyed the tie-ins to the newer iterations of Trek. I now what to see Nyota Uhura on Strange New Worlds.

[C.T. Phipps · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5/5

LIVING MEMORY is an excellent installment in Christopher Bennett's series of novels set in the somewhat underdeveloped movie period of the Star Trek franchise. From the period of Star Trek: The Motion Picture until the Wrath of Khan when James T. Kirk was flying a desk, there's a very interesting set of ideas that were underdeveloped. Most of which came from Phase II and never-developed concepts that were mostly found in art books or side materials. Christopher Bennett weaves these two along with mostly-ignored bits of canon into a fascinating tale of morality and ethics.

The premise is based around two simultaneous story arcs. In TOS episode "The Changeling", about a renegade probe made godlike by aliens (more or less taken up to the 11 in TMP), Uhura had her memory erased by the probe and never got it back. Because we never knew what her backstory was in the first place, this was mostly ignored. This story examines it from the perspective of her recovering mentally but never socially and I found that to be a fascinating story. It also talks about projects in communication she was working on that she never got to develop. Ones presently tied with unusual alien phenomenon as is want to happen in Star Trek. I enjoyed this plot but I admit not as much as the second.

The second plot is my favorite kind of ST plot: science fiction ethics. A group of genetically bred super-soldiers that have been kept in stasis since the Klingon War are being let out but there's no general idea of what to do with them. While I disagreed with some of her ideas, I really enjoyed Karen Traviss' REPUBLIC TROOPER books for tackling the fact that using the clones was tantamount to slavery even if they were willing. After all, with reduced lifespans and a lifetime of training in nothing but war, what WOULD they do?

Here, the Federation is taking on a pilot program of these children that reminds me of DS9 episode "The Abandoned" which was about a Jem'Hadar they try to integrate into Starfleet. That episode had the very cynical and somewhat nasty view that he was what he was and could never be anything else. Here, the Arcturians and Federation are all interested in doing what is best for the "clones" but from a somewhat condescending view that they need to have their lives dictated for them. Even from a place of concern, many activists have often infantalized the people they're attempting to help.

Overall, I felt this was a very fun and impressive book. I really was more interested in the Arcturian plot more than the Uhura one but I can hardly have a problem with more devotion to someone who has always been underdeveloped and undervalued by Star Trek as a whole (even if writers have done their best to correct that). This is a solid piece of Movie-Era fiction and those who enjoyed things like EX MACHINA will undoubtedly also like this analysis of our heroes' middle years.

[ShamNoop · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love (almost) everything about this book

[Yaaresse · Rating 3 out of 5]

More of a 2.5, but I'm feeling generous since this is one of the few ST fics that showcases Uhura.
Let's say 3.0 for concept, and 2.0 for execution.

TL;DR -- The only way I can describe it is that it read like amateur fanfic for forum "likes" and not with any real enthusiasm for adding substantive material to the ST universe or characters.

The long version --
Look, I was teethed on reading ST penned by the likes of James Blish, A. C. Crispin, and Diane Duane. They set a high bar for ST fic.

The Enterprise crew are beloved characters with well-defined voices. And, yeah, those voices can often be cliche-ridden and cheesy, but they are a specific flavor of cliche and cheese. So when I read dialogue that comes off sounding either generic or, worse sometimes, a completely different flavor of cheese, I have to wonder if this book isn't just something assigned to a staff writer somewhere by a marketing department. So while the germs of the two stories had potential, I never got that feeling that I was reading something that was crafted for the love of the series and characters. The outcomes were completely predictable (even for ST). The metaphors were heavy-handed (even for ST). The dialogs were shallow, trite, and often just plain corny (even for ST.)

Also? Let's just extract the words "roil" and "foam" from use right now. Put them on bed rest for a while. They are worn out from this book. There is almost never a reason to use the word "roil" more than once in so short a book unless it's part of a secret drinking game.

[Rhys · Rating 1 out of 5]

Tell you what takes you out of a nostalgic journey into the 80s feel of the TOS movies: irrational modern day gender politics. Clearly Bennet doesn’t believe the trek novels are for everyone as he picks a side in a very sensitive topical issue. Hearing Bones say that gender is changeable and people are non binary like it’s science is just laughable to hear in this context. How I feel about that particular issue is irrelevant. It’s something that very much splits people and the fandom in two and trek supposedly being inclusive should stay out of it, thereby not excluding a lot of people.

[Clare Moseley · Rating 5 out of 5]

For anyone who is a fan of Uhura, this book is a necessary read. So few books focus on her-- Uhura's Song is the only one that comes to mind-- that this is super welcome. It addresses a huge issue from the series-- the encounter with Changeling-- and gives us some much-needed backstory on the woman whose first name we didn't know for forty years (including giving a reason why it never came up).

I have some minor quibbles. The A-plot and the B-plot don't mesh very well together and the B-Plot seems MOSTLY a reason for Kirk and McCoy to have something to do (would've been fine without them or had them in supporting roles). I was also made on Uhura's behalf for how some people treated her. But mostly I found it a wonderful story about Uhura.

[Andrew Beet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting book out of the A story and the b story the one that interested me was uhura's backstory and finding out what happened after nomad wiped her memory and that she had something to do with these vacuum flares that were popping up all over the galaxy. The other storyline at Starfleet academy didn't really interest me overall it was a very well written novel

[Kenneth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Christopher Bennett is a gift to Star Trek lovers everywhere. Not only does he write amazing stories, his knowledge of the Star Trek universe—both canon and non-canon—is beyond belief, and he even works to fix continuity mistakes or fill in missing pieces from the show/movies. I adore this man, and I hope he keeps writing for years to come.

[Ella Jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sulu/Chekov shippers Scotty/Uhura shippers Sulu/Uhura/Chekov shippers. This one is for you.

There's a lot to love here. TOS trek is like a warm hug. I had a good time.

[John Ferguson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Christopher L. Bennett must have an encyclopedic knowledge of the Original Series. Again, he takes some aspects of the series that need further exploration and crafts a story that is worth reading.
I have been disappointed with previous books from older Star Trek series that dive into the character or Uhura. However, we finally get a story and insight into her past and takes into account her experience of having her mind wiped by Nomad into account.
It's a good wee read and would highly recommend it.

[Michael Goth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was looking forward to this one, but came away very disappointed. It reads more like fan fiction than a professional novel.

[David Palazzolo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some thoughts on Star Trek: Living Memory by Christopher L Bennett

I learned while reading the annotations Christopher Bennett has placed for this novel on his website that Living Memory is part of a low key progression of novels with The Original Series crew that takes place between ST: The Motion Picture and Wrath of Khan—aaaand that I’m apparently reading them in the wrong order (heavy sigh). It’s okay, Bennett does a good job in looping in the necessary things to understand. He still does have a lot of throwaway references to “past continuity” that includes not only things established in the original episodes, but things brought up by the Animated Series, Discovery, Lower Decks, non-canon sources like novels and comics, and even some Behind-the-Scenes notes, which can either be ignored or read about in the annotations (nerd that I am, I always choose the latter). For example there are mentions of the Klingon Chancellor L’Rell, Dr Phlox of the NX-01 Enterprise, Lt Arex’s species from the Animated Series and appearances of Admiral Cartwright from several of the TOS movies.

There’s a lot of disparate plotlines here—cosmic disturbances with a tenuous connection with the early voyages of the USS Enterprise under James Kirk’s five year mission, peeks into how Kirk, McCoy and Spock keep up ties in their various new careers (Kirk as Starfleet Academy commandant, Spock now captain of the USS Enterprise, McCoy now with Starfleet Medical) and how they all deal with the problem of the Warborn.

The Warborn are a group of recently revived Arcturians, who were genetically engineered to be warriors for the protection of their homeworld Arcturus, created before the planet’s membership in the Federation but kept on ice until their cryogenic chambers started to break down. Now they have to be revived and placed in a world that doesn’t really want them. Starfleet Academy championed a new program that would welcome the Warborn and try to give them new avenues to explore. To say the program was a controversial move is to put it mildly, and there are many philosophical discussions held on the ethics of bringing them into the Academy.

There is one other plot line that is mentioned in the cover blurbs of the book, that being Nyota Uhura’s memory loss caused by the Nomad MK-15c, a lost probe found by the USS Enterprise in the TOS episode “The Changeling”. Some context: Nomad had been launched from Earth years ago and was on its way back. Somehow it had been altered by a nonhuman intelligence and its meeting with the Enterprise crew was met with unexpected menace which resulted in the loss of life and Uhura being mind wiped. This episode always bothered me at the end, because while it let us see that Uhura was recovering, it never let us see her completely recovered. As a kid, I decided to assume the recovery was complete with full memory recovery, because stuff like that was the rule of TV at the time (Scotty himself was killed and revived in this episode with no ill effects), but as I grew older I found it harder to just accept (full disclosure it was established that she would soon be back to active duty, but we did not see her). So I’m glad there’s some recognition to the problem, but so far I’m nearly a third of the way in and the issue has only been mentioned obliquely. A shame, really, I had hoped for more on this score.

Update—Uhura’s memory does finally start to tie in a little less than halfway in and when it does it really leans in. Uhura’s story quickly becomes the heart of the novel, especially with the way it focuses on the trauma Nomad inflicted on her and how it also affected the next twelve years of her life.

Some of the really cool things about Living Memory is that it allows us to see things like Pavel Chekov’s tour of duty on the USS Reliant under Captain Terrell, and Hikaru Sulu as a father to the (then) young Demora Sulu. It should come as no surprise that Chekov spends a lot of his off-duty time with the Sulu’s and is known as “Uncle Pavel” to Demora. And our good Dr McCoy gets another chance at romance.

The story arcs of the Warborn and the dangerous cosmic disturbances first observed by Chekov aboard the USS Reliant tend to remain largely in separate lanes, but in the last third of the novel they begin to merge together very organically. As Bennett weaves his plots to their conclusion he keeps the level of tension and suspense fairly high. It was a decent climax—one plot ended with a tragic twist, the other had a happier conclusion. Ultimately, though, it ended too neatly—Bennett had to jump through hoops to make sure one or two characters escaped the full brunt of consequences for their actions (not that he had much of a choice if he wanted the book to align to continuity between the first two movies)

“I’m a doctor, not a restaurateur”
—Dr Leonard McCoy

[Stephen · Rating 5 out of 5]

When Starfleet begins analyzing a series of disruptive and potentially dangerous flares in space, Commander Pavel Chekov realizes there’s a pattern: these flares mostly in places visited by the Enterprise on its five-year mission, albiet in reverse order — and the one exception is a place visited by Uhura. As more flares happen, one in the middle of a city, a death toll begins and Starfleet fixes an accusatory gaze toward the former comms officer whose personal memories were erased by the NOMAD probe, who can recall nothing about her leaves from this time to contribute to the mystery or defend herself. But she’s not alone: the Enterprise crew, despite being on different ships and assignments, rally like the family they are. Admiral Kirk, meanwhile, has a bit of a problem, as a pilot program he endorsed to incorporate a group of young people bred for war into Starfleet (teaching them the ways of peace and Shakespeare-quoting) is causing some strife and a wee bit of murder — and worse, he and Bones are smitten with the same woman, a vocal opponent of the program. Oh, the drama.

Whenever I return to the original series, it tends to be for particular episodes — “Arena”, “Balance of Terror”, etc, and so I’d forgotten about the whole “Space probe tries to exterminate everyone on Enterprise” plot that also caused Uhura’s memories to be wiped…at least, until next week’s episode. Living Memory explains how Uhura bounced back so quickly, using one Federation member planet’s mind-structuring technology to restore her technical/explicit skills — but not her actual memories. Uhura and friends begin exploring Uhura’s past, talking to her family and friends from her Academy days to learn what project she might have been working on so devotedly, and this forces Uhura to face parts of her past she was previously willing to pretend didn’t exist. Although the Uhura A-plot is the novel’s strength and great attraction, the moral issues posed by the Warborne group were interesting, especially given that Bennett does not create simple antagonists or characters, but allows the argument to become truly complex and fascinating to the reader to consider.

Bennett is a Trek author who reliably delivers good reads, and this was another solid one. Motion Picture era books are relatively rare, so I was glad to dig into this one and see the Enterprise crew just as they were beginning careers apart from the salad days of their five-year mission.

[Paul Lunger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very rare is the Original Series novel with a focus on Lt Uhura and at times as well very rare has been a novel out of that era that becomes to this reader an instant classic. With "Living Memory", Christopher L. Bennett writes what to this reader is one of his best books ever which also has a message that is also needed as well. The premise of this book is twofold with the primary arc involving a series of vacuum flares whose appearance all seems tied into worlds where Uhura visited in the past although she has no recollection of what she did on those worlds simply because the visits to those worlds happened before her memory was wiped by Nomad ("The Changeling", TOS Season 2). The secondary story involves Kirk in his role as academy commandant dealing with a race of beings from the planet Arcturus called Warborn who were born & bred simply for battle (a la the Jem'Hadar).

The Uhura story is one of pain & growth along with reminding all of us that we simply want to be remembered. It's nice to see this history of the character brought to live in ways that are necessary to the story itself as well as with things that stay true to the series as well. At times parts of this are almost heartbreaking because of decisions she made that she felt were in her best interests. The Warborn storyline gets into an ethical debate about if people can or cannot grow from how they were originally taught to do.

Bennett does an above average job with keeping both stories intertwined as well as putting to good use the characters in this specific place in canon. The references to events out of Discovery are appropriate along with the uses of Chekov & his time aboard the Reliant along w/ Admiral Cartwright and Demora Sulu. The book is a fast moving story that will tug at your heartstrings and make you think along with being a great story. One of the best Star Trek novels in a while & one all readers will enjoy & cherish. Very well done.

[Cornerofmadness · Rating 3 out of 5]

I want to start with saying in spite of the 3 star rating, this wasn't bad but it has a few issues and some of it was personal preference. For example, it's set between movie 1 and wrath of khan, not my favorite time period for these characters. I really don't want to see semi-retired Captain Kirk and the book didn't either.

My biggest problem was there were two entirely separate stories in this, not two subplots but two legit separate stories that don't really dovetail. The less interesting of them barely engages Kirk and McCoy (who is bizarrely trying to play matchmaker for Kirk) with an actually interesting idea but it is so divorced from the other plot (and the title) that it seems a shame it wasn't developed more by itself. A group of new Starfleet recruits who come from a planet that had bred them to be fast-developers meant only for war, a program abandoned decades before and they were recently brought out of cryo-sleep. So there's the whole ethical debate about their existence and the purpose of Starfleet in general and then comes a murder.

The other plot was also very interesting and a needed plot. It revolves around the original series episode where Uhura's memories were wiped out by Nomad. We know that she was retrained and it's never mentioned again. The rather improbably plot of this part of the book hinges on her forgotten life before Nomad. It was interesting to extrapolate on this deep violation of Uhura that has never been delved into before. I was disappointed by some of it (the idea she refused to see her family for nearly 2 decades because she can't remember them) but it could have been really engaging.

But it felt like there wasn't quite enough of either story to be more than a novella so they got rammed together even though they make no sense together. It was worth reading but it falls short of being memorable (ironic given the title)

[Jimyanni · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had I read this book years ago, I'm sure I would have rated it much higher. It's well-constructed, handles the characters well, is much better than most at avoiding sloppy grammatical and other linguistic errors (I don't think I found any, which is rare in popular fiction paperbacks) and strictly on technical merit rates at least four stars. The concept was good, too. But somehow, it just didn't really grab me the way it should have. Perhaps it's the fact that, having read well in excess of 500 Star Trek novels of one variety or another, it just takes a lot to impress me these days. Perhaps it's just that, in spite of the original episode stating in so many words that Uhura had been stripped of her memory and that it couldn't be restored, that she would have to be re-trained from the ground up, it never really felt as if that were true, and so it seems to be contrary to implied canon to take the episode at its word. Obviously, one could argue that that is not a failing of this book but rather a failing of the continuity of the original series. But somehow it seems dubious that such a major issue would have remained unaddressed for so long. That, and the "Enterprise bridge crew must accomplish the impossible to save the earth" plotline has been seriously overused. It was nice to see it being Uhura for a change, rather than Kirk/Spock/McCoy/maybe Scotty, but still, it seems to elicit more of a "what, that again" reaction than actual tension. Nor does it seem at all plausible that they could, in fact, have succeeded as they did. So overall, on balance, I call this story "OK".

[Shazza Maddog · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gifted to me by a friend, this was an enjoyable read. Taking place in between the time of Star Trek: The Motion Picture and The Wrath of Kahn, the story involves some ancient history: Nomad and how it took Uhura's memories.

When static pulses start appearing and poking holes through entire worlds, no one can figure out why they appeared. Uhura gets the idea that music might be involved and starts pursuing that idea.

Meanwhile, on Earth, Kirk is dealing with the Warborn, an Arcturian race designed to protect the planet and nothing else. Now that Arcturus has joined the Federation, they're not sure what to do with the Warborn but maybe integrating them into Starfleet might help.

Except it doesn't. The Warborn cadets are confused by trying to *not* be warriors - and there are a lot of folks who don't think they should be included in Starfleet.

When an Arcturian is murdered, blame falls on Portia, one of the Warborn. But the static pulses are getting stronger and heading toward Earth. Uhura has to delve deep into her missing memories to find a possible way to stop the pulses while Kirk, McCoy, and Sulu try find out who actually killed the Acturian.

Very involved and with a lot of call backs to other stories and TV episodes, the story was good but I had a hard time focusing on it consistently. Obviously good for Trekkies/Trekkers though if you don't have the history, you won't know what's going on.

I did very much enjoy Scotty praising his nephew, Peter, and telling a story about Peter's adventures prior to him joining Starfleet - because that hearkened back to the TV series Peter's actor had been in years prior.

[Peter Rydén · Rating 5 out of 5]

Svenska: Otroligt välskriven bok. Gripande historia med fokus på Nyota Uhura. Jag gillar hur författaren binder ihop händelser som vi sett i TV-serierna och förklarar dessa med något som i bokform blir fullständigt självklart. Hur kunde exempelvis Uhura efter minnestömningen i TOS-avsnittet The Changeling studsa tillbaka så snabbt? Och kan man inte ana en skillnad melan Uhura före minnestömningen och Uhura efter? Vilka effekter gav denna händelse i hennes liv?

Jag lyssnade på ljudboken och då jag hört Robert Petkoff som inläsare av Star Trek-böcker tidigare måste jag bara säga att han denna gång verkligen överträffat sig själv. Riktigt bra inläsning och gestaltning av de olika rösterna. 

English: Incredibly well written book. Gripping story with a focus on Nyota Uhura. I like how the author connects events that we have seen in the TV series and explains these with something that in book form becomes completely obvious. For example, how could Uhura bounce back so quickly after the memory emptying in the TOS episode The Changeling? And can you not imagine a difference between Uhura before the memory emptying and Uhura after? What effects did this event have on her life?

I listened to the audiobook and when I heard Robert Petkoff as a reader of Star Trek books before, I just have to say that this time he really surpassed himself. Really good reading and design of the different voices.

[Bmj2k · Rating 3 out of 5]

I gave this 3 stats, but 2.5 would be more appropriate.

If you plan to read this book you should be aware that there are two separate stories shoe-horned together. The Uhura story, which is the hook and selling point, is the B-plot.

The A-plot is a totally unrelated story about genetically engineered clones entering Starfleet Academy. Christopher Bennett obviously came up with what he felt was an interesting sci-fi idea, wrote it, made his points about ethics and morality, then tossed in Kirk and McCoy (with a subplot about McCoy's matchmaking attempts to get Kirk involved with a woman). There are a lot of new characters you will never see again. It is a sci-fi book that he could not sell unless it was a Star Trek book.

Bennett must have realized that neither this nor the Uhura plot (which is not bad) could carry a book on their own so he Frankensteined them into the same book, and it does not work. The stories are totally separate and do not overlap so my advice, if you plan to read this book for the Uhura plot, is to just skip the clone story totally. It has zero to do with the Uhura story.

This is not advice I generally give for any book, but it was either skip those parts or abandon the book. The only other book I have abandoned in the past five years or more was also by Christopher Bennett, the truly bad Star Trek novel, The Face of The Unknown.

This is the last Christopher Bennet book I will read.

[Brittany · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reference soup.
The TOS books by Christopher L. Bennett are pretty hit or miss--The Captain's Oath, for example, is dreadful, but I rather liked The Face of the Unknown--so I knew this book was something of a gamble. However, as it is one of the few (TWO!) TOS books about Uhura, I took a chance. Sadly, this book is just awful.

It takes forever to get to the main plot and feels as if the author has made a bet with someone to see just how many references he can make to not only TOS episodes, but also: other books, Enterprise, and Discovery. It was almost always pointless to the actual plot (save one) and very, very annoying. I kept reading, however, because it was a library rented audiobook and I'm not a quitter. I mean a book has to be really atrocious for me to stop reading. I'm also a big fan of Robert Petkoff's reading.

But besides the over abundance of references and dragging plot, there were several scenes where the dialogue was ridiculously melodramatic and eye roll inducing. There's actually a scene were one bridge member and an original character just hold each other sobbing after an over-wrought airing of their baggage.

Sadly, the cover art is also a little misleading as Spock is not a focal point of the either the A plot, or B plot, though he does participate. While the whole crew is present and gets scenes throughout the book, the highlight is really on Uhura in the A plot and Kirk in the B plot.

[DianeB · Rating 5 out of 5]

To be honest, I've never been much for TOS, but every once in a while, I'll pick up a TOS story - mainly because I know the novels will contain a great deal more depth and character development than the series could've ever managed.

I wasn't disappointed with this one. The multi-plot story - though set between the first two TOS movies - goes into significant detail about what happened to Uhura's memories after the episode "The Changeling," with the b-plot taking up troubles for Kirk as commandant at Starfleet Academy when a small group of genetically augmented non-humans, called the Warborn - created for the sole purpose of defending their home planet - are permitted to attend.

But, really, what impressed me the most was Bennett's acknowledgements at the end. I never cease to be amazed by the sheer volume of research a novelist must do in order to bring a story to fruition, and Bennett's six pages just goes to show it. Forgive me my fangirl-ness, but even though I wasn't familiar with all the connections Bennett made, I was still pretty much dazzled.

All that said, if you're the type that allows no room for artistic license with canon, you might find yourself disappointed with this one.

I sure wasn't.

[Adam Goss · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'd give this 3 and a half stars if I could. While not Bennett's best Trek writing, it has a lot going for it. Excellent characterizations, meaningful connective tissue between shows and movies, strong social issue discourse, high scientific concepts that aim, well, high, and an honest attempt to address something too long overlooked: the erasure of Uhura's memory by Nomad during the original series. Where the book falls down is on two things: A. lengthy, emotionally tense conversations by certain characters that happen again and again and get repetitive and slow the pace down, and B. (spoiler warning here) Uhura's ex-lover is a DICK. A STUPID dick, a dick who automatically assumed her claim of amnesia was an excuse to dump him over subspace AND HE NEVER CONTACTED THE ENTERPRISE TO CONFIM HER STORY. It's an aggravating and pointless mistake not just by the character, but by the author. So, while I am glad I read this book, and cannot call it bad, I can't see myself keeping it on my shelf because while the good parts are great, the bad parts are just irritating enough. Your mileage may vary.

[Robert D · Rating 4 out of 5]

The story takes place between the first and second movie. Admiral Kirk is now in charge of Starfleet Academy. The rest of the old crew are on other duties.

On the Reliant, Captain Terrel and Commander Chekov help rescue ships damaged in a strange cosmic storm. Their investigation just leads to unanswered questions and it is written off as a fluke. But when it happens again at a different place it's no longer seen as an accident of nature. Thus beings the A plot of the book which will actually center around Commander Uhura's past. Specifically the past that was erased by Nomad, and that she no longer remembers.

Meanwhile back on Earth, the B plot involves Captain Kirk and has to deal with a controversial test program to integrate Arcturian Warborn into a society that does not need their skill. The program is having mixed results and when the Arcturian sponsor of the program is killed it appears a cadet may be involved.

Bennet is well versed in Star Trek lore and does an interesting job or pulling everything together.

[Leigh · Rating 2 out of 5]

I love Christopher Bennett's books so I was grieved to find this one was a disappointment. In short:

Something about the setup was annoying. Sulu's daughter refers to "Uncle Chekov" which is a little too cutesy for me. Ditto for Scott's references to his nephew. McCoy's attempts to play matchmaker for Kirk was also annoying. It's the sort of thing McCoy would do, and I liked Kirk's firmly putting McCoy in his place but it was still irritating. Can we please drop all this personal stuff? That would include the endless backdrop stories (explanations of Federation politics, Kirk's memories of Khan, and so on)

Anyway, I tried but finally gave it up. I still like his books and I hope he'll write more Star Trek stories. I'll be there, Kindle in hand, ready to try again. I gave up on the book, I haven't given up on Christopher L. Bennett.

[Michaelann Dahlman · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ironic that I just finished re-reading Christopher L. Bennett's Star Trek book "Living Memory", which was centered on Nyota Uhura's experiences in the aftermath of her experience with Nomad, in the episode "The Changeling". Like many Star Trek fans around the world, my heart is a bit broken with Nichelle Nichols passing. This is an incredible book, especially for me. As most of my blog readers already know, I have a traumatic brain injury from a bus accident in 2007. It made reading this book deeply upsetting, but also very beautiful. There are several other books that center on Uhura, Janet Kagan's "Uhura's song" & Melinda Snodgrass's "The tears of the singers", which I've read dozens of times. This book will be added to my Star Trek bookshelf, to be enjoyed over & over, for many years to come.

[Russell Matusiak · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall the storyline showed a lot of promise. It was the gratuitous woke silliness at the latter part of the book that really lowered the rating for me. I would’ve initially went with a 3 or 3.5 as the rating. But adding transgender/non-binary etc into the storyline without it being a necessity to advance the story was a disappointment. It seemed to me to be added primarily as a block check on the virtue signaling checklist rather than a necessary part of the story. The story had a decent plot, and could’ve really developed into a better direction. BLUF: Decent story line. Solid backstory (and I was enjoying the Uhura focus not the least of which because I actually got to meet Nichelle Nicols at a Star Trek convention in the 80’s), but it went a bit too far afield for me to really enjoy.

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really looking forward to this book as it was centred around Uhura who was vastly underused (especially in the films) but sadly it just didn't work for me.
The scale of things was really weird. What starts as a small vacuum anomaly is soon a world ending event but feels almost like a B plot. The threat comes to an end very (VERY) quickly and we really don't get the feeling that the threat was taken all that seriously.
The other plot of the book follows a group of genetically engineered aliens who have been bred for the sole purpose of fight and dying for their homeworld joining Starfleet Academy. The two stories don't really connect with each other which isn't a terrible thing but again didn't quite work for me.
I liked getting to know a bit more about Uhura and her family and it was nice to see the fallout from the Nomad incident from the original series.