V. E. Mitchell (1954–2017)

Less good than the first ones again, but still pretty fun.

This book deals with some of the Orientalist weirdness Keiko has in her TNG appearances, saying she comes from a planet settled by ultraconservative Japanese nationalists (and, presumably, has chosen to leave that life behind...but still is shaped by it.) It makes me think about writing fanfic in which there's a MURRICA planet. I found the crew to be pleasingly in character. And again, actual extreme differences in viewpoint and culture are dealt with. A solid and very enjoyable outing.

I found this fairly muddled - too many different plot threads going on, and too many new alien cultures to process! - but I did enjoy it, particularly the theme of misunderstanding alien cultures--something that I feel gets left out of Trek as much as it gets consciously put in.

V. E. Mitchell is consistently one of the better Star Trek authors. I liked that this book really read like an episode, but was ideal for novel form because of how much detail it went into regarding Kirk and Chekov's experiences in alien bodies. Those passages were genuinely interesting and, I felt, provided a truly ALIEN civilization-concept, unlike many Star Trek "aliens" which are just humans in funny outfits.