Summary
The fourth entry in the tie-in series focused on the most excitable member of the Discovery crew before she finds her inner swear-bear.
On the eve of a new season, the Star Trek: Discovery tie-in novel series makes a triumphant return. Writer Una McCormack follows the theme of the previous entries by taking a deep dive into a single character’s backstory, in this case Cadet Sylvia Tilly. It’s one of the more lighthearted entries to date and has more in common with the conventions of contemporary YA than it does with other books in this series.
Bookended by a conversation between Burnham and Tilly on the eve of the cadet’s entry into the Command Training Program, Tilly recounts the decisions that lead her into Starfleet in the first place. It’s a familiar tale, and a relatable one, with Tilly taking on many of the tropes of the genre: not fitting in at school, conflict with her mother, a largely absent father, and an unrealised potential in engineering.
For the character who will go down in Trek history as the first to drop the F-bomb on screen, it’s a mostly chaste affair. (The term ‘gosh’ is used an alarming dozen times or so). Yet McCormack manages to give us more insight into this character than many of the entries to date. Tilly’s inner voice is a genuine one, even if her ingenuity occasionally borders on Wesley Crusher levels.
So, if the previous tie-ins (Drastic Measures and Desperate Hours) were hampered by our unfamiliarity with the then-new characters, THE WAY TO THE STARS succeeds because we are just starting to learn to like the crew of the Discovery. We want to see Tilly succeed all the more because we know where she came from. In this sense it is more like Fear Itself, the Saru-focused third novel in this series.
McCormack has no real sense of urgency here, taking the time to explore four distinct seasons in the year in the life of Tilly. While several dramas pop up along the way – from shuttle emergencies to the Trek fallback of first contact – none of them feel terribly threatening. It’s a purely character-based outing, and this novel series could use a few more like this. So who’s next? Can we please get the story of a young Paul Stamets in the 23rd century? I really want to see what the LGBTQ coming-of-age story looks like 200 years into our future.
Finally, major props have to go to the inclusion of Captain Yindi Holden, the Australian Captain of the Dorothy Garrod(named after the first woman to hold an Oxbridge chair). Not only is her name a reference to the Indigenous band Yothu Yindi, but she’s a graduate of University of Wollongong. Nice to know that tertiary education is going strong in 23rd century New South Wales.
2019 | US | WRITER: Una McCormack | PUBLISHER: Penguin (US) | LENGTH: 368 pages | RELEASE DATE: 8 January 2019
