Star Trek Discovery: Desperate Hours by David Mack

Title: Star Trek Discovery: Desperate Hours
Author: David Mack

Read by:  Susan Eisenberg

Publisher: Simon & Schuster Audio

Length: Approximately 9 hour and 59 minutes
Source: Simon & Schuster Audio Digital Review Copy – Thank-you!

As a lifelong Star Trek fan, I am happy that there is a new TV series.  I’ve started watching it with the family and I like it so far (we are a few episodes in).  I was excited to review Star Trek Discovery – a novel set one year before the beginning of the new series. It gives some good character background on the crew of the Shenzhou and the main character, first officer Michael Burnum.

In Star Trek Discovery: Desperate Hours the Shenzhou with newly minted first officer Michael Burnum is sent to a colony world after a mysterious alien craft attacks.  The craft was disturbed during routine drilling and may have been under the sea for millions of years.  Arriving at the planet, the Shenzhou is faced with the hard choice of being able to destroy the alien craft, but also destroying the colony.  They are further pushed into that hard place when the Enterprise shows up helmed by Captain Christopher Pike to make sure the Shenzhou destroys the alien craft at all costs.  Will the Shenzhou and her crew be able to figure out how to disable the craft while also saving the inhabitants of the planet?

The story was interesting in Star Trek Discovery: Desperate Hours, but what I really liked was the character development.  In particular I liked Michael Burnum and Saru’s relationship and how it developed as well as both of their relationships to Captain Philippa Georgiou.  It helped to make the first episodes of the show even more relatable.  I also loved how the Enterprise with Captain Christopher Pike and Science Officer Spock enter the story and became main characters.  What a nice call back to original series fans! Spock and Burnum’s relationship is interesting and I hope to learn more about it.

I’ll admit that I did think the story was a bit slow in the middle when Burnum and Spock were on an endless quest to figure out the alien craft’s maze.  I felt like that section went on way too long.  I’m also still confused in this book as well as the show on the fact that the Shenzhou seems much more technologically advanced then the newer Enterprise.  There was a brief description in the book trying to justify why the Enterprise doesn’t have a ready room, but it rang false to me.

Susan Eisenberg was an able narrator and I really enjoyed listened to this on my daily commute.

Overall, Star Trek Discovery:  Desperate Hours is a great way to learn more about the characters of the new show and opens up some interesting ideas about Burnum and Spock’s relationship that I would love to see played out on screen.