Dire.

I read and reviewed each volume in this collection separately, so this is basically just for my own records. The rating is an average of the individual ratings - basically, everything got one star bar the first book, House of Cards, which got a very reluctant two stars. I'm still not convinced it deserved it. Look, there's just a host of problems here. There's plot problems, editing problems, I cannot appreciate the smug and smirking tone of it all, but above everything else, the characters are terrible. Characterisation is paper-thin, but the worst of the lot by a country mile is Captain Calhoun, who is a 14 year old boy's wet dream of what a hero should be. I have a particular loathing, however, for how three of the women characters have been presented. The first officer once had a romantic relationship with the captain, and is forever on the edge of blurting out how much she still wants him, while the bulk of her time is spent on, and I quote, "moralistic carping" which is ultimately designed to show how right said captain is, all the time. Another is the product of rape, and weepily traumatised by it. The third is a Vulcan who killed her husband with sex and has intimacy issues because of it, complicated by the fact that she's going though pon farr. None of the men are presented in this desperately needy, emotional way. It irks.

To be honest, I have difficulty understanding how something this poorly written got published in the first place. Given the plethora of fanfic out there that is intelligent, subtle, thoughtful, and just extraordinarily well-written, that the official tie-ins can descend to this level of crap is enormously dispiriting. No wonder I spend my time on Ao3.