I've honestly been putting off reading this, and now that I've got around to it I can't believe how much better than the movie it is! Because, love Star Trek as I do, the movie was dire. Boring, badly-paced, slow as a wet week, and I was expecting the same from the novelisation. But it's such an improvement - there's more character work here for one, and although the pacing isn't perfect, it still swept me along a little in a way that simply didn't happen with the source material. By far the biggest improvement was I think in Kirk. He's fundamentally a less interesting character than Spock, and I've never actually had a lot of sympathy with his moping to be back on a starship, because he plainly should never have left his captaincy to begin with and so tough bickies, but I actually felt for him here, and the impression of self-doubt and destabilisation and his constant questioning of himself came through much more strongly. I've been reading a lot of this franchise lately, and I have to say I like the older, introspective Kirk trying to hang on (and wondering if he's hanging on too long) much more than I like his younger, brasher self.