Interstellar travel spanning centuries, plans and plots spanning decades and more, first contact, an alien civilization presented in both very relateable and very alien ways…all sorts of good stuff here. Technically in the same universe as Vinge’s _A Fire Upon the Deep_, but so removed in space and time as to be standalone, with only a few connections to the other. Really enjoyed how Vinge presented the Spiders, and the revelations towards the end that I didn’t guess at all. An excellent read.

As always, Trek is at its best when it’s looking at modern issues through an SF lens. On the surface, this is about Pike and Number One at Starfleet Academy, paired with a later mission that ties back to those experiences. But when dealing with minority ethnic groups reacting to years of oppression, there’s a lot more there as well. Plus, of course, some very entertaining ties to wider Trek lore.

Favorites this issue were “Woodmask” by Adrian Tchaikovsky and “Ancestor Heart” by Naomi Day.

Favorites this month were "LuvHome™" by Resa Nelson, "Luminous Glass, Vibrant Seeds" by D.A. Xiaolin Spires, "Negative Scholarship on the Fifth State of Being" by A. W. Prihandita, and "Unquiet Graves" by Michael Swanwick.

A mysterious and dangerous astral phenomenon threatens the Earth, and Spock, Uhura, and Chekov must try to solve a mystery that ends up being tied to Uhura's forgotten past. Meanwhile, Kirk, overseeing Starfleet Academy, has to deal with some problematic new cadets. The Kirk-centric B-blot is okay, mostly interesting for fleshing out more of Kirk's time between the films. The primary plot is more interesting, especially as it picks up the thread of how Uhura was affected by her loss of memory during the Nomad incident, something never (or very rarely) explored. That part of the story I very much enjoyed.

This was delightful. The series has moved on from the space battle adventures where it began and the political maneuvering and intrigue that it transitioned into, and now goes full-on romcom, complete with a hilariously disastrous dinner party where _everything_ goes wrong…of course.

This one was a particularly interesting and on-the-nose bit of "exploring today's issues through SF". Published in 2020 (and so, assumedly, written in 2019), the Enterprise is called into to observe the voting process for a planet having it's first democratic elections. The contest is between a hardline conservative near-fascist military general whose followers use intimidation and assault, and a liberal reformist challenger who (minor spoiler) eventually steps down after a controversy and turns their candidacy over to a younger candidate. There's a separate, more standard Trek adventure where Spock has to try to rescue McCoy and Chapel from other planets in the system, but reading the primary political plot just over a week before our election (between a hardline conservative fascist and a more liberal challenger who took over from the prior candidate) was an interesting experience. I can only hope we handle our election as successfully as this fictional planet does.

Favorites this month were “The Buried People” by Nigel Brown, “The Children of Flame” by Fiona Moore, “Fractal Karma” by Arula Ratnakar, and “Midnight Patron” by Mike Robinson.

A really funny time travel story, as historians attempt to prevent the unraveling of the universe after a seemingly impossible accident. Romance, confusion, rare goldfish, a remarkably ugly Macguffin, and a lot of laughs, to say nothing of the dog.

Somehow I missed the bit in the blurb telling me this was a script for an audio play, so that was a bit of a surprise, though not a bad one. Short and quick, this follows Seven and Raffi just after season one of Picard as they deal with saving artifacts and a senile historian from a Romulan…though it’s really more about the first steps of their relationship. Fun to read, and I’m somewhat tempted to find the audio production to see how some of the more visual elements of the script translate.