Star Trek: Final Frontier
{4.5/5} “‘He has forgotten that the capacity in which we serve is not as much duty as privilege… And even more tragically,’ Spock went on, ‘he has forgotten that the starships of the Federation are the physical, tangible manifestations of humanity’s stubborn insistence that life does indeed mean something.'”
Star Trek: Final Frontier by Diane Carey, published in 1988
After his trip through the Guardian of Forever, Captain Kirk returns to the farm he grew up on. While there he rereads letters from his father. George Kirk was once recruited by Robert April as the first officer on the first mission aboard the first starship. A ship is in distress, but sabotage causes them to end up in Romulan territory.
Most of the book is taken up by the story of Robert April and George Kirk on the brand new unnamed starship unexpectedly thrown into Romulan space. The character of t’Cael is one of the most interesting Romulans we’ve seen.
The framing story has nice moments between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy.
The story is contradicted by Enterprise and Discovery in a big way, but you can ignore that.
This is the 2nd time I’ve read it.
I’ve read 9 Star Trek books by Carey. I previously reviewed Star Trek: First Frontier.