Star Trek: New Earth — Rough Trails
{4.5/5} “They’re made at God, or fate, or Evan Pardonett for not protecting them from what everybody in Starfleet already knows — that the frontier isn’t romantic or poetic or glamorous. It’s just hard. Starfleet is just the easiest place to aim that anger, since they don’t want to aim it on themselves.”
Star Trek: New Earth — Rough Trails by L. A. Graf, published in 2000
After the incident everyone is calling the Burn, the colonists have returned to Belle Terre. With dust storms and olivium contamination, things are more difficult for the colonists than they originally bargained for. When a shuttle Chekov is in crashes into a lake, he does his best to make it to shore — and when Sulu and Uhura hear he’s missing they set out to look for him.
The transition between the previous book and this one is slightly awkward — many months have passed, which isn’t immediately clear. Other than that, it’s a fine story which features Uhura, Sulu, and Chekov.
I’ve read 7 novels by Graf, although it’s been a while. “L. A. Graf” is a pen name for the writing team of Julia Ecklar and Karen Rose Cercone and (once) Melissa Crandall.
I’ve also read 2 solo novels by Ecklar, including her terrific Regenesis.