Star Trek: A Choice of Catastrophes
{4.5/5} “The doctor thought about it for a moment. But would Jim understand? This was a man for whom space was a passion — for McCoy it was an escape. How could Kirk understand that McCoy felt he didn’t belong here and never had?” Star Trek: A Choice of Catastrophes by Michael Schuster and Steve […]
The Shattering Peace
{4.5/5} “‘The Conclave citizens have some latent bigotries to work out.’ ‘They don’t like humans?’ ‘No one likes humans,’ Ran said. ‘This is well-known.’” The Shattering Peace by John Scalzi, published in 2025 Humans and aliens are at peace. But part of the deal between Earth, the Colonial Union, and the Conclave was that there […]
Star Trek: Discovery — Die Standing
{4.5/5} “The people of this continuum were different from the residents of hers; many, she still thought, were much inferior. But a current of hope ran through this universe, encouraging lightweights to seek responsibility — and giving those with dark pasts a shot at something other than incarceration.” Star Trek: Discovery — Die Standing by […]
The Left Hand of Darkness
{5/5} “He brings from his people offers of communication, trade, treaty, and alliance, nothing else. He came alone, without arms or defense, with nothing but a communicating device, and his ship, which he allowed us to examine completely. He is not to be feared, I think. Yet he brings the end of Kingdom and Commensalities […]
ST: Lower Decks — Warp Your Own Way
{4.5/5} “It’s like — what are the odds we’re the only ship in the quadrant, right? Surely there’s someone else nearby who can help and get here quickly — thanks to their standard-issue engines that let them travel at thousands of times the speed of light???” Star Trek: Lower Decks — Warp Your Own Way […]
Automatic Noodle
{5/5} “Now they were ‘free,’ according to the reporter, who also explained that bots would of course never be allowed to join a union, nor open a bank account, nor vote. Bots had the right to sell their labor, which was the important thing. It seemed normal at the time, to be free and not […]
Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — The Long Night
{4.5/5} “If anyone else identified it, they would have a riot on their hands. So Dax decided to create one of her own. ‘Drinks on the house!’ she shouted. ‘Rom will take orders.’ A huge cheer went up and extended to the farthest reaches of the bar.” Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — The Long […]
Uprooted
{5/5} “A haze of smoke was drifting across my eyes, the sudden crackle of fire. I turned towards the trunk, and Sarkan was there, too, caught in the tree with silver bark trying to devour him, saying, ‘Now, Agnieszka,’” while fire-heart glowed red between his fingers. Instinctively, I half-reached my hand towards him, remembering dread […]
Star Trek: Voyager — The Nanotech War
{4.5/5} “It dawned on Tom that whenever the Chiar underwent an emotional shift, their scent changed as well… Nylo… had also felt something when Zedrel had announced that Tom was going to be Zedrel’s attendant. Was it anger? Jealousy? Relief? Tom didn’t know. But ability to smell his captors’ emotions had to be an advantage. […]
Shroud
{5/5} “I suspected that ‘appropriate attitudes’ included extreme expendability. The dregs of the Garveneer’s slumbering human cargo, not woken yet because nobody had any use for them. People desperate enough to earn some basic wage-worth that they’d volunteer for something as mad as going down to Shroud. A monstrous project which, I can only stress, […]