Spoilers Star Trek - Picard: The Last Best Hope by Una McCormack Review Thread

(Copy of review posted on my Facebook page on 3/14/20, over two months prior to my joining up here.) I just finished reading Star Trek: Picard: The Last Best Hope (2020), the first original novel tying into (and a prequel to) the now airing CBS All Access television series, “Star Trek: Picard”.

The story takes place in the Star Trek timeline in the years 2381-2385, starting two years after the events of the last of the Star Trek: The Next Generation movies, Star Trek: Nemesis (which took place in 2379) and deals with the discovery that the central star in Romulan space would soon be going supernova, threatening billions of lives living in planets within the blast range. (The Romulan star going supernova in 2387, two years after the events of “The Last Best Hope”, is from the 2009 J.J. Abrams Star Trek movie. “Star Trek: Picard”, the tv series, then picks up the story in 2399: twenty years after Nemesis, fourteen years after the end of The Last Best Hope, and twelve years after the Romulan star going supernova, destroying most of the Romulan empire.)

Ok, now that I’ve covered when this takes place, what did I think of the novel? Overall, I liked it. As of this time, I have not yet watched any episodes of “Star Trek: Picard” (although I plan to begin watching them over my now two week long—two weeks instead of the usual one thanks to the Coronavirus outbreak—Spring Break which just started). So, unlike for most people who will be reading this novel, I assume, it really was more of a preparation experience for “Star Trek: Picard” rather than that of a prequel story (which it also is).

I should also mention that despite my being a long-time Star Trek novel reader going all the way back to the mid 1980s (including the start of the Star Trek: The Next Generation novels), for the most part I would buy them with the plan to read them all “eventually” (something I am just now finding the time to finally get started on).

One reason why I mention this now is that Pocket Books released over the years (from 2003 onwards) a large number of “post Nemesis” Star Trek: The Next Generation novels establishing an entire timeline of events for Captain Picard and company that now do not line up with “Star Trek: Picard” (similar to the oodles of Star Wars tie-in novels and comic books that instantly got relegated to “Star Wars: Legends” status when Disney purchased Lucasfilm and started making new Star Wars movies starting with The Force Awakens).

Unlike the Star Trek readers who are not over twenty years behind in their Star Trek reading, though, this did not really effect my enjoyment of The Last Best Hope because I am not fully aware of just what happened in the previously released post Nemesis novels.

I thought the story here was interesting, Picard leaving the Enterprise to accept promotion to admiral so that he can take command of the fleet of relief ships being sent into Romulan space to transport refugees to planets outside the supernova’s anticipated blast range.

Much of the novel deals with the sheer size and scope of such a mission. How to massively increase and speed up the number of starships that can be produced to be used as transport ships. The creation of the workforce to build those ships. And political bounce back from both Federation member worlds who see it as a massive diversion of necessary resources from their own planets in order to help the Romulans, who have for generations been a nemesis, as well as from the scientists and engineers who must now put years of their own research and projects on hold in order to be part of the Romulan relief effort.

On top of all of this, the Romulans involved, both at the governmental level as well as those refugees that Picard is transporting to safety, continually make things difficult by hiding information and having their own agendas.

The only two Star Trek: The Next Generation “regulars” that are in “The Last Best Hope” are Jean-Luc Picard and Geordi La Forge, the latter being Picard’s man in charge back at the Utopia Planitia shipyards on (and in orbit around) Mars overseeing the shipbuilding and retrofitting phase of the relief mission. Although a few other TNG characters are referred to, every other character is an original one (although I know that at least a few of them are also on the “Star Trek: Picard” tv series).

Without going too much more into the plot details, I did find it to be an enjoyable enough story from both the perspective of a general Star Trek story as well as specifically as a lead up to the “Star Trek: Picard” series, bridging the gap between “Next Generation” and “Picard”.

Two things that kind of bugged me, though. First, the author, Una McCormack (for whom this is her ninth Star Trek novel writing), includes only the slimmest of connections with what was seen in Star Trek, the 2009 J.J. Abrams movie, regarding the Romulan supernova. In that movie, Ambassador Spock is shown to have been trying to stop the supernova from happening and failing to do so. Granted, that’s a couple years after Last Best Hope, but what we discover about what Spock is up to during the timeframe of this novel is disappointingly little. (I can only guess that they wanted to keep the references to the 2009 movie to a minimum.)

More distracting to me was the repeated use of common current day profanity in this novel. Now, I know that there are regular Star Trek fans who aren’t bothered by that, nor would I really be if I was reading a non Star Trek novel. However, it breaks me out of the entire Star Trek mindset to have characters frequently using the “f-word” and “sh*t” as not only does it break the illusion that the story is taking place hundreds of years in the future from now but also because it seems to break with established Star Trek precedent. Yes, in the previous Star Trek tv series and movies going all the way back to the original 1960s “Star Trek” tv series and on through the various other tv series and movies, you get quite a few “damns”, etc. You even get the rare, strategic harsher curse word (such as when Data, still struggling with having real human emotions for the first time, says “sh*t” upon realizing that they are going to crash into the planet’s atmosphere in Star Trek Generations).

However, Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home addressees, and humorously so, that the use of profanity is mostly unknown to Kirk, Spock, and company in their own time frame in the 23rd century when they suddenly find themselves in the streets of 1986 San Francisco amongst twentieth century people who are using such terms all around them. (The unforgettable instance of Kirk trying to mimic that behavior by cursing back to an angry driver, “Well, double dumb ass on you!”)

It’s not that I want there to be absolutely zero profanity in a Star Trek story, but, at the same time, I feel like there should be a specific reason for it, and that it should be used sparingly. Instead, in The Last Best Hope, it comes across to me as a decision by someone (I don’t know if McCormack as the author of the novel or perhaps the producers of the tv series which it is tying into) to start to make the way people talk in Star Trek more like that ofhow people talk today “in real life” rather than how they have, often by necessity, talked in past Star Trek tv series and movies. (I should point out that Picard himself does not use the above mentioned curse words in the novel, but La Forge does a few times, something we’ve never seen from him prior to this, and several of the original “Picard” characters that we are introduced to in the novel, like Picard’s new first officer, Raffi Musiker, do most of the cursing.)

All of that said, I still enjoyed The Last Best Hope and I look forward to watching “Star Trek: Picard” (and to reading any future “Star Trek: Picard” tie-in novels). I rated Last Best Hope three stars out of five on GoodReads (although I would have given it a three and a half star rating if GoodReads asked for half stars.)

(Oh, and going back to my many decades now of reading Star Trek novels. As I said before, much of the time that I was buying the Star Trek novels in the 1980s through early 2000s, I was not actually reading them as they came out. I now have literally hundreds of Star Trek novels that I look forward to reading for the first time. The Last Best Hope has the distinction of actually being the first Star Trek novel that I’ve read “right away”—within the first month of its publication—in I don’t know how long (probably over fifteen years!))

 

Just as an FYI, the swearing comes from the show. I didn't keep count, but at least ever two or three episodes we get a few fucks. It's not up to the level of something like Sopranos or Game of Thrones, but it's there.

 

I also found the swearing plausible in context. At one point when Clancy was swearing, she was reacting to the news of proposed secessions of Federation worlds over the Romulan project and imagining utter disaster.

 

Hello, guys! My first post here :-)

I really liked this book. Having watched the 1st season of the show prior to reading, I was sure it wouldn't end well, of course. But I was still surprised by the bleakness. Still, it's a chillingly realistic story about what happens when a Big Governing body faces the task of helping Old Enemies. The threads about possible secession and the politics involved were straight out-of-this-world (in the literal sense :-)). The governor who does not believe the threat exists at all also obviously has real-life counterparts. The last scene with Picard resigning is masterfully written. Maddox's characterisation is spot-on.

I'm looking forward to reading more from this author and certainly more Picard novels in general.

There's one thing I missed, but I will be the first to confess that I'm kinda dumb. Are we still supposed to be in the dark when it comes to the True Reason for the synths' rebellion? I thought the book would be about this, but it wasn't. Was this in the show?

 

The comics suggested that the Tal Shiar wants to sabotage the rescue effort because they thought it's an invasion.
The show suggested that a secret group within the Tal Shiar reprogrammed the synths to lead to anti-synth legislation.
Both could be true!

 

Thank you!

 

Just starting this book and so far enjoying it a lot, but am I alone for feeling very disappointed for not having any pages, at least a couple lol, with a dialogue between Picard and Worf telling him he was going to assume command of the Enterprise.
Big let down for me

 

I thought the throw away line about the Romulans considering Spock as crazy was surprising. And I honestly can’t remember, but where the Remans even mentioned in this book? I liked the premise, but I felt like there was so much left out. I understand given the constraints, but it’s just frustrating given all the previous novels we’ve been able to enjoy before this.

 

I wanted to read that too! I won’t be surprised if we end up getting a “Captain Worf’s First Mission” book before too long. Perhaps we’ll see the Picard/Worf conversation there?

 

Just bought this. Loved Picard.

 

I thought the book was better than the show.

 

So far, my opinion is that it would make a very good couple of episodes by itself and Picard could have used the 13 episode treatment.

It's like The Force Awakens. I don't NEED to know where the First Order came from but it would have helped.

 

They didn't have enough material to keep me interested for ten episodes. I ended up dropping out after "Nepenthe". The book kept my attention all the way through.

 

Well clearly we had different reactions to the show. I'm watching Picard for the third time.

 

World wouldn't be interesting if we all thought the same way.

 

They might have decided to save that scene for potential future flashback.

 

I admit I'm more of a space opera than hard(ish) science man with my interpretation of Star Trek. It's probably TOS and Deep Space Nine are my favorite series and NEW FRONTIER as well as KLINGON EMPIRE are my favorite of the series. A friend of mine is deeply into the science of Trek and went into a lengthy rant on Red Matter before asking me what I thought. "I like it because that way they don't have to explain it."

Which, to him, was like saying I murdered anta Clause.

So if Hobus was being described as threatening the galaxy, I'd go, "It's a quantum concussive event explosion! Unlimited detonation from subspace!"

I understand I'm a minority.

But, honestly, it being Romulus' own son fits much better with Picard and the harder science fits with the dark and somber tone of the book where the issue is not big bold godlike powers at work but the cold equations of a much more grounded series. Every second counts and every body.

(This thread illuminated how differently scale is viewed in the setting too: For me, moving 900 million people is an insane prospect since I think of the Federation's fleet being completely devastated by Wolf-459. A few thousand people being moved is a huge deal in "my" Trekview)

 

I enjoyed the book a lot, and it deepened my appreciation of Picard, so I didn't feel it needed to compete. The comic was also good, so Picard was a multi-media winner in my book.

RAMA

 

Just finished. Got some thoughts now.

1. I admit a certain level of disappointment because I've been waiting since 2009 to see the novels display the destruction of Romulus. Yes, for ELEVEN YEARS, I've wanted to see a Star Trek novel see the destruction of the Romulan homeworld. Fanboy blue...knees...doesn't begin to describe how I felt with the realization I'm not ever going to see that plotline.

2. I feel like the fans of the novels have an issue with the fact Romulans (or at least their government) are evil. TNG Romulans especially. The books were strongly influenced by the amazing stories that humanized the Romulans and there's the natural Star Trek inclination to optimism. However, the defining Romulan moment for me was when Geordi was trapped with in the "Enemy Mine" episode "The Enemy" and Bochra reveals the Romulans practice infanticide against blind children.

For me, that cemented that I never felt TNG needed the Cardassians as the Romulans had gotten worse the same way that the Klingons had gotten better. It's not a matter of culture or race but the fact that their government is a totalitarian fascist dictatorship. Those should never be lionized and their actions excused. Yes, they helped in the Dominion War and then the government was overthrown by Shinzon for the purposes of exterminating all life on Earth. Slavery, genocide, and more. It's why I love playing Romulan characters in ST:O because there the goal is to free your people from the Galactic Empire.

This is definitely a book set in the TNG Romulan Empire and it feels entirely purposeful to me. It's exactly like the Chernobyl of the setting, more so than Praxis, but the Romulans show just what can happen when the totalitarians refuse to admit to weakness even in the face of billions of deaths.

3. Praetor Kamemor and the Typhon Pact never would have let this happen but there's plenty of time to show how the Typhon Pact could and would dissolve if the novelverse did want to link up with Picard. A military coup against him seems like something entirely possible and we've had Chancellor Aztbur as an example of what happens with a progressive reformist leader in a totalitarian military society: they get killed and replaced by hardliners. Hell, it happened to the short-lived Cardassian civilian government before the Klingons ruined it and brought in the Dominion.

4. The issue of evacuation was handled well in this book because it's not just moving bodies from Point A to Point B but the fact that they need infrastructure to house all these bodies. The bit where Picard essentially ends up transferring 10,000 people to a Gulag where there will be prisoners and presumably worked to death was a powerful scene. The fact that TNG Romulans were based on a somewhat hyper-powerful super-North Korea never made me think these kind of unjustices were uncommon.

5. I fully believe the Remans are ****ed and I feel terrible that Picard is forgetting them. Then again, maybe he is picking them up but they're just scattered among the larger "Romulan" populace. I choose to believe that versus thinking they'll all be left to die by the government that I tend to think views them the same way the Soviet Union did the Ukrainians.

6. I don't have any problem with Picard easily leaving the Enterprise. It's not "his" Enterprise as that was destroyed in Generations. He also made his peace with abandoning the ship in First Contact. All of the crew are strangers to him but Worf and he's giving it as a present to his XO--the best gift he could ever give. Saving a billion people is a capstone to Picard's career and one that he's already getting long in the tooth for, even with Federation medicine.

7. I don't see Picard as actually needing anyone for the evacuation aside from Geordi. This is not something that requires Starfleet personnel frontliners. This is basically an enormous logistical nightmare but the actual starship piloting part is something anyone could do. I imagine the Titan could have moved some people in the background but Federation ships are hundreds and thousands of crew not anywhere near the numbers here.

8. Yeah, Beverly and Picard didn't get together in this universe. Maybe a time travel event happened but other than the REALLY DARK "Rene is dead and they divorced" answer, I can't see that reconciled with the Novelverse.

9. I worked in a college so I simply say, "Maddox is a creep. Don't frack your students."

 

Impossible. The Typhon Pact only exists as a consequence of the Borg Invasion, which never happened in the Picard/canon continuity. And by my reckoning, the debut of the Pact in the Novelverse happens only about 3 months before The Last Best Hope begins in Picard continuity, and most of the Pact narrative aside from A Singular Destiny and the first half of Rough Beasts of Empire takes place during or after the time frame of TLBH. So there's no hope of "linking up."

Again, the timing makes that impossible. In the Novelverse, Rene is conceived in December 2380 and born in September '81. By my reckoning, TLBH begins in August '81. Picard wouldn't just walk out on Beverly if she was 8 months pregnant with his son.