As far as the novel, I'm finishing it up now and actually found it rather enjoyable. When I first saw Tilly on Discovery I made no secret that my first reaction was "OMG, who created that annoying character?" But she grows on you after a while. I couldn't help but like her at the end of season 1 (I'm still in awe of her line when she had to pretend to be the captain in the mirror universe "If I were you're Captain I'd cut your tongue out and use it to lick my boot"---that is classic 
).
And that character is well represented in the book. She comes off as a bit off putting, and even annoying at times, but she grows on many of the characters. In many ways it's much like a coming of age story, perhaps a teenage angst story. But it's well written. It's not like watching Beverly Hills 90210. Tilly is not a 'perfect' teenage. It's also interesting to learn a bit more about her family, esp. her parents. Her mother is a bit of an ogre. She's pretty insistent that Tilly become a diplomat, even though every piece of evidence shows she would be a poor fit and she is clearly unhappy about it. But her mother is not uncommon in the real world. Some of us may have had parents like that, who had our whole future already decided and couldn't accept that our life was meant to follow a different path. Her father was much more understanding and appeared more 'docile', which was deceptive as he had nerves of steel. He doesn't hesitate to stand up to her mother when the moment calls for it. And it has the common thread of the child blaming themselves for their parents' divorce (perhaps the only element that was a bit cliché).
I found myself excited about Tilly's runaway experience. First secretly leaving the school she was unhappy at, then finding her way aboard the ship and I was almost as disappointed as Tilly when she seemed to find a temporary home on Zymne and it was cut short. It might have been interesting to see her live there for a time and make a new friend with Natalia before she was found. But every adventure must had it's ending.
The novel is good at depicting how Tilly found her way to Starfleet. And it's probably not an unusual path. We always think of our Starfleet characters as those who were born going to Starfleet. This was a case where initially joining Starfleet wasn't even part of the thought process, and she eventually found her way there through her life's experience. So I'd rate the book above average for sure.
).And that character is well represented in the book. She comes off as a bit off putting, and even annoying at times, but she grows on many of the characters. In many ways it's much like a coming of age story, perhaps a teenage angst story. But it's well written. It's not like watching Beverly Hills 90210. Tilly is not a 'perfect' teenage. It's also interesting to learn a bit more about her family, esp. her parents. Her mother is a bit of an ogre. She's pretty insistent that Tilly become a diplomat, even though every piece of evidence shows she would be a poor fit and she is clearly unhappy about it. But her mother is not uncommon in the real world. Some of us may have had parents like that, who had our whole future already decided and couldn't accept that our life was meant to follow a different path. Her father was much more understanding and appeared more 'docile', which was deceptive as he had nerves of steel. He doesn't hesitate to stand up to her mother when the moment calls for it. And it has the common thread of the child blaming themselves for their parents' divorce (perhaps the only element that was a bit cliché).
I found myself excited about Tilly's runaway experience. First secretly leaving the school she was unhappy at, then finding her way aboard the ship and I was almost as disappointed as Tilly when she seemed to find a temporary home on Zymne and it was cut short. It might have been interesting to see her live there for a time and make a new friend with Natalia before she was found. But every adventure must had it's ending.
The novel is good at depicting how Tilly found her way to Starfleet. And it's probably not an unusual path. We always think of our Starfleet characters as those who were born going to Starfleet. This was a case where initially joining Starfleet wasn't even part of the thought process, and she eventually found her way there through her life's experience. So I'd rate the book above average for sure.
)
