Recently read Uhura’s Song for the first time. I know it’s often regarded as a highlight of the ‘80’s Trek Novelverse, but I just didn’t like it. Evan Wilson was just way too “manic pixie dreamgirl” for me. I know she was supposed to be adorable, and mysterious, and cuter than cute as she called Kirk out on what felt like every other page. But none of that worked for me. She was, quite simply, annoying.
And then, Kagan dragged out the ending to inject more Tail-Kinker (as Evan came to be known) hijinks... she could’ve easily lopped off about 75 pages and had a better novel. Well, at least in my opinion.
Evan/Tail-Kinker might not be an author-surrogate (Kagan stated she was patterened after her mother) but has every single other annoying characteristic of a Mary Sue. She out-doctors Bones, out-sciences Spock, and out-commands Kirk. She invented some engineering thingamajig that would’ve made Scotty green with envy. She bested Sulu at fencing, and Uhura at barding. I don’t recall what she did better than Chekov, but it wasn’t screaming. Poor Pavel still has to own that one.
So yeah, a big thumbs-down on Uhura’s Song from me.