This book has everything you want from a Star Trek story – true-crime podcasting, terms like “ghosting” and “Googling,” and of course Skype. Wait a minute…
Star Trek: The Original Series: Lost to Eternity
Author: Greg Cox
Pages: 400
Format: Paperback
Published: July 23, 2024
Publisher: Gallery Books
View on Goodreads
Date Completed: July 22, 2024
My rating: 
Thoughts
I love it when a new Star Trek novel is published (we really don’t get very many these days). And one from an author we haven’t gotten one from in a while is even better! Greg Cox wrote one of my favorite Star Trek: The Next Generation trilogies: The Q-Continuum. He also wrote another great trilogy – The Eugenics Wars featuring the rise, fall, and exile of one Khan Noonien Singh.
What he’s done here in Lost to Eternity is do what he’s always done best. He’s taken Star Trek lore, made the ultimate of fan references and Easter eggs, and even worked some real-world history into the mix as well.
This book takes place in three different time periods. In 2024, we follow true-crime podcaster Melinda Silver who is researching and reporting on the disappearance of Gillian Taylor (from Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home) a la the Serial podcast. In 2268 (during the third season of Star Trek: The Original Series), after a renowned scientist is abducted, the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise are taken to a barbaric world and are pitted against the Klingons in trying to recover her. And in 2292 (just prior to Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country), Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise-A are partnered with the Klingons and Romulans to establish relations with a reclusive and long-lived species.
Each chapter is set in a different period and for the most part alternates between each. This was really fun because at first they really seemed like disparate stories. You peek at one and just when you think you’re getting somewhere, bam! Time change. There are kernels of clues throughout at how they tie together but they really don’t start making sense until about halfway through the book. Then it’s a race to the end to see what becomes of everything and everyone.
The antagonist of this story is a bit of a mystery unto himself throughout. And I call him an antagonist because he really isn’t a villain per se until closer to the end of the book. And even then, every villain is the hero of their own story, right? I really liked learning about this guy, though I do wish we had gotten more of a backstory on him. Why was he doing what he did? In the end, I felt a little sad for him, but it could have been more powerful to have more story about him and his motives.
Oddly, although the book was strong in each storyline, I really found myself enjoying the 2024 stuff the most. I think it’s really because it is currently 2024 as I write this. I didn’t care too much for the way Melinda talked (I believe I saw the exclamation “yikers” in there somewhere) and actually would have like to hear her swear more. The excuse for her not swearing [much] was because she was a podcaster and didn’t want to slip up on air. I get that. But I’m a podcaster and can control my language while I’m recording. And if there is a slip, you just bleep it. It would have felt a little more real for her to swear. Which I can’t believe I’m saying…
In the end, this was a great book and I gave it a really strong 4 out of 5 stars. I think this would have earned that last star for me if there was more development of the antagonist. Something for me to really hang onto and make me care about him more than I did.
