Reunion

Reunion
By: Michael Jan Friedman

This book was written way back in 1991 and I finally got around to reading it. Michael Jan Friedman in an interview with Jeff Ayres said, "At that point (back in 1991) you couldn't use anybody from anybody else's books. You couldn't use anybody you'd already used in your books. So I figured this was a onetime thing for ben Zoma and the Azmunds, and Simenon and Greyhorse and Pug, and it turned out otherwise." I was first introduced to these characters when I read the Stargazer novels. After I read those I figured out that this book had unintentionally started it all so I went to my vast Star Trek Novel Library and found that I owed the book and I read it.

There were a couple of things that I really liked about this book. Jack Crusher, the murder mystery and Simenon.

First, Jack Crusher. We always hear what a great guy Jack Crusher is, how brave he was and what a good friend he was and most of all that he died heroically in the line of duty. No we don't get to meet Jack personally, but we finally get to hear a detailed story about how exactly he died and personally I liked it. I thought it was fitting of all the hype and it was certainly heroic. I loved that Wesley got to hear the story from one of his father's friends. Someone out there should write the Jack Crusher chronicles, it would be a great series full of action adventure, true love, family and little boys falling out of trees. Sounds good to me.

The murder mystery was pretty good in this book. Star Trek books are fun because we get a little bit of everything, action adventure, sci fi and even a good murder mystery now and again. I didn't even know who the killer was until the last third of the book. It was fun.

I read a Star Trek book where one of the "guest" characters was basically a dolphin with a special suit who flew around the halls of the Enterprise. It was hard to connect with this character and I just didn't care very much about him. On the tv shows it is always hard for me to get attached to any of the characters that stray too far from the normal human look. Bajoran's have a little nose wrinkle and Vulcan's have pointed ears, even the Klingon's with their forehead ridges are not so bad. But when the tv show tries to do reptiles of some other non humanoid, like fish people or whatever the costumes get in the way, think about the Gorn in the original series. It's not that I am prejudice against non humanoids, I think that they have never been able to do them well. Simenon is some kind of reptile and the first non humanoid that I ever really felt like I was able to connect with. (This is a very nerdy subject) Michael Jan Friedman did a great job of making this character alien but likable. He was wise and he was nice to Wesley. This has helped me to give non humanoids a chance. And to not be so cold blooded.

This was a great character exploration/murder mystery and I recommend it to anyone who loves Jack Crusher.