Shards and Shadows: Star Trek Mirror Universe

I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars

Description: Fractured history. Broken lives. Splintered souls. Since the alternate universe was first glimpsed in the classic episode “Mirror, Mirror,” something about Star Trek’s dark side has beckoned us, called to us, tempted us — like forbidden fruit on the Tree of Knowledge. To taste it is to lose oneself in a world of startling familiarity and terrifying contradictions, where everything and everyone we knew is somehow disturbingly different, and where shocking secrets await their revelation.

What began in 2007 with Glass Empires and Obsidian Alliances — the first truly in-depth foray into the turbulent history of this other continuum — now continues in twelve new short tales that revisit and expand upon that so-called “Mirror Universe,” spanning all five of the core incarnations of Star Trek, as well as their literary offshoots, across more than two hundred years of divergent history, as chronicled by…

It’s been a long time since I have read Star Trek book beyond the ones I own.  I found this book while browsing the shelves at the library and was glad to find it.  I’ve always been a fan of the mirror universe episodes and books.  It’s interesting to see what my favorite characters would have been like if they took a different path in life or grew up in a different environment.  This book is made up of 12 short stories that take place at different times and involve characters from each of the Star Trek series.  I will admit I did not read the ones about the classic Star Trek characters.  Some of the stories were just ok but Nobunaga by Dave Stern, Bitter Fruit by Susan Wright and A Terrible Beauty by Jim Johnson in particular really left me wanting more.  I’m going to have to check to see if any of those were fleshed out into full length books.  Nobunaga involves the crew of the series Enterprise and centered around Trip (my favorite of the crew) and imagine an evil empress Hoshi.  Bitter Fruit is filled with the Voyager crew.  It sounds like Kes may have a darker plan in mind for the world.  A Terrible Beauty seems to have a mix of characters from various series.  We see Riker, Tuvok and Deanna Troi’s father.  This was definitely another great addition to the mirror universe books and I can only hope some of them were or will be developed into full length books.

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