William Leisner

I don't know why, but I'm a sucker for a good alternate universe story. This might stem from my enjoyment of alternate history, with its speculation of what might have happened and what those differences reveal about people. But this isn't limited to fictional speculations about history, as I get no less pleasure from alternate spins on fictional universes such as that of Gene Roddenberry's much-loved creation.

And this book just hit the spot in that respect. The first of what was a show more three-book series, it offers three novellas that take the Star Trek canon and spin it off in radical directions. The three are:

"A Less Perfect Union" by William Leisner — Premised on a different outcome to the events of the season four Star Trek: Enterprise episode "Terra Prime," it has a more isolationist Earth reconsidering its rejection of joining the alliance of interstellar species (known here as the "Coalition"). It features a lot of characters from the very start of the original series, including a xenophobic James T. Kirk. The name-checking was a little exhausting, but never overdone and was part of the enjoyment of the story.

"Places of Exile" by Christopher L. Bennett — This one is most closely tied to its source material. Premised on a slightly different ending to the season three finale "Scorpion, Part I," a slightly more cautious approach to the war between the Borg and Species 8472 soon forces the Voyager crew to adopt a very different mission from the one they had been on since their relocation to the Delta Quadrant. This was the one that, based on the description, I was least looking forward to reading, yet (possibly because of my lower expectations) I enjoyed it the most.

"Seeds of Dissent" by James Swallow — Remember Khan Noonien Singh? Imagine what would have happened had he triumphed on Earth and what would have followed over the course of the following three centuries. In some ways it's the most radical departure of the trio, which made it the most entertaining of the three (albeit with a major caveat).

All three novellas represent radical departures from the events of their source material, which gives their authors latitude to tell very different stories. Yet what makes it work is the authors' verisimilitude to the characters from the original shows. All three authors nail their depiction of characters that have been so well established over the years, sometimes across multiple shows. Combined with the freshness of the plots, the three stories make for a stimulatingly different yet still faithful departure from the canon that fans of the original series can enjoy. show less

I usually like AU fanfic, so this book was a fun read. I especially liked the third story, using DS9 characters, where Kahn's side had won the Eugenics Wars and the sleepers found on the Botany Bay were from the other side.

Bill Leisner's Losing the Peace picks up from the chaotic Destiny trilogy, showing us what the characters of The Next Generation are up to in the wake of the Borg invasion. The biggest problem I have with this book is a sense of aimlessness: it's about a hundred pages before the plot kicks in, and it's not much of one for the characters on the Enterprise. The biggest disaster in Federation history, and Starfleet Command doesn't have a better mission for the ship than flying around hoping show more they run into problems to fix? Planets should be screaming for aid. (Which makes Picard's desire to be sent on an exploration mission at the novel's opening a bit of a jerk move, too. I guess he could just trade places with Will Riker on Titan, who in Over a Torrent Sea didn't want to explore so he could help in the reconstruction. I also didn't like the Picard promotion subplot.) The sideplot about Bev Crusher and Miranda Kadohata in a refugee camp on Pacifica was much stronger, thanks to its focus and Leisner's sharp depiction of the tensions and issues that would come along with it; the ramifications of the Borg attack were really felt here. The Enterprise's visit to Alpha Centauri (and resultant action to resolve the situation) was also good stuff. I was disappointed at the decision of one character to leave the Enterprise at the novel's end, though; the tNG relaunch is really struggling to build a core cast of characters. show less

This is the first in a series of books chronicling possible alternative Star Trek universes. It contains three short-short novels: A Less Perfect Union by William Leisner, Places of Exile by Christopher L. Bennett, and Seeds of Dissent by James Swallow. Of the three, my favorite was definitely Leisner's, telling the story of an Earth that never joined the United Federation of Planets. Despite depicting an alternate universe, Leisner captures the characters quite well-- they all feel like the show more people we know and love, but not quite. It's a true Star Trek story, ably demonstrating that we are better together than we are apart in the best tradition of the series, but from a different perspective than we've had before.

James Swallow's story was decent-- the idea of a universe with "Khan victorius!" as the back cover shouts at us is a good one, as is the story he concocts in it, a sort of reverse "Space Seed". The best touch was the Khan hologram. I do find it very contrived that any of the characters we know-- especially the human ones-- could even remotely exist in this universe, however.

Christopher L. Bennett's alternative Voyager story, on the other hand, fell pretty flat with me, spending too much of its time telling and not showing characterization, trying to do far too much in its short pagespan, and getting bogged down in some pretty uninteresting stuff with Species 8472.

Overall, the first two Myriad Universes volumes have been an unreserved success, opening up Star Trek in a new way, which is always a good thing. I'd be hard-pressed to pick a favorite between A Less Perfect Union and A Gutted World, but I enjoyed almost all of the stories quite a bit. I look forward to the future planned installments in the series, though I'd like to see those utilize some new formats: full novels, short stories, &c. show less