Living Memory

I haven't read many of the Star Trak books but I watched the original series when it first came out and lots of reruns since. It's so nice to be among old friends again.This story? A bit far fetched but it brought up some interesting food for thought.

4.5/5LIVING MEMORY is an excellent installment in Christopher Bennett's series of novels set in the somewhat underdeveloped movie period of the Star Trek franchise. From the period of Star Trek: The Motion Picture until the Wrath of Khan when James T. Kirk was flying a desk, there's a very interesting set of ideas that were underdeveloped. Most of which came from Phase II and never-developed concepts that were mostly found in art books or side materials. Christopher Bennett weaves these two along with mostly-ignored bits of canon into a fascinating tale of morality and ethics.The premise is based around two simultaneous story arcs. In TOS episode "The Changeling", about a renegade probe made godlike by aliens (more or less taken up to the 11 in TMP), Uhura had her memory erased by the probe and never got it back. Because we never knew what her backstory was in the first place, this was mostly ignored. This story examines it from the perspective of her recovering mentally but never socially and I found that to be a fascinating story. It also talks about projects in communication she was working on that she never got to develop. Ones presently tied with unusual alien phenomenon as is want to happen in Star Trek. I enjoyed this plot but I admit not as much as the second.The second plot is my favorite kind of ST plot: science fiction ethics. A group of genetically bred super-soldiers that have been kept in stasis since the Klingon War are being let out but there's no general idea of what to do with them. While I disagreed with some of her ideas, I really enjoyed Karen Traviss' REPUBLIC TROOPER books for tackling the fact that using the clones was tantamount to slavery even if they were willing. After all, with reduced lifespans and a lifetime of training in nothing but war, what WOULD they do?Here, the Federation is taking on a pilot program of these children that reminds me of DS9 episode "The Abandoned" which was about a Jem'Hadar they try to integrate into Starfleet. That episode had the very cynical and somewhat nasty view that he was what he was and could never be anything else. Here, the Arcturians and Federation are all interested in doing what is best for the "clones" but from a somewhat condescending view that they need to have their lives dictated for them. Even from a place of concern, many activists have often infantalized the people they're attempting to help.Overall, I felt this was a very fun and impressive book. I really was more interested in the Arcturian plot more than the Uhura one but I can hardly have a problem with more devotion to someone who has always been underdeveloped and undervalued by Star Trek as a whole (even if writers have done their best to correct that). This is a solid piece of Movie-Era fiction and those who enjoyed things like EX MACHINA will undoubtedly also like this analysis of our heroes' middle years.

Had I read this book years ago, I'm sure I would have rated it much higher. It's well-constructed, handles the characters well, is much better than most at avoiding sloppy grammatical and other linguistic errors (I don't think I found any, which is rare in popular fiction paperbacks) and strictly on technical merit rates at least four stars. The concept was good, too. But somehow, it just didn't really grab me the way it should have. Perhaps it's the fact that, having read well in excess of 500 Star Trek novels of one variety or another, it just takes a lot to impress me these days. Perhaps it's just that, in spite of the original episode stating in so many words that Uhura had been stripped of her memory and that it couldn't be restored, that she would have to be re-trained from the ground up, it never really felt as if that were true, and so it seems to be contrary to implied canon to take the episode at its word. Obviously, one could argue that that is not a failing of this book but rather a failing of the continuity of the original series. But somehow it seems dubious that such a major issue would have remained unaddressed for so long. That, and the "Enterprise bridge crew must accomplish the impossible to save the earth" plotline has been seriously overused. It was nice to see it being Uhura for a change, rather than Kirk/Spock/McCoy/maybe Scotty, but still, it seems to elicit more of a "what, that again" reaction than actual tension. Nor does it seem at all plausible that they could, in fact, have succeeded as they did. So overall, on balance, I call this story "OK".

I have read most of the Star Trek books Mr. Bennett has written. Living Memory has many hooks linking to the original TV series, and does a great job of keeping true to the original characters. The story was most interesting, which made it easy to read. I finished it in a day.That said, I was disappointed that the the book contained character opinions of two current controversial issues-gender identity (Chapter 19) and modern day oppressions of former slaves. Injecting these opinions reduced my enjoyment, and could have been avoided without sacrificing the story line. I would have rated the book 5 stars without this addition.

I foolishly put off buying this Trek book due to a much higher number of poor reviews here at Amazon - I've bought every canon Trek book since the first - and having read the story I wish I hadn't waited. It's not a great Trek story but it's not a bad one either and it is no different in its world view (or rather Trek Universe view) than 99% of all the other Trek novels in the last 20 years. I think it is clear that there is a deliberate campaign by the political right to denigrate the post-Roddenberry Trek universe and its authors. How depressing. Seriously guys, if you don't like the politics of the Federation, just don't read the books, rather than try to spoil it for those of us who enjoy them.

The book suffers from two things. First, it forgets that the best part of Star Trek is the charming interplay between Kirk, Spock and McCoy, with Spock logically approaching a problem, McCoy emotionally evaluating it, and Kirk deciding which parts of each perspective to form into a solution. Second, it references other stories the author has penned, as if the reader has read them and acknowledges them as cannon. This is a common failing of most of these books, as, inevitably, this is not the first one the author has written. Having said that, the story does flesh out, in fairly realistic terms, what it would be like to reconstruct a life after permanently losing all memory, something that was never dealt with in the original series, as Uhura is right back at her post in the very next episode after The Changeling.

Unfortunately, this is like so many Star Trek books. It relies on Star Trek.This story starts quite interesting and then falls into the old 'filler not thriller of irrelevant boredom'.This 'on off' style repeats through the book.

Yes it was fantastic I just love these books! Your delivery was perfect and I am ready to enjoy thank you amzon

I'm trying to be nice here but it was a boring story. A great premise with a very interesting mystery, ruined by long long monologues and arguments about ethics, morals and needless descriptions. Almost as if it was a radio play where people had to speak to explain what was happening. Instead of showing the action. I would not recommend this book.

Christopher Bennett has always written a great story, taking you through the Star Trek universe. Can recommend this as a good read for any lover of the Star Treck series.

Yeah