Customer Reviews

Shadows on the Sun (Star Trek)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I wasn't gonna write reviews today. I was just gonna read... Till I read this one. I would like to say this is my favorite Star Trek novel by my favorite author. McCoy was a trainee in a portion of this, they called him "trainee" ... so what? Some people have such strange reasons for hating novels. I agree with a previous review, the Shadows on the Sun ideal was described so perfectly. Ok, now what I thought: I love the flashback stuff, LOVED IT. The history of these characters we love so much is THE entire reason we love them. Where they came from IS who they are. This book does great in fleshing out the "trainees" (hehe) past. I love Friedman he's gutsy, would you want to take a character with a 30 year history and invent his past before the glaring eyes of millions? I wouldn't. Micheal Jan Friedmans novel is a must for McCoy fans and anyone who wants to know more about the "trainee" than they already knew. Buy it.

I have become a Friedman fan after having read SHADOWS ON THE SUN. Friedman's writing style is a breath of fresh air; his dialogue is witty, funny, and emotinally moving. McCoy comes alive as his ethics are put to the test on Ssani when presented a choice whether to save an assassin who will likely escape and kill again. The conflict between McCoy's ex-wife's new husband and himself is highly entertaining. Overall, Friedman has imbued the Star Trek universe with an impressionable flair that resonates in my memory, even after having finished it.

Star Trek: Shadows on the Sun written by Michael Jaan Friedman is a flashback novel with the primary character being Dr. Leonard McCoy. McCoy confronts his past in order to save the future, also we read of McCoy's past and why he left a wife behind.

It is refreshing to read a Star Trek book that kicks the James T. Kirk character to the back burner and highlights someone else as the lead character, is the case of "Shadows on the Sun" is just such a book.

We read about the successful young doctor McCoy with a storybook family, but McCoy is in for a betrayal from the woman he loves. Now, McCoy leaves everything he had on Earth and heads for outer space and a career in Starfleet. Everything is fine for forty years as McCoy makes a career in Starfleet, now a crises has developed on the planet of Ssan.

The Ssani have a long history of being assassins and the U.S.S. Enterprise and her crew are sent to negotiate a settlement with a group of mediators aboard. As the Enterprise is on the way McCoy meets his ex-wife after forty years as she is one of the negotiaters.

Of course nothing is going right with the Ssani as a matter of course, they use assassination as a matter of fact and a way of life."Shadow of the Sun" is a Ssani saying that means Sun is the image of viewing the life cycle and Shadow is the individual life. The individual casts a shadow on the the Sun of all life.

The mediators and Captain Kirk are now taken hostage as a Civil War rages and it is upto McCoy to draw from his past to save the negotiations and save the day. The narrative moves very quickly and the prose are true to the characters and McCoy is the stand out hero of the book. If you are a Dr. Leonard McCoy fan this is your book to read as the character of McCoy get fleshed out early in McCoys career through flashbacks.

this is star trek as i like it- a good human story about a great character, and one that doesn't singlehandedly refute all but federation view- yes, it allows other species to have their own way of life without being smallminded (unlike, in "shell game"(melissa crandall?): a romulan character says 'honor? from a romulan? hahaha.." or something to that effect.. o pulease...) i mostly agree with what the general reader has reviewed up there. i just want to comment that the title "shadows on the sun" is made VERY clear in the novel..unlike what one reader has complained of above. it refers to a line in Ssani poetry (written by a chief assansin no less) about life and death.. 'sun' is the image of being or the cycle of life; the 'shadows' are individual lives, and by being removed (by way of assasins), the 'sun' is allowed to shine brighter.. .. not to say i agree with this,(lol) or even admire the pseudo philosophy made up by M J friedman.. just to clear up a little misunderstanding up there.

Any Dr. McCoy fan has got to read this!!! Wonderfully amazing!!! The best McCoy book out there. :) :)

Like the storyline but the author's overuse of the words "muse" and "grunted" are downright embarrassing. Multiple times per page sometimes. It's really annoying. Almost makes me not want to finish it.

After reading this book you couldn't blame him for being cranky. Friedman offers a highly entertaining look into the life of Leonard McCoy. From his early Medical School days to his last mission, this is wonderful read.

A mildly entertaining book. The author didn't fully explore the multi-faceted personality of Bones. The story is occasionally touching, but otherwise average. The author has written better books, like Crossover, and I recommend them

This is a great book. It shares all the emotions that the good Dr. McCoy was or is expeiriencing. How his heart wrenching divorce came to be and why he entered Starfleet. Buy this book! You won't regret, unless you don't like heart felt stories and lively imaginations.

Literally. I can't remember what this book was about- about the time I finished it and put it down. It wasn't the worst Star Trek novel out there. But there have certainly been plenty better. There's some interesting work with the assassins, some surprises at the end, but most of it was honestly not engrossing enough to finish, if I didn't live in a country with precious few English novels.

Sometimes I think Star Trek novel authors take advantage of Trekkie love for the work, as if we'll read just anything. But there is something that first pulled us into this universe, that brings us back. Roddenberry had a hope and a dream, that surpassed even the occasional bad writing of The Original Series. Just as I look for good writing in any book, I look for it in a Star Trek novel. I do not think we should demean this epic myth just to write yet another pedantic work. A great story deserves great writing.