Star Trek: Vanguard: Declassified
A collection of four short stories! It’s a first for this franchise, but a welcome one:
“Almost Tomorrow” by Dayton Ward
Prequel to the main storyline, showing when and how several of the main characters met each other and started their relationships. It’s a good but brief story.
“Hard News” by Kevin Dilmore
Sorta prequel that shows that even the most hard boiled reporters can meet their match. I’m assuming this story is going to set up something bigger down the road, but if it doesn’t it’s still an ok story that feels a bit too tropey at times.
“The Ruins of Noble Men” by Marco Palmieri
A sequel story that pushed the franchise narrative forward, albeit very slowly and laboriously, essentially just reiterating where all the story elements were last left and affirming character’s stances on certain items, then ends with one of the main characters staring ponderously out a window.
“The Stars Look Down” by David Mack
The final story and it’s the best of them, but also the worst of them, in which a guy that was a fat lazy slob is transformed into man’s man, gets his woman, then loses his woman, which coincidentally is the same series of events that happened in the previous story too. I get it, people need to die, but boy howdy was the female interest reduced to a plot element and not much else. I’m still a fan of the story but it could have used some more thought on the optics of “fridging” another girlfriend in the same book.
