Matthew’s Reviews > Shards and Shadows > Status Update

Homecoming: a New Frontier story, and a follow up to the one features in the previous book. This feels more like an addendum to that, but it's enjoyable. Introduced some new elements into the Mirror Universe, and was exciting and fun.

Family Matters: a confusing Klingon story presented through messages and transcripts of conversations. I'm not really sure what was going on and couldn't separate some of the characters.

The Sacred Chalice: a fairly sedate but intriguing story about Deanna and her mother, who run a brothel on Betazed. Picard arrives and there are revelations, and then it ends extremely quickly without much chance to take things in. Decent.

The Greater Good: we finally meet the mirror universe James Kirk. He's pretty evil, and this disjointed story sees him taking power and gaining command of the Enterprise. It jumps around all over the place and incorporates plot elements from 'The Cage'. A bit confusing to read at times and feels more like it's setting the scene for the 'Mirror, Mirror' episode.

Ill Winds: an enjoyable adventure with Commodore Robert April in charge of the ISS Constellation. There's (slightly) less backstabbing here, and much more sense of a crew who trusts each other; that serves as some relief from the pure evil that seems to inhabit the characters of the Enterprise-era stories. Still has some nasty moments of cruelty and torture.

Nobunaga: a follow up to the novella 'Age of the Empress' from the Glass Empires book. It is a fast paced and well written story about Trip that effectively conveys the confusion of a distorted reality. An excellent sense of displacement shifting senses. Quick and perhaps a bit over-the-top at times, but enjoyable.