Star Trek – Picard Rogue Elements by John Jackson Miller
I have to be honest, when I saw that there was a book based on the freighter Captain Cristobel Rios before the events of Picard, I found myself musing that given what led to Rios leaving Starfleet, this would be an angst ridden tale. However from the opening chapter, the reality of this book is quite different.
This novel opens up with our hero viewing the ship that would become La Sienna in an alien dealership. Although he is angst ridden, this is a lot more light hearted and comedic than I was expecting.
To go into too much detail, would spoil the story, suffice to say, what follows is series of mid adventures, in which Rios and his rotating crew of renegades of various levels of competence struggle to make ends meet, while staying ahead of various authorities, crime syndicates, and, apparently, environmental charities, all while trying to solve a mysterious puzzle
From the opening chapters there cameos a plenty, both from Picard (including a cameo for the eponymous man himself) and a variety of species and characters from TOS, TNG, and DS9.
The book seems to carry on at a quick, jaunty pace, while Rios is somewhat brooding, he does have a rougeish charm, and learns to put his Starfleet innovation to good use in the galactic underworld. He is a man who is struggling to maintain a sense of personal honour, while working for some unpleasant sorts.
As mentioned, like a lot of the spin off novels released in recent years, between characters that he meet, and holodeck recreations, the novel is packed full of appearances from established characters, with reveals right up to the epilogue. I do wonder if there are too many. Even Picard himself didn’t need to appear in the book, even though the series is based on him.
However it is nice to see the mystery unfold, and it genuinely feels rewarding when the good guy wins after a series of disasters and misadventures.
Overall, the book is recommended, even if you aren’t a fan of the show, there is still enough here to resonate with a fan of “legacy” Trek.
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