Star Trek: Mirror Universe: Shards and Shadows

It's been a long time since I have read Star Trek book beyond the ones I own. I found this book while browsing the shelves at the library and was glad to find it. I've always been a fan of the mirror universe episodes and books. It's interesting to see what my favorite characters would have been like if they took a different path in life or grew up in a different environment. This book is made up of 12 short stories that take place at different times and involve characters from each of the Star Trek series. I will admit I did not read the ones about the classic Star Trek characters. Some of the stories were just ok but Nobunaga by Dave Stern, Bitter Fruit by Susan Wright and A Terrible Beauty by Jim Johnson in particular really left me wanting more. I'm going to have to check to see if any of those were fleshed out into full length books. Nobunaga involves the crew of the series Enterprise and centered around Trip (my favorite of the crew) and imagine an evil empress Hoshi. Bitter Fruit is filled with the Voyager crew. It sounds like Kes may have a darker plan in mind for the world. A Terrible Beauty seems to have a mix of characters from various series. We see Riker, Tuvok and Deanna Troi's father. This was definitely another great addition to the mirror universe books and I can only hope some of them were or will be developed into full length books.

The book arrived within a week and was everything I had hoped for. The condition was excellent and the mail service was prompt. Thank you. Jerry Smith

I love this book! Every story was great (though there are a few stories that you have to have read the previous "MU" books to understand). Also, we FINALLY get to see the "MU" Tasha Yar! Hopefully, more books like this will be forthcoming.

Shards and Shadows continues on from Part One. I noticed, however, that some of the stories referenced other stories in Obsidian Alliances. Fortunately, I had the other book and was able to access the previously-referenced stories to get a better handle of the "thread" contained within Shards and Shadows.

I have much enjoyed the Myriad Universes and Mirror Universes collections and have eagerly awaited this installment since it was announced for last year. However, this entry did not strike me fondly as its predecessors. Some of the offers were quite good (ie Homecoming, The Black Flag, Nobunaga), but others didn't strike me quite well (Sacred Chalice, the format of Family Matters.) Overall, it's a good read, but I would recommend reading the rest of the Mirror Universe books before delving into this one.