Ishmael by Barbara Hambly

Ishmael by Barbara Hambly
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I love this novel, I've read it over and over and my paperback is rather worse for wear:)
Ishmael is a fairly simply story at it's core, a man out of place who finds a purpose, friends and family in a community so different to what he was raised to understand as normal. In terms of Star Trek it's a story of Spock who is captured on board a Klingon freighter which is showing some strange energy readings, it vanishes as Kirk and the Enterprise look on helpless to do anything. Spock awakes in a cot in a cabin in the Seattle woodlands being tended to by an Aaron Stemple. Spock has no memory of who and what he is but is accepted by Stemple and soon learns to integrate with the Seattle community albeit one four centuries prior to his birth.
The novel has a wide selection of new characters all of which are entertaining to read about, they merge well together and push the narrative forward and while it may be pushing the bounds to believe Spock would thrive in this environment his stumbles and victories are highly satisfying. If anything it's the more "Trek" aspect of the story that suffers, the investigation into the Klingon mission is quite shallow even though the Karsid element and the Drelb are very interesting additions. Ishmael is a very good read and very entertaining but maybe not for every Star Trek fan, for me it's one of my favourite go to novels when I want some Trek.

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