Justin Oser 
Finished Toward the Night (2025) by James Swallow and I have mixed feelings about it. The novel is about a long-lost Starfleet ship and the mystery it helps unravel.

I’ll start with what I liked. There’s a good focus on Ortegas here and that’s always welcome. There’s a good part for Uhura in deciphering a mysterious message and Una is fantastic as she often is in the show and in the #StarTrekSNW novels. 1/4 #StarTrek #bookstodon
May 31 at 3:01pmWeb
Show threadJustin Oser May 31

For the story itself, the concept is very interesting. That leads to some wonderful connections and descriptions to build up the story.

I did have some issues, though. Spock is fine here, but it feels like he’s mostly doing what you would expect of him. There’s also a threat from the Klingons that’s just ordinary Klingon threats and ways of getting out of that situation. 2/4

Show threadJustin Oser May 31
I think that’s the issue I had with a lot of the novel. It does things that are expected for certain characters and species and often becomes about getting out of the situation. Outside of Ortegas’ storyline, I felt there was little here that developed the characters or led to a truly interesting and unexpected story. 3/4
Show threadJustin Oser May 31
Overall, while I liked what we see for several characters (especially Ortegas) and the story had a good setup, the overall execution of the storyline for many of the rest of the characters left something to be desired and didn’t challenge my expectations. Unfortunately, I find that I can’t recommend this one. 4/4
Show threadElena. (she/ her)May 31
@trekfan4747 Oh no! Bummer. I didn't have a chance to listen to it yet, but will eventually, of course. I'm curious to see if our opinions will match or not.
More Ortegas though is always good, so I am definitely looking forward to that.
Show threadJustin Oser May 31
@theresmiling I’ll be curious to see what you think, too. I’ve loved pretty much every other Janes Swallow Trek novel I’ve read, so I was surprised this one didn’t click for me overall
Show threadElena. (she/ her)May 31
@trekfan4747 That's why I'm surprised of your review too. I wonder if he had to work with some restrictions. I haven't listened to any interview yet though, since I want to avoid spoilers. (Your reviews are great teasers, but never spoilers, so I like reading them in advance.)

I really hope I can finally listen to it soon. (There's a problem I have to get solved first, but it's out of my hands which makes it all the more frustrating.)
Show threadJustin Oser Jun 1
@theresmiling That’s a good point as most of his novels have been about shows or characters where we’d already seen all of it (or at least thought we had at the time) and so there would be fewer restrictions. He did have great Discovery and Picard novels released during the run of those shows, but maybe an SNW novel does have more restrictions
Show threadPeregrineMay 31
@trekfan4747 yeah, I felt similar. It really wants to be an Ortegas novel, which would be welcome in and of itself. But it tries too hard to not leave out too much of the rest of the cast. It could have been an Ortegas story with La'an along for support. Chapel is only there so that La'an doesn't die when she gets hurt. Pike is only there because he's the series lead. From an in-universe perspective they have vital roles on the mission, but from a plot perspective, they're kindof just baggage.