Books like Corona

I have read Star Trek books for a very long time and I mostly enjoy them for the bit of fan-fiction they appear to be. I mean, come on, how cool is it to write about familiar characters and develop your own little pocket universe like Vonda McIntyre (God rest her soul) used to do. Here, in Corona, you have a star science fiction writer like Greg Bear trying his hand at writing Captain Kirk, Spock, and Dr. McCoy. I can say without hyperbole that of the 5 or 6 ST novels I’ve read this year, it’s the best. I probably will read a few more before the end of the year, so I don’t know if it will hold up, but four and a half stars is great for me. Corona is a sentient cluster of protostars that has possessed several Vulcan scientists to enlist their assistance in initiating another Big Bang Event to renew the universe as a response to Entropy. The crew of the Enterprise is sent along with monitors (a computer system that can second guess command decisions and countermand them) and a reporter to rescue the scientists and halt Corona’s plan. The scope of the story is huge although it’s crammed into 192 pages. The characters are deftly employed in a plot that is rooted in real, plausible science. The technobabble is dead-on balls accurate. My only minor gripe is that Captain Kirk accepts the monitors on his ship. The Kirk I know would have $#!t the bed about having some computer system (metaphorically speaking) hovering over his shoulder reviewing every single order. Not perfect, but I deduct a half star.