Book Review: Star Trek: Defiant Vol. 1 by C. Cantwell et al.

Star Trek: Defiant Volume 1 written by Christopher Cantwell, art by Angel Unzueta, and colors by Marissa Louise

Worf and Spock reluctantly team up to hunt down Kahless II, a renegade Klingon who wants to reunite the empire. Kahless is killing god-like beings and somehow taking their powers, thus providing an ultimate weapon for conquest. The Federation is not on board with this grand conspiracy, so Worf and Spock (who are on board) steal the USS Defiant to complete their self-assigned mission. A few other familiar faces join their crew as their adventures go on.

While the story is interesting, it does have a lot of parallels with Picard Season 3, maybe too many. The dramatics feel a bit like reruns from other stories and make the overall narrative less interesting than it should be. Also, this is part of some other concurrent stories (as referenced by footnotes) so it has the MCU problem of keeping up with a large variety of narrative threads. If you are a die-hard Trekkie, you'll get everything (though, you have to have read other contemporary comics). Otherwise, some surprise twists and character revelations are not so surprising. A reader can't say, "Wow, that person came back!" when they don't know who that person is and how they connect to the others.

Mildly recommended. I wasn't impressed enough or hooked by the story to keep reading.

Book Review: The Life of Frederick Douglass by D. Walker et al.

The Life of Frederick Douglass written by David F. Walker, art by Damon Smyth, and colors by Marissa Louise

Frederick Douglass was a famous orator from the American Civil War era. He was born a slave in Maryland, barely knew his mother, and was shifted around to various homes. He wound up in Baltimore with relatives of his owner. Miss Sophia, the lady of the house, taught Douglass to read. This was a changing point for him. When he returned to the plantation, he clandestinely read to the other slaves and continued his education. He realized the only future was in running away. He escaped to New York City where he wound up in the abolitionist movement. Douglass spoke well and had a compelling, first-hand story of the horrors of slavery. He worked with all sorts of people, including John Brown, Harriet Tubman, and Abraham Lincoln. He had a fascinating life and is a very important figure in American history.

The book does a great job relating his life and his own personal thoughts. The author did very thorough research and clearly struggled through how best to write it. He chose to give a first-person narrative with Douglass as an old man retellling his life story. It makes for very compelling reading.

Highly recommended.