Book Review: ‘Somewhere to Belong’ by Dayton Ward

June 13, 2023 at 11:13 am | Posted in Books, Reviews, Sci-Fi, Star Trek | 1 Comment
Tags: dayton ward, discovery

Star Trek: Somewhere to Belong is the ninth book in the Discovery line of novels. It was written by Dayton Ward and was released in May of 2023 from Gallery Book at Simon and Schuster. 

I have to be candid at the beginning of the review. I am not a fan of the Star Trek: Discovery TV series and only made it 3 ⁄ 4 through the first season before I stopped watching. It simply wasn’t a series for me to enjoy. I have kept up with the major events and characters and major plot points, so I am somewhat familiar with what has happened in the intervening seasons.

As someone who is not a huge Discovery fan and hasn’t watched the recent episodes, I can attest that this book is extremely readable to casual fans. Dayton Ward does a good job of playing catchup with information. 

Oftentimes, Star Trek books will work even better for their series for me, and sometimes will give me new appreciation for the series. For example, I have read John Jackson Miller’s The Enterprise War and Die Standing, and I thought those books were great and gave Discovery a new outlet for me to enjoy. Likewise, Una McCormack’s The Last Best Hope gave me greater appreciation for season one of Star Trek Picard. This book follows that pattern and gave me greater appreciation for the characters of Discovery. 

Where this book really shines is in its plot and its writing style. Dayton Ward is no stranger to Star Trek, as he has written around 30 Star Trek novels. As such, he has really developed a style that feels indelibly Star Trek, and his style shines here. This book actually feels very much like a Star Trek book from any of the other series. 

The story here likewise is both very Star Trek in design and also is very engaging. The crew of the Discovery answer a distress call from a species they previously encountered 900 years ago. Helping with this distress signal gives the crew an opportunity to mend a broken relationship this species has with Starfleet. Unfortunately, there are those who do not want that relationship restored, and thus work to thwart the progress the Discovery makes.

The biggest issue with this book comes in the first 50 pages. Dayton Ward spends a lot of time dealing with the mental health of the crew, especially with the fact that they have jumped 900 years into the future and are grappling with issues like not having friends or family outside the ship. It is totally understandable that Dayton Ward would include such a focus on mental health, as the TV show also makes that an element of  paramount importance. However, in the story, it makes everything feel bleak, boring, and unappealing to large quadrants of audiences. I felt nervous reading the book, fearing that if the rest of the book continued down that path I would hate it. Thankfully, the mental health discussions are minimal and are only brief parts of the story later on, but the opening 50ish pages are a struggle to get through. 

I really liked the species that the book dealt with: the Xaheans. Their worldbuilding makes total sense in the Discovery universe, and their struggles are very relatable. I thought that the way they adapted to a “post-burn” society was intriguing and I really wanted to see how their plights would get solved. And Dayton Ward set off a complex enough plot that there wasn’t a single answer to solve all of the problems. 

I felt conflicted about the new character Doctor Arbusala. He actually was funny and brought an interesting dynamic in a few of his scenes. However, the majority of his appearance brought back up the ideas of mental health, which made the story slow down too much for me.

Overall, this is a good book. I enjoyed the overall process, especially after I got past the first 50 pages. However, it doesn’t necessarily stand among the upper echelons of Trek novels. Nonetheless, my bar to pass is if it is overall an entertaining experience, and I would posit that this is a fairly entertaining experience. I’ll give the book a 3.5 out of 5.

Reviewed By: Jonathan Koan for Roqoo Depot.