Official Synopsis
No one in the history of histories has lost more than Philippa Georgiou, ruler of the Terran Empire. Forced to take refuge in the Federation's universe, she bides her time until Section 31, a rogue spy force within Starfleet, offers her a chance to work as their agent. She has no intention of serving under anyone else, of course; her only interest is escape.
But when a young Trill, Emony Dax, discovers a powerful interstellar menace, Georgiou recognizes it as a superweapon that escaped her grasp in her own universe. Escorted by a team sent by an untrusting Federation to watch over her, the emperor journeys to a region forbidden to travellers. But will what she finds there end the threat – or give "Agent Georgiou" the means to create her old empire anew?
Review
After his previous Star Trek Discovery outing “The Enterprise War” explored what happened to Pike, Spock and the rest of the Enterprise crew immediately before they were introduced in Discovery’s second season, author John Jackson Miller returns with “Die Standing”, a story which looks back at the beginning of former Terran Emperor Philippa Georgiou’s relationship with Section 31.
John Jackson Miller
Author
When we first see Mirror Georgiou’s return to the screen in the episode “Point of Light”, she is already indoctrinated into Section 31. Until now we have only seen a brief glimpse of her introduction to this shadowy world, by way of a deleted scene revealed during the Discovery panel at WonderCon 2018. The author picks up that short scene and uses it as his starting point for an enjoyable adventure story. He focuses primarily on Mirror Georgiou (with some moments of Prime Georgiou that he uses to frame the narrative). He also introduces some interesting new aliens (the mysterious Troika) as well as enhancing some characters and the villain from various Star Trek (TOS and DS9) episodes. Like “The Enterprise War” before it, the best part of “Die Standing” is how Miller weaves together interesting new concepts with familiar characters and ideas from the established Star Trek canon for which he shows the utmost respect. His novels are never total rewrites of existing material, but they also go deeper into the existing canon than just the occasional mention of a character or event to supplement the story he is telling.
One of the novel’s main supporting characters is Sean Finnegan, James Kirk’s nemesis from his Academy days, until now only seen as a throwaway character in the Original Series episode “Shore Leave.”. Miller significantly expands the character from the bully seen in that episode, gives him depth, and provides us a look at Finnegan’s Mirror Universe counterpart where he is a brutal and somewhat unbalanced assassin Georgiou calls Blackjack.
To complete the main trio of characters in the book, Georgiou and Finnegan are joined by Emony Dax, the third Dax host, and recently retired champion gymnast. Dax is one of my favourite characters and it was a pure joy to “meet” one of the Dax symbiont’s historical hosts. I thought the author did an exceptionally good job of infusing the character on the page with some of the personality we saw on screen in Jadzia and Ezri.
Seemingly the only thing that the disparate trio has in common is that they are unsure of where they fit in life. Georgiou no longer rules a universe, Finnegan is in prison and Dax is at a loose end now that her gymnastics career is at an end. By the end of the novel, all three have a better idea of what to do with their lives.
As expected from a book focused on Section 31, we also spend time with Admiral Katrina Cornwell and S31 agent Leland, both of whom have small but significant roles in the “Die Standing” story.
The main villain of the story is a direct tie-in to the Original Series episode “Obsession”, the dikironium cloud-creature that becomes the whale to Kirk’s Ahab in that episode. At the beginning of “Die Standing” we see Prime Georgiou (then a Lieutenant on the USS Archimedes) investigating the cloud-creature’s massacre of the crew of an Orion merchant vessel on the edge of Troika space. We also see Emony Dax witness the creature’s later attack on the USS Farragut, which was also witnessed by a young Lieutenant Kirk and it is this incident that would ultimately lead to his titular obsession. Here the creature's origins are explored and we get to find out more information than was provided on screen during the 1967 episode.
The official line is novels are not canon, but this is another enjoyable addition to the series of Discovery era novels, expanding on what is seen on-screen to give the characters and events of the show greater depth and clarity. If Michelle Yeoh’s portrayal of both versions of Philippa Georgiou has been something you enjoyed, you will find a lot to enjoy here. The author has written the character extremely well and I found myself hearing the actor’s voice in my imagination when reading her dialogue in the book.
If you like adventure, exploration, mystery, and stories involving established characters from the canon Star Trek universe, then you will enjoy “Die Standing”.
Do you find the novels bring depth to the narrative? Are you a fan of any of the series' novelization in particular? Let us know in the comments below.
WRITTEN BY Saelanna
EDITED BY Silek
