The Galactic Whirlpool by David Gerrold (1980)

The next to last, and by far the best, of the Bantam paperbacks. The author is Star Trek veteran David Gerrold, who by this time had already written scripts for the series ("The Trouble With Tribbles") and the animated series ("More Tribbles, More Troubles" and "BEM") as well as written a book about the series with both praise and criticism ("The World of Star Trek"). Gerrold was also one of the developers of the Next Generation series. So obviously he had an intimate knowledge of the characters. That knowledge shows and shines like a beacon.

Our story: While on patrol of the Klingon border, the Enterprise encounters an odd sensor reading. Closer investigation reveals a slower-than-light ship, built on a huge scale--a self-contained world. It is obviously a ship built to ferry thousands of colonists, for many generations, to a new star system. The questions follow: who built it? Where did they come from? Where were they going, and how long have they been travelling? Contact with such a ship is problematic, because they may not be aware that any other civilizations exist to contact them and to do so may be a violation of the Prime Directive.

Soon that point becomes moot, as they are found to be on a collision course for the Galactic Whirlpool: a twin black hole, rotating slowly through the galaxy and drawing everything in its path into the immense gravity well. If the Enterprise crew do not interfere the ship will be destroyed in a matter of months. Now the problem becomes one of how to interfere, so as to cause the least panic and disruption to the peoples' lives.

Gerrold handles the characters expertly here, and finds a full role for Kevin Riley, an officer who had major roles in two TV episodes. Gerrold also impresses some of his own ideas about the series, many of which were also used in the Next Generation series. Gerrold has also researched his science and brings us many tidbits about the 22nd century and the events that led up to it. He fills in many details that cannot be used in a TV show due to time constraints. He even places himself into the story in the person of an historian nicknamed "Specks."

This is a wonderful novel to read, not just a good Star Trek novel. I can recommend this one highly.

Perry's Planet by Jack Haldeman (1980)

The crew of the Enterprise is dead-tired and badly in need of shore leave. As they pick up scientists for transfer, they prepare to head to Starbase 6 for needed rest and repairs. While stopped briefly to make some adjustments to the failing dilithium crystals they are suddenly attacked by a Klingon warship that seems to come out of nowhere. When the threat is averted the Klingon captain appears on the screen and swears a blood oath to kill Kirk in revenge for killing his brother.

With that now hanging over his head, Kirk must divert to a planet in an unsurveyed sector that has sent an application for admission to the Federation. As it is deemed that this call must be answered without delay, the Enterprise is diverted there. After beaming down Kirk and company find themselves unable to commit the smallest act of a violent nature. A virus has been created on Perry's Planet which acts to disable the individual when the biochemical buildup to violent action is begun. With the Klingon ship in wait for them the consequences could be disastrous.

Jack Haldeman is the older brother of Joe Haldeman, noted science fiction and Star Trek author, and an accomplished short-story writer on his own merits. Haldeman crafts a strong if short tale here, which seems to have been padded some from a short story length. Haldeman effectively uses the characters, and keeps them IN character, including giving some time to Scotty, Uhura, Sulu and Chekov. The writing is not soaring but it is solid, and the story will keep the reader interested.

I will also not be reviewing the other 1979 book, "World Without End" by Joe Haldeman. Haven't read it either.

Hey, I can't read all of them. If I read it at a later date, I will update this entry. Next up are the 1980 books. I will defer the 1979 adaptation of the first movie until after the Bantam novels, to keep those together, since it is labelled #1 in that series.

Devil World by Gordon Eklund

Eklund's second ST novel, following "The Starless World," it involves a Federation traitor, his daughter, and creatures that resemble the "devils" or "demons" of folklore. It also examines some religious issues.

At shore leave on Starbase 13, Kirk encounters a young woman who follows the philosophy of Jainism---to harm no living creature no matter how small. To this effect, she wears a face mask so as not to inadvertently swallow an insect and kill it. The woman is searching for her father, who turns out to be a Starfleet officer who left the Federation for the Klingon Empire some years before. In the meantime the starbase commander asks Kirk to take on his son as a personal steward, as the young man has washed out of Starfleet Academy, and needs direction in his life.

Through the commander Kirk also learns more of the story of the woman's father: he had been stranded in space in only a survival suit for nearly a month before being rescued, and had moved to the Empire on promises of his own planet since contact with any creatures is now painful to him.

Now, it is learned that the man has travelled to Heartland, a quarantined planet, where the colony started 40 years ago had withdrawn with every colonist turned mad. The inhabitants of the planet, a dying races called the Danons, resemble satanic creatures with reddish skin and forked tails. Kirk takes the Enterprise to retrieve the unauthorized personnel; complications ensue.

This is a somewhat better outing than Eklund's first but still a bit stiff as well as short. Kirk is again out of character while Spock and McCoy are portrayed satisfactorily, but other characters such as Scotty and Sulu show little character at all. Chekov at least tells Russian stories, but there are few telling character touches, as if the author is unfamiliar or uncomfortable with the characters.

Again, the plot is interesting enough but the writing is mediocre. Story elements are introduced then not seen again. What happens to the "demons" conjured by the stage magician in the opening scene? Are they meant to signify something? I kept waiting for the payoff but it never came. The writing is weak in that way.

Don't spend a lot of money on this one.

Trek to Madworld by Stephen Goldin (1979)

The Enterprise takes Kostas Spyroukis and his daughter back to his new home planet. Spyroukis is an explorer and renowned colonizer of worlds, and has decided to settle on his final world. On the way home he collapses and dies. Dr. McCoy discovers that the cause is a combination of argon in the planet's atmosphere, and zeton radiation emitted by the sun. Alone neither of these things is harmful, but together they make up a slow poison. Captain Kirk sends the ship off on a mission to remove the colonists from the deadly planet, but on the way they are intercepted by a powerful being calling himself Enowil, who identifies himself as an Organian split with his fellows and living in an uncharted region of space. He has brought the Enterprise as well as a Klingon and Romulan ship to his home to help him answer the question of what he is missing. The first to discover will be given anything they desire. Kirk determines that he must participate lest one of the others discover the answer and wish for an unbeatable superweapon.

The writing here is rather pedestrian, not what you would expect from a seasoned s-f writer such as Goldin. Too often I found myself saying, "Why don't they just.....?" The usual answer is, because then the problem would be solved and the book would be even shorter than it is (179 pages). Couldn't Kirk ask Enowil to intervene on the colony world and set that problem aside? Eliminating the argon from the world's atmosphere would seem to be an effective method.

This book also suffers from a malady common to the Bantam paperbacks, which all seem to have a title with some variation of "world" in it. It involves an extremely powerful machine or being which Kirk and crew must outwit, or persuade to their side, or some such. This was also a frequent problem on the TV series and is a symptom of lazy plotting. With a nearly omnipotent agent virtually anything can be accomplished, and any plot holes the writer puts him/herself in can be dodged. However, it also leads to many "why don't they" questions.

I can't recommend this book unless you are a real ST novel completist. It's not bad, really, but there's not much to get excited about.

A 1979 book I will not be reviewing is The Fate of the Phoenix by Marshak and Culbreath, a sequel to their earlier Phoenix novel featuring the villain Omne. I read that at one time, but no longer seem to have it. It was quite similar to the first one and if you like it you will probably like the sequel as well. I can't particularly recommend it. Bantam published several novels in this year, to coincide with the press coverage from the release of the first movie and I will be reviewing each in turn. Also, at the end of the year Pocket began their publishing contract for Star Trek novels, and we will be picking up with those.

Vulcan! by Kathleen Sky was also published in 1978, but I have not read that novel and will not attempt to review it. My apologies.

The Starless World by Gordon Eklund (1978)

A short novel (more of a novella, at 152 pages) by a young writer, which revolves around a Dyson sphere. A Dyson sphere is a construct of planetary material, such as the entire material of a solar system, in a single sphere around a sun. It has been proposed as a last-ditch method of survival around a dying sun when it becomes a white dwarf. The engineering involved in such a terraforming scheme would be tremendous, and any race that could actually accomplish it could probably migrate to another star system with more ease. However, it presents some interesting theoretical possibilities. In effect, the world would completely surround the star, and be in perpetual daytime. The people would then live on the "inside" of the planetary material, always facing the star, and away from the galaxy "outside." Such a world would be almost immeasurably vast, with room for many continents and many oceans, and so large that you would not be able to see the other side of this "world"---more like a solar system, really.

The Enterprise is on patrol, on heightened alert because of reports of increased Klingon activity. A shuttlecraft is spotted, launched from a ship that had disappeared some 20 years before. The man inside is not of that starship, but was Captain Kirk's former roommate at the Academy (a sure sign of trouble) who had been expelled for cheating when Kirk turned him in for stealing an exam. The man, Thomas Clayton, insists that he serves the god Ay-Nab, and sounds much like a religious zealot. The Enterprise then finds itself drawn toward an object in space; as they are drawn closer turns out to be a Dyson sphere, which Clayton represents as the home of Ay-Nab.

The ship is drawn through a gap in the sphere to the inside of the fantastic world. There are few signs of life but a Klingon ship is also detected in orbit. The Klingons are represented by a very young officer who is belligerent but holds no real threat. When life is found down on the planet, Kirk, Sulu, and a total landing party of 6 beam down to the surface to find some odd natives who also worship the god Ay-Nab, who apparently holds the Enterprise in its present condition. To make things worse, Chekov computes that the course of the sphere will take it into a black hole in four days.

In order to escape, Kirk must find a way to communicate with Ay-Nab either directly or through his worshippers. When Spock and McCoy are kidnapped and brought to the surface by Clayton the mystery only deepens. Kirk must race against time to find out who or what is Ay-Nab and how to free the Enterprise.

It's an interesting story, and although Spock and McCoy are well-written Kirk is a bit out of character from time to time. Not badly, but as he is the focus of much of the action the author seems to project certain attitudes onto Kirk that are not normally present. Uhura is given some time here as her father turns out to be marooned on the sphere as well. However, he is portrayed as a "starman," an early solo explorer, which he would certainly have been too young to have managed. Also, the author depicts an eclipse on the area of the surface the crew occupy as making things completely dark which given the construction of the sphere is highly unlikely. The "moons" would have to be much larger in diameter than the sun in order to block so much light so effectively. After all, an eclipse on earth makes for dimmer light but certainly not complete darkness; there is still diffraction of the sun around the moon. So again, we have some bad science.

The story is nonetheless enjoyable, especially if you can find it for a low price, or even better for free in the library.

Planet of Judgment by Joe Haldeman (1977)

Most series novels, such as those about Star Trek, Star Wars, or other licensed properties, are by either relatively mediocre talents, by young writers still trying to break in, or sometimes by established writers needing a paycheck, who often do a hack job on the book. This is a book by an established writer that does a fine job of presenting a good science fiction story and handles the characters well, something of a rarity. When Haldeman wrote this book he had already won a Hugo and a Nebula, the biggest prizes for science fiction writers. So, possibly he was a fan of the series wanting to produce a quality book about it.

"Planet of Judgment" makes a fine story, but it is more of a general science fiction story than necessarily a Star Trek story. Any ship and crew could have been made up and placed into the story, rather than Kirk, Spock and company. Still, the tale succeeds on a number of levels. Haldeman even slips in a character in homage to Trek writer James Blish, naming his elder scientist James Atheling, using Blish's pen name for work in literary criticism.

As the story goes, the Enterprise detects an odd object, a rogue planet apparently wandering through the galaxy, orbited by a black hole, but one which radiates energy. This violates several laws of physics, so further investigation is warranted. When a shuttlecraft bearing Kirk and several scientists and security men reaches the planet, it immediately ceases working, as does much of the groups' equipment, including tricorders. A few hours later, Spock leads another group of shuttlecraft down, and meets the same fate. With the transporters unable to operate, the planet-bound crew must find a way off a world with some dangerous flora and fauna, before the crew is all dead.

Soon, the planet's dominant inhabitants show themselves as mentally capable humanoids who are troubled by the presence of the Enterprise crew, but perhaps more troubled by the advance of a belligerent race, decades away but on their way nonetheless. The Arivne must use Kirk and Spock to help them turn back the alien invasion force.

The story moves in one direction, then about halfway through begins to move in another quite different direction. Haldeman sets up some interesting looks at different species, and how they might interact with humans. But while the characters of the Enterprise crew are not compromised for the story, this could just as easily be a generic s-f story with any other crew. Haldeman holds degrees in both English and astronomy, and his science background helps him here as it does in other novels. Still, this does not prevent bad science, and using the Arivne's mental powers to explain away the odd phenomena Haldeman sets up is somewhat lazy writing. It is no worse than the typical s-f, however.

It's a good science fiction book and I would recommend that you read it if you are interested in the genre. It's not important to the Star Trek universe, however, and the book should not be viewed as a must-have.

Star Trek: The New Voyages 2 (1977) edited by Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath

The second collection of Star Trek short stories is much weaker than the first, published the previous year. This may be because the editors had already culled the best of the fanzine material for the first book. It also may be because the editors and publisher, happy with the success of the first book, took more chances with the second. Either way, this outing was not as successful, and was not repeated. There are some items of interest here.

The first story is written by Nichelle Nichols, better known as Uhura. Titled "Surprise," the story is minor trifle about Uhura and other crew members attempting to throw Captain Kirk a surprise birthday party. The characters are not well portrayed here although a certain camaraderie among the crew is observed.

The second story is "Snake Pit!" by Connie Faddis and focuses on Christine Chapel being thrown into a situation (involving a snake pit, of course) where she must rescue an unconcious Captain Kirk from poisonous snakes on a hostile planet. The story itself is interesting but involves Chapel acting significantly out of character. Another character acting in this position would have made for a more believable story.

"The Patient Parasites" by Russell Bates, who wrote one of the animated episodes, is a script that was turned down for that series, but makes for an interesting study on what a TV script looks like. The story itself works as well, involving an encounter with a machine built by an alien race, with a technology far beyond our own. It is unfortunate that the story echoes many similar ones in the original TV show but there is some new ground here.

"In the Maze" by Jennifer Guttridge (also represented in the first collection) involves a sighting of a castle on a world where such technology should not exist. While investigating, Kirk, Spock and McCoy enter the door only to be transported to another place entirely, where Kirk is held captive and Spock and McCoy undergo a series of trials that seem designed to ellicit a response. The resolution, as with Guttridge's story in the first book, involves contact with a very alien species.

"Cave-In" by Jane Peyton is an interesting prose piece of dialogue between Spock and another character (McCoy?) while trapped together after a cave-in (of course). The piece is short and not particularly shocking, but the form is an interesting departure for Star Trek and may interest readers on that count.

"Marginal Existence" by Connie Faddis is a quite short story about a planet where the Enterprise crew find a number of "sleepers" hooked up to large numbers of IV tubes (a bit outdated there) which continually pump drugs into them. The real science here is very lacking but the idea proposed is an interesting one, about a society that becomes dependent on such injections.

"The Procrustean Petard" by Marshak and Culbreath is another of their riffs on the "alpha male" theme, this time as the Enterprise comes into contact with a society where the dominant (alpha) male is given an extra male chromosome, and the other crew members are sex-changed. So, Kirk and McCoy become women, while Uhura becomes a man, for instance. This story takes a look at male and female roles in a way that often seemed important in the 1970s, but seems awfully dated now. In that it is like much of these authors' work.

"The Sleeping God" by Jesco von Puttkamer is an interesting story by an actual NASA rocket scientist, and onetime German science fiction writer, his first fiction work in English. The plot involves a mutant, with vast mental powers, revived from suspended animation to tackle a problem far too big for a normal starship, and thus quite a problem indeed, involving a sentient computer from another plane of existence, attempting to take over this plane. Again, this may be Star Trek's (or at least Gene Roddenberry's) favorite plot, but it is handled well here and this is certainly the volume's best story, even if it actually uses the Enterprise crew only in a limited way.

Also included are two poems, "Elegy for Charlie" and "Soliloquy."

The book is interesting, but again, not as good as the first.

The Price of the Phoenix by Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath

The fourth of the original Star Trek novels, this was part of the attempt by Bantam to step up publication of Star Trek-related material, with interest increasing in the syndicated reruns and word of a new TV show/movie becoming a hot topic. Already the editors on a book of short stories, the authors tried their hand at a book-length adventure. Reportedly, this was planned as a short story for the "New Voyages" book, but turned into a longer story. It would probably have been better at short story length.

As the book opens, Captain Kirk is dead. He has been killed through the machinations of the leader of a planet peopled mostly by political and other refugees, and the man named Omne has caused Kirk to be at the scene of a burning building, and the Captain has sacrificed himself to save a mother and baby. Spock, livid at the turn of events, returns to the planet to confront Omne, and finds that there is a surprise: Omne has created a process to clone bodies, and also to snatch away a person's conciousness at the moment of death: he has created a duplicate Kirk!

The plot comes to a showdown between Omne, Spock, Kirk, and the female Romulan commander. Omne is defeated, but there is doubt that he is really beaten, later turned into a sequel, "The Fate of the Phoenix."

The writing is at turns interesting and tedious. The book is melodrama, and has a tendency to switch between fast-paced fight scenes and long conversational pieces, usually with one or more hostages in Omne's custody to attempt to heighten the tension. The melodrama also results from the authors' tendency to cast Spock as a superhero, with Kirk in the Lois Lane role of damsel-in-distress. Much is made of "Vulcanoid strength," and superhuman abilities. The long conversational scenes tend to take on a Jungian tone, with the characters in the guise of archetypes. Spock in particular gets his character rewritten to fit the authors' impressions, and the Kirk here often feels unfamiliar as well. It plays something like many of the third-season episodes, where Spock had some kind of emotional outburst on every other show to heighten the dramatic tension by acting against Vulcan type. It might work once but regularly it gets tiresome, as it does here.

For all that, the story is gripping, as good melodrama always is. One does wonder how this can be resolved, and even though the conclusion is somewhat unsatisfactory it does wrap up the plot and leave loose ends to ponder. There is much sound and fury here, but not much is signified. If you want to see an early version of a Trek novel see if you can get this one cheap. It's a summer beach type of book, throwaway entertainment.

Star Trek: The New Voyages, edited by Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath

A collection of short stories compiled by the editors, most were previously self-published or published in fanzines. Many would have made excellent TV episodes for the original cast, and the final one would probably have been a better choice for a movie script (or the beginnings of one, at least) than the mishmash that actually got made. Each is also introduced by members of the original series cast, with only Walter Koenig (Chekov) not represented, and his place taken by Majel Barrett.

The first story is “Ni Var” by Claire Gabriel. In it, the Enterprise crew visits a scientist in ill health, who has prepared a tape of his research for the Federation archives in case of his demise. The scientist dies, and as the ship leaves the planet Spock begins acting strangely. Kirk and McCoy must figure out the problem and solve it in order to save Spock.

The story is very well written, and if you slipped it into one of the Blish adaptation books it would pass easily for a TV episode. Gabriel handles the characters of Spock, Kirk, and McCoy quite well, and adds insight into the dual nature of Spock’s identity, Vulcan and Human. This is one of the best insights into Spock’s dual heritage, and many later writers could have used some reference to this story.

The second story is “Intersection Point” by Juanita Coulson. The Enterprise crew encounters a point of interference in space which resists scans. When they get close to it, the area expands suddenly and collides with the ship. The hull is crumpled, but oddly no atmosphere leaks out. However, as the area starts to contract, the problem of space exposure becomes paramount, and so is a machinery coupling that has been lost into the void. The piece must be retrieved, or the Enterprise will be dead in space, even with the bulkhead repaired.

Coulson writes a very interesting episode of an encounter with another race that we are not able to communicate with, perhaps ever, but must deal with anyway. Characterization is handled well here, and Scotty gets a decent role, along with Kirk, Spock and McCoy.

“The Enchanted Pool” by Marcia Ericson concerns a secret Starfleet weapons project, a run-in with renegade Andorians, and Spock captured behind a force field and isolated from the ship. Inside, he finds a curious wood nymph who seems to think Spock is her “true love.” Spock endeavors to find the shuttlecraft containing the weapon, and determine just who this creature is, in what becomes a two-character play. Only Spock from the crew is featured here, but the story is completely true to his character.

“Visit to a Weird Planet Revisited” by Ruth Berman is a follow-up to an earlier fan story. In that one, the crew of the Enterprise somehow materialized on the Star Trek set. In this story, actors William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley are oddly transported onto the real Enterprise, in the middle of a confrontation with the Klingons. This is a story just for fun, and it certainly is fun to see the actors trying to deal with the situation of being trapped on a 22nd century starship.

“The Face on the Barroom Floor” by Eleanor Arnason and Ruth Berman is another story that starts with shore leave and sees another emergency requiring the Enterprise to leave quickly. This time, it is Kirk that is behind somewhere on the planet. The Captain is trying to get back to the ship, but he gets caught up in a bar fight, thrown in the planetary jail, and making a getaway through a wedding reception. It’s an adventure story, but with a strong humorous element. Kirk is a bit out of character here, but there is still a lot of fun contained in these pages.

“The Hunting” by Doris Beetem is a shore leave story for Spock, as he beams down to a rustic planet to fulfill a Vulcan ritual, with Dr. McCoy tagging along. At first, as the two camp, it is McCoy who is a burden to Spock, but when the ritual mind-meld with a wild animal goes wrong, suddenly McCoy must find and help Spock, separated from ship and equipment. The story is very interesting, and helps develop McCoy’s character while staying true to Spock’s.

“The Winged Dreamers” by Jennifer Guttridge is similar to some episodes of the series, but different enough to provide a few surprises. Again, something on a peaceful planet seems to take over the crews’ minds, leading to mutiny. This effect makes a person’s thoughts seem real, sort of the ultimate virtual reality, real enough to kill if taken to the extreme. It’s too similar to previous episodes to break any new ground, but it is a well-written story.

“Mind-Sifter” by Shirley Maiewski is the best of the group, as Captain Kirk is captured while on shore leave by the Klingons, and subjected to the agonies of the Klingon mind-sifter, stripped of his memories and his identity, only to break free on the planet of the Guardian of Forever and escape into Earth’s past, where Spock must track and find him through the infinite possibilities of time. Maiewski deftly takes concepts from two television episodes and weaves them into a new story of great power and emotion, and deepens the characters. This would have been a terrific two-part episode or even a movie, giving Shatner as Kirk a chance to play madness, always a daunting challenge for an actor, and given juicy parts for the other actors as well.

This is a fine book, a collection of excellent Star Trek stories. Not all fit into the continuity as it has since been established, but all would have at one time, and could have fit into the series seamlessly.

I also will mention the third Star Trek original novel, "Spock, Messiah!" was published in 1976 by Bantam. It was written by Theodore Cogswell, a sometime science fiction writer, and Joe Spano, an ST fan. Again, I have not read it, although this one I have heard about. The Starfleet Library (see link) says it has some unnecessary sexual content.

The very first original Star Trek novel (I have just learned, from the link posted in the previous note and hopefully also on the side of your page) is Mission to Horatius, written by Mac Reynolds, and part of a series of novels for teens and pre-teens based on 1960s TV series, the type that are often cheaply printed. Available references say the book was actually pretty good. I cannot personally judge myself, because I had never seen or heard of it before today.

Here is a site that has done some of the things that I wanted to do with this site, and done it somewhat better.  In this are listed most if not all of the Star Trek English-language publications. I will stick with listing and reviewing in this site, and send you to Mr. Roby's website for your reference-oriented questions.

Spock Must Die by James Blish (1970)

This was the second Star Trek novel ever published, written by the author of the books of adaptations of the TV episodes. At the time of publication, the original series had ended, three books of episode adaptations had been published, and Star Trek had just begun its trip into syndication into local markets. There was as yet no indication that there would ever be anything besides what had already occurred.

The spectacularly-titled story begins with the Enterprise on a deep-space mapping mission, when word comes of the outbreak of war with the Klingon Empire. This should be impossible according to the Organian Peace Treaty, but the ship and its crew are months away from Organia, Earth, the battle front, and separated from all of these by a large portion of the Empire. With options limited, Scott devises a plan. Recalling Dr. McCoy’s earlier objections to the transporter, positing that he had been “killed” the first time he had been transported, and a duplicate created, Scott proposes actually creating a duplicate, composed of tachyons, and sending such a duplicate over the many light years needed to reach Organia.

With transporter modifications in place, Mr. Spock is selected as the logical person to investigate on Organia. As Scott prepares to send a tachyon duplicate on its long journey, the chamber is shielded to allow for the operation, and the device activated. When the transport is finished, a surprise awaits. Instead of sending a duplicate to Organia, two Mr. Spocks are on the transporter platform, each claiming to be the original!

Now, Captain Kirk must devise the best plan to change the tide of the war, determine which Spock is the original, and keep his crew safe while rescuing the Federation. In the meantime, one of the Spocks is obviously trying to sabotage the ship, but which is really the impostor? All of these things must be determined in order to win the war.

The author uses a convenient device to key the plot, but presents it well enough that it can be covered by the willing suspension of disbelief. An award-winning science fiction writer and reviewer, Blish writes a plausible science angle, at least plausible by 1970 standards. The author’s ending has been contradicted by subsequent movie and TV events, but at the time no one had any reason to suspect that there would be any new Star Trek material. In fact, aside from fanzine publications, there was no new material for over six years, except for the animated show.

The novel is a good read, and quite short at 118 pages in the version I read. It is by no means a great book, but it is interesting and a page-turner. It is mostly of historical significance as a first of its kind, and as the only original material by the author of the TV adaptations. Blish died in 1975, shortly after completing the adaptations of all the TV episodes.

This blog will be a collection of essays about Star Trek novels and other related materials that I have read, mostly concerning the original crew.