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.