Mindshadow by J.M. Dillard (Star Trek #27, 1986)

The planet Aritani is under attack by vicious pirates. Aritani was formerly an advanced culture which nearly destroyed itself, and now has returned to an agrarian culture, rejecting advanced technology. They have no defenses against the advanced weaponry of the small fighters until the Enterprise shows up. But first Mr. Spock is badly injured on the planet's surface, then the electromagnetic shield Scotty and Spock had rigged up does not stop the pirate ships. While an expert on Vulcan neuropsychology, Dr. Emma Saenz, shows up to treat Spock, Kirk must try to figure out how the ships are beating the shield. Romulan technology is suspected, but an attempt to capture a pilot ends with the Romulan killed in the brig. Spock isn't getting better, and Dr. Saenz is pushing for him to be committed to a mental institution. There is something important that Spock saw, but he just can't remember.....

Author J.M. Dillard has become one of the most prolific of all Star Trek authors. She writes for a number of series, and writes horror novels as Jeanne Kalogridis, which according to at least one source is her real name. This is an unpromising beginning, as this novel falls short of the high standard set before the 1985-86 run of novels. The character dialogue sounds right, but the characters all must act very stupid not to figure out the plot of the novel before the author can bring it to a conclusion. It's as if with Spock having a brain injury, all the characters are mentally impaired.

While the character Dr. Saenz just appears without any announcement, no red flags are apparently raised by the characters. Her words are simply accepted, which they must be to advance the plot. This doesn't speak well for the intelligence of Kirk or McCoy. The security chief, one Lt. Tomson, doesn't fare well here either. She exhibits no gift for any part of the job of a security officer. And why does Scotty pilot the shuttle to transport Spock to Vulcan? This seems merely a convenient device to have him off the ship to become a suspect in the death of the Romulan, when Sulu or Chekov could more believably have piloted the shuttle. Chekov is also misspelled as "Chekhov" throughout the book, although that may have been corrected in later printings.

The basic plot isn't bad, but it could have been handled much better. The dialogue is also passable. It is the storytelling aspect where this book falls short. The tale is simply not plausible. That no one suspects Spock's medication as a trouble spot is disturbing. The Terran-Vulcan hybrid woman staying as a guest at the home of Sarek and Amanda is too pat. And the ending stretches the credibility even further. It is meant as a late plot twist, but comes from so far out in left field that it doesn't even belong in a poor soap opera.

There are things to like here, but overall the book falls short.

Pawns and Symbols by Majliss Larson (Star Trek #26, 1985)

On Sherman's Planet, a world jointly claimed by the Federation and the Klingon Empire and administrated by the Organians, an earthquake shatters the calm of the Federation field researchers. There is widespread damage, and all but one of the scientists is killed. Jean Czerny is found and taken by the Klingons to a waiting ship, where the Klingon medic saves her life with some timely first aid. The ship's commander, Kang, declares Czerny endebted to him, and takes her to help investigate problems on Empire worlds, suffering a widespread blight that is making food supplies scarce. While Kirk and the crew work to get her back, Czerny spends months working on a grain to resist the disease with a Klingon scientist. She eventually becomes embroiled in a plot by Kang's estranged wife, Mara, to pressure Kang into negotiations with the Federation.

It's not a bad plot, and in fact is similar to the plot for Star Trek VI. The Klingon Empire is in trouble, they must seek help from the Federation but are too proud, etc. This becomes the second book release in a row with a Klingon-human sexual encounter, which is unfortunate. While in the previous book Margaret Wander Bonanno handled it deftly, Larson is far more clumsy with the encounter. It also seems unlikely that a plant disease could spread to so many worlds.

This is one of the most blatant "Mary Sue" stories ever published by Pocket. A Mary Sue novel is one where the author puts herself as a character in the story, and often has the character act out her own fantasies regarding Star Trek characters. This has long been a staple of fan fiction, with women fantasizing about having affairs with Spock especially, and other characters as well. It is not seen so much about male fans, perhaps because it is easier for the men to identify with the extant characters. The women can either be Uhura, Chapel, or one of the one-shot guest stars, much less emotionally satisfying. In this case, the fantasy seems to be Klingon sex, with the dark and menacing Kang, seen here as the heir to the throne.

During this period, Pocket editors were certainly asleep at the wheel, letting this story slip through. There is little to learn about the Klingons, a race portrayed here as simply more agressive humans, not as aliens. There is not much here to recommend the story. It's not really bad as much as it is tedious. As self-published fan fiction, or posted on a website, sure. But mass-produced as a novel in a series, this falls short.

Dwellers in the Crucible by Margaret Wander Bonanno (Star Trek #25, 1985)

Based on a Vulcan custom, and similar practices on other worlds, the civilizations of the Federation have sent to Vulcan Warrantors of Peace--children of high-ranking officials, with key state secrets held on their persons, as a sort of hostage group to help maintain peace among Federation worlds. Sensing a weakness, the Romulans kidnap six of these Warrantors, and give them to the Klingons to hold while the intrigues are played out. It falls to the Enterprise crew to rescue these individuals, with Sulu going undercover as a Romulan and Scotty seeking information from a Klingon out of his past. The prisoners will surely die under Klingon hands, unless they can be found and rescued quickly.

This is a good story, important after the previous poor book, but it does not focus on the Enterprise crew. The book is really a re-examination of the Kirk-Spock friendship, using a different and somewhat inside-out vessel. Two of the Warrantors are women, human and Vulcan, one Cleante al-Faisal and another T'Shael, a student of languages and daughter of one of the most accomplished musicians ever heard on Vulcan. T'Shael is without family, as her father died of an inherited disease, and her mother was one of the crewmembers of the destroyed ship Intrepid. T'Shael, with no remaining family ties, has volunteered to be a Warrantor, taking the place of Ambassador Sarek's son--Spock.

Six are originally captured, including three Deltans and an Andorian. The Andorian dies soon after the kidnapping while resisting the Romulans. The Deltans die when the Klingons begin to experiment with them out of boredom. Meanwhile, the two women, on the road to friendship before, are thrown into a "crucible" that tests them to their very limits and beyond. The story is largely a look at forming friendships with people of other cultures, and especially the differences between oh-so-emotional humans and eminently logical Vulcans.

Bonanno writes an interesting story here, with only brief and mostly unimportant appearences by Enterprise crew. The scenes are written mostly to keep the fans interested, I think. Sulu is an interesting choice for undercover agent, although I think Chekov would have been a more reasonable choice. At this setting, though, Chekov is not on the Enterprise as this is the first novel set during the movies' time period. The story takes place just before the events of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." This is unusual, since most authors write for the time period of the original TV series, or the often-proposed second five-year mission that supposedly followed the first movie. Bonanno uses elements from the movies, including the very sexual Deltans and Saavik from the movie series. She even gives her a "girl's name," saying her name is really "T'Saavik," but that humans have trouble pronouncing that. A nice touch.

Bonanno is also the author of the "Preternatural" series, and also wrote the Star Trek books "Strangers from the Sky" and "Saturn's Child" (with Nichelle Nichols). She is the credited author on "Probe," but insists that is not her book, as it contains only 7% of the words from the manuscript she handed in and was extensively rewritten (obviously). "Crucible," however, is Bonanno's book, and it's a good one. Just don't go in expecting a Kirk-Spock story, because that's not here. It is a good Star Trek universe tale, though.

Killing Time by Della Van Hise (Star Trek #24, 1985)

Captain Kirk finds himself having odd dreams. He is a disaffected ensign with a chip on his shoulder, unhappy with his lot in life, while Spock is the ship's captain. Turns out, Spock is having the same dream, and he doesn't like it any more than Kirk does. Soon, reality shifts, and that becomes the state of affairs. The Romulans have discovered a way to travel back in time and change the past to alter the future. In this attempt, called Second History, they have secretly killed the men who laid the foundation for the Federation, and strengthened the Romulan Empire. But, it didn't work as well as they had hoped, because in stead of humans, Vulcans formed an Alliance a few years later, and staved off further Romulan advancement. But it gets worse: the universe is rejecting the revised state of affairs, and the strain on all involved is causing outbreaks of madness all across the galaxy. Captain Spock and Ensign Kirk must travel to Romulus, go back in time, and change history back to the way it was before.

Unfortunate that two time-travel themed books were released consecutively, and even worse that this one is a muddled mess. This outing is a contender for "Worst Star Trek Novel Ever Released." The heights reached in recent months were almost undone in one fell swoop here. The plot is confusing, the writing poor, and the characters hard to recognize. And to make it worse, Pocket Books initially released an earlier draft, rather than the rewritten version. At this time the books were undergoing very light editing, as seen in the last book's apparently unnoticed crossover that seems to have passed without lawsuit. In a couple of years, that would shift the other way as Paramount began demanding overediting. That is a bad thing overall, but this book could have used some more editing, or better yet outright cancellation.

Where "Ishmael" got time travel very right, this book gets it very wrong. Whether it is a philosophy issue or some other problem, it is difficult to understand the characters having memories of other alternate universes. Or how they could have dreams of other realities before they have happened. If the author wanted to invoke something like the tenets of String Theory, with the infinite number of possible universes, it is a difficult thing to credit the cross-memories through realities. This reads like a Marshak and Culbreath novel. Another resemblance to those writers is seen in the concentration on Spock and Kirk, plus two female Romulan characters, to the exclusion of others.

Also, the facts in the Second History are rather garbled and unsatisfactory. For an "Alliance" dominated by Vulcan, there seem to be few Vulcans in the service. For much of the book, Spock appears to be the only Vulcan on the ShiKahr, then there are Vulcan security guards. That makes little sense. Also, Chekov is the First Officer. Why? Because he is the Science Officer? He is the youngest of the originals. Much more sensible for Sulu or Uhura, or even Scotty to be second in command. Also there are a couple of too-pat situations, one that Spock enters pon farr, and must get help from the Romulan women, and second that the Romulan Praetor turns out to be the Romulan Commander from the episode "The Enterprise Incident." It's far too convenient.

Even more interesting is the original published version of the book. At the time, I was in college and buying the novels as soon as they appeared, so I got the soon-to-be-recalled version of the story. Author Van Hise was apparently interested in the K/S subculture, also known as the "slash" fans. This is a group that writes stories with Kirk and Spock as homosexual lovers. The odd thing about this group is that they tend to be women, rather than men writing out such fantasies. Especially in the recalled release, there are several aside references, to Kirk and Spock touching and such. There also seems to be an inordinate amount of Spock being shirtless in Kirk's presence, an incident of Spock laying on top of Kirk, a couple of mind melds, and lots of velvet and tight pants. All very odd and somewhat subliminally disturbing. The rewritten and revised version cuts out much of the more blatant excapades, but it is all still rather sordid.

A visit to the author's website also reveals some of her poetry, which is somewhat New Age-Feminist in nature. This is reflected to references to the Enterprise as "silver woman-goddess" in the book text. Van Hise has apparently also published or self-published one or two "homosexual vampire" books. I do not know if this author has any connection to James Van Hise, often credited as a writer on the unauthorized and usually very poor quality Star Trek books released by Hal Schuster under a variety of company imprints.

It's a lousy book. Don't waste your money or your time.

Ishmael by Barbara Hambly (Star Trek #23, 1985)

At Starbase 12, the docked Klingon ore freighter looks very suspicious. It has a larger crew than normal, and the power readings the Enterprise gets from it are much higher than can be explained. Spock slips aboard with a Starbase maintainence crew to investigate. He doesn't report in at the scheduled time, then the freighter leaves port and heads away. Spock sends two cryptic messages before the freighter vanishes without a trace. Kirk and the Starbase commander much figure out what has happened to the Klingon ship, while Spock ends up in 1868 Earth without his memory due to the Klingon mind-sifter while the Klingons try to change history. Spock is found unconcious by a crusty mill owner in Seattle, and passed off as the man's nephew once his hair grows enough to hide those Vulcan ears. Mill owner Aaron Stemple introduces "Ishmael" to the people of Seattle, not realizing that aliens from another world seek to kill him!

Of all the TV shows to cross over together, it would be hard to select a more unlikely match than Star Trek and Here Come the Brides. The two series were rough contemporaries, Trek running 1967-69 and Brides from 1968-70. But the settings and the moods were very different. Here Come the Brides was based loosely on the stage musical and 1954 movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, which itself was loosely based on Steven Vincent Benet's story "The Sobbin' Women." The connection was that Aaron Stemple was played by actor Mark Lenard, who also played Spock's father Sarek in the episode "Journey to Babel." In fact, Hambly writes so that Stemple becomes an ancestor of Spock's mother Amanda, so that Spock's "father" becomes a forebear of his mother.

This may be the most offbeat of Star Trek novels. Most of the action is set in the 1868 world, following Spock interacting with characters from another show, trapped in a time where he fully expects to be stranded for the rest of his life. The story itself is pretty good, Hambly being a now well-established sf and fantasy author. She was first published in 1982, and has written her own fiction as well as in the Beauty and the Beast and Star Wars series, plus three Trek novels. She also wrote #53, Ghost-Walker, and #71, Crossroad. She writes historical fiction too, which no doubt helps with the Seattle scenes.

Many readers probably did not recognize the references to the Brides series, notable for starring teen idol Bobby Sherman as the youngest brother as well as David Soul as the middle brother. I did, as a local station had run the syndicated reruns a few years earlier. The book provides a nice tie-up to the Brides series, a plus for fans of closure like myself. It also puts a nice statement on time-travel storylines, as the Klingons end up causing the very problem they go to Earth's past to end. I think time travel, if it is ever achieved, will end up being like that. Hambly also puts a nice turn on the Klingon empire by introducing the Karsids, which had conquered the Klingon race some years before, then been defeated. It's a neat concept.

It's a pretty good book, if an odd duck for the series.

Shadow Lord by Laurence Yep (Star Trek #22, 1985)

A prince from a medieval-type society is returning to his home world after an education in Federation schools, and he will be accompanied by a party that will work on modernizing his home world's astronomical charts--a touchy subject since the society puts great stock in astrology. Spock and Sulu are chosen to accompany Prince Vikram to Angira, and wind up in the midst of a civil war with the Enterprise off on another mission and weeks away. Vikram, formerly ninth in line to the throne, is now the only surviving member of the royal family, and very much in danger. Now, the question becomes, can they live long enough for the cavalry to arrive?

Author Laurence Yep was already an established writer of young people's fiction by the time he wrote this novel. His first novel was published in 1973, and he won a Newbery Medal in 1975. He is often found in children's schoolbooks. Yep is a Chinese-American, although for quite some time his family lived in an African-American neighborhood. Yep writes a Star Trek novel here which is perhaps more aimed at a young audience, more in line with the animated shows than the live-action Trek. It is still an interesting story.

This book also starts a grouping of Trek novels essentially set in other genres. The TV show often dipped into other genres, and several novels about this time did the same. "Shadow Lord" is at its heart a samurai story, using the obvious character Sulu with Spock along for the ride. A Sulu-Chekov pairing might have been more apt, but this works. The novel has a framing sequence of prologue-epilogue, with the other main Enterprise characters, but the bulk of the novel is set on Angira with only Spock and Sulu among the familiar characters.

This was also the time when noted fantasy artist Boris Vallejo was doing the cover paintings for the books, which were usually spectacular. This outing, which is apparently unsigned but is copyrighted inside the book to Vallejo, is far below his usual standards. Perhaps an apprentice in his studio turned out this one. The Angirans, described in the book as roughly 7-foot tall lemurs, as depicted as tall humanoids on the cover. Also, Sulu's appearence is off, and he wears a blue uniform rather than gold. The creatures the three cover characters face are also not as described in the book, and that scene is fairly short. Disregarding the inconsistencies, the cover is well-rendered as usual. It just doesn't live up to Vallejo's usual attention to detail.

Yep has written a solid story here, not a great one but a readable version. He is one of the few Star Trek novel writers more famous for other works than his Star Trek work.

Uhura's Song by Janet Hagan (Star Trek #21, 1985)

The Enterprise is in orbit around the planet Eeiauo, where Dr. McCoy is on the surface battling a native plague. The disease is debilitating, leading to a slow degeneration of the body's organs until a vegetative state is reached. Then the disease begins infecting humans as well, quickly leading to death. Uhura has befriended on of the natives, and finds a clue in some of the traditional songs she has learned. The race of bipedal felines has migrated to Eeiauo from another planet, which may have a cure for the terrible disease. First, Spock and Uhura must decipher the clues to find the planet of origin, then a landing party including Kirk, Spock, Uhura and Chekov must make first contact with the natives and find the cure, if possible.

This is author Kagan's first and only Star Trek novel, she has also written other sf books such as "Hellspark" and "Mirabile." She has a personal web page at . She has also written a number of short stories published in Asimov's. This book was her first published story, something common and wonderful at the time in Star Trek fiction. It is also the fifth consecutive ST novel published with a woman author. The numbers of women among ST fandom are the greatest strength of Star Trek, and a big part of the reason for the long-lasting nature and great fervor of the group.

However, this book also suffers the failing of many new authors: a heavy-handed inclusion of a character based on the author into the book. In this case, with McCoy fighting the plague, the Enterprise picks up a temporary chief medical officer, one Dr. Evan Wilson. A short, feisty woman, the character is obviously the entry of the not-quite-five-feet-tall Kagan into the book. And while the regular Star Trek characters are true to themselves in general, although Kirk (as is often the case) is not captured well, the character of Dr. Wilson dominates the book to the detriment of the story and plot. Some editing here would have helped, as the book is overlong at 350 pages, and would have been much better by concentrating on the main story and cutting out the "Wilson" parts to get to about 250 pages. Especially since for a book titled "Uhura's Song," Uhura plays a fairly small part in it, nowhere near as large as in the recent "The Tears of the Singers."

The main story itself, of a split society and the conditions that made it came about, is quite compelling. The feline's prehensile and apparently very long tails bothered me a bit, but that's a minor quibble. The problem is the author's conceit of character. Wilson plays in the book like dumping a Sherlock Holmes into a story, or a superhero. The character becomes by nature the focus of the book, and makes it more difficult to tell a story unless you are telling the story of that character. And that got in the way of a very good story.

Even the twist at the end only serves to complete the dominance of the Wilson character in the story. This is the sort of thing best suited for fan fiction, or the vanity press, and not a widely published novel. Certainly writers inject themselves into their stories all the time, but this was going too far.

The Vulcan Academy Murders by Jean Lorrah (Star Trek #20, 1984)

The story opens with the Enterprise in pitched battle with a Klingon cruiser. Helm control has been lost, so Kirk is relaying orders down to auxiliary control. A final barrage overloads the Klingon deflectors, and the battle is won. Damage, however, will take weeks in drydock to repair. The timing is fortuitous, because Spock has just received word that his mother is seriously ill on Vulcan. He asks Kirk to join him on leave, and invites McCoy as well to bring a morbidly injured crewman to undergo the same life-saving experimental procedure being tested on Spock's mother.

Once on Vulcan, the patients are put into stasis at the Vulcan Science Academy hospital for nerve regeneration treatment. A successful trial has been completed on Dr. Daniel Corrigan, an Earthman and co-inventor of the treatment with his Vulcan partner, Sorel. Then, things start going wrong. The stasis chamber holding Sorel's wife, T'Zan, fails. Then the stasis chamber with the Enterprise crewman fails. Such happenings cannot be coincidence, and the unthinkable is happening--murder on Vulcan.

The story is a fascinating yarn of life on the planet Vulcan, focusing on Spock and his father Sarek, as well as Corrigan, Sorel, and Sorel's children Soton and T'Mir. Cultural mores and customs are shown, and the workings of a planet observed. Lorrah has thought long and hard about such things, as writer and editor for fanzines like "Epilog" and "Night of the Twin Moons." She also wrote for "Spockanalia," the very first ST fanzine. Lorrah is more than just a Star Trek junkie, she is an English professor and writer of other books. She wrote a sequel to this book titled "The IDIC Epidemic" (ST #38) and two Next Generation novels. Professor Lorrah is also a big Led Zeppelin fan, as can be seen at her home page .

The book is well-crafted, and the characters comfortable and familiar. The story is not forced, and the writing rings true, as one would hope from a well-practiced craftsman and student of the language. There is little "mystery" to the mystery, as the culprit is obvious from the beginning of the story, but the fun is in getting there. This is a Kirk-Spock-McCoy book, with little from the other regular characters, but a rich feel for life on Vulcan.

One warning; the cover painting normally used, with Spock holding a phaser on a hissing creature, has nothing to do with the story inside.

The Tears of the Singers by Melinda Snodgrass (Star Trek #19, 1984)

While at Star Base 24, the Enterprise receives word of an emergency; a "rip" in spacetime that has swallowed one ship, and threatens an entire solar system. The phenomenon defies analysis, and requires close investigation. Because there is a musical relationship between the oddity and the only known inhabitants of the solar system, a tempermental but talented musician is pressed into service to aid the investigation. Guy Maslin has also become a love interest for Lt. Uhura. The inhabitants of the planet are classed officially by the federation as animals, and subject to hunting (think clubbing baby seals). They are hunted because they excrete tears at the moment of death, which harden into a beautiful crystal form then sold as jewelry. Kirk must investigate and stop the "rip" as well as deal with the approach of the Klingons into the area, led by old foe Kor (from the Organians episode, "Errand of Mercy"). The tenuous health of musician Maslin, and the developing love between Maslin and Uhura, as well as the general belligerence of the Klingons all serve to complicate matters.

Snodgrass writes a fine "Uhura episode" here that would have played well as a TV show. This is her only novel to date, but Snodgrass wrote for the Next Generation series including credits for "The Measure of a Man," "Pen Pals," "Up the Long Ladder," "Ensigns of Command," and "The High Ground," some of TNG's finest episodes and best expansions of Data's character. Most of her TV work was in Season 2. She has also written for the SF novel series "Wild Cards," a shared universe series.

This work is a solid story, with one part of the ending telegraphed from the beginning and another part ending in a nice twist. I thought Kirk and Kor got along altogether too well, but with Kor pressed from both sides since "losing" to Kirk at Organia, it can be reasoned through. Separating Kirk and Spock at the critical moment of battle and making Kirk do it himself is a nice touch, and so is the eventual rescue. This novel is solid middle ground, not a must-read, but a good read.

My Enemy, My Ally by Diane Duane (Star Trek #18, 1984)

Diane Duane again raises the level of work on Star Trek fiction with a work examining Romulan culture. Duane has a deft touch with Star Trek and the characters which shows here, even though much of her work has been contradicted on-screen by The Next Generation series and the recent Star Trek: Nemesis movie. The "official" canon would have been well-served to take its note from Duane's book, considering the performance of the movie at the box office.

Duane tells a story on two levels: one level in the present, with a Romulan who finds a plot by the government to capture and harness the mental powers of Vulcans; and a second, lower level in the past, examining the split between the Vulcan and Romulan parts of the Vulcanoid species. Dr. McCoy gets a featured role here, fitting for a novel written by a onetime nurse.

Duane always gives the reader a deep personal stake in the story, largely because the characters are so vividly drawn, and somehow her plots always seem to involve the end of the world as we know it. There is a pressing immediacy about this and all her books. Yet the characters, especially the old Enterprise crew, know each other so well it seems they are real people jumping off the page rather than characters doing a dance the writer directs.

Duane also introduces one of her best characters here, a young Horta (rescued by Kirk and company in the episode "Devil in the Dark") new to Star Fleet. It can be hard to be a rock creature in a world of air breathers, but having a Horta around can have its advantages, especially when the Captain of the ship and Ensign Nahraht's mother are good friends. Other characters from Duane's earlier novel "The Wounded Sky" are also seen here.

One of Duane's great gifts is to be able to create excellent characters in a few brief descriptions. She does not shy from non-human characters, and in fact seems to revel in them, producing marvelous looks at the Federation. She also writes very interesting Romulans here, and greatly expands upon their culture.

Like all Duane's books, this is among the best of Star Trek novels.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock movie novelization (Star Trek #17, 1984)

Once again, Vonda McIntyre tackles the movie novelization. Unfortunately, this story emphasizes her weaknesses, and plays against her strengths. McIntyre is a character writer, and creator of intricate plots. This story is an action story, with humor interwoven with spiritual considerations, and an extended climax. McIntyre fumbles the story badly.

The first three chapters are spent wrapping up loose ends from the last movie and novelization. This is somewhat necessary, and some of the scenes involve things in this movie's script that were cut for time. However, it slows the pace of the story terribly. It isn't until Chapter 4, on page 77, that we get the plot moving. While the author is understandably interested in tying up loose ends from her characters aboard the Genesis station, it walks a line close to wallowing and sometimes falls into the trap.

McIntyre is also without Spock, one of her favorite characters to write, and concentrates much attention on Saavik. This is not such a problem, but an aversion to Kirk in a story built around the Admiral is a problem. Scotty fares badly again as well. Sulu is played up at the expense of Chekov. And McIntyre's habit of having Kirk stick his foot in his mouth runs very thin.

You can get the sense of the movie from here. But the book plods, while the film clips along quickly. This is really just a book for those who want a prose complement to the film. I can't recommed it on any other basis.

The Final Reflection by John M. Ford (Star Trek #16, 1984)

It's a departure, a "concept book" of sorts, that was a bit of a risk for Pocket to publish. This book does not focus on the Enterprise crew, but instead the protagonist is a Klingon, and the book set some 40 years before the time of the original series. Spock appears in a scene as a child, and Dr. McCoy is mentioned briefly as a baby (his grandfather, Dr. Tom McCoy, is a minor character in the novel) but other than that, the familiar crew is only in the five-page prologue at the beginning, and the two-page epilogue at the end. The rest is purportedly a fictional novel, telling about actual events, and the circumstances of the first Federation ambassador to the Klingon Empire.

The main character is one Vrenn, a Klingon without family, and thus with no place in society. He is a member of a team in the "games," an analog of chess played sometimes with live pieces. One day a Klingon admiral who plays this game adopts Vrenn, and brings him into his home, then arranges for him a naval training spot.

Vrenn, by now renamed Krenn, distinguishes himself and soon captains a ship of his own. In this capacity, he is sent on a secret mission to Earth, to pick up the first Federation ambassador to the Klingon Empire, one Dr. Tagore, termed a "Thought Master" in Klingonaase. Krenn and Tagore become friends, and when Tagore is recalled to Earth a few years later, Krenn again is called on to provide the transport.

The main draw of the novel is the look inside Klingon culture, including a look at the language, how they relate to others, and the views of the society. The book is very well-written, although it gets off to a somewhat slow start. Despite the focus on Klingons, this is not a big action story, although there is action in it. It is more of a slowly-developed character study, with a lot of attention paid to developing the main characters into fully realized beings. Ford accomplishes this quite well.

The author, John M. Ford, would also write another Trek book, How Much for Just the Planet?, #36 featuring the original crew. Ford was a veteran writer of short stories for s-f magazines such as Asimov's, and had three previous published novels. One, released the same year as this one, would win the World Fantasy Award for best novel of 1984: "The Dragon Waiting: A Masque of History." He continues to write today, with many more books and short stories. A list can be viewed at http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/authors/John_M_Ford.htm.

The book contains information about the Klingons that would later be contradicted in the movies and the Next Generation series, although they would have done well to use Ford's material. The character of Worf would have been much more fully fleshed out from the beginning of the series if Ford's material had been put into his background. As it was, it took time, good writing, and a strong performance by actor Michael Dorn to give Worf his final three-dimensional nature.

One confusing thing about the book is the cover painting. Apparently, artist Boris Vallejo has depicted the scene from the book where the young Spock plays chess with Captain Krenn. However, Spock in the painting looks too old for the "8 or 9" that Ford describes in the text. Also confusing is the spectral figure in the background. It has Vulcan/Romulan ears, but I can't think of who in the story the image would correspond to, though perhaps I am just being obtuse. It doesn't make sense to me.

Overall, it's a good book, and a nice read for a quiet time.

The Trellisane Confrontation by David Dvorkin (Star Trek #14, 1984)

The Enterprise is sent to a colony world to pick up a set of prisoners. While there Captain Kirk receives word of a distress communication from the world of Trellisane near the point where the Federation, the Romulan Empire, and the Klingon Empire all border. Concerned about the implications of the message, Kirk sets off for Trellisane before dropping off the prisoners at a starbase. Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down to the planet after the crew fends off an attack from the Sealons, natives of another planet in the same solar system. In short order, the Sealons renew their attack, which Sulu miscalculates and ends up taking damage from the lesser weapons, allowing the prisoners to escape and take the bridge. The fugitives head the ship out of the system and toward the Romulan Neutral Zone leaving the most senior officers stranded on the planet with the Sealons invading. It soon becomes obvious the Klingons have helped arm the Sealons and are providing military advisors. While Kirk, Spock and McCoy deal with the Klingons and the Sealons, Scotty must come up with a way to retake the Enterprise, and Nurse Chapel tries to aid a unique alien life-form mortally wounded on the ship.

This is the first of Dvorkin’s Star Trek novels and it reads pretty well. He has sufficient goings-on to keep things interesting, does a creditable job with the characters, and has a good handle on the regular characters. Sulu is probably more competent than is shown here, but his strategic error helps set the plot in motion, and can be excused. It’s all right for the crew to make mistakes once in a while. There are some coincidences here, but no more than enough to stretch things a bit, not completely out of shape.

Dvorkin sets up some interesting alien races, including the Trellisanians and the Sealons, as well as an Onctilliian, a race with four gender that join symbiotically. The impassive Trellisanians, reminiscent of Neville Chamberlain, contrast with the warlike Klingons and Sealons, an ocean-based race. The science fiction is well-handled here, with just a few rough spots but nothing glaring.

Dvorkin has also since written novel #40, Timetrap, as well as a Next Generation novel.

The Wounded Sky by Diane Duane (Star Trek #13, 1983)

The last ST novel of 1983 was a very lucky #13 indeed for Pocket Books. Certainly the best of the Pocket entries in the series thus far, challenged only by David Gerrold's "The Galactic Whirlpool" for finest Trek novel of all to this point. Diane Duane produced a very metaphysical novel here, tempting the curse of Marshak and Culbreath, but pulled it off with a care for the characters and an ear for dialogue rarely seen in the ST series, or in any other books.

Duane was already a writer at the time of this novel but mostly of TV cartoon scripts such as Scooby-Doo and Captain Caveman. Prior to turning to writing full-time, she had worked as a nurse, which would help immensely in writing Dr. McCoy. For those interested, she maintains a weblog at this website. Duane now lives with husband Peter Norwood in Ireland.

The plot: the Enterprise is on a routine patrol but Captain Kirk is on pins and needles waiting for Starfleet Command to pick the starship to test the new type of engine drive, which will carry the first mission completely out of the galaxy to the lower Magellenic Cloud. When the Enterprise gets the honor the crew meets K't'lk, the engineer who created it. The new system works based on a recently developed branch of physics, involving singularities and immediate transportation over great distances.

While the transfer itself is supposed to take zero time, the crew finds themselves having dreamlike experiences during the "jumps" but with a heightened sense of reality. Then they discover that the jumping is causing a rift with an adjacent universe and letting "non-entropy" leak in; a way must be found to stop it or the entire universe is in jeopardy.

While the metaphysical elements could threaten to take the book over the deep end, Duane's outstanding grasp of the characters lets her keep the book moving because it is the characterizations that drive the story. It's not perfect: Sulu gets far more freedom to plot a course in a battle situation than he would ever get with Kirk. But here it works, because it fits in with the book. Duane looks inside and lets each character, both the established ones from the series and the ones she has created, speak from the deepest part of their souls.

Duane also has a tremendous grasp of alien races, and of specific speech patterns for these different races. She introduces here Harb Tanzer, the middle-aged head of Recreation, who at once becomes a beloved character. There are many wonderful turns of phrase in these pages as Duane simply writes so well and so smoothly. The story flows so beautifully, even in transitions.  The book would not translate well to the screen, as it was made into the Next Generation episode "Where No One Has Gone Before," the sixth episode of that series.

Books like this one raised the profile of the ST series to eventually reach the best-seller lists. This one, and the future series on Romulans (Rihannsu) Duane would write, made her reputation as an SF writer.

Mutiny on the Enterprise by Robert E. Vardeman (Star Trek #12, 1983)

This is Vardeman’s second outing with a Star Trek novel and so far his last. Like his first effort it is hard to judge his handling of the series’ regular characters because the players involved are supposed to be out of character and under another’s mental influence. It works only slightly better here than it did in “The Klingon Gambit,” (Star Trek #3) Vardeman’s initial attempt.

The Enterprise, badly in need of repairs and engine overhaul, pulls into Starbase 1 (which I thought was Earth) but is immediately sent out again on a mission to take a team of ambassadors to a serious situation, a conflict between planets near the Romulan border. Kirk protests the ship is not up to the trip and the crew is badly in need of shore leave, but is overruled. The ambassadors are a brusque Tellarite (the pig-faced creatures seen in “Journey to Babel”), a capable but officious Earthman, and a plant-man, whose presence on the mission is never well explained except to present a different alien. Not long after departing, the sensors locate a derelict adrift in space with a single life reading aboard. The alien is transported aboard and identifies herself as Lorelei.

Soon, it becomes clear that Lorelei has remarkable persuasive powers. She begins convincing the crew that their mission is one of war, not peace, and that manning the phasers is immoral. To stem the tide, Captain Kirk arranges for Ambassador Zarv and Lorelai to each address the crew. This turns out to be a serious error as Zarv speaks well but Lorelai completely captivates the crew with the sound of her voice. Soon, the crew is in mutiny, refusing to man their posts even in the face of danger. Kirk and Spock must figure out how to combat Lorelai’s influence and win back the ship.

This time Vardeman introduces an alien with some sort of sonic powers, able to convince anyone of her position simply by speaking to them; only Spock proves resistant to her abilities. Her origin and the source of her abilities is left in question except that she is from the unknown planet Hyla, but the author clearly leaves room for a sequel yet to be published. Only Spock, and Kirk to an extent, are left in character, but while Spock is reasonably well done (he is generally the easiest character to capture in a few words), Kirk is not (Kirk is probably the most difficult character in Star Trek to write well). This novel is a slight improvement on Vardeman’s first but is still not a very good book. It reads like one of the mediocre TV episodes, and reveals little.

Yesterday's Son by A.E. Crispin (Star Trek #11, 1983)

In the TV episode "All Our Yesterdays," Spock and McCoy were transported into a past Ice Age of the planet Sarpeidon where they encountered a woman named Zarabeth who had been exiled there. Spock had reverted to his ancient Vulcan emotional state because of the trip to the past before Vulcans had committed to logic (roll eyes here) and had an affair with Zarabeth. The episode was one of the more far-fetched of the original TV show and served mainly to exploit Spock's character and provide him with a reason, however weak, to show emotion.

This novel is a sequel of sorts to that episode wherein the author posits that a son was born from the tryst of Spock and Zarabeth. Upon discovering a cave drawing of an individual with pointed ears in the planet's downloaded records (saved by the Enterprise just before the planet was destroyed in a solar explosion), Spock resolves to rescue his offspring from the icy planet out of a sense of familial duty.

Ann Crispin, the author, would also write a sequel to this book, to be reviewed later, as well as the hardcover "Sarek" and Next Generation material. She has also written other science fiction books, including work on the Star Wars and V series and her own Starbridge series. This is her first published novel.

Crispin writes with a good feel for the characters, especially Spock. She maintains a good dichotomy between what the young Zar, not raised on Vulcan and indeed with little human companionship, expects, and what a reserved Spock is willing to deliver. Spock in his natural habitat does not act like Zarabeth's descriptions. The description of the original trip device into Sarpeidon's past being responsible for Spock's regression to an emotional state, rather than just a trip into the past, is more palatable than the original explanation. Still, the book suffers a bit from the weakness of the original material. The story is an obvious shot at the reader's emotions, pushing that old Spock button again. This is a popular story among the group of novels, because of the subject matter, but not among the best.

However, first-time novelist Crispin does function well within the story. Her characters ring true, the plot is reasonable if not stellar, and the book is an easy read. Nothing earth-shaking here but entertaining nonetheless.

Web of the Romulans by M.S. Murdock (Star Trek #10, 1983)

Romulan activity is reported near the neutral zone and Commodore Yang of Starbase 8 sends the Enterprise to investigate. There, Captain Kirk and the crew find a Romulan ship which decloaks briefly, then disappears across the neutral zone. However it doesn't seem to move and doesn't attack: it just sits there. Tensions run high and a Federation fleet masses for war speeding to the planet Canara when Romulan ships are spotted there. Can Kirk prevent a war with the Romulan Empire?

Writer Murdock borrows from several of the TV episodes, including "Tomorrow is Yesterday," when Kirk fretted with a computer overhauled on a female-dominated planet which installed an affectionate personality into the computer. Murdock takes that one step further as the computer becomes so obsessed with Kirk it renders the ship useless. It's a cute touch, but is actually unnecessary as the story would do quite well without it.

The plot is somewhat reminiscent of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country except it deals with a Romulan crisis instead of Klingons and the plot is more absorbing and less gimmicky than that movie (which was an enjoyable movie nonetheless). Murdock plots a fine story and writes it well with dialogue that feels right coming from the established characters and new characters that fit into the established universe comfortably.

The book is not perfect; it does drag in a couple of places. For the main part the suspense is palpable, and the characters especially feel right. Kirk, Spock, McCoy are all written with the right feel and the other characters get brief moments to show their stuff. Murdock also creates some believable Romulans, and several winning Starfleet personalities, not the cardboard figures or paper villains often seen.

Unfortunately this is Murdock's only Star Trek novel outing, and apparently the first published novel. A web search also reveals four Buck Rogers novel tie-ins and a few other books independent of series. Those might be worth reading as well.

Triangle by Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath (Star Trek #9, 1983)

This marks the second Pocket-published Star Trek novel by the team of Marshak and Culbreath, their fourth fiction outing on the series overall. This book like their others is more psychological novel than science fiction. It is also, as far as I can determine, their last published work.

The story proceeds from an idea thrown out by Gene Roddenberry (or perhaps Alan Dean Foster, whispered to have ghosted the book) in the novelization of the first movie, about a group of "New Humans," a humanistic group that is opposed to Starfleet purposes and seeks a higher plane of existence. In the book, Decker is a member of this group, and this is his motivation for joining with V'Ger, as opposed to love for Ilia. Marshak and Culbreath take that further and posit the New Humans as a group mind and also invent another group mind that opposes them, while both oppose Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise. They also invent a new position of Federation Free Agent, something like the Federation's James Bond, double-0 agents commissioned to act individually for the good of all.  That's more in line with Ayn Rand's philosophies than Gene Roddenberry's.

Despite this wide swath of new and potentially interesting plotlines little is done with them. A good writer could have taken any of these setups and turned in an interesting story but the authors are caught up in their usual alpha-male gobbledygook with Spock in the role of Superman and Kirk cast as the Lois Lane captain-in-distress. This time, Federation Free Agent Sola Thane falls in love with both of them, made more complex as Spock enters the Vulcan mating cycle of pon far rendering him conveniently interested and available. This is one "triangle" as mentioned in the title. The other is the two unimind groups fighting to take over Kirk, the greatest galactic symbol of "singletons," the individual minds.

While the ideas are thick here, the book is packed mostly with long dialogues between characters reminiscent of bad comic books. In fact, much of Marshak and Culbreath's writing has the feel of a poorly-written comic book with only a nice cover painting to provide good artwork. The idea of a powerful group mind is a good one but the "group" minds here are actually dominated by powerful individuals and not much here is actually "group" at all; simply one mind dominating others and somehow all apparently magically drawing superhuman strength from the group. A Federation secret (sorry, "free") agent is an interesting plotline but nothing is done with it except to bring a woman into the story who outranks Kirk and therefore one he cannot order around against her will.

So, Kirk is placed in danger, the crew is prey for the two group minds, McCoy cannot detect the group mind influence, and Sola Thane must choose between Kirk and Spock, and whoever she does not choose will likely die. It is suspenseful and there is a certain sense of foreboding here but ultimately the lack of good writing skills causes this book to fail. Kirk and Spock are out of character and the other regulars do not seem to suffer the same fate only because relatively little attention is paid to them.

If you have read from the other three Marshak and Culbreath novels and liked them, this book is very similar, but there is a reason this book is their last published work. Better writers were soon to be found to carry on the Star Trek series.

Black Fire by Sonni Cooper (Star Trek #8, 1983).

A rip-roaring adventure yarn that plays fast and loose with the science and sometimes with plausibility, it is nevertheless a lot of fun. It begins with an explosion that seriously damages the Enterprise as well as Captain Kirk and sends Spock spiraling into a course that leads him to mutiny and a life as the pirate Black Fire.  She introduces a alien race, the Tomarii, that prove to be a serious threat to the Federation, the Klingons, and the Romulans. The question is, can Kirk, with a new first officer and science officer, manage to stop Spock and defeat the Tomarii?

Author Sonni Cooper gets a glowing introduction from Theodore Sturgeon, award-winning science-fiction writer and scripter of the TV episode "Amok Time," which introduced the world to Vulcan mating habits as Mr. Spock went through pon far. He describes the many sides of Sonni Cooper, wife of a nuclear physicist, activist for Native Americans, publicist for William Shatner, part-time actress. He also compliments her ear for dialogue.

Cooper does write some good dialogue, although some falls flat, as one might expect from a first-time novelist. Sturgeon mentions a novel being submitted, an advance paid and notes for revision given, and seems to indicate that this novel was first submitted to Bantam during their tenure publishing Star Trek. This book reflects the rewritten version. No doubt Sturgeon also gave advice on the manuscript. There is mayhem aplenty, as the saucer section of the Enterprise is blown to bits in the first chapter. It provides some background for the refit seen in the first movie, possibly the second, as the change to new uniforms also apparently takes place during the time period of the novel while Kirk is convalescing.

Cooper introduces new characters including the warlike Tomarii race, Romulans, a couple of stock Klingons, and new officers on the Enterprise. The often breakneck pace at times slows to a crawl, as the author gets to the story she wants to tell, then moves on to another after that. In a sense, this is Star Trek as Raiders of the Lost Ark, but without the Ark, and with Spock as Indiana Jones.  However, Cooper should have made better use of a spouse as a scientist.

The home planet of the Tomarii, between a red giant and a white dwarf in a precarious orbit could be the home of a civilization after an upheaval in the solar system. But if there is no plant life, or precious little, how do the animals the Tomarii eat for meat subsist? Those animals have to eat something.  Spock goes without food, since there is only meat to eat, but the food chain seems to stop there. There must have been some plant life for the chain to continue. And how do the Tomarii learn of the Federation, the Klingons and the Romulans enough to plant spies on their crews, before any of those advanced races have learned about them? When the story slows down these plot holes may start to bother you.

But for all that it is a lot of fun. Just don't think too much while you read it.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan novelization by Vonda McIntyre (Star Trek #7)

Adapting a movie to book form can be a tricky business. Since ideally the book should come out at the same time as the movie for marketing purposes, the writer has to work from the script rather than the finished movie. This means that scenes changed in the editing process, dialogue excised or changed, and even scenes dropped entirely, are often still in the book. This leads to moments of "yes, I remember that" as well as "hey, that wasn't in the movie." Both of those are present in this volume which is certainly not the author's fault. But it is helpful to know before reading.

As the story begins, Spock is Captain of the Enterprise, now used as a training ship by Starfleet Academy. His star pupil, a Vulcan-Romulan woman named Saavik, commands the Enterprise in the Kobiyashi Maru simulation, meant to measure a commander's handling of a no-win situation. As everyone dies (simulated version), Admiral Kirk views the simulated wreckage---it's foreshadowing! It's Kirk's birthday, and he's feeling old. A bit later, he accompanies the ship on a training cruise. Soon a message comes in from Carol Marcus, Kirk's old lover. Why is Starfleet trying to take her project, Genesis?

Kirk's old enemy Khan (from the TV episode "Space Seed") has been found by Commander Chekov and his captain (too bad for them), and Khan has captured their ship, the Reliant. After finding out about the Genesis torpedo and discerning its potential as a weapon and terrorist device he speeds to the science station to take it. The Enterprise crew face him near there, and are badly damaged in battle. The story then becomes the desperate struggle to prevent the madman Khan from taking control of Genesis and a fight just to survive.

Besides the movie editing cuts novelist Vonda McIntyre also inserts some of her own style here. She represents the movie very well, but once again (as in her novel "The Entropy Effect," #2) she shows a dislike for Scotty, making him most unsympathetic. McIntyre shows most empathy for the female characters (except Uhura) and Spock, and a special fondness for Sulu. When Sulu is injured and knocked out of the action just before the climax it actually frees the action somewhat.

Some of the scenes cut from the movie that show up here include the promotion of Sulu to captain (at the time, I thought this was a McIntyre insertion, but it was cut from the movie when Shatner flubbed the line and according to rumor did so on purpose) and the young trainee killed in engineering as Scotty's nephew, Peter Preston. Peter is also given a relationship with Saavik, getting tutored in math. The author also gives some character and background to the scientists at the Genesis station, which heightens the horror when Khan brutally kills them. However, far more attention is paid to the author's pet characters in this scene than to the lead villain, lessening the drama.

It's a good novel and a nice capture of the flavor of the movie. Don't expect a scene-by-scene translation of the movie but the story will stand by itself.

The Abode of Life by Lee Correy (Star Trek #6, 1982)

Released a few months before the Wrath of Khan movie, Star Trek's second cinema outing, this novel postulates an interesting scientific situation. What if there was a civilization so remote it couldn't even conceive of other life in the universe? When the Enterprise comes in contact with such a civilization the impact is likely to be devastating.

While mapping in an unexplored sector of the galaxy's Orion Arm the Enterprise begins encountering gravitational anomalies. After a few bumps and shifts the ship contacts a gravity well strong enough to throw them well off course and into the gap between the Orion Arm and the Sagittarius Arm, in an interstellar space with very little matter at all. The dilithium crystals have been greatly drained by this jump, and can manage only Warp Factor 2, which would require 75 years to get back to the nearest starbase for repairs. (Shades of Star Trek: Voyager) With few options they set off back toward the known galaxy. Soon they encounter a single star orbited by a single planet. Orbiting the planet will help facilitate some repairs, so Kirk orders an approach. Scans discover that the world is inhabited and even has advanced technology: there seems to be a large amount of transporter traffic.

The world Mercan is so remote, they can see the galaxy near them only as a "Ribbon of Light." (The Milky Way galaxy looks much the same from here. Go out on a dark night, with no lights around, such as on top of a remote hill. Look up in the sky for what appears to be a thin cloud, stretching across the sky overhead from horizon to horizon. This is the major part of the Milky Way, as visible from Earth.) With no reason to believe that these are suns like their own, the population has never imagined space travel and has instead developed technology with only a planetary focus.

Kirk determines that a culture with such a level of technology must be able to help, or at least provide materials to repair the warp engines. Kirk, Scott, McCoy and Rand beam down to the planet to make contact with the inhabitants. The visit soon becomes a threat to Mercan society especially when the variable star Mercaniad begins an active cycle the Enterprise shields cannot fully block. Spock must devise a way to prevent the loss of all hands on the ship.

Correy is an experienced science fiction writer so it is somewhat surprising that his writing here is so stiff. He never seems to quite get the feel to the characters who never advance beyond two-dimensional. Even his own creations, the natives of Mercan, do not leap off the page to life. The plot is quite interesting but Kirk is too quick to ignore the Prime Directive and contaminate the culture of the planet. It is also disturbing that none of the crew, even Spock, objects to this effort. This is certainly the fault of the writer, who could have written a more interesting and more suspenseful novel by simply paying more attention to this simple law of Starfleet often observed more in the abeyance than the obeying.

The book is simply not involving. It is hard to believe in these characters even though the situation is intriguing. It is a good science fiction idea poorly realized. It's not a bad book but it is not well-written. This plot would have been better served with another writer's words.

The Prometheus Design by Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath (ST Novel #5, 1982)

After an episode where he suffers a memory lapse (as does the rest of the landing party), Kirk is demoted from the captaincy by a Vulcan admiral and switches jobs with Spock, becoming First Officer and Science Officer. It is the opinion of the admiral that some kind of programming may have taken place during the period of unconsciousness that may prove a danger to the Enterprise as well as Spock. It is determined that a group of aliens has been conducting experiments on a wide variety of species including humans. Captain Spock strives to oppose the aliens and discover their base of operations.

As in their previous books, Marshak and Culbreath are concerned largely with psychology, and also endeavor to provide an answer to a question asked by a segment of Star Trek fans: isn’t Spock more deserving of being captain than Kirk? By having them switch jobs, the writers examine this hypothesis. They also return to their frequent theme of the physical and mental potentials of Vulcans, keeping Admiral Savaj (interesting name for a Vulcan) on the ship during the book.

The plot suffers from serious holes. Kirk has never shown any capacity or qualification for the job of science officer, and the switch of his role with Spock’s is merely expedient for the narrative rather than a sensible choice. The possibility of the Admiral Savaj exerting authority in this way is also rather contrived. There are attempts to make connections to Star Trek history by copious citing of previous lore, which includes TV episodes, the first movie novelization, and the author’s previous works as well. That citation compromises the effect somewhat, as it seems somewhat egotistical to be self-referential, especially when your own previous writings are not always true to the characters.

The characters also act oddly, particularly Kirk and Spock. Marshak and Culbreath have their own vision of Kirk and Spock and it does not correspond to established patterns very well. Their version tends to make Spock an unemotional "hero" who has an astounding amount of emotional baggage for a Vulcan. Kirk gets played almost like a "damsel in distress." Kirk does not show much initiative or ability to function apart from Spock rather than being the capable and effective officer he must be to have risen to such a position.

The book is indeed an adventure, but it is not accurately described as a Star Trek adventure. In some alternate universe, perhaps.

The Covenant of the Crown by Howard Weinstein (Star Trek #4, 1981)

Howard Weinstein is a long-time Trek fan and the writer of the animated episode "The Pirates of Orion," so it isn't surprising that he has a feel for the characters of Star Trek. He also has a deft touch as a writer. This is the first of several novels he has written, in addition to comic books, and the result is the best ST book since David Gerrold's effort.

A surprise birthday party for Dr. McCoy is interrupted by a call from Starfleet Command to divert to Starbase 22. When there Admiral Harrington informs them that the civil war on Shad has turned and it is time for the exiled king to return. Captain Kirk had been stationed on Shad at the time of his exile years before, when the war had been going badly enough that the royal family was deemed endangered enough to evacuate to a planet some parsecs away. The Klingons had been quietly supplying the rebels, hoping to disrupt the entire sector by the fall of Shad's government.

When the Enterprise reaches Orand, the queen has died, and the king is aged and infirm; but their daughter is now an adult, and will be the one to assume the monarchy.  First the ritual crown must be retrieved from a different world. Only the true ruler of Shad can wear the crown, so the question will be, can young Kailyn perform the task? It won't be easy with Klingons trying to disrupt the mission as subtly as possible. To circumvent the surveillance Spock and McCoy set off in a shuttlecraft with Kailyn to retrieve the crown while the Enterprise proceeds to Shad. But there is a spy on the king's staff, and the Klingons follow the shuttle. Now, Kirk must find the spy and Spock and McCoy must keep the young princess safe while they deal with both the natural forces of the planet and the troublesome Klingons.

Weinstein has a good ear for dialogue and nothing about this story feels forced as many preceeding books did. The characters flow along with nary a ripple, and the comic relief of Chekov and his extra ten pounds is deftly handled. Weinstein has a special feeling for McCoy, and his feelings of growing old in the story are very well-written. The characters who enter the path of the Enterprise crew, from King Stevvin to Shirn O'tay, are natural and do not seem out of place in the Star Trek universe. This is simply a good story and an excellent setup for the regular characters.

The Klingon Gambit by Robert Vardeman (Star Trek #3, 1981)

While mapping a new planet, the Enterprise receives a top-priority message from Starfleet Command directing them to a nearby star system, where all life signs aboard the Vulcan science ship T'pau have ceased. The science vessel was ferrying a group of Andorian scientists to the site of an archaeological dig on a planet where a large pyramid had been found, but no other structures or signs of artifacts. There is also a Klingon dreadnought, a powerful new warship, orbiting the planet. Kirk must investigate the Vulcans' deaths, engage the Klingons without beginning a war, and protect the scientists on the planet. To make matters worse, the crew begins to act oddly; crew members leave their posts, Spock is alternately irrational and coldly logical, McCoy begins to distrust all machines. Fights break out all over the ship over the smallest provocations, and Scotty scavenges the other ship systems in attempts to improve the performance of the warp engines. Did the Klingons kill the Vulcans? There is no obvious cause of death. A wrong step will mean a galactic war.

This novel is more of the length of a Bantam series book, about 150 pages. It is difficult to fault Vardeman for his characterizations, because the crew is supposed to be out of character here. Actually, they are supposed to be of heightened character, which doesn't always work. There are elements of the episodes "The Naked Time" and "Shore Leave" here, although this story is not as well handled as those. Vardeman makes one large error when Kirk leaves the conn, not once but twice, to Chekov when higher-ranking officers, specifically Uhura, remain on the bridge. It is important to his story, but the story could have been changed to a more sensible progression without harming the plotline.

McCoy's back-to-nature kick has been seen before, although it is taken a bit farther here. Other crew members have relatively uninteresting pursuits, and there is little science development. There isn't a lot to recommend this volume; it is merely another book, of interest for series fans but not a strong entry.

The Entropy Effect by Vonda McIntyre (Star Trek #2, 1981)

The first all-new novel published by Pocket in the Star Trek franchise was written by an accomplished science fiction novelist with a background in her own fiction and winner of a Hugo and a Nebula. One of the dangers of this type of author is a tendency to view the characters independently rather than to use them as established in series continuity. Every author will play favorites with the characters, writing up the ones they like and assigning secondary roles or completely ignoring those they do not like. This is evident in McIntyre's first outing with the Star Trek characters.

The Enterprise is dispatched to observe a singularity and discover the reason for its appearance. None like it has been observed previously, with no apparent explanation for its existence. Spock is the closest qualified observer and so he conducts the measurements as the Enterprise spends six weeks in close proximity to the dangerous gravity well and radiation output. As Spock is working on the confirming observations the Enterprise receives a top-priority call to a nearby starbase. The starbase personnel are confused when the Enterprise arrives but they do have one duty that must be carried out: the ferrying of a dangerous prisoner to a maximum-security facility.

The prisoner turns out to be a former physics teacher of Spock's and the Vulcan cannot understand the danger posed. All records of the trial have been sealed and/or expunged. Soon after the prisoner is taken on board he breaks onto the bridge and shoots Captain Kirk with a spiderweb bullet, a terrorist device which causes prolonged death with great pain. The crew is horrified. The new security chief, Commander Flynn, is also killed in the assault.

Spock finds that the dangerous nature of the prisoner, and his crime, is related to the professor's discovery of a simple method for time travel. This has also caused the singularity to appear, so the method is increasing the entropy of the universe and will cause its end in less than 100 years. Spock must travel back in time himself to repair the damage to the time continuum, save his captain and the universe.

McIntyre writes well, and the book has a good plot, so the problem here is mostly with characterization. So many of the regulars are out of character that it is often hard to take the book seriously. The author obviously likes Sulu, and to an extent Spock, while disliking Scotty and Kirk. Scott only gets "grumpy old man" stuff to do and shows no other side of his character, aside from a measure of loyalty to Kirk. The captain is killed off halfway through the book, and might have remained that way had this book been made only of McIntyre's characters (which would have made a better book). The author also is enamored with her own characters; Commander Flynn and her security crew, as well as Captain Hunter, an old lover of Kirk's and the captain of a border patrol ship. There is a strongly feminist bent here, despite the small amount of time given to Uhura.

The spiderweb bullet is a good sci-fi invention, a projectile with tendrils that grow and crush the nervous system, reaching to the brain. The problem is, at one point McIntyre writes about visible tendrils that Spock avoids on a near-miss shot. Tendrils small enough to infiltrate the nervous system would likely be invisible to the naked eye. And another thing: when Spock endeavors to go back through time, he tells only McCoy, and ostensibly leaves the Doctor in charge of the ship. At no time was McCoy ever shown to be a command officer, and it would have been procedure (which Spock would have followed) to inform Scotty, who both was the next ranking officer and thus should have been designated the conn as well as being able to help to engineer the necessary apparatus for time travel.

It's a good story. It just doesn't work, as written, as a Star Trek story.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture adaptation (Pocket Star Trek #1) (1979)

The first Star Trek novel published by Pocket was the adaptation of the first movie, written by Gene Roddenberry. Of course Roddenberry was intimately familiar with the details, having worked on the first movie proposal, turned into a series plan (Star Trek II) and then, after the success of Star Wars, plans for a movie once again. Roddenberry made much of his adaptation very personal and included a number of details not in the movie, so that the plot and flow of the book is much superior to the filmed version. No one, naturally, is more familiar with the cast of characters than Roddenberry so that is not in doubt. Word has it that Alan Dean Foster wrote the adaptation, as well as getting story credit on the movie as the movie story was largely adapted from one of his story ideas for the proposed "Star Trek II" series.

The book flows better than the filmed version, largely because it does not suffer from the annoying synthesized droning music during interminable effects shots of the inside of V'Ger. The book benefits from being able to explain things much more clearly and from leaving in details cut from the film version. The sexuality of Ilia's Deltan race is illustrated here, better explaining why Sulu and other men fell all over themselves around her. The first chapter is some fairly unnecessary business with Kirk, but it does go to motivation. Also explained is the identity of the second being killed in the transporter accident along with Science Officer Sonak. The ending scenes inside V'Ger are much clearer here in the book.

If the movie made no sense to you, the book will make things much clearer, but it is not much more exciting. It is overwritten (a symptom of both Foster and Roddenberry) and still has the same plot to work with, while not developing the secondary characters nearly enough. The plot suffers from being almost a replica of the original series episode "The Changeling" when Kirk faced Nomad, not V'Ger, and the whole thing was small enough to be inside the Enterprise, rather than the other way around.

It's not a great book, but it is of interest to Star Trek fans. It is also of interest as the first paperback published by Pocket Books, which they later numbered as #1 in their series.

The last Bantam paperback published was Death's Angel, by Kathleen Sky. I do not have that book either.