Final Frontier by Diane Carey (Star Trek Giant Novel #3, January 1988)

Commander George Kirk is the head of security at a starbase. He's not very imaginative, but he is dependable, and he loves his two boys back home on Earth even if he doesn't get along very well with his wife, or visit them very often. Kirk and his lieutenant, Drake Reed, are kidnapped, but soon find themselves in the company of StarFleet Captain Robert April, an Englishman with a gentle manner and an odd habit of wearing a cardigan sweater over his uniform. April has had Kirk brought to Earth spacedock to become first officer of something completely new: a starship!

Just off the drawing board and untested, the new starship is needed to rescue a shipload of space colonists caught in an ion storm. No current ship can make it through the turbulence, but the new ship with its state-of-the-art warp engines and massive computer can do the trick. Or so they think. When the warp drive is activated, the ship hurtles out of control, and all power is shut down right in the middle of Romulan space. Captain April is an explorer, not a warrior, so it is up to Kirk's battle experience to get the newly-christened Enterprise back to Federation space safely, to rescue the helpless and dying. That won't be easy with a group of Romulans fighting what they see as an incursion on their territory.

Carey makes a much better effort here than her two previous novels, "Dreadnought!" and "Battlestations!" (complete with overwrought exclamation points) both starring her "Mary Jane" character, Piper. No Piper here, thank goodness, although Doctor Sarah Poole comes a bit too close for comfort, but has a small role. More likely that Captain April is patterned after Carey's husband and collaborator, Peter Norwood. A cardigan sweater over a StarFleet uniform? And someone so pacifist in a quasi-military organization like StarFleet? Unlikely. Especially not at captain's rank. There are improbabilites here, but there are also many things right with the story.

While I think including Kirk's father was a cheap gimmick, as he would seem more likely to be at home in Iowa on the farm, it does provide a character of interest to the casual reader. Using Robert April, a glimmer in Gene Roddenberry's eye as captain in early proposals for the TV series, was a good idea. April's stepping aside at the end of the book for Robert Pike, the captain of the original series pilot, is also a nice touch.

Not sure why the Romulans were deemed necessary here, but Carey wisely uses the structure set up by Diane Duane in her Rihannsu books for the other culture. The characters here are all original, as the time frame is before the original series. The only reference to established characters is the framing sequence, set just after the episode "The Guardian of Forever" as Kirk mourns Edith Keeler and ponders leaving space and raising a family. It oddly foreshadows the episode of Next Generation when Picard visits Earth in the aftermath of being taken by the Borg. That is only a small part of this book, though.

The characters here are a bit two-dimensional, especially the secondary characters. George Kirk never really emerges as a full person, and Reed is mostly comic relief. Oddly, Captain April and Romulan Field Primus T'Cael are the most fully-formed characters in the book. Perhaps it is their authority that defines them.

Not a great book, but not a bad one. An interesting look at early Federation history. Most has been superseded by the current series "Enterprise," which I always thought should have used April as the captain. Oh well.

Bloodthirst by J.M. Dillard (Star Trek #37, December 1987)

The Enterprise receives a distress call from Tanis, a research outpost. Dr. McCoy and Security Officer Stanger beam down and search a dark, unusual lab. They find two dead researchers, and one barely alive. The records of the facility are infected by a virus that wipes them as soon as examination is attempted.Only fragments are recovered.

The survivor, Dr. Jeffery Adams, is infected with an unusual virus. His blood count is very low, he is extremely sensitive to light, and his condition is worsening. Star Fleet admiral Mendez, in charge of weapons research, wants Adams delivered for trial for murdering his two colleagues. Captain Kirk senses something wrong in Mendez' manner and desire to rush Adams to justice. Then Adams, seemingly very weak, breaks free from isolation and escapes, infecting Christine Chapel. He must be found before he can infect others. Chapel sinks into coma as the med lab furiously searches for a vaccine and a cure. Then Stanger is infected. The situation becomes more and more desperate.

There is little humor in this book, just a building sense of foreboding. Dillard has written a vampire story for Star Trek, and evokes a mood of terror and despair. Kirk and McCoy are the featured characters, along with Dillard's previously used security officers, particularly Chief Tomson and Lisa Nguyen plus newcomers Stanger and Lamia. It is good that Dillard pays attention to security, an often neglected area of the ship, but she does not always use it to good effect. While Diane Duane can write a story that makes a number of characters seem like exceptional people who deserve to be in space, Dillard writes security people who mostly appear incapable or incompetent at turns. Surely a security chief as unsuccessful as Tomson, as written by Dillard, would soon be replaced.

The plot is decent enough, but is often ignored. We quickly set up the situation, and pay only as much attention to it as is necessary to keep events moving along. Key plot elements are explained quickly, or sometimes not at all. The writers' goal is to set that horror movie mood. It is effective, but not to my liking. It took a long time to read this book. I simply did not get absorbed. Fans of vampires or horror movies may be more interested.

As is fitting for a science fiction series, the vampirism is given a scientific explanation, the viral infection creating a simultaneous anemia and hunger for blood. This is the explanation often given for individuals who exhibit behavior similar to fictional vampires. No supernatural powers here.

I can't say I liked the book. It succeeds at what the author was trying to do, which is something. Others may find this more enjoyable than myself.

After three novels (Mindshadow, Demons, and this one) in short order, Dillard disappeared from the regular series of books until #73. She also would write the "giant novel" The Lost Years, and became the writer of choice for the novelizations of the movies, penning the final three movies of the original cast as well as the ones featuring The Next Generation.

How Much for Just the Planet? by John M. Ford (Star Trek #36, October 1987)

A StarFleet resouces exploratory vessel finds a planet that promises to be the richest source of dilithium known. This valuable mineral that powers all kinds of energy systems including warp drive is sought throughout the galaxy by space-travelling races, and as luck would have it the Klingons are not far off. The Enterprise comes quickly in response to a distress message, and by the terms of the Organian peace treaty the Federation and Klingons will each present their case to the planetary natives. But the natives are acting oddly, and misunderstandings ensue. A fortune stands to be made by someone.

Ford's previous novel, "The Final Reflection," was a deadly serious look at Klingon culture that was a marvelous depiction of an alien society, even if it was ignored by the visual artists of the series as the character of Worf was developed. This novel plays on Ford's Klingon background a bit, but here all is played for comedy right up to a classic slapstick climax. If you ever wanted to read a story about Kirk in a pie fight, this one is for you.

Ford is obviously a fan of old movies, and uses the devices of those pictures a lot. He also pairs Enterprise and Klingon characters together to great effect, all in the name of diplomacy. The humor in the book starts from the beginning with blue-colored orange juice (which seems to occur on all three ships) and keeps going to the final page. Spock is off center stage for most of the book, which suits the character. As is usual with comedy adventures, he is best used as a straight man.

This book invites more difference of opinion than just about any other Star Trek novel, as the use of the characters for such broad humor is often met with disdain by the serious fans. I found it funny from beginning to end. It has many of the qualities of the musical comedy, and is based in part on Gilbert and Sullivan operettas as well as classic film comedy.

This is Ford's last Star Trek novel to date, and that's too bad.

The Romulan Way by Diane Duane and Peter Norwood (Star Trek #35, 1987)

A StarFleet deep cover agent is posing as a servant in the home of a Romulan government official. She is a trained sociologist, and has been in the household for a number of years. She has been surgically altered to exist as a Romulan. Her mission is not to gain military secrets, but to observe Romulan society to aid Federation understanding of the Romulans. Her position is peaceful and secure, under Dr. McCoy is captured and brought to the home where she serves.

This is the plot followed by the storyline, but it is only half the book. The other half serves as a Romulan history lesson, but the foremost Romulan ST novelist, Duane. It is a shame this work was not used as background for the recent movie Star Trek: Nemesis, which could have used the help.

Duane's work on the "Rihannsu" is now considered classic, and this and her previous novel, "My Enemy, My Ally," have been reprinted and have also gotten sequels. These books have helped established Duane, working here with help from husband Peter Norwood, as the best of the novelists, at least in my opinion.

This was the second straight release to do little (or in this case, nothing) with the supporting characters of Scott, Sulu, Chekov and Uhura. This trend was one of the things that unfortunately led to the overediting of the novels a few months hence. Soon it would be required to have only the "Magnificent 7" in featured roles, with little work by anyone else, and the universe in the balance. Right now, however, the creativity of the novel series was hitting an all-time high.

Diane Duane is my favorite ST novelist not because of her plots, which are usually pretty simple, but because of her fluid, sweeping writing style and her intimate grasp of the characters. Everyone is a Diane Duane book seems to be a close acquaintance of hers, and some of them her closest friends, she knows them so deeply. You just don't get an undeveloped character in a Duane novel. Her stuff doesn't seem to translate as well to other media, as the TV script she wrote for "The Next Generation" fell flat. This may be more due to rewriting than Duane's shortcomings, rewriting being a major problem during the series' Season 1.

This book is highly recommended, as are all Duane's novels.

Strangers From the Sky by Margaret Wander Bonanno (ST Giant Novel #2, July 1987)

Mankind knows that historically, Earth first encountered aliens when a spaceship reached Alpha Centauri, and some years later warp drive was discovered. An alliance between Earth, Andor, Tellar, and Vulcan provided the basis for the Federation a short time later. But a new book challenges that. It says that two Vulcans landed on Earth years before the first contact, and those aliens came on a ship powered by warp drive. After reading the book, Admiral James Kirk begins to have nightmares about the book's characters, who lived years before he was born. The dreams become so disturbing Kirk is committed for psychiatric evaluation, when Captain Spock returns to Earth from a training cruise and tells his commanding officer that he has had the same dreams.

To discover the reason for the shared memories, Spock mind-melds with Kirk and reveals suppressed memories of a mission in the early days of Kirk's command, when Gary Mitchell, Lee Kelso, and Dr. Elizabeth Dehner also served on the Enterprise. That group and Spock had been pulled through time to the Vulcan contact incident, and had to set it right and get the Vulcans headed back home. Spock must restore Kirk's memory of the incident before the repressed thoughts become a danger.

In many ways this is the book that "Enterprise," Vonda McIntyre's novel of the first adventure of Kirk and crew, should have been. McIntyre used the typical crew and ignored the original group from the second pilot. They are used to good effect here, as Kirk's friendship with Mitchell and with Kelso, his unease with Spock, and the counterpoint of Dr. Dehner are used to good effect. It was good to see the characters of Mitchell and Kelso in particular fleshed out. Mitchell as the controlled maverick and Kelso as "Old Reliable" are in fine form, and feel like three-dimensional characters. Bonanno's device of the character "Parneb," a Merlin-type, falls a bit flat.

In many ways this plot parallels the story of the Next Generation movie "First Contact," with Vulcans landing on Earth first. To be truthful, I like what Bonanno presents as the "accepted" story, as it makes more sense for Earth to reach out first. If the Vulcans can invent warp drive and other things themselves, why do they need humans? It makes more sense for the Vulcans to seek an alliance because humans can provide that spark of creativity that logic does not always allow.

The story itself works well. Once again, Bonanno spends most of her time on the Kirk-Spock dynamic, as before she examined in different characters in her novel "Dwellers in the Crucible." This time out she looks both at where they are just prior to the second movie, and how they developed that relationship in the very early days together on the Enterprise.

Dr. McCoy has a small part, but the other characters are little seen here. It's a good book, as Bonanno always writes well. The author has stated that only seven of the words from her manuscript were editorially changed for this book. That would be very different in her next effort, more on that story in a later essay.

It's a good solid novel and character study, holds up well over time. Of more interest to Star Trek fans than others.

Dreams of the Raven by Carmen Carter (Star Trek #34, June 1987).

The Enterprise visits a trading post on the edge of Federation space, but is called away by a distress signal. However, the ship they go to rescue instead initiates a sneak attack on the Federation vessel. The Enterprise is badly damaged, warp engines broken beyond repair. In gravity fluctuations during repairs, Dr. McCoy is hurt, and suffers amnesia, losing the last 25 years of his life, back to his first year of residency.

Captain Kirk is without his chief medical officer and trusted friend, and an unknown menace is out there. Spock and the science team must examine clues for this apparent new and beligerent species, while Scotty repairs the engines sufficiently just to reach the trading post again. Help is days away, and the menace is still out there....

In Carter's first novel, and only Star Trek novel, we find a character study of Dr. McCoy set against a backdrop of suspense and foreboding. Carter is a sociologist and educator by training, but has worked in publishing and especially technological publishing. Carter resume' can be viewed online at .

The book is an interesting exercise. There is action here, but not a lot. The author does a good job of keeping the suspense palpable in what is largely a character novel. I am not sure this is how I picture McCoy, but it is an interesting study of a man who recedes into his past when faced with the mistakes of his life, from a failed marriage to a daughter left behind, and dreams of family practice at home in Georgia fading into the service and starship life.

While stories have focused on how Kirk relies on Spock, this one looks at how much Kirk relies on McCoy. Spock's logic provides a needed point, but McCoy's humanity provides the counterpoint of the relationship. That relationship is well explored here. McCoy's reluctance to mix it up with Spock, and discomfort with authority figures, is done well here. The good doctor even enters a relationship with a junior staff member, who is about the age he remembers himself to be.

The flow is good, the language is good, and the plotting works. The new alien race, the Ravens, is interesting and fulfills the series' horror quotient. I can feel good recommending this.

Deep Domain by Howard Weinstein (Star Trek #33, April 1987)

The Enterprise is scheduled for a visit to the planet Akkalla, to evaluate a science research outpost. The ship is then called away for a rescue mission, but Spock and Chekov are sent to Akkalla in a small shuttle to begin the evaluation process. Upon their arrival, the officers come upon a large “harvest ship” taking large gulps of the Akkallan ocean waters and the teeming life in them. Their shuttle crashes, and then they are taken prisoner by a small band.

When the ship arrives, Captain Kirk has difficulty getting information out of the planetary government, and is told the shuttle must have been destroyed in route to the planet. The Enterprise crew must find Spock and Chekov, complete the science mission, and deal with a recalcitrant government that resists them at every turn, even though Akkalla is a Federation member.

This is Weinstein’s second outing as a Star Trek novelist, six years after his first outing (#4, The Covenant of the Crown). Weinstein again shows his familiarity with the characters and ease with science fiction milieu. If there is a fault here it is that Weinstein tries to do too much. He has SO much going on, from the missing crew members, the new science officer Maybri, the corrupt Akkallan government, the scholars of the Collegium, the rebels of the Cape Alliance, and an unknown race in Akkalla’s vast oceans. All that doesn’t fit very well into 275 pages. But it’s better to have 350 pages of plot in 275 pages, than the reverse.

Pacing is a problem here. Spock and Chekov are captured, and then we leave them for several chapters. Stories are started and then abandoned until much later in the same fashion, only to be picked up in a haphazard fashion later. A better organization of chapters and switching off of scenes would have helped the book considerably.

For those faults, the book is still a good one. It serves as a prequel of sorts to Star Trek II, as at the end Kirk decides to return to Earth, Chekov receives his promotion to first officer of the Reliant, and Spock and most of the senior officers mention staying on the Enterprise as teaching faculty for cadets. It also puts into print the often-proposed second five-year mission of the Enterprise crew, fitting into the time period between the first and second movies. This is sometimes used as a proper time period for many of the novels and comic book adventures by chronologists of the series.

This novel bears some thematic resemblance to Star Trek IV, and in his introduction Weinstein makes mention of his pitching a similar idea in a story conference leading up to the film. The whales (or actually whale-like “triteera”) and the conservation themes are seen in this novel. It is an enjoyable work in spite of its faults.

Chain of Attack by Gene DeWeese (Star Trek #32, February 1987)

Newly equipped with a set of improved sensors for measuring gravitational anomalies, the Enterprise and passenger Dr. Jason Crandall head for an area of the galaxy where several anomalies have recently been reported. Crandall is the head of the project, but mostly an administrator rather than a research scientist. While using probes to investigate the phenomenon, the Enterprise ends up inadvertantly transported through a portal, and on the other side of the galaxy, or perhaps another galaxy altogether.

While the belligerent Crandall makes trouble, Captain Kirk orders a survey of the surrounding area to try and find the portal or another like it. All the crew can find is a series of dead worlds, entire planets killed by some warlike race. Eventually they contact a race that attacks them on sight, then another just as aggressive. The alien weapons are much less effective, but even lesser weapons in a massed attack can be potent. Kirk must find a way to get the ship back home through hostile aliens, and deal with the ever more desperate Crandall.

DeWeese writes a competent if unimpressive novel here. The setup with Crandall is suggestive of the many times "paper-pushers" made life more difficult for the Enterprise crew, and the plot itself is good but not terribly original. The contacts with new species are nicely handled, and trying not to overpower races with lesser technology is shown to good effect. There is limited characterization here, as the only characters that really shine through are Dr. McCoy and Crandall. Spock does get a nice scene, but he is also a bit of a deus ex machina, although that is certainly nothing new.

There's really nothing exceptional here either way. The story works, the situations are not overly contrived, the storytelling is competent. It's just not a particularly sterling example of writing, more a workmanlike job. DeWeese would write more Star Trek novels, both for the original series and for Next Generation.

Star Trek IV (movie adaptation) by Vonda McIntyre (unnumbered, December 1986)

Spock is alive, but has no memory of his life before. The Enterprise crew stands accused of many crimes, including disobeying orders and commandeering a starship. They are stranded on Vulcan and their presence is demanded on Earth, where a tribunal features the Klingon ambassador calling for Kirk's head.

As our intrepid heroes set out for Earth, a mysterious probe settles into Earth orbit and immediately blacks out all power around the globe, as clouds encircle the Earth and rainstorms begin. The probe is emitting a signal, but no one can figure out what they are doing. Aboard their makeshift Klingon vessel, the erstwhile Enterprise crew determines the signal is actually the call of a humpback whale, and sets out to travel back in time to before the huge mammals were extinct, the 20th century.

The seven crew members must negotiate an unfamiliar culture, locate some whales, and determine how to transport them back to the 23rd century. This calls for a lot of resourcefulness and walking a fine line to avoid changing the very history they must preserve. But the Earth is at stake....

Writing an adaptation of a movie script into a book is an interesting process. You generally have the script to work with in front of you as you write, but scripts are revised and scenes dropped in production. Some things in the book will likely never make it into the movie, and things which end up being big moments on screen don't always appear to be so in the script. Star Trek IV is a rarity in this category, in that almost all of the movie makes it into the book. This generally indicates a stable script and smooth production.

Writer McIntyre puts in just a few of her own touches here, adding some Carol Marcus material, having interaction between Christine Chapel and Janice Rand at StarFleet control as the probe menaces the planet, and adding Sulu material to play up her favorite character. McIntyre has a weakness about humor, as her stories tend to be deadly serious. But the humor of the script shines through, and those who have watched the film will be able to follow the lines from the movie quite easily.

Like most movie adaptations, this is a book mainly for curiousity's sake, or portability. With today's DVD technology, that is rarely even necessary. But it's a fun read for fans of the movie.

This was also McIntyre's last published Star Trek work. It appears that both parties got what they were looking for out of the relationship. Pocket Books got the currency of a respected science fiction writer, and McIntyre got some nice checks that come from writing licensed properties. A good time was had by all.

Battlestations! by Diane Carey (Star Trek #31, 1986)

In a sequel to her previous novel "Dreadnought!" Carey provides a continuation to that story, as some of the participants in the conspiracy aren't willing to leave well enough alone. They have the secret to the new transwarp drive, and are willing to sell it to the highest bidder. Lt. Cmdr. Piper, the POV character and Carey surrogate, must find and stop her friend Sarda from becoming part of the conspiracy. Sarda's genius for weapons is invaluable to the transwarp technology, and his loyalty is sorely tested.

This story does not descend to the depths of stupidity the previous installment did, but it does wallow in the mind of Piper. The whole story is told through her first-person experiences, in excrutiating detail. We get her every thought, it seems, no matter how trivial or stupid. This makes a 190 page story take 271 pages to tell.

However, you can see Carey maturing as a writer here. Her plotting is becoming better, and she manages to keep the suspense up without resorting to quite as many cheap tricks. She keeps Dr. McCoy in the book for most of the story line, and gives a bigger role to Spock than before, and also uses Kirk a good bit. Still, Sulu, Uhura, and Chekov do not appear at all. Carey had not yet learned to incorporate all the ST characters.

The best scenes are the opening scenes of Piper on the crew for Kirk during old-fashioned schooner races on Earth's oceans. This reveals Carey's love for the sea, and is very good for building Kirk's character, as well as Piper's. These scenes are also the most exciting of the whole book, in spite of the later end-of-the-world plot. Personal drama is always the best.

It's not a very good book, but it has good spots, and it shows promise for the future.

Enterprise: The First Adventure by Vonda McIntyre (Star Trek Giant Novel, 1986)

James T. Kirk has just been promoted to captain, the youngest captain in the history of Starfleet, and given command of the Enterprise succeeding the highly decorated Christopher Pike, promoted to Commodore and given command of a Starbase. Kirk is but 29 but has already been a hero in the service, and has just emerged from regen (regeneration) for injuries suffered in the service. His friend Gary Mitchell is still in regen from the same campaign, and is unable to join as first officer, as they had planned. Kirk instead takes his rehab doctor, Leonard McCoy, as chief medical officer, and grudgingly accepts the Vulcan Pike recommends as first officer. Spock is similarly unenthusiastic about having the emotional Kirk as captain, after the more analytical Pike. And Chief Engineer Scott is even less happy about the change. It doesn’t help that a raw rookie, Sulu, is the new helm officer.

For the first mission, Admiral Nogura has given Kirk a “milk run,” ferrying an entertainment group out to the outer reaches toward Starbase 13 on a “USO tour.” Kirk is attracted to the young manager of the group, but frustrated not to have a stronger exploration assignment for his first duty. Then, the Enterprise comes upon a huge ship, soon termed a “worldship,” with a whole new alien civilization inside. And in the meantime, there is a Klingon renegade with a captured prototype ship looking to make trouble.

McIntyre’s strengths as a writer are dialogue and characterization, and she uses them to present this story. Her weakness is plot, and that is evident as well. This would work, except that she is dealing with established characters, and her characterizations of many of the familiar Star Trek characters simply do not match up with the established behavior patterns. McIntyre frequently and well uses a story device of having a conversation between two characters, given from one’s point of view and giving us that character’s thoughts, then switching the other character and following them after the conversation and getting their viewpoint. This is an effective technique, but it also shows that the author has no feel for Scotty, as she never visits his “mind” in this way.

Besides Scotty, Kirk is out of character here. I would speculate that his behavior is not appreciated by a feminist author, and thus his abilities are downplayed. Kirk seems ineffectual here, as he does in most of McIntyre’s books, as well as emotionally clueless. The author makes a point that Kirk is uncomfortable speaking in front of crowds. This is contrary to his behavior in any number of TV episodes and movies as well, where Kirk never passes up a chance to make a speech.

This book is actually written more for the non-Star Trek fan than for fans of the series. The book features the standard characters, while ignoring many that were in the pilot episode, “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” Uhura and McCoy didn’t appear there at all, and characters such as Mitchell were featured. A number of characters were killed off in the pilot, never to appear again, and I would have liked to see an adventure with Mitchell, Kelso, and others from that era, and maybe even some holding over from the original pilot with Captain Pike, like Number One. Yeoman Rand appears, but is given a background much like that given to “Next Generation” character Tasha Yar, and a personality at odds with her appearance in the show. This is a common complaint in the book.

The comic book version of the first voyage of the Enterprise under Kirk was much more successful, and I recommend that version to you. It was published as an annual by DC Comics.

The book is historically significant as the first "giant" novel, and the precursor to the hardbacks. It was also, I belive, the last ST novel by McIntyre. J.M. Dillard would soon become Trek's go-to writer.

Demons by J.M. Dillard (Star Trek #30, 1986)

A Vulcan archaeological team in the Hydrilla sector has discovered an ancient evil: an entity which can take over a person’s brain function, and cause them to perform sadistic acts. Even Vulcans become capable of murder. The entities are passed when eye contact is made between infected individuals and others. When the Enterprise transports scientists from the team back to Vulcan, members of the crew also become infected, and the plaque soon spreads over the normally peaceful planet. Hopelessly outnumbered, Kirk, Spock and McCoy must find a way to overcome the evil before it overwhelms the whole galaxy.

Dillard’s second Star Trek novel is far superior to her first, and is at the level of “average.” The book is somewhat reminiscent of several “possession” episodes of the original series, particularly “Wolf in the Fold” featuring Scotty possessed by the same spirit that drove Jack the Ripper, and “Operation: Annihilate” with jellyfish-like creatures that attacked and attached themselves to a victim’s nervous system. This book is sort of a pastiche of those two stories with a bit of extras thrown in together. The Vulcan setting and inclusion of Spock’s parents in the story serve to heighten tension. The housing of the creatures in impenetrable clamshell-like casings gives the story a certain spookiness.

The new character is Anitra Lanter, an ensign who is also an accomplished telepath. She is able to detect infected individuals. She is also tall, red-haired, and has a pointy chin, as does the author. I think we have a “Mary Sue” in this book as well, although it isn’t quite as blatant as some other examples printed shortly before this publication. Lanter is instrumental to the plot, but is no worse a character than, say, Dr. Miranda Jones.

Dillard brings back her security chief, Lt. Tomson again, with somewhat better results. Tomson functions somewhat better in this book than the last, but still hardly seems competent. It is difficult to judge Dillard on writing for the characters here, as they necessarily spend much of the book acting out of character. The suspense is palpable, and Star Trek has often worked well with a horror-type story.

McCoy is a featured character here, but is not as well-used as he could be. He tends to stand by while Spock runs tests to determine an effective counter-measure for the plaque, when McCoy should be in the forefront of the research. McCoy is not a physical character, but should take a back seat to no one in the laboratory.

It's not a great novel, but it's not bad. Dillard was obviously learning.

Dreadnought! by Diane Carey (Star Trek #29, 1986)

Fresh out of the Academy, Lt. Piper is assigned to the Enterprise just as a call comes...the Federation's new secret weapon, a super-powerful starship designated a dreadnought has been stolen. In addition, the thieves have designated that Piper must be on the team that intercepts them. Piper is confined to her quarters, but promptly escapes and heads with her Vulcan friend Sarda over to greet the other ship. They are intercepted by a Federation team headed by Vice-Admiral Rittenhouse. Rittenhouse has been the driving force at StarFleet behind the creation and building of the new ship. With his three hand-picked starship captains backing him up, Rittenhouse resolves to retake the dreadnought, whether its renegade crew is dead or alive. Both Piper and Kirk must stretch their limits to preserve the peace.

This book can be seen as the ultimate Star Trek "Mary Sue" novel, as Carey makes little effort to conceal that Piper is a version of herself. The cover picture with Sarda and Kirk even looks like Carey. In the article reference in the previous post, the author points out some of the characteristics of the "Mary Sue" story shown here, such as Piper being out of uniform (and in a form-fitting black jumpsuit) for the entire novel until the end when she receives "the second-highest honor in the Federation" and a promotion to Lieutenant Commander, for a young officer days out of StarFleet Academy! There are a lot of credibility-stretching moments like that.

For someone supposedly considered top officer material, Piper exhibits none of the characteristics of leadership, except perhaps for the ability to look smart because other characters in the story are acting dumb. Piper comes up with "brilliant" strategy in two instances that is patently ludicrous. Once, she escapes from her confinement to quarters by wielding a curling iron, er, "curling implement," and later she leads her three partners-in-infamy in a bunny hop to distract some security guards. If that actually fooled any guards, they should be drummed out of the service immediately.

The plot concerns a group of malcontents at StarFleet, a plot that always falls flat because it goes against the way Gene Roddenberry's future universe was set up. People in the future are supposed to be better, they are supposed to get along with each other, and they are interested in things besides money and power, at least in the Federation. A mutinous faction always looks incongruous against this backdrop. When the "Next Generation" series tried such a plot in the first season, with an alien infiltration of StarFleet Command, it fell to Earth with a thud. The story obviously left room for a sequel, but wisely one was never filmed. So this story had one strike against it from the beginning.

Carey would write another novel in the series in just two more installments, a sequel to this story. She went on to become the most prolific Star Trek novelist to date, with dozens of novels to her credit. Most of them are far better than this first effort. Carey is also a prolific writer of other stories, including romance novels.

I can't recommend this novel. Read only if you are desperate. There is a seed of good writing here, and you can see the potential. But the payoff is slim in this book.

The next novel I will be reviewing, "Dreadnought!" led me to researching "Mary Sue"s again. An interesting and scholarly article can be found on-line at http://www.merrycoz.org/papers/MARYSUE.HTM This refers to a wide variety of fiction but also to the novel in particular.

Crisis on Centaurus by Brad Ferguson (Star Trek #28, 1986)

Centaurus, an Earth colony world in the Alpha Centauri system, is devastated by a terrorist bombing. The Enterprise, suffering from a near-total breakdown of its computer systems, is ordered to lend whatever aid is possible, and to investigate the incident. Scotty must nurse the warp engines to the Centauri system by hand, while his crew patches together the life support systems and restores internal gravity. Several Enterprise crewmen are badly shaken, as they are either Centauri natives or have family there, including Dr. McCoy, whose daughter Joanna is a medical student on Centaurus. It was also where Captain Kirk met McCoy many years earlier during rehab for a serious combat injury. Kirk has become a landowner on Centaurus and has a personal interest as well. The ship arrives on Centaurus and must first deal with an out-of-control planetary defense system that has destroyed the first medical ships dispatched from Earth to help. Then, aid must be given to the injured, and finally the culprits tracked down and brought to justice.

This is Ferguson's first published work. He has since written "A Flag Full of Stars," Star Trek #55 and #2 in the "Lost Years" saga, although like many books of that era he has disavowed the final draft. A downloadable copy of the author's version was formerly available at the author's website at http://www.fred.net/thirteen/ , but I could not get the link to work just recently. Ferguson sounds like my kind of guy, as he is also a fan of classic Superman stories. Since getting published in Star Trek fiction, he has written Next Generation novels, one non-Star Trek novel, and some short stories published in Asimov's and elsewhere.

The book is a good one, although Ferguson makes some rookie author mistakes. He introduces the story in a very interesting way, but falls into the "Enterprise is damaged" trap without connecting it to the main plot. It is simply a complication, another obstacle. Also, Scotty becomes the "deus ex machina" here. He is obviously working hard to repair all systems and keep the ship going, and must nursemaid the engines with computer control out, but he also seems to find time for such things as rigging a coffeepot on the bridge. It would have made a lot more sense for someone else to do that, or for a Yeoman to simply bring it up as Janice Rand did, heating coffee with a hand phaser in an early episode.

Still, there is much to like here, as Uhura gets a shot at handling the conn for once, and even gets to do some things. There are some nice twists, and Sulu as a party animal, with Chekov falling in love with a nurse, play nicely. We get yet another assistant for Scotty, this time a big Scotsman named MacPherson. The collapse of a planetary government when the capital is bombed and most leading officials are killed is portrayed here, but is given a little shorter shrift than should have happened. The tachyonic fallout from the explosion fouling subspace is an interesting complication and advances the plot.

Of course, Ferguson makes the same mistake many authors make, which is that engineering is more than Scotty. The Enterprise has 432 crew members, some 80-100 of them presumably assigned to engineering. Of course Scotty has a paternal pride in the ship, but surely some of those guys are trusted to do something. We also have a shortage of bridge officers here, as the helm and navigation relief for Sulu and Chekov seems to be one person each. With the crew complement of the ship, there would be more people available for duty than that. Even Uhura has handled the helm in a pinch, surely some more people could be drafted into bridge duty.

Also, Ferguson errs by placing his climax near the middle of the book. It was probably not his intention, but that is the effect, and the second climax near the end becomes anticlimatic, even though he tries to save it with an outlandish move that would likely destroy the Enterprise. It just doesn't work.

Now, despite my complaints, I enjoyed the book. It has problems, but is also an entertaining story with well-written characters and good dialogue. This would make a good entry in the movie series, rewritten into script form. You could even use this plot with the Next Generation characters and have success. It would certainly be better than most of the movies we have seen lately from the Star Trek franchise.