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.