The Three-Minute Universe by Barbara Paul (Star Trek #41, August 1988).

Captain Kirk addresses a meeting of officers in the briefing room and begins by announcing, "The universe is on fire." A new heat source, so strong it is even devouring suns, has been detected. The Enterprise must investigate. Once there, instruments give astonishing data: a "rip" has opened, and a universe in the early stages of formation, approximately three minutes old, has begun bleeding over into the Star Trek universe. Kirk and crew must find out how the rip was opened, and more importantly, how to repair it.

The cause is soon found. The Sackers, a race so repugnent of all senses that human races avoid them at all costs, have found a way to open the door between universes. They have wiped out an entire civilization, and the whole galaxy may follow. Their ship is more powerful than the Enterprise, so Kirk must find a way to communicate with the Sackers and get them to heal the rift....if even they can.

Barbara Paul is a science fiction and mystery writer of some note, and this is her only Star Trek book to date. On her website, www.barbarapaul.com, she reports that the book was actually much easier to write than her usual fiction, because of the depth needed for the submission in plot and tone that made the actual writing flow very quickly. Her intent, she says, was simply to write a rip-roaring adventure for the old Enterprise crew. At that, she has succeeded.

The Sackers are an interesting new race, with bodies that are repulsive to humanoid races, and an odor that inspires waves of nausea. They also radiate great heat, so that contact with one causes severe burns. And yet, the familiar seven crew members must establish communications with them on a one-to-one basis.

Paul uses the "Magnificent Seven," Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Uhura, Sulu, and Chekov, to good effect. Each gets some "screen time" for character development, and acts in character. The speech patterns are good, and Paul also writes in dialect for Scott and Chekov. Those two characters provide much of the humor, which balances the seriousness of the plot and situation. Uhura gets a nicely featured role involving a childhood fear of fire, and Spock gets a chance to be in a situation where he does not have all the answers, a nice change.

The author makes use of a rather cheap device to make the villains, the Sackers, sympathetic, but it is effective. The book itself is well-written and plotted. It's a good book even for those who are not Star Trek fans, but fans of the series will appreciate it even more. 1988 was a good year for ST novels, and this is an excellent entry in the series.

Timetrap by David Dvorkin (Star Trek #40, June 1988)

The Enterprise is en route to Starbase 17 for much-needed repairs and rest, when Uhura picks up a distress call. Oddly, the call is from a Klingon vessel, in Federation space. Kirk wants to know what a Klingon ship is doing in Federation space, so the Enterprise diverts to the signal. The area is near Tholian space, where the Enterprise had attempted a rescue of the ship Defiant and Captain Kirk had become lost in a dimensional rift some years ago, in the episode "The Tholian Web."

Kirk beams over to the Klingon ship with a security team, and then the Klingon ship vanishes in a blinding flash. To Spock's eyes, the Captain has vanished with the ship, although there is no wreckage to indicate an explosion, and the energy signature does not match the earlier dimensional rift.

Meanwhile, Kirk regains conciousness in a Klingon medical ward. He is told that he has come 100 years into the future, and is now in the world of "New Klingons," who have formed an alliance with the Federation. But, there's a catch. History says it was Kirk himself, 100 years earlier, who was aboard the Klingon flagship that addressed the Federation fleet and began the years of peace. So, he must prepare to make that moment happen, as the Klingons prepare to travel back in time.

To prepare, Kirk's liasion is a Klingon historian, Kalrind. She becomes Kirk's guide and also his lover, another in a long line of "space babes." Once the jump is made, Kirk faces the task of convincing his friends that the Klingons are sincere, even though they will not allow him to beam over to his ship and talk face-to-face.

"Timetrap" is Dvorkin's second ST novel, following "The Trellisane Confrontation," ST #14. Unlike A.C. Crispin, who improved from her first to second book, Dvorkin seems to have gone backwards. This effort is much less successful than his last. Most of our time is spent with Kirk, and most of the rest with Spock. This reveals some weaknesses, as Kirk is the most difficult character to capture in a book. Dvorkin's dialogue is not smooth, and sounds rough to the reader's "ear." The plot is telegraphed well in advance to the alert reader, as is the conclusion. I was able to discern where the book was going before I was even halfway through. Dvorkin also tries to keep some things from the reader to keep the suspense, but his weak setups lead to even weaker payoffs.

It wasn't a very good read. The plot device of Klingons is given some credence by the appearence in the then-current Next Generation of Worf, but it falls short of expectations. Dvorkin later wrote a Next Generation novel, and has written other SF books as well as mysteries.