Death Count by L.A. Graf (Star Trek #62, November 1992).

Andorian scientist Muav Haslev has disappeared, and tensions are high between the Andorians and the Orions, suspected in his absence. War between the societies looms, and the Enterprise is in the middle of it. First, an incident on a space station involves Lt. Chekov. Then, shore leave is cut short as the ship and its crew are ordered to the Orion/Andorian border. When sabotage and deaths begin happening on the ship, it becomes apparent that an unwelcome passenger has made his way onto the Enterprise.

Julia Ecklar and Karen Cercone, writing under the pseudonym L.A. Graf, have written a solid novel here. Most novel outings, like the TV series and movies, center on Kirk, Spock and McCoy. This book features Chekov, Sulu, and Uhura, with the others in a supporting role, and is timely after the previous work that did just the opposite. Lots of plot and not much characterization here, as we mostly cover previously shown character traits.

Uhura is on-stage but not really given a lot to do other than be a supportive friend. Sulu's short attention span, boundless energy, and peerless piloting skills are all given play. But it is truly Chekov that one or both of the writing team likes, and the more mature version of security chief at the time period of the original Star Trek movie, rather than the young mop-haired navigator of TV fame.

The plot is involving. An Andorian scientist doing research in areas of weaponry, denied funding on Andor, is missing and reportedly is working for the Orions. This is the first depiction (as far as I know, there may be fan fiction) of Orions beyond pirates and slave girls. This book shows an Orion Empire with a functioning, if martial, government. It is actually refreshing to have Orions used rather than Klingons, the race that would normally be used in such an instance. A bit too much is made, however, of the home planet having "two Earth gravities," making the Orions much stronger than humans. That in itself is not such a bad thing, but the double gravity would make for gerat differences in structure, more than are shown here. The gravity would also affect the women as well as the men, and so the lithe and lithsome slave girls would actually be quite stocky and not as appealing to the average human. A difference of, say, 25% in gravity would be more realistic. Of course, these are the quibbles of a physicist.

The plot is quite involving, with hidden identities, unexplained power surgers, and lots of action. There is a somewhat misguided subplot with a group of "Federation auditors," of the same ilk of paper-pushers that have often bedeviled Captain Kirk, but this time they serve a plot purpose as fodder for the title death count. It's not easy to feel sorry for an unfeeling, pushy auditor who buys the farm, though.

The writing style here, as with other Graf books, is competent though not inspiring. The characterizations are thin but there is lots of plot and action, even if some of it is implausible. As has been shown recently, implausible plots and thin writing are not a barrier to writing a bestseller. It's not great literature, but it is involving and the excitement will keep the pages turning.

Best Destiny by Diane Carey, Star Trek Hardcover #5, 1992.

Captain James T. Kirk is preparing to retire, following the events of Star Trek VI. So is most of the rest of the crew, willingly or not. A tragic event on the planet Faramond leads Kirk to recall a previous trip to Faramond, when he was a teenager. A bitter, troubled, sixteen year old Jim Kirk went on a trip to Faramond with his father on the original starship Enterprise, with the original crew including legendary Captain Robert April. Only that trip didn't go quite as planned, either.

As a few of the crew, including Captain April, Commander George Kirk, and young Jim Kirk, take a Starfleet "cutter" (in pre-shuttlecraft days) to look at a spectacular trinary star on the way to Faramond, they are waylaid by a group of pirates who emerge from the magnetic field of the star and take ships by surprise, then pillage them. But they haven't reckoned with the guts and smarts of a highly trained crew, nor a particularly resourceful teenager.

Carey's novel, the first after a four-year layoff while she and co-plotter/husband Gregory Brodeur worked on a trilogy of American Civil War historical novels, is a look at the history of James T. Kirk and how he came to be who he is. A comparison is made in the foreword, and hinted at through the novel, of Kirk being much like Civil War general Ulysses S. Grant. Grant was a failure at nearly everything he tried, except being a commander of men and armies. This novel tries to take the same tack with Kirk.

Also a sequel of sorts to "Final Frontier," Carey's earlier novel about the first voyage of the starship Enterprise with the original crew, including Captain Robert April, who was in the first drafts of the TV series material by Gene Roddenberry. Roddenberry eventually changed the name of his captain to Christopher Pike, then after the first pilot didn't sell he named the man James T. Kirk. Pike was used later in the series, but April was not, although the character surfaced in the animated series of the 1970s. April has always been taken by fans to be the original captain of the Enterprise.

April returns along with helmsman Carlos Florida, security man Drake Reed, and George Kirk himself, although Kirk is not April's first officer in this story as he was in the first one. However, for the voyage, April puts Kirk in command of the cutter, and this is where credulity begins to be stretched. The captain putting someone else in command of a flight, when he is right there? Possible, I suppose, but not practical. It would thoroughly confuse the command structure, as it does at one plot point, so I suppose that was why. But it's a cheap story gimmick, and doesn't add anything to the story.

Captain April was used to much greater effect in the previous book. Here, he does little more than spout platitudes. I'd still like to see a book where April is used well, instead of delegating his authority to someone else. Just why is the guy a captain, anyway? Carey tells us about it, but she doesn't use any of her 400 pages here showing us why Robert April is a great captain.

That Kirk could have had a misspent youth is not a great stretch, although my own imagination has always had it a bit differently. I can stretch it to include this plot, but in fact there is not much plot here. This is often a problem with Carey's books, that there is a seed of a plot, then lots of soul-searching and characters telling each other about their feelings. It is a commonly used technique in soap operas, and can be used well in the theater, but it gets tedious in this long hardcover form. I was struggling to get through to the end of the book, rather than excited to keep turning the pages as one should be in a suspenseful tome.

This was a low period for Star Trek novels, with the Next Generation series in full bloom and Deep Space 9 on the way, and corporate attention striking down nearly all threads of creativity in the companion properties. This one is certainly not a good example of the genre. It's not really a bad book, but it's certainly not of good quality.