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.

The Galactic Whirlpool by David Gerrold (1980)

The next to last, and by far the best, of the Bantam paperbacks. The author is Star Trek veteran David Gerrold, who by this time had already written scripts for the series ("The Trouble With Tribbles") and the animated series ("More Tribbles, More Troubles" and "BEM") as well as written a book about the series with both praise and criticism ("The World of Star Trek"). Gerrold was also one of the developers of the Next Generation series. So obviously he had an intimate knowledge of the characters. That knowledge shows and shines like a beacon.

Our story: While on patrol of the Klingon border, the Enterprise encounters an odd sensor reading. Closer investigation reveals a slower-than-light ship, built on a huge scale--a self-contained world. It is obviously a ship built to ferry thousands of colonists, for many generations, to a new star system. The questions follow: who built it? Where did they come from? Where were they going, and how long have they been travelling? Contact with such a ship is problematic, because they may not be aware that any other civilizations exist to contact them and to do so may be a violation of the Prime Directive.

Soon that point becomes moot, as they are found to be on a collision course for the Galactic Whirlpool: a twin black hole, rotating slowly through the galaxy and drawing everything in its path into the immense gravity well. If the Enterprise crew do not interfere the ship will be destroyed in a matter of months. Now the problem becomes one of how to interfere, so as to cause the least panic and disruption to the peoples' lives.

Gerrold handles the characters expertly here, and finds a full role for Kevin Riley, an officer who had major roles in two TV episodes. Gerrold also impresses some of his own ideas about the series, many of which were also used in the Next Generation series. Gerrold has also researched his science and brings us many tidbits about the 22nd century and the events that led up to it. He fills in many details that cannot be used in a TV show due to time constraints. He even places himself into the story in the person of an historian nicknamed "Specks."

This is a wonderful novel to read, not just a good Star Trek novel. I can recommend this one highly.

Perry's Planet by Jack Haldeman (1980)

The crew of the Enterprise is dead-tired and badly in need of shore leave. As they pick up scientists for transfer, they prepare to head to Starbase 6 for needed rest and repairs. While stopped briefly to make some adjustments to the failing dilithium crystals they are suddenly attacked by a Klingon warship that seems to come out of nowhere. When the threat is averted the Klingon captain appears on the screen and swears a blood oath to kill Kirk in revenge for killing his brother.

With that now hanging over his head, Kirk must divert to a planet in an unsurveyed sector that has sent an application for admission to the Federation. As it is deemed that this call must be answered without delay, the Enterprise is diverted there. After beaming down Kirk and company find themselves unable to commit the smallest act of a violent nature. A virus has been created on Perry's Planet which acts to disable the individual when the biochemical buildup to violent action is begun. With the Klingon ship in wait for them the consequences could be disastrous.

Jack Haldeman is the older brother of Joe Haldeman, noted science fiction and Star Trek author, and an accomplished short-story writer on his own merits. Haldeman crafts a strong if short tale here, which seems to have been padded some from a short story length. Haldeman effectively uses the characters, and keeps them IN character, including giving some time to Scotty, Uhura, Sulu and Chekov. The writing is not soaring but it is solid, and the story will keep the reader interested.

I will also not be reviewing the other 1979 book, "World Without End" by Joe Haldeman. Haven't read it either.

Hey, I can't read all of them. If I read it at a later date, I will update this entry. Next up are the 1980 books. I will defer the 1979 adaptation of the first movie until after the Bantam novels, to keep those together, since it is labelled #1 in that series.

Devil World by Gordon Eklund

Eklund's second ST novel, following "The Starless World," it involves a Federation traitor, his daughter, and creatures that resemble the "devils" or "demons" of folklore. It also examines some religious issues.

At shore leave on Starbase 13, Kirk encounters a young woman who follows the philosophy of Jainism---to harm no living creature no matter how small. To this effect, she wears a face mask so as not to inadvertently swallow an insect and kill it. The woman is searching for her father, who turns out to be a Starfleet officer who left the Federation for the Klingon Empire some years before. In the meantime the starbase commander asks Kirk to take on his son as a personal steward, as the young man has washed out of Starfleet Academy, and needs direction in his life.

Through the commander Kirk also learns more of the story of the woman's father: he had been stranded in space in only a survival suit for nearly a month before being rescued, and had moved to the Empire on promises of his own planet since contact with any creatures is now painful to him.

Now, it is learned that the man has travelled to Heartland, a quarantined planet, where the colony started 40 years ago had withdrawn with every colonist turned mad. The inhabitants of the planet, a dying races called the Danons, resemble satanic creatures with reddish skin and forked tails. Kirk takes the Enterprise to retrieve the unauthorized personnel; complications ensue.

This is a somewhat better outing than Eklund's first but still a bit stiff as well as short. Kirk is again out of character while Spock and McCoy are portrayed satisfactorily, but other characters such as Scotty and Sulu show little character at all. Chekov at least tells Russian stories, but there are few telling character touches, as if the author is unfamiliar or uncomfortable with the characters.

Again, the plot is interesting enough but the writing is mediocre. Story elements are introduced then not seen again. What happens to the "demons" conjured by the stage magician in the opening scene? Are they meant to signify something? I kept waiting for the payoff but it never came. The writing is weak in that way.

Don't spend a lot of money on this one.

Trek to Madworld by Stephen Goldin (1979)

The Enterprise takes Kostas Spyroukis and his daughter back to his new home planet. Spyroukis is an explorer and renowned colonizer of worlds, and has decided to settle on his final world. On the way home he collapses and dies. Dr. McCoy discovers that the cause is a combination of argon in the planet's atmosphere, and zeton radiation emitted by the sun. Alone neither of these things is harmful, but together they make up a slow poison. Captain Kirk sends the ship off on a mission to remove the colonists from the deadly planet, but on the way they are intercepted by a powerful being calling himself Enowil, who identifies himself as an Organian split with his fellows and living in an uncharted region of space. He has brought the Enterprise as well as a Klingon and Romulan ship to his home to help him answer the question of what he is missing. The first to discover will be given anything they desire. Kirk determines that he must participate lest one of the others discover the answer and wish for an unbeatable superweapon.

The writing here is rather pedestrian, not what you would expect from a seasoned s-f writer such as Goldin. Too often I found myself saying, "Why don't they just.....?" The usual answer is, because then the problem would be solved and the book would be even shorter than it is (179 pages). Couldn't Kirk ask Enowil to intervene on the colony world and set that problem aside? Eliminating the argon from the world's atmosphere would seem to be an effective method.

This book also suffers from a malady common to the Bantam paperbacks, which all seem to have a title with some variation of "world" in it. It involves an extremely powerful machine or being which Kirk and crew must outwit, or persuade to their side, or some such. This was also a frequent problem on the TV series and is a symptom of lazy plotting. With a nearly omnipotent agent virtually anything can be accomplished, and any plot holes the writer puts him/herself in can be dodged. However, it also leads to many "why don't they" questions.

I can't recommend this book unless you are a real ST novel completist. It's not bad, really, but there's not much to get excited about.

A 1979 book I will not be reviewing is The Fate of the Phoenix by Marshak and Culbreath, a sequel to their earlier Phoenix novel featuring the villain Omne. I read that at one time, but no longer seem to have it. It was quite similar to the first one and if you like it you will probably like the sequel as well. I can't particularly recommend it. Bantam published several novels in this year, to coincide with the press coverage from the release of the first movie and I will be reviewing each in turn. Also, at the end of the year Pocket began their publishing contract for Star Trek novels, and we will be picking up with those.

Vulcan! by Kathleen Sky was also published in 1978, but I have not read that novel and will not attempt to review it. My apologies.

The Starless World by Gordon Eklund (1978)

A short novel (more of a novella, at 152 pages) by a young writer, which revolves around a Dyson sphere. A Dyson sphere is a construct of planetary material, such as the entire material of a solar system, in a single sphere around a sun. It has been proposed as a last-ditch method of survival around a dying sun when it becomes a white dwarf. The engineering involved in such a terraforming scheme would be tremendous, and any race that could actually accomplish it could probably migrate to another star system with more ease. However, it presents some interesting theoretical possibilities. In effect, the world would completely surround the star, and be in perpetual daytime. The people would then live on the "inside" of the planetary material, always facing the star, and away from the galaxy "outside." Such a world would be almost immeasurably vast, with room for many continents and many oceans, and so large that you would not be able to see the other side of this "world"---more like a solar system, really.

The Enterprise is on patrol, on heightened alert because of reports of increased Klingon activity. A shuttlecraft is spotted, launched from a ship that had disappeared some 20 years before. The man inside is not of that starship, but was Captain Kirk's former roommate at the Academy (a sure sign of trouble) who had been expelled for cheating when Kirk turned him in for stealing an exam. The man, Thomas Clayton, insists that he serves the god Ay-Nab, and sounds much like a religious zealot. The Enterprise then finds itself drawn toward an object in space; as they are drawn closer turns out to be a Dyson sphere, which Clayton represents as the home of Ay-Nab.

The ship is drawn through a gap in the sphere to the inside of the fantastic world. There are few signs of life but a Klingon ship is also detected in orbit. The Klingons are represented by a very young officer who is belligerent but holds no real threat. When life is found down on the planet, Kirk, Sulu, and a total landing party of 6 beam down to the surface to find some odd natives who also worship the god Ay-Nab, who apparently holds the Enterprise in its present condition. To make things worse, Chekov computes that the course of the sphere will take it into a black hole in four days.

In order to escape, Kirk must find a way to communicate with Ay-Nab either directly or through his worshippers. When Spock and McCoy are kidnapped and brought to the surface by Clayton the mystery only deepens. Kirk must race against time to find out who or what is Ay-Nab and how to free the Enterprise.

It's an interesting story, and although Spock and McCoy are well-written Kirk is a bit out of character from time to time. Not badly, but as he is the focus of much of the action the author seems to project certain attitudes onto Kirk that are not normally present. Uhura is given some time here as her father turns out to be marooned on the sphere as well. However, he is portrayed as a "starman," an early solo explorer, which he would certainly have been too young to have managed. Also, the author depicts an eclipse on the area of the surface the crew occupy as making things completely dark which given the construction of the sphere is highly unlikely. The "moons" would have to be much larger in diameter than the sun in order to block so much light so effectively. After all, an eclipse on earth makes for dimmer light but certainly not complete darkness; there is still diffraction of the sun around the moon. So again, we have some bad science.

The story is nonetheless enjoyable, especially if you can find it for a low price, or even better for free in the library.