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.

Mindshadow by J.M. Dillard (Star Trek #27, 1986)

The planet Aritani is under attack by vicious pirates. Aritani was formerly an advanced culture which nearly destroyed itself, and now has returned to an agrarian culture, rejecting advanced technology. They have no defenses against the advanced weaponry of the small fighters until the Enterprise shows up. But first Mr. Spock is badly injured on the planet's surface, then the electromagnetic shield Scotty and Spock had rigged up does not stop the pirate ships. While an expert on Vulcan neuropsychology, Dr. Emma Saenz, shows up to treat Spock, Kirk must try to figure out how the ships are beating the shield. Romulan technology is suspected, but an attempt to capture a pilot ends with the Romulan killed in the brig. Spock isn't getting better, and Dr. Saenz is pushing for him to be committed to a mental institution. There is something important that Spock saw, but he just can't remember.....

Author J.M. Dillard has become one of the most prolific of all Star Trek authors. She writes for a number of series, and writes horror novels as Jeanne Kalogridis, which according to at least one source is her real name. This is an unpromising beginning, as this novel falls short of the high standard set before the 1985-86 run of novels. The character dialogue sounds right, but the characters all must act very stupid not to figure out the plot of the novel before the author can bring it to a conclusion. It's as if with Spock having a brain injury, all the characters are mentally impaired.

While the character Dr. Saenz just appears without any announcement, no red flags are apparently raised by the characters. Her words are simply accepted, which they must be to advance the plot. This doesn't speak well for the intelligence of Kirk or McCoy. The security chief, one Lt. Tomson, doesn't fare well here either. She exhibits no gift for any part of the job of a security officer. And why does Scotty pilot the shuttle to transport Spock to Vulcan? This seems merely a convenient device to have him off the ship to become a suspect in the death of the Romulan, when Sulu or Chekov could more believably have piloted the shuttle. Chekov is also misspelled as "Chekhov" throughout the book, although that may have been corrected in later printings.

The basic plot isn't bad, but it could have been handled much better. The dialogue is also passable. It is the storytelling aspect where this book falls short. The tale is simply not plausible. That no one suspects Spock's medication as a trouble spot is disturbing. The Terran-Vulcan hybrid woman staying as a guest at the home of Sarek and Amanda is too pat. And the ending stretches the credibility even further. It is meant as a late plot twist, but comes from so far out in left field that it doesn't even belong in a poor soap opera.

There are things to like here, but overall the book falls short.

Pawns and Symbols by Majliss Larson (Star Trek #26, 1985)

On Sherman's Planet, a world jointly claimed by the Federation and the Klingon Empire and administrated by the Organians, an earthquake shatters the calm of the Federation field researchers. There is widespread damage, and all but one of the scientists is killed. Jean Czerny is found and taken by the Klingons to a waiting ship, where the Klingon medic saves her life with some timely first aid. The ship's commander, Kang, declares Czerny endebted to him, and takes her to help investigate problems on Empire worlds, suffering a widespread blight that is making food supplies scarce. While Kirk and the crew work to get her back, Czerny spends months working on a grain to resist the disease with a Klingon scientist. She eventually becomes embroiled in a plot by Kang's estranged wife, Mara, to pressure Kang into negotiations with the Federation.

It's not a bad plot, and in fact is similar to the plot for Star Trek VI. The Klingon Empire is in trouble, they must seek help from the Federation but are too proud, etc. This becomes the second book release in a row with a Klingon-human sexual encounter, which is unfortunate. While in the previous book Margaret Wander Bonanno handled it deftly, Larson is far more clumsy with the encounter. It also seems unlikely that a plant disease could spread to so many worlds.

This is one of the most blatant "Mary Sue" stories ever published by Pocket. A Mary Sue novel is one where the author puts herself as a character in the story, and often has the character act out her own fantasies regarding Star Trek characters. This has long been a staple of fan fiction, with women fantasizing about having affairs with Spock especially, and other characters as well. It is not seen so much about male fans, perhaps because it is easier for the men to identify with the extant characters. The women can either be Uhura, Chapel, or one of the one-shot guest stars, much less emotionally satisfying. In this case, the fantasy seems to be Klingon sex, with the dark and menacing Kang, seen here as the heir to the throne.

During this period, Pocket editors were certainly asleep at the wheel, letting this story slip through. There is little to learn about the Klingons, a race portrayed here as simply more agressive humans, not as aliens. There is not much here to recommend the story. It's not really bad as much as it is tedious. As self-published fan fiction, or posted on a website, sure. But mass-produced as a novel in a series, this falls short.

Dwellers in the Crucible by Margaret Wander Bonanno (Star Trek #25, 1985)

Based on a Vulcan custom, and similar practices on other worlds, the civilizations of the Federation have sent to Vulcan Warrantors of Peace--children of high-ranking officials, with key state secrets held on their persons, as a sort of hostage group to help maintain peace among Federation worlds. Sensing a weakness, the Romulans kidnap six of these Warrantors, and give them to the Klingons to hold while the intrigues are played out. It falls to the Enterprise crew to rescue these individuals, with Sulu going undercover as a Romulan and Scotty seeking information from a Klingon out of his past. The prisoners will surely die under Klingon hands, unless they can be found and rescued quickly.

This is a good story, important after the previous poor book, but it does not focus on the Enterprise crew. The book is really a re-examination of the Kirk-Spock friendship, using a different and somewhat inside-out vessel. Two of the Warrantors are women, human and Vulcan, one Cleante al-Faisal and another T'Shael, a student of languages and daughter of one of the most accomplished musicians ever heard on Vulcan. T'Shael is without family, as her father died of an inherited disease, and her mother was one of the crewmembers of the destroyed ship Intrepid. T'Shael, with no remaining family ties, has volunteered to be a Warrantor, taking the place of Ambassador Sarek's son--Spock.

Six are originally captured, including three Deltans and an Andorian. The Andorian dies soon after the kidnapping while resisting the Romulans. The Deltans die when the Klingons begin to experiment with them out of boredom. Meanwhile, the two women, on the road to friendship before, are thrown into a "crucible" that tests them to their very limits and beyond. The story is largely a look at forming friendships with people of other cultures, and especially the differences between oh-so-emotional humans and eminently logical Vulcans.

Bonanno writes an interesting story here, with only brief and mostly unimportant appearences by Enterprise crew. The scenes are written mostly to keep the fans interested, I think. Sulu is an interesting choice for undercover agent, although I think Chekov would have been a more reasonable choice. At this setting, though, Chekov is not on the Enterprise as this is the first novel set during the movies' time period. The story takes place just before the events of "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." This is unusual, since most authors write for the time period of the original TV series, or the often-proposed second five-year mission that supposedly followed the first movie. Bonanno uses elements from the movies, including the very sexual Deltans and Saavik from the movie series. She even gives her a "girl's name," saying her name is really "T'Saavik," but that humans have trouble pronouncing that. A nice touch.

Bonanno is also the author of the "Preternatural" series, and also wrote the Star Trek books "Strangers from the Sky" and "Saturn's Child" (with Nichelle Nichols). She is the credited author on "Probe," but insists that is not her book, as it contains only 7% of the words from the manuscript she handed in and was extensively rewritten (obviously). "Crucible," however, is Bonanno's book, and it's a good one. Just don't go in expecting a Kirk-Spock story, because that's not here. It is a good Star Trek universe tale, though.

Killing Time by Della Van Hise (Star Trek #24, 1985)

Captain Kirk finds himself having odd dreams. He is a disaffected ensign with a chip on his shoulder, unhappy with his lot in life, while Spock is the ship's captain. Turns out, Spock is having the same dream, and he doesn't like it any more than Kirk does. Soon, reality shifts, and that becomes the state of affairs. The Romulans have discovered a way to travel back in time and change the past to alter the future. In this attempt, called Second History, they have secretly killed the men who laid the foundation for the Federation, and strengthened the Romulan Empire. But, it didn't work as well as they had hoped, because in stead of humans, Vulcans formed an Alliance a few years later, and staved off further Romulan advancement. But it gets worse: the universe is rejecting the revised state of affairs, and the strain on all involved is causing outbreaks of madness all across the galaxy. Captain Spock and Ensign Kirk must travel to Romulus, go back in time, and change history back to the way it was before.

Unfortunate that two time-travel themed books were released consecutively, and even worse that this one is a muddled mess. This outing is a contender for "Worst Star Trek Novel Ever Released." The heights reached in recent months were almost undone in one fell swoop here. The plot is confusing, the writing poor, and the characters hard to recognize. And to make it worse, Pocket Books initially released an earlier draft, rather than the rewritten version. At this time the books were undergoing very light editing, as seen in the last book's apparently unnoticed crossover that seems to have passed without lawsuit. In a couple of years, that would shift the other way as Paramount began demanding overediting. That is a bad thing overall, but this book could have used some more editing, or better yet outright cancellation.

Where "Ishmael" got time travel very right, this book gets it very wrong. Whether it is a philosophy issue or some other problem, it is difficult to understand the characters having memories of other alternate universes. Or how they could have dreams of other realities before they have happened. If the author wanted to invoke something like the tenets of String Theory, with the infinite number of possible universes, it is a difficult thing to credit the cross-memories through realities. This reads like a Marshak and Culbreath novel. Another resemblance to those writers is seen in the concentration on Spock and Kirk, plus two female Romulan characters, to the exclusion of others.

Also, the facts in the Second History are rather garbled and unsatisfactory. For an "Alliance" dominated by Vulcan, there seem to be few Vulcans in the service. For much of the book, Spock appears to be the only Vulcan on the ShiKahr, then there are Vulcan security guards. That makes little sense. Also, Chekov is the First Officer. Why? Because he is the Science Officer? He is the youngest of the originals. Much more sensible for Sulu or Uhura, or even Scotty to be second in command. Also there are a couple of too-pat situations, one that Spock enters pon farr, and must get help from the Romulan women, and second that the Romulan Praetor turns out to be the Romulan Commander from the episode "The Enterprise Incident." It's far too convenient.

Even more interesting is the original published version of the book. At the time, I was in college and buying the novels as soon as they appeared, so I got the soon-to-be-recalled version of the story. Author Van Hise was apparently interested in the K/S subculture, also known as the "slash" fans. This is a group that writes stories with Kirk and Spock as homosexual lovers. The odd thing about this group is that they tend to be women, rather than men writing out such fantasies. Especially in the recalled release, there are several aside references, to Kirk and Spock touching and such. There also seems to be an inordinate amount of Spock being shirtless in Kirk's presence, an incident of Spock laying on top of Kirk, a couple of mind melds, and lots of velvet and tight pants. All very odd and somewhat subliminally disturbing. The rewritten and revised version cuts out much of the more blatant excapades, but it is all still rather sordid.

A visit to the author's website also reveals some of her poetry, which is somewhat New Age-Feminist in nature. This is reflected to references to the Enterprise as "silver woman-goddess" in the book text. Van Hise has apparently also published or self-published one or two "homosexual vampire" books. I do not know if this author has any connection to James Van Hise, often credited as a writer on the unauthorized and usually very poor quality Star Trek books released by Hal Schuster under a variety of company imprints.

It's a lousy book. Don't waste your money or your time.

Ishmael by Barbara Hambly (Star Trek #23, 1985)

At Starbase 12, the docked Klingon ore freighter looks very suspicious. It has a larger crew than normal, and the power readings the Enterprise gets from it are much higher than can be explained. Spock slips aboard with a Starbase maintainence crew to investigate. He doesn't report in at the scheduled time, then the freighter leaves port and heads away. Spock sends two cryptic messages before the freighter vanishes without a trace. Kirk and the Starbase commander much figure out what has happened to the Klingon ship, while Spock ends up in 1868 Earth without his memory due to the Klingon mind-sifter while the Klingons try to change history. Spock is found unconcious by a crusty mill owner in Seattle, and passed off as the man's nephew once his hair grows enough to hide those Vulcan ears. Mill owner Aaron Stemple introduces "Ishmael" to the people of Seattle, not realizing that aliens from another world seek to kill him!

Of all the TV shows to cross over together, it would be hard to select a more unlikely match than Star Trek and Here Come the Brides. The two series were rough contemporaries, Trek running 1967-69 and Brides from 1968-70. But the settings and the moods were very different. Here Come the Brides was based loosely on the stage musical and 1954 movie Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, which itself was loosely based on Steven Vincent Benet's story "The Sobbin' Women." The connection was that Aaron Stemple was played by actor Mark Lenard, who also played Spock's father Sarek in the episode "Journey to Babel." In fact, Hambly writes so that Stemple becomes an ancestor of Spock's mother Amanda, so that Spock's "father" becomes a forebear of his mother.

This may be the most offbeat of Star Trek novels. Most of the action is set in the 1868 world, following Spock interacting with characters from another show, trapped in a time where he fully expects to be stranded for the rest of his life. The story itself is pretty good, Hambly being a now well-established sf and fantasy author. She was first published in 1982, and has written her own fiction as well as in the Beauty and the Beast and Star Wars series, plus three Trek novels. She also wrote #53, Ghost-Walker, and #71, Crossroad. She writes historical fiction too, which no doubt helps with the Seattle scenes.

Many readers probably did not recognize the references to the Brides series, notable for starring teen idol Bobby Sherman as the youngest brother as well as David Soul as the middle brother. I did, as a local station had run the syndicated reruns a few years earlier. The book provides a nice tie-up to the Brides series, a plus for fans of closure like myself. It also puts a nice statement on time-travel storylines, as the Klingons end up causing the very problem they go to Earth's past to end. I think time travel, if it is ever achieved, will end up being like that. Hambly also puts a nice turn on the Klingon empire by introducing the Karsids, which had conquered the Klingon race some years before, then been defeated. It's a neat concept.

It's a pretty good book, if an odd duck for the series.

Shadow Lord by Laurence Yep (Star Trek #22, 1985)

A prince from a medieval-type society is returning to his home world after an education in Federation schools, and he will be accompanied by a party that will work on modernizing his home world's astronomical charts--a touchy subject since the society puts great stock in astrology. Spock and Sulu are chosen to accompany Prince Vikram to Angira, and wind up in the midst of a civil war with the Enterprise off on another mission and weeks away. Vikram, formerly ninth in line to the throne, is now the only surviving member of the royal family, and very much in danger. Now, the question becomes, can they live long enough for the cavalry to arrive?

Author Laurence Yep was already an established writer of young people's fiction by the time he wrote this novel. His first novel was published in 1973, and he won a Newbery Medal in 1975. He is often found in children's schoolbooks. Yep is a Chinese-American, although for quite some time his family lived in an African-American neighborhood. Yep writes a Star Trek novel here which is perhaps more aimed at a young audience, more in line with the animated shows than the live-action Trek. It is still an interesting story.

This book also starts a grouping of Trek novels essentially set in other genres. The TV show often dipped into other genres, and several novels about this time did the same. "Shadow Lord" is at its heart a samurai story, using the obvious character Sulu with Spock along for the ride. A Sulu-Chekov pairing might have been more apt, but this works. The novel has a framing sequence of prologue-epilogue, with the other main Enterprise characters, but the bulk of the novel is set on Angira with only Spock and Sulu among the familiar characters.

This was also the time when noted fantasy artist Boris Vallejo was doing the cover paintings for the books, which were usually spectacular. This outing, which is apparently unsigned but is copyrighted inside the book to Vallejo, is far below his usual standards. Perhaps an apprentice in his studio turned out this one. The Angirans, described in the book as roughly 7-foot tall lemurs, as depicted as tall humanoids on the cover. Also, Sulu's appearence is off, and he wears a blue uniform rather than gold. The creatures the three cover characters face are also not as described in the book, and that scene is fairly short. Disregarding the inconsistencies, the cover is well-rendered as usual. It just doesn't live up to Vallejo's usual attention to detail.

Yep has written a solid story here, not a great one but a readable version. He is one of the few Star Trek novel writers more famous for other works than his Star Trek work.

Uhura's Song by Janet Hagan (Star Trek #21, 1985)

The Enterprise is in orbit around the planet Eeiauo, where Dr. McCoy is on the surface battling a native plague. The disease is debilitating, leading to a slow degeneration of the body's organs until a vegetative state is reached. Then the disease begins infecting humans as well, quickly leading to death. Uhura has befriended on of the natives, and finds a clue in some of the traditional songs she has learned. The race of bipedal felines has migrated to Eeiauo from another planet, which may have a cure for the terrible disease. First, Spock and Uhura must decipher the clues to find the planet of origin, then a landing party including Kirk, Spock, Uhura and Chekov must make first contact with the natives and find the cure, if possible.

This is author Kagan's first and only Star Trek novel, she has also written other sf books such as "Hellspark" and "Mirabile." She has a personal web page at . She has also written a number of short stories published in Asimov's. This book was her first published story, something common and wonderful at the time in Star Trek fiction. It is also the fifth consecutive ST novel published with a woman author. The numbers of women among ST fandom are the greatest strength of Star Trek, and a big part of the reason for the long-lasting nature and great fervor of the group.

However, this book also suffers the failing of many new authors: a heavy-handed inclusion of a character based on the author into the book. In this case, with McCoy fighting the plague, the Enterprise picks up a temporary chief medical officer, one Dr. Evan Wilson. A short, feisty woman, the character is obviously the entry of the not-quite-five-feet-tall Kagan into the book. And while the regular Star Trek characters are true to themselves in general, although Kirk (as is often the case) is not captured well, the character of Dr. Wilson dominates the book to the detriment of the story and plot. Some editing here would have helped, as the book is overlong at 350 pages, and would have been much better by concentrating on the main story and cutting out the "Wilson" parts to get to about 250 pages. Especially since for a book titled "Uhura's Song," Uhura plays a fairly small part in it, nowhere near as large as in the recent "The Tears of the Singers."

The main story itself, of a split society and the conditions that made it came about, is quite compelling. The feline's prehensile and apparently very long tails bothered me a bit, but that's a minor quibble. The problem is the author's conceit of character. Wilson plays in the book like dumping a Sherlock Holmes into a story, or a superhero. The character becomes by nature the focus of the book, and makes it more difficult to tell a story unless you are telling the story of that character. And that got in the way of a very good story.

Even the twist at the end only serves to complete the dominance of the Wilson character in the story. This is the sort of thing best suited for fan fiction, or the vanity press, and not a widely published novel. Certainly writers inject themselves into their stories all the time, but this was going too far.

The Vulcan Academy Murders by Jean Lorrah (Star Trek #20, 1984)

The story opens with the Enterprise in pitched battle with a Klingon cruiser. Helm control has been lost, so Kirk is relaying orders down to auxiliary control. A final barrage overloads the Klingon deflectors, and the battle is won. Damage, however, will take weeks in drydock to repair. The timing is fortuitous, because Spock has just received word that his mother is seriously ill on Vulcan. He asks Kirk to join him on leave, and invites McCoy as well to bring a morbidly injured crewman to undergo the same life-saving experimental procedure being tested on Spock's mother.

Once on Vulcan, the patients are put into stasis at the Vulcan Science Academy hospital for nerve regeneration treatment. A successful trial has been completed on Dr. Daniel Corrigan, an Earthman and co-inventor of the treatment with his Vulcan partner, Sorel. Then, things start going wrong. The stasis chamber holding Sorel's wife, T'Zan, fails. Then the stasis chamber with the Enterprise crewman fails. Such happenings cannot be coincidence, and the unthinkable is happening--murder on Vulcan.

The story is a fascinating yarn of life on the planet Vulcan, focusing on Spock and his father Sarek, as well as Corrigan, Sorel, and Sorel's children Soton and T'Mir. Cultural mores and customs are shown, and the workings of a planet observed. Lorrah has thought long and hard about such things, as writer and editor for fanzines like "Epilog" and "Night of the Twin Moons." She also wrote for "Spockanalia," the very first ST fanzine. Lorrah is more than just a Star Trek junkie, she is an English professor and writer of other books. She wrote a sequel to this book titled "The IDIC Epidemic" (ST #38) and two Next Generation novels. Professor Lorrah is also a big Led Zeppelin fan, as can be seen at her home page .

The book is well-crafted, and the characters comfortable and familiar. The story is not forced, and the writing rings true, as one would hope from a well-practiced craftsman and student of the language. There is little "mystery" to the mystery, as the culprit is obvious from the beginning of the story, but the fun is in getting there. This is a Kirk-Spock-McCoy book, with little from the other regular characters, but a rich feel for life on Vulcan.

One warning; the cover painting normally used, with Spock holding a phaser on a hissing creature, has nothing to do with the story inside.

The Tears of the Singers by Melinda Snodgrass (Star Trek #19, 1984)

While at Star Base 24, the Enterprise receives word of an emergency; a "rip" in spacetime that has swallowed one ship, and threatens an entire solar system. The phenomenon defies analysis, and requires close investigation. Because there is a musical relationship between the oddity and the only known inhabitants of the solar system, a tempermental but talented musician is pressed into service to aid the investigation. Guy Maslin has also become a love interest for Lt. Uhura. The inhabitants of the planet are classed officially by the federation as animals, and subject to hunting (think clubbing baby seals). They are hunted because they excrete tears at the moment of death, which harden into a beautiful crystal form then sold as jewelry. Kirk must investigate and stop the "rip" as well as deal with the approach of the Klingons into the area, led by old foe Kor (from the Organians episode, "Errand of Mercy"). The tenuous health of musician Maslin, and the developing love between Maslin and Uhura, as well as the general belligerence of the Klingons all serve to complicate matters.

Snodgrass writes a fine "Uhura episode" here that would have played well as a TV show. This is her only novel to date, but Snodgrass wrote for the Next Generation series including credits for "The Measure of a Man," "Pen Pals," "Up the Long Ladder," "Ensigns of Command," and "The High Ground," some of TNG's finest episodes and best expansions of Data's character. Most of her TV work was in Season 2. She has also written for the SF novel series "Wild Cards," a shared universe series.

This work is a solid story, with one part of the ending telegraphed from the beginning and another part ending in a nice twist. I thought Kirk and Kor got along altogether too well, but with Kor pressed from both sides since "losing" to Kirk at Organia, it can be reasoned through. Separating Kirk and Spock at the critical moment of battle and making Kirk do it himself is a nice touch, and so is the eventual rescue. This novel is solid middle ground, not a must-read, but a good read.

My Enemy, My Ally by Diane Duane (Star Trek #18, 1984)

Diane Duane again raises the level of work on Star Trek fiction with a work examining Romulan culture. Duane has a deft touch with Star Trek and the characters which shows here, even though much of her work has been contradicted on-screen by The Next Generation series and the recent Star Trek: Nemesis movie. The "official" canon would have been well-served to take its note from Duane's book, considering the performance of the movie at the box office.

Duane tells a story on two levels: one level in the present, with a Romulan who finds a plot by the government to capture and harness the mental powers of Vulcans; and a second, lower level in the past, examining the split between the Vulcan and Romulan parts of the Vulcanoid species. Dr. McCoy gets a featured role here, fitting for a novel written by a onetime nurse.

Duane always gives the reader a deep personal stake in the story, largely because the characters are so vividly drawn, and somehow her plots always seem to involve the end of the world as we know it. There is a pressing immediacy about this and all her books. Yet the characters, especially the old Enterprise crew, know each other so well it seems they are real people jumping off the page rather than characters doing a dance the writer directs.

Duane also introduces one of her best characters here, a young Horta (rescued by Kirk and company in the episode "Devil in the Dark") new to Star Fleet. It can be hard to be a rock creature in a world of air breathers, but having a Horta around can have its advantages, especially when the Captain of the ship and Ensign Nahraht's mother are good friends. Other characters from Duane's earlier novel "The Wounded Sky" are also seen here.

One of Duane's great gifts is to be able to create excellent characters in a few brief descriptions. She does not shy from non-human characters, and in fact seems to revel in them, producing marvelous looks at the Federation. She also writes very interesting Romulans here, and greatly expands upon their culture.

Like all Duane's books, this is among the best of Star Trek novels.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock movie novelization (Star Trek #17, 1984)

Once again, Vonda McIntyre tackles the movie novelization. Unfortunately, this story emphasizes her weaknesses, and plays against her strengths. McIntyre is a character writer, and creator of intricate plots. This story is an action story, with humor interwoven with spiritual considerations, and an extended climax. McIntyre fumbles the story badly.

The first three chapters are spent wrapping up loose ends from the last movie and novelization. This is somewhat necessary, and some of the scenes involve things in this movie's script that were cut for time. However, it slows the pace of the story terribly. It isn't until Chapter 4, on page 77, that we get the plot moving. While the author is understandably interested in tying up loose ends from her characters aboard the Genesis station, it walks a line close to wallowing and sometimes falls into the trap.

McIntyre is also without Spock, one of her favorite characters to write, and concentrates much attention on Saavik. This is not such a problem, but an aversion to Kirk in a story built around the Admiral is a problem. Scotty fares badly again as well. Sulu is played up at the expense of Chekov. And McIntyre's habit of having Kirk stick his foot in his mouth runs very thin.

You can get the sense of the movie from here. But the book plods, while the film clips along quickly. This is really just a book for those who want a prose complement to the film. I can't recommed it on any other basis.

The Final Reflection by John M. Ford (Star Trek #16, 1984)

It's a departure, a "concept book" of sorts, that was a bit of a risk for Pocket to publish. This book does not focus on the Enterprise crew, but instead the protagonist is a Klingon, and the book set some 40 years before the time of the original series. Spock appears in a scene as a child, and Dr. McCoy is mentioned briefly as a baby (his grandfather, Dr. Tom McCoy, is a minor character in the novel) but other than that, the familiar crew is only in the five-page prologue at the beginning, and the two-page epilogue at the end. The rest is purportedly a fictional novel, telling about actual events, and the circumstances of the first Federation ambassador to the Klingon Empire.

The main character is one Vrenn, a Klingon without family, and thus with no place in society. He is a member of a team in the "games," an analog of chess played sometimes with live pieces. One day a Klingon admiral who plays this game adopts Vrenn, and brings him into his home, then arranges for him a naval training spot.

Vrenn, by now renamed Krenn, distinguishes himself and soon captains a ship of his own. In this capacity, he is sent on a secret mission to Earth, to pick up the first Federation ambassador to the Klingon Empire, one Dr. Tagore, termed a "Thought Master" in Klingonaase. Krenn and Tagore become friends, and when Tagore is recalled to Earth a few years later, Krenn again is called on to provide the transport.

The main draw of the novel is the look inside Klingon culture, including a look at the language, how they relate to others, and the views of the society. The book is very well-written, although it gets off to a somewhat slow start. Despite the focus on Klingons, this is not a big action story, although there is action in it. It is more of a slowly-developed character study, with a lot of attention paid to developing the main characters into fully realized beings. Ford accomplishes this quite well.

The author, John M. Ford, would also write another Trek book, How Much for Just the Planet?, #36 featuring the original crew. Ford was a veteran writer of short stories for s-f magazines such as Asimov's, and had three previous published novels. One, released the same year as this one, would win the World Fantasy Award for best novel of 1984: "The Dragon Waiting: A Masque of History." He continues to write today, with many more books and short stories. A list can be viewed at http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/authors/John_M_Ford.htm.

The book contains information about the Klingons that would later be contradicted in the movies and the Next Generation series, although they would have done well to use Ford's material. The character of Worf would have been much more fully fleshed out from the beginning of the series if Ford's material had been put into his background. As it was, it took time, good writing, and a strong performance by actor Michael Dorn to give Worf his final three-dimensional nature.

One confusing thing about the book is the cover painting. Apparently, artist Boris Vallejo has depicted the scene from the book where the young Spock plays chess with Captain Krenn. However, Spock in the painting looks too old for the "8 or 9" that Ford describes in the text. Also confusing is the spectral figure in the background. It has Vulcan/Romulan ears, but I can't think of who in the story the image would correspond to, though perhaps I am just being obtuse. It doesn't make sense to me.

Overall, it's a good book, and a nice read for a quiet time.

The Trellisane Confrontation by David Dvorkin (Star Trek #14, 1984)

The Enterprise is sent to a colony world to pick up a set of prisoners. While there Captain Kirk receives word of a distress communication from the world of Trellisane near the point where the Federation, the Romulan Empire, and the Klingon Empire all border. Concerned about the implications of the message, Kirk sets off for Trellisane before dropping off the prisoners at a starbase. Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down to the planet after the crew fends off an attack from the Sealons, natives of another planet in the same solar system. In short order, the Sealons renew their attack, which Sulu miscalculates and ends up taking damage from the lesser weapons, allowing the prisoners to escape and take the bridge. The fugitives head the ship out of the system and toward the Romulan Neutral Zone leaving the most senior officers stranded on the planet with the Sealons invading. It soon becomes obvious the Klingons have helped arm the Sealons and are providing military advisors. While Kirk, Spock and McCoy deal with the Klingons and the Sealons, Scotty must come up with a way to retake the Enterprise, and Nurse Chapel tries to aid a unique alien life-form mortally wounded on the ship.

This is the first of Dvorkin’s Star Trek novels and it reads pretty well. He has sufficient goings-on to keep things interesting, does a creditable job with the characters, and has a good handle on the regular characters. Sulu is probably more competent than is shown here, but his strategic error helps set the plot in motion, and can be excused. It’s all right for the crew to make mistakes once in a while. There are some coincidences here, but no more than enough to stretch things a bit, not completely out of shape.

Dvorkin sets up some interesting alien races, including the Trellisanians and the Sealons, as well as an Onctilliian, a race with four gender that join symbiotically. The impassive Trellisanians, reminiscent of Neville Chamberlain, contrast with the warlike Klingons and Sealons, an ocean-based race. The science fiction is well-handled here, with just a few rough spots but nothing glaring.

Dvorkin has also since written novel #40, Timetrap, as well as a Next Generation novel.

The Wounded Sky by Diane Duane (Star Trek #13, 1983)

The last ST novel of 1983 was a very lucky #13 indeed for Pocket Books. Certainly the best of the Pocket entries in the series thus far, challenged only by David Gerrold's "The Galactic Whirlpool" for finest Trek novel of all to this point. Diane Duane produced a very metaphysical novel here, tempting the curse of Marshak and Culbreath, but pulled it off with a care for the characters and an ear for dialogue rarely seen in the ST series, or in any other books.

Duane was already a writer at the time of this novel but mostly of TV cartoon scripts such as Scooby-Doo and Captain Caveman. Prior to turning to writing full-time, she had worked as a nurse, which would help immensely in writing Dr. McCoy. For those interested, she maintains a weblog at this website. Duane now lives with husband Peter Norwood in Ireland.

The plot: the Enterprise is on a routine patrol but Captain Kirk is on pins and needles waiting for Starfleet Command to pick the starship to test the new type of engine drive, which will carry the first mission completely out of the galaxy to the lower Magellenic Cloud. When the Enterprise gets the honor the crew meets K't'lk, the engineer who created it. The new system works based on a recently developed branch of physics, involving singularities and immediate transportation over great distances.

While the transfer itself is supposed to take zero time, the crew finds themselves having dreamlike experiences during the "jumps" but with a heightened sense of reality. Then they discover that the jumping is causing a rift with an adjacent universe and letting "non-entropy" leak in; a way must be found to stop it or the entire universe is in jeopardy.

While the metaphysical elements could threaten to take the book over the deep end, Duane's outstanding grasp of the characters lets her keep the book moving because it is the characterizations that drive the story. It's not perfect: Sulu gets far more freedom to plot a course in a battle situation than he would ever get with Kirk. But here it works, because it fits in with the book. Duane looks inside and lets each character, both the established ones from the series and the ones she has created, speak from the deepest part of their souls.

Duane also has a tremendous grasp of alien races, and of specific speech patterns for these different races. She introduces here Harb Tanzer, the middle-aged head of Recreation, who at once becomes a beloved character. There are many wonderful turns of phrase in these pages as Duane simply writes so well and so smoothly. The story flows so beautifully, even in transitions.  The book would not translate well to the screen, as it was made into the Next Generation episode "Where No One Has Gone Before," the sixth episode of that series.

Books like this one raised the profile of the ST series to eventually reach the best-seller lists. This one, and the future series on Romulans (Rihannsu) Duane would write, made her reputation as an SF writer.

Mutiny on the Enterprise by Robert E. Vardeman (Star Trek #12, 1983)

This is Vardeman’s second outing with a Star Trek novel and so far his last. Like his first effort it is hard to judge his handling of the series’ regular characters because the players involved are supposed to be out of character and under another’s mental influence. It works only slightly better here than it did in “The Klingon Gambit,” (Star Trek #3) Vardeman’s initial attempt.

The Enterprise, badly in need of repairs and engine overhaul, pulls into Starbase 1 (which I thought was Earth) but is immediately sent out again on a mission to take a team of ambassadors to a serious situation, a conflict between planets near the Romulan border. Kirk protests the ship is not up to the trip and the crew is badly in need of shore leave, but is overruled. The ambassadors are a brusque Tellarite (the pig-faced creatures seen in “Journey to Babel”), a capable but officious Earthman, and a plant-man, whose presence on the mission is never well explained except to present a different alien. Not long after departing, the sensors locate a derelict adrift in space with a single life reading aboard. The alien is transported aboard and identifies herself as Lorelei.

Soon, it becomes clear that Lorelei has remarkable persuasive powers. She begins convincing the crew that their mission is one of war, not peace, and that manning the phasers is immoral. To stem the tide, Captain Kirk arranges for Ambassador Zarv and Lorelai to each address the crew. This turns out to be a serious error as Zarv speaks well but Lorelai completely captivates the crew with the sound of her voice. Soon, the crew is in mutiny, refusing to man their posts even in the face of danger. Kirk and Spock must figure out how to combat Lorelai’s influence and win back the ship.

This time Vardeman introduces an alien with some sort of sonic powers, able to convince anyone of her position simply by speaking to them; only Spock proves resistant to her abilities. Her origin and the source of her abilities is left in question except that she is from the unknown planet Hyla, but the author clearly leaves room for a sequel yet to be published. Only Spock, and Kirk to an extent, are left in character, but while Spock is reasonably well done (he is generally the easiest character to capture in a few words), Kirk is not (Kirk is probably the most difficult character in Star Trek to write well). This novel is a slight improvement on Vardeman’s first but is still not a very good book. It reads like one of the mediocre TV episodes, and reveals little.

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.