Yet another novel rehashing already written plotlines! This is a total copy of “Journey to Babel”, but with a bit different species to play with; Sarek, as an ambassador, had to be on board, too; Murder is plentiful too, and to add insult to injury, the author inserts herself (a wish-fulfilling stand-in for the character, called a “Mary Sue”) as a powerful, secret agent that romances Kirk!

Basically this is an “authorized Fan Fiction” where the author wrecks havoc with the characterizations and puts herself in a pulpy mystery & romance novel. The text is slow, hard to read through, and the ambassador characters are a big distraction.

The plot is hard to follow, as the story goes all over the place, and the “mystery” part of it is not satisfying at all. I had a hard time reading through it, the secret agent character is highly annoying, it just bored me through it. It got to the moment I just sped-read through it just to finish it off. This one is not worth your time or your effort. Not the worst I’ve seen, but a bit worse than mediocre.

June 19th, 2013
Categories: Novels . Author: sergio . Comments: No Comments

Another early novel with a whole another bunch of recycled tropes:

- An enemy (this time a Klingon) with Ship with a revenge feud

- A computer controlled society (again??), which is dying or dwindling

- A mind-altering virus, this one causes ‘non-violence’

- Small society, just one city ruled by one person (And names the whole planet by his name)

- “Immortality” through a computer

Dilithium problem, engine problems, and any other malfunctions are so part of the Star Trek episodes there are very few that don’t feature them. It’s part of the whole “even though we have advanced technology, we can’t always depend on it” dogma. Also, they were (and still does) always a part of the plot-advancing themes. Most problems would be resolved instantly if there were no technology or medical problems, or all the stories would mostly devolve to fire-fights and fisticuffs, which even so are also par for Star Trek.

Another rehash makes for another forgettable novel. Even with plenty of extraneous dialog, the action is straight-forward, but it still feels slow in the action. It does feel a lot like an episode, as many of this early novels were heavily modelled after the TV show. Again, more common tropes: enter a city, talk with the ‘council’, that takes them to the leader, which is really a central computer. While they scope the situation, people get infected, some more action happens, then the problems are quickly resolved at the last part. This formula has been written worse on some of the upcoming books, but it’s still very tedious in this one.

Reading again another story with exactly the same tropes is getting old. Especially the ‘unknown’ virus affecting everyone until the last minute a ‘cure’ is found by the medical crew is getting to be very annoying, but it will still be a common theme in TNG and other series, and I’m guessing in still more books. Again, this being part of the way to cause drama and tension, and most commonly, an easy way to explain the “we don’t have that much time” cries.

A mediocre book, which would have made a copy-cat episode… another disposable read.

June 18th, 2013
Categories: Novels . Author: sergio . Comments: No Comments

Of course, they now had to get a novelization of the first Star Trek movie. Even though novelizations are usually tedious, so far  novelizations had been a hit. So now, with new material, Roddenberry himself had to get “a piece of the action”.

Right away, we start with a few new weird elements, no doubt is just Roddenberry’s imagination flying loose for a bit: Admirals are fitted with a senceiver mind implant, and a sub note to the “Mind Control Revolts of 2043-47″, both of which we won’t see ever again anywhere else, except for a brief reference in Strangers from the Sky. Weirdly enough too, this novel is actually much better written than anything before. Might be that Roddenberry had more writing chops, or maybe the added collaboration of Alan Dean Foster and Harold Livingston, but it does make it fairly more entertaining, even more than rewatching the actual movie! Some details stray a bit from the movie (like the senceiver chip), and adds a bit more meat to the narrative.

It begins with a framing preface, where Kirk himself presents the book. Then the “author” himself adds a preface, writing as if it had really happened.

I do remember enjoying this novel. Even if it mirrors the movie, it is not limited by it, but expands a bit the narrative, and also a bit of the mythos, where Roddenberry gives himself license to add whatever amuses him. It’s a quick read, because you should of course remember the movie plot, and that helps you avoid getting lost. It’s nice for a quick read and I did find it quite enjoyable, something I was not expecting!

June 17th, 2013
Categories: Novels . Author: sergio . Comments: No Comments

Although you would expect a battle with extremely evil, cunning and devilish beings, the novel takes a turn and delivers something else.

At least it’s a straightforward adventure again, with very few ‘angst’ and filler text. It tries to copy the episode style, with a ‘teaser’, a fun Enterprise activity to start, and then delve into the problem of the week.

It’s a forgettable novel, I’m so behind the reviews that I’m actually forgetting what the novels were about! The better and fun ones do get stuck in my memory, but this one is not one of those, I had to go back and browse it again.

We begin with a colony world with extreme ‘medical’ problems, cut to a magic show on a Starbase, where the plot is being set, to then visit the target planet, resolve the problems, end of plot. Pretty standard.

Here, we see a bunch of common Star Trek tropes, like: Whole planet populations consist of just one village, and this one, to just a hundred beings; a known relative is missing and is searched for, being ‘lost’ by looking for something strange; a non-thriving colony, lost, dead or missing for a strange cause; a colonist being alone not only for years, but decades; a big controlling computer; an “explanation” for Earth’s myths, etc, etc. It runs through so much of these that it feels like a mash of known episodes. The author is not a big fan of the show, though; small details are wrong, like Spock being a “big fan of poker”, where clearly it was a game Vulcans did not know. The ending is very brusque and not satisfying, seems the author just about wanted to end the story and be done with it.

The characterizations are spot on, and the character development is nice, if entertaining, but the author takes a lot of common themes and ideas to just rehash a story for the novel. It’s also slow with a bit of extra dialog for filler, but nothing extreme. It seems a suspiciously “young adult” novel, but it’s not tagged at such. It’s good for a fun read, but nothing new or breaking ground here.

June 17th, 2013
Categories: Novels . Author: sergio . Comments: No Comments

This blog has been a serious challenge to me. It’s much easier to read than to write, and getting down a decent opinion is also a bit difficult.

Also, not all the material is that engrossing: let’s face it, most of the stuff is mill-pulp written, just to get stuff out with the Star Trek stamp on it. Especially the earliest material, and even more so, the first novelizations.

They’re not badly written, after Blish got the hang of it, it was fairly easy to him to just plow through all the scripts and write them down almost as he got them. There are sometimes a few interesting differences from the script to the final episode, but not enough to warrant reading through. I have tried to slave over them, and even though they are practically the definitive “episode scripts”, it’s too much effort and not sufficiently engaging than just rather turn on the tv and put the episode.

So I’m just going to bunch the whole rest of  them in this review.

As before, this are almost a straight forward novelization of the scripts sent to Blish. He does not “frame them” or add a bit of material like Alan Dean Foster does in the TAS novelizations. If you are a fan of the show, the whole suspense/thrill is broken as you know exactly what is going to happen in exactly what matter. It’s like reading a script play you already know quite well, it’s not very engaging.

These novels WERE in their time very successfull, even more than Blish’s original books, but that was because at the time many people had not seen the series, or was not broadcast where they were; also, there WAS a lot of thirst for ANY Star Trek material at the time. Upon the realization of the popularity of the series in syndication, and the success of these books that the novels were rushed to publication.

I’m not going to bother with any more detail of these books, especially on the immense amount of material I still have left to read and review. I would NOT recommend them for any fan, unless you are really interested in a specific episode and you’re left out of any other material.

June 14th, 2013
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: sergio . Comments: 1 Comment

Oh no, please. Another monumental fan-fiction release by the hellish fan authors Sondra & Myrna. Extremely awful, I absolutely hated it all the way. Made me think twice about doing this whole Star Trek reading project, but I’m sure that the rest of the the authors are nowhere so absolutely hateful.

The books carry on and on in endless dialogs, internal angst and anguish in very long long diatribes and philosophical musings. Action is very very thin and the plot is difficult to follow. Their fan adoration is served thickly all throughout, and it would not be so horrible if they would not try to pair up Kirk with Spock in horryfing thinly veiled “slash”, not to mention the extreme violence and fetishism. The characters are NOWHERE near what they would normally say or do, and seem like twisted sock puppets being forced to perform.

This book was only printed because they had already previously published, and sold to unsuspecting fans, their badly written trash passing it on as a Star Trek stories. I’m sure it would not pass muster on any current publishing house.

This was the absolute worst of the whole Star Trek collection. The authors did keep on writing tons and tons of fan-fiction, but fortunately those have not been officially published. Stay away from these authors!!

April 4th, 2013
Categories: Novels . Author: sergio . Comments: No Comments

This is a nice adventure story, gets right to it and has some good science and science fiction elements in it. It does not delve too much in the characters by themselves but does the author does play a bit with them, making a good characterization without going overboard.

Unfortunately, the story is unremarkable: a “world” spaceship where the inhabitants are not aware they are in a ship. This was masterfully done by Heinlein way way back, and has recurred numerous times in the Star Trek universe. Also, the different ways the author presents the text is nice and refreshing, but does not do much with it besides delve in technical details or just advance the “adventure”.

I don’t remember much of the story, it has been a while since I read it, and I’m sure because there’s nothing really special or interesting in the text. It is nice for a nice fast read, but the author is seen that even though he does a good effort on doing a good SF story, fails to tread into new ground or even something a bit more interesting. I would do a re-read, but it’s really not worth it.

April 4th, 2013
Categories: Novels . Author: sergio . Comments: No Comments

This book uses one of what would be a most overused trope in the series: transfer medicines to a sick colony. OK, I agree that writers need some type of reasons of urgency, especially one where every minute counts for numerous lives, but nobody seems to have kept check of how many times it has being used.

Another overused trope is the overwhelmingly powerful alien species. Science fiction can account for aliens having millenia of experience and technology, but extremely magical to the point of being super gods? The Organians is one of these which permeate the books, if only for their imposition of the Organian treaty. On this one the author even sets it up as a ‘mad’ and exiled Organian, as a way to force upon a moral issue. Again, this whole setup of a powerful being, gathering subjects for a test, experiment or fight, has also been used extensively already.

Pretty silly on it’s whole. The writing is direct, straight-forward focused on the action, which makes it much easier to read.

March 29th, 2013
Categories: Novels . Author: sergio . Comments: No Comments

It seems this book should be read as a straight-forward adventure novel in the classical Star Trek style. Captain and crew encounter a strange planet, beam down and have your typical fights and encounters, complete with princess and gods. The eventually resolve the problem at the planet and then return back ship home. A light humorous style is used through-out, but as the plot doesn’t seem to have a central point and just rambles on, it becomes tedious after a while.

The only new point is that the planet is in a Dyson Sphere… but that only makes it VERY similar to an original episode.

Characterizations are ok, the plot and style are ok, but nothing really new or different is presented, a pretty mediocre effort, par for the course of these first novels.

March 28th, 2013
Categories: Novels . Author: sergio . Comments: No Comments

Ok, another collection from the hellish fans Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath. Taking in fact that they have been accused of hogging the initial fan-fiction publications for only them and their top vip convention friends, it’s clearer why this low-quality stories ever got published. There was an initial response to the unheard-of fanatical conventions, so getting ANY fiction at all published was a high priority.

This book is interesting because of the prologue, which documents the convention feeling of that time, and also because one story is preceded by a writing of a cast member.

Nichelle Nichols writes a preface on the awful “Suprise Story”, where they prepare a suprise birthday party to the captain. A typical fan-fiction piece, where they almost imagine themselves there in a silly situation. I absolutely hated it, especially the “getting out of the shower” bit.

Then there’s “Snake Pit”, an awful story, but this time where women are protagonist. I don’t mind women in the center stage, but not when that’s the only purpose of the whole piece.

As fan-fiction can be written in any way, the author of “The Patient Parasites” takes the liberty in writing it as a play. The story is a bit more typical “Star Trek”, but it’s very tedious even though the story is border-line interesting. One of the good ones of the bunch, but the play format does not help.

“In the Maze”, by another women author. Absolute tripe and boring.

And to keep it varied, they inserted a POEM, and written from Spock’s perspective. Also by a woman author. I’m not a poet expert, but I find it pointless, unless you adore and fantasize with Spock.

Then, ANOTHER story by Connie Faddis: “Marginal Existence”, a semi-interesting short story full with robots and computers… and of course natives. Very similar to some original episodes, from where the author did not diverge much.

“The Procrustean Petard”: Another fan-fiction fantasy: What if Kirk changed gender? Gruesome, and let’s leave it at that.

And “The Sleeping God”, by a NASA scientist. Not a bad piece, of novelette length, it were not another derivative of a common Star Trek theme: Fight against a sentient computer.

Taking in accounts that these WERE early stories, taken directly from fan-fiction scenes and barely cleaned up for publication, it’s a wonder that some are not at all that bad. Even so, the amateurish of the works pass through, and will dominate the Novels for quite some time.

March 28th, 2013
Categories: Novels . Author: sergio . Comments: No Comments