avronreadstrek

[avronreadstrek]

207 pages (four days to read) First published 1982-05 Sixth numbered TOS Pocket Books

Stardate 5064.4

The Enterprise is performing scientific observations of gravitational anomalies and gets sent vast distance in an instant. Ending up between spiral arms of the galaxy, near a single isolated star and it's singular planet. The people on the planet have knowledge lacks due to the lack of "normal" night sky. And some technological advances regards transporters.

M'Benga is mentioned again, but not seen. Rand gets time on the planet as part of an away team, and then relegated to stenographer.

"Leaders don't rise to the top without a considerable amount of intelligence and wisdom, regardless of their culture in which they live." pg 183 - Good to know that even the early novels were still promoting the optimism and hope of Star Trek.

Resolution of the big pending hazard, is by Kirk making a decision that I don't believe the character would have made, not even the Kelvin verse version. Possible negative result was too extreme.

Last third of the book seems little more than the postmortem from the big decision and attempting to undo cultural change (and prevent damage) brought forward by their appearance.

One of the StoryGraph reviews I looked at near the end of me reading this indicates that this book incidentally sets up one of the other books that got printed. I don't recall enough to remember which.

[avronreadstrek]

190 pages (six days to read) First published: 1982-03 Fifth numbered TOS Pocket Books (two authors Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath)

Stardate ?? - I think I read one at some point but wasn't making any notes. Definitely set after the first movie as repeatedly refers to those events. The authors (or editors?) also specifically left footnotes to episodes of the show, and other novels that had been written. Novels from before Pocket Books was publishing them, that had been written by these authors. (Which I don't think I've ever seen.)

Title refers to the Greek Titan that gave fire to humanity and was endlessly tortured by having his liver eaten by an eagle.

Prologue starts referencing four individuals that readers should realise are Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and a fourth that may initially be guessed at as Sarek. Early revealed to be a new character. Most of the story is very focused on the four of them, other regulars get little to do.

Insight into Vulcan culture and martial arts, as surmised by the authors. A role reversal with Spock being given command and Kirk relegated to First Officer. Three apparent attempts on the lives of the two Vulcans, all with short windows of opportunity to save those lives.

I didn't feel there was mischaracterization this time around. A little odd considering there would have been justification of it.

[avronreadstrek]

* 191 pages (five days to read) * First published 1981-12 * Fourth numbered TOS Pocket Books

Stardate 7815.3 - While the cover image (and a couple of story elements) makes it seem to have been set after the first movie the author had started writing it before that movie was released.

The author was mid-late twenties when he got this published, mere years after having a story he wrote get made into an episode of the Animated Series. Unlike the other two 'new' novels this had an intro, that seems unneeded. Although it did provide a bit of context for the time. The Author's notes also make it obvious that there was a longer turn around for publishing when the Pocket Books Trek Novels were getting started - nearly a year from note to publish. (I think it probably dropped to less than six months before the turn of the century.)

The story is heavily focused on Spock, Bones, and the 'character of the week' as they attempt to reclaim an artifact. Kirk is less present, dealing with a limited threat from Klingons. Chekov gets bookend scenes dealing with weight gain* that seems merely story padding (and would have been to meet contract requirements for minimum screen time if this was an episode). Scotty and Sulu barely get a mention, and while Uhura is slightly more present there's a description of clothing that sexualises her in a very unneeded manner. (At the same age I might well have written similar were I to write, even with 30 more years of social progress.)

Kirk had spent a portion of his early career on a lightly populated planet with strategic resources for starship operation and befriended the King. Klingon interference in the politics of the planet led to the King, Queen, and Princess being taken to another planet for their safety. And them being stuck there for 18 years until it seems possible to bring them back safely. Having the Princess take on the role of ruler requires the artifact of their Gods benevolence be returned so there's an expedition on another planet to reclaim it. Hence the focus on Spock, Bones, and the Princess.

Unlike the earlier couple of books I've reread for this, I didn't feel like most of the characters were written poorly. Spock was logical, and frustrated with the emotional behavior of Bones. Bones was inclined to prod Spock on occasion and reacted based on feelings a lot. On the other hand he was displeased with aging, and was tempted to start a relationship with the much younger Princess.

*Weight gain that only existed as a result of a mis-calibrated scale in the medbay area. Discovered after he spent much of the book, in those short moments he was seen, exercising too much and eating too little.

[avronreadstrek]

* 158 pages (five days to read) * First published 1981-10 * Third numbered TOS Pocket Books

Stardate 4720.1 (during five year mission, implied third season)

After what I felt was mis-characterisation of main characters in the prior book, this one starts very early with similar, but it's intentional and called out as a plot point in the blurb. And continuing the trend there's another emergency message system to get the ship to where it needs to be. Along with insufficient starships in the vicinity.

Mention was made of Dr. M'Benga on at least a couple of occasions, as though he was still on the ship. But I think he was not an actual "seen" character.

A much shorter book than most of the novels were, I have no idea as to the reason, but it's obviously slimmer on the shelf. I "should" have finished reading in no more than three days but I struggled some. It may be due to the out of character behaviour, more likely just my mental state.

While conducting a planetary mapping mission the Enterprise is called away to deal with potential Klingon attacks on a survey team after a Vulcan ships crew all died. After arriving the crew start to behave oddly (as hinted at in the blurb) and Kirk has to ensure they aren't drawn into a shooting match.

There's some hints as to what's happening and why, so I wasn't annoyed by character behaviour seeming wrong. Because of how short the book is there wasn't as much build up of weirdness as might have happened with a more "normal" length of book. That might have made things feel better.

Upon thinking more about it, had this been an actual episode it could have resulted in levels of character development. As long as it wasn't particularly early in the run. (Sort of like how The Naked Now would have worked better later in the TNG first season.)

[avronreadstrek]

224 pages (four days to read) first published 1981-06 Second TOS Pocket Books release

More than 15 years before it was used in the sixth movie (The Undiscovered Country) this book gave Mister Sulu a first name (for the first time in any? media), Hikaru. A few variations on the cover image from the initial printing regards background colour (orange, blue, white) but all have the same trio of characters; Kirk, Spock, and a long-haired, mustachioed, Sulu that I need to remind myself is Sulu and not just a random character. One of the non-English covers (Der-Entropie Effekt) has Ilia from the first movie as the third character.

The Enterprise is called away from studying an abnormal Black Hole on ultra secret business (through different means than the movie novelisation uses) and finds that it may have been improper use of the call.

Love interest for Sulu being part of why the author gave him the name Hikaru. (Awkward to write that sort of thing with "Mr Sulu I love you" type phrasing.) The Kirk relationship mentioned was a former thing involved a poly relationship. (Surprising considering the network conservatives.)

The mission seems to be little more than prisoner transfer to begin. Then people end up dead and the reset button is hinted at very early. Some of the new characters are less "human" than normal for the show but could have been make up and prosthetics, one would have been quite difficult 50 years ago.

On the whole there is even more of a reset than is normal for the books, which can't really change 'canon' at all, and which tend to be careful about backstory etc. Interesting idea behind it I suppose but it makes the story seem irrelevant as most characters remember nothing of what happened.

Characterisation of at least a couple of the characters seemed off. Maybe the author intended the anomaly to have impacted people more than I felt was shown? But it didn't detract all that much. And the love story seemed almost completely irrelevant.

[avronreadstrek]

Why this exists

I'm intending to read through all the Star Trek novels I own (400 or so), in the order they were initially published. (Maybe even find library copies of those I don't own.) There won't be many beyond the turn of the century unless I get more invested than I'm expecting.

First part of each post, after the link to LibraryThing.com, will be three lines * Page count (and how long I took to read it) * First published (as best I know), most have a month as well as year indicated. I might check memoryalpha on occasion. * Where it comes in the ordering.

Some commentary should follow before the "Read More" - after which I'll provide some potentially spoiler filled story recap. There won't be a lot of either.

I don't intend to "rate" any of what I read. I have never felt inclined to rate books (or movies, etc.) Everything should be tagged "Star Trek novel" unless it's some sort of meta post (like this is). I'll also tag with the series and number, e.g. "ST: TOS 01", "ST: Voy Unnumbered", "ST: CT 1", etc.

[avronreadstrek]

252 pages (three days to read) first published 1979-12 Novelisation of the first movie (screenplay by Harold Livingstone), with the initial story by Alan Dead Foster. (I should rewatch the movie for a better comparison.)

One of the few Trek novels published before I was born, and (I think() the first by the Pocket Books imprint that had USA license for around 25 years 30 years until corporate restructure (still part of Simon & Schuster). The UK license for some of that span was Titan, which was the publisher of the copy I read.

Seems to follow the movie well enough, with the expected divergences due to wanting internal character monologues etc. And because of the author, a more sexualised narrative than the network/studio would allow on screen. Nothing explicit but it's a bit jarring to see mention of such compared to the implied issues in the movie. Also addresses the widely discussed Kirk/Spock relationship at the start in a way that seems character consistent to me, going by the perception of Kirk that's propagated for decades. Unneeded but fitting for Roddenberry and his hetero view of things.

Kirk was promoted after the five year mission and gets sent a message direct to an implanted chip in his head about a dangerous 'thing' in space, which is headed to Earth after easily destroying three Klingon ships. He gets command of the Enterprise, which is nearing the end of a refit so not in battle ready status. Most of the series crew are onboard, Spock went back to Vulcan in the interim.

Trip to the object with technical issues due to unfinished refit. Spock shows up and doesn't want to be a part of the group. Attempts at communication with the object in space. More background on how it came to be, compared to what the movie was able to show.

End of the book seems a little rushed compared to the movie? Two thirds of the book seems to correspond to half way through the movie? My expectation is that the publishing turn around required the author deciding earlier on things that weren't finalised on film the same way. (I've read indications that some of the Trek movies were still being finalised days before release.)

EDIT: I have watched the movie again, the differences can mostly be explained as being adaptation issues. Internal monologues don't work on screen; description of visual things is not required when just showing them on screen. I still think the proportions are different between formats, but not to the extent I initially thought. Some of which will be the extra time at the start with setting up the story in the book.