wix@bergil.DEC (Jack Wickwire) (05/10/85)
This is being forwarded through me to NET.STARTREK. I only do some basic formatting and I am not responsible for its content. All responses sent to me will be forwarded to the author. Somebody was asking for recommendations of "Star Trek" novels. I'm a little wary of giving any; tastes differ so widely, and the novels reviled by some fans are revered by others. I'm also uncertain what exactly constitutes violating the purity of the "Star Trek" universe. End of disclaimer. David Gerrold's *The Galactic Whirlpool* is extremely intelligent, sensible "Star Trek". I didn't much care for it because it uses the basic "Star Trek" setup only as a framework for a story that could have happened in any number of universes, and the main ST characters are little in evidence. Kevin Riley does, however, have a major part. Vonda MacIntyre's *The Entropy Effect* and John M. Ford's *The Final Reflection* are actually real science fiction novels and can be happily read as such. Ford's has even less to do with the main ST characters than Gerrold's, but is an excellent story and of great historical interest. Diane Duane's *The Wounded Sky* and *My Enemy, My Ally*, though a little starry-eyed, also have "Star Trek" down perfectly, and contain, besides much careful thought and suspense, some very funny moments. A.C. Crispin's *Yesterday's Son* is a sequel to the episode "All Our Yesterdays" and is solid, second-rate "Star Trek". Not inspired, but not likely to make you tear your hair, either. Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath's four novels, *The Price of the Phoenix*, *The Fate of the Phoenix*, *Triangle*, and *The Prometheus Design*, should be approached cautiously, if at all, by people worried about the purity of the "Star Trek" universe. They love "Star Trek" passionately, bring in characters and lines and concepts from the episodes and the first movie, and write a pretty good story. But their characterization of the main people, though derivable from the episodes and perfectly consistent, is on the edge of what many people will accept; and their extrapolations from "Star Trek" technology are likely to land them in the predicament Larry Niven found himself in with the "Known Space" series: anything is possible, so nothing is interesting. Hope this helps. I understand that the latest ST novel, *Ishmael* by Barbara Hambly (who is a very fine fantasy writer) is excellent, but I haven't read it yet. PDDB --------
rafe@reed.UUCP (Rafe Needleman) (05/15/85)
For those of you who are hungry for new Star Trek episodes but think some (most) of the new novels are pretty lame, let me suggest THE FINAL REFLECTION. (I forget the author... sorry) This is a story that takes place before the Kirk era. The main characters are Klingon. It's a fascinating look at the Klingon culture, and is most believable. It's good despite its almost complete lack of reference to Kirk et al. Just goes to show that the Star Trek universe can be interesting without relying on the characters in the TV series. -Rafe (...!tektronix!reed!rafe)