The IBIC Guide to Books About Star Trek (tm)

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Remarks from the IBIC Editor's Journal

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

11/12/95--I AM SPOCK by Leonard Nimoy (Hyperion). Okay, we believe you.

This memoir is recommended reading for anyone who's followed the adventures of the most famous alien in television history. But the failing of the book is that Nimoy as author is a lot like Nimoy the actor--cool and careful. William Shatner's STAR TREK MOVIE MEMORIES was a better book because the author, like the actor, chewed a lot of scenery in a very talented and emotionally engaging way.

February 11, 1995

What I found most interesting about STAR TREK MOVIE MEMORIES by William Shatner with Chris Kreski (HarperCollins) was that my profoundest impression on finishing the book was awe at the omnipresence of politics in the human workplace.

Think about it: this book covers the period from Shatner's last days on the original show to the making of the last Shatner movie, Star Trek: Generations. Star Trek movies were only being shot during a few hundred days out of that twenty-five year span. During all the rest of that time, people were busy negotiating the bureaucratic politics of trying to get Trek movies made. It's a sobering story. I came away from it feeling a renewed appreciation for those who are able to negotiate the politics of the professional workplace in a manner that preserves efficacy, decency, and self-respect. It ain't easy!

Shatner's account is highly detailed, subjective, entertaining, and very professionally written (far better written, by the way, than any of the recent books about Roddenberry.) It's something like what David Halberstam might have written if he had gotten interested in Star Trek (instead of prehistoric baseball as in his recent book about the Dodgers...) The combination makes this the single best book I've ever read about Star Trek.

February 11, 1995

When I see the word "Unauthorized" in the title of a book, such as TREK: THE UNAUTHORIZED A-Z: YOUR COMPLETE WARP-SPEED GUIDE TO EVERY VOYAGE by Hal Schuster and Wendy Rathbone (HarperPrism), I expect more than mere literalism. I expect some juicy tidbits, some topspin, some nonstandard points of view. Unfortunately, this volume offers none of that. Its only apparent claim to the word "unauthorized" is a legal one, as in this book is not part of the Paramount trademark empire. The encylopedia entries are concise and straightforward--period. More opinion (flagged as such, of course), would have made this a much better book. Still, it's a handy reference; I think the person who would find this most useful is someone who is trying to follow arcane discussions in rec.arts.startrek.current and the rest of the .startrek.* hierarchy. December 25, 1994

I've often thought that the character of Captain Kirk is the acid test for Star Trek writers. I identify with the fella for some reason (why in the world I would do that is a good question, but for another day), and I've never accepted the view that a flip airhead could captain a starship and command the loyalty of someone like Spock. So IMHO any Star Trek(tm) novel such as FEDERATION by Judith & Garfield Reeves-Stevens (Pocket Books) that covers Trek prehistory through the character of Zefrem Cochrane, Trek history through Kirk, and Trek "current affairs" through Picard, absolutely has to have a good handle on all three characters. This book delivers the goods. Zefrem Cochrane is developed into an interesting, vivid character--brilliant scientist and Federation visionary all-in-one. And Kirk and Picard are brought into indirect contact via a very clever series of plot contrivances. The resolution of the novel, especially with regard to the relationship between Kirk and Picard, is quite moving. Strongly recommended for Trek fans.

June 17, 1994

Once, back in the misty deeps of time, I had read every Star Trek novelization ever written. My memory of this genre begins with James Blish's faithful treatments of the original episode scripts. Then I linger over Alan Dean Foster's brilliant interpretation of Captain Kirk in the STAR TREK LOGS (now available as "triple-decker" paperbacks containing original volumes 1-3, 4-6, 7-9) based on the animated series. I think Foster's intellectual, dreaming Kirk is the most realistic Kirk ever. It's the only presentation in the Trek universe of a Kirk who actually seems smart enough to beat the Kobayashi Maru, trick artificially intelligent computers into blowing themselves up, negotiate interstellar treaties, and beat Spock at chess.

My memory pauses, titillated, at the memory of Marshak & Culbreath's kinky Phoenix novels--very imaginative, with a great villain in Omne, but totally canon-busting--and then rolls on to the great flow of novelizations which began several years ago and shows no sign of stopping, with Pocket currently well into the torrid triple digits in total number of approved, canon-compatible novelizations on the shelves. At some point back in the double digits, I stopped trying to read every new Star Trek novel thatcomes out. Now I limit myself to movie novelizations (can't wait for J.M. Dillard's STVII, due out in December); hardcovers; "giant" double-sized books; and novels by excellent writers with track records elsewhere in the genre, like Barbara Hambly, whose "Crossroad" is due out in September.

Peter David's Q-SQUARED (Pocket), a Next Generation novel, fits my criteria well, since it is a giant hardcover by an competent writer that reads as if it were a movie script. It has a cunning, intricate "alternate-timeline" story, involving Q and Trelane, the Squire of Gothos, from the original show.

There are a few glancing references to Kirk and the original Enterprise--maybe 10 pp. total out of 450. I'd have liked to have more such history, especially in a story, like this one, where what happened in the Kirk era should be integral to the plot. There appears to be a Paramount/Pocket canonical rule that TNG references to the original show must be minimal. I suppose the purpose is to protect the continuity and to keep the various properties self-contained and self-sufficient; but I've always thought it an unnecessarily timid rule.

With that caveat, I will say this is an excellent Star Trek novel, well worth reading for anyone who likes the better examples of this genre.


Comments from IBIC Readers

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Editor's Recommendations, Summer 1996

In this inaugural edition of IBIC's Featured Books, I'd like to draw your attention to several titles which have helped to shape my life and thinking.

  • When I was around fifteen, I came across Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's science fiction novel, INFERNO. This '70s remake of Dante's classic describes science fiction writer Allen Carpentier's descent into Hell. It's still a very fresh, accessible take on the classic. What a great movie it would make!
  • The Niven/Pournelle INFERNO immediately inspired me to read the original Divine Comedy. I've read a number of translations over the years, but my favorite is the one by Dorothy Sayers (INFERNO; PURGATORY; PARADISE). The notes are excellent, and Sayers had such a knowledgeable and witty mind that reading her prose is a pleasure in itself. (For those interested in a more contemporary translation, I should mention that Robert Pinsky received excellent notices for his 1995 THE INFERNO OF DANTE : A NEW VERSE TRANSLATION; it's a very handsome book.)
  • I also want to tell you about the late Henry Fairlie's THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS TODAY, which probably did more than any other single book to galvanize me into a lifetime interest in Christianity that led me, eventually, to faith. Ironic, because Fairlie was a self-proclaimed agnostic socialist! But reading between the lines of this insightful and deeply feeling book, one realizes that the love of God cannot have been far from Fairlie's heart.
  • Finally, I should draw to your attention a more recent acquisition, the very handsome NIV STUDY BIBLE (10TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION) from Zondervan, indexed and bonded in leather in IBIC's theme color, burgundy (black and brown are also available). The notes to this Bible are amazing. They appear to provide you with a very substantial portion of what you need to know to have an intelligent layman's appreciation of the linguistic and historical issues involved in understanding Scripture.

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