Hello again, Readers:
This time
around
I had planned to review the latest trilogy from William Shatner and the
Reeves-Stevens, but I got a new Trek book in the mail last
week and thought it would be nice to review something new instead of something
that's been out a while. If I don't get any thing new this month then I'll
do the review I originally planned on. Without further delay, here it is:
STAR TREK:
VOYAGES OF IMAGINATION
by: Jeff Ayers
Here
is another tome for the 40th Anniversary of Star Trek.
You
know, if you're like me, it's hard to believe that Trek's been around for that
long. I can still remember watching the original show. I also
remember that I didn't particularly like it. I'm more of a Next
Generation fan myself. But hey, Star Trek is Star Trek!
Right?
In
my first sentence I stated that this was a tome! Well, at almost 800
pages, that's exactly what it is.
It's
also a review of EVERY Star Trek book ever printed! From TOS
to Enterprise, every book is reviewed here. And I'm not talking
about just those published by Pocket Books, either. The books
published by Ballantine and Bantam Books are also included
and I'm glad to see that none were
neglected by Pocket
Books. It's not often that a publisher will acknowledge the works
done by other publishers, but this is one of those exceptions. I, for
one, am thoroughly
glad to see it.
This
way you not only get insight to the Pocket Books line, but to those
that
preceded
them. I feel like the earlier versions are perhaps some of the best
writing of the Trek genre. Those early writers, such as
Alan Dean Foster,
D.C. Fontana, James Blish, to only name a few, did a great
job of not only expanding on Gene Roddenberry's universe, but they
set up the rest of that universe for later writers to follow.
The
book starts off with a short forward, or rather Acknowledgements,
followed by the Table of
Contents and from there, gets into the Bantam Books, Ballantine
Books and then breaks down the rest of the Trek books in this
order:
Star Trek Numbered
Novels
Star Trek Unnumbered
Novels
Star Trek: The Next
Generation Numbered Novels
Star Trek: The Next
Generation Unnumbered Novels
Star Trek: Deep
Space Nine Numbered Novels
Star Trek: Deep
Space Nine Unnumbered Novels
Star Trek: Voyager
Numbered Novels
Star Trek: Voyager
Unnumbered Novels
Star Trek:
Enterprise Novels
Novelizations
Original Fiction
Concepts
Miniseries
Anthologies
Other Star Trek
Fiction
Young Adult Fiction
The Star Trek
Fiction Timeline
and lastly,
Index
To
me, having read over 90% of the Star Trek books, I particularly
find the Star Trek Fiction Timeline to be very important. It
clearly lays out in what part of the Trek Universe that the work
takes place, as when it happened.
Each
section of the Novels is accompanied with pictures of the original
covers for each book and
that's also a great plus. Brings back a lot of
memories, even if I
can't remember reading them all!
There
are also comments from various authors of the Star Trek Novels.
Some of those authors are: Greg Bear, Peter David, Diane Duane,
D.C. Fontana, Alan
Dean Foster, David Gerrold, Joe Haldeman,
Laurel K. Hamilton,
Frederik Pohl, Andrew J. Robinson, Robert Sheckley,
William Shatner,
and many, many other authors.
If
you're a Trek fan (and who ISN'T?) then this book is a definite
MUST for your Trek collection.
STAR TREK:
VOYAGES OF IMAGINATION by Jeff Ayers, is published by Pocket
Books and retails for $21.00 in the US and $26.99 in Canada.
I want to take this time
to thank the many people at Pocket Books who have helped me in the
past with the advance reading copies of the Trek Books before they
reach the general public. Unfortunately I cannot remember all their
names, but I can thank Lauren Robinson who is currently assisting
me with the new Trek Books for reviewing purposes. In fact,
I'll be forwarding a copy of this review to her.
