Mervi's Book reviews

Happy Holidays to everyone who is celebrating!

A collection of Star Trek short stories written by Star Trek fans.

Publishing year: 1998

Format: Print

Publisher: Pocket Books

Page count: 457

This is the first fan fiction collection that Pocket Books published. It spans four Trek series: Original, Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, and Voyager. The stories are written for people who know and love Trek. The writers also clearly love the shows.

Original Star Trek

Landon Cary Dalton: A Private Anecdote: Christopher Pike is in a wheelchair, unable to say anything else than yes or no. He thinks about his past and if any of this is real.

Keith L. Davis: The Last Tribble: Cyrano Jones was caught smuggling tribbles. He’s been working for twenty years cleaning the station of them. Now, the last tribble is almost in his hands.

Phaedra M. Weldon: Lights in the Sky: Years ago, Shahna was a drill thrall on the planet Triskelion.

Now, she’s the ambassador from her planet. She’s come to the Federation to negotiate aid after a Romulan attack on her planet. She also wants to meet Kirk again.

Dayton Ward: Reflections: Kirk is dying on Veridian III. Two figures manifest in his mind. They show him how things could have gone differently if Kirk had made a different choice.

The Next Generation

Dylan Otto Krider: What Went Through Data’s Mind 0.68 Seconds Before the Satellite Hit: Data’s first-person report to Starfleet.

Jerry M. Wolfe: The Naked Truth: Reg Barcley is leading an away team for the first time and he’s nervous, not surprisingly. Worse, the Enterprise must leave and the small team is on its own.

Peg Robinson: The First: Picard encounters a woman who is the first one on her planet to build and fly a spacecraft. She’s even built an engine that leaves Geordi scratching his head. Unfortunately, the Federation is at war with the Dominion, so the woman and her people must stay on their planet, for their own good. Picard wrestles with his conscience and the Prime Directive.

Kathy Oltion: See Spot Run: The Enterprise is due for an inspection in just a couple of days. Normally, that’s not a problem but lately strange malfunctions have appeared all over the ship. Right now they’re minor but could escalate. Also, Data’s cat Spot manages to slip out of his quarters and cause havoc.

Bobbie Benton Hull: Together again, for the first time: The relationship between Captain Picard and Guinan stretches through centuries. Now, they meet for the first time, kind of.

Alara Rogers: Civil Disobedience: The Borg have destroyed the Earth. Q isn’t happy about that, but the Continuum has ordered him not to interfere.

Franklin Thatcher: Of Cabbages and Kings: All of a sudden, the Enterprise finds itself without its crew. It must try to find out what happened and also survive when mechanized ships attack.

Deep Space Nine

Christina F. York: Life’s Lessons: Cadet Nog had come to visit from Starfleet Academy and he notices that Mrs. O’Brien, his former and most beautiful teacher, is sad. His Ferengi instincts take over and he plans how to take advantage of the situation. Keiko O’Brien thinks that her husband Miles might be falling for Major Kira Nerys. Kira is pregnant with the O’Briens’ son and Keiko starts to think Kira will take her place in the family. Keiko is heading down to Bajor for a conference but misses her flight. Nog manages to borrow a runabout and takes Keiko down. He plans to take make his move on her on the planet.

Vince Bonasso: Where I Fell Before My Enemy: U.S.S. Defiant is on a navigation test run when it encounters another Federation ship in distress. Moments later, the other vessel explodes with everyone inside. Captain Sisko pursues the small ship that is responsible but all is not as it seems.

Voyager

Patrick Cumby: Good Night, Voyager: Suddenly the main power of U.S.S. Voyager goes out, leaving the crew in darkness and without gravity. The crew, of course, starts to repair and investigate what happened.

J.A. Rosales: Ambassador at Large: Three Mondasian ships are pursuing a small vessel. Voyager interferes and beams the only life form aboard. To everyone’s surprise, the pilot turns out to be a human and over a hundred years old. He’s friendly but evades most questions about how he’s in the Delta quadrant.

jaQ Andrews: Fiction: Voyager crash-landed on a planet four years ago. Chakotay has made a new life for himself there, but Janeway won’t give up. She feels that something isn’t right.

Jackee C.: I, Voyager: A sentient life form is fascinated by Janeway and her crew. It studies them.

Craig D.B. Patton: Monthuglu: Voyager enters into a strange new nebula to cut a little time off their journey. However, as soon as Voyager enters the nebula, the main power goes offline. Soon, the crew experiences strange things and small things start to go wrong. The story is told through logs.

Because We Can

Two more short stories from two of the editors. They don’t conform to the competition guidelines.

John J. Ordover: The Man Who Sold the Sky: A man is on his deathbed when six familiar people appear around him.

Paula M. Block: The Girl Who Controlled Gene Kelly’s Feet: Enterprise’s psychologist interviews yeoman Minnie Moskowitz who is bored with her job. The ship will soon land on the amusement park plant, so the psychologist suggests that Minnie take a holiday.

This was an entertaining collection. Some of the stories aren’t as polished as from professional writers but the appreciation of the characters, the setting, and the heart of the show comes clear.

Top 5 Wednesday is a GoodReads group where people discuss a different bookish topic each week.

Christmas is right around the corner, and for some of us in the reading community, we’re still thinking about what books to pick up for the readers in our life! For today’s prompt, share five books you think would make great Christmas gifts!

I read a lot of series, so I think the first book in a series is a good gift, especially when they don’t end in a cliffhanger.

1, The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold

For epic fantasy lovers who are tired of teenage boys as the main characters.

2, The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman

For people who enjoy alternative worlds, spies, dragons, and the fae.

3, The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde

For people who enjoy humorous fantasy. Thursday Next is a literary detective which means that she can enter into books.

4, Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal

For people who enjoyed Hidden Figures, an alternative history of space travel.

5, The Daedalus Incident by Michael J. Martinez

For people who enjoy a mix of science fiction genres: an Edgar Rice Burroughs type of planetary romance and modern SF set on Mars.

Top 5 Wednesday is a GoodReads group where people discuss a different bookish topic each week.

Sometimes we pick up new series at the start of the year and realize after a few volumes, the series might not be a good fit for us. Other times we try new series and absolutely love it more with every new release! What is an ongoing series you have continued to love as this year comes to a close?

I have so many that it’s hard to choose just five but here goes:

1, Rachel Aaron’s Heartstrikers

This urban fantasy series has dragons as the main characters. Most of the are cruel schemers but the main character Julius is the nicest dragon ever.

2, Genevive Cogman: the Invisible Library series

Irene Winters is a spy and a librarian for the Great Library between worlds. The last book has come out but I haven’t had the heart to read it yet.

3, Seanan McGuire: Toby Daye

I just adore the characters in this urban fantasy series.

4, Kerry Greenwood: Phryne Fisher series

The series is set in 1920s Australia and Phryne is a very unconventional, independent woman. I also adore these characters. The TV show is good, too.

5, Steven Brust: Vlad Taltos series

It’s been a few years since the previous book came out but a new one is hopefully coming out next year. Another one I read for the character (and the mysteries and the humor).