plumbing the literary depths of star trek TOS books and sharing important trek data. my reviews offer thots & answer important questions like 'is it gay' and 'should i read it' main: spockthots
Is it gay? On a scale of 1-5, with 5 being super gay, I would give Dreadnought! a 2.5 and Battlestations! a 3.5
Should you read it? Yes!
Some brief thots: These two books are both told from the first person of an original character, the very likable (in my opinion) Lieutenant Piper. There are all sorts of fun space antics in these two books which hold their own in the Star Trek canon, as does both novels’ protagonist, Piper. Dreadnought! is about a secret space warship getting stolen and Battlestations! begins with Kirk being framed for the theft of some fancy new space technology leading to all sorts of intergalactic hijinks. Both books contain some of the same original characters, but they don’t need to be read in tandem. My favorite thing about these two books is seeing Kirk and Spock through someone else’s eyes, as both books are narrated in the first person from Piper’s POV. To be honest, I read these books probably 9 months ago and while the plots don’t linger with me, I distinctly remember certain moments and that I really enjoyed them both.
OK, you wanna see the receipts. Here’s the gay content you’re looking for:
Does anyone live in the Tri-State area and want some Trek books? I have a few duplicates due to pandemic purchasing them in bulk off eBay and I can’t bear to donate them anywhere except to another Trekkie.
You’ve heard of Killing Time (who hasn’t?), but did you know it’s available to read for free online at the Internet Archive? And, yes, I do mean the unedited first edition. ;) Not at the IA, unfortunately, but I do have a link to a pdf.
In light of COVID-19, the Archive has temporarily lifted all waitlists (until June 30), which means you can read ALL novels with fan connections and ALL novelizations of the TOS movies online without having to wait your turn; usually, it works like a library. Why not replicate yourself some plomeek soup and get reading…
Novels with fan connections, like Killing Time (in order of year published):
The New Voyages Volume I (includes “The Winged Dreamers”)
The New Voyages Volume II
The Price of the Phoenix
The Fate of the Phoenix (the sequel)
The Prometheus Design
Black Fire
Triangle
Web of the Romulans
Yesterday’s Son
Time for Yesterday (the sequel)
The Wounded Sky
The Vulcan Academy Murders
Ishmael
Killing Time: First Edition
The IDIC Epidemic
Strange New Worlds (this one is only on OpenLibrary for some reason idk)
Novelizations of the TOS movies:
The Motion Picture
The Wrath of Khan
The Search for Spock
The Voyage Home
The Final Frontier
The Undiscovered Country
Bonus:
Leonard: My Fifty Year Friendship with a Remarkable Man by William Shatner
@starfleetdicks and @startrekbookreview got me out here wanting to go back on my vow to not try and buy every Star Trek book I can get my dumb ass bi hands on.
Hi to my new followers! Thank you Diane Duane for roasting me, still kvelling/recuperating from that iconic moment.
So, this is not a review because I just started grad school and it’s kicking my ass, but it is an edifying compilation of Trek lit!
I have a library of Trek books (about 150, and growing with an alarming frequency). I have culled through my collection to find the weirdest covers for your viewing and perhaps one day reading pleasure.
Here’s my top 5.
5. Star Trek: First Frontier by Diane Carey
I’m easing us in with a nice and silly cover. Diane Carey is a prolific Trek author and one of my favs (reviews forthcoming but check out Dreadnought! and Battlestations! for an awesome OC and third party Premise positing), so while I might judge this book’s cover that won’t stop me from digging in. Space husbands. Dinosaurs. What’s not to love??
As an added bonus, I really love the back of the book as well:
It makes the lil dinosaur look like he’s part of the crew <3 Or did Bones get turned into a dinosaur? Read and find out!
4. Time for Yesterday by A.C. Crispin
This one rides the line between weird and awesome, but I love it so much I had to share it. Look at this dude bursting out of the Guardian of Forever on his fanged horse! Fuck yeah! This book came out in 1988, a year before Star Trek V (and I haven’t read it yet lol), so I’m not 100% sure if there’s a connection between this carnivorous looking cheval and Sybock’s steed, but I’ll report back as soon as I have any answers.
3. Ghost-Walker by Barbara Hambly
There’s A LOT to unpack here. Firstly, we LOVE the classic cover art. It’s super frustrating that a lot of Trek books don’t credit the artists!! However, some quick googling shows me that this amazing cover is by Keith Birdsong, who did a ton of Trek art. Thank you, Keith, for your vision. I have some questions.
WHY does the bird man have fingernails?? The fingers(??) look like bird feet, so why aren’t there claws/talons?? WHAT is this bird person doing to our Jimbo?? “A mysterious force” indeed. Peep the fleshy-looking stalactites as well as Bird Person’s glorious head of hair. Hair AND feathers?? Ok, moving on to...
2. Time Trap by David Dvorkin
Ok, I feel a little mean including this one because I’m just calling it out for being Bad Weird Art. But what is up with everyone’s eyes??? I’m not talking about the Eyebrow Situation going on with the figure on the left (except for how I just did oop); let’s look at our boy Jim. Don’t look too closely at his hand/arm. Let’s focus on the eyes.
And maybe a little closer...
Too close?? This cover makes the list for the feeling of Unease it inspires within me.
But the real winner in terms of Unrepentantly Weird I’m throwing under the cut. Click if you’re feeling brave.
And #1...
Mind Meld, by John Vornholt
WHY, JOHN, WHY???
Ok, that out of the way, let’s sit with our discomfort and analyze this. Here’s what freaks me out:
1. Unfamiliar Vulcan child. I’m not a kid person, but I still think it’s weird. It wigs me out that this girl looks like the quintessential cute little white girl you’d see in any movie or cough syrup commercial. She doesn’t look like a Vulcan to me! Now, Vulcans can have all sorts of skin tones and eye colors, but where the fuck’s the bowl cut??
2. The use of photos instead of paintings. It’s just weird. All Trek books that use photos weird me out. Thank you for coming to my Ted talk.
3. Spock. He’s interrogating us. I feel the weight of his Ga(y)ze and I am intensely uncomfortable. Why is he scrutinizing me?? And the fact that the lighting in this photo he has been ‘shopped out of is so different from that of the child adds to my unease. He looks disappointed, and whether it’s in me, or in him for appearing on this cover, I cannot say.
Firstly, upon seeing the cover I immediately imagined an MTV Cribs Vulcan edition. Can’t you picture Spock saying “Weldome to my domicile. First I will show you my common area where I eat and work. Next is my sleeping quarters.”
Definitely an iconic work in the Trek literary canon. In short: Vulcan is voting on whether or not to secede from the Federation. Bring on the testimonies from various species about whether or not they should do this. Firstly, I think Duane utilizes the literary medium perfectly here. Two words: Vulcan Filibuster. No way would this work on screen, but here we are blessed with multi page monologues from various characters about Vulcan and whether it should maintain its relationship to the federation (and therefore: humans). McCoy unexpectedly shines in this book and it’s great to see him as an educated advocate— he might throw hella shade @ Spock but damn does the man do his homework when called for! Spock’s World also features several chapters which chronicle the evolution of the planet Vulcan which are at first boring (the planetary formations chapter is brutal unless u imagine it as pillow talk between Spock and Kirk), but build into an incredibly riveting legacy. Think Jack London’s “Before Adam” but transposed onto Vulcan. FASCINATING. These chapters detail Vulcan’s evolution from cavemen to Surak and beyond. Highlight: a chapter detailing Surak’s origin where Duane offers an extremely touching answer for why Vulcan men’s names start with an S- not sure if this originated with this book or not but it made me tear up. It’s a considerably beefier text than standard Trek books, clocking in at almost 400 pages (compared with the average 250-300 of most Trek novels) but the reader’s attention is well earned.
(…But also, just informationally, re “Considerably beefier text than standard Star Trek books”: That’s because it was the first Star Trek hardcover. When Pocket commissioned me to do this job, my editor said, “Don’t be afraid to put some meat on its bones.” I said, “120K or so of meat?” Got an immediate nod. And therefore, went forth and did that. It’s always nice to be given room to stretch.) :)
Tumblr Literary Critic’s (b)log, Stardate I DONT KNOW I DONT CARE MY FAVORITE TREK AUTHOR JUST REBLOGGED MY REVIEW KABSGQIABZBMALAJSBVDNjKLALKSJAHBz
I thought it was not AS gay as some of the other books sitting in my drafts BUT WHAT DO I KNOW I AM JUST A LITTLE BOOKWORM I BOW TO THE EXPERTS KNOWLEDGE
Firstly, upon seeing the cover I immediately imagined an MTV Cribs Vulcan edition. Can’t you picture Spock saying “Weldome to my domicile. First I will show you my common area where I eat and work. Next is my sleeping quarters.”
Definitely an iconic work in the Trek literary canon. In short: Vulcan is voting on whether or not to secede from the Federation. Bring on the testimonies from various species about whether or not they should do this. Firstly, I think Duane utilizes the literary medium perfectly here. Two words: Vulcan Filibuster. No way would this work on screen, but here we are blessed with multi page monologues from various characters about Vulcan and whether it should maintain its relationship to the federation (and therefore: humans). McCoy unexpectedly shines in this book and it’s great to see him as an educated advocate— he might throw hella shade @ Spock but damn does the man do his homework when called for! Spock’s World also features several chapters which chronicle the evolution of the planet Vulcan which are at first boring (the planetary formations chapter is brutal unless u imagine it as pillow talk between Spock and Kirk), but build into an incredibly riveting legacy. Think Jack London’s “Before Adam” but transposed onto Vulcan. FASCINATING. These chapters detail Vulcan’s evolution from cavemen to Surak and beyond. Highlight: a chapter detailing Surak’s origin where Duane offers an extremely touching answer for why Vulcan men’s names start with an S- not sure if this originated with this book or not but it made me tear up. It’s a considerably beefier text than standard Trek books, clocking in at almost 400 pages (compared with the average 250-300 of most Trek novels) but the reader’s attention is well earned.
This just in: Kirk is not a womanizer. He just has a weaponized sexuality he uses to disarm dangerous women in positions of power. Kirk uses a weapon usually considered female: his own attractiveness and the effect he has on people of power and it’s amazing.
I actually ran the numbers on this one y’all and the majority of the time when Kirk is showing interest in a woman, it’s because he’s using his sexuality as a weapon to disarm her or using it as a tool to gather information. During the course of the series he has romantically/sexually charged encounters with 23 different women. Of those encounters:
10 of the encounters (43.4%) were Kirk using his sexuality for some sort of subterfuge: Andrea, Lenore Karidian, Marlena Moreau, Sylvia, Shahna, Kelinda, Drusilla, Miranda Jones, Deela, and Odona.
5 (21.7%) were times when the woman was interested in Kirk, but he did not reciprocate: Eve McHuron, Miri, Janet Wallace, Nona, and Marta.
4 (17.4%) were women Kirk was genuinely interested in: Ruth, Edith Keeler, Miramanee, and Rayna
3 (13%) were incidents were Kirk’s cognitive functioning was impaired preventing him from being able to consent: Janice Rand (he had been split in two in a transporter accident and his evil half sexually assaulted her), Helen Noel (they were testing out a machine that makes one highly suggestible, first Helen attempted to plant a memory of the two of them having sex, and then the bad guy interrupted to implant the suggestion that Kirk loved Helen), and Elaan (she drugged him with her tears, making him fall in love).
And finally there was precisely one (1) incident that could be considered casual, and even that wouldn’t be counted as a womanizer type of thing. Areel Shaw was Kirk’s exgirlfriend, the two of them having split up amicably when their careers took them in different directions. They still hold a great deal of affection for each other, and do a fair amount of flirting when they run into each other again.
(Note, some of these incidents are a little loose as to where exactly they fall (eg with Miramanee does Kirk’s amnesia count as compromised consent?) but the general trends remain.)
Making my way through Spocks World (published 1989) and found this gem of an ad in the middle. If I order a cassette tape from them will I open a wormhole into 80s trek? Bc that’s the next movie I’ve gotta direct
And short of a cassette, where can I listen to Leonard Nimoy telling Trek Tales???
So, over the course of this quarantine I started reading Star Trek novels and got sucked rapidly into this crazy interest. The stories are, like their source material, often inventive, usually entertaining, but sometimes weird or a dud. And dirt cheap on eBay. I may or may not have bought a lot of 133 Star Trek books. At this point I’ve read 15. I have some thoughts.
Star Trek Book Review #1: The Price of the Phoenix
Author(s): Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath
Publish Date: 1977
Some Thoughts:
A fairly early work in the Trek literary genre, this book reexamines the concept of a doppelgänger Kirk. The Original Series in itself turned this idea into a trope which has been reproduced in perpetuity throughout the Trek mythos. In TOS we see at least 3 or 4 Kirk doubles (The Enemy Within brings us our first doppelgänger; Mirror Mirror we briefly see an evil Kirk; in Whom Gods Destroy Garth of Izar transforms into Kirk to impersonate him). And let us not forget the spectacular Shatner Vs. Shatner fight of Star Trek V, the first time we see two Shatners beat each other up face to face: a feat unattainable in the Original Series era without the use of computerized special effects. I would love to compile some sort of coffee table book about the lives of all the Kirk Body Double actors. Has some Trekkie tracked these dudes down yet (especially the Star Trek V guy— but I digress.
In The Price of the Phoenix, we see a double who does not differ from Kirk in personality; a true duplicate. What do you do with an extra James T. Kirk?
The setting is essentially an evil computer game so there’s all sorts of fun descriptions of firemen poles our protagonists must slide down and labrythine walls to blast through to find one another.
The co-authors are a big pillar of Star Trek’s literary development, having written numerous Trek books as well as organizing and compiling Trek fiction anthologies.
Is It Gay?
YES. Infamously so. It’s hard to believe. As devoted as Kirk and Spock are to one another, imagine all the love that is there when you add one more Kirk to this equation. The authors really just go for it in terms of homoerotic devotion.
Must Read or Nah?
Absolute must read; a true classic of the Trek literary oeuvre.
Literary Receipts of Epic Devotion / salacious homosexual content Under the Cut
These are not rly in order
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You heard the man. He’s not fragile, he’s a Starship Captain!
