Star Trek VI The Undiscovered Country (Star Trek) (original 1992; edition 1992)

Definitely an amusing little tale.
Strains your belief at times but hey, this is science fiction, right? It's SUPPOSED to be out there, to make you think, wonder and dream. ( )

Horrid trash. The characters drop in and out of their true character in the middle of sentences, as the author tries to flesh out the movie story. The extra stuff with Valeris and Carol Markus adds some needed depth and flavor. But this is obviously written by someone who never watched the show OR the movie, and only read the script. ( )

This review assumes that you have either seen the movie, read the book or both (I don't like to summarize plot).

This is an adaptation of the movie by the same name. I generally like novelizations of movies because they add depth that you just can't have on the screen. You tell stories differently on the page that you do on the screen.

That said, ST-IV adds very little in the way of depth to seen that you see on the screen. There is a bit about the Klingons attacking a couple of Federation colonies with the bird of prey that could fire while cloaked. Kirk's lover, Carol Marcus was badly injured in one of these attacks, but as extra motivation for Kirk's hatred of the Klingons,, it seemed superfluous.

The main letdown I felt was that we didn't learn anything from being inside anyone's head. The story is told by an omnipotent narrator and the POV changes pretty much as it does in the film, but in spite of getting additional back story of Valeris, we gain no insight into why she betrays Spock and the Federation, We get no inner dialog when she is placed in charge of the search for the magnetic boots. We get no indication that it is she who orders Burke and Samno to prepare for their parts in the conspiracy to kill Gorkon (were they recruited before the mission or on route, or after they made the rude comments about the Klingons when they, the Klingons beamed aboard?). We get no idea of the inner turmoil Valeris must have been going through. That alone knocked a star off my rating.

This was an OK, easy read that (I hope) will help me reach my goal this year, but it was not the best Star Trek book I've ever read. The novelization of ST:The Motion Picture was better. ( )

novel of the 6th tos cast film kirk, spock and co save the day ( )