John Vornholt (1) (1951–)

The premise is that the Enterprise is reestablishing contact with an Earth colony settled by a mixture of back-to-nature types and theatre nerds; the constant danger of volcanic ash in the environment means that everyone wears full-face masks, and an elaborate feudal culture has built up around them. No one can be seen in public without a mask; different masks connote different roles. To wear the mask of a craftsman, for example, one must demonstrate an appropriate amount of skill or be subject to a challenge. The Enterprise is ferrying an ambassador to the planet, who bears the gorgeous Ambassador's Mask that he bought off the Ferengi, who are also interested in the planet.

Set during season two, it's a solid adventure of the exact kind you might want from a tie-in novel. Later in his Star Trek career, Vornholt would turn out some pretty mediocre stuff, but this is good: a nice grasp on the characters, particularly Picard, where Vornholt picks up on the nascent strain of romanticism that I think the tv writers wouldn't lean into much until later. Characters like Data and La Forge and Worf get some good scenes, too. The best part of the book is the culture of the planet, with its permutations and complications; the Enterprise's away teams must start at the bottom and work their way up.

I did find the middle a bit weak, as it felt like the two different Enterprise away teams were wandering around in a bit of an aimless muddle trying to find each other. I also felt that the character of the ambassador seems very important in the early part of the novel, but kind of fades away unceremoniously by the end. On the other hand, I kept thinking about how I would adapt the whole thing to be a Star Trek Adventures RPG module, which I think would work very well—which indicates to me that this book captures the Star Trek vibe exceedingly well no matter its faults.… (more)

“Do you know what it’s like to live a hundred years in a seedy road show?” — Hopscotch

“No. Unless high school counts.” — Buffy


This early Buffy novelization takes place between seasons one and two, during summer vacation for the Scooby gang, as they became affectionately known. It deviates from the Buffy series canon in that Buffy remains in Sunnydale. Coyote Moon appears to be sort of a mash-up homage by author John Vornholt (a name familiar to Star Trek book fans) to the Hollywood werewolf legend and the movie western. It also mixes in Native American mysticism to replace the lycanthropy explanation for shape-shifting, leading to the proclivity of the carnival gang to become coyotes, and in one case, a bear. It’s kinda fun, kinda pulpy, and I enjoyed it overall. However…

All of the genres to which the author appears to be paying homage are more familiar to adults, and older teenagers. While that shouldn’t be an issue, at times the author seems to be a tad uncertain what age group would be reading this. There are so many exclamation points even Robert Ludlum would roll his eyes, and on occasion it makes it seem as though he’s trying to straddle the younger Goosebump reader with the Christopher Pike fan. Once you accept the pulpy nature of the story, it’s easy to enjoy, but the exclamation points, when added, occasionally make Xander and Willow — and even Buffy — sound a bit off in characterization. Eventually, I found myself ignoring the exclamation points, and it returned the characters to their own voices.

Set between the first and second season, you can feel high school in this one, and the Willow/Xander/Buffy triangle is in full bloom. The carnival is in town, and soon Xander hooks up with sexy carnival cutie Rose, and Willow ends up with hunky Lonnie. But there has been some strange coyote activity since the carnival arrived, and Buffy is getting a weird vibe about it. Xander’s not listening, and Willow at first thinks Buffy is being too cautious. They’re all just trying to have one last blast before summer ends, after all, and the carnival being in town offers the perfect way to do that.

With Giles’ help, Buffy finally figures it all out, and it has to do with an old cowboy who was one of the founding fathers of — you guessed it — Sunnydale. That was a very long time ago, but may explain why the coyotes, who may be shape-shifters from way back, have come to the place Spurs Hardaway (think Wild Bill Hickok) is buried — for now. Giles helps Buffy quite a bit in the latter part of the story, and it gets pretty fun, with Xander and Willow double dating at the cemetery, where they’re about to discover Buffy was right all along.

It feels pulpy at times, and very early in the series. If you can deal with that it’s a pretty fun read, but if not, this is probably one to pick up only if you’re a hardcore Buffy fan, and run across it at an inexpensive price. Don’t get me wrong, it is fun and I enjoyed it, but not everyone will be able to get past the exclamation points, or the pulpy feel to the narrative, thus the same three stars I gave to Halloween Rain. I did like it, and it was a nice way to unwind.… (more)

The Seven is the sequel to Static and a continuation of the Flight 29 Down series. This book continues to dive into how the group survive and how much more conflict is happening when the group disagrees.

I can't believe this series was 8 books. I only read the first five because that's all my city ever got. I did finish the television series though, so that was a bonus.

The one thing I found with this series is that as a young reader I could not see any of the twists and turns, but as an adult I see them coming from a mile away. It's still a great book, especially for the nostalgia I feel!

Three out of five stars.… (more)