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Star Trek TOS: Movie Novelizations #2
Star Trek II: Khanův hněv
Kosmická loď Enterprise, na jejíž palubě se tentokrát školí mladí kadeti, operuje u hvězdy Gama v souhvězdí Hydry. Kromě dramatického střetnutí s Klingony, které se ukáže být jen počítačovou simulací, dojde k neplánované tragédii – při přistání na nehostinné Alfa Ceti VI jsou průzkumníci zajati vzbouřenou posádkou Khana Singha, která se zmocní jejich sesterské lodi Reliant a nastolí hrůzný teror.
Zmocní se vzbouřenci i Enterprise, supertajného projektu Genesis a admirála Kirka?
Zmocní se vzbouřenci i Enterprise, supertajného projektu Genesis a admirála Kirka?
200 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1982
134 people are currently reading
1500 people want to read
About the author
Vonda N. McIntyre
151 books372 followersVonda Neel McIntyre was a U.S. science fiction author. She was one of the first successful graduates of the Clarion Science fiction writers workshop. She attended the workshop in 1970. By 1973 she had won her first Nebula Award, for the novelette "Of Mist, and Grass and Sand." This later became part of the novel Dreamsnake, which won both the Hugo and Nebula Awards. The novelette and novel both concern a female healer in a desolate primitivized venue. McIntyre's debut novel was The Exile Waiting which was published in 1975. Her novel Dreamsnake won the Nebula Award and Hugo Award for best novel in 1978 and her novel The Moon and the Sun won the Nebula in 1997. She has also written a number of Star Trek and Star Wars novels, including Enterprise: The First Adventure and The Entropy Effect. She wrote the novelizations of the films Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, and Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 187 reviews
May 1, 2023
The Wrath of Khan is a Star Trek: The Original Series movie novelization by Vonda N. McIntyre, #7 in the Pocket Books series. It takes many of the story elements of the movie (the way any great novelization should do) and amplifies them with the character's thoughts and perceptions that can only flow in narrative book form. Peter Preston, Scotty's nephew, is rounded out better, here. In the edited movie, the watcher isn't even aware that he's related to Scott. He is 14 years old! You don't get that in the movie. He’s embarrassed that Scotty communicates to Admiral Kirk that he is Preston’s uncle. He also has a boyhood crush on Lt. Saavik. The pathos in the book is augmented by those profound touches that feel like grand flourishes. Full disclosure: I saw this movie at New York City Comic Con in 1983 with my little brother; so I love this movie more and deeper than I probably should. By osmosis and connective tissue I knew that I would love this book, but the thing stands on its own without any of the extras.
December 30, 2017
This actually makes the movie understandable, and it’s so good. This and the first movie novelization are probably good places to start reading if you’re not familiar with tos characters.
May 23, 2020
After the pompous Star Trek the Movie which was a really science fiction movie and a shedload of starship porn, to which the USS Enterprise does seem to lend itself for, we got the Wrath of Khan.
The Wrath of Khan was actually an sequel to the 1967 Star Trek episode Space Seed andin this tale Khan Noonien Singh who was stranded on a lush planet gets found by accident on a desert planet with the survivors of his group. After the Enterprise and Kirk let him on an apparent paradise the Sun of that system changed and the paradise turned in a hell. Khan kidnaps a Star Fleet reseach vessel and gets his hands on the Genesis project and sees a chance to wreck revenge on Admiral Kirk.
Kirk meanwhile being an admiral is on an inspection tour on the Enterprise with its captain Spock. When they are contacted by Carol Marcus, a person from Kirk's past, about Starfleet taking away her life's work . Kirk will find out about the Genesis project, a terraforming project that can have clear military uses.
The confrontation with Khan will be unavoidable and this will be one of the best stories the Star Trek series and movies will ever offer. It is the start of an Arc of three movies (the wrath of Khan - The search for Spock - The Voyage home) also known as the Genesis trilogy. These three actually are high adventure and show the best of the Star Trek crew and their friendships and loyalties.
Vonda McIntyre delivers a highly readable and entertaining novelization that offers a bit more depth than the movie does. A pleasure to read and the whole is great and classic Star Trek adventure. She has proved with this book she can write original as well great novelizations.
A great story and a great movie. If you do not like this book Star Trek is nothing for you, please move on to other series.
The Wrath of Khan was actually an sequel to the 1967 Star Trek episode Space Seed andin this tale Khan Noonien Singh who was stranded on a lush planet gets found by accident on a desert planet with the survivors of his group. After the Enterprise and Kirk let him on an apparent paradise the Sun of that system changed and the paradise turned in a hell. Khan kidnaps a Star Fleet reseach vessel and gets his hands on the Genesis project and sees a chance to wreck revenge on Admiral Kirk.
Kirk meanwhile being an admiral is on an inspection tour on the Enterprise with its captain Spock. When they are contacted by Carol Marcus, a person from Kirk's past, about Starfleet taking away her life's work . Kirk will find out about the Genesis project, a terraforming project that can have clear military uses.
The confrontation with Khan will be unavoidable and this will be one of the best stories the Star Trek series and movies will ever offer. It is the start of an Arc of three movies (the wrath of Khan - The search for Spock - The Voyage home) also known as the Genesis trilogy. These three actually are high adventure and show the best of the Star Trek crew and their friendships and loyalties.
Vonda McIntyre delivers a highly readable and entertaining novelization that offers a bit more depth than the movie does. A pleasure to read and the whole is great and classic Star Trek adventure. She has proved with this book she can write original as well great novelizations.
A great story and a great movie. If you do not like this book Star Trek is nothing for you, please move on to other series.
November 10, 2024
A Quickie Review
I used to read Star Trek books and watch the accompanying films fairly often...but that was a long time ago. Despite its popularity, The Wrath of Khan was one movie I just couldn't seem to get into...and the book was the same way. I had trouble understanding a lot of it, though it seemed to be well-written. Trekkies will definitely love this book; everyone else shouldn't bother.
Content Concerns: This is based on a movie that pretty much everyone has already seen or doesn't want to see, so, all I'll say is that the narration peppers in additional profanity, among the gobs that were already present in the film.
Score: 2/5
I used to read Star Trek books and watch the accompanying films fairly often...but that was a long time ago. Despite its popularity, The Wrath of Khan was one movie I just couldn't seem to get into...and the book was the same way. I had trouble understanding a lot of it, though it seemed to be well-written. Trekkies will definitely love this book; everyone else shouldn't bother.
Content Concerns: This is based on a movie that pretty much everyone has already seen or doesn't want to see, so, all I'll say is that the narration peppers in additional profanity, among the gobs that were already present in the film.
Score: 2/5
March 30, 2020
My fondness for the show notwithstanding,I've found it hard to like Star Trek movies.
The Wrath of Khan was the second in the series and I found it terrible.It was a box office success,however.
The special effects are terrible and Klingons have always been my least favourite Star Trek characters.They seem to be modeled on Genghis Khan's Mongols.
Kirk is now an admiral and Klingons are about to detonate the powerful Genesis device. The original script in the movie included the death of Spock.
Test audiences didn't like it and Spock continued to live.That was the one and only good thing about this movie.
The Wrath of Khan was the second in the series and I found it terrible.It was a box office success,however.
The special effects are terrible and Klingons have always been my least favourite Star Trek characters.They seem to be modeled on Genghis Khan's Mongols.
Kirk is now an admiral and Klingons are about to detonate the powerful Genesis device. The original script in the movie included the death of Spock.
Test audiences didn't like it and Spock continued to live.That was the one and only good thing about this movie.
January 27, 2011
SF legend Vonda McIntyre takes a few liberties, makes a few enhancements...and creates a novelization of the film that transforms the best Star Trek film into a story filled with even MORE violent, terrifying, and breathtaking moments. It's also a book that expands on Saavik with astonishing success. You can read and re-read this novelization and never once feel bored.
December 4, 2020
A well done novelization
July 24, 2012
*4 Stars* Really 3.5+ but worth the round up.
*The Gush*
It's really simply. THIS EXPLAINS THE MOVIE! All the places that made no sense. All the things that lowered my appreciation of the movie because 'it' made no sense! Don't get me wrong, this is one of my all time favorite movies in the Star Trek universe, but parts just made me mad. Now, I understand what they were trying to say but either cut a key scene or wanted you to read between the lines but you were just never sure.
Example: Saavik and David's relationship. This actually takes place more in the Search for Spock novelization but does also have bearings here. In the movie, the actors seem to be working towards or have a relationship but no mention is ever made of it by ANYONE! I always seemed either a) I was reading subtext in that wasn't there or b) the chemistry between the two actors was such that the subtext was there. I didn't know until reading this book that they SUPPOSE to be together and apparently that was simply cut from the two movies. Which I find stupid because it explains EVERYTHING! Why he sacrifices himself for her, why they seem to move together in tandem, why their arguments seem less like debates between scientist and more like people who can and do hurt each other. Yeah, two seconds longer of film and everyone would UNDERSTAND! Thanks a bunch.
The depths the novel is able to go with the characters and the circumstances really works here. Kahn's second in command, who always seemed to be less then completely on the same page turns out to...not agree with Kahn but does what he says because of his loyalty to him. He is developed wonderfully and you see a group of people who are lead to destruction because of their love and loyalty to a madman rather than a bunch of evil people. Depth, gotta love it. Spock's death and people's reactions to it (particularly Saavik's) are really fleshed out here. Here the novel works with the movie. It is true at times that a picture is worth a thousand words. The death scene in the book is adequate but it is clear they expect you to have seen the movie. And you can see it as you read the scene. Kirk's grief, which is touched on a good bit in the movie is further fleshed out very well, too.
*The Negative*
Surprisingly little here. My issues were more with the quality of my copy of this (rotten and difficult to read) than the actually story. My biggest issue would be a few (like maybe two) scenes where the character of Kirk did things not really in character, but they were mercifully short and easy to overlook.
*Summary*
If you've seen the movie, READ THIS! Like right now. Explanations are wonderful things.
*The Gush*
It's really simply. THIS EXPLAINS THE MOVIE! All the places that made no sense. All the things that lowered my appreciation of the movie because 'it' made no sense! Don't get me wrong, this is one of my all time favorite movies in the Star Trek universe, but parts just made me mad. Now, I understand what they were trying to say but either cut a key scene or wanted you to read between the lines but you were just never sure.
Example: Saavik and David's relationship. This actually takes place more in the Search for Spock novelization but does also have bearings here. In the movie, the actors seem to be working towards or have a relationship but no mention is ever made of it by ANYONE! I always seemed either a) I was reading subtext in that wasn't there or b) the chemistry between the two actors was such that the subtext was there. I didn't know until reading this book that they SUPPOSE to be together and apparently that was simply cut from the two movies. Which I find stupid because it explains EVERYTHING! Why he sacrifices himself for her, why they seem to move together in tandem, why their arguments seem less like debates between scientist and more like people who can and do hurt each other. Yeah, two seconds longer of film and everyone would UNDERSTAND! Thanks a bunch.
The depths the novel is able to go with the characters and the circumstances really works here. Kahn's second in command, who always seemed to be less then completely on the same page turns out to...not agree with Kahn but does what he says because of his loyalty to him. He is developed wonderfully and you see a group of people who are lead to destruction because of their love and loyalty to a madman rather than a bunch of evil people. Depth, gotta love it. Spock's death and people's reactions to it (particularly Saavik's) are really fleshed out here. Here the novel works with the movie. It is true at times that a picture is worth a thousand words. The death scene in the book is adequate but it is clear they expect you to have seen the movie. And you can see it as you read the scene. Kirk's grief, which is touched on a good bit in the movie is further fleshed out very well, too.
*The Negative*
Surprisingly little here. My issues were more with the quality of my copy of this (rotten and difficult to read) than the actually story. My biggest issue would be a few (like maybe two) scenes where the character of Kirk did things not really in character, but they were mercifully short and easy to overlook.
*Summary*
If you've seen the movie, READ THIS! Like right now. Explanations are wonderful things.
August 27, 2020
umm Perhaps I shed a tear reading a star trek novelization aha .... but ya it’s about found family and love and sacrifice and creation triumphing over destruction and the belief in the good of humanity above all
January 17, 2026
Star Trek II – The Wrath of Khan written by Gene Roddenberry, Jack B. Sowards and Harve Bennett is one of The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made, although it does not make my own 1,000 favorites, indeed, it made me wonder what is so special about this motion picture, and there is worse, but more details in the lines bellow – you find a few thousand notes on films from The NYT 1,000 and other pages, plus more thousands of reviews of magnum opera from The Greatest Books of All Time and other lists on my blog and YouTube channel https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
6 out of 10
Alas, I have seen Star Trek The Wrath of Khan and Weekend by Jean Luc Goddard in the past few days and I am quite disillusioned, to the point where I am nearly asking what the fuck is wrong with this NYT list of the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made – yes, "De gustibus non disputandum est" but still, these are bad for this cinephile
I am not such a great fan of Science Fiction, that notwithstanding I still admire Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... I will list this as one motive to reject The Wrath of Khan, a quite modest achievement
Then there is the issue of special: they feel ridiculous, and yes, this is a forty-four years old motion picture, so what can we expect, we have to look at the work in the context of its period, it may have been a formidable achievement, to see those characters teleporting from one space ship to another place, when they had enough energy
I am now in the position of some of my interlocutors, The Governor from the gym downtown, who does not watch films that are – what, more than a decade old – relatively ‘old’, and I object to him that there are chefs d’oeuvre he will miss: https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
We do have arguments at the club downtown, one took place just a few hours ago, at the sauna, where I was talking to Titus, sophisticated man, very religious, he watched opera at home, on movies he is a fan of Tarantino, saw The Seventh Seal https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
And liked it, but only looked at a little bit of Fanny and Alexander and stopped, granted, he does not have the time, he works for a major legal multinational company, from what I gather, that is one of those outfits that have lawyers in multiple lands, he mentioned Nouvelle Vague, one of the best of 2025, but not in his opinion
Actually, he only saw the trailer, and could establish that it does not come anywhere near Breathless – as if that was the point – and I protested that Nouvelle Vague https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... is not a sequel, it is a marvelous feature
We also have the chance to watch Goddard and his crew at work, it is so amusing, Seberg wanted to leave the production, and the irony is that on her tombstone, it would be written that she was in A Bout du Souffle – I am not sure if I do not like Nouvelle Vague more than Breathless, especially after the fiasco of last night
The note comes up tomorrow, but Weekend seemed a horrible film, looking back, they kill some animals for the production, come to think of it, I can only hope that they did not have to film a few takes, otherwise to take more than the pig, who is hit in the head, and then the knife is used and it was clear kill for, let us say art
I did not get Blade Runner https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... speaking of Science Fiction films, 2001 A Space Odyssey has segments that are challenging, but Wrath of Khan, I do have something against this feature, and I wonder if it is more than setting expectations too high…
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence
Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
6 out of 10
Alas, I have seen Star Trek The Wrath of Khan and Weekend by Jean Luc Goddard in the past few days and I am quite disillusioned, to the point where I am nearly asking what the fuck is wrong with this NYT list of the Best 1,000 Movies Ever Made – yes, "De gustibus non disputandum est" but still, these are bad for this cinephile
I am not such a great fan of Science Fiction, that notwithstanding I still admire Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love The Bomb https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... I will list this as one motive to reject The Wrath of Khan, a quite modest achievement
Then there is the issue of special: they feel ridiculous, and yes, this is a forty-four years old motion picture, so what can we expect, we have to look at the work in the context of its period, it may have been a formidable achievement, to see those characters teleporting from one space ship to another place, when they had enough energy
I am now in the position of some of my interlocutors, The Governor from the gym downtown, who does not watch films that are – what, more than a decade old – relatively ‘old’, and I object to him that there are chefs d’oeuvre he will miss: https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
We do have arguments at the club downtown, one took place just a few hours ago, at the sauna, where I was talking to Titus, sophisticated man, very religious, he watched opera at home, on movies he is a fan of Tarantino, saw The Seventh Seal https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20...
And liked it, but only looked at a little bit of Fanny and Alexander and stopped, granted, he does not have the time, he works for a major legal multinational company, from what I gather, that is one of those outfits that have lawyers in multiple lands, he mentioned Nouvelle Vague, one of the best of 2025, but not in his opinion
Actually, he only saw the trailer, and could establish that it does not come anywhere near Breathless – as if that was the point – and I protested that Nouvelle Vague https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... is not a sequel, it is a marvelous feature
We also have the chance to watch Goddard and his crew at work, it is so amusing, Seberg wanted to leave the production, and the irony is that on her tombstone, it would be written that she was in A Bout du Souffle – I am not sure if I do not like Nouvelle Vague more than Breathless, especially after the fiasco of last night
The note comes up tomorrow, but Weekend seemed a horrible film, looking back, they kill some animals for the production, come to think of it, I can only hope that they did not have to film a few takes, otherwise to take more than the pig, who is hit in the head, and then the knife is used and it was clear kill for, let us say art
I did not get Blade Runner https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... speaking of Science Fiction films, 2001 A Space Odyssey has segments that are challenging, but Wrath of Khan, I do have something against this feature, and I wonder if it is more than setting expectations too high…
Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – I am on Goodreads as Realini Ionescu, at least for the moment, if I keep on expressing my views on Orange Woland aka TACO, it may be a short-lived presence
Also, maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this https://realinibarzoi.blogspot.com/20... – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the benefits from it, other than the exercise per se
There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know
As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/r...
Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works
‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’
July 25, 2025
Review 43. Star Trek The Original Series Movies #2 The Wrath of Khan by Vonda McIntyre
Page Count : 223
The Wrath of Khan is one of my all time favourite Star Trek films, but like The Motion Picture before it, this book adds in all kind of details which are not explained in the film.
This book expands upon the character of Lt Saavik (played by Kirstie Alley in the film) and explains why she is so driven and different to other Vulcans, plus it also tells who the young cadet, Peter Preston is to Scotty and why Scotty is so upset after the Reliant's attack.
One extremely annoying thing, is that the author seems to have a habit of calling the USS Enterprise a Constellation class starship rather than a Constitution class starship which it is.
I know that this is not something that most people would find annoying, but when your as much of a Trekkie as I am and know as much about the various ships of Star Trek as I do, it annoys me.
But I didn't let it spoil my enjoyment of this book and I can't recommend this book enough if you have seen this film.
5*
*****
Page Count : 223
The Wrath of Khan is one of my all time favourite Star Trek films, but like The Motion Picture before it, this book adds in all kind of details which are not explained in the film.
This book expands upon the character of Lt Saavik (played by Kirstie Alley in the film) and explains why she is so driven and different to other Vulcans, plus it also tells who the young cadet, Peter Preston is to Scotty and why Scotty is so upset after the Reliant's attack.
One extremely annoying thing, is that the author seems to have a habit of calling the USS Enterprise a Constellation class starship rather than a Constitution class starship which it is.
I know that this is not something that most people would find annoying, but when your as much of a Trekkie as I am and know as much about the various ships of Star Trek as I do, it annoys me.
But I didn't let it spoil my enjoyment of this book and I can't recommend this book enough if you have seen this film.
5*
*****
May 23, 2013
This is one of the best Star Trek Movies, as many will agree, and this book actually does the film credit. It expands on things not shown onscreen (adds characters and deepens existing material very well) and is generally an extremely well-written, atmospherically tight and character-driven story. One of the best novel versions of screen events I have come across.
December 20, 2020
Whoah! This was a lot more emotional than the movie. I really enjoyed McIntyre’s novel Enterprise but was reluctant to read her Star Trek movie novelizations, because I had already seen the films. But this was good! There’s more here than in the movie. I wonder how much was from early screenplay drafts and how much was fresh material from McIntyre.
December 17, 2011
A fantastic addition to the film. A must read for fans of the series.
June 11, 2017
The movie Wrath of Khan has been ruined forever. All hail the Wrath of Khan (book)! Let me explain, because Vonda McIntyre owned this.
For father's day, I do not require much. Give me a hot meal, a warm cuddle, and a chilly blanket covered viewing of StarTrek: The Wrath of Khan. Family time at it's best. Unfortunately, this year my children are of an age where this movie would cause undue stress. Earworms, explosions, blind revenge and blood really dont jive too well with toddlers, so it is on pause for a couple years. We watched The Voyage Home instead, yes, the awesome time travel whale movie.
Why are you reading this?
The Lack of Khan meant my wonderful wife felt concern that my father's day would be lackluster. She searched out and located me a copy of the 1982 paperback edition Wrath of Khan. Giddy and sweaty palmed, I jigged in my seat when I opened my gift from her.
Also included was a hardback copy of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, but I can discuss that at a later date.
This geeky film will never be the same. The story of Wrath of Khan is no secret. Dumbed down- On Federation/Civilian research mission to a dead planet, Khan Noonien Singh is found, crazed and vengeful. He plots to find and punish James T Kirk, who he blames for the death of his wife and followers. In the process, he captures a starship and a device which can reorganize the structure of matter, destroying whatever previously existed and rebuilding habitable worlds from the blocks.
Kirk is in a fight to save his inexperienced trainee crew, while protecting innocent lives from the damage a deranged madman can wreck.
It has been thirty years since this movie and it's novelization were released. The geek in me picked out several elements requiring highlight.
First and most verbosely- In reading this, the Wrath if Khan has NOTHING to do with Khan or Kirk. Some aspects of this are displayed on the movie, but nowhere to the depth the novelization took it. This novel is about Savvik.
Savvik's backstory in the movies is rediculously thin. She is 'just' a Vulcan cadet on the path to becoming an officer. She 'just' questions human behavior and is 'just' under the tutelage of Spock. In the novelization, 'just' is a description which can never be.
Separate yourself from what you know from the film. The Wrath of Khan easily becomes Savvik's story. Born of a forbidden and potentially disturbing relationship between a Vulcan and a Romulan, she was orphaned and abandoned on a planet with all the other halflings. Spock, on a research mission, finds her feral and removed. He brings her back to society and treats her as an equal, almost like a daughter. She has warring genetics and culture, she has a desire for logic and an emotional flame that wants to burn the entire universe. It is Spock's assistance and training which allow her to control herself.
The story revolves entirely around her actions and reactions to her environment, people she meets, internal warring, and ultimately grief.
Having read this, Khan becomes irrelevant. He is a tool to harness a greater storyline. It is disappointing that Savvik in film is relegateted to the role of trainee and nothing more. In the follow up film, she takes on the role of mother and lover. Nothing literally nothing to the level of required character definition that she deserves based on this novelization. In film she exists as a plot tool to move action or set Kirk up for his lines.
Though not all perspectives were hers, hers were the most relevant and genuine feeling. STARTREK REBOOTers: pay attention to Savvik! She is more than she was allowed to be!
Second point- Wonderful backstory and characters fleshed out for scientists on the Genesis research station. Who are they? How did their roles lead them to being tortured to death in the name of Genesis.
Third- Through the same scientists, it is introduced that the building blocks of all matter are five subcomponents of quarks. In the novel they are named after the five elements of a Lewis Carrol poem. The timing of this reading could not be more properly timed. Only ten days before I began reading this, the Large Hadron Collider was able to prove PentaQuarks.. I was reading poetic references to the very same elements that we now are proud to have proven.
Fourth and lastly- Apparently a 50MB hard drive must be stored in a liquid nitrogen based cooling system in order to handle the data loads that Genesis algorythms require. Likewise reproggramming something would require OCR feeds of raw paper printouts, which would need mass QA to remove optical character recognition errors. To quote Sulu, "Oh, My!".
This book was amazing. Go find it nerds. It is worth shelling some bucks out for it.
For father's day, I do not require much. Give me a hot meal, a warm cuddle, and a chilly blanket covered viewing of StarTrek: The Wrath of Khan. Family time at it's best. Unfortunately, this year my children are of an age where this movie would cause undue stress. Earworms, explosions, blind revenge and blood really dont jive too well with toddlers, so it is on pause for a couple years. We watched The Voyage Home instead, yes, the awesome time travel whale movie.
Why are you reading this?
The Lack of Khan meant my wonderful wife felt concern that my father's day would be lackluster. She searched out and located me a copy of the 1982 paperback edition Wrath of Khan. Giddy and sweaty palmed, I jigged in my seat when I opened my gift from her.
Also included was a hardback copy of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, but I can discuss that at a later date.
This geeky film will never be the same. The story of Wrath of Khan is no secret. Dumbed down- On Federation/Civilian research mission to a dead planet, Khan Noonien Singh is found, crazed and vengeful. He plots to find and punish James T Kirk, who he blames for the death of his wife and followers. In the process, he captures a starship and a device which can reorganize the structure of matter, destroying whatever previously existed and rebuilding habitable worlds from the blocks.
Kirk is in a fight to save his inexperienced trainee crew, while protecting innocent lives from the damage a deranged madman can wreck.
It has been thirty years since this movie and it's novelization were released. The geek in me picked out several elements requiring highlight.
First and most verbosely- In reading this, the Wrath if Khan has NOTHING to do with Khan or Kirk. Some aspects of this are displayed on the movie, but nowhere to the depth the novelization took it. This novel is about Savvik.
Savvik's backstory in the movies is rediculously thin. She is 'just' a Vulcan cadet on the path to becoming an officer. She 'just' questions human behavior and is 'just' under the tutelage of Spock. In the novelization, 'just' is a description which can never be.
Separate yourself from what you know from the film. The Wrath of Khan easily becomes Savvik's story. Born of a forbidden and potentially disturbing relationship between a Vulcan and a Romulan, she was orphaned and abandoned on a planet with all the other halflings. Spock, on a research mission, finds her feral and removed. He brings her back to society and treats her as an equal, almost like a daughter. She has warring genetics and culture, she has a desire for logic and an emotional flame that wants to burn the entire universe. It is Spock's assistance and training which allow her to control herself.
The story revolves entirely around her actions and reactions to her environment, people she meets, internal warring, and ultimately grief.
Having read this, Khan becomes irrelevant. He is a tool to harness a greater storyline. It is disappointing that Savvik in film is relegateted to the role of trainee and nothing more. In the follow up film, she takes on the role of mother and lover. Nothing literally nothing to the level of required character definition that she deserves based on this novelization. In film she exists as a plot tool to move action or set Kirk up for his lines.
Though not all perspectives were hers, hers were the most relevant and genuine feeling. STARTREK REBOOTers: pay attention to Savvik! She is more than she was allowed to be!
Second point- Wonderful backstory and characters fleshed out for scientists on the Genesis research station. Who are they? How did their roles lead them to being tortured to death in the name of Genesis.
Third- Through the same scientists, it is introduced that the building blocks of all matter are five subcomponents of quarks. In the novel they are named after the five elements of a Lewis Carrol poem. The timing of this reading could not be more properly timed. Only ten days before I began reading this, the Large Hadron Collider was able to prove PentaQuarks.. I was reading poetic references to the very same elements that we now are proud to have proven.
Fourth and lastly- Apparently a 50MB hard drive must be stored in a liquid nitrogen based cooling system in order to handle the data loads that Genesis algorythms require. Likewise reproggramming something would require OCR feeds of raw paper printouts, which would need mass QA to remove optical character recognition errors. To quote Sulu, "Oh, My!".
This book was amazing. Go find it nerds. It is worth shelling some bucks out for it.
March 29, 2023
The Wrath of Khan is widely considered the best Trek movie, and while I won’t hash out that debate here, the novelization is very good. It captured a lot of great nuances the film couldn’t contain—more about Peter Preston, Saavik, and David Marcus—that really augmented the story. Definitely worth your time!
April 10, 2021
I have a soft spot for film novelisations, as they were most likely the things that made me fall in love with books in the first place when I was a kid. But I also recognise the inherent low quality of many of them.
This is one of the good ones. It appears to be based on an early version of the screenplay and sticks to that fairly closely, but it also adds and expands upon it with quite a bit of new material which is very welcome. The result is an alternate version of the movie with more depth and more swearing (and the swears actually work very well).
The biggest addition is the expansion of Saavik's character and the reveal of her background as half Romulan. It's fascinating stuff and really gives her a lot more to work with as she attempts to establish relationships with those around her.
The book falters in that it doesn't quite deliver the emotional punch the film has, except for the events at the very end which it handles well. But most of the lines of dialogue which really hit home in the film fall a bit flat here, and some are altered to the point where they just don't work as well.
This is one of the good ones. It appears to be based on an early version of the screenplay and sticks to that fairly closely, but it also adds and expands upon it with quite a bit of new material which is very welcome. The result is an alternate version of the movie with more depth and more swearing (and the swears actually work very well).
The biggest addition is the expansion of Saavik's character and the reveal of her background as half Romulan. It's fascinating stuff and really gives her a lot more to work with as she attempts to establish relationships with those around her.
The book falters in that it doesn't quite deliver the emotional punch the film has, except for the events at the very end which it handles well. But most of the lines of dialogue which really hit home in the film fall a bit flat here, and some are altered to the point where they just don't work as well.
May 30, 2009
(This review applies equally to Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan, Star Trek III The Search for Spock, and Star Trek IV The Voyage Home.)
In a move that (if I remember correctly) was rather unusual for the time, the Star Trek franchise created three films that were direct sequels: each stands alone as its own story, but they also comprise three parts of one overarching story, with all the events taking place over the course of just a few months.
In a wonderful turn of events, author Vonda N. McIntyre handled the novelization of each of the three films, and did a masterful job of adapting each one, creating a whole at least as good as the sum of its parts. Diving deeply into not just the events of the films, but the motivations and repercussions for the characters and the universe as a whole in each book, McIntyre's novels stand as a model of what successful movie-to-film adaptations should be, and all too often aren't.
In a move that (if I remember correctly) was rather unusual for the time, the Star Trek franchise created three films that were direct sequels: each stands alone as its own story, but they also comprise three parts of one overarching story, with all the events taking place over the course of just a few months.
In a wonderful turn of events, author Vonda N. McIntyre handled the novelization of each of the three films, and did a masterful job of adapting each one, creating a whole at least as good as the sum of its parts. Diving deeply into not just the events of the films, but the motivations and repercussions for the characters and the universe as a whole in each book, McIntyre's novels stand as a model of what successful movie-to-film adaptations should be, and all too often aren't.
May 18, 2008
I went through a super-intense Original Star Trek mania for exactly one summer. (After that I got into "The Next Generation" and never looked back.) But during that summer I picked up this book in my Grandmother's library and read the entire thing in one evening in her air-conditioned kitchen in southern Alabama. And burst into tears. Twice. (Anybody who's read the book will know which two scenes did it, for everybody else, I ain't telling, go read the book.) I can count on one hand the books that've made me cry, I wouldn't have figured a Star Trek book would be one of them.
Oddly enough, I'd never seen the movie. Years later when I saw it, well, it just couldn't measure up to the book. Yeah, I know, weird.
Oddly enough, I'd never seen the movie. Years later when I saw it, well, it just couldn't measure up to the book. Yeah, I know, weird.
May 18, 2021
This was certainly enlightening, in that the added scenes not in the movie sure did make things make more sense, or just filled in what did but we didn't see the whole thing. Some book scenes were noticeably different from what's on screen, but no big deal to the grand scheme of things. But most importantly, I found where everyone got the Saavik is part Vulcan part Romulan stuff - sure wasn't in the movies at any time! Anyway, some pretty good stuff here.
January 22, 2015
Book!Saavik is SO MUCH RADDER than Movie!Saavik.
February 21, 2017
I loved the movie and I found the book to be that much better, it filled in a lot of gaps that were probably cut for time from the movie.
October 26, 2021
Strong novelization of the Wrath of Khan that goes into lots of secondary detail about peripheral characters and motivations.
June 7, 2021
The book follows the movie very closely, so if yo have seen the movie first the novelty is mostly in the details. That said, much more details can be found in the series about Khan's uprising which in itself is priceless as background. Kirk and the Enterprise play only a small part in the whole.
For me Khan is mostly a tragic figure who could have been a great, benevolant an charsimatic leader but due to circumstances from his earliest youth and beyond his control onwards got directed into the malevolent path that brings him and his remaining followers in this final convlict with Kirk.
The Genesis project, like all great scientific advances, presents a moral dilemma because it is meant to be used for the greater good but potentially can be used for pure evil.
More important in my opinion are the security measurements that are being taken to guarantee that no life, even potentially, exists on the planeet that Genesis will be used on. Since its effect is literaaly completely devastating for what exists before it constructs paradise, or something closely resembling it.
Well written, VondaN. McIntyre is not at her first book, this book has some truly gruesome parts so it is not for the faint-hearted. And although it probably can be read on its own i suggest to read the other Khan books first, in chronological order in the life of Khan.
For me Khan is mostly a tragic figure who could have been a great, benevolant an charsimatic leader but due to circumstances from his earliest youth and beyond his control onwards got directed into the malevolent path that brings him and his remaining followers in this final convlict with Kirk.
The Genesis project, like all great scientific advances, presents a moral dilemma because it is meant to be used for the greater good but potentially can be used for pure evil.
More important in my opinion are the security measurements that are being taken to guarantee that no life, even potentially, exists on the planeet that Genesis will be used on. Since its effect is literaaly completely devastating for what exists before it constructs paradise, or something closely resembling it.
Well written, VondaN. McIntyre is not at her first book, this book has some truly gruesome parts so it is not for the faint-hearted. And although it probably can be read on its own i suggest to read the other Khan books first, in chronological order in the life of Khan.
September 15, 2024
It doesn't all work for me, but McIntyre knows when to weave in some extra exposition to enrich this classic bit of Trek. Saavick and David are better expanded on as well. I never knew why Saavick, a full Vulcan, cried in the movie, but now I know what the script was aiming for. Recommended for fans of the film.
March 16, 2026
"Space Seed" review:
3.5 stars rounded up to four.
I gave my mother Star Trek: The Classic Episodes by James Blish for her birthday four years ago. It has the... novelizations? That can't be right because they're just short stories based on the original series episodes. Storyization? No. Besides the fact that that's a made up word, the screenplays upon which those are based are already stories and you can't storyize something that's already storied. Short storyization? That might work. It's close enough at any rate.
Anyway, the book has 45 short storyizations based on the screenplays from the original series, and I thought it'd be proper to read "Space Seed" before reading The Wrath of Khan. I was told a long time ago, and I think the internet agrees, that watching those like that is "so cliche," and I suspect one commits the same sin by doing the reading counterpart that way... Well, so what? That's how I'm going to roll it out anyway, and we'll "see with what heat these Dogs of Hell advance to waste and havoc yonder World."[1]
I probably won't read all of the episodes, though I plan to hit the faves. "Space Seed" is definitely one of those. It was pretty good. Blish writes well. It's hard to condense an hour long episode into 12 pages, but he pulls it off. Some scenes are skipped and others pared down. In fact, the entire fight at the end was summed up in a single paragraph. Kirk escapes the compression chamber and goes on the offensive. Then...
[1]: Unlike Khan and Kirk, I've never read Milton, and I'm just fine with that (verse: blech). But I know how to look stuff up, and that quote looked like it would fit well there. And while we're on the subject of literature, Khan gets an honorable mention for getting me to read Moby Dick. You could say he tasked me. He tasked me, and I would read it. I'd read it on the moons of Nibia and in the Antares Maelstrom and in perdition's flames before I gave it up! But that's a reference to the movie and will serve as a nice segue to...
Wrath of Khan review:
HD Film Tributes music video: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Main Theme by James Horner. I used to be able to play that on the piano... kind of. It fell apart in a couple of places. I certainly wasn't as good as this guy, and I wouldn't take it on the road, but it was passable.
4.5 stars rounded down to four. This is so close to five stars it can taste it. The fact that I was considering not putting this on my "liked movie better" shelf is telling. This is, after all, my favorite Star Trek film. Vonda McIntyre nails it, and it gives me high hopes for parts III and IV which she also penned. Not only is she a decent writer, which isn't something you can say for many novelization novelists, she also provides great character development and history for some of the secondary characters. Saavik...
...gets most of it. Turns out she's half Vulcan/half Romulan, and it's fun watching her try to control her emotions and understand humans and Vulcans. And despite the omission of a bit of dialogue that makes it clear, all Trekkies know that Peter...
...is Scotty's nephew. If you don't know it, you'd be justified in wondering why Scott was so distraught after his death. It's even more heartbreaking in the book. Peter is actually only 14 years old, and he and Scotty were on the outs for a couple of days prior to his demise. Scotty had been riding him really hard, but Peter was bound and determined to lump it and show his uncle (who is a real asshole at this part) that he had what it takes. Peter also had a boy crush on Saavik who was his tutor (this is what the kerfuffle with his uncle was about), and if he'd been a couple of years old, you could say he was hot for teacher. Saavik also feels a fondness for the boy which confuses her (nothing sexual; she's just never felt fond of anything or anyone before joining Starfleet, though she highly respects Spock who is her mentor.) As you can see, there are plenty of dramatic elements mixed into this that were missing from the film, but it's done really well and doesn't distract from the main plot at all. In fact, it enhances it. Ms. McIntyre also polished up a couple of movie/show errors. E.G. Fans love to point out that Chekov wasn't on the show for season one and that he couldn't possibly remember Khan, nor could Khan possibly remember Chekov's face. In the book, Chekov remembers Khan's time on the Enterprise quite well though he wasn't on the A-team yet. He was also quite smitten with McIver and was distraught to learn that she had died courtesy of the Ceti Eels.
But there was one area where I think she messed it up, or perhaps it was the writers of the screenplay who screwed the pooch. Joachim,...
([1])
...Khan's right-hand man who shouldn't be confused with Joaquin, the right-hand goon in "Space Seed" who exhibits caveman syntax,...
...doesn't fit the mold of a genetically superior being who has spent his entire life with a hard gang of supermen who think nothing of murdering their enemies. He's the voice of reason in the movie, and he makes perfect sense there because he's looking at things logically while Khan is hellbent on revenge. However, in the book he's shocked at Khan's violence during the attack on the spacelab, a scene which would've kicked the movie to an R rating, no ifs, ands, or buts about it had it been filmed as it was written here. I couldn't figure why he was shocked and horrified. He should be used to this. He certainly had no problem dropping those Ceti Eels into Chekov and Terrell's helmets and making sure they didn't take them off. And speaking of those damned eels, this scene...
...is one of many that contributed to a great sense of unease during my childhood. Large Marge,...
...ripped out hearts, Princess Mombi and the Wheelers (which sounds like it ought to be a 60's girl group), just about any scene in The Secret of Nimh... Is it any wonder I prospected in alcoholism?
I was hoping the book would give the true origin of the Genesis Device, but it didn't. The film makes it look like Dr. Marcus and David made the whole thing from scratch, and the book did the same, but this is just plain wrong. It was originally invented in England sometime during the reign of George IV by Miss Havisham.
Its purpose of giving life was the same as its 23rd century upgrade, but it was much more low-key and applied just to a single human being. The Marcuses took that to a planetary scale. It also didn't need the tears of brokenhearted men to power it since many new kinds of fuels and other technological advancements had been discovered and invented in the ensuing 450 years. It's like comparing two tin cans connected by a string to the smartphones of today, but Doctors Marcus and Marcus used Miss Havisham's blueprints to get them on the right path. Those documents have a patchy history. They were kept at Mr. Jaggers' law office, but after his death, it was discovered that they were missing. They were assumed permanently lost for 200 years when they were discovered in Joe Biden's garage in late 2021. But then they immediately went missing again and stayed that way until they simply fell out of a storage bin of quadrotriticale along with several Tribbles on Deep Space Station K7 in 2268 (Stardate 4523.3). Cyrano Jones pocketed it while cleaning up the Tribbles and sold it to David Marcus about ten years later while he was visiting the station with his mother. Research commenced, one thing led to another, and voila, we have Genesis.
That omission, the Joachim thing, and a couple other matters keep the fifth star at bay (but not Botany Bay, hyuck, hyuck, hyuck.)
(Good thing this doesn't count as humor, then.) Anyway, there were some other minor errors. Some can be glossed over. E.G. The mind meld between Spock and McCoy, which serves as a major plot point in part III, doesn't happen the book, though it could easily be inserted in the sequel. It's possible the screenwriters didn't know about that future plot development when they originally wrote the screenplay. Such are the hazards of writing a novelization and timing it to come out with the movie. But there were other nit-picky inconsistencies such as calling the system Khan is in and all its planets Alpha Ceti instead of Ceti Alpha. This could be another forgivable screenplay issue if it hadn't been established in "Space Seed" that it was the Ceti Alpha system.
Aside from that, this was fantastic, everything I want a novelization to be. Plus, it recalls this scene, the greatest in film history, to my mind...
...and that is always a good thing.
[1]: Speaking of screwing the pooch, Judson Scott's agents negotiated him out of getting any billing at all in the movie. They thought he should be listed at the beginning with the other main/semi-main characters. The producers disagreed, so the agents "waived billing." Scott thought that meant getting listed at the end with everyone else, but nope. It means you get NOTHING! He laughs about it now. "I went to the movie and I went...WOW, I know that was me!"
3.5 stars rounded up to four.
I gave my mother Star Trek: The Classic Episodes by James Blish for her birthday four years ago. It has the... novelizations? That can't be right because they're just short stories based on the original series episodes. Storyization? No. Besides the fact that that's a made up word, the screenplays upon which those are based are already stories and you can't storyize something that's already storied. Short storyization? That might work. It's close enough at any rate.
Anyway, the book has 45 short storyizations based on the screenplays from the original series, and I thought it'd be proper to read "Space Seed" before reading The Wrath of Khan. I was told a long time ago, and I think the internet agrees, that watching those like that is "so cliche," and I suspect one commits the same sin by doing the reading counterpart that way... Well, so what? That's how I'm going to roll it out anyway, and we'll "see with what heat these Dogs of Hell advance to waste and havoc yonder World."[1]
I probably won't read all of the episodes, though I plan to hit the faves. "Space Seed" is definitely one of those. It was pretty good. Blish writes well. It's hard to condense an hour long episode into 12 pages, but he pulls it off. Some scenes are skipped and others pared down. In fact, the entire fight at the end was summed up in a single paragraph. Kirk escapes the compression chamber and goes on the offensive. Then...
It was not all that easy. Before it was over, one of the supermen was dead, and almost everyone else on both sides was considerably banged up. At last, however, the survivors from the Botany Bay were locked in a hold, and Kirk and his officers reassembled in the briefing room.The plot follows the scenes from the episode, but they're altered, so it was kind of like reading a different story. The characters are a little different, and there's more philosophy. The discussion between Spock and Khan at the formal dinner went on a lot longer and in a different direction, though it's one I liked. I'm looking forward to checking out the short storyization of some of my other favorite episodes to see what else is changed.
[1]: Unlike Khan and Kirk, I've never read Milton, and I'm just fine with that (verse: blech). But I know how to look stuff up, and that quote looked like it would fit well there. And while we're on the subject of literature, Khan gets an honorable mention for getting me to read Moby Dick. You could say he tasked me. He tasked me, and I would read it. I'd read it on the moons of Nibia and in the Antares Maelstrom and in perdition's flames before I gave it up! But that's a reference to the movie and will serve as a nice segue to...
Wrath of Khan review:
HD Film Tributes music video: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan Main Theme by James Horner. I used to be able to play that on the piano... kind of. It fell apart in a couple of places. I certainly wasn't as good as this guy, and I wouldn't take it on the road, but it was passable.
4.5 stars rounded down to four. This is so close to five stars it can taste it. The fact that I was considering not putting this on my "liked movie better" shelf is telling. This is, after all, my favorite Star Trek film. Vonda McIntyre nails it, and it gives me high hopes for parts III and IV which she also penned. Not only is she a decent writer, which isn't something you can say for many novelization novelists, she also provides great character development and history for some of the secondary characters. Saavik...
...gets most of it. Turns out she's half Vulcan/half Romulan, and it's fun watching her try to control her emotions and understand humans and Vulcans. And despite the omission of a bit of dialogue that makes it clear, all Trekkies know that Peter...
...is Scotty's nephew. If you don't know it, you'd be justified in wondering why Scott was so distraught after his death. It's even more heartbreaking in the book. Peter is actually only 14 years old, and he and Scotty were on the outs for a couple of days prior to his demise. Scotty had been riding him really hard, but Peter was bound and determined to lump it and show his uncle (who is a real asshole at this part) that he had what it takes. Peter also had a boy crush on Saavik who was his tutor (this is what the kerfuffle with his uncle was about), and if he'd been a couple of years old, you could say he was hot for teacher. Saavik also feels a fondness for the boy which confuses her (nothing sexual; she's just never felt fond of anything or anyone before joining Starfleet, though she highly respects Spock who is her mentor.) As you can see, there are plenty of dramatic elements mixed into this that were missing from the film, but it's done really well and doesn't distract from the main plot at all. In fact, it enhances it. Ms. McIntyre also polished up a couple of movie/show errors. E.G. Fans love to point out that Chekov wasn't on the show for season one and that he couldn't possibly remember Khan, nor could Khan possibly remember Chekov's face. In the book, Chekov remembers Khan's time on the Enterprise quite well though he wasn't on the A-team yet. He was also quite smitten with McIver and was distraught to learn that she had died courtesy of the Ceti Eels.
He remember Lieutenant McIver. She had been tall and beautiful and classically elegant; but more important, kind and sweet and wise. He had had only one conversation with her, and that by chance--he was an ensign, assigned to the night watch, when she was on the Enterprise, and ensigns and officers did not mix much. But once, she had talked with him. For days afterward, he had wished he were older, more experienced, of a more equivalent rank. . . . He had wished many things.Anyway, kudos, Ms. McIntyre!
When she left the Enterprise to go with Khan, Ensign Pavel Chekov had locked himself in his cabin and cried. How could she go with Khan? He had never understood. He did not understand now.
But there was one area where I think she messed it up, or perhaps it was the writers of the screenplay who screwed the pooch. Joachim,...
([1])
...Khan's right-hand man who shouldn't be confused with Joaquin, the right-hand goon in "Space Seed" who exhibits caveman syntax,...
...doesn't fit the mold of a genetically superior being who has spent his entire life with a hard gang of supermen who think nothing of murdering their enemies. He's the voice of reason in the movie, and he makes perfect sense there because he's looking at things logically while Khan is hellbent on revenge. However, in the book he's shocked at Khan's violence during the attack on the spacelab, a scene which would've kicked the movie to an R rating, no ifs, ands, or buts about it had it been filmed as it was written here. I couldn't figure why he was shocked and horrified. He should be used to this. He certainly had no problem dropping those Ceti Eels into Chekov and Terrell's helmets and making sure they didn't take them off. And speaking of those damned eels, this scene...
...is one of many that contributed to a great sense of unease during my childhood. Large Marge,...
...ripped out hearts, Princess Mombi and the Wheelers (which sounds like it ought to be a 60's girl group), just about any scene in The Secret of Nimh... Is it any wonder I prospected in alcoholism?
I was hoping the book would give the true origin of the Genesis Device, but it didn't. The film makes it look like Dr. Marcus and David made the whole thing from scratch, and the book did the same, but this is just plain wrong. It was originally invented in England sometime during the reign of George IV by Miss Havisham.
Its purpose of giving life was the same as its 23rd century upgrade, but it was much more low-key and applied just to a single human being. The Marcuses took that to a planetary scale. It also didn't need the tears of brokenhearted men to power it since many new kinds of fuels and other technological advancements had been discovered and invented in the ensuing 450 years. It's like comparing two tin cans connected by a string to the smartphones of today, but Doctors Marcus and Marcus used Miss Havisham's blueprints to get them on the right path. Those documents have a patchy history. They were kept at Mr. Jaggers' law office, but after his death, it was discovered that they were missing. They were assumed permanently lost for 200 years when they were discovered in Joe Biden's garage in late 2021. But then they immediately went missing again and stayed that way until they simply fell out of a storage bin of quadrotriticale along with several Tribbles on Deep Space Station K7 in 2268 (Stardate 4523.3). Cyrano Jones pocketed it while cleaning up the Tribbles and sold it to David Marcus about ten years later while he was visiting the station with his mother. Research commenced, one thing led to another, and voila, we have Genesis.
That omission, the Joachim thing, and a couple other matters keep the fifth star at bay (but not Botany Bay, hyuck, hyuck, hyuck.)
(Good thing this doesn't count as humor, then.) Anyway, there were some other minor errors. Some can be glossed over. E.G. The mind meld between Spock and McCoy, which serves as a major plot point in part III, doesn't happen the book, though it could easily be inserted in the sequel. It's possible the screenwriters didn't know about that future plot development when they originally wrote the screenplay. Such are the hazards of writing a novelization and timing it to come out with the movie. But there were other nit-picky inconsistencies such as calling the system Khan is in and all its planets Alpha Ceti instead of Ceti Alpha. This could be another forgivable screenplay issue if it hadn't been established in "Space Seed" that it was the Ceti Alpha system.
Aside from that, this was fantastic, everything I want a novelization to be. Plus, it recalls this scene, the greatest in film history, to my mind...
...and that is always a good thing.
[1]: Speaking of screwing the pooch, Judson Scott's agents negotiated him out of getting any billing at all in the movie. They thought he should be listed at the beginning with the other main/semi-main characters. The producers disagreed, so the agents "waived billing." Scott thought that meant getting listed at the end with everyone else, but nope. It means you get NOTHING! He laughs about it now. "I went to the movie and I went...WOW, I know that was me!"
November 3, 2020
Novelizations are wonderful. Pure film adaptations that document and show the reader script development. (Usually such novels are adapted from an early draft and not from the finished product.
Star Trek II is no exception. Its no spoiler if its mentioned that there is a lot more development of minor characters in this not to mention swearing. Fascinating.
Star Trek II is no exception. Its no spoiler if its mentioned that there is a lot more development of minor characters in this not to mention swearing. Fascinating.
March 17, 2022
It has been such an enjoyable experience reading Star Trek novelizations. I thought that the three that I've read so far, "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country", "Voyager: Endgame" and "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" were all excellent, fantastic novels! When I saw how short The Wrath of Khan novelization was, I was nervous it wouldn't be as good.
Even though it doesn't live up to the heights of the other books, this is still a good novelization.
This book really adds to the story of two characters, Lieutenant Saavik and Peter Preston. Saavik is one character who really benefited from the novelizations, and it is a shame she does not show up in more Star Trek media. We understand her Vulcan/Romulan history a lot more and her complexity is really excellently displayed. Plus, its fun seeing how Vonda McIntyre set up a lot here that could be used for the novelization of "Search for Spock".
The story of Peter Preston is really tragic and gives this book a lot of heart. His story was honestly the most interesting to me. The frustrations of nepotism were very relatable and the desire to fit in while also standing out was well portrayed. It is sad that he died so early on (not a spoiler, as that happens literally in the movie).
This book does have several flaws that make fall short of it's fellow novelizations. The most glaring issue is the pacing. While the beginning flows well, the middle of the novel moves glacially slow, and the majority of what happens in the movie occurs in the last 70 pages of the book. The action of the movie does not entirely translate well to the page, so I don't blame McIntyre for that. However, it is really apparant how uneven the pacing is.
Another major issue in this book is the atrocious writing of Scottie. He felt very cliche' and dare I say it, stereotyped. I know McIntyre handled his dialogue better in Search for Spock, although he doesn't have quite as center a stage in that book. Regardless, I couldn't stand the way he was written in this book. More accent marks used for his character here than for perhaps any other character ever.
Not an issue that detracts from my enjoyment of the book, but McIntyre continuously refers to the planet as "Alpha Ceti V" whereas the movie refers to it as "Ceti Alpha V". It felt very weird. Also, the cover art is very bizarre and feels like a heavy metal album cover. Doesn't work as well as the other covers. Pocket Books should have used the Wrath of Khan poster instead.
Overall, I did really enjoy this book. Unfortunately, I didn't love it, and it had some major glaring issues. 6.5 out of 10! Decent showing by McIntyre, but Search for Spock is a much superior novelization (and I think a better movie).
Even though it doesn't live up to the heights of the other books, this is still a good novelization.
This book really adds to the story of two characters, Lieutenant Saavik and Peter Preston. Saavik is one character who really benefited from the novelizations, and it is a shame she does not show up in more Star Trek media. We understand her Vulcan/Romulan history a lot more and her complexity is really excellently displayed. Plus, its fun seeing how Vonda McIntyre set up a lot here that could be used for the novelization of "Search for Spock".
The story of Peter Preston is really tragic and gives this book a lot of heart. His story was honestly the most interesting to me. The frustrations of nepotism were very relatable and the desire to fit in while also standing out was well portrayed. It is sad that he died so early on (not a spoiler, as that happens literally in the movie).
This book does have several flaws that make fall short of it's fellow novelizations. The most glaring issue is the pacing. While the beginning flows well, the middle of the novel moves glacially slow, and the majority of what happens in the movie occurs in the last 70 pages of the book. The action of the movie does not entirely translate well to the page, so I don't blame McIntyre for that. However, it is really apparant how uneven the pacing is.
Another major issue in this book is the atrocious writing of Scottie. He felt very cliche' and dare I say it, stereotyped. I know McIntyre handled his dialogue better in Search for Spock, although he doesn't have quite as center a stage in that book. Regardless, I couldn't stand the way he was written in this book. More accent marks used for his character here than for perhaps any other character ever.
Not an issue that detracts from my enjoyment of the book, but McIntyre continuously refers to the planet as "Alpha Ceti V" whereas the movie refers to it as "Ceti Alpha V". It felt very weird. Also, the cover art is very bizarre and feels like a heavy metal album cover. Doesn't work as well as the other covers. Pocket Books should have used the Wrath of Khan poster instead.
Overall, I did really enjoy this book. Unfortunately, I didn't love it, and it had some major glaring issues. 6.5 out of 10! Decent showing by McIntyre, but Search for Spock is a much superior novelization (and I think a better movie).
Read
October 27, 2022Flash back to my childhood of the mid-eighties. We had a television but this was before the time when cable TV was in pretty much every home, and streaming didn’t exist. Video rental was so new and VCR’s were so expensive that many families would have to rent the player along with the movie.
As such, these novelizations were my early gateways into the Star Trek universe. I have probably read these books more times than I have seen the movies and for me it’s like comfort food.
Vonda McIntyre had some serious game and her Star Trek books are fantastic. This is how novelizations of movies should be done. The story of the film is here, with some great enhancing details and plot threads.
Some things I love about the book - first of all there is much more of a sense of Khan’s brutality. Where a more family friendly movie might shy away from some things and without getting too extreme, the book has just a touch more violence and graphic details. And the result is Khan being more disturbing as a character and that works really well.
I also think Saavik is more successful as a character. One downside of the films is that we got two separate women portraying her, Kirstie Alley and Robin Curtis. I like both performances but they both had their own distinctive qualities that they brought to the character. What I like about the book is that Saavik seems to embody both of their interpretations. I also think the movies did a disservice to the character by scrubbing away her backstory of being half Romulan. I thought the book brilliantly displayed her struggling with the intense passions of that Romulan side. It also was a great display of her conflict of not feeling completely of one culture without just recycling Spock’s story.
There’s a long standing criticism of the movie from fans pointing out that Khan shouldn’t have remembered Chekov since Walter Koenig hadn’t joined the cast at that point. I’m not going to take sides on that issue but the book offers up a cute little explanation for that continuity hiccup.
I love Star Trek. And were it not for these books there would have been a lot less of it in my life. For a kid where the only option was being lucky enough to catch it if the local station ran it as a weekend movie, these were a great option.
As such, these novelizations were my early gateways into the Star Trek universe. I have probably read these books more times than I have seen the movies and for me it’s like comfort food.
Vonda McIntyre had some serious game and her Star Trek books are fantastic. This is how novelizations of movies should be done. The story of the film is here, with some great enhancing details and plot threads.
Some things I love about the book - first of all there is much more of a sense of Khan’s brutality. Where a more family friendly movie might shy away from some things and without getting too extreme, the book has just a touch more violence and graphic details. And the result is Khan being more disturbing as a character and that works really well.
I also think Saavik is more successful as a character. One downside of the films is that we got two separate women portraying her, Kirstie Alley and Robin Curtis. I like both performances but they both had their own distinctive qualities that they brought to the character. What I like about the book is that Saavik seems to embody both of their interpretations. I also think the movies did a disservice to the character by scrubbing away her backstory of being half Romulan. I thought the book brilliantly displayed her struggling with the intense passions of that Romulan side. It also was a great display of her conflict of not feeling completely of one culture without just recycling Spock’s story.
There’s a long standing criticism of the movie from fans pointing out that Khan shouldn’t have remembered Chekov since Walter Koenig hadn’t joined the cast at that point. I’m not going to take sides on that issue but the book offers up a cute little explanation for that continuity hiccup.
I love Star Trek. And were it not for these books there would have been a lot less of it in my life. For a kid where the only option was being lucky enough to catch it if the local station ran it as a weekend movie, these were a great option.
October 16, 2025
#Binge Reviewing my previous Reads #Star Trek
*Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan* by Vonda N. McIntyre reads like an emotional sequel to a myth, an elegy wrapped in photon fire. It is the rare tie-in novel that not only translates the film’s drama but deepens it—widening its moral and metaphysical horizons until what was once a story of revenge becomes a meditation on aging, loss, and the strange persistence of grace in a mechanized cosmos. McIntyre doesn’t just retell; she reorients. Her prose has muscle and melancholy, the tone of someone writing about legends who’ve begun to suspect their own mortality.
The book begins not with Khan, but with Kirk—older, slower, wrestling with the quiet terror of obsolescence. McIntyre makes you *feel* the weight of his years: the stiffness in his shoulders, the ache beneath his bravado. The film shows this in glances; the novel *dwells* there. It’s as if Kirk himself has become a relic of Starfleet’s mythic past, watching new generations take his place while he still burns for the stars. In McIntyre’s hands, he’s no longer just the swashbuckling captain—he’s the poet-warrior realizing that time, not Klingons, is his true enemy. She makes aging mythic, a cosmic phenomenon.
Spock, by contrast, moves through the pages like a figure of serene acceptance — but the serenity is earned, not innate. McIntyre takes us inside his mind, the quiet spaces of Vulcan discipline where emotion hums like a caged flame. His friendship with Kirk becomes less a subplot and more a gravitational constant. They orbit each other in silence, two halves of a dying sun. The novel’s great strength lies in how it *breathes* between the lines of the screenplay: those unspoken gestures, the philosophical undertow, and the awareness that their adventures — like all myths — are finite.
And then there’s Khan. In McIntyre’s rendering, he’s more tragic than monstrous, a man intoxicated by his own mythology. His hatred is volcanic, yes, but beneath it simmers nostalgia, pride, and wounded love. She gives him soliloquies that feel Shakespearean — rage filtered through loss. When he invokes Moby-Dick, it’s not a cinematic flourish; it’s prophecy. His vendetta against Kirk becomes an allegory for all failed creators, all who cannot forgive the god who abandoned them. McIntyre doesn’t excuse him, but she lets him ache — and that ache makes him unforgettable.
The language she uses is supple and often luminous. Space, for her, isn’t an empty void but a psychological landscape. The stars are mirrors, reflecting human fears back in cold light. She writes of the Enterprise not as a ship but as a living entity — a womb, a cathedral, a time machine carrying its weary crew through their own mythic memories. Her descriptions have texture: light feels tactile, gravity emotional. Even battle scenes pulse with poetic rhythm — energy beams and explosions become punctuation marks in an operatic sentence about destiny.
McIntyre expands subplots the film barely touches. Saavik, for example, emerges not as a mere cadet but as an archetype of inheritance—the next generation trying to decipher the legends that came before. Through her, McIntyre explores mentorship, gender, and the tension between discipline and intuition. The novel lingers on her half-Vulcan, half-Romulan identity, making her a kind of metaphor for the hybrid future—logic and passion fused in the same body. It’s the Roddenberry ideal evolving under McIntyre’s feminist, psychological gaze.
But what makes this book quietly devastating is the way it handles death. Spock’s sacrifice isn’t abrupt or melodramatic here; it’s foreshadowed with the rhythm of inevitability. McIntyre lets us feel his calm preparation, his acceptance that survival without meaning is hollow. When the moment comes, the prose slows—time dilates, like grief does. The fusion of myth and machinery, of nobility and necessity, turns that final act into something liturgical. You feel the echo of ancient hero myths, but it’s also shockingly human. The death of a friend, rendered with the clarity of light through glass.
And yet, the novel never sinks into despair. McIntyre, unlike the movie, refuses to end with finality. She fills the silence that follows with reflection. Kirk’s mourning becomes almost philosophical—the recognition that leadership, love, and loss are indistinguishable in the end. Her closing chapters have the tone of a requiem but also of renewal. There’s an implicit faith that memory — both personal and collective—is the real warp drive, propelling humanity through the void.
Stylistically, she writes like someone who’s lived with these characters for decades, and in a sense she had. McIntyre’s voice blends scientific precision with lyric grace; she understands how emotion moves through technology. Her sentences are structured like Starfleet orders that dissolve into poetry. She’ll describe a console’s blinking light, then pivot to Kirk’s interior monologue about the futility of command. The mundane and the mythic coexist, like circuitry and heartbeat. That’s her true genius — she humanizes the machinery and mechanizes the soul until both seem sacred.
In a way, *The Wrath of Khan* as written by McIntyre becomes a novel about storytelling itself — how we pass down our legends, how myth mutates through retelling. Khan’s obsession with Kirk mirrors the audience’s obsession with heroes who outlive their time. Both are acts of love, distorted by loss. McIntyre understands that *Star Trek* endures not because of its ships or phasers, but because it’s a continuing negotiation between human frailty and cosmic scale. Her prose captures that tension perfectly — the infinite compressed into a human breath.
There’s also a quiet political pulse beneath the narrative — a meditation on power, vengeance, and moral consequence. Khan’s tyranny mirrors the Federation’s hubris: both born of control, both blind to humility. McIntyre allows the possibility that the real evolution humanity needs is not technological, but ethical — that the final frontier isn’t space, but empathy. In that sense, her *Wrath of Khan* is not about war at all; it’s about reconciliation with mortality and memory.
By the final pages, you realize the novel isn’t an adaptation but a translation — from spectacle to soul. It reframes the legend of Kirk and Spock as a cosmic tragedy, where friendship becomes the axis of meaning in an indifferent universe. McIntyre writes not as a franchise scribe, but as a mythkeeper. Her version of the story could be read a hundred years from now and still resonate — because beneath the uniforms and starlight, it’s about the oldest human questions: How do we face death? How do we live with loss? What does it mean to keep seeking?
It’s rare for a book tied to a film to transcend its source, rarer still for it to outfeel it. McIntyre manages both. She gives *The Wrath of Khan* its heart back — and, paradoxically, its soul through loss.
If *Roddenberry’s Motion Picture* novel was a cosmic hymn, McIntyre’s *Wrath of Khan* is its requiem — tender, furious, and finally, transcendent.
Give it a go…..
*Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan* by Vonda N. McIntyre reads like an emotional sequel to a myth, an elegy wrapped in photon fire. It is the rare tie-in novel that not only translates the film’s drama but deepens it—widening its moral and metaphysical horizons until what was once a story of revenge becomes a meditation on aging, loss, and the strange persistence of grace in a mechanized cosmos. McIntyre doesn’t just retell; she reorients. Her prose has muscle and melancholy, the tone of someone writing about legends who’ve begun to suspect their own mortality.
The book begins not with Khan, but with Kirk—older, slower, wrestling with the quiet terror of obsolescence. McIntyre makes you *feel* the weight of his years: the stiffness in his shoulders, the ache beneath his bravado. The film shows this in glances; the novel *dwells* there. It’s as if Kirk himself has become a relic of Starfleet’s mythic past, watching new generations take his place while he still burns for the stars. In McIntyre’s hands, he’s no longer just the swashbuckling captain—he’s the poet-warrior realizing that time, not Klingons, is his true enemy. She makes aging mythic, a cosmic phenomenon.
Spock, by contrast, moves through the pages like a figure of serene acceptance — but the serenity is earned, not innate. McIntyre takes us inside his mind, the quiet spaces of Vulcan discipline where emotion hums like a caged flame. His friendship with Kirk becomes less a subplot and more a gravitational constant. They orbit each other in silence, two halves of a dying sun. The novel’s great strength lies in how it *breathes* between the lines of the screenplay: those unspoken gestures, the philosophical undertow, and the awareness that their adventures — like all myths — are finite.
And then there’s Khan. In McIntyre’s rendering, he’s more tragic than monstrous, a man intoxicated by his own mythology. His hatred is volcanic, yes, but beneath it simmers nostalgia, pride, and wounded love. She gives him soliloquies that feel Shakespearean — rage filtered through loss. When he invokes Moby-Dick, it’s not a cinematic flourish; it’s prophecy. His vendetta against Kirk becomes an allegory for all failed creators, all who cannot forgive the god who abandoned them. McIntyre doesn’t excuse him, but she lets him ache — and that ache makes him unforgettable.
The language she uses is supple and often luminous. Space, for her, isn’t an empty void but a psychological landscape. The stars are mirrors, reflecting human fears back in cold light. She writes of the Enterprise not as a ship but as a living entity — a womb, a cathedral, a time machine carrying its weary crew through their own mythic memories. Her descriptions have texture: light feels tactile, gravity emotional. Even battle scenes pulse with poetic rhythm — energy beams and explosions become punctuation marks in an operatic sentence about destiny.
McIntyre expands subplots the film barely touches. Saavik, for example, emerges not as a mere cadet but as an archetype of inheritance—the next generation trying to decipher the legends that came before. Through her, McIntyre explores mentorship, gender, and the tension between discipline and intuition. The novel lingers on her half-Vulcan, half-Romulan identity, making her a kind of metaphor for the hybrid future—logic and passion fused in the same body. It’s the Roddenberry ideal evolving under McIntyre’s feminist, psychological gaze.
But what makes this book quietly devastating is the way it handles death. Spock’s sacrifice isn’t abrupt or melodramatic here; it’s foreshadowed with the rhythm of inevitability. McIntyre lets us feel his calm preparation, his acceptance that survival without meaning is hollow. When the moment comes, the prose slows—time dilates, like grief does. The fusion of myth and machinery, of nobility and necessity, turns that final act into something liturgical. You feel the echo of ancient hero myths, but it’s also shockingly human. The death of a friend, rendered with the clarity of light through glass.
And yet, the novel never sinks into despair. McIntyre, unlike the movie, refuses to end with finality. She fills the silence that follows with reflection. Kirk’s mourning becomes almost philosophical—the recognition that leadership, love, and loss are indistinguishable in the end. Her closing chapters have the tone of a requiem but also of renewal. There’s an implicit faith that memory — both personal and collective—is the real warp drive, propelling humanity through the void.
Stylistically, she writes like someone who’s lived with these characters for decades, and in a sense she had. McIntyre’s voice blends scientific precision with lyric grace; she understands how emotion moves through technology. Her sentences are structured like Starfleet orders that dissolve into poetry. She’ll describe a console’s blinking light, then pivot to Kirk’s interior monologue about the futility of command. The mundane and the mythic coexist, like circuitry and heartbeat. That’s her true genius — she humanizes the machinery and mechanizes the soul until both seem sacred.
In a way, *The Wrath of Khan* as written by McIntyre becomes a novel about storytelling itself — how we pass down our legends, how myth mutates through retelling. Khan’s obsession with Kirk mirrors the audience’s obsession with heroes who outlive their time. Both are acts of love, distorted by loss. McIntyre understands that *Star Trek* endures not because of its ships or phasers, but because it’s a continuing negotiation between human frailty and cosmic scale. Her prose captures that tension perfectly — the infinite compressed into a human breath.
There’s also a quiet political pulse beneath the narrative — a meditation on power, vengeance, and moral consequence. Khan’s tyranny mirrors the Federation’s hubris: both born of control, both blind to humility. McIntyre allows the possibility that the real evolution humanity needs is not technological, but ethical — that the final frontier isn’t space, but empathy. In that sense, her *Wrath of Khan* is not about war at all; it’s about reconciliation with mortality and memory.
By the final pages, you realize the novel isn’t an adaptation but a translation — from spectacle to soul. It reframes the legend of Kirk and Spock as a cosmic tragedy, where friendship becomes the axis of meaning in an indifferent universe. McIntyre writes not as a franchise scribe, but as a mythkeeper. Her version of the story could be read a hundred years from now and still resonate — because beneath the uniforms and starlight, it’s about the oldest human questions: How do we face death? How do we live with loss? What does it mean to keep seeking?
It’s rare for a book tied to a film to transcend its source, rarer still for it to outfeel it. McIntyre manages both. She gives *The Wrath of Khan* its heart back — and, paradoxically, its soul through loss.
If *Roddenberry’s Motion Picture* novel was a cosmic hymn, McIntyre’s *Wrath of Khan* is its requiem — tender, furious, and finally, transcendent.
Give it a go…..
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