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Star Trek Short Stories
Presents the adventures in outer space of James T. Kirk, Lieutenant Uhuru, Pavel Chekov, and other characters from the movie, Star trek II
160 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1982
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About the author
William Rotsler
80 books8 followersWilliam "Bill" Rotsler was an American cartoonist and graphic artist; author of several science fiction novels and short stories, and television and film novelizations, and non-fiction works on a variety of topics, ranging from Star Trek to pornography; a prominent member of science fiction fandom; and a sculptor, primarily in metal, who contributed to the art at the entrance to the Los Angeles Police Department headquarters.
Pseudonyms:
Victor W. II Appleton, William Arrow, Andrew Garth, John Ryder Hall, Cord Heller, Latham Hilliard, Linda Holland, Harmony Holt, Lothar Korda, Honey Malcom, Hord Markham, Clay McCord, Howard Scott Miles, Clint Randall, Beverly Sorenson, Beth Waring, Fletcher Westflag.
Pseudonyms:
Victor W. II Appleton, William Arrow, Andrew Garth, John Ryder Hall, Cord Heller, Latham Hilliard, Linda Holland, Harmony Holt, Lothar Korda, Honey Malcom, Hord Markham, Clay McCord, Howard Scott Miles, Clint Randall, Beverly Sorenson, Beth Waring, Fletcher Westflag.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 30, 2018
A volume of Star Trek short stories for younger readers, set before the events of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. I give Rotsler credit for focusing more on the supporting characters, but in my opinion, the stories don't quite have the "Star Trek feel." Many of the plot points are strange, even considering this is a kid's book. A lot of the time, the characters are sloppy about their supposed scientific mission, and not really in character. Chekov at one point disintegrates a group of snake-like aliens even though he suspects they could be intelligent. He never seriously attempts to communicate, because they look yucky (despite the whole, you know, "new life-forms and new civilizations" thing). McCoy barely appears at all. Sulu comes off as a creepy butterfly collector, killing and mounting alien bugs for his personal collection without making any kind of proper scientific report. The stories are all just a little bit "off," and no better than okay. Taking into consideration that the copy-editing is bad, sometimes with more than one typo on the same page, I'm assuming this was rushed into publication to coincide with the movie, without much consideration for the quality of the product.
December 27, 2020
"Oof," I thought after reading the first selection, The Blaze of Glory. "I really hope that first story is the worst of the lot and not at all indicative of what is to come."
"Yikes!" thought I after the second story, Under Twin Moons, wrapped up in a rush after giving me false hope of an exciting Uhura adventure, yet never having managed to make any sense from the beginning, starting off with quoting the death date of her supposed lover, whom she would have had to have a relationship with 75 years before she was ever born. "Well, surely it will get better from here!"
Luckily for me, the third story, Wild Card was much better. It read as though all the action from a classic TOS episode was packed into a few pages with all the extraneous stuff stripped out. It was a quick but enjoyable and nostalgic read.
The fourth story, The Secret Empire was so-so, a bit silly, a bit clumsy in presenting its moral, but it definitely had its entertaining moments.
The fifth story, Intelligence Test, was very short and pretty pointless. I was especially disappointed by it as it was set up to be a Chekov story and there aren't enough good ones of those.
The sixth and final story, To Wherever, was so much fun! It definitely had some Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy vibes, which really worked here. Spock was painfully out of character at the start of the story, but that faded after a couple of pages, and it was still my favourite of the bunch.
If this collection had contained only Wild Card, The Secret Empire, and To Wherever, I probably would have said 4 stars.
As it is, a hard 3 stars from me. But I'd happily read the best selections again.
"Yikes!" thought I after the second story, Under Twin Moons, wrapped up in a rush after giving me false hope of an exciting Uhura adventure, yet never having managed to make any sense from the beginning, starting off with quoting the death date of her supposed lover, whom she would have had to have a relationship with 75 years before she was ever born. "Well, surely it will get better from here!"
Luckily for me, the third story, Wild Card was much better. It read as though all the action from a classic TOS episode was packed into a few pages with all the extraneous stuff stripped out. It was a quick but enjoyable and nostalgic read.
The fourth story, The Secret Empire was so-so, a bit silly, a bit clumsy in presenting its moral, but it definitely had its entertaining moments.
The fifth story, Intelligence Test, was very short and pretty pointless. I was especially disappointed by it as it was set up to be a Chekov story and there aren't enough good ones of those.
The sixth and final story, To Wherever, was so much fun! It definitely had some Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy vibes, which really worked here. Spock was painfully out of character at the start of the story, but that faded after a couple of pages, and it was still my favourite of the bunch.
If this collection had contained only Wild Card, The Secret Empire, and To Wherever, I probably would have said 4 stars.
As it is, a hard 3 stars from me. But I'd happily read the best selections again.
March 20, 2025
Neither this book nor the follow-up released to tie in with STIII actually tie in to the movies at all. With both books it's obvious that the author didn't have the slightest clue what these movies were going to be about. Like in the STIII book he has the Enterprise getting repaired after STII and going back out on some random missions whereas in the film they return to find out the Enterprise is being decommissioned then they steal it and blow it up. So the author apparently didn't even have any contacts with the filmmakers to give them a hint about what the basic plot of the movie was. Were these things even official? It feels like some kind of bootleg tie-in. Basically these are just random stories that feel like rejected TAS scripts supposedly set between ST I and II.
October 20, 2011
I gave this book 4 stars becuase it was good but not the best one i have read but is still very good. I dont like it when book are on the same subjects becuase you compare them and one is better and this is what happend to this book. So this review was a little unfair if you want to read this book and i am sarry for that..... Ya this book was judged unjustly but it is still one of the best books i've read. So if you see this review about it pick it up it is a great book and good if you like star-trek. I am sorry that is not the best review but, to me, it is the truth.
October 1, 2016
Sorta kinda fun for fans, but not coherent or sensible. Or original. Or memorable.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews