Take a photo of a barcode or cover
While J.J. Abrams' new 'Star Trek' movie was a promising re-launch for the Star Trek franchise, Foster's novelization is a poor adaptation. With very little expansion from the events of the script and surprisingly clumsy writing, this ends up feeling very much like the rush job it may well have been, in desperate need of a few more passes under an editor's pen. The movie, in this case, is most definitely better than the book.
A serviceable, if uninspired, by-the-numbers adaptation, with very little deviation (good or bad) from the movie. Those few more interesting departures that I saw have been commented on in my progress updates as I read.
I don't know how restrictive Paramount et. al. are when it comes to modern adaptations, but I really do wish they'd go back and use Vonda McIntyre's adaptations of Star Trek II, III, and IV as examples of how to do it well.
I don't know how restrictive Paramount et. al. are when it comes to modern adaptations, but I really do wish they'd go back and use Vonda McIntyre's adaptations of Star Trek II, III, and IV as examples of how to do it well.
I really do enjoy these older sci-fi books. Three short-ish stories in this one, and for the most part, all three manage to concentrate on some fun ideas of space exploration adventure without getting too mired in the more sexist attitudes of the time. I particularly liked that in all three, but especially the first, the author is content to let questions go unanswered if they're outside the scope of the main thrust if the story.
I've been slowly working my way through this one for a while, but I think it's finally time to admit that I'm just not moved to finish it. It's not bad at all, however, it just doesn't grab my interest. The stories are, though this is an imperfect description, a bit too dreamy and drift-y to really hold my interest. I can see how they'd work for others, they simply don't for me.
Really enjoyed this one. A neat exploration of four vignettes based around the idea that we have colonized other planets, not by limiting ourselves to Earth-type planets or terraforming, but by genetically engineering settlers adapted to each target planet. Some neat ideas in here.
Individual novel ratings: Rage, three stars; The Long Walk, four; Roadwork, two; The Running Man, three.
Rage was quite interesting, especially as I didn't realize it had been taken out of print until I'd finished it. For all the stigma it has gained through it's connection to non-fiction school shootings, there's really not much violence to it. Much more psychology of the people involved.
The Long Walk ended up being my favorite of the four. Very focused on the walk and the personalities of the walkers, almost written in real time, and nearly no information about the world around it.
Roadwork was a slog to get through. Where the highly-detailed almost real time pace worked well for The Long Walk, here it just makes the story drag on and on and on.... Boring.
The Running Man has nearly nothing in common with the Schwarzenegger film beside the basic hunted-human game show concept. Nothing stellar here, but a decent solid dystopian future story. Always fun to root for the underdog.
Rage was quite interesting, especially as I didn't realize it had been taken out of print until I'd finished it. For all the stigma it has gained through it's connection to non-fiction school shootings, there's really not much violence to it. Much more psychology of the people involved.
The Long Walk ended up being my favorite of the four. Very focused on the walk and the personalities of the walkers, almost written in real time, and nearly no information about the world around it.
Roadwork was a slog to get through. Where the highly-detailed almost real time pace worked well for The Long Walk, here it just makes the story drag on and on and on.... Boring.
The Running Man has nearly nothing in common with the Schwarzenegger film beside the basic hunted-human game show concept. Nothing stellar here, but a decent solid dystopian future story. Always fun to root for the underdog.
Definitely one of the best Star Trek novels I've read. My one problem is the device used to kick everything off -- that the Federation uses it's leaders' children as "Warrantors of Peace" by implanting weapon launch codes in their hearts; the only way for a leader to launch an attack against another member of the Federation is to extract the codes by killing their child. This is a bizarre and very un-Federation method of ensuring peace, made all the more bizarre because it's portrayed as having been proposed by the Vulcans after having been used in the past on Vulcan to ensure peace among their tribes during their reformation.
However, and thankfully, that aspect of the story (though trumpeted on the back cover of the book, which initially gave me great doubts as to my expectations for the book) is actually only a very minor point, serving only as an excuse to initiate the hostage situation that forms the main thrust of the book.
The book itself is actually a thoughtful and beautifully written exploration of the bonds between two very different women, one Vulcan (and one unusually introverted and reserved, even for a Vulcan) and one human. Their relationship is explored both through the difficulties of their time in captivity and, through flashbacks, the time spent getting to know and learn about each other before their abduction.
Along with this comes a lot of exploration of the cultures of various Star Trek races, primarily Vulcan, Romulan, Deltan, and Klingon (roughly in descending order of how much is learned about each race). An obvious debt is owed (and acknowledged in the dedication) to Diane Duane and her Rihannsu books; I really find it more than a little disappointing that the Powers That Be decided to confine Duane's fleshing out of Romulan culture to the books and declined to incorporate it into canon Star Trek (as other aspects of the books were later incorporated into canon Trek mythology).
Though it seems (from reading other reviews here on Goodreads) many people have problems with how little the primary Trek personalities feature in the story, I didn't find this a problem at all. On the contrary, one of the strengths of the Trek novels is their ability to explore the Trek universe beyond presenting yet another "monster of the week" adventure for the Enterprise and her crew, and Crucible does a wonderful job of using new characters to explore and expand upon Trek concepts.
There are a few other somewhat problematic points -- there's a bit too much of Kirk ogling the just-rescued human abductee at the end, and some very Stockholm Syndrome moments between the human prisoner and her Klingon captor that, while possible, feel somewhat glossed over and handled somewhat clumsily. However, given the strength of the rest of the book, and that this book was published before there were more strict guidelines as to what could and could not happen within Trek books (which, to be honest, probably accounts for this book's strengths as much as its failures), I'm willing to accept these points. Without these concerns and the Warrantors of Peace idea, this would easily have been a five-star book (very rare among Trek novels); even with these concerns, though, I have no problems giving this a four-star rating.
However, and thankfully, that aspect of the story (though trumpeted on the back cover of the book, which initially gave me great doubts as to my expectations for the book) is actually only a very minor point, serving only as an excuse to initiate the hostage situation that forms the main thrust of the book.
The book itself is actually a thoughtful and beautifully written exploration of the bonds between two very different women, one Vulcan (and one unusually introverted and reserved, even for a Vulcan) and one human. Their relationship is explored both through the difficulties of their time in captivity and, through flashbacks, the time spent getting to know and learn about each other before their abduction.
Along with this comes a lot of exploration of the cultures of various Star Trek races, primarily Vulcan, Romulan, Deltan, and Klingon (roughly in descending order of how much is learned about each race). An obvious debt is owed (and acknowledged in the dedication) to Diane Duane and her Rihannsu books; I really find it more than a little disappointing that the Powers That Be decided to confine Duane's fleshing out of Romulan culture to the books and declined to incorporate it into canon Star Trek (as other aspects of the books were later incorporated into canon Trek mythology).
Though it seems (from reading other reviews here on Goodreads) many people have problems with how little the primary Trek personalities feature in the story, I didn't find this a problem at all. On the contrary, one of the strengths of the Trek novels is their ability to explore the Trek universe beyond presenting yet another "monster of the week" adventure for the Enterprise and her crew, and Crucible does a wonderful job of using new characters to explore and expand upon Trek concepts.
There are a few other somewhat problematic points -- there's a bit too much of Kirk ogling the just-rescued human abductee at the end, and some very Stockholm Syndrome moments between the human prisoner and her Klingon captor that, while possible, feel somewhat glossed over and handled somewhat clumsily. However, given the strength of the rest of the book, and that this book was published before there were more strict guidelines as to what could and could not happen within Trek books (which, to be honest, probably accounts for this book's strengths as much as its failures), I'm willing to accept these points. Without these concerns and the Warrantors of Peace idea, this would easily have been a five-star book (very rare among Trek novels); even with these concerns, though, I have no problems giving this a four-star rating.
