STRANGERS FROM THE SKY - Margaret Wander Bonanno

STAR TREK WEEK

 There was a time that I read every Star Trek novel as soon as they were published.  Until the mid-1980's, these all featured Captain Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the crew from the original series and with only two or three a year, it was easy to keep up with the releases.  But then, particularly around the time Star Trek: The Next Generation hit stations, books were being released at a rate of 6 or more per year.  Aside from the financial strain of trying to buy that many books, I simply couldn't read that many Star Trek books (there are so many other books to read, too!).

Early on (this book, Strangers From the Sky, was one of the earliest original novels) the books varied greatly in quality and length. Sometimes the character didn't sound or act like the characters we'd come to know through the television series.  But fans like me read them because at the time it was the only way to get new adventures with these old friends.

Margaret Wander Bonanno's Strangers From the Sky was an oddity when I first read it (probably 1987) so I thought I'd give it a try again.  It's still odd.

There are two books here - there's the story of Captain Kirk and Spock and Dr. McCoy in which Kirk, having been reading the non-fiction account of the first meeting between humans and Vulcans, imagines how he might have reacted differently if he'd been involved in that first meeting. And then there's the story about that fateful meeting (titled Strangers From the Sky) included within the pages of the book.  Once we get to the book within the book, the chapter numbers even start over.

I don't think I caught on to this very well 30+ years ago and while it made more sense to me now, I feel as though I may have been more disengaged with this reading. I wasn't so eager for any new Star Trek story and so I was more discerning. 

The novel within a novel wasn't necessary and didn't work.  Or ... it worked just fine, but in that case, we didn't need the odd time travel piece of the story, sending the Enterprise crew back in time to 'correct' the first meeting.  There's just one too many plot devices happening, with characters who feel wooden and simply walking through their roles, to make this the exciting tale that it should be.

Looking for a good book? I held on to my copy of Strangers From the Sky by Margaret Wander Bonanno as a reminder of those more innocent years when I bought a book just because it had the words Star Trek on the cover (as well as some swell Boris Vallejo art). Now I'm hanging onto it because there aren't likely to be many people who actually want to read this.

2-1/2 stars

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Strangers From the Sky

author: Margaret Wander Bonanno

series: Star Trek: The Original Series

publisher: Pocket Books

ISBN: 9780671640491

paperback, 402 pages