THE ENTROPY EFFECT - Vonda N. McIntyre

STAR TREK WEEK


It's time for some reminiscing as the last (first) time I read this book was when it first came out in 1981. Anything that was Star Trek (and for me it was especially any new stories rather than toys) was hungrily devoured. This was the first original novel to be published by Pocket Books (though let's be clear ... this was not the first original Star Trek novel. There were 16 original story novels published by Bantam before Pocket got the rights).

In the story - Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise are tasked with transporting a once-brilliant, now extremely dangerous criminal physicist Dr. Georges Mordreaux to a rehabilitation center. Mordreaux is accused of promising to send people back in time but instead murders them.

Shortly into the voyage, Mordreaux escapes his Enterprise confinement, gets onto the bridge, and in front of the entire bridge crew, murder Captain James T. Kirk.

Always one to see possibilities, Spock must travel back in time to prevent the killing from happening, but he discovers that there is more at stake then restoring the timeline so that Kirk doesn't die.  Mordeaux's been experimenting with time for quite awhile and his experiments have destabilized the universe itself and it might be up to Spock to prevent reality from imploding.

There are some familiar themes at play here. We've seen dangerous criminals on the original series before, penal colonies, and rehabilitation centers. We've also seen time travel and mad geniuses and it appears as though author Vonda N. McIntyre has simple rearranged the order of of some of these to storylines to create this new piece. It didn't feel like a new story but a rehashed one.

The story moved at a very slow pace through most of the book and there's a side story with Sulu that isn't particularly interesting and pulls us out of the more immediate, dire situation.

I really wouldn't recommend this one.  There are SO many Star Trek novels available today, in so many formats that the excitement of being 'new' is not there and the story itself is barely worth reading.

Looking for a good book? The Entropy Effect by Vonda N. McIntyre is an early, original Star Trek novel with a story too similar to some of the episodes, and too slowly paced to provide any thrill.

2 stars

* * * * * *

The Entropy Effect

author: Vonda N. McIntyre

series: Star Trek: The Original Series #2, Star Trek Classic #2

publisher: Pocket Books

ISBN: 9781416524649

paperback, 224 pages

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