Customer Reviews

Demons

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Star Trek Has it's happy novels, it's action novels, its romance novels, and its dark mind controlling novels.

Demons is one of the first of this kind of novel. If you want to find the root for many of the more recent "evil intelligence" Star Trek novels, then seek this one out.

This book is the second of J.M. Dillard's "dark" TOS novels(the first being "Mindshadow",and the third being "Bloodthirst",look for these novels too,their all good,but not for the faint-hearted),and in my opinion,the best.The book is genuinely chilling,and some parts really made me shiver uncomfortably(bittersweet ending,though).There are parts that are very sweet,however,without being cloying,such as Amanda's(Spock's mother) relationship with her brother-in-law,Silek.The plot probabally influenced writers of such TNG episodes such as "Power Play".Oh,and the entities will return in "Possession",a TNG novel,this is also a great book,as spine-chilling as the original,so look for it.Plot:In the remote Hydrilla system,a Vulcan archealogical team uncovers many strange black boxes that will not open.The boxes are rumored to have had something to do with the extiction of the native Hydrillans centuries ago.Suddenly,suspicious "accidents" occur,and many members of the team die mysteriously.When the remnants of the team return to Vulcan,more accidents happen.Only,these aren't accidents.An evil,malevolent force has invaded Vulcan,and Spock's own father soon becomes possessed by it.Soon,the Enterprise too,has been infected by the entities,and member of the crew are becoming violent and bloodthirsty,commiting horrible murders.Now Spock,McCoy,and a beautiful young ensign are the only things that stand between an all-consumming evil,an evil that has killed an entire race,and will not hesitate to do so again.(Note:This book is currently out-of-print,so if you can find it,buy it.)

This is a dark...DARK novel. I recommend also picking up the authors other Trek novels. Very well written. The plot is good, the characters are engaging, and the crew is witin the established "norm" in their behavior. Nothing weird, just a good story.

The original character has promise but turns out to be a too-powerful throwaway babe. It was rough watching McCoy act completely goofy for her, to the point of picking fights with Spock over her. Did they time warp to Starfleet High? J.M. Dillard is a fantastic writer ("Bloodthirst", "The Lost Years") but this one falls short.

I'm a new ST fan thanks to the new movie, and as my interest lies in The Original Series, I grabbed this book when I found it at a used bookstore. You should too!

Being only halfway through the TV show at this point, I was hoping that I wouldn't be spoiled for anything further on, because Spock and McCoy are drawn in their movie uniforms on the cover (implying that the book takes place after the TV series, I guess). I suspect this was only done to cash in on the recent (1980s) movies, because this book could easily fit into any season of TOS. You aren't forced to picture the characters older than they were on the TV show, and the book even puts Spock somewhere in his late 30s if my calculations are right.

I found the plot to be very exciting. It moved at a fast pace, never dragging, and always developing in interesting ways. Spock's father and mother are prominent characters, and I really liked the author's take on their relationship and life on Vulcan. At times it was a little chilling as it had some horror elements, especially with our beloved crew turning "evil" thanks to the madness.

The writing is concise and efficient, managing to evoke memorable pictures but never going overboard with pithy prose. But don't think that it's dry at all - the author simply chooses the perfect words! The humor sprinkled throughout made me laugh out loud several times. The author clearly knows these characters. I really liked that he gave Uhura a rather prominent role halfway through the book and I like how he wrote Kirk. To my surprise, the two main characters are actually Spock and McCoy, but it never feels like one gets more time than the other.

Two problem points made me give the book 4 starts instead of 5: The first is the character of Anitra. I liked her despite myself, but at times I thought she was bordering on a "Mary Sue"-type character - beautiful, charming and intelligent; not to mention the surprising "rivalry" between Spock and McCoy over her! Oh, and she just happens to be telekinetic with a mind link to Spock. Even towards the end, she seemed to be usurping McCoy. I think the way the author wrote her saved her; in any other hands she would have been annoying, but towards the end of the book I was not sad to see her go.

Secondly, and this is a minor point really, was the random absence (and misspelling of his name!) of Chekov. Only at the VERY END of the novel does he randomly appear. Because I like him, I had resigned myself to the fact that he wouldn't be in the book, but then he did. It was odd - I would have liked to have seen how he would have acted during the events happening on the Enterprise.

Overall, I highly recommend this book!

This is far from the worst Star Trek novel I've ever read, but truly it isn't very good. Those who've read other novels by J.M. Dillard are likely to be seriously disappointed in this effort. The characters are handled competently enough, and there's plenty of action for those who read Star Trek purely for thrills. But the basic plot is rather weak, and were it not for the blatant intercession of a very active author-deity, the good guys would have lost this one.

I'm told that back in the days of the movie western serials, Hopalong Cassidy was once trapped in a box canyon, no way out, and hopelessly outnumbered by the approaching bad guys. Then the writers realized that they had written themselves into a corner, so when we "tuned in next week", the story began with "After Hoppy got out of the box canyon..." This story reminded me of that anecdote, notably in the segue from chapter six to chapter seven.

Sloppy.

Star Trek-The Original Series: Demons written by J.M. Dillard is a prequil to Star Trek-The Next Generation: Possession and if you like ghost stories with mystery and intrigue this is the book for you.

The book is about an ancient evil, long before the Federation a powerful force, a force that began with possession and later madness that finialized itself with murder, encroaches on the Enterprise crew. After an expedition, which accidentally unearthed one of the most bizarre forces in the galaxy, is now attacking the planet Vulcan. Spock must find a way to defeat the madness that is now affecting Vulcan or else the planet Vulcan will be plunged into total madness.

This is one of J.M. Dillard's most dark and intriguing books and I highly recommend reading this book first before reading ST-TNG Possession as Possession is a sequel. This book will keep you entertained as it starts out slowly but builds and you'll like Spock's novel solution to one of the galaxy's most destructive forces.

There is good character development with a plot that is like a good ghost story and the book is entertaining till the end with intrigue.