Customer Reviews

The New Voyages (Star Trek)

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3 star:		(1)
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I'm not sure I've ever felt so many different things from one book. I may be thinking that because I read it yesterday, but the fact remains that this is a remarkable book. Inspiring, hilarious, unsettling. To choose two favorite stories to illustrate: "The Face in the Barroom Floor," and "Mind-Sifter," which has already been mentioned twice. The first is simply hilarious. A rollicking story from beginning to end, from Kirk's barroom brawl to his escape from jail to McCoy's final conclusion that maybe Spock had better take shore leave next time. A funny, feel-good, well-written story. As opposed to "Mind-Sifter." I read it yesterday, and I'm still unsettled. I think it can all be summed up by mentioning that Kirk frequently whimpers, screams, cries, and it's not at all funny or unnatural. An excellent story. Though unsettling. Those are two of eight, I could go on but I won't. I'll just conclude that this book manages to span and touch all the best aspects of Star Trek fiction. Not bad for a little 236 page paperback.

This book is literally like taking a trip back in time. The stories are very good, my favorite being Mindsifter. The one about the actors actually being transported into the ST universe is especially fun. Much better than The New Voyages 2, which is still a lot of fun.

This is a marvelous book. Inside it, you can find 8 stories writed by star trek fans of the 1970`s. I think that the best story of this book is "Ni Var", in which Spock is separated in his two breeds: one Vulcan and another Human. Both Spocks decided to be reunited, because it is - of course - 'logic`, that they must remained as one only being. The last story `Mind sifter'is interesting, too, but I would wish that the writer would provided more details about the encounter between Kor, Kirk and the Guardian of Forever.

REad it! You don't be disappointed.

I had this book when I was a teenager and wanted to see it again. What a back to the future moment and lots of cool stories.

It's been a while since I read this but it's possibly still some of the best "original Star Trek" I've read. This book came out in the 70's prior to either "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" or the onslaught of numerous Star Trek novels in the 80's, and was essentially a set of creative short stories intended to pick up where the 3-season series ended. Although I can no longer recall the plot specifics of every story I do recall that each was essentially a take on on the further adventures of Kirk's Enterprise and her missions; though the collection also featured one story in which the actors of Star Trek (e.g. Shatner, Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols, etc.) are accidentally "transported" into the Star Trek universe. While I thought the premise of this last story sounded hokey I ended up finding it clever.

All in all, this was a very enjoyable collection and many of the stories in the book were very good. This volume in my opinion represents what Star Trek fiction had the potential to be. It expanded on the series, explored new worlds, and created new situations for the crew to deal with. Wheras the original series contained great storylines it was constrained by limited special effects; in writing the author is of course free to go beyond the contraints of the series and make use of the reader's I-MAG-I-NATION. By comparison (with a few exceptions) much of the later novels were not so well imagined or inspired.

Another nice touch to the volume is an intro by each of the Trek cast members at the beginning of the stories and a forward by Mr. Gene Rodenberry.

I definitely recommend the book for "original" Trek fans. Many of the stories are worthy to be classic episodes or as I implied above take the original series another step further. This book makes me wonder why there's not more Trek short story collections out there as opposed to quite so many novels. This edition is a prime example that the short story was a fine medium for further Trek adventures. While I'm not sure I would honestly recommend it to non-Trek fans (as they just may not be interested) I would consider many of these as not just good Trek stories but overall strong Science fiction.

Yet a further intriguing feature of this collection is that the stories were apparently all written by Star Trek fans. It is also interesting to note some of the most well regarded later Trek fiction were the annual "Star Trek: Strange New Worlds" books begun in '98, also written by Trek fans. This seems interesting that some of the most popular Trek works were done by the fans, maybe all "series" fiction (Star Wars, etc.) should be written by fans rather than the so-called professionals.

There was a sequal - Star Trek New Voyages 2, while I didn't finish it the majority of stories I read were overall less engaging than this first volume.

This is classic Trek.I remember reading this sooo long ago when it first came out.I cannot heap enough praise for this book!Others have mentioned 'Mind Sifter'..possibly the most powerful Star Trek story since 'City on the edge of forever'I never forgot it and it did the unthinkable...it brought me to tears.Other Trek books to get along with this one, are 'The fate of the Phoenix' and 'The price of the Phoenix',strong stories.

When this first appeared, I was pretty excited. The first totally new "Star Trek" books since James Blish's adaptations of the TOS scripts. Most of them are quite good. "Visit to a Small Planet Revisted", in which Shatner, Nimoy and Kelley end up on the real "Enterprise", is hilarious.

However, I really couldn't stand "The Winged Dreamers" (a virtual rewrite of the TOS episode "This Side of Paradise"), "Sonnet from the Vulcan" and especially "Mind-Sifter". At the risk of sounding sexist, these stories suffer from a flaw often found in early fan fiction written by women - oversentimentilization of the characters of Kirk and Spock and their relationships. This could be rather grating on the male fan, to say the least. As "Trek" writing continued to evolve over the years, this problem receded. (Some people disagree, however -- "Mind-Sifter" will be filmed as an episode of the "Star Trek: Phase II" fan fiction series.)

As a result, some of these stories seem dated today. There is a lot of "Trek" fan fiction around more in line with 21st Century sensibilities, but these stories are light diversion, if you can find a copy of the book for a cheap price.