Customer Reviews

The Price of the Phoenix

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

 

 

This is one of the very best of the Star Trek novels - (along with, say, Strangers from the Sky, or Best Destiny) full of action, full of tossed-off references that will delight longtime fans, full of rapid-fire dialogue, and best of all, totally LACKING the smothering homogeneity that seems de rigeur for all brands of Star Trek novels today (i.e. it was written pre-franchise, when writers didn't have to memorize and regurgitate a 400-page "bible" of do's and don't's). The villain of the piece, Omne, has developed a variation on the transporter that exactly duplicates its subjects, hence the title's allusion to the phoenix. The price comes from the book's best piece of dialogue, when Omne is defiantly told by our heroes (including the Romulan Commander from "The Enterprise Incident"): "We will not sell that which makes love possible" - that is, the uniqueness of the one who's loved. That's a bit profound a sentiment for a Star Trek novel, and this book's sequel, "The Fate of the Phoenix," is very nearly as good and twice as long...

After the death of Captain James T. Kirk, Spock goes down to the planet of the, so he believes, murder of his friend. We re-encounter the romulan Commander of the original series. We see here a Spock out of control and can only start to understand the frienship between the Captain and his first officer. It's very dark but very captivating. You don't want to put it down until you at the end.

I've read many Star Trek books throughout the years and can unequivocally say this is the best one. This book is for serious readers only. It tackles many deep issues and is loaded with metaphors. The central theme is whether immortality is worth the price of your soul. The prose is amazing and is almost poetic. It is very dark compared to the original series but the loyalty and pure friendship that made the series great is captured here and taken to new heights.

The sequel to this book is nearly as good and I've wished for years that the authors would write a final third installment to the series. Read this book if you're looking for substance and an incredibly ominous villain rendered compelling and at moments even symptathetic. This novel stands on its own outside the science fiction genre as one of the best reads of all time.

The fourth of the original Star Trek novels, this was part of the attempt by Bantam to step up publication of Star Trek-related material, with interest increasing in the syndicated reruns and word of a new TV show/movie becoming a hot topic. Already the editors on a book of short stories, the authors tried their hand at a book-length adventure. Reportedly, this was planned as a short story for the "New Voyages" book, but turned into a longer story. It would probably have been better at short story length. As the book opens, Captain Kirk is dead. He has been killed through the machinations of the leader of a planet peopled mostly by political and other refugees, and the man named Omne has caused Kirk to be at the scene of a burning building, and the Captain has sacrificed himself to save a mother and baby. Spock, livid at the turn of events, returns to the planet to confront Omne, and finds that there is a surprise: Omne has created a process to clone bodies, and also to snatch away a person's conciousness at the moment of death: he has created a duplicate Kirk! The plot comes to a showdown between Omne, Spock, Kirk, and the female Romulan commander. Omne is defeated, but there is doubt that he is really beaten, later turned into a sequel, "The Fate of the Phoenix." The writing is at turns interesting and tedious. The book is melodrama, and has a tendency to switch between fast-paced fight scenes and long conversational pieces, usually with one or more hostages in Omne's custody to attempt to heighten the tension. The melodrama also results from the authors' tendency to cast Spock as a superhero, with Kirk in the Lois Lane role of damsel-in-distress. Much is made of "Vulcanoid strength," and superhuman abilities. The long conversational scenes tend to take on a Jungian tone, with the characters in the guise of archetypes. Spock in particular gets his character rewritten to fit the authors' impressions, and the Kirk here often feels unfamiliar as well. It plays something like many of the third-season episodes, where Spock had some kind of emotional outburst on every other show to heighten the dramatic tension, since he was acting against Vulcan type. It might work once, but regularly it gets tiresome as it does here. For all that, the story is gripping, as good melodrama always is. One does wonder how this can be resolved, and even though the conclusion is somewhat unsatisfactory, it does wrap up the plot and leave loose ends to ponder. There is much sound and fury here, but not much is signified. If you want to see an early version of a Trek novel, see if you can get this one cheap. It's a summer beach type of book, throwaway entertainment.

First of all, the bad stuff: at times Marshak's and Culbreath's prose is a little dense and difficult to get through. Sometimes I put the book down just to take a break! But on to the parts that got the four stars: this book, unlike many recent Star Trek novels, is rich with emotion, novelty and philosophy. I have to disagree with the reviewer who complained that the authors made Kirk and Spock into "closet lovers": So what if they did? Their relationship comes off as beautiful and touching. And as for "dominating women," that is very in keeping with the wonderful Romulan Commander's character, and I find it--well, silly that a reader would be threatened by that. Anyhow, like I said, sometimes hard to get through, but well worth the effort. I've ordered the sequel, The Fate of the Phoenix, and can't wait to read it!

You can tell that Sondra and Myrna are true fans of Star Trek: TOS. I too prefer the Next Generation to the original, but it's nice to 'visit' with old friends and that's what this book is. A visit with old and dear friends. The sequel is even better.

This is an older Star Trek (TOS) book. Kirk is kidnapped by a mad scientist who wants to hold Kirk captive forever. The scientist has found a way to defeat death and needs Kirk's hard-held views on morality to keep himself in control. Spock joins forces with a Romulan Commander to rescue Kirk and to stop Omni from taking over the galaxy.

I received the product in record time and in great condition. It is in better shape than I expected. Very good service. Will use this vendor again. I have reread this story and the sequel several times over. I wore out the first book twice. I first read this book in my early twenties and really wished they could have made a movie or put into the series. It is a fantastic story. Maybe they can do it for the newer generation of the TOS.

This is a good novel that could stand on its own as hard scifi. I found the plot - a vulcanoid fanatical opponent to the Federation comes up with a novel technology that could dangerously change the social balance of the galaxy - quite intriguing and original, not the usual once-over papp that many of the ST novels offer. The characters really develop, including the Romulan commander that Spock once duped, and the villain is truly an original character.

The "villain" is a scientist and leader of a group that opposes the course of development that the Federation promotes: he wants to enable the races to pursue their own evolution rather than become yoked into a kind of pax federatus that encourages the development of a uniform culture along established career paths, democratic institutions, and enforced peace. This is quite an original take and well worth considering. In addition, the technology that he invented has frightening implications should it fall into the wrong hands, not only for purposes of espionnage but as an encouragement to pursue power and even immortality. Spock and Kirk enter a desperate struggle against him, with many surprises along the way, including the creation of a 2nd Kirk, who becomes the boy toy of their allied Romulan commander! Very fun.

Recommended. This is above average fanfiction.

I grew up a Star Trek fan. I grew up watching the 1960's Star Trek Television show. It's important to understand this to put some perspective on this review; i.e. I liked Star Trek as a young man. And to this day I still have some fondness for that show.

I bought and read all the Star Trek novels I could growing up. I've even read a couple of them more than once. But the two that I wished I had never read were Sondra Marshak's and Myrna Culbreath's "The Price of the Phoenix" and "The Fate of the Phoenix."

It's been over twenty years since I've read either, and I would rather keep it that way. Both books were very difficult to get through, and follow at times the first time I read them. At the time I thought reading through such books was a great accomplishment. Afterall, our English teachers in high school and college asked to read books that at times could be difficult to read. But the difference between the two is that popular sci-fi, as artistic as a lot of it can be and is, was never meant to be so hard, or so tedious as the "Phoenix" books. Certainly not like a Virginia Woolfe novel, and neither "Phoenix" book can hold a candle to any mandated scholastic reading material.

And it's a real shame too. Largely because both authors edited "Star Trek: The New Adventures" and "The New Adventures 2" books, which were fairly good reads, though nothing sterling.

One of the problems with writing for a popular sub-genre like Star Trek is that everyone's got a story for their favorite characters (Kirk and Spock in this case), which makes for a large pool of talent from which interesting tales should be forthcoming. The downshot is that everyone's got their take on what the U.S.S. Enterprise does, is doing, has done, and will do in the future. Add to this you have people who want to add their own social twist and messages to the story, all in an effort to push their way of thinking.

Well, all I can say is I "got" the messages in both "Phoenix" books, and believe you me they're not worth contemplating (and are somewhat insulting to the true sci-fi fan, though a Trek fan may be blinded by his love for the franchise). The prose is tiresome, the story meandering, the action rather sadistic and pointless at times, and overall it's just not very good.

If you want to read the classic 1970's Trek novels published by Bantam, then go look to Gerrold's "The Galactic Whirlpool," James Blish's "Spock Must Die" or Gordon Eklund's "Devil World." The original Trek novels are largely hit and miss deals. The ones that are good are passing, but the ones that are bad, like the Phoenix books, are exceptionally horrid. Read at your own risk.

I've been waiting two decades to vent that ... I feel better now.