Customer Reviews

Shell Game (Star Trek, Book 63)

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

 

 

I have to admit...this is my favorite Star Trek book, and Ive read a lot in my time, believe me. Im not going to give you a detailed summary of the book because, frankly, you can read that in the summary above.
A lot of this book is told in McCoy-perspecitive, which makes for a very amusing time. Lots of the Spock-McCoy banter that we've all come to love. Id definatly suggest this novel to McCoy fans, like myself. Also, Chekov actually gets a part in this story, a part beyond his usual "Keptin, unidentified wessel approaching!"
Poor Spock takes a bit of a beating in this one, as well. With an alien life-form draining his energy, and hypothermia setting in, he eventually collapses on the alien bridge, just as the Romulans are about to....
Ah, but I wont give away the story. You'll have to find out for yourself.
Basically, if you're a Trekkie, and you havent read this one, what are you waiting for?

In this, an Enterprise landing party explores a lifeless space station and experiences eerie, seemingly ghostly phenomena, while the Enterprise itself slowly loses power. The author does an excellent job of maintaining the spooky, tense atmosphere throughout the story. The writing is generally quite good. The descriptions are excellent and the action scenes as various people get into trouble very well done. The characterisation and dialogue is great, McCoy in particular having some classic commentary and wit. The writing in general does have some oddities. In particular, the author uses the occasional tautology, and at least one description (Kirk in a falling turbolift) is not as clear as it should be. Every so often the author gets a little long-winded with the descriptions. Those little quirks aside, this is a generally well written and entertaining story.

It was an OK book. Not great, but OK. The premise was not bad, but could have been done better. One thing I liked was the fact that, even though its another Kirk-Verses-Romulans book, theres some originality.

A typical Star Trek original novel with Kirk and company versus the Romulans.

Throw in a derelict space station for a plot twist.

Not as outstanding as others in the series.

Somewhat poor execution.

Set in the period, as near as I can tell, between "Star Trek I: The Motion Picture" and "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" (based on the fact that the apparently original Enterprise is intact, and Chekov is security chief rather than navigator), the plot of this story is something of a cross between the original series episode "The Immunity Syndrome", in which the Enterprise encounters a giant, energy-eating space amoeba, and the pilot episode of "Star Trek: The Next Generation", in which Picard and crew meet and witness the birth of alien creatures at Farpoint Station. As such, it is pretty standard "Trek" fare, and the characterizations are handled pretty well, but the actual writing itself (and its concommitant editing) gets a bit sloppy at times; never mind the use of "suppose" instead of "supposed" (as in "what's that suppose to mean"); that's such a common error I suppose I should stop bothering to point it out any more. But there are the several points at which the author demonstrates that she is unaware that the verb form of "mold" is "molder", rather than "mold", and so we're told that food is "molding" on tables; unless the food is sentient and sculpting something, she meant "moldering". There's the point at which we are told that the doors "closed quietly as his back" when Kirk walked through them; unless for some reason, Kirk's back is supposed (suppose?) to be the epitome of silence, I must assume this to be a typo meant to say "AT his back". We are told at another point that "neither of them (McCoy and a security ensign) thought it prudent at this time to force way in" rather than "force THEIR way in" or "force A way in". We are told that "McCoy fought a smile but continued to watch the Chekov", as though Chekovs were a racial subgroup. We are told about an ensign who was "undermined by baggage from his past he probably hadn't even know he still carried". There is a reference to "unaccostumed energy sources" (energy sources not dressed for Halloween?) and a piece of dialogue in which McCoy tells Kirk not to ever tell him again that the transporter "isn't something to be worry about".

I realize that criticizing typos and editing, grammar and word usage in mass-market paperbacks is something like shooting fish in a barrel, but when the errors are this frequent, the story has to be better than mediocre to offset them. This one is, but only just.

There are some editing mistakes, lol. It adds to the charm of it though.

Basically...I wish this author wrote more books for TOS. We all know Mr. David, Mr. Lang, Miss Wood, etc as authors. I guess this author decided to write other books somewhere else, but the writing style and characters are very well done. One of the best!

I was worried when I saw the author's long "thank-you" list, and I was right. This one has its moments, but disappointed overall. McCoy is my favorite and I was looking forward to a narrative from his POV, but he felt out-of-character the whole time so it was a waste. He talks way too much, as if he were in charge, and nobody calls him on it. It's like the author wrote a Mary Sue for McCoy, trying to insert him at every possible moment, and it doesn't work at all. His grumpiness is overdone and annoying, not charming. In general the dialogue is wordy and unrealistic for all characters, which outweighs a nice, spooky plot. Sorry not to be able to recommend this one.

I'm fairly surprised this novel was published. There's nothing wrong with the writing - in fact the writer creates some very vivid images. But, I'd rather read a poem or Shakespeare if that's what I'm looking for. I honestly felt this book could have been written without losing any plot or value in less than 20 pages.

Simply put, nothing happens! I read most of the ST series, and this one was among the hardest to have to pick up and read a few pages at a time. If you enjoy deep and detailed images into the primary character's minds, you might really enjoy this story. If, however, you are like me and enjoy some action, some sci-fi and some intreque, this book falls far short. Seriously - at one point, over 150 pages had gone by and the away team had moved two decks with absolutely no change to anything in the plot!

I didn't hate it, and Trek is Trek, but this was among the bottom 10 of all the ST books I've read. At least it's just one book and not a multi-part series.

Star Trek The Original Series: Shell Game written by Melissa Crandall is a story filled with mystry and intrigue as Kirk and crew try to solve the enigma as to why a Romulan space station is a drift in Federation space.

The Enterprise and crew are again on a routine mission like most of the Trek books start, but this time Kirk has to stay behind on the away mission. For Kirk to stay behind chewing at the bit is a hard swallow, but this time it is Spock and McCoy that go on the away mission and find the station and its personell in decay.

Of course, if you have a Romulan spacecraft in your backyard, so to speak, you want to visit it and determine if it can be of use. With a space station, along come the Romulans wanting to know what happened to their station and accuse the Federation of debauchery. Spock and McCoy are wonderfully portrayed in this book and their dilog is spot-on and you feel like they are arguing right in front of you. Kirk is not up to his ininate arrogrance, but is close and you feel the tension build.

Romulans intrigue, mystery, and strange apparitions, the Enterprise falling under the same situation as the space station with no power... whoa Nellie! Romulan accusations, treachery, and suspense, will the Enterprise be destroyed by the Romulans?

This book has ghostly apparitions along with everything else mentioned, but remember this there never is a routine mission for the Flagship of the fleet and her crew... not with James T. Kirk in the Captain's seat.

This is one of the better TREK novels and is worth the money if you can find it.

This is one of the better books of the TOS series. It has a definite tension, mixed with suspense. And it also features a extraordinary landing party, in which Spock and McKoy are the senior officers, while Kirk remains on board the Enterprise, dealing with his own set of trouble. The interaction between the three of them is engaging as ever.

The landing party boards a deserted gigantic Romulan space station, that is adrift in Federation space. Well, deserted... There are thousands of Romulans on board, but they appear to be in a definite state of decay. What happened to them? And is that happening to the landing party as well? How come that even Kirk and the Enterprise seems affected?

A good read.