Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The best of what makes Star Trek great!, August 24, 2000
Margaret Wander Bonanno demonstrates what so many Star Trek novelists have not -- her ability to capture the voices of the characters we love. Additionally, she successfully brings out the magic of their relationships. So many of the shorter S-T novels jump right into the plot, ignoring character development and the "painting" of the scenery. Furthermore, many are mere sci-fi tales with Star Trek characters inserted, where any other characters would do just as well -- our friends don't speak or act like we know they should. Ms. Bonanno writes as if she knows Kirk, Spock and McCoy personally, and every word is totally believable and within the context of the Star Trek universe as we know it. Margaret's talent for painting with words makes the re-reading of this adventure all the more enjoyable, as I caught more of the subtlety and detail upon the second trip (and third and fourth...!) Finally, the writing is colorful and mature, requiring the reader to stretch a bit (which perhaps explains why younger readers might find the book a bit tedious.) This is, by far, my favorite!
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Kirk and Spock remember the First Contact before "First Contact", April 27, 2006
In the "Star Trek" novel "Strangers From the Sky," there is a controversial best-selling book of the same title that James T. Kirk picks up to read on the recommendation of his old friend Leonard McCoy. The book by Garamet Jen-Saunor challenges the well establish fact that Earth's first encounter with alien life occurred when the UNSS "Icarus" first encountered the humanoid people of Alpha Centauri in 2048. Instead, Jen-Saunor argues that humanity's first contact with an alien species happened years earlier and whatever happened was so monumentally important and dangerous that all records of the incident have been erased and both worlds have kept the secret for almost two centuries. The theory is interesting enough as alien contract conspiracy theories go, but when Kirk starts reading the book he starts having nightmares. Then the Admiral discovers that Spock is having the same dreams and the two old friends get together to do a Vulcan mind meld, to see if they can unlock the past.
"Star Trek" fans have to be a bit confused because as the "Star Trek: The Next Generation" movie "First Contact" taught us, when Zephram Cochrane lauched the "Phoenix" on Apri 5, 2063 and achieved warp drive for the first time, he caught the attention of the "T'plana'hath," a Vulcan survey ship, which lands on Earth and makes first contact with humans. But all you need to do to make this all work out is to replace what happened in "First Contact" with the story of the "Icarus" and it still works out. In fact, the idea that we are now talking about Vulcans instead of Alpha Centaurians makes everything resonate a bit more. So I do not see a major problem with making most of what is here with the official canon and you can sort things out as you will.
Margaret Wander Bonanno divides her "Strangers From the Sky" novel into two books. The first takes place in "those nebulous years" between the encounter of the "Enterprise" with V'ger in "Star Trek: The Motion Picture," and the death of Spock in "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan." The second book takes us back to when Captain Kirk was the new commander of the "Enterprise," and much closer to Lt. Commander Gary Mitchell, Lieutenant Lee Kelso, and Dr. Elizabeth Dehner (who you should recognize as characters from the first-season episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before"), than he is to his Vulcan first officer.
What is interesting in this novel is seeing more of the Kirk-Mitchell relationship before it all when horribly bad, and contrasting that with the awkward early stages of the Kirk-Spock relationship. This would be worth pursuing against lots of storylines, every without (yet another) time travel plot, although involving the Vulcans does bring the relationship between Kirk and Spock into sharper focus. Bonanno also does a nice job of working in Kelso and Dehner into the plot as well, so that a much better appreciation of their characters. So this is an above average "Star Trek," which does fill in some of the blanks for the early years of Kirk and Spock, which is always a plus with these books. You can also see "Strangers From the Sky" as part of the long string of stories, part of the canon and otherwise, that have explored the tensions between Earthlings and Vulcans. There sure are a lot of those.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Does Spock have a Jewish ancestor?, February 16, 2000
I originally bought this book in connection with a writing project (still in progress) regarding possibly Jewish characters in the Star Trek universe. And yes, there *is* such a reference in "Strangers in the Sky" -- check out pages 228-29, where Professor Grayson (an ancestor of Amanda Grayson, Spock's mother), is wearing a yarmulke (Jewish skullcap). He then explains to Spock that he is really only an "honorary Jew" for having married his wife Dora -- who, we can assume from that remark, really is Jewish. Apparently the Graysons were not very observant of other Jewish traditions, however, because the Professor then offers Spock BACON and eggs (which he, being a vegetarian, declines.) Nevertheless, the implication here is, that Spock had a Jewish ancestor on his mother's human side. Aside from this interesting little tidbit for my own research, I found the book itself to be a very good read. Yes, it was longer than many of the newer Trek novels being produced today, but in my opinion, that was its strength. (Remember, folks, "Moby Dick" is also a very long book, and although Lily had not actually read it in "First Contact," Captain Picard obviously had!) The extra length of "Strangers" gave the author enough room to really develop the characters and go into some detail about the issues of fear, prejudice, and distrust that would be involved in first contact with aliens. And, like some of the other reviewers here, I like the way that Ms. Nonanno picked up on some of the early characters in the TOS series and told us about some of their accomplishments before getting killed off in "Where no Man Has Gone Before." Live long and prosper!
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