Customer Reviews

Timetrap (Star Trek, No 40)

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Timetrap is a traditional Trek novel, decently written and with a story that holds the interest but does not excite. Captain Kirk is a little too maudlin here, but nevertheless gets plenty of alien female action (and would we expect anything less?) as he finds himself isolated from the Enterprise and surrounded by "New Klingons." There is some good McCoy/Spock banter here, but the rest of the crew is limited to cameos (and Chekov, although mentioned, never appears at all). Bottom line is that Timetrap is a good, quality Trek read, not as outstanding as The Captain's Table's Fire Ship, but by no means a dud.

Do you prefer your Klingons devious, underhanded, implacable enemies of the Federation, as they are in "Trouble With Tribbles" and "Friday's Child"? Or do you prefer the honorable and rather straightforward, if harsh, warriors we saw glimpses of in "Errand of Mercy" and "Day of the Dove", and which we've seen regularly ever since Worf debuted on "Next Generation"? If your idea of Klingons is the former, you'll doubtless enjoy this book tremendously. If the latter, I suspect that you'll find this book untenable; these are definitely not the modern idea of what Klingons are like.

The story itself is a reasonably good one, if not quite as subtle as it seems to think it is. The writing is fine, the characterizations good, the plot interesting if not entirely plausible, and not just because of devious Klingons. Worth a read, but not the best "Trek" story out there by a long shot.

As a weary Enterprise crew is nearing a much needed R & R leave they are diverted by a Klingon distress call. In an attempt to rescue at least a few of the Klingon bridge crew Kirk and a security team beam over with transponders but all are lost when the ship explodes. Or are they? Spock has his suspicions - why were the Klingons in that particular area anyway. It is an area that is controlled by the Tholians who are hostile to both the Klingons and Federation. Meanwhile Kirk awakens after the explosion to discover that he is not one hundred years in the future, a future that was predicted by the Organians where Klingons are members of the Federation and serve proudly in Star Fleet. Even though widely separated both Kirk and Spock once again reach the same conclusion and wonder if all is really as it seems.

This is one of the better of the tie-in series of novels. The 'New Klingons' foreshadow the Klingons that will appear in the Federation of the Next Generation and DS9. It also refers to incidents of some of the classic episodes (which will not be mentioned here to avoid spoilers). There are a few sour notes though, especially the level of hostility between Spock and McCoy which goes far beyond the sparring from the classic shows. Also junior crew members openly question and show hostility towards Spock, hardly the sort of behavior one would expect from the Fleet's best and brightest to a superior officer.

Star Trek-The Original Series: Timetrap written by David Dvorkin is a Captain James T. Kirk driven book. The charater of James T. Kirk is in a transporter surge accident is transported into the the future wher the Klingons are found to be a rather straightforward race, but harsh by Federation standards.

This whole adventure started out in a remote area of Federation space as the Enterprise picks up a distress call. The crew comes to the rescue, but encounter a Klingon cruiser named "Mauler" in Federation space, but that is not the worst of the situation to come. As Kirk and crew try to sort out the situation, They find the Klingon ship trapped inside of a storm.

As Kirk beams over to the Klingon ship, the storm flares and this is where the main plot of the book takes shape. Kirk is now one hundred years in the future , the "Mauler" vanishes from sight of the Enterprise, much to the horror of the crew of the Enterprise.

This book was written in a time when Star Trek was adding the genre of ST-TNG, so thing were being sorted out as to how the Klingon's were going to be portrayed. Either they were going to be the tricky, sly, or furtive as they were in the "Trouble with Tribbles and Friday's Child." Or were they going to be the forthright, candid, or outspoken charater trait found in "Errand of Mercy and Day of the Dove," or more like those found in the ST-TNG.

Of course, if you feature the character of Kirk, you have to have a love interest. Well, in this case we have Kalrind as Kirk's new Klingon love interest. This is making way for the Shatner inspired novels to come.

I found this book to follow the genre of TOS quite well and is well-written. It also starts some of the framework for the TNG and Kirk inspired books, which makes this book a pivotal. All in all, the was an enjoyable story.

Written in 1988, this exciting Star Trek book had some hoping it would be a crossover to Next Generation. Kirk finds himself trapped 100 years in the future among "New Klingons" and a participant in an incident that potentially will lead to a great peace predicted by the Organians. Kirk picks up a love interest, Kalrind, in trip to the new time with the new Klingons. The relationship seems to foreshadow that with Tellani in the Shatner Star Trek novels (Ashes of Eden). All in all this is a good Star Trek adventure and worth a read if you can find it in a used book store.

I bought this book back when I was buying every Trek novel that came out. The only ones that beat it for mediocrity are that bit with a Romulan plot to alter history so the Vulcans were in charge instead of the Humans, and the book that tried to turn a medieval-type story into a Trek novel. And that's saying something.

It's probably still in a box in the attic somewhere. However, unlike the works of John M. Ford, the Reeves-Stevenses, Diane Duane or Peter David, my copy of Timetrap is unlikely ever to see daylight again, except maybe for a yard sale.