Customer Reviews

The Wrath of Khan (Star trek)

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This is my favorite Star Trek movie novelization. It contains so much more than a play-by-play of the movie, but it also delves into tremendous characterization.. In the novel, Peter Preston Engineer's Mate is so much more. The reader also becomes aware that the young cadet is also the son of Scotty's sister. This revelation gives so much added meaning to the scene in which the chief engineer brings in the young man's charred remains after Khan's surprise attack. The theatrical release gives little more than Bones' heart-felt apology. The network television showing (which would appear from time to time on ABC) added scenes which did bring out this important plot point, but this has not been shown for many years. Why not issue a Director's Cut of this a la the original Motion Picture DVD. It would bring so much added meaning to this already classic film.

This is an example how should movie novelizations be written. They tend to be flat and screenplay-like, but this one makes me feel like the movie were an adaptation of the book, not vice versa. It provides lots of background information (some of them were actually in the movie but were cut out later), mostly on Saavik, Peter Preston and Carol's Deltan co-workers. The main characters, Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the others are the very same characters we all love, they talk and act just like they do in any Trek episode, they never do anything out of character. Vonda McIntyre knows how to write Star Trek. A novel can't be more Star Trek than this.

This book suffers from the affliction that all novelizations of exciting and dramatic motion pictures must suffer from. It is simply not possible to put the dynamic tension of the Kirk/Khan battle and the sadness of the sacrificial death of Spock into words. In my opinion, some of the finest acting ever done was by Ricardo Montalban in this movie. Playing an intelligent lunatic has to be very hard for the region where it is done well is very narrow.

Nevertheless, McIntyre manages to capture enough of the drama to make this book worth reading and a few literary embellishments are added. It is a quick and simplistic read; my passage through it caused the involuntary recall of images from the movie to appear in my mind. Not surprisingly, shortly after I finished this book I was motivated to watch the movie once again.

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is a pretty good book. Not much differs from the movie, though there are a few extra scenes (nothing eatrth-shattering). There is a bit too much Lewis Caroll, though. Get this book if you haven't seen the movie (or get this book if you have seen the great film)

With the ability to clone we're that much closer to making a race of Kahn Sighs than we think Forget Jurassic Park for a moment. Yes we do have the technology to clone sheep and monkey. Yes dinosaurs maybe down the block.
But acroos the street lies an even bigger possibilility - humanbeings. We have the gen sequencers. We have computers and online services capable of linking us to labs around the world. Even now growing in a labratory could be a baby Genghis Kahn. When it first came out The Wrath of Khan was science fiction. Now it could be science fact

As far as novelisations go, this one is pretty decent. It helps that the underlying event is a fairly entertaining star trek epic, as well, as we get K vs K, Kirk vs Khan, one of those old enemies from the past conjured into being type of confrontations.

Throw in Kirk's kid, and a dead pointy eared science officer and there is plenty to keep the interest.