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By the Book (Star Trek Enterprise) (Mass Market Paperback)

~ Dean Wesley Smith (Author), Kristine Kathryn Rusch (Creator) "MARTIANS AREN'T GREEN," ENSIGN HOSHI SATO SAID, her delicate features twisted into a frown..." (more)
Key Phrases: Captain Archer, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Councilman Draa (more...)
3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

In their first few weeks in space, Captain Jonathan Archer and the crew of the Enterprise™ have already discovered several new species and explored strange new worlds. But each planet brings new discoveries...and new dangers.

BY THE BOOK

The Fazi, whose ultraregulated culture ranges from strict conversation protocols to unvarying building designs, inhabit half of a planet discovered by the Enterprise. But after a disasterous first contact with the ruler of the Fazi, Archer must depend on Vulcan science officer T'Pol and communication specialist Hoshi Sato to help him mend relations with the people of this planet, and unravel the mystery of the other creatures living on the world.

About the Author

Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch are a well-known science fiction author team whose numerous Star Trek novels include THE SOLDIERS OF FEAR in the all-time top-selling Crossover series INVASION!
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Product Details

  • Mass Market Paperback: 252 pages
  • Publisher: Star Trek (January 1, 2002)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0743448715
  • ISBN-13: 978-0743448710
  • Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.7 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 4.6 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #426,066 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

    #16 in  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > ( S ) > Smith, Dean Wesley
    #20 in  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > ( R ) > Rusch, Kristine Kathryn

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Front Cover | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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First Sentence:
MARTIANS AREN'T GREEN," ENSIGN HOSHI SATO SAID, her delicate features twisted into a frown. Read the first page
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Captain Archer, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Councilman Draa, Universal Translator, Ensign Cutler, Fazi High Council, Crewman Edwards, Crewman Novakovich, Crewman Williams, Ensign Hoshi, Kristine Kathryn Rush, Lieutenant Reed, San Francisco
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Customer Reviews

28 Reviews
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 (4)
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 (8)
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Average Customer Review
3.3 out of 5 stars (28 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Not too bad, but definitely could be better., May 6, 2002
By James Yanni (Bellefontaine Neighbors, Mo. USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This novel, the first "Enterprise" spinoff to be out in paperback, (second overall only to the novelization of the pilot episode, "Broken Bow") was a reasonably pleasant quick read, and about two thirds of it was a perfectly acceptable if unexceptional plot. The characters were handled well, especially given that they haven't really been established all that clearly on the show itself yet, and the dialogue was handled well.

The biggest problem with the book was the roughly one-third of it that was devoted to the role-playing game four of the characters (five, if you count Hoshi, who was going to be involved but wound up too busy with her duties to play) played during their leisure time. I realize what the intention was here; it was to establish characters by showing us what they do for fun, and how they interact. In other words, it served the same purpose (allegedly) as the chess games between Kirk and Spock on the original series, or the holodeck stories in Next Generation. And to a limited extent, it accomplished what it was meant to accomplish; it did give us something of a look into the personality of Travis Mayweather, as well as a few more minor characters. But like the holodeck bits on Next Generation, and unlike the glimpses we got of chess games between Kirk and Spock, it was given far too major an emphasis; the purpose to this sort of thing is to give us some insight into the characters' personality WITHOUT taking up a major portion of the book. I didn't think that anything could be worse than watching characters in a television show play characters in a holodeck game, but I was wrong; reading about characters playing a role-playing game with dice was definitely worse, and it wasn't helped by the (admittedly very plausible) fact that, as novice gamers playing under a novice gamemaster, their game was poorly run and poorly played.

I sincerely hope that that plot device is NOT repeated in future books.

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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Was This REALLY Worth A First Outing?, January 19, 2002
One of the significant criteria which John Ordover, over at the Pocket Books (Trek Books publisher), states for writers considering penning a Trek novel is that "you should write something that couldn't be done on the small screen." In other words, what would be the purpose in writing a book that could, in fact, be just another episode? He wants the writer to take the reader somewhere else, into worlds unexplored and parts unknown ... so how did BY THE BOOK meet those standards? Giving a gracious nod to RPG so prevalent throughout the web, the authors devise a scenario surrounding Captain Archer and the crew of the Enterprise's first contact with not one but two species and it goes horribly wrong until they fashion a device which allows Archer to communicate telepathically with the more intelligent of the two species and then ... nothing happens. While the book sports a wonderful conversation between Archer and his Vulcan Subcommander T'Pol on the nature of 'first contact' situations, the tale invests little in characterization, plot, and surprise. There is little awe in the experience of meeting new civilizations for the first time; rather, there is an exhaustive examination of their architecture and how it relates to the way the think ... while it's interesting, it encompasses too much of the book. Lastly, this installment FEELS as though it was a script submitted but rejected by Paramount b/c it didn't meet Ordover's criteria: it shows us nothing new.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly good for the first in the series, February 16, 2004
By James E. Pendergrass "jedwardp" (Durham, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
You could criticize this book for its sometimes bland or inaccurate characterizations of the crew, but if you're a veteran reader of Trek books you won't, since you'll know to expect that in the early books of any of the series.

As I see it, the only flaw worth taking off rating-points for is that too much time is devoted to the story's secondary plot, which centers on a role-playing game, and quickly becomes rather boring.

By the end of the book, I almost wished I'd skipped over the chapters devoted to this, because the main plot, which centers around first-contacts with two species, had been a lot more entertaining than I would have expected from a first novel.

Unlike Michael Jan Friedman's "Kahless", in which two plots are almost ingeniously woven together, and yet could still be read effectively as seperate stories, the "role-playing game" plot here degrades into only slightly entertaining filler that could've easily been cut.

Even taking that into account, though, I can't justify a rating lower than 3 1/2 stars. The book is probably good enough to be considered a must-have by die-hard completist by readers who are determined to read the entire series.

As with all the Trek series, the books get better as the characters become more familiar to both readers and authors, so this one will pale in the light of later ones, but it should be recognized as a good first effort.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Pretty good...!
This book was entertaining.

I realize the book takes place during the first season, so Archer's attitude isn't up to par. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Joel B. Kirk

1.0 out of 5 stars Dungeons & Hipons
Waaaaaaaaaaaaayy too many pages wasted on the RPG breaks. I was hoping that there would be a parallel to the game and the exploration but there was none. Read more
Published on June 15, 2007 by Ryan Peck

2.0 out of 5 stars Which way to the plot, Ensign?
After I finally finished reading the ultra ho-hum novelization of Star Trek Enterprise "Shockwave" by Paul Ruditis--the yawn-factor on it was very high--I was looking for fresh... Read more
Published on April 22, 2006 by Jacqueline Landry

3.0 out of 5 stars Ok, but could have been written better
As Enterprise books go, I've read "Surak's soul" and finished "By the Book" and am now starting "What Price Honor". Read more
Published on January 16, 2004 by Timothy Benner

3.0 out of 5 stars An all right buy if you're an Enterprise fan
Enterprise: By the Book is a good buy for any Enterprise fan; however, it does have its downfalls. The book focuses too much on the RPG (role playing game) then it does the... Read more
Published on March 8, 2003

3.0 out of 5 stars A quite good early "Enterprise" novel about first contact
Let me begin by saying that I believe that the world of "Enterprise" offers more potential for good scripts and/or novels than either TNG or TOS simply because in... Read more
Published on February 16, 2003 by Roger J. Buffington

2.0 out of 5 stars Too early
Pretty much wound up hating it because it seemed way too rushed to market. As others have pointed out, the author and publisher should have waited to see where Braga and co. Read more
Published on November 20, 2002

3.0 out of 5 stars Should have waited a while
You can tell that this story was written very early during the first season. In the novel, the characters of Archer, T'Pol and Hoshi feel like they are based solely on the pilot... Read more
Published on October 21, 2002 by Bookseller

4.0 out of 5 stars I liked it!
I thought the book was good. We see characters that are not a major part of the TV series developed a bit more and come to understand that humanity has far to go in trying to... Read more
Published on October 21, 2002 by Annie

2.0 out of 5 stars Jumped on the bandwagon too soon
It would appear this novel was "thrown together" way too fast. Written in a few months and not well thought out. Read more
Published on July 25, 2002 by Robert Harney

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