Here we are with The Cry of the Onlies (Star Trek: The Original Series #46) by Judy Klass where Captain Kirk must confront the ghosts of his past to prevent a catastrophic war.

Boaco Six, a once-tranquil Federation colony, is now caught up in the throes of revolution. The Enterprise’s mission is to re-establish contact with the planet, and determine whether or not formal ties between the Federation and Boaco Six should be strengthened.

Negotiations between Captain Kirk and the planet’s ruling Council of Youngers proceed smoothly, until the atmosphere of goodwill is shattered by the sudden destruction of a Boacan ship, at the hands of an experimental Starfleet vessel!

In order to prevent full-scale war from breaking out, the Enterprise must recapture the stolen Starfleet vessel and its abductors, a mission that will require the aid of the galaxy’s most reclusive genius, and bring Captain Kirk face-to-face with the long-buried secrets of his past.

Now this book serves as a sequel to Miri (episode):

Responding to an Earth-type distress signal many light years from Earth, the USS Enterprise discovers a planet that is an exact copy of Earth. It has the same mass, circumference, density, and atmosphere. Even the topography is identical.

It wasn’t a bad book, it really read like a TNG novel the TOS. Not like that was a bad thing, just not what you expect from Kirk and crew. But it is a classic Star Trek story through and through and it’s nice to see old friends back in actions. A must read for any Trek fan out there!

“This is the vaccine?”
“That’s what the computers will tell us.”
“Without them, it could be a beaker full of death.”

– Kirk, McCoy, and Spock

This is an interesting read.. Sackers for one are one of the most creative alien so far in the Trek. But at the same time it comes across as a alien of the week where they throw a dart at a wall filled with skin color, forehead abberation and human culture analogue.. It’s really fills with mix feelings and the story plot is needs work. I think the humor is the only saving grace in the whole thing and also it did a bit of exploring of Uhura’s backstory. Other than that  is became a typical Trek story plot and nothing more. 

Three Minute Universe (Star Trek: The Original Series #41) by Barbara Paul

The Sackers may be the most hated race in the galaxy, so repugnant that their mere appearance makes most Federation citizens ill. That hatred runs both ways, and now the Sackers have stolen a powerful new device that they use to imperil the rest of the universe. They’ve torn a hole in the fabric of spacetime, an expanding tear so that one universe is leaking into another, and unless the EnterpriseTM crew can stop it, it will consume everything in its path.

Timetrap (Star Trek: The Original Series #40) by David Dvorkin…

In a remote area of Federation space, the Enerprise picks up an urgent distress signal — from a Klingon vessel! Tracing the S.O.S., the crew finds the Klingon cruiser Mauler, trapped in a dimensional storm of unprecedented power. Yet paradoxically, the ship refuses both the Enterprise’s call and the offers of help.

Determined to discover what the Klingons are doing in Federation space, Kirk beams aboard their ship with a security team, just as the storm flares to its highest intensity. As the bridge crew watches in horror, Mauler vanishes from the Enterprise’s viewscreen…

And James T. Kirk awakens…one hundred years in the future.

My GOD…. SO BORING!!! Next to no action or story plot for that matter.. It’s just talking about nothing and nothing really happens. Wow. I really don’t know what to say about this one. Don’t…. Just don’t….

Here is another book by L.A. Graf. He wrote Ice Trap, Death Count and the upcoming novel in this challenge Traitor Winds (Star Trek: The Lost Years, #3). He as written a number of Trek books and so far I’ve rather enjoy his work. Firestorm (Star Trek: The Original Series #68) is a smooth read and goes into more backstory for Sulu, Uhura, and Chekov. Which is nice to see them get some love in the series and not just Kirk and his buddies. L.A. Graf as also shown that he is the go to author for all things Star Trek, with his knowledge of the show and characters. There were times where this novel dragged on and wondered a bit. But this was a good read and would say give it a read is you get the chance.

When a covert Elasian mining operation interferes with a Federation geological expedition, Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise are dispatched to mediate between the two parties. The Elasian Dohlman claims that the planet and its dilithium deposits are hers, but the geologists warn that if Rakatan Mons– the galaxy’s largest known stratovolcano– should erupt while the Elasians are mining its flanks, no amount of dilithium will save them. While Uhura and a landing party strive to determine if the Dohlman’s claims are true, Kirk struggles to keep the two sides from each other’s throats, but that delicate standoff is shattered by the arrival of an Elasian armada and the eruption of Rakatan, which could well destroy everyone on both sides.