Star Trek: The Original Series: Troublesome Minds (Star Trek (Unnumbered Paperback))
by Dave Galanter
List Price:
Our Price: $3.97
You Save: $4.02 (50%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Dave GalanterEdition: Mass Market Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2009-05-26
ISBN: 1439101558
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Pocket Books/Star Trek
Book Reviews of Star Trek: The Original Series: Troublesome Minds (Star Trek (Unnumbered Paperback))
Book Review: Great TOS Adventure!
Summary: 5 Stars
After recently watching the new Star Trek movie - TWICE! - I wasn't surprised to find myself wanting to relive some childhood days with some Star Trek The Original Series (TOS) goodness. However, that seems to be in short supply these days. However, I found the new Star Trek TOS novel, TROUBLESOME MINDS, in my local bookstore and picked it up as an impulse buy.
Over the last couple dozen years, I've read several of the tie-ins, but few of them, although often well-written, seemed to catch the characters of Captain James T. Kirk, Spock, and Dr. McCoy as I was convinced they were to be portrayed. The mix never seemed to be really right, and after the movies came out, everyone seemed determined to write prequels or sequels to them film.
I honestly missed the feeling of the original five-year mission episodes, where everything seemed new and the crew was still learning a lot and hadn't seen it all. TROUBLESOME MINDS really hit the spot because not only did the author David Galanter really nail the three main characters, but he also introduced a radical concept regarding telepathic societies that I hadn't considered.
Star Trek, the television show as well as the novels, is always at its best when it seeks to shed some light on the human condition and play fairly with the conceits all the way around through the crew. The decisions people make aren't easy, and they aren't easy in this novel.
Galanter opens the novel up with some great action, employing Kirk in the captain's chair acting to save a doomed ship. As soon as he succeeds in his efforts, he's rewarded by being attacked by the world he's come to meet. As a diplomatic mission to introduce the emerging space race to the Federation, he becomes an immediate failure.
In short order, Kirk and the Enterprise crew learn about the danger the Isitri (the dominate civilization on the planet) seek to avoid. One of the men aboard the doomed ship is Berlis, what they call a "troublesome mind." I loved the concept of one mind being strong enough to take over an entire telepathic world. I hadn't thought about what it would be like to know the secrets of everyone on a planet, or about how easily that kind of society might be able to be subjugated.
(Okay, maybe there was a message in there about advertising and people looking for infallible leaders, for those readers seeking such things, but I chose to look at the plot problems and remain firmly entrenched in the entertainment side of things.)
The author does a wonderful job of pushing the pyramid of major characters (Kirk, Spock, and McCoy) into various confrontations that stem from their personalities and the situations they get into. I loved the dialogue and the emotional arcs that took place within the framework.
In addition to the spot-on characterization, Galanter succeeds in amping up the risk and threat thresholds. The taut, tightly-written scenes are short and direct, and beg the reader to turn the pages quickly, which I did. I figured most of the plot out as I went along, but that just made the read more enjoyable. There are twists and turns aplenty, and enough new thinking thrown at you to keep you guessing.
As it turns out, Galanter has written other Star Trek books, but I hope he gets the chance to write another TOS book. I'm going to look for his others, but I'm going to cross my fingers that he gets to pen another early adventure of the Enterprise's first five-year mission.
More Star Trek: The Original Series: Troublesome Minds (Star Trek (Unnumbered Paperback)) reviews:
1 2 3 4 5 6
1 2 3 4 5 6
Summary of Star Trek: The Original Series: Troublesome Minds (Star Trek (Unnumbered Paperback))
A new "classic" story starring Kirk, Spock, and the crew of the Enterprise, coinciding with the premiere of the new Star Trek movie from director J.J. Abrams.
While exploring the unmapped frontier, the Starship Enterprise responds to a distress call from an unknown ship. Captain James T. Kirk turns first contact into a threat of interstellar war?by saving the life of a man his own people abandoned. Berlis, colony leader of a telepathic race calling themselves the Isitri, claims not to know why those from his homeworld want him dead. Now Kirk must either find a way to wrench billions from the grip of one man, or be responsible for the destruction of two planets.
Movie Tie-Ins Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Movie Tie-Ins Books
Primary Justiceby William Bernhardt
Ballantine Books; Published: 1995-01-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $11.00
Price in other shops:
Sacrifice (Star Wars: Legacy of the Force, Book 5)by Karen Traviss
Del Rey / Ballantine; Published: 2007-05-29; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.12
Price in other shops:
Eye of the Beholderby Marc Behm
Ballantine Books; Published: 1999-12-07; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $33.99
Notting Hillby Richard Curtis
Hodder & Stoughton; Published: 1999-09; Paperback; Book
Best price: $39.32
Crazy in Alabamaby Mark Childress
Ballantine Books; Published: 1999-09-07; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.49
Price in other shops:
Atonementby Ian McEwan
Anchor; Published: 2007-11-27; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.00
Price in other shops:
The Time Machineby H.G. Wells
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2010-06-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.48
Price in other shops:
Less than Zeroby Bret Easton Ellis
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 1987-12-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.99
24 Declassified: Cat's Clawby John Whitman
HarperEntertainment; Published: 2006-12-26; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.76
Price in other shops:
Everything Is Illuminatedby Jonathan Safran Foer
Harper Perennial; Published: 2005-08-23; Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.00
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Star Trek Mirror Universe: The Sorrows of Empireby David Mack
Pocket Books/Star Trek; Published: 2009-12-29; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
Star Trek: The Original Series: Ex Machinaby Christopher L. Bennett
Pocket Books/Star Trek; Published: 2004-12-28; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.83
Price in other shops:
Star Trek: Department of Temporal Investigations: Watching the Clockby Christopher L. Bennett
Pocket Books/Star Trek; Published: 2011-04-26; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $1.61
Price in other shops:
Star Trek: The Original Series: The Children of Kings (Star Trek (Unnumbered Paperback))by David Stern
Pocket Books/Star Trek; Published: 2010-04-27; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $2.63
Price in other shops:
Star Trek: The Original Series: The Rings of Timeby Greg Cox
Pocket Books/Star Trek; Published: 2012-01-31; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.33
Price in other shops:
Unspoken Truth (Star Trek: The Original Series)by Margaret Wander Bonanno
Pocket Books/Star Trek; Published: 2010-03-30; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $3.96
Price in other shops:
Doctor's Orders (Star Trek, Book 50)by Diane Duane
Star Trek; Published: 1990-06-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.47
Star Trek: The Original Series: Inception (Star Trek (Unnumbered Paperback))by S.D. Perry
Pocket Books/Star Trek; Published: 2010-01-26; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
Star Trek: Cast No Shadowby James Swallow
Pocket Books/Star Trek; Published: 2011-07-26; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $0.19
Price in other shops:
Star Trek: A Choice of Catastrophesby Steve Mollmann, Michael Schuster
Pocket Books/Star Trek; Published: 2011-08-30; Mass Market Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.15
Price in other shops: