romulans – Page 4 – Deep Space Spines

In TOS

This week, three children from a previous episode contend with the most dangerous alien force of all: puberty. But their joyride in a stolen starship takes an alarming turn when the Federation realizes there’s also an experimental cloaking device prototype on board. It’s bad enough for Kirk to have to cancel a meeting with a council of Contra-teens (which isn’t going so hot anyway) and call in some favors from an old friend—and I do mean old. Are the kids in fact alright? Is Kirk still carrying a gross torch for Miri? Wouldn’t you have an itchy trigger finger if you were a redshirt? It’s the book that, sadly, isn’t just 300 pages of Dr. McCoy dunking on basic white people.

#056: Double, Double (TOS #45)

By jess

On 9 November 2018

In TOS

This week, we’re sending in the clones for the sequel to one of the earliest TOS adventures. An android returning from an expedition on Exo III finds the house empty and continues Dr. Roger Korby’s work by making another Kirk android, but he’s not scoring many Brownie points with the new James T. Meanwhile, Meatbag Kirk rescues an island boy from a meteor storm and wins a one-year life debt, but there’ll be some growing pains and identity theft shenanigans before Dobby can be a free elf. Grab your dallis’karim and cancel your appointment to get an animated tattoo, because this week we’re reviewing the book that got a bulk discount on apostrophes at Costco.

#042: Final Frontier (TOS event novel)

By jess

On 3 August 2018

In Event Novels, TOS

This week, the longest Star Trek novel to date takes us once more back to the pre-TOS past to fill in some of the history of Daddy Kirk, a.k.a. George Samuel Kirk. He’s the first first officer of some new high-tech doodad called a … star … ship? But on a goodwill mission to save some families trapped in an ion storm, they overshoot their destination and end up smack dab in the middle of Romulan space. As they try to figure out how to get home without dying, Robert April and George Kirk butt heads over the best approach to commanding a ship. Is April the time of the season, or does father know best? Is it a little weird how many decent Romulans there are in the books? How empty, on a scale from very to extremely, is James Kirk’s threat to quit Starfleet? It’s Final Frontier, or, The Last Book to Have That Ugly Slanted Font Thing Going On on the Cover.

#041: Bloodthirst (TOS #37)

By jess

On 27 July 2018

In TOS

The last time J.M Dillard tried to mix Star Trek with horror, it didn’t turn out so hot. The idea scored some points for novelty, but the execution was lacking. But if at first you don’t succeed, so the saying try again, and in this case, the second time’s the charm. Now, just in time for Christmas ’87 comes a good old-fashioned Halloween yarn. Though the premise—”what if vampires, but Star Trek”—could have easily succumbed to risible goofiness, Dillard never allowed it to dominate the story and fortified it with some of her best character work yet. This week, we check out Bloodthirst, or, Porphyria and Loathing in Las Tanis.

#038: The Romulan Way (TOS #35)

By jess

On 6 July 2018

In TOS

You ever get to a point with food where you’re just completely over it? Like, nothing you can imagine sounds less appealing than eating or looking at food or thinking about food? That’s where I was with Romulans in Star Trek novels for a while. In the wake of Diane Duane’s first Rihannsu novel, a glut of stories featuring Romulans as the villains jammed up the publishing schedule—at one point, they figured into three of the four then-most recent stories—and though for the most part they acquitted themselves well enough, they just couldn’t hold a candle to Duane’s singular approach. (Though to be fair, not much can.) And now, just as I can feel my appetite for them returning, along comes Rihannsu number two—and it’s a meal fit for a Praetor.

Tag: romulans Page 4 of 6

#061: The Cry of the Onlies (TOS #46)

#056: Double, Double (TOS #45)

#042: Final Frontier (TOS event novel)

#041: Bloodthirst (TOS #37)

#038: The Romulan Way (TOS #35)