Every Star Trek Pocket Books novel reviewed on the site is compiled here, grouped by year. Books are reviewed in publication order, with occasional minor tweaks to keep certain related books close to each other. An additional archive for Side Trekked entries is forthcoming.

Click on a picture of a book to go to that book’s review. On desktop, you can mouse over a book for a brief description of its plot, when it was reviewed, and what rating I gave it.

Books on Deep Space Spines are rated on what I call the TBAGE (pronounced “teabag”) scale: Terrible, Bad, Average, Good, Excellent. For a list of only the very best, check out the Diamonds of the First Water page.

1979

1981

TOS #2. Spock travels back in time to prevent accelerated entropy from destroying the universe, but settles for a Band-Aid. Meanwhile, Sulu must choose between boinking the new security chief or beefing up his résumé. Reviewed October 27, 2017. Excellent.

TOS #3. All the Vulcans vanish from a research station near the planet Alnath II. Could it have something to do with how everyone starts acting really weird once they begin orbiting the planet? No, it’s probably Klingons, because Klingons. Reviewed November 3, 2017. Bad.

TOS #4. McCoy’s birthday makes him acutely aware of his ever-encroaching oldness, but there’s nothing like an escort mission with a young princess who wants to jump the Bones to put a little pep back in his step. Reviewed November 10, 2017. Good.

1982

TOS #5. Beings from another universe test our own to see if greatness can be achieved without aggression. Can Kirk’s command style win over a Vulcan admiral who relieves him of command and a distressingly cruel post-Kolinahr Spock? Reviewed November 17, 2017. Bad.

TOS #6. The Enterprise, stranded in unexplored space, must rely for repairs on a people who don’t believe anything exists outside their world yet have somehow independently mastered transporter technology, all while not breaking the Prime Directive. Reviewed November 24, 2017. Good.

1983

TOS #8. Spock once again goes behind Starfleet’s backs to investigate a savage warrior race that threatens the galaxy at large. Warning: this book could awaken some extremely specific, vaguely fetishistic Spock-related feelings in some readers. Reviewed December 8, 2017. Average.

TOS #9. Conflicting higher consciousnesses compete to determine the next step of human evolution by driving a wedge between Kirk and Spock with a woman and forcing the trio into a bizarre “mate-hunt.” Reviewed December 15, 2017. Average.

TOS #10. Romulans cross the Neutral Zone border with strangely non-militaristic intent, and Kirk has to figure out what they’re up to without setting off intergalactic war or spurning the advances of the lovesick Enterprise computer. Reviewed December 22, 2017. Good.

TOS #11. Spock learns he sired a son with Zarabeth during the events of “All Our Yesterdays” and uses the Guardian of Forever to bring him back to the present and acclimate him to the Vulcan way of life. Reviewed December 29, 2017. Excellent.

TOS #12. The Enterprise is on its way out to the Orion Arm to negotiate peace between two worlds and keep the Romulans off their backs, but a strange pacifist woman picked up from a derelict ship threatens to unravel it all. Reviewed January 5, 2018. Terrible.

TOS #13. The Enterprise receives the honor of testing the new Intergalactic Inversion Drive, but they soon realize that using it is causing the lack of entropy from another universe to leak through and render time and reality meaningless. Reviewed January 12, 2018. Excellent.

1984

TOS #14. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are stuck on a planet trying to defend it from its Klingon-aided neighbor while prisoners hijack his ship with the intent of taking it across the Romulan border and triggering intergalactic war. Reviewed January 19, 2018. Average.

TOS #15. A reporter from a backwater mining planet tags along with the Enterprise crew as they solve the mystery of a long-stranded space station of Vulcans and the grouping of sentient proto-stars controlling their actions. Reviewed January 26, 2018. Average.

TOS #16. A popular historical novel recounts the life of Krenn, a Klingon captain who learned the virtue of peace from a Federation ambassador to the Empire and averted an attempt by his own people to launch a war against the Federation. Reviewed February 2, 2018. Excellent.

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (TOS #17)

TOS #18. Kirk teams up with an old nemesis to thwart a Romulan plan to capture Vulcans, ingest and absorb their DNA, and regain the psionic abilities they lost to genetic drift. Reviewed February 16, 2018. Excellent.

TOS #19. The seal-like inhabitants of Taygeta V are threatened by poachers, and their song is tearing a hole in space. Uhura becomes involved in their plight, working with a popular composer to help solve the mystery of the song. Reviewed February 23, 2018. Excellent.

TOS #20. Kirk puts on his Sherlock Holmes hat in hopes of solving the murders of people receiving an experimental treatment on Vulcan before the culprit can kill the treatment’s most high-profile recipient: Spock’s mother, Amanda Grayson. Reviewed March 2, 2018. Bad.

1985

TOS #21. The Enterprise must find a cure for a rapidly spreading, deadly disease, and the only clues they have to go on are buried in the lyrics of songs Uhura learned long ago from an old friend. Reviewed March 9, 2018. Excellent.

TOS #22. Spock and Sulu accompany Prince Vikram of Angira back to his homeworld to help him modernize the primitive planet and end up in the middle of a coup that leaves Vikram as the sole successor to the throne. Reviewed March 16, 2018. Terrible.

TOS #23. Spock hurtles through time back to Seattle in 1868, finding himself in the care of a man named Aaron Stemple, with no memory of anything prior to waking in Aaron’s bed. Reviewed March 23, 2018. Average.

TOS #24. History is altered when the Romulans successfully carry out a plan to go back in time and assassinate three figures key to establishing the Federation in the hopes of making Federation space easier to conquer. Reviewed March 30, 2018. Average.

TOS #25. T’Shael and Cleante, two of a group of Federation delegates known as Warrantors of the Peace, are captured along with four others and must stick together to survive the tortures visited upon them by their Klingon captors. Reviewed April 6, 2018. Excellent.

TOS #26. Agriculture scientist Jean Czerny is captured from her outpost on Sherman’s Planet and enlisted by Klingon commander Kang to develop a new strain of quadrotriticale to avert a famine ravaging the Klingon Empire. Reviewed April 13, 2018. Bad.

1986

TOS #27. They say you can’t go home again, but Spock does after he takes a nasty fall and suffers severe brain damage. Kirk competes with McCoy for the affections of a new crew member while figuring out how to render aid to a planet that doesn’t want it. Reviewed April 20, 2018. Good.

TOS #28. The Enterprise travels to the planet Centaurus to locate and extradite the person responsible for setting off an antimatter bomb at New Athens Spaceport, but the Centauran government has other ideas. Reviewed April 27, 2018. Terrible.

TOS #29. Lt. Piper, fresh out of Starfleet Academy and newly assigned to the Enterprise, finds herself forced into a difficult command role when rebels steal a new top-secret warship and demand to speak only to her. Reviewed May 4, 2018. Average.

TOS #30. The Enterprise crew and most of the population of Vulcan are possessed by energy-based brain parasites, and Spock, McCoy, and Spock’s protégé escape to Vulcan to neutralize the threat at the source. Reviewed May 11, 2018. Bad.

TOS, unnumbered. The crew struggles with morale and rapport on their first mission under the command of Captain Kirk as they host a vaudeville troupe on a tour of starbases that takes them uncomfortably close to Klingon space. Reviewed May 18, 2018. Excellent.

TOS #31. Lt. Piper settles into her first true command and learns how to earn a crew’s respect as she pursues amoral scientists who have stolen transwarp technology and seek to auction it off to the highest bidder. Reviewed May 25, 2018. Average.

1987

TOS #32. While studying gravitational anomalies, the Enterprise is flung several parsecs and galaxies off course, discovering a wide swath of planetary destruction and two races who each think the other is responsible for it. Reviewed June 8, 2018. Good.

TOS #33. Spock and Chekov go missing during an ecological survey of a planet that’s 98 percent water, and when Kirk and McCoy go looking for them, they get a lot of run-around from a civilization on the brink of a military coup. Reviewed June 15, 2018. Average.

TOS #34. The Enterprise is drawn into a trap and crippled, and while they try to hobble back to the last trading post, McCoy loses 25 years of memories in a head injury and longs to get back to Earth for a second chance at a life without regrets. Reviewed June 22, 2018. Terrible.

TOS, unnumbered. A popular new book posits that there was a first contact with Vulcans 20 years before the formally recognized one and triggers blocked memories in Kirk and Spock, who recall being part of the events related therein. Reviewed June 29, 2018. Excellent.

TOS #35. McCoy is captured by Romulans and held hostage behind enemy lines in a house where a Federation double agent is working under deep cover. Can she help him escape, or has she “gone native”? Reviewed July 6, 2018. Excellent.

TOS #36. The Enterprise and the Klingons race to develop a planet with copious dilithium deposits, but are waylaid by the natives, who divert and distract them with a convoluted absurdist farce. Reviewed July 13, 2018. Bad.

TOS #37. The Enterprise brings aboard the lone survivor of a biochemical research fiasco who manifests vampire-like symptoms as they investigate a plot that may involve some of Starfleet’s highest-ranking officers. Reviewed July 27, 2018. Good.

1988

TOS, unnumbered. The Federation sends its first-ever starship, led by Captain Robert April and first officer George Kirk, to rescue a ship caught in an ion storm, but a traitor sabotages the warp drive and strands the starship deep in Romulan space. Reviewed August 3, 2018. Bad.

TOS #38. The Vulcan science colony Nisus is ravaged by a plague that mutates into deadlier strains in children of mixed heritage, threatening to undermine the colony’s ideals of diversity. Reviewed August 10, 2018. Average.

TOS #39. When the Guardian of Forever falls asleep on the job, waves of time displacement cause stars to age rapidly, and only Spock’s son Zar can bring the Guardian to its senses. Reviewed August 17, 2018. Good.

TOS #40. Kirk loses consciousness while responding to a distress signal from a Klingon ship, and upon waking is told that one hundred years have passed and the Klingons and Federation have made peace with each other. Reviewed August 24, 2018. Bad.

TNG #1. Troi senses the “ghosts” of Soviet naval officers who were consumed by an electromagnetic phenomenon back in the 1990s, and the Enterprise-D must find a way to communicate with the phenomenon to keep from suffering the same fate. Reviewed August 31, 2018. Good.

TOS #41. The Sackers, a race whose biological makeup assaults all five humanoid senses, use stolen technology to trigger a Big Bang event, and Kirk must persuade them to reseal the opened universe. Reviewed September 7, 2018. Excellent.

TOS, unnumbered. Vulcan has decided to secede from the Federation, and Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are summoned to testify and argue in opposition of the decision. Reviewed September 14, 2018. Excellent.

TNG #2. While searching a derelict space station, Geordi and Data are transported one-way several thousand light years away to a connected ship and meet a man who used the alien technology to disarm his planet’s nuclear arsenal. Reviewed September 21, 2018. Terrible.

TOS #42. The Enterprise escorts a delegation of award-nominated scientists to the Nobel/Z.Magnees prize ceremony at the Memory Prime information colony, and Spock is framed for an attempt to murder them. Reviewed September 28, 2018. Average.

TNG #3. The Enterprise finds the aliens responsible for an infamous massacre and attempts to retrieve the survivors with the help of an evasive ambassador and his mysterious aide. Reviewed October 5, 2018. Average.

TOS #43. As the universe-hopping gates from Chain of Attack begin to break down, Spock must figure out how to communicate with an entity from another universe that is leaking through the gates and paralyzing entire starship crews with terror. Reviewed October 12, 2018. Bad.

1989

TNG #4. On a mission to survey a planet requesting Federation assistance, Tasha Yar encounters an ex-lover, grapples with the Prime Directive, gets caught up in an imminent war, and tries to resolve her feelings about Data. Reviewed October 19, 2018. Good.

TOS #44. Spock struggles to balance duty to Starfleet, filial obligation, and newfound romantic feelings for a fellow Vulcan crew member on his first mission as the Enterprise follows a lead on a long-missing jewel of great historical import to Vulcan. Reviewed October 26, 2018. Average.

TNG #5. An alien race bullied by the Klingons gets their revenge using a mysterious weapons stash found on a backwater planet, and the Enterprise is enlisted to mediate. Meanwhile, Wesley runs himself ragged trying to find a cure for a friend’s terminal illness. Reviewed November 2, 2018. Average.

TOS #45. Another copy of one of Roger Korby’s androids returns from an expedition on Exo III to find everyone gone and creates another Kirk android, who intends to gain control of the Enterprise in another attempt to carry out Korby’s wishes. Reviewed November 9, 2018. Average.

TOS #6. The Enterprise delivers famine relief to the planet Thiopa, gets dragged into a conflict between the planet’s ruler and a small religious faction, and tries to help them reverse their trajectory toward total environmental collapse. Reviewed November 16, 2018. Excellent.

TNG #7. The Enterprise travels to Lorca, where masks are worn to denote status, to establish formal diplomatic relations. Riker’s team searches for Picard’s after losing contact, and both seek the planet’s ruler, holder of an artifact called the Wisdom Mask. Reviewed November 30, 2018. Terrible.

TNG #8. When Starfleet enlists the Enterprise and the Centurion to help a peaceful planet stave off invasion, Picard butts heads with the other ship’s captain, who favors aggressive action over his more peaceful approach. Reviewed December 7, 2018. Average.

TOS #46. Kirk tries to mend the Federation’s relationship with a planet where teenagers have overthrown the corrupt ruling council, but the arrival of a familiar face piloting a stolen experimental ship complicates matters considerably. Reviewed December 14, 2018. Excellent.

TOS, unnumbered. As the five-year mission draws to a close, the Enterprise’s senior officers begin to go their separate ways, but the revival of an ancient and evil Vulcan master’s katra draws them back into each other’s orbits. Reviewed December 21, 2018. Good.

TNG #9. Picard, Pulaski, Geordi, and Worf are captured by the Klah’kimmbri, who erase their memories and put them to work in various roles of a barbaric televised charade meant to entertain and pacify their planet’s lower class. Reviewed December 28, 2018. Bad.

TOS #47. Stranded in a shuttle with little hope of survival, Kirk, Chekov, Sulu, and Scotty pass the time by recounting their experiences with Starfleet Academy’s infamously unwinnable command scenario. Reviewed January 4, 2019. Excellent.

1990

TNG #10. While Riker aids a struggling terraforming team, the rest of the Enterprise crew contends with his temporary replacement, a man with a shadowy past and a knack for psychological mind games. Reviewed January 11, 2019. Excellent.

TOS #48. The Enterprise is tasked with retrieving ousted Federation diplomats from a world in the midst of a coup, but a Klingon seeking revenge against Kirk further complicates an already messy assignment. Reviewed January 18, 2019. Average.

TNG, unnumbered. As a reward for aiding a native in her mandated quest, the “gods” of the planet Elysia grant Data his deepest desire: to become human. Reviewed January 25, 2019. Average.

TOS #49. Years after rescuing Saavik from a feral existence on the brutal Romulan world known as Hellguard, Spock must rely on her assistance in stopping a new biological weapon from destroying the Federation. Reviewed February 1, 2019. Bad.

1991

1992

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (TOS)

1993

Worf's First Adventure (TNG, Starfleet Academy #1)

Line of Fire (TNG, Starfleet Academy #2)

1994

DS9 YA #2. Eager to feel land under his feet again, Jake allows himself to be tempted by Nog into stowing away on Dr. Bashir’s shuttle to Bajor, but when Bashir goes missing, they begin to fear he has been kidnapped. Reviewed May 15, 2020. Bad.

Capture the Flag (TNG, Starfleet Academy #4)

Atlantis Station (TNG, Starfleet Academy #5)

Star Trek Generations (TNG film novelization)

1995

Mystery of the Missing Crew (TNG, Starfleet Academy #6)

Secret of the Lizard People (TNG, Starfleet Academy #7)

The Way of the Warrior (DS9 episode novelization)

1996

Star Trek: Klingon (video game novelization)

The Soldiers of Fear (TNG #41, Invasion 2/4)

Crisis on Vulcan (TOS Starfleet Academy #1)

Star Trek: First Contact (TNG film novelization)

1997

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy (video game novelization)

The Chance Factor (VOY Starfleet Academy #2)

Day of Honor: The Television Episode (VOY)

The Haunted Starship (TNG Starfleet Academy #13)

1998

Dujonian's Hoard (TNG, Captain's Table 2/6)

Where Sea Meets Sky (TOS, Captain's Table 6/6)

Star Trek Insurrection (TNG film novelization)

Behind Enemy Lines (TNG, Dominion War 1 of 4)

Tunnel Through the Stars (TNG, Dominion War 3/4)

...Sacrifice of Angels (DS9, Dominion War 4/4)

1999

Constitution (TOS, My Brother's Keeper 2/3)

Enterprise (TOS, My Brother's Keeper 3 of 3)

Infection (TNG #51, Double Helix 1 of 6)

Red Sector (TNG #53, Double Helix 3 of 6)

Quarantine (TNG #54, Double Helix 4 of 6)

Double or Nothing (TNG #55, Double Helix 5 of 6)

The First Virtue (TNG #56, Double Helix 6 of 6)

Captain Proton: Defender of the Earth (VOY anthology)

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