Rating: 
Summary: Character studies of a quartet of Starfleet Cadets
Review: Julia Ecklar does two things with the Kobayashi Maru simulation that was one of the most interesting sub-plots in "Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan." The first is that she goes back and tells the story of how Jim Kirk became the only cadet at Starfleet Academy ever to beat the "no-win scenario." The second is that she also tells the stories of the cadet encounters of Chekov, Sulu and Scotty with that same scenario. The framing story involves a freak shuttlecraft accident with gives the four officers and McCoy nothing to do but tell their stories.The four stories are quite different. Kirk's story, "The No-Win Scenario," is devoid of dramatic punch since we all know the outcome, but it does establish that the Kobayashi Maru test is less about tactical decisions and more about an individual's character. Obviously young Jim Kirk is going to have all the attributes that would make him "The Captain Kirk." Chekov's chapter, "How You Play the Game," spends little time on the Kobayashi Maru test focusing more on a survival exercise on the Moon base and Pavel's desire to be just like the great James T. Kirk. In "Crane Dance," Sulu tells the story of how he came to make the decisions he did during his taking of the test. The shortest and funniest tale is Scotty's "In Theory," which shows the engineer was not suited for command, even though he exhibited an unprecedented talent for destruction, when he could be bothered to pay attention to all those attacking Klingon war dragons. These are an interesting set of stories, not particularly insightful but certainly true to the characters. I have been surprised that the idea of the Kobayashi Maru as a standardized Star Trek Rorschach test has not been repeated in the other series. After all, what Star Trek fan would not be interested in finding out what Spock, Worf, Data, Sisko, and everybody else did when confronted with the no-win scenario?
Rating:
Summary: Character studies of a quartet of Starfleet Cadets
Review: Julia Ecklar does two things with the Kobayashi Maru simulation that was one of the most interesting sub-plots in "Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan." The first is that she goes back and tells the story of how Jim Kirk became the only cadet at Starfleet Academy ever to beat the "no-win scenario." The second is that she also tells the stories of the cadet encounters of Chekov, Sulu and Scotty with that same scenario. The framing story involves a freak shuttlecraft accident with gives the four officers and McCoy nothing to do but tell their stories. The four stories are quite different. Kirk's story, "The No-Win Scenario," is devoid of dramatic punch since we all know the outcome, but it does establish that the Kobayashi Maru test is less about tactical decisions and more about an individual's character. Obviously young Jim Kirk is going to have all the attributes that would make him "The Captain Kirk." Chekov's chapter, "How You Play the Game," spends little time on the Kobayashi Maru test focusing more on a survival exercise on the Moon base and Pavel's desire to be just like the great James T. Kirk. In "Crane Dance," Sulu tells the story of how he came to make the decisions he did during his taking of the test. The shortest and funniest tale is Scotty's "In Theory," which shows the engineer was not suited for command, even though he exhibited an unprecedented talent for destruction, when he could be bothered to pay attention to all those attacking Klingon war dragons. These are an interesting set of stories, not particularly insightful but certainly true to the characters. I have been surprised that the idea of the Kobayashi Maru as a standardized Star Trek Rorschach test has not been repeated in the other series. After all, what Star Trek fan would not be interested in finding out what Spock, Worf, Data, Sisko, and everybody else did when confronted with the no-win scenario?
Rating:
Summary: Good read?
Review: Kirk, McCoy, Scott, Sulu, and Chekov are stranded around the campfire as it were and so they decide to past the time by relating their experiences on the famed Kobyashi Maru test for the benefit of all - especially Dr. McCoy who as a medical officer never took the command school scenario-test. Each story provides further insight into each of the characters even if it is a little predictable at times. The reader is treated to a better understanding of Kirk's famous solution, a "Die-Hard-like" Chekov episode, a touching Sulu offering, and a very humorous Scott contribution. It's worth the time it takes to read it even though I have a hard time believing that Captain Sulu would have reacted to the test in the manner that he did.
Rating:
Summary: Kobayashi Maru
Review: The book was excellent. It went into details of some of the bridge officers in their Star Fleet Academy days, and how they did in the Kobayashi Maru (a no win situation).
Rating: 
Summary: One of the weaker books in the Star Trek series
Review: The command test scenario Kobayashi Maru is a test of how well you fail. A simulation where the enemy has unlimited resources, it is designed so that it is impossible to win. The background of this story is that Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, Chekov and Zulu are in a shuttlecraft that encounters a mine and is disabled and lost. To pass the time when they think they are doomed, Kirk, Checkov, Zulu and Scotty take turns describing how they fared in the simulations. While only Kirk was successful, the stories are interesting, although those of Chekov and Zulu only moderately so. The best by far was how Scotty almost managed to destroy an entire fleet of Klngon ships, as it took a simultaneous attack by fifteen warships to finally defeat him.
This is not one of the better Star Trek novels. The intense emotionalism of Chekov and Zulu was overdone and Zulu's experience in the scenario was not in the true Star Trek tradition and completely out of character. Granted he had recently suffered a great loss, but star ship captains would not do what he did. This is one of the weaker books in this series.
Rating:
Summary: An interesting frame story.
Review: The external, "frame" part of this story is obviously simply an excuse to set the stage for the four internal stories; as such, it actually wound up being better than expected, if somewhat predictable. The internal stories are the stories of how each of Kirk, Scotty, Sulu, and Chekov reacted to the "Kobayashi Maru" scenerio in their academy days, ostensibly told by each to the others to pass the time. The biggest problem here is that the author goes to all that trouble to establish that the characters are telling their own stories, and then tells the stories in third person/omniscient narrator format. Granted, given that no one has ever claimed that any of the above characters are accomplished storytellers, if would have been difficult to keep the stories in their own voices, but it would have been much better if it could have been managed. As a more minor problem, there are bits and pieces of each story that don't quite ring true, but that's a subjective assessment. They weren't bad, and certainly were worth reading. But none of them were quite what I would have liked to see. As a whole, this book is worth reading, but not one of the best.
Rating: 
Summary: This Book Rules
Review: This book is four stories, three in the past and one in the present. Chekov, Kirk, Scotty, Sulu and McCoy are trapped in a ripped up shuttle and must stay alive (they live, DUH). They have nothing better to do than let Kirk, Sulu, and Chekov tell about their expirience with the Kobayashi Maru scenario (no-win scenario). The best story is od Checkov in a shootout in an abandoned space station with other cadets. That alone is worth the entire price of the book. The Next best story is of the actual fight to stay alive ion the shuttle. Then comes Kirk's story which is pretty good. The only part of story I didn't like was the big emotional story thing with Sulu. THIS BOOK IS WORTH READING!
Rating:
Summary: More details on Kirk's plan, please!
Review: This book was a fun read, but I wish the author offered more details on how Kirk reprogrammed the simulator computer. Did he use his fellow cadet's computer expertise? How did they get thru security to reprogram the simulator?
Rating:
Summary: love this one
Review: this is another one of my faves, gives you more depth of Kirk, Scotty, Sulu and Chekov and why they are the way they are. I especially love Sulu's story, mainly the assignment they have before the Big Test. Kirk's is interesting is you get a look into what drives him and his competitive nature and just how he was able to pull off the ultimate hacking job. Chekov's is interesting in that in a way he is compeating with himself and his view of his future captain. Scotty's is funny and shows the budding of the miracle worker he would become. This is definitly one to check out
Rating:
Summary: Outstanding
Review: This is one of my all-time favorite books. I received it as a gift ten years ago, and I still reread it from time to time. I enjoy it thoroughly each time. The Kobayashi Maru is a simulator exercise all command students at Starfleet Academy must go through to test how well they respond to losing. Decades after they took the test, several officers of the starship Enterprise leave the ship in a small shuttlecraft on what is supposed to be a routine mission. When the shuttlecraft is disabled, cutting off the craft's communications and other vital functions, they are left with nothing but time, and they end up telling each other about their experiences with the Kobayashi Maru exercise. My favorite of the four stories is that of Scotty, who is in command school at Starfleet Academy to please his mother but feels that he is "meant more for commanding machines than commanding people." My second favorite is the story of Sulu, who in his first year in command school learns painful lessons about life, death, and meaning from his great-grandfather. This story makes me cry every time. I also like the story of Chekov, whose passions, resentments, and blind spots will remind the mature of what it was like to be an adolescent pickling in emotional turmoil. I felt that the story of Kirk was the weakest of the four; Kirk can't accept the concept of losing and will do anything to avoid coming face to face with defeat. For a man who is supposed to be intelligent and skilled, this is an asinine attitude. Life is about losing, and the sooner one comes to terms with that, the sooner one starts to grow. On the whole, however, this book is outstanding.
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