Gemini (Star Trek)

Rating:
Summary: Average story, but with atmosphere of the original serie
Review: "Gemini", Mike Barr's first published Star Trek novel, has the feel of an episode of the original series. However, unlike the original series episodes that were limited to 45 minutes to wrap up a storyline, this book went beyond its "45 minutes". There were elements of the story that didn't seem to fit, but other elements which captured the atmosphere of the original series.

The story revolves around Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise being sent to the planet Nador to assist in the population's vote on whether or not their planet should join the United Federation of Planets. The leaders of the planet, conjoined twins named Abon and Delor, spearhead the effort to have their planet to join the alliance. However, an underground faction that doesn't want their planet to join the Federation sets out to prohibit the vote.

The twins are soon under the protection of Kirk and his crew while the identity of the faction is attempted to be identified. A side story involves Peter Kirk, the captain's nephew, but this story seems out of place and could have been omitted. It was probably added to help round out Kirk's character, but the events that involve Peter have little to do with the outcome of the storyline. The twins secret is a nice little twist and the reason behind the secret is true Star Trek.

Overall, if the part of Peter Kirk had been omitted from the story, or at least better entwined in it, the book would have been a better read. Hopefully, future authors of Star Trek novels based on the original series can mimic the atmosphere of the series as well as Barr did in this one. It is a good first effort from Barr and hopefully the beginning of a better series of novels after the recent relaunch of the original series in the novels.

Rating:
Summary: Average story, but with atmosphere of the original serie
Review: "Gemini", Mike Barr's first published Star Trek novel, has the feel of an episode of the original series. However, unlike the original series episodes that were limited to 45 minutes to wrap up a storyline, this book went beyond its "45 minutes". There were elements of the story that didn't seem to fit, but other elements which captured the atmosphere of the original series.

The story revolves around Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise being sent to the planet Nador to assist in the population's vote on whether or not their planet should join the United Federation of Planets. The leaders of the planet, conjoined twins named Abon and Delor, spearhead the effort to have their planet to join the alliance. However, an underground faction that doesn't want their planet to join the Federation sets out to prohibit the vote.

The twins are soon under the protection of Kirk and his crew while the identity of the faction is attempted to be identified. A side story involves Peter Kirk, the captain's nephew, but this story seems out of place and could have been omitted. It was probably added to help round out Kirk's character, but the events that involve Peter have little to do with the outcome of the storyline. The twins secret is a nice little twist and the reason behind the secret is true Star Trek.

Overall, if the part of Peter Kirk had been omitted from the story, or at least better entwined in it, the book would have been a better read. Hopefully, future authors of Star Trek novels based on the original series can mimic the atmosphere of the series as well as Barr did in this one. It is a good first effort from Barr and hopefully the beginning of a better series of novels after the recent relaunch of the original series in the novels.

Rating:
Summary: Only Mildly Interesting
Review: Gemini by Mike W. Barr is a pretty typical Star Trek novel. Favorite characters off on an important mission. Set during the original five year mission the story is, unfortunately, only mildly interesting. The book does, however, succeed in catching the mood of the series and the characterizations of the main characters is spot on.

When the Enterprise is sent to the planet Nador to facilitate the Nadorians first election things begin to go wrong almost immediately. The Nadorians will be voting on whether or not to join the Federation, and there are those who will stop at nothing to prevent that from happening. Then the planet's monarch's, their Serene Highnesses Abon and Delor, become a target for the opposition, who seem to be able to operate with impunity.

It turns out that Kirk's nephew Peter ("Operation Annihilate!") has been living on the planet. Between assassination attempts on the princes, annoying Nadorian bureaucrats, and the kidnapping of Peter Kirk, you would think it should all be pretty exciting. Regrettably it isn't. Gemini has its moments but many of the scenes that should have been the most stimulating fall flat.

The best part of the story is the interaction between Kirk, Spock and McCoy. The playful byplay and camaraderie shines through the setting. Several lower deck characters play an enjoyable roll too, such as Yeoman Barrows who befriends the princes consort, Lady Pataal. Chekov, Sulu, Uhura are barely utilized but Scotty gets a few moments.

The characters original to the story, however, just don't work very well. The princes, conjoined twin brothers whose well being is a major part of the storyline, failed to capture my interest or sympathy. A crying consort hovering in the background didn't help much either. The local bureaucrats are at least unlikable. Two characters I did enjoy though were the Federation representative, Commissioner Sylvan Roget and his wife Janine.

Those longing for an original series adventure should be satisfied with Gemini but those looking for something more than run of the mill might want to try something else.

Rating:
Summary: Only Mildly Interesting
Review: Gemini by Mike W. Barr is a pretty typical Star Trek novel. Favorite characters off on an important mission. Set during the original five year mission the story is, unfortunately, only mildly interesting. The book does, however, succeed in catching the mood of the series and the characterizations of the main characters is spot on.

When the Enterprise is sent to the planet Nador to facilitate the Nadorians first election things begin to go wrong almost immediately. The Nadorians will be voting on whether or not to join the Federation, and there are those who will stop at nothing to prevent that from happening. Then the planet's monarch's, their Serene Highnesses Abon and Delor, become a target for the opposition, who seem to be able to operate with impunity.

It turns out that Kirk's nephew Peter ("Operation Annihilate!") has been living on the planet. Between assassination attempts on the princes, annoying Nadorian bureaucrats, and the kidnapping of Peter Kirk, you would think it should all be pretty exciting. Regrettably it isn't. Gemini has its moments but many of the scenes that should have been the most stimulating fall flat.

The best part of the story is the interaction between Kirk, Spock and McCoy. The playful byplay and camaraderie shines through the setting. Several lower deck characters play an enjoyable roll too, such as Yeoman Barrows who befriends the princes consort, Lady Pataal. Chekov, Sulu, Uhura are barely utilized but Scotty gets a few moments.

The characters original to the story, however, just don't work very well. The princes, conjoined twin brothers whose well being is a major part of the storyline, failed to capture my interest or sympathy. A crying consort hovering in the background didn't help much either. The local bureaucrats are at least unlikable. Two characters I did enjoy though were the Federation representative, Commissioner Sylvan Roget and his wife Janine.

Those longing for an original series adventure should be satisfied with Gemini but those looking for something more than run of the mill might want to try something else.

Rating:
Summary: Gemini
Review: Gemini was an average Star Trek novel, with nothing to really make it stand out from the piles of other ST novels that have been written. That's not to say that it's bad, though. The characterizations of Kirk and his crew are pretty much dead-on, and the mystery of who the real villain was is somewhat surprising.
The subplot about Kirk's nephew, Peter, doesn't really work, though. It just distracts from the main story and isn't really even slightly interesting.
All in all, the plot is somewhat predictable and ultimately forgettable. I would recommend that unless you're a die-hard ST fan, that you pass this one up.

Rating:
Summary: Predictable But Fun
Review: I haven't read any of Mike Barr's other works so I was interested to see if he would ruin an original Star Trek adventure like so many modern writers. While I found the story of this novel to be fairly basic, with rather obvious plot twists and a host of redundant characters, at the end of it all I was rather surprised to find that I quite enjoyed it. I think I would put this down to the author's treatment of the original crew. Unlike too many of today's writers, raised on modern soap opera Star Trek, Barr seems able to return to the spirit of the original series and writes credible versions of Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty, all in keeping with how they were portrayed in the television series. While I'm sure this won't appeal to a lot of modern fans I think Barr deserves praise for doing so, after all what is the point of writing an adventure set in the original series if it is done in a modern style? The dialogue is a bit weak at times but it is consistant with what these characters might say in such situations. The action also follows a number of traditional Star Trek cliches, but this just adds to the fun, and there are a number of clever references both to the original series and the movies. All said and done this is one of the more enjoyable 'real' Star Trek books to come along in a while, a fun nostalgia trip for true fans of the show. Give me young, action man Kirk, firing a phaser and punching out the villains, to boring Picard using his Counselor to talk the bad guys into submission any day!!!

Rating:
Summary: The New STAR TREK Novel: Gemini
Review: The New STAR TREK Novel written by Mike W. Barr is a Captain James T. Kirk book solving a world government watershed event that poses intrigue and mystery.

Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the Starship Enterprise are sent to the planet Nador to oversee the planet's entery into the Federation of Planets... one of the rules is that the planet must have a unified government. Nador has achieved a tenuous form of unified government by the Siamese twins Their Serene Highnesses princes Abon and Delor. Named after the two primary tribes on Nador who hold the power of the planet.

Captain James T. Kirk has suspecions as to the stability of the government when a shadowy group of fanatics starts to break down the stability and wreaking havoc on the government of the planet. The book is written as a mystery filled with intrigue as Kirk must overcome the squabbling factors and the kidnapping of his nephew Peter the sone of Kirk's late brother Sam.

As you read on in the book, a fast engaging read, you find Kirk and crew to be more and more suspicious of the planets population wanting entry into the Federation. There are undertones as the mystery begins to unfold. Multiple attacks on the Princes leads to McCoy to seperate the conjoined twins in order to save their lives.

I must say that the conclusion does have a twist as Peter gets further involved and there is a horrible secret that become revealed. Now can Kirk overcome this? I can't reveal the conclusion, but I can say that you'll be surprised as to the ending.

Garth of Izar written by Pamela Sargent and George Zebrowski is the next adventure in THE NEW STAR TREK; Surak's Soul by J.M. Dillard is the next installment in STAR TREK Enterprise series; and STAR TREK: TNG has The Genesis Wave book three on sale now by John Vornholt. "Live long and Prosper" I'll review these book soon.

Rating:
Summary: A mediocre book, somewhat poorly written.
Review: The story was uninspiring if not actually bad, and while the characterizations were handled well and the pacing and drama were not bad, the actual physical writing was poor. There was far too many sloppy grammatical errors and such for the mediocre quality of the story to make up for; I'll tolerate a certain level of sloppiness if the story is good enough, but this one just wasn't good enough. Both the plot and the quality of the writing did pick up somewhat from a very weak beginning, which is why I gave the book three stars; at first impression, I was definitely leaning toward calling this a two-star effort.

Rating:
Summary: The plot twists are too obvious.
Review: This book is an unfortunate example of an author overreaching himself. There are things he does very well and things he does not. The plot is one of those where the whole situation is not revealed until the very end of the book, and the pacing is well judged. The physical descriptions of scenes are excellent, and sometimes downright elegant. The author is also very good at generating an emotional reaction to his descriptions. Apart from those areas he has some problems. First off, Kirk's nephew Peter was included here, and the main reason seems to be to portray Kirk as feeling his age and generally acting a bit off what we normally see. Even before that, the author portrays Kirk as unable to fit in with his younger crew and also as a bit of a gloryhound. I found it inappropriate for both the book and the character. On a more serious note, the dialogue is not very good. For some reason the author's emotive skills abandon him whenever characters open their mouths. It does not help that the contrast between the almost juvenile dialogue and the quality of the descriptions around it is so strong. The last criticism is about the plot twists: I could see them coming a mile away. With an obvious plot twist, you either have to keep the pace up so high the audience forgets it's coming, or do the twist with such style the audience doesn't care. This author seems to have thought that they were not obvious and expected his following 'revelation' scenes to be a surprise, which they were not. It really lowered the enjoyment level of the book for me, even though the climax of the book finally has a genuinely unexpected plot twist, two in fact, which were actually well done. All in all, I can only recommend this book for other people who generally read their Trek books more than once. It reads better the second time, since you know what happens anyway.

Rating:
Summary: Great story potential marred by bad editing
Review: This story takes place in the relatively unenlightened Original Series era, and remains faithful to the concepts we know today to be relatively primitive. Author Mike Barr is to be commended for not imposing current Trek values on the "oldie" Trek. After all, what is more ridiculous than a story set many years in the past in which the characters act modern? Kind of like a story about knights and castles in which Richard the Lionhearted loses a gauntlet, revealing a quartz watch, you know? We all remember how the original series always went--Starfleet chasing all over the known galaxy "boldly going where no man has gone before" and showing up at some planet. The locals proceed to exploit Kirk & Co, insulting him to his face while he tries to reason with them. In fact, Kirk's biggest problems with his superiors safe back on Earth stem from him spotting the fact he's reached an impasse in some cases and can no longer continue turning the other cheek, to their holier-than-thou disapproval of "Dirty Jimmy.". It isn't until the Next Generation era that it's now normal for captains like Picard to realize that you just can't always take crapola from everyone you meet and not be considered a wuss. In this story, the Enterprise arrives at a planet ruled by a pair of princes who are Siamese Twin brothers after a fairly recent unification move by two warring cultures. I picked up one fact here that I didn't know before--the term "Siamese twins" comes from history--a pair of Thai rulers who were just that. A Federation ambassador is onsite, trying his best to work with the fairly shaky coalition government. That's the essence of the term "coalition" anyway--you aren't "one people" yet. On the Ambassador's staff is Kirk's nephew Peter, son of his late older brother Sam. The issue at hand is possible membership in the Federation, and planets with longer-established central governments have had problems with their own "sovereignty" reactionaries with that issue, much less this freshman World government. Kirk is equal to the task--any time any of the local bureaucrats tries to get the upper hand by getting hostile, they end up chewing on tinfoil. A car dealer in my area advertises on TV that they'll "bend over backwards" to make a deal--that dealership isn't "Jim Kirk Chevrolet". But now that this foundation for the story has been laid, there are a few cliches that taint it. Like the author's descending to kid-book level in describing one of the Ministers as "hatchet-faced", with a mind to go with her visual ugliness. That's just a notch or so above the fairy tale concept of wicked witches, evil stepmothers and ugly stepsisters. Is this guy serious? With that in the mix, I'm surprised he didn't stoop to having some member of the Enterprise crew referring to the twin Princes as "a humanoid pushmi-pullyu", with Kirk snapping; "Belay that, Mister!" out of the corner of his mouth. And rightfully so--the Princes are a pair of very together guys, wise in leadership and not the least bit awkward in what no one present really considers a "handicap". In fact, one scene at a Royal Ball shows them to be among the best dancers present. Still, Barr should have downsized this story as a YA book, aimed at a pre-adolescent readership who have yet to unlearn prejudice based on superficialities.