Star Trek: Windows on a Lost World

Rating:
Summary: Transporters suck in Kirk, Chekov and an arrogant scientist
Review: An archaelogy team on Careta IV discovers a window-like transporter that sends Kirk, Chekov, an archaelogist with a superiority attitude, and several security guards to a time when the planet's original inhabitants were giant crabs. These crabs had the strange idea that they were the only intelligent species in the galaxy and therefore had the right to kill everybody else. Spock has to learn how to communicate with Kirk and feed him, so that the humans could revert to their original forms. Along the way, Spock's team learns of the inhabitant's culture, including the horrific sacrifices and the crabs' education. Giant or small, the only thing crabs are good for are eating them. A whole civilization of them is a nightmare!

Rating:
Summary: plot device takes some getting used to
Review: I had hoped for an interesting archeological book, when I picked this Star Trek novel up. And (in the end) that's what I've got: the discovery of an ancient society, a race that lived before the first race known to man so far.

Unfortunately it's not all new there. The society closely resembles Aztec culture with it's sacrificial slaughter, although the motives of the Kh!lict are xenofobic, and not religious. More interesting is that the Kh!lict have a non-vocal communication in which colors are important; that the crab-like creatures evolve from male to female during their lives; that they live in a matriarchal society; and that the body of knowledge that this society wants their members to have, is imprinted in its adolecents during a rite of passage.

The Kh!lict society is long gone, but is discovered from the inside out, nevertheless. A strange divice turns several crew members into Kh!lict (yes: into crabs). Honestly, it took me some time to adjust to this plot device. But I must admit: it was one of the best ways of archeological exploration I've seen so far. I got used to it after a while.

So: my end conclusion is that I have mixed feelings about this book. If you like archeology, philosophy, sociology or antropology you'll like it. If you expect starships to boldly go - etcetera, this one's probably not for you.

Rating:
Summary: Don't ever turn anyone into a crab -- EVER!
Review: I tried to read this book with an open mind, but really found it to be a hard read. I can't recommend this one at all. My suggestion? If you want to become totally immersed in an alien culture, read "Uhura's Song" by Janet Kagan.

Rating:
Summary: crabs?!?!?!
Review: Never judge a book by its cover. This books cover looks much better than the inside.

Rating:
Summary: Not Worth Reading
Review: Star Trek novels are certainly not works of creative genius or high literary quality, but they are generally fun to read. "Windows on a Lost World," however, was not. Many of the beloved Star Trek characters, Dr. McCoy and Chekov in particular, behave in ways that run counter to their carefully developed personalities. The plot device of having main characters turn into crabs wears thin quickly. There are some fairly major holes in the plot as well.

My wife and I have read many Star Trek novels over the years, and we both agreed that "Windows on a Lost World" is by far the worst.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating story, extremely well told.
Review: There are flaws; how the alien race can have a "name" for themselves that translates into a verbal sound (Kh!lict) when their language has no sounds, but is one of color and movement, is a question I find unanswerable. Still, there are relatively few such flaws in an otherwise exquisite story. Good pacing, good characterization, fascinating plot hook. One of the best. But in spite of the cover, don't expect Chekov to play a major role, he really doesn't. This is a classic Kirk/Spock story.

Rating:
Summary: This book is confusing at many times.
Review: This book is somewhat hard to understand. The Enterprise uncovers a window, and Checkov is sucked in with a few security guards. Then Kirk is sucked in too. It takes a long time for the crew to find out that they have been turned into giant crabs. The only way to get back to normal is to find the other window and go through it. This book is ok, if you like a lot of explaination, and confusion. I would only recommend this book to those who trully would read every Star Trek book out there.

Rating:
Summary: A Trek book with a unique perspective.
Review: This is the story of an archaeological mission that goes spectacularly and uniquely wrong. The crew discover a transporter-like device that converts Kirk, Chekov and several others into the long-dead aliens that originally inhabited the planet. Kirk has to figure out how to contact Spock from inside an alien body while Spock must decipher the alien technology and change the converted crew back before they go insane. The scenes with Kirk in the alien body are very well written and the slow unravelling of the alien society is well paced and depicted. The archaeological investigations of Spock are also written, although others may find them to be lacking in events and with too much time on descriptions. Stories in which the crew actually spend their time in scientific exploration are fairly rare, and this is a very good and detailed one.

Rating:
Summary: Archeology, crab bodies, alien miinds, ancient ruins...wow!
Review: While performing archeological research on a long-uninhabited planet, Kirk, Chekov, and a security team fall through an artifact that might once have served has a one-way transportation device and are taken over by alien minds and bodies as they learn the details of exactly what happened to its ancient civilization.

This audio novel crept up on me at a time when I was taking geology and oceanography courses in college. I literally had to squeeze fifteen weeks of oceangraphy into three weeks that summer, so while I had to devote most of my time to studying, this tape served as a way for me to take a break without actually forgetting some of what I was studying, because the idea of a team of scientists working together as in this story helped to keep me grounded and hopeful that I would pass my course.

Rating:
Summary: Made Me A Bit Crabby
Review: Windows on a Lost World is one of the more technical Star Trek novels. My background lies more with the humanities, so I felt the story dragged a bit, but even though I wasn't particularly interested in the anthropology, geology, and oceanography related issues that were dealt with, I recognized that it was well thought out and written.

A Trekker who is interested in such subjects will this a worthwhile read.