Strange New Worlds, Vol. 5 (Star Trek)

Rating:
Summary: Great Short Stories!
Review: The stories in this book were great. Some of these authors should become regular Star Trek novel writers! No matter what series you like, it's all here, and every Trek fan should read this!

Rating:
Summary: My favourite for this series.
Review: This is probably the best of the series, in terms of the quality of the stories and the number that I read often. The Original Series section has an incredible story about Captain Pike in his crippled body with an active mind. It has two other great stories, including the first by Dayton Ward, now a well-established Trek author. It also has a light but good tribble story. The TNG section has mostly humorous stories, featuring Reg Barclay, Ro Laren, and Data - twice, once with Spot. There are also two strong stories featuring Picard, including his first meeting with Guinan. The grammar is strange but it is better than the full-size novel "Oblivion". There are also great stories about Q confronting the rest of the Continuum over his introduction of humanity to the Borg and about the Enterprise-D on its own. The DS9 stories are good but not great, a decided contrast to the rest of the collection. The Voyager stories unintentionally point out just how bad the writing in the televised episodes were by being so good. There are three action stories, a creepy ghost story, and a wonderful sequel to the Original Series episode "The Corbomite Maneuver". This should be an automatic choice for anyone with any of the other Strange New World books, and I would recommend it as the first one to buy for anyone unsure about the series.

Rating:
Summary: Garbage
Review: This will definitely be the last "Strange New World" collection I will buy as the series has really reached its' nadir here. Once again it is full of the soap opera garbage that has plagued Star Trek for more than a decade. Star Trek was always about action, adventure, intelligent ideas and yes ... strange new worlds. This pile of rubbish, apart from the odd bright spot, has almost none of that. It actually makes me almost ashamed to call myself a "Trekker" when I read this kind of material, but then what else can you expect from a generation raised on "Beverley Hills 90210" ?!!! Of course the real villains in this travesty are the editors who prove once again they are completely out of touch with what makes good Star Trek. The grand prize winner in this collection is a seven page story, fifty percent of which is just a transcribed version of a scene from the Star Trek episode "The City on the Edge of Forever". Now the Oxford English dictionary defines "plagiarism" as "to appropriate (ideas, passages, etc.) from (another work or author)." If this is not a clear case of that then what is, and to make this the grand prize winner is an insult to everyone who submitted genuine original ideas, good or bad. Personally if I was Harlan Ellison I'd be reaching for the phone to call my lawyer about this one. As a librarian by profession I take a very dim view of this kind of thing, and as far as I am concerned this collection clearly crossed the line, which is why I certainly will not be wasting any more money on future editions.

Rating:
Summary: Make this collection of short stories a regular series!
Review: Very imaginitive and creative stories. "of Kings and Cabbages (second prize)" was the best short story to me. A sentient Enterprise? The possibilities of that in itself are endless. I would like to thank the writer personally for that awe inspiring story.

Rating:
Summary: There isn't enough of this in Star Trek...
Review: Which is to say, not enough Trek short stories, just full-length novels. It gives more opportunity for a specialized story. Like a Mr. Data story. A Cyrano Jones sequel. What goes through Captain Pike's mind as an invalid. A story where Reg Barclay gets to be a hero rather than just swept along by events. A rite of passage for Cadet Nog. Lots of intriguing stuff like that. These stories may be by amateurs, but there's not a thing amateurish about them. This is the first of three such anthologies, and they're asking for contributors for a fourth. Here's a hint, all of you pro Trek writers. Don't leave it entirely up to us fans to come up with stuff like this. The very first Star Trek print fiction was when the late James Blish did adaptations of the Original Series episodes. In the form of (drum roll) short stories

Rating:
Summary: Conundrum of Fun!
Review: Wow!! Yet again, another great work by the fans for the fans. I really liked the tale, "Kristin's Conundrum" by two authors (one is Jeff Jackson or something ... it shows that even our youngest authors can get out there and really get a decent piece out there.) Makes me wonder if there are another short stories from the authors out there.
One question: why are all the writers American?

Rating:
Summary: Whoa, is this review thread screwed up
Review: You can ignore most of the first 10 reviews and the 10 latest reviews, because they're about books other than Strange New Worlds V (the erroneous entries are for Strange New Worlds I and Strange New Worlds VI). The entries in the middle are for the correct book (and most specify Strange New Worlds V). It's funny how the librarian's rant about the 'City on the Edge of Forever' story actually looks like Harlan Ellison's writing style.

Anyway, in my opinion, Strange New Worlds V is a very good book, although not the best of the Strange New Worlds volumes. My favorite story by far is Robert Jeschonek's 'Shoulders of Giants'.