Rating: 
Summary: The "Noises Off" of the Star Trek universe
Review: This book is not a loose comedic romp. It's an immaculately constructed and *extremely* funny farce (and if you think those are easy, just try writing one). On top of that, it has deft, witty Gilbert&Sullivan-style musical numbers scattered throughout, and some beautiful set-piece scenes -- starting with the opening, where we're introduced to the main characters by watching them eat their various breakfasts. Much follows. I doubt there's a page in the book that can safely be read while drinking a Coke. The climax is appallingly unlikely, yet somehow satisfyingly predictable. In short, this is a dazzling display of technical virtuosity and comic genius that happens to also be a Star Trek tie-in novel, and I laughed so hard I hurt myself. When I re-read it again later, the same thing happened. The only reason to not read this book is because you're saving it to cheer you up the next time you have oral surgery or the flu.
Rating:
Summary: Worlds Apart Book II
Review: This book certainly has to be one of the most different Star Trek books written. There is a well thought out plot wrapped in a comedy. I have no recollection whatsoever of a Star Trek book either preceding or following this book to have a lot of singing in it. The amazing part about it is that I really never thought a book of this style in this genre would play very well. I was wrong about that. As I understand it, this is not exactly the novel the author wanted as a follow up to his earlier novel "The Final Reflection." That said, what he was allowed to publish is different and absolutely entertaining in and of itself. You will definitely enjoy reading this one.The premise: The Starship Enterprise is conducting tests on a drone of sorts when they receive a distress call. The distress call turns out to be from a geological survey ship that had been searching for dilithium. The ship and its crew had just found an extremely large deposit of dilithium on a planet. Unfortunately for the ship's crew of three, they had also just been discovered by the Klingons. In an extremely unorthodox maneuver, the crew hit an escape pod to the planet and the ship heads for the Enterprise on its own. What follows from here is a very different, yet appealing Star Trek adventure. It almost play's like a sitcom, putting Captain Kirk in situation's you would not normally expect to see him in. The author did a wonderful job of this, in making it very funny and not making it absolutely ridiculous and totally out of character for Captain Kirk and gang. For some of the finer and more interesting notes on this particular novel, see Chapulina R's review. It's very interesting to see what happens when an author and a publisher have a difference of opinion. Many thanks, once again to Chapulina R for the reading suggestion.
Rating: 
Summary: Continuing the tradition of comedy in STAR TREK
Review: It seems like the people who detest this book (and there seems to be a lot of them) have forgotten that many of the original STAR TREK episodes were played for comedy. One of the appealing things about "The Original Series" (TOS) is that it wasn't particularly hamstrung by conventionality. Sure TOS did great drama (think "City on the Edge of Forever") but some of the most innovative and beloved episodes such as "A Piece of the Action" or "The Trouble with Tribbles" were flat out comedies. "How Much for Just the Planet?" by author John M. Ford continues this tradition in style. This is Ford's second (and apparently last) STAR TREK novel, following up his outstanding "The Final Reflection." But, unlike that deadly serious book, Ford boldly takes us where no TREK novel has gone before, the final frontier of humour. The plotline begins quite conventionally, with Kirk et al of the USS Enterprise making their way to the planet Direidi, a treasure trove of dilithium (crystals vital for warp travel) to represent the United Federation of Planets. The problem is that representatives of the Klingon Empire are also on-planet negotiating for mineral rights. Even more disturbing is that the indigenous population of the planet is behaving just a little bit, well...funny. The rest of the story is a humourous adventure of mistaken identity, valuable mcguffins, mass distraction, misplaced jealousy, Gilbert & Sullivan songs, paranoid computers, peppermint flavored Vulcan milkshakes and yes, a pie fight. The difficulty in reading "How Much For Just the Planet?" comes from the problem of trying to convey timing through the written word. Most of the impact of comedy comes not from the written word, but from the timing in the delivery. (This is likely why no other TREK novel has followed the humourous course.) It is not enough to simply read the text in this novel, you have to actively imagine how the actors (Shatner, et al) would precisely respond in their roles. You have to take your knowledge of how they've responded in the past, in TV episodes or movies, and actively integrate it into this story. This could be difficult to do even for a real TREK fan. But for those willing to put the effort into it, "How Much For Just the Planet?" is an extremely rewarding novel. It's a pity that Ford seems uninterested in writing another TREK novel, as this one and "The Final Reflection" (the only TREK novel that I'd argue counts as real literature) shows a willingness to play with the franchise and break out of the conventional and boring approaches to STAR TREK in almost all the other books.
Rating:
Summary: The most delightful ST book I've ever read.
Review: This kind of parody and self-mockery is rarely seen, nor done so well. Not everybody will like its insistence on not taking itself seriously, or its improbable plot. But it is howlingly funny to those who can appreciate a little physical humor and parody. Kirk and a bunch of Klingons find themselves on a strange new planet, having to negotiate for a rare mineral. The planet's indigenous population turns out to not want either group there and takes steps to get them both off the planet. This sounds like a fairly straightforward plot, but the twists and turns that arise from it are, to say the least, silly. This is slapstick at its finest. It is roaringly funny filk songs sung by the most wildly improbable cast one can imagine. It's Klingons in formal Earth-style tuxes and dresses. It's a landing crew soaked in replicated strawberry milkshake. It's a dominatrix leading a Busby-style musical scene. It's Bones totally hung over and a Klingon fed to a laundry chute. I can well imagine that not all fans are going to get into this. It solidly pokes fun at everything Star Trek fandom has revered for 20 years. It's not serious; it's barely even plausible. But that's part of the fun for me. If you like your SF seasoned with more than the average amount of humor, you may find this to be fun as well. Probably its only detraction is that I didn't know all the songs being referenced. I'm probably just too young!
Rating: 
Summary: Flaunts False Funniness, Finding Solely Successful Silliness
Review: When my little brother was five, his favorite joke in the whole world was, "A pig walks under a ladder, and red paint spills all over him." That's about the kind of humor you'll find in "How Much for Just the Planet?" This novel has a promising start, realistic but with twinges of humor, and I was really looking forward to reading it. But it quickly degenerates into a quagmire of stupidity. I was hoping for something at the level of TVH, but Ford seems to be attempting something more like Hitchhiker's Guide within the Star Trek universe, yet lacking Douglas Adams' writing abilities. In this book Klingons don't act like Klingons, Vulcans don't act like Vulcans, and I have no idea who the humans are emulating- certainly no one I've ever known. Most of the book made no sense, and I found I had to skim large sections of rather boring banter in the final 7/8ths of the book- which includes an incredibly disappointing ending. Interspersed with this is a large number of very annoying songs, also intended to be humorous. Most of what is meant to be funny is like a bad Three Stooge's sketch. At no point are many key aspects of the visited planet's culture addressed, like how they happen to have a culture like 1970's America (complete with all the social references of the time) or who the Ancients repeatedly referred to are. I'd best describe this novel as something an eight-year-old child might enjoy, if they had some parts explained to them. Actually, come to think of it, it could have worked as a TAS show. The most redeeming feature of this novel- I didn't pay for it. I borrowed it from the library.
Rating: 
Summary: Okay, it's somewhat amusing, but...
Review: When I was a child, I adored Star Trek. It ran in the afternoon opposite Dinah Shore, and I was constantly frustrated by my mother who preferred the talk show instead of Captain Kirk and the gang. Some of the first books I remember reading were James Blish's adaptations and the fan fiction of Sondra Marshak. Our front porch was above ground with a nice railing and made for a fine Enterprise bridge in our play-acting. I used felt to cut out patches to match the emblems in the show, using the Star Fleet Technical Manual as my design guide. Yes, I was a kid trekkie. Over the years, I have not followed the Trek franchise. Oh, I went to the movies when they came out (first one boring, second one great, third one okay, then didn't catch the others). I tried to watch Star Trek: The Next Generation when it first came on, but it never captivated me. I went to see the first Next Generation movie, and complained for days about "the plot hole you could drive a sun through." I've caught some of the other television spin-offs during hotel remote control roulette. But aside from my early saturation period, I really have let Trek go by the wayside. So why read a Trek novel now? For years, I had heard about the Trek novel that the Trekkies hated. The one book in the franchise that would never be reprinted. It doesn't follow the "bible," according to one source, the bible being the all-encompassing document produced by Paramount that says what you can and can not do with the characters. Sounds interesting, I thought. I would check the used bookstore from time to time to see if they had a copy, curiosity being what it is. And I finally found a copy a couple of weeks ago. How Much for Just the Planet pits Kirk et al. against a Klingon named Kaden and his crew in a battle for a planet in the Organian treaty zone that is a wealth of dilithium, the wonder mineral of the 25th century. Due to the terms of the treaty, both the Federation and the Klingons must show that they are the most efficient at developing the world or renounce their claim on it to the other party. The inhabitants of the world get a small say in the matter. This planet's inhabitants try to make the most of their small say. The book is purposely silly--the inhabitants' actions are seen as strange by the starship crews, but this strangeness is passed over blindly (diplomats, as they are in this case, ignoring native customs that do not necessarily match their own). So when someone breaks into a song--yes, a song--the crews take it in stride, even in one case matching the operetta with a little Gilbert and Sullivan of their own (the 25th century continues its fascination with the 19th and 20th centuries--I always wondered what happened to all the musicians and novelists of the 21st through 24th centuries). There are several subplots, in which individual groups of the crews are teamed up to undergo different "movie" experiences: Kirk's is a screwball plot (how apt, considering his way with the opposite sex); Scotty and Chekov are involved in a golf duel; McCoy and Sulu become captives of the people that time forgot; and Uhura gets to play femme fatale in a detective noir. Only Spock is left out, as he commands the ship overhead. This is wise, because his logical orientation would suffice to "destroy" the irrational illusions created by the inhabitants. Expectations are dangerous things. There was simply no way the book could live up to its hype, and I tried to read it accordingly. While I did find some parts funny--especially Kirk in the Jimmy Stewart/Cary Grant role--on the whole it felt quite strained. Frankly, the characters are not strong enough to survive this kind of treatment, which may be the reason for Paramount's bible. Ford does a surprisingly nice job of actually trying to contain himself to some logic of the Trek universe; I didn't see anything here that was any more bathetic than Kirk's pledge of allegiance at the end of the gangster episode, or the entire Eden song. Ford has gone on to much greener pastures, and probably can be thankful that this book languishes in enforced obscurity.
Rating:
Summary: Get the Kleenex! Warning causes spasms of laughter!
Review: This has to be the funniest Star Trek book I have ever read ... probably one of the funniest books as well. While some books have a few mildly comic scenes, this one made me laugh do hard that I was a mess. Totally incoherent with tears, the works! The Vulcan, T'Vey is priceless and I've always liked the Vulcans more after reading this delightful book. The book has 3 different back stories going on, which all come together at the end. Kirk and the Enterprise arrive on the planet of Deiriedi and their interactions with the local inhabitants form the first part of the story. Then there is the story of T'Vey and the crew of the freighter and their mishap that lands them on the planet. Lastly there are the Klingons who come to defend their rights to the dilithium ore and want to beat Kirk et al to the punch. The locals have their own ideas and play one group against the other. Over it all, in the background, both Kirk and the Klingons try very hard to behave so that the Organians don't zap them for their bad behavior. It's beautifully written and a joy to read even if you've read it before. Thank you John Ford for a real treat.
Rating:
Summary: Unbounded Hilarity!
Review: I very rarely laugh out loud while reading books, but this one had me guffawing all the way through. John M. Ford manages to masterfully capture the essense of Star Trek's silly side, weaving old and new characters together in a delightful tapestry of laughs. The setting and situations are ludicrous, and yet Ford's characterizations are so vivid that you find yourself completely engaged by his tale of topsy-turvydom. Even though the references to silent film stars, or the general Vaudeville music-hall tone of some sections might elude some readers, the escapades of Ford's characters will undoubtedly keep them reading. All in all, this is just about the only Star Trek novel that I can read over and over again without EVER tiring of it. Highly reccomended for everyone!
Rating:
Summary: Not for everyone.
Review: It was a difficult decision whether to give this novel four stars or five, and not because it was "somewhere in between". It was either very specifically four stars, or very specifically five. There is a legitimate school of thought that says that it should get five stars, because it accomplishes what it sets out to accomplish (being a hilariously funny spoof of Star Trek) near-perfectly. There is another school of thought which says that Star Trek is at its best when it manages to maintain a sense of humor about itself, WHILE NONETHELESS TELLING A DRAMATIC STORY. This book succeeds gloriously in maintaining a sense of humor, but fails at actually telling a dramatic story. It makes for an enjoyable read, but it a flawed Star trek novel because it misses the balance between the two. As you can tell by the fact that I ultimately rated it four stars, I'm of the second school of thought. Still, it is a marvellous romp, reminiscent in style of Robert Asperin's "Myth" series. (Of course, there's a third school of thought, which maintains that "THAT'S NOT FUNNY! How dare they mock Star Trek?" But just ignore that school of thought. Unless, of course, you firmly believe that Star Trek should always be taken seriously.)
Rating:
Summary: A Feel Good Book
Review: Although it is a departure from standard Star Trek submissions, this piece of work is just plain relaxed enjoyment. The vision of a Klingon warrior dressed in formals dumped down a garbage chute made me laugh out loud. Even the finest Starfleet crews need a day like this once in a while. Keep this one on the coffee table.
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