Rating: 
Summary: Humor...The Final Frontier.
Review: One of the great vehicles that Star Trek used to convey a story is humor. "A Piece Of The Action", "Star Trek IV" used humor appropriately and sparingly in their story. Yet, in Ford's "How Much For Just The Planet?" I find the humor to be mundane or almost "British." Pie fights in Star Trek? Yep. Is it funny? Matter of opinion I guess, but I found the humor in a pie fight lacking. I really don't think slapstick humor in Trek suits very well. This is humor that you'd see in a 3 Stooges episode, not Trek. Only redeeming factor that I enjoyed from the book is the Federation survey team that crash lands on the planet. I'm glad to see that not every starship, no matter what size, has access to holodecks (yeah I know pre-generation), rec-decks, and libraries. The boredom that the crew was suffering from was protrayed nicely from the author. Best that Trek has to offer? No, but definitely not the worst.
Rating: 
Summary: A "Trek" Novel to separate the Trekkies from the rest of us.
Review: If you've read the other reviews on the subject, you already know that "How much for just the Planet" is a book which bitterly divides people who read it into two camps. You either love it, or hate it, and there just isn't any in-between. Those who love it are able to appreciate a beautifully crafted piece of farce, creative plot twists, believable and funny minor characters, and tons of side references to make a cinema-lover grin - or groan - all the way through the book.Those who hate the book will make any number of claims why - it's not funny, it's blatant character rape, he shouldn't have done it without the "Permission of the Great Bird of the Galaxy." What it boils down to is, they probably don't appreciate the humor, think that the ability to whip up a filk version of "Pop Goes the Weasle" makes them qualified to judge musical parody, and are upset because this book violates every one of their sacred cows and sets them out to dry. And it does so in an unapologetic, yet completely harmless manner. One of this book's critics made the point that the book fails because it fails to tell a serious story. Not so. It's just easy to miss, if you're being too literal-minded. When you get right down to it, the basic plot of this novel is as formulaic as they come. Kirk et al land on a planet hoping to obtain its valuable mineral resources for the Federation. The Klingons do the same. They curse and swagger for a while. The residents of the planet, meanwhile, desiring to be part of neither the Federation nor the Empire, have their own way of discouraging the two sides from fighting...and so it goes. The "point" of this novel that so many people seem to be missing is that the crew of the Enterprise and the Klingons are more alike than they are different. They have personal interests which don't often get brought up in old series episodes, where it is strictly "us" versus "them" where human-klingon relations are concerned. And if you take a randomly-chosen crew of humans and a randomly-chosen crew of klingons, it is entirely likely that there is going to be some overlap. They might even <gasp> GET ALONG. Admittedly, there are going to be prejudices and cultural differences to overcome. The fact that Ford did not bludgeon us over the head with this message doesn't make it any the less valid. And the fact that he chose to present it in a humorous way which played a bit fast and loose with some of our assumptions doesn't either. Guys, You're entitled to your opinions. But before you crawl back into your shell of fandom, pick up a copy of "Bimbos of the Death Sun" by Sharyn McCrumb and read it. And THINK about it. As for the rest of us, who haven't elevated Gene Roddenbury to deity status yet, who saw "Free Enterprise" and laughed at it, and who Like or LOVE Star Trek without seeing it as a way of life (yup...I'm FIJAGH all the way, folks...) this novel is a delightful change of pace from the formulaic drivel that makes up the vast majority of published Trek literature.
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: 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: 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.
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