Enterprise, The First Adventure (Star Trek)

Rating:
Summary: McIntyre's "Enterprise" is OK, but not great....
Review: Every saga, as the tag line for another series' first episode goes, has a beginning, and the same could be said for the crew of the Federation starship USS Enterprise.

When we first saw them on TV in the fall of 1966, the starship Enterprise, Capt. James T. Kirk commanding, was already well into its five-year mission. The officers and crew had already been through several assignments and worked well as a team....and the exploits of Capt. Kirk and his starship were already reaching near-legendary status in the Federation.

But how did Kirk, one of the youngest men ever to attain the rank of Captain, become skipper of the already legendary starship? How did the crew come together to become the finest crew in Starfleet?

Vonda McIntyre (The Entropy Effect, the novelizations for Star Trek II-IV, plus the Star Wars novel The Crystal Star) delves into the unknown beginning of the Star Trek saga in her novel Enterprise: The First Adventure.

The novel begins as the newly promoted Captain James Tiberius Kirk, 28 years old and decorated hero -- he barely survived a disastrous mission at Ghioge -- is given his new assignment: command of the Constitution-class starship Enterprise. Her former skipper, Capt. Chris Pike, has been given a promotion to commodore, and Kirk has been chosen as his replacement.

Although Kirk is happy about his new rank and his first starship command, he is disappointed when his friend Gary Mitchell (still recovering from his wounds received at Ghioge) is not assigned to the Enterprise as his first officer. Instead, he inherits Pike's half-Vulcan science officer, Mr. Spock. Kirk thinks Spock is too cold and analytical, while the logic-minded first officer believes the new captain might be too reckless for his own -- and the ship's -- good. To make matters worse, Kirk's veteran chief engineer, Montgomery Scott, is not happy about Starfleet's decision to turn Enterprise over to an "untried tyro."

The novel works best when it describes the uneasy first days of Kirk's command. It's interesting to know that it took a challenging "first contact" mission and a confrontation with a renegade Klingon captain to start molding the Enterprise crew into the team we saw on both the small and silver screens, not to mention all the novels and comic book series that continue to sell briskly nearly 40 years after Star Trek premiered on NBC-TV.

McIntyre is a good wordsmith and captures the spirit of the Star Trek characters vividly. She has a fondness for Sulu and gives his character more depth than he often was given by the series' scriptwriters. Kirk, too, is very interesting in this novel; he exhibits a streak of rebelliousness that several years as captain will tame just a bit. His relationship with Carol Marcus (who is the mother of his son David) and his mom and brother are also explored in some detail.

The mission itself and some of the other characters were a bit uninteresting, but Enterprise: The First Adventure still held my attention, even in some of the less exciting chapters.

Rating:
Summary: Kirk's VERY FIRST MISSION as Captain of the USS Enterprise!
Review: Few people remember that before this book came out, all Star Trek books were small, episodic paperbacks that you could read in an afternoon. This book was an important step in Trekdom as it is the very first Star Trek book that was written as a full-blown novel of original material.

Here, we are introduced to Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, "Bones" McCoy, and all the other Trek favorites when they first meet each other. All is not well aboard ship, and the cameraderie we know and love from these characters is all but absent, initially. They are wary of each other, distracted by duty, obsessed with personal agendas, and so on.

We see the crew of the Starship Enterprise as a bunch of individuals rather than the cohesive core of the ship we know from other stories, but it is utterly fascinating to see this crew meld together in crisis, not knowing the long history they will have together.

Kirk is the youngest man to captain a starship in the Federation, and some of his crew are not impressed with him. Kirk's main critic is Spock, who sees the Captain as "impetuous." But Kirk has more problems on his hands than a disapproving Vulcan: The ship's surgeon has yet to report to duty, the helmsman wants to be anywhere else than at the helm of the Enterprise, and Kirk soon realizes that his first mission as Captain of the Enterprise is far less the exciting mission he expected. He is ordered to transport a group of performers on a morale-boosting tour for the Federation. What no one knows is that this presumably tame mission could be their last!

If you thought you knew Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and the rest of the crew, you haven't read anything yet. Written by noted SF author, Vonda N. McIntyre, this is a wonderful prequel that captures the essence of why we love Star Trek in the first place.

If you ever wondered what it was like to see the Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise on it's first mission together, look no further. You'll be happy to have been along for the ride.

Rating:
Summary: Creative aliens and multiple subplots
Review: I count this among my favorite TOS novels. It was written back in 1986, during the heyday of Trek novels, before things became so cookie-cutter formularized. This book is thick enough (371 pages) to have multiple well-developed subplots in addition to the main storyline about the change of command from Captain Pike to Captain Kirk. Although some reviewers see this as "rambling," I see it as good writing, where seemingly unrelated threads all come together eventually. (Perhaps my love of mystery novels makes me more tolerant than most when it comes to details that seem "irrelevant" until the end of the book.)

The story features some interesting first-contact aliens, a variety of non-human crewmembers (pay special attention to the "green roommate"), a genetically engineered equiraptor (winged horse), a "perverted" Vulcan who seeks out emotional experiences for thrills, and a renegade Klingon from a minority Klingon culture where everyone veils their faces. I especially enjoyed McIntyre's portrayal of the first interactions between Kirk, Spock, and McCoy, as well as her great backstory about Yeoman Janice Rand. As Gene Roddenberry himself said on the cover, "I heartily recommend ENTERPRISE: THE FIRST ADVENTURE as a most creative and enjoyable tale of Star Trek's beginning..."

Rating:
Summary: First Trek Book I have Read
Review: I have been a fan of the various Trek television series and films for many years but have never picked up a book. Generally I have not made the effort as it always seemed I would pick up a book that was in the middle of a series and the earlier episodes were not present, so I just passed. With, "The First Adventure", I thought it was a safe starting point.

The irony is that this story was published almost two decades after the original Trek series on television had started, so the author had a great deal of material to look back upon. I learned much about the original crew that I did not know from the original series and films, and I believe I have seen them all.

The book is literally the first voyage The Enterprise takes with Captain Kirk at the helm together with all the other crew members so familiar to fans. The book also includes the departure of newly promoted Commodore Pike which people will remember from the first television series. The book is lengthy and is not a quick short story that some paperbacks tend to be, it shares a great deal of background on the principal players, a first voyage whose mission is a bit bizarre, and a First Contact that is well done. The then infamous Klingons make their appearance as well, and both the conflict and hints of the future peace are explored in the book's events.

Based on this read I will try and find more books that begin with number one in a series and stay the course through the following episodes. This book is certainly worthwhile for fans of the original Trek series, or even fans of the later groups that crewed the various incarnations of The Enterprise. For if nothing else, this was the original voyage and crew, this is where that original 5 year mission was to begin.

Rating:
Summary: Not Your Cookie-Cutter Trek
Review: I read this book years ago and remember it as my favorite. Why? Because it dares to challenge the monolithic personalities that most other books portray of our Starfleet heroes. In addition, the deceptive simplicity of the weird fuzzy aliens (who travel by moving space instead of themselves, but still hunt for food like so-called "lower" animals) is fabulously juxtaposed with the weird fuzzy circus troupe being ferried aboard the Enterprise. The McIntyre's plot appears juvenile on first inspection and initially evokes as much head-scratching as Kirk and crew upon their First Contact with the aliens. But ultimately, the alien encounter was masterful, as was the metaphoric circus aboard ship. It all results in a story striated with meanings deeper than the simple (and always obvious) parables that shallower Trek readers and viewers come to expect.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: McIntyre has captured the true feel of Trek. This story is full of great introductions and wonderful character interactions. The plot is among the best of the Trek novels I have read. I highly recommend this to any fan. It gives you a great setup for the five year mission. This is one to definately re-read as the years go by.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: McIntyre has captured the true feel of Trek. This story is full of great introductions and wonderful character interactions. The plot is among the best of the Trek novels I have read. I highly recommend this to any fan. It gives you a great setup for the five year mission. This is one to definately re-read as the years go by.

Rating:
Summary: Sweet Begining
Review: The book Enterprise by Vonda N. McIntyre is both a sweet adventure and an unusual interpretation of the Star Trek universe.

While the seemingly soft characterizations and undeveloped friendships within the original Enterprise crew might be off- putting for some, it represents an original concept through the author's mind, allowing voice for her own interpretation of the beloved characters of the favourite television show. I myself liked the interactions between the newly-aquainted Kirk and Spock. Here, the author introduces a feeling of testing the waters of a friendship between the two men, which becomes strong as their lives moved on past their first mission together. Also, a lovely touch are Spock's observations of human nature in the light of a traveling vaudeville's performance, related to Captain Kirk; his observations and Kirk's reactions are a precursor to the friendly barbs traded between the two men in the future.

I reccomend this book for anyone who questions and wonders about the first mission of the Enterprise under the command of Captain Kirk. . . It is a question previously not answered in the Star Trek universe.

L.L.A.P.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting ramble
Review: This novel is well done, but I found that it was mostly just a big, long, ramble. The plot kept changing, and it just sort of meandered along until the end. It does introduce the characters to each other very well. I enjoyed seeing everyone's first reactions to Captain Kirk, the Enterprise, and each other, and how they all began to really work together at the end. The plot began with seeing the Enterprise turned over from Pike to Kirk, and that was a good beginning. Then we found out that the ship would be touring a vaudeville company around starbases. I didn't think this would be much of a story, and it turns out that the author did add other elements. There was a first contact, which was interesting, and a whole sub-plot about this Klingon renegade gal. I did not see where that fit in at first, and it didn't come into the main storyline until the end. That wasn't too well done. The new supporting characters were fun, however, and well done. I liked Lindy and Stephen, and the "equiraptor" Athene was very cool. What I also enjoyed was the creation of a back-story for Yeoman Janice Rand. I thought that her parts of the story were very interesting and I liked the way Uhura helped her. The plot of this book really wandered aimlessly from here to there - basically it was just a device to get the crew to go on their first voyage. The writing style was very descriptive, which was nice, but sometimes it was jumpy and I found myself confused as to when we got to this location or why we were going from this person's point of view. One small nitpick was that this book had Chekov on the Enterprise from the beginning - I thought he arrived at the end of season 1. That was the only technical problem I saw. Though slow, the book is a nice, enjoyable read. Original Series fans will probably really like this one, and others who don't know much about TOS can enjoy it too.

Rating:
Summary: Lacks much from the book
Review: While it was nice to be able to experience this book while driving, hearing Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and Zulu (George Takei) try to mimic the voices of Kirk, McCoy and Scotty sounded very tinny. Such readings are always better if done by a voice that is not so associated with any of the characters. Furthermore, the story is heavily abridged, which means a great deal of the story line of the book is lost. Therefore, I was nowhere near riveted by the telling of the story.
The main premise is a good one. The Enterprise receives her new captain, James T. Kirk, an arrogant yet extremely capable young officer. The backdrop of the initial reaction of Spock and Scotty does make for an interesting point of development in the overall Star Trek experience. The best part of the story by far is that of Steven, the Vulcan man who knew Spock when they were children. In traditional Vulcan eyes, Spock's included, he is a pervert because he seeks sensations and emotional peaks.
A secondary premise is that of a Klingon renegade who has stolen a ship. Unfortunately, there is simply not the time on this tape to develop that subplot to the fullest. It is clear that the ship is necessary for the story, but without the background, the appearance is artificial.
It is hard to take a story with a quality plot and abridge it without losing some of the essentials. That happens here and while a book on tape is fine for listening to in the car, I encourage you to read the book if you want to understand all of the points in the story.