Looking For a Good Book

STAR TREK WEEK

I am one of those faithful Star Trek fans who will gladly read stories (stories, novels, graphic novels) featuring the original Star Trek cast/crew.  When you add in an author such as D.C. Fontana, who wrote for the original series, and the excitement level for a book like this is high.

The book reads like a classic Trek episode. Here, while the Enterprise is testing a new cloaking device (having stolen such a device from a Romulan ship) Kirk and Spock find themselves boarding the ship from a shuttlecraft  only to discover that they are out of ‘phase’ with the rest of the ship’s crew. Only Lt. Arex is slightly visible to Kirk and Spock (due to some technical, fortuitous accident). It is during this time that the Romulans arrive, with Ambassador Sarek, and an old-fashioned pistol (phaser pistol) fight may ensue in the corridors.

I will almost always have fun reading new adventures from my favorite starship crew, and I definitely enjoyed this, but scribe Fontana does something that I don’t really like too much … she gets too cute trying to bring aspects from multiple episodes into one story. She does, however, have a better understanding of the characters than many Star Trek comic writers.

Many comics/graphic novels have stories that span multiple comics issues which really does create a different kind of story (because each ‘issue’ has an entire story with rising action and a climax). This graphic novel is built more as an actual episode with one large story as the focus.

The art here is fine.  I think Gordon Purcell is probably one of the best artists for Star Trek graphic novels currently working in the field.

Fun read?  Yes.  Not to be missed?  Only because it’s D.C. Fontana telling a Star Trek story.

Looking for a good book? True Star Trek fans will want to read D.C. Fontana’s story in the graphic novel Star Trek: Year Four – The Enterprise Experiment.

I borrowed this through the Kindle Unlimited program.

* * * * * *

Star Trek: Year Four – The Enterprise Experiment

author: D. C. Fontana and Derek Chester

artist: Gordon Purcell

publisher: IDW Publishing

paperback, 136 pages