Constellations
Celebrating 40 Years of Star Trek
by Marco Palmieri (Editor)
Celebrating forty years since its first appearance in 1966, Star Trek is here to stay (even if currently that
just means in print). Here is a book of short stories by various authors, all dealing with the original series and
featuring an introduction to remind us what it was all about. Reviewing a book of short stories is never easy but
would-be readers will be glad to know that there is a fairly even standard to the tales, with nothing dire and
nothing outstanding. Although the introduction reminds us of the time when the original series was made, it is
interesting to note that all the stories look at the series very much through 2006 eyes, rather than the rather
innocent and less complex eyes of 1966. None of the other series had been made then, but now they all have and it
shows, as does a distinctly post 9/11 feeling that is out of tune with the more utopian (at least on Earth) period
the show was set in. This makes for more sophisticated stories, but, in my opinion, it would have been even better
to have celebrated the more optimistic and sometimes naïve way the show looked at the future. Perhaps only the
final story - a manga strip from Tokyopop - gives us a fairly simple story akin to those in the original series
with a life lesson to be learned, but with the sort of adventure that made the show so popular. What is lacking
in all the stories is the sheer sense of wonder that every episode gave us, and thus made it one of the most
popular and most enduring shows of all time. |
The Book |
Pocket Books (Simon & Schuster) |
September 5, 2006 |
Trade Paperback |
ISBN13: 9780743492546
ISBN10: 9743492544 |
SF/TV Tie-In |
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Excerpt |
NOTE: |
The Reviewer |
Rachel A Hyde |
Reviewed 2007 |
NOTE: |
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