Star Trek: Enterprise The First Adventure by Vonda McIntyre

[Therin of Andor]

I really, really didn't care for The Entropy Effect.

I read it when it first came out. It had been excerpted in "Starlog" and caused a controversy from fans protesting a novel in which Kirk dies, even after they were told that it happened before ST:TMP. Having found most of the Bantams second hand, it was wonderful to hold a new Trek novel in my hands. This frustratingly-delayed book (due to Bantam's license) is still a favourite. It also made me seek out "Dreamsnake". (EDIT: Also have her "Fireflood and Other Stories".)

TEE felt like a science fiction novel, as had David Gerrold's "The Galactic Whirlpool".

Not once in all of that does anything set the universe on a headlong plunge towards an early heat-death.

Wasn't it due to the unusual experiments of Mordreaux that had caused the entropy effect?

I can't figure out how, on the strength of that, she got the contracts for three film novelizations.

Because the novel was hugely successful and McIntyre was easy to work with? She got the contract for ST III because her ST II novelization was hugely successful. She got the contract for ST IV because her ST III novelization was hugely successful - and is not only a good novelization, it's a great novel.

 

[Daddy Todd]

I’d been in Central America for most of 1981 & 1982, and out of touch with All Things Trek. In fact, I had assumed the lackluster (to my eyes) TMP was the end of Star Trek. Thankfully, I could not have been more wrong!

So, when I got back to the USA in early 1982, I was amazed to learn a new Star Trek movie was coming out in a few months. I had time to catch up on Star Trek novels I’d missed over the past couple years. Including The Entropy Effect, which promptly blew me away. I’d long been a fan of SF; Herbert and Niven and so many others (and Perry Rhodan, when I was in junior high.)

The Entropy Effect was the best Star Trek novel I’d ever read. More than that, it was an exemplary SF novel that just happened to be set on the Enterprise. I’ve long believed that, had McIntyre written it in a stand-alone universe with her own characters, it would’ve been an awards contender. If it hadn’t been Star Trek, it might very well have won a Hugo. Or a Nebula. Or both.

Maybe that’s why some Trekfans appear to dislike it so intensely — the SFnal virtues that I love about it might be just the things that turn them off.

 

[Christopher]

Maybe that’s why some Trekfans appear to dislike it so intensely — the SFnal virtues that I love about it might be just the things that turn them off.

I've always felt that ST (and film/TV sci-fi in general) should just be the gateway to the vastly larger world of prose science fiction, as it was for me, rather than an endpoint in itself. What made the original ST stand out from the pack of SFTV shows was that it drew on ideas and authors from prose SF and was thus far richer than most of its contemporaries or predecessors (except others that also drew on prose SF like The Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits).

 

[Therin of Andor]

I've always felt that ST (and film/TV sci-fi in general) should just be the gateway to the vastly larger world of prose science fiction.

Definitely! Without Trek, I would probably never have discovered the SF works of David Gerrold, Larry Niven, Walter Koenig, Vonda McIntyre, AC Crispin, Diane Duane, or the comic book writing of Peter David.

 

[JD]

It also made me seek out "Dreamsnake and Other Stories".

Dreamsnake and Other Stories? I thought Dreamsnake was a full length standalone novel.

 

[Christopher]

Maybe he meant Fireflood and Other Stories? That's apparently the only McIntyre collection with a title in that form.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Dreamsnake and Other Stories? I thought Dreamsnake was a full length standalone novel.

Ooops. Combining two titles in my head.

Maybe he meant Fireflood and Other Stories? That's apparently the only McIntyre collection with a title in that form.

Yep. "Fireflood and Other Stories"... "by the awarding-winning author of Dreamsnake".

I know I own that - I was on vacation in the mid 80s and had run out of books to read, and it was in a tiny country second hand bookshop. I must own "Dreamsnake" as well, because I remember it. Both books currently in storage.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

The mention of short stories reminded me of a sad truth, that Vonda McIntyre was yet another author who died without ever seeing her story for Harlan Ellison's Last Dangerous Visions in print.

 

[JD]

Ooops. Combining two titles in my head.



Yep. "Fireflood and Other Stories"... "by the awarding-winning author of Dreamsnake".

I know I own that - I was on vacation in the mid 80s and had run out of books to read, and it was in a tiny country second hand bookshop. I must own "Dreamsnake" as well, because I remember it. Both books currently in storage.

I'm really frustrated that there is no e-book of Dreamsnake and that it appears to be out of print, it sounds like something I would really enjoy.

 

[thribs]

Wasn't really a fan of this one. The story was just weird and the characters didn't feel like themselves. I also found it a bit of a slog to get through.
I recommend reading Christopher Bennett's new novel, The Captain's Oath for a better "first adventure" story.

 

[Damian]

Wasn't really a fan of this one. The story was just weird and the characters didn't feel like themselves. I also found it a bit of a slog to get through.
I recommend reading Christopher Bennett's new novel, The Captain's Oath for a better "first adventure" story.

The only part that kind of caught my interest was the first contact situation in the story. But the rest was just meh. I remember how disappointed I was when I first read it. I was so excited we were getting a "first Kirk adventure" and it really was a let down. And the fact that it doesn't mesh well with WNMHGB is something that always bugged me about it.

"The Captain's Oath" was much better. I'm glad someone finally gave an updated first adventure story for Kirk on the Enterprise--and one that fits far better with WNMHGB