Star Trek: The Fate of the Phoenix by Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath (1979)

[Therin of Andor]

It’s interesting to think that the Bantam novels, which are not, in a general sense, particularly good, had three different print runs, originally in the mid-late ‘70s, mid ‘80s and the early ‘90s, but the Pocket line has only had a few true ‘reprint’ editions of titles (the whole catalogue was more or less continuously in print/ available into the ‘90s)...

I suspect the mid 80s Bantam/Corgi rerun only happened when Bantam's new owners realised that the wording of the old contracts actually gave them permission to reprint without renewing their licence. The revamped cover art even came to resemble rival Pocket's new titles on the same shelves. I remember being very tempted by the new "episode montage" covers on the Blish MMPBs, even though I had the originals. I did rebuy the stories for the three Bantam Spectra 20th Anniversary volumes (plus "Mudd's Enterprise", which reprinted "Mudd's Angels").

Ironically, Pocket Books was behind an international reprint (1995) of all the "Star Trek Logs" (TAS adaptations) into three volumes. I had to buy these! (The first US omnibuses from Del Rey in 1993 had omitted "Star Trek 10", which must have driven the completists crazy.) Del Rey US finally put all ten books into five omnibus trades in 2006, and with new essays, I had to buy these, too!

Pocket has done some interesting reprint experiments over the years: formalising some pairs of older titles with matching covers (eg "The Yesterday Saga", "Fortunes of War", "Worlds Apart", etc.) in MMPB; the very handsome "Signature Edition" trade PBs with bonus essays; the hardcover omnibus for the first four "New Frontier" novels; and the chunky trade omnibuses ("Rihannsu: The Bloodwing Voyages", "Destiny", etc). Science Fiction Book Club also did some exclusive hardcover collections of Pocket material.

 

[STMSTS]

I suspect the mid 80s Bantam/Corgi rerun only happened when Bantam's new owners realised that the wording of the old contracts actually gave them permission to reprint without renewing their licence. The revamped cover art even came to resemble rival Pocket's new titles on the same shelves. I remember being very tempted by the new "episode montage" covers on the Blish MMPBs, even though I had the originals. I did rebuy the stories for the three Bantam Spectra 20th Anniversary volumes (plus "Mudd's Enterprise", which reprinted "Mudd's Angels").

Ironically, Pocket Books was behind an international reprint (1995) of all the "Star Trek Logs" (TAS adaptations) into three volumes. I had to buy these! (The first US omnibuses from Del Rey in 1993 had omitted "Star Trek 10", which must have driven the completists crazy.) Del Rey US finally put all ten books into five omnibus trades in 2006, and with new essays, I had to buy these, too!

Pocket has done some interesting reprint experiments over the years: formalising some pairs of older titles with matching covers (eg "The Yesterday Saga", "Fortunes of War", "Worlds Apart", etc.) in MMPB; the very handsome "Signature Edition" trade PBs with bonus essays; the hardcover omnibus for the first four "New Frontier" novels; and the chunky trade omnibuses ("Rihannsu: The Bloodwing Voyages", "Destiny", etc). Science Fiction Book Club also did some exclusive hardcover collections of Pocket material.

I liked the Signature Editions quite a bit (although the flipped cover image for Reunion/The Valiant still haunts me). “Worlds Apart” always made me chuckle, as that title was applicable on many levels. I have a cool SFBC edition of the first two Stargazer novels. And I loved the covers of the ‘90s Bantam Spectra reprints.

I’m surprised that Pocket hasn’t done more things like the “Nightshade” reprint from a few years ago which was used to plug a hole in the schedule.

The 40th Anniversary new edition of TMP was a nice surprise. I’d like to think there’d be some interest in a TWOK anniversary edition too.

 

[Therin of Andor]

The 40th Anniversary new edition of TMP was a nice surprise.

For me it was when I realised the likelihood of an accompanying unabridged audio, which we did get! And several annoying typos were fixed.