Doing a selective re-read on some of the earliest ST titles and am currently on this one. Without getting into too much detail, portions of it involve a pre-WNMHGB Gary Mitchell and Elizabeth Dehner. They have time-traveled to the twenty-first century and are using cover names. Dr. Dehner's cover name is Dr. Bellero. Never picked up on it before but Bellero was the name of a character on an episode of "The Outer Limits" played by, you guessed it, Sally Kellerman. Pretty funny.
Strangers from the Sky
- Thread starter E-DUB
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Strangers from the Sky is actually one of the books I thinks pass the "Test of Time". Meaning, it still is good after all these years.
I've read prolly about 90% of all the trek books published (over a span of 20+ years) and sometimes at the used book store when I flip through older trek books, I think, "I can't believe I read this crap" -- well I guess some trek books are good when you are 16 and not 42. Plus, when I was in my late teens, beggers can't be choosers back then when it came to trek books.
But anyway, I really enjoyed that book
I've read prolly about 90% of all the trek books published (over a span of 20+ years) and sometimes at the used book store when I flip through older trek books, I think, "I can't believe I read this crap" -- well I guess some trek books are good when you are 16 and not 42. Plus, when I was in my late teens, beggers can't be choosers back then when it came to trek books.
But anyway, I really enjoyed that book
I remember as a kid starting the book, but then losing interest in it. But I just picked it back up this summer, and while I got through the first book, I set the whole book down too read Eternal Tide and a few others. So I'm only upto Book 2 Chapter 4.
I very much enjoyed Strangers From the Sky.
I do recall a fairly big between-books continuity error, though. The framing story of SFtS explicitly takes place shortly before STII, yet Spock's World, set exactly halfway through the post-TMP second five-year mission makes reference to it even though they hadn't remembered any of it yet.
Then again.... I guess this is one of those instances where one can really say "a wizard did it"
I do recall a fairly big between-books continuity error, though. The framing story of SFtS explicitly takes place shortly before STII, yet Spock's World, set exactly halfway through the post-TMP second five-year mission makes reference to it even though they hadn't remembered any of it yet.
Then again.... I guess this is one of those instances where one can really say "a wizard did it"
What's the Spock's World reference? I don't remember that.
In the briefing room scene in the chapter titled "Enterprise: One," Spock mentions the official story that the first human-Vulcan contact occurred in 2065, and he, Kirk, and McCoy exchange furtive looks due to their mutual knowledge that the true history was different. It's on p. 46 in the paperback edition.
That was one of the first books I got and a favorite, which I've read two or three times. Of course that was easier when I had fewer books to choose from.
This book remains a classic and is one of the few that is pulled out for a re-read.
And it's based on an entry in STAR TREK Spaceflight Chronology. The Bellero reference was culled from Sally Kellerman's credits in Allan Asherman's Star Trek Compendium.
Both books were absolutely essential resources in that pre-IMDb/pre-Memory Alpha/Beta era.
One thing I like about the books from that era is the fact that they don't seem as "cluttered" as current ones do. Back when Star Trek meant Kirk, Spock, McCoy, etc. and only that. Don't get me wrong, I like it when an author does the sweeping story well, but so many today seem obligated to work in stuff from all the series. The simplicity of those earlier works has its appeal.
Haha. I can imagine someone asking, "Do I have to watch Where No Man Has Gone Before?" to truly appreciate SftS? Do I have to buy the "Spaceflight Chronology" first?
garamet, I seem to remember an anecdote that you were so poor, at the time, that you had to memorize factoids about the Vulcan-Earth first contact from the Goldsteins' book in a shop before heading home to write.
It's usually here that I also marvel at the cleverness of the audio production! Such a chunky "giant novel" compressed into 90 mins of entertainment from Nimoy and Takei. I know it won't appeal to the unabridged-audios-only crowd, but it is very well done. Takei's southern-accented Melody Sawyer is wonderful!
One of my all time favorite Trek novels. I haven't read it in ages, but there was a span of time where I read it annually.
Haven't read it in years, but it's long been a favourite.
IIRC, he was nominated for an audio Emmy for one of his ST audios. This one?
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