Arizhel picked up the Cat robber and shoved him into the closet. She pressed the lock button, since Charlotte had the key, then shut the door, listening for the click. She heard the cat stir within. That was disappointing; she must be out of practice.
She went back towards the door. Stitches popped like bursts of gunfire. Instinctively she grabbed at the scraps of black as they fell away. It seemed to make things worse.
But she did not need the Cat costume any longer. She could simply change back into her dress...
Which was locked in the closet, behind the Cat.
How Much For Just The Planet (#36 Pocket, # Titan) by John M Ford is another slightly experimental story in keeping with Ford's rule not to write the same kind of story twice. I think HMFJTP is a kind of marmite story, but very much in the style of TOS in that it could have very much been an episode of from the TV series. Incredibly campy both in writing style and the events in the story itself, it is also very self aware. Ridiculous things happen in HMFJTP, the whole latter half of the book is orchestrated slap stick comedy ending in a pie fight between all the characters. The end is also moralising, and highlights one of the problems with the Organian treaty - what if the people of the disputed planet want nothing to do with either the Federation nor the Klingon Empire?
She went back towards the door. Stitches popped like bursts of gunfire. Instinctively she grabbed at the scraps of black as they fell away. It seemed to make things worse.
But she did not need the Cat costume any longer. She could simply change back into her dress...
Which was locked in the closet, behind the Cat.
How Much For Just The Planet (#36 Pocket, # Titan) by John M Ford is another slightly experimental story in keeping with Ford's rule not to write the same kind of story twice. I think HMFJTP is a kind of marmite story, but very much in the style of TOS in that it could have very much been an episode of from the TV series. Incredibly campy both in writing style and the events in the story itself, it is also very self aware. Ridiculous things happen in HMFJTP, the whole latter half of the book is orchestrated slap stick comedy ending in a pie fight between all the characters. The end is also moralising, and highlights one of the problems with the Organian treaty - what if the people of the disputed planet want nothing to do with either the Federation nor the Klingon Empire?
Stylistically HMFJTP is really interesting. When the Federation and Klingon diplomatic delegations beam down to Direidi to attempt to negotiate who would be developing the planet and it's dilithium resources the reader is made immediately aware that what the crew are experiencing is all staged and an act. The reader has been told of 'Plan C', we know it's all scripted and throughout the surreal experiences we often get given small 'behind the scenes'... well... scenes. The Direidians break into musical-esque song at the merest provocation, much to the bemusement of the Federation and Klingon crews, who are trying to be accepting of this strange people (which of course helps to keep the ruse going). The songs are written in italicised stanzas, predominantly in rhyming couplets, and are often quite lengthy! The songs work as a kind of shorthand for setting the scene, much as they would in a piece of musical theatre (they're also mostly awful!). We expect for the hi-jinx to begin when the 'worlds collide' as it were, however the strange, theatrical occurrences happen from the beginning of the narrative and in the formatting of the text itself.
Something that stands out immediately is that every chapter has a title, for example:
- In Space, No One Can Fry an Egg
- The Dilithium Crystal As Big As The Ritz
- All's Fair In Love and Dilithium
and there are also 'interlude' chapters such as:
- Educational Short Subject: Useful Facts about Dilithium
- Historical Interlude: The Only War We've Got
which are written with a theme and are written stylistically differently. The 'Educational Short Subject' is written as if it's a sponsored children's infomercial, the 'Historical Interlude' is a comically written explanation of the terms of the Organian Treaty and the Federation and the Empire's respective opinions on it (that interlude tickled me!).
It's also interesting to note that the strange goings on or perhaps the tone of the novel starts immediately in the narrative too. From the beginning the whole story has a certain humour to it. Whether it's the replicator's inability to produce orange juice which isn't blue, Kirk deciding he was brave enough to try the electric blue concoction, or that the events of the story may have been put into motion by a sloppy Vulcan who spilt a minty milk shake over integral parts of her ship's computer, causing it to become quite insane. These events continue as Kirk & Co. are brought into the story, the diplomat for the mission is an old flame (whom he'd forgotten) and the sloppy Vulcan is known to Spock (he exhibits a slight tick when he suspects she's involved); this is even before the diplomatic party arrives at the planet.
I mean... on one hand we have the expected ridiculous and scripted events on Direidi which really are laugh out loud funny (the cherry on the cake was the utterly ridiculous 'pie fight', but the multiple cases of misdirection and tongue in cheek film / theatre references) and on the other we have the 'universe' acting in much the same way which makes it both less and more absurd. This is quite in keeping I feel with episodes of TOS which can vary between serious intellectualism to broad comedy, though HMFJTP is far beyond anything featured in the show.
I really did like that Ford continued with his expansion of Klingon society. I really did like the internal thoughts of the Klingon characters who were by Klingon standards, quite pleasant. 'Proke' was quite the match to Uhura and was definitely a development from Ford's Klingons. Proke and Uhura both worked out what was going on on Direidi, and so their adventure was the most strange (and the shortest) as they were preempting the directed events and essentially identifying the tropes and their origin films / series as they came across them.
I think the most fun comes from the variety of different adventures the different groups of the diplomatic party had. One section was shamelessly drawing from 'She' (which made me chuckle), another with the party running over a golf course amid shell fire I know I've seen but I can't recall the film. Eventually the sets start to fall apart but by that time everyone is ready for a stress reducing pie fight!
Of course, unless you're a director, you're not going to escape a situation like this without egg on your face, and in this case the people of Direidi who don't want any part of politics manage to manipulate the situation in such a way that their preferred proposal for Dilithium mining on their planet has to be accepted by the diplomats of both the Federation and the Empire.
Like I said How Much For Just The Planet is a reader's marmite, I can't guarantee you'll like it, but I can honestly say that it is a well written Star Trek novel with a premise that could only be pulled off in practise by someone with Ford's ability.
If you know your 1940s, 50s, and 60s cinema and contemporary theatre, you'll have a good time picking out the references!
4/5 - Here's looking at you, kid.
It's also interesting to note that the strange goings on or perhaps the tone of the novel starts immediately in the narrative too. From the beginning the whole story has a certain humour to it. Whether it's the replicator's inability to produce orange juice which isn't blue, Kirk deciding he was brave enough to try the electric blue concoction, or that the events of the story may have been put into motion by a sloppy Vulcan who spilt a minty milk shake over integral parts of her ship's computer, causing it to become quite insane. These events continue as Kirk & Co. are brought into the story, the diplomat for the mission is an old flame (whom he'd forgotten) and the sloppy Vulcan is known to Spock (he exhibits a slight tick when he suspects she's involved); this is even before the diplomatic party arrives at the planet.
I mean... on one hand we have the expected ridiculous and scripted events on Direidi which really are laugh out loud funny (the cherry on the cake was the utterly ridiculous 'pie fight', but the multiple cases of misdirection and tongue in cheek film / theatre references) and on the other we have the 'universe' acting in much the same way which makes it both less and more absurd. This is quite in keeping I feel with episodes of TOS which can vary between serious intellectualism to broad comedy, though HMFJTP is far beyond anything featured in the show.
I really did like that Ford continued with his expansion of Klingon society. I really did like the internal thoughts of the Klingon characters who were by Klingon standards, quite pleasant. 'Proke' was quite the match to Uhura and was definitely a development from Ford's Klingons. Proke and Uhura both worked out what was going on on Direidi, and so their adventure was the most strange (and the shortest) as they were preempting the directed events and essentially identifying the tropes and their origin films / series as they came across them.
I think the most fun comes from the variety of different adventures the different groups of the diplomatic party had. One section was shamelessly drawing from 'She' (which made me chuckle), another with the party running over a golf course amid shell fire I know I've seen but I can't recall the film. Eventually the sets start to fall apart but by that time everyone is ready for a stress reducing pie fight!
Of course, unless you're a director, you're not going to escape a situation like this without egg on your face, and in this case the people of Direidi who don't want any part of politics manage to manipulate the situation in such a way that their preferred proposal for Dilithium mining on their planet has to be accepted by the diplomats of both the Federation and the Empire.
Like I said How Much For Just The Planet is a reader's marmite, I can't guarantee you'll like it, but I can honestly say that it is a well written Star Trek novel with a premise that could only be pulled off in practise by someone with Ford's ability.
If you know your 1940s, 50s, and 60s cinema and contemporary theatre, you'll have a good time picking out the references!
4/5 - Here's looking at you, kid.
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