Star Trek - How Much For Just The Planet

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?

I was in two minds while reading HMFJTP, it was pure TOS through and through, brilliant characterisation, a refreshing approach to story telling, hell, I enjoyed it.  On the other hand the prolonged slapstick comedy sketch didn't quite work for me and I couldn't help cringing at this comedy of errors.

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.

Star Trek - The Final Reflection

"There is always," Manager Akten said, "the Komerex zha."
"I do not acknowledge the existence of the Perpetual Game," Margon said without turning.  "Society is society, war is war.  If they are games at all, surely they are not all the same game.  I deny it."
"That is a favoured tactic," Akten said.
"Green Lancer to Level Nine."

If I wasn't systematically working through all these Star Trek novels and gave myself an option of whether to give myself a pass on ones I didn't like the sound of (based on the blurbs), The Final Reflection (#16 Pocket, # Titan) (1984) by John M Ford would have been one of them.  If I had indeed done this and not just forced myself to read something that sounded ultimately uninteresting to me I would have seriously missed out on a top notch Star Trek novel from the Pocket Books series.

Spock and Krenn play a game of
chess while Sarek looks on?
(Sarek isn't there in the book)

Saying that, I wouldn't say that it has converted me to novels with this kind of focus, it is still not really to my taste, however saying that I can't deny that it is well written, well plotted, well paced.  Characterisation is very strong, the narrative is consistent and well framed.  The suggestions about Klingon society believable and well thought out (unlike the later novel Pawns and Symbols).  It's almost a shame that this is a Star Trek novel because I think it could almost be better not constrained by Star Trek.  Much of the novel is I suppose speculative in a way and set well outside most fans knowledge of Star Trek bar the framing narrative it could be its own standalone story.  I expect that the framing narrative was bolted on in order for it to be published by Pocket Books as a TOS novel since although the narrative works it isn't the strongest.  Although I generally like framing narratives and the like (this is pretty much the earliest example of it in a TOS novel) I do feel it is the worst aspect of The Final Reflection.

The late John M Ford seems to have been an interesting character to say the least (he died in 2006).  The Final Reflection was his fourth published novel and was released hot on the heels of his 1984 World Fantasy Award winning novel The Dragon Waiting.  Ford would go onto write another Star Trek novel 'How Much For Just The Planet' and also write a Klingon orientated RP scenario for the FASA RPG series.  Ford was known for his aversion for doing things that had been done before, which would explain his framing narrative (not seen until now in the Pocket Book series) and his introduction of 'Klingonaase'.

The framing narrative is an effective if perhaps a little ham fisted way of getting rid of the TOS cast for the duration of the actual 'story' that Ford wants to tell.  In essence, you start The Final Reflection, the Pocket Books version you are holding in your hands, read the prologue, and then start the book that Kirk is reading in his cabin; title page, contents, prologue and all.  I think it was a nice touch to have the contents page there and the 'note from the author', as well as quotes from the characters who reportedly took part in the events of the novel within the novel.

As a consequence of the novel within a novel format, we end up with three dates to take into account.  The Final Reflection of our world was released in May 1984, the events of the framing narrative take place in the 2270s (I'd say between TMP and TWOK), and the events of the novel within the novel take place over about 15-20 years... ish... in the 2230s.  It's interesting to note that TSFS came out in June 1984.

The acknowledgement by Ford at the front of the book asserts that Ford had been developing this story for about 15 years... and it shows in two ways.  Firstly, it is an excellently constructed story which frankly, only comes about from serious time and work.  Secondly it is also regularly confusing as some characters / sections seem to have been added in to account for the change in looks between the TOS Klingons and the Klingons from TMP onwards.  As far as I understood while reading the main character is of the 'new' style Klingons (pointy teeth and forehead ridges), although sometimes it seems he isn't (especially as he seems to be a 'fusion' - hybrid to you and me).  There is a notable character who seems to be a 'TOS era' Klingon who is definitely a 'fusion'.  However, I could be misunderstanding, it would however possibly fit in with various fan theories at the time (one being that the Klingons seen in TOS were a group used for diplomatic purposes etc.).  Of course we now have an explanation for the change in appearance thanks to Enterprise, but at this time there was no such explanation.

The bulk of the novel follows the life of Krenn and his fortunes, starting as a talented youngster and ending as an established commander and one could say, diplomat.  There are through necessity frequent time jumps, some of which can be a little confusing.  Krenn is generally a likable character for a Klingon, I mean, he's still a murderous bastard but he is intelligent and charming in his own way.  The friendships he builds up and his relationships especially with Dr Talgore are endearing.  Although I think the sweetest moment of the whole novel is that he ends up romancing his childhood sweetheart... well as sweetheartish as Klingons get anyway.

Of course, this low key but super cute (do I need to add for a Klingon again?) beats the Kang relationship in Pawns and Symbols hands down.  It's quite obvious that The Final Reflection heavily influenced Pawns and Symbols, as there are quite a few cultural parallels between the Klingons and the narrative is similar in that the 'main cast' are excluded from much of the action.

There are a good few scenes/characters that stick out to me.

- The death of Krenn's adoptive father and his household.
- Sarek & Amanda - then the chess game between Krenn and Spock
- Scene with McCoy's grandfather.

Honestly, the assassination of the 'Thought Admiral', his consort (who happens to be an Orion), and his servants is possibly the most gut wrenching event.  Testament to Ford's writing ability, I actually felt appalled and saddened by the deaths of these characters he barely told me about.  The death of the 'winged' alien was particularly nasty.  Krenn thought so too, although all he was doing was watching a video of the assassinations taking place.  I thought it particularly moving that he realises 'love' between his father and the Orion consort, although he doesn't understand it until much later.

The chess game depicted on the cover is a very minor cameo of a young Spock, and Sarek never sees it, Amanda does.  Some nice observations here.

McCoy's 'cameo' is by reference.  Some people have derided the choice of actually referencing him instead of making it more ambiguous, but I actually like the way it's done and I don't actually think it detracts at all.  I had to laugh though since Kirk was no where near born at this point, but I think McCoy has been aged a little?  I could be wrong.  I think Spock is just a child (much younger than the picture, so I think it makes sense... I haven't done the maths).

Life as a Game - Klingons and the Perpetual Game.

At the forefront of The Final Reflection is the idea that everything that occurs is part of a universal and never ending game.  Some people subscribe to it, some people reject it, some are players and others are pawns.  Ford suggests that Klingon society revolves around this belief and that Klingons see their actions, their lives and interactions with others as a game - this to a certain level accounts for the Klingon distrust of each other, and their devious nature.

Excluding the framing narrative and the book 'bumf', the opening of Krenn's story is a game in which he is a pawn - a lancer - in a bloody deadly game where the 'players' move pieces (children in this case) around a board.  When they meet an opponent they have to fight until one is incapacitated defending a 'goal'.  The one who reaches the top wins the match.  Characters are introduced and just as quickly exit the story; their games are elsewhere for the time being.  Eventually some characters will come back as pawns or players in their own right.  Ford does very well in creating the illusion that the universe is bigger than just Krenn, characters weave in an out of the narrative playing their own games, Krenn is just one player amongst billions.  Krenn doesn't know all the characters (nor does the 'novelist' persona) but there is just enough information about them to make you want to know more, which, for the most part you are never given.

Krenn (or perhaps more accurately the novelist) plays games in a broad sense with the reader.  One of the lessons Krenn learns young is not to say anything you do not wish to be heard, basically 'keep your own council', because of the constant surveillance of the Empire.  The reader is also kept in the dark at several points, which sometimes makes Krenn's actions inscrutable.  At times the reader does not realise that Krenn knows something, which can make him hard to follow.  This actually fits into the framing narrative, because the novelist also doesn't know everything, he's recreating events that sometimes, not even he understands.  Not even the author understands the rules of the game.

Different games are mentioned and/or explained.  They are predominantly board games which resemble to a differing extent, chess.  A few are referred to throughout the novel as events unfold and they are reflected in the moves and goals of the games themselves.  Like the first game we see, the game of life is lethal and Krenn relearns this lesson early as he witnesses the fall of his adoptive father, his father's consort, and his household, because his father is outmanoeuvred in his play.  It takes some time for Krenn to realise the extent of his father's love for Rogaine (his Orion consort), even when watching his father reaching toward her as he died.  Krenn realises his own feelings later, and no doubt acts with his father's actions in mind.



Krenn's final 'play', which prevents galaxy wide war isn't just an altruistic action.  Although it prevents war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire which is obviously a good thing from our perspective, it also prevents the Federation from fully allying through fear and pooling all their resources against the Klingons.  Krenn's stance?  It is left up to the reader, but from my perspective Dr. Talgore was successful in his influence of Krenn and although his actions benefited the empire in the long run, I think Krenn, with his exposure to the other races and his strategic mind had decided peace would be a better option if not joining with the Federation.

For his part, Krenn influences those around him by changing the way he is perceived in order to get the upper hand in an exchange of words and wits.  He has many masks, which are assets to him in his game.

So, what is the final reflection? Humans and Klingons reflect each other, or at least the Klingons reflect an aspect of humanity which is pretty much how they were developed (although sparingly) and then developed through the future series and films.  In The Final Reflection, we see instances of humans playing the same games as the Klingons, corrupt games of power, misdirection, and devious strategies - even inciting a war is not too great a price to pay in these games.  However, the reflection is like looking into an infinity mirror.  Even whilst we point out the flaws of the Klingons, Ford points to their humanity, to Krenn, and his trusted friends - the 'other' isn't so different after all.

Essentially Ford is drawing attention to the way we perceive and treat our enemies.  Klingons, Conservatives, Socialists, Liberals, Muslims, Jews, Christians, pro-life, pro-choice,  people gain from demonising the other, they benefit from dehumanising and preventing conversation.  Even in the final section, the closing of the framing narrative Kirk reports that Star Fleet are announcing that The Final Reflection is all fiction, even though its effect appears to be positive.  The Final Reflection, a novel within a novel tries elicit understanding beyond the Organian Peace Treaty, which does not facilitate understanding at all (it's essentially mutually assured destruction - a cold war). 

The Final Reflection contains some of the best that Star Trek has to offer.  Star Trek is always at its best when being used as a vehicle for asking (and answering) the big questions of our time.  Ford shows us a story told without the main cast can be done and done well, however I still think some of the charm is lost without their presence.  Even though the development of the series took the Klingons in a different direction to Ford's vision, this is still a great read and well worth your time.  Call it an AU or put The Final Reflection as a work of liberal Federation propaganda, either way I seriously recommend it.

5/5 - Let the games begin!

"Be a storyteller, an embellisher, a liar; they'll call you that and worse anyway.  It hardly matters.  The Tao which can be perceived is not the true Tao." 

- Dr. Emmanuel Tagore, to the author.

Star Trek - Mutiny On The Enterprise

"Of course life is precious.  That's why our mission to Ammdon is to prevent a war."  Kirk wasn't the least bit surprised when both Ross and Kesselmann scoffed at that.  This was the single most prevalent opinion  he'd ever encountered among his diverse crew.  "Have you considered that you did not hold this odd belief until after you spoke with the alien Lorelei?"

You would not believe how much I wanted to read Mutiny on the Enterprise by Robert E Vardeman (1983) (#12 Pocket, #45 Titan), and that was before I read The Klingon Gambit.  Unfortunately Mutiny on the Enterprise is the last Star Trek novel by Vardeman published by Pocket Books, which I personally feel is a great shame because he really is an excellent author.

Mutiny on the Enterprise takes place during the original five year mission - ignore older Kirk and Spock in strange uniforms on the front cover.  Seriously, why can't they illustrate the covers with the correct ages / uniforms of the characters?!  Was there some sort of Pocket Books edict that all covers must be wholly inaccurate?  That being said looks like the right bridge is in the background (red railing) and the alien Lorelei pictured on the front fits with her description.   Perhaps making Shatner and Nimoy (especially Nimoy) look 80s hero haggard and old was in vogue?

For once the tagline is accurate (shocking I know):

On a mission of peace, a bewitching woman sets the Enterprise at war - with itself!

I wondered, what would cause the crew of the Enterprise to mutiny?  The crew of the Enterprise doesn't mutiny not with James T Kirk as captain or without some serious alien intervention!  Well, it is the latter, serious alien intervention, the funny thing is, it wasn't until I looked up my review of The Klingon Gambit that I realised that Vardeman definitely has favourite story elements!

• Alien psychic intervention
• Mutiny / Crew disobedience
• James T Kirk & Spock remaining mostly immune
• McCoy definitely not being immune
• Threat of an established villain mixed in with some new aliens

All the above appear in both of his novels, I often notice that some authors revisit a particular story / characters / set of themes in an effort to, I guess, produce the perfect story.  It's like they're hammering away at this idea in their head that means a lot but can't ever be happy with it.  An author who wrote one of my favourite trilogies as her debut does this, and although there are problems with her first iteration, I think it's the best.  Subsequent iterations never quite capture the magic of her first attempt.  It would be interesting to read his other sci-fi works and see if he revisits these again under a different guise!

I kind of get this feeling with Mutiny on the Enterprise however, although Vardeman revisits the same story elements the story itself has a different overall message / theme.  In this way, it is more in keeping with the moralistic bent to the episodes than say the previous novel in the series Yesterday's Son.  

Mutiny on the Enterprise starts in a rather cliched fashion, the Enterprise in on it's way to a Starbase for some much needed repair work and some R&R for the crew, however a situation has arisen and diplomats will need to be transported to a distant system in order to avoid a war between two hostile planets.  Why is this so important?  The Romulans are trying to get a foothold in that part of space and are looking to capitalise on the encroaching war to achieve this.

Unfortunately for the Enterprise, it really is in need of repairs and can only make a weak warp two, sometimes three, for short periods of time.  Before they get to their destination they pick up a distress call, which is when the milk run turns sour.  They pick up a survivor from a very broken ship, she tells Kirk she is a speaker of the 'Hyla' a yet uncontacted race by the Federation, and her name is Lorelei.  Kirk notices that although she is not pretty she is attractive, he feels she has some sort of effect on him.  They continue on their way but Lorelei comes to Kirk, concerned.  The Hyla are total pacifists who (it is revealed) will not stand by and let another species go about its own business.  Basically they would ignore an idea like the prime directive in a lesser species if it would stop fighting, they would not allow a species to self determine because only their doctrine of pacifism should exist.

You can probably see where this is going to go horribly, horribly wrong.

Lorelei soon gets to work on subverting the crew to her way of thinking, using her own indoctrination techniques to control the crew and undermining Kirk's authority.  Of course, she is never violent but her way of thinking even to the most forgiving of readers is destructive.  In a bid to get his crew under control (only Spock seems unaffected) Kirk sets up almost a speaking competition between the Tellarite diplomat and Lorelei.  Unfortunately, as good as the Tellarite is, he does not have the strange powers Lorelei has, and Kirk's plan backfires as the Hyla woman cements her control over the crew.

How they should look...

The Enterprise is damaged, most probably sabotaged, and is left without warp power.  Left without warp they limp towards a planet which appears to have advanced humanoid life and crucially, a source for the shielding required to repair the warp engines. Spock, Mccoy and a security detachment beam down in order to negotiate with the inhabitants, however, this all goes sour as initiating contact caused an extreme reaction and they are imprisoned in a living prison.  The diplomats disobey Kirk and beam down, they also find themselves captured and one of their number is killed by the planet itself.  Finally, Kirk finds himself with a need to use the ship's phasers to fire on the planet in order to break his crew and the diplomats out of their prison, however Lorelei's pacifistic control of the ship is absolute and she exiles Kirk from Enterprise and beams him down onto the hostile planet.

While looking for the landing party, Kirk observes that even the buildings are alive and appear to grow and, it seemed that as long as he didn't disturb anything he could wander unimpeded by the planet.

Kirk manages to save Spock, McCoy, the security detachment -1, and the diplomats -1.  They notice that there is an Enterprise shuttle going back and forth from the planet to orbit, they surmise that Lorelei has coaxed the planet into giving them some of the much needed shielding.  They manage to hijack the shuttle and escape.  McCoy gives everyone waxy earplugs in order to preserve them from Lorelei's effects.  Unfortunately, all the diplomats are now well and truly dead.

The final parts of the novel play out as you might expect.  I won't spoil the end, which frankly was a little bit of genius, but it was as satisfying as it was a bad idea (very).

Mutiny on the Enterprise has some interesting points.  There's some talk on what total pacifism means - what does it look like when taken to extremes?  Well, like any extreme ideology it appears to have no room for reason and it breaks it's own ideological ideals in order to maintain it's status quo.  For example, Lorelei would strand Kirk and McCoy, probably Spock too on the hostile planet in order to avoid 'disruptive influence' despite the fact it would ultimately directly lead to their death by the planet organism.  Her ideology allows her to indirectly kill in order to ensure and propagate her agenda.  She also denounces self defense, even when her thralls are being eaten alive the ideology dictates they can't use violence to defend themselves.  As such, this line of thinking extends to the Federation, she does not believe that they should have weapons for defense, despite knowing they have to defend themselves against foes like the Klingons and Romulans.

Probably my most hated character
of all time....

She's a hypocrite.  In order to stop Kirk she uses force and violence.  In order to keep control she would indirectly kill.  She espouses an ideal of total pacifism where you can't even defend yourself.  Absurd.  She reminds me of another character dedicated to total pacifism which drove me utterly bonkers - Relena Peacecraft from the anime Gundam Wing (1995).  The thing is with this character archetype, they still need other agents to do their dirty work and generally they don't acknowledge that.  People are also expendable as long as it furthers the pacifistic ideal, even if it could mean the preservation of life.

They also tend to be incredibly naive and narrow minded, like most extreme ideologies of this nature, everything is black and white, never grey.  In the case of Lorelei, she is privileged in that she can enforce her ideals by brainwashing and eradicating those proven to be uncontrollable.  In Relena's case she was privileged by birth, she had money and prestige and the sheltered environment needed to nurture her naivete.  The other children who pilot the war machines from the space colonies had no such privilege and had to develop inline with their abilities and experiences.

Sorry, went off on a bit of a tangent then!  But Gundam Wing is one of my sci-fi favs and my first corrupting fandom influence!

I actually really liked the idea of the planetoid organism.  I didn't expect that, but then perhaps if I'd thought about The Klingon Gambit perhaps I should have since Vardeman uses the idea of interconnected organisms on a planet in that one too!  Moving trees that attack... all the creatures being able to feel each other's pain etc.  Of course in this case it's slightly different as everything on the planet is one organism and even the humanoid creatures that live in the growing houses are as cells are in our bodies.  The unknown creatures such as the Enterprise crew are treated as bacteria or viruses, quarantined or broken down as our cells would to invaders.  The planet was able to be at least partially put to sleep by Dr McCoy using an anaesthetic (local) but it could also be wooed by Lorelei's words.  I have to admit that was a little odd, since it was stated that there was no sound made by the beings on the planet and that nothing had ears... so how did she get what she wanted?  Perhaps I should let that one slide.

Characterisation is at times very strange, but that is easily explained by the brainwashing effect of Lorelei's honeyed words!  I really enjoy Kirk centric novels (as you might have gathered) and I think Vardeman got his characterisation down pat.  Spock's was also strong, although in one of his more aloof states although there was plenty of banter between him and McCoy.  McCoy was also wonderfully... McCoy about the whole drama, plenty of emotion, plenty of snide comments.  Keep 'em rolling!

A Tellarite from 'Journey to Babel'.

I haven't really touched on the diplomats yet, they were actually an interesting bunch and I kind of expected more to be made of them, I was quite sad when they all died!  We were meant to dislike them to a certain extent when compared with the gentle Lorelei but I couldn't help but think that they could have been so much more.  The Tellarite diplomat got some good exposition, but the sentient plant was a really interesting character that didn't get developed and met a grisly end.  The death of the immaculately clean and fashionable human diplomat was a disappointment, we learned he was actually a good man and he got killed by the planet.  So unremarkable was his death I actually read the section twice trying to identify when he died... poor fellow.

The last section of the book has Kirk playing diplomat.  Lorelei's prediction of failure and the Enterprise being a catalyst for war was a self fulfilling prophesy.  I couldn't help getting frustrated!  Well of course they've failed!  They were delayed by Lorelei, their diplomats are dead, their ship is currently held together with duct tape and a prayer, what was going to be the outcome?  I should think that had they been able to fulfill their mission of peace unhindered they would have succeeded.

I guess we'll never know.

Again, this is a really strong entry into the series.  Not quite 5/5 but a respectable 4/5 on my highly subjective scale.  I did have a look at some reviews which bemoaned it as not being a good follow on from Crispin's Yesterday's Son, but I think it's very much it's equal.  Different scope, different style but just as enjoyable.  Mutiny on the Enterprise builds on Vardeman's ideas in The Klingon Gambit and is definitely worth a read.

4/5 - No R&R for you!