Star Trek: Inception By S.D. Perry & Britta Dennison: A book review

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - Star Trek: Inception caught my eye last summer because it seemed to have a fair bit of promise to it. Featured on the cover is a young Carol Marcus, a pivotal character in Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, who was the mother to Captain James T. Kirk’s son but was not a part of his life anymore. The movie had a significant theme regarding aging and rebirth, and the barest hints we had at Marcus’ and Kirk’s past relationship were tantalizing and important for development. In the film, Marcus was lead researcher on Project Genesis, a device that could terraform a dead planet into one that could support life. Her son with Kirk was named David, an angry but brilliant young man with an inherent distrust of Starfleet. Kirk clearly desired a relationship with him, but was forbidden contact with him by Marcus, who had clearly made the difficult choice years prior. Confronted by an adult son and hurt feelings regarding how his relationship with Marcus ended, Kirk is thrown into turmoil in the film regarding his usefulness and allotment in life. For years, decades even, much mystery has surrounded how all of this transpired and at last in 2010, a novel was written, giving us a rare glimpse.

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Doctor Who: Superior Beings by Nick Walters: A book review

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - If there’s a science fiction series out there, odds are that there’s a collection of spin off novels. They range from the Star Wars series, which at times are far better than the movies, through Star Trek to even Halo and StarCraft. Doctor Who is no exception, but the real kicker is that the novels form part of a collection that is housed in the Guinness Book of World Records – most spin-off material centered on a single fictional character.

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Dragon’s Egg by Robert L. Forward: A book review

 - Vancouver, British Columbia - In season six of Star Trek: Voyager, a landmark episode called “Blink of an Eye” was released where the USS Voyager was caught in the orbit of a planet where, due to a tachyon field (or something), time was moving at an accelerated rate on the planet’s surface – one second of normal time was about one day on the planet. The Voyager crew watched, in a matter of days, the civilization on the planet go from an early nomadic society to one with technology comparative to theirs. The episode has been placed on several “must see” lists for Star Trek fans, and was a welcome addition to the canon. But what the average viewer doesn’t know is that the entire concept of the episode was taken from a novel by acclaimed science fiction writer Robert Forward.

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Star Trek by Alan Dean Foster: A book review

- Vancouver, British Columbia - Novelisations of movies and television shows are generally thought of as something that only hard-core fans will pick up, to demonstrate their devotion to the program.  This is more than buying novels based on the characters, like many of the Star Wars and Star Trek books, but actually taking a story that has already been presented, and milking it for a little more money.

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