Haldeman's Star Trek novels, Part 2

 

World Without End (1979) is the second of the two Star Trek novels written by noted SF author Joe Haldeman. I like both novels enormously.

In the forward, Haldeman admits he educated himself on the series mostly through James Blish's short story adaptations of the original series episodes. So he might not have been aware that, in very general terms, he was reusing a plot from a third season episode ("For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky") in which the inhabitants of a giant space ship do not know they are in a spaceship.

But other than that, Haldeman does original world-building. The inhabitants this time are very, very alien with a bizarre society.  I don't want to try to summarize it--it would make this review too long. But I think he creates a (as Spock would say) fascinating alien society.

He also involves the Klingons. Written at a time when the original series was the only source for Klingons, Haldeman takes them in a unique direction, creating a particularly brutal version of them (including a priest class on the ship that can demand limbs or even heads be taken in sacrifice from crewmembers). Then he adds a ship captain who might be a little too human in his attitudes towards throwing away the lives of his crew.

The main plot involves Kirk and a landing party getting stranded in the alien ship when they discover that the transporters work in only one direction, then starting a long journey to the spherical ship's pole, where the ruling "magicians" live, dealing with the gradual reduction of gravity as they near their goal. (The ship simulates gravity via rotation/centrifigal force.) In the meantime, the Enterprise is trapped near the alien ship, with its power being drained.

Haldeman catches the personalities of Kirk, Spock and the other Enterprise crew. I especially like the scenes with Scotty, who ends up alone on the Enterprise, unable to himself transport down after the crew has done so. As the ship loses power, Scott surviving on the emergency bridge via a camp fire, oxygen bottles and some brandy. 

Great moments include a scene in which the an alien asks one of the humans to demonstrate how a phaser kills by shooting one of the alien's bodyguard. "It's not a problem," says the alien, "they're only security"--which causes the two Red Shirts in the landing party to exchange glances. 

 Another fun moment is McCoy's annoyed explanation to an alien about the difference between men and women among humans--"Girls are made of sugar and spice and everything nice, while boys are made of snakes and snails and puppy dog tales." 

There's several great action scenes and a bizarre yet satisfying resolution to the story. I love it. Star Trek has expanded into multiple TV series which, in general, don't feel very Star Trek-y to me (though, to be fair, I haven't watched a whole lot of the new stuff). Novels proliferate, with many of them excellent and many of them "meh." So I kinda miss the days when a new Star Trek story was a rare treat. There was something special about that.