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A review by octavia_cade
Star Trek: The New Voyages by Sondra Marshak, Myrna Culbreath
4.0
A collection of eight short stories, and if I recall correctly from the introduction, this was the first book of Star Trek fiction published that wasn't either written by James Blish or an episode novelisation. Notably, all the stories here were written by fans. And frankly, they're written at a higher level than a lot of the subsequent official tie-in fiction. Two of the stories at least are very good, and it's because of them that the collection's gotten four stars from me.
Those stories are "Ni Var" by Claire Gabriel and "Mind-Sifter" by Shirley S. Maiewski. Both of these stories deal very closely with the relationship between Kirk and Spock, and it's very easy to read the both of them through a slash lens. Of the eight stories collected here, it has to be admitted that Spock is the centre of most of them. And in one sense that's fair, as he was the break-out character of the series, but each of the stories is introduced by a member of the original cast, and it would have been nice, for instance, to have Nichelle Nichols introduce a story about Uhura, instead of another about Spock, and so on. That is a small quibble, however, especially given how well that focus worked out in the two stories mentioned above.
Notable, too, for any science fiction anthology (especially those produced in the 1970s), is that all of the authors included are women. As are the two editors, and it's a nice reminder that a lot of the heavy lifting done in Star Trek fandom back in the day was done by women, as that often gets forgotten.
Those stories are "Ni Var" by Claire Gabriel and "Mind-Sifter" by Shirley S. Maiewski. Both of these stories deal very closely with the relationship between Kirk and Spock, and it's very easy to read the both of them through a slash lens. Of the eight stories collected here, it has to be admitted that Spock is the centre of most of them. And in one sense that's fair, as he was the break-out character of the series, but each of the stories is introduced by a member of the original cast, and it would have been nice, for instance, to have Nichelle Nichols introduce a story about Uhura, instead of another about Spock, and so on. That is a small quibble, however, especially given how well that focus worked out in the two stories mentioned above.
Notable, too, for any science fiction anthology (especially those produced in the 1970s), is that all of the authors included are women. As are the two editors, and it's a nice reminder that a lot of the heavy lifting done in Star Trek fandom back in the day was done by women, as that often gets forgotten.