A review by torywestside
The Klingon Gambit by Robert E. Vardeman

1.0

Although it's less than 200 pages, I had the hardest time forcing myself to finish this book. The basic plot of this story is that, for reasons unknown, the crew of the starship Enterprise are exhibiting extremely erratic behavior. The major characters familiar from the TV show are all acting in ways that are completely out of character (Spock cries! Scotty really wants to work on the engines! Like, more than usual! Bones... doesn't like machines?). It's an interesting concept, but the author doesn't seem to have a firm enough grasp of who these characters are in the first place to freestyle with them the way that he does. Also, this idea has already been done (and done much better): see the first season TOS episode "The Naked Time".

Weird characterizations + some odd racist/sexist non-sequiturs + a slapdash eleventh hour solution to all of the (many) dangling plot threads = too much going on, and none of it good.