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📚 The Prisoner of Vega by Sharon Lerner and Christopher Cerf

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12/2024 – ⭐️⭐️

Another late-70s children’s book. The Enterprise arrives at a planet to sign a trade treaty, only to find the planet captured by Klingons! Only apparently the illustrator had never watched Star Trek; the main character likenesses are shaky, and the Klingons look hilariously unlike Klingons (and much more like 1950s Sci-Fi villains).

Me holding The Prisoner of Vega

Year 50 Day 281

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Me tucked in bed, reading an old Star Trek children’s book.

Day 281: Just a little light reading before going to sleep. Read both of the two Star Trek children’s books (exclusively produced for libraries in 1977) in my Christmas haul tonight; they were just as good as you’d expect. As long as your expectations weren’t very high, at least. One of them at least had decent artwork; I’m not sure the illustrator of the other had ever actually seen Star Trek.

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📚 Mission to Horatius by Mack Reynolds

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10/2024 – ⭐️⭐️

This is not a good Star Trek book. The Enterprise, with a crew at risk of what’s essentially violent cabin fever, is dispatched to the Horatius system to investigate a distress call. There, they find three planets: one with a stereotypical Native American civilization (“backward savages”, of course), one with a mid-20th century American civilization, and one with space Nazis. Oh, and there’s a “B story” involving a plague-infested rat loose on the ship. So, no, as a Star Trek adventure, there’s not much to recommend it.

However: It’s the first officially licensed Star Trek novel, and therefore gets a bit of leeway…or at least recognition that the treklit landscape was far different (nonexistent, actually) in 1968 than it is today. Not really recommended unless you’re a collector, but if you are and can track it down (especially if you can find an original rather than the 1999 reprint), it’s a quick read and kind of fun to see where the print side of Trek began.

Me holding Mission to Horatius

Year 50 Day 280

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Me in a hallway wearing my winter coat, with a skeptical expression on my face, and holding a travel mug with the Starfleet delta logo and text that reads "I am functioning within normal parameters".

Day 280: I got to work and the elevator was locked out, so I couldn’t get to my floor until someone from Facilities happened by and could key me up. Then I got to my office and realized that I’d forgotten to bring my computer in with me this morning, so I had to turn right around and drive home and back before I could start my work day. After all that, I think my mug might be mocking me.

Year 50 Day 279

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Me wearing a t-shirt and hoodie, with a salmon-colored scarf wrapped around my head.

Day 279: While seeing my wife off to work this morning, she needed a place to put her scarf as she was putting her coat on, and I was apparently conveniently placed.

Year 50 Day 278

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Me in a sunbeam on our couch, with the Norwescon website visible on the laptop open on my lap.

Day 278: After a night out at the club, a slow day is in order. Slept in, had breakfast, took a nap, ran a couple errands and took care of laundry, watched a movie, and then dinner and dumb TV while doing Norwescon work before heading to bed. Not bad at all.