Strange New Worlds V Revitalizes Franchise
by Lisa Thompson

Disappointed by last year's volume, fans of the only officially published fan-fiction Star Trek book will be delighted this go around.

Comprised of several Star Trek short stories that span the twenty third and twenty fourth centuries, Strange New Worlds takes a peek at many plotlines that are, in general, enjoyable and well thought out. Included this year are twenty three stories covering each of the Star Trek "eras". The original series of Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager and even the new series Enterprise are covered. (Enterprise stories were quite a surprise this year, as the fan based stories have a deadline of October 1, less than three weeks after the series began airing!)

Yes, in case you didn't know, there is a place for Star Trek "wannabe" authors to get published. Pocket Books has put out five volumes in the Strange New World series, mainly consisting of fan written fiction. The fiction fills in gaps of storyline from existing Trek episodes and movies in most cases. The submissions are handled by a yearly contest, and the authors are now truly published. Some have never had a published work before! (Don't worry, with thousands of submissions each year, the quality is top notch).

What can you expect? Without giving to much away, you'll read about Tribbles who get assimilated by the Borg, Data versus Kivas Fajo again, the conflicts Seven endures after returning to Earth, and Archer's very first encounter with the Vulcans.

All in all, you will probably start reading and not put the book down until you are finished. The book finely represents where fans would like Star Trek to go, and is an excellent representation of how the late Gene Rodenberry might have envisioned the future.