Trek To Madworld is one of few Star Trek books I've read where the title seems apt and fitting: Kirk and co do indeed visit a realm that makes no goddamn sense, and endure a series of hallucinogenic trials that seem concocted by a fourth-grader who has been grudgingly allowed to play Star Trek with his older siblings, only to break all the rules with his incredibly overpowered character.
Goldwin's villain-of-sorts, Enowil, is yet another bored and powerful alien being with a particular affinity for mocking the powerlessness of the humans he encounters. While I'm certainly open to the idea that a book based on such a tired cliché might still be worth reading if it's handled well, Madworld is flawed in other ways, too. Its dialogue is somewhat flat, and although there is a fair amount of intelligence woven into the Klingon/Romulan skulduggery, it fails to distract from the inanity of the novel's central story.
However, there is definitely something to be said for Goldwin's treatment of the Romulans, who actually exhibit some depth and intelligence in this one, although I sure wish Trek had never gone through a phase where all Romulan characters have to have Roman-sounding names. Don't get me wrong, I love Ancient Rome as much as the next person, but it always seems a little forced and derivative to me when writers just throw a bunch of Shakespearian Romans into whatever they're writing just to give it gravitas or some really deep symbolism or whatever, to say nothing of how patently unlikely it is that such a culture would exist in, you know, outer fucking space and whatnot (any "explanation" offered by TOS: Bread And Circuses aside).
But I am in no way super offended by Trek To Madworld. It's a little silly, granted, but it has no aspirations to be anything other than a somewhat frivolous and trippy little Star Trek adventure. A waste of time? I didn't feel that way about it; on the contrary, I kind of enjoyed the Alice-In-Wonderland ridiculousness of it, even as I seethed over its occasionally pretentious whimsy and inability to come up with a storyline that hadn't already formed the basis for some of the more regrettable tales from the Trek universe. It's not bad, but hardly essential.
Lots of things going on in my life right around now, so the posts are slowing slightly, but I hope to have an entry on Joe Haldeman's second and final Trek offering: World Without End no later than the end of this week. Dig it!
Goldwin's villain-of-sorts, Enowil, is yet another bored and powerful alien being with a particular affinity for mocking the powerlessness of the humans he encounters. While I'm certainly open to the idea that a book based on such a tired cliché might still be worth reading if it's handled well, Madworld is flawed in other ways, too. Its dialogue is somewhat flat, and although there is a fair amount of intelligence woven into the Klingon/Romulan skulduggery, it fails to distract from the inanity of the novel's central story.
However, there is definitely something to be said for Goldwin's treatment of the Romulans, who actually exhibit some depth and intelligence in this one, although I sure wish Trek had never gone through a phase where all Romulan characters have to have Roman-sounding names. Don't get me wrong, I love Ancient Rome as much as the next person, but it always seems a little forced and derivative to me when writers just throw a bunch of Shakespearian Romans into whatever they're writing just to give it gravitas or some really deep symbolism or whatever, to say nothing of how patently unlikely it is that such a culture would exist in, you know, outer fucking space and whatnot (any "explanation" offered by TOS: Bread And Circuses aside).
But I am in no way super offended by Trek To Madworld. It's a little silly, granted, but it has no aspirations to be anything other than a somewhat frivolous and trippy little Star Trek adventure. A waste of time? I didn't feel that way about it; on the contrary, I kind of enjoyed the Alice-In-Wonderland ridiculousness of it, even as I seethed over its occasionally pretentious whimsy and inability to come up with a storyline that hadn't already formed the basis for some of the more regrettable tales from the Trek universe. It's not bad, but hardly essential.
Lots of things going on in my life right around now, so the posts are slowing slightly, but I hope to have an entry on Joe Haldeman's second and final Trek offering: World Without End no later than the end of this week. Dig it!
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