Vonda has done a lot of writing for Star Trek, and although I’m not the biggest Trekkie in the world, I do like it, especially the original series and the movies that were so popular in the eighties. I have three novels by her on my bookshelf. One is Enterprise – The First Adventure, in which she imagines what the first ever voyage was like once James T Kirk became captain of the Enterprise. I thought her ideas of what might have happened were good and true to the characters. I felt she fleshed them out appropriately.
The other two novels I own are the novelisations of Star Trek III – The Search for Spock and Star Trek IV – The Voyage Home. Both are well done and those who commission novelisations of movies should take a leaf out of her book. All too often I have read novels based on movies and they are flimsy and shallow, offering no depth or life to the characters and rarely delving into anything more than exactly what appeared onscreen. It is beyond disappointing when I read a novel like this, because so much more can be found in a written work than can be shown onscreen and it’s annoying when a writer doesn’t develop the characters to their full potential. This wasn’t a problem with Vonda’s novelisations. Perhaps being a Star Trek fan helped as she knew the characters well from their portrayals onscreen so it was easier to put meat on their bones, or perhaps it was just her skill. Whatever the reason, I admire her for it and thank her for giving me books I enjoyed immensely.