The Galactic Whirlpool

Title:	The Galactic Whirlpool
Creator:	David Gerrold
Date(s):	1980
Medium:	print
Fandom:	Star Trek: TOS
Language:	English
External Links:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

The Galactic Whirlpool is a 1980 for-profit Star Trek: TOS book by David Gerrold.

Some fans commented that they enjoyed Gerrold's winks and in-jokes, others found them distracting and overly precious.

The "info dump" was appealing to some fans, and not others.

Gerrold's "in" with the showrunners and other PTB was a plus to many fans, as they were eager for the insider info he doled out. This was a double-edged sword, as it set up expectations that Gerrold's book did and didn't deliver. Some fans likely gave it more positive reviews based on Gerrold's involvement with the show than they would have if he'd not written an episode. These comments were also likely tempered by the fact that Gerrold was a frequent guest of honor at cons, and many fans did not want to jeopardize that relationship.

The Character, Admiral La Forge

In 1983, David Gerrold said:

Ten years ago, a kid with multiple sclerosis was wheeled into a convention in a wheelchair, and this was the highest point of his life because at that point, he had like one year to live. Someone told Gene about him and about how much it would mean to him if he would name him a "Commanding Admiral in Starfleet." From that point on, he was Admiral LaForge, and I even mentioned him in my Star Trek novel. Later, his family wrote and told us that while it wasn't really such a big thing to do, it did mean so much to him that his life was transformed for him. "Gosh, I count! I make a difference!" The Star Trek cast responded to that human spark—that human self. In most shows, the crew is playing gin rummy. Not Star Trek. In Star Trek, there was interest in what they were doing. It was speaking to the best in us. (Editor’s Note The character Geordi LaForge was named for this young fan as well.)

Fan Comments

1980

David Gerrold's THE GALACTIC WHIRLPOOL was a disappointment. David Gerrold, as you know, wrote two excellent non-fiction Trek books, an award-winning Trek script, several great non-Trek SF books, and my favorite quote ("a book a day, like pep pills"). I understand he's a helpful guest at cons, too. Must have been an off day then, when he wrote GW. The plot is familiar; I've seen or read it so many times. (long lost spaceship -- Earth originally filled with two warring factions -- in danger of imminent destruction from natural forces unless factions can be persuaded to get together and change course -- the more "barbaric" group finally proves more enlightened -- aided by a young female Mary Sue -- etc.) The main characters (Kirk, Spock, etc) are not well developed; Gerrold's officers leave dangerous contacts to the more expendable crew members. That may be sensible, but what is ST without our friends in the lead? there is no sparkle or humor in the writing.

Sorry, David, but I still love you...

I finished David Gerrold'sTHE GALACTIC WHIRLPOOL and have mixed reactions about it: I detect distinct parallels with BENEATH THE PLANET OF THE APES: disbelieve Kevin Riley’s maturity to be thrust into the mainstream of this story as Mr. Gerrold has done; at several times I felt there were some unfinished lines of thought that could have been more developed; in short, I think it would have been a better magazine story rather than a full blown novel! Of course, who am I to dispute Mr. Gerrold's expertise —- I'm just another fan expressing opinions. But I was somewhat disappointed during the midst of the book and had no qualms about putting it down until some further reluctant inclination to pick it up and continue reading. Alfred Hitchcock, it is not; nor Gene Roddenberry either, for that matter. For those of us so hungry for new plots, new adventures for the unforgettable crew of the USS Enterprise, I think the book is a let-down of the first degree. And whatever became of that lurking Klingon vessel that never quite appeared?

So what were you expecting? A newborn tribe of tribbles?

Sorry, but no. David Gerrold's been visiting in all sorts of realms since he invented the tribble and now that he's returned to Trek in THE GALACTIC WHIRLPOOL he's got some fresh ideas to try out. Honestly, I've been tired of formula Trek novels with dead characters and plot lines that are all essentially the same except for the hardware. This is what we've been getting from male writers going into Trek professionally. It would seem to me that none of them know or love the series. None of them ever wrote episodes. Imagine pro Trek novels by Theodore Sturgeon, Harlan Ellison, Norman Spinrad or any of the truly great pros who worked for the series.

The reason why pro Trek novels are inferior is because second and third rate pros are writing them. Given David Gerrold we can expect something first rate.

Jokes! We get jokes by the score and they're jokes that refer back to episodes in some cases. That's the sort of thing we found only in fan fiction - until now. Some jokes are a bit subtle (e.g. a reference to a Capellan choir doesn't require knowledge of Capella, but of music.) The jokes are well—integrated with the plot and show off the Gerrold wit quite well.

This is also a novel for fans who are seriously interested in intercultural communication and how a culture might develop aboard a multi-generational ship isolated from the rest of the galaxy.

And for once it is neither Spock nor Kirk who gets the love interest. We can welcome back an old friend, Kevin Riley, who becomes a major plot focus. The characterization for Riley and the woman from the colony-ship is lovely.

The only real criticism I have of this novel is that Gerrold has a tendency to give us background in huge chunks. Swallowing all that at once can cause indigestion. He did this once before in MOONSTAR ODYSSEY. I didn’t care for it then and I don’t now. Once Gerrold learns the trick of assimilating background into the plot, he'll really be great. That takes time.

Meanwhile, enjoy THE GALACTIC WHIRLPOOL and stick around for the sequel to MOONSTAR ODYSSEY. If Gerrold continues his evolution, it should be something worth the wait.

While on patrol (looking, presumably, for Klingons) the Enterprise encounters a craft which is ultimately identified as the Wanderer, a 'lost colony' which apparently left Earth's orbit about two centuries earlier. A mutiny on board has resulted in a breakdown of the vessel's propulsion system, and in the descendants of the two sides living on the upper levels as rulers or on the lower levels as savages. Of course, the two sides are at war.

Again, predictably, this colony is drifting towards the 'galactic whirlpool.' To save it, our gallant Captain has to find out how to restart the engines; the problem in doing so is that the inhabitants of the upper levels, while having access to the controls, are superstitious, hidebound, bigoted, etc, and do not have a record of the damage. The 'savages' are the descendants of the original captain and senior crew. In their possession are the logs with records of damage, but they are nomadic illiterates.

In this book Mr. Gerrold extends , his thesis that the initial contact with new civilisations would be by a ’primary contact team'. In this instance, in a, surprisingly sympathetic portrayal, our friend Kevin Riley is leader, and almost as an aside, the obligatory female falls for him (not Kirk), but they decide to part, and ’follow their own careers'.

Kirk's character, especially what Mr. Gerrold describes as his 'deliberate compassion' is explored by diversions describing Star fleet training, an effective device but rather overdone; one is left with the impression that cadets at Starfleet Academy are too precious for their own good.

The style, at times, I find grating. Explanations, on passant, of subspace radio or astro-navigation add nothing to the story and only serve to emphasize that it is science fiction, but the over all impression is that Mr. Gerrold has written perhaps the best professional Trek novel available.

David Gerrold was the author of 'The Trouble with Tribbles', acclaimed as one of the best episodes in Star Trek. When I heard that he was writing an ST novel, I began to await the release date with eager anticipation. This just had to be something special. And it certainly was. The Galactic Whirlpool is no let down. It's extremely well written and boasts an intelligent and even thought-provoking plot. But, more important, it's different. For once, Captain James T. Kirk takes a back seat to the action. Lt. Kevin Riley is the hero of the story. It is he who leads the contact party into the alien vessel and whose subsequent adventures we follow in detail. Riley is given a compelling personality all his own, and yet he still comes across as a younger Kirk, The two have certain similar qualities; compassion, courage, sensitivity, humanity. Another first - it is Riley who gets the girl in the story, leaving poor Jim stranded without a love interest!

Some ST purists may be a little disappointed in the book, feeling that their favourite characters are at times left in the background. This may be true, but at least David Gerrold has tried to give the fans something different, something creative. And this is absolutely essential if the ever-growing line of ST books is not to stagnate.

I strongly recommend The Galactic Whirlpool to all fans, especially those who thought there were untapped depths to the Kevin Riley made infamous by 'Naked Time.'

1981

I've heard very little fan reaction to David Gerrold's Galactic Whirlpool. It did nothing at all to satisfy my hunger. I was disappointed that the writer of one of Trek's most popular episodes didn't produce a better novel. It must be true that no one knows the characters as well as the fans. The only ST pro fiction that has impressed me is that of Marshak and Culbreath.

Back in 1971, David Gerrold and Larry Niven wrote The Flying Sorcerers, a complex and funny SF book filled with double meanings, puns and plays on words. Gerrold has attempted some thing similar with The Galactic Whirlpool but this time it doesn't work nearly as well. He gets carried away with cleverness and the plot suffers. Almost every chapter is the setting for some sort of game with words.

I'll give you examples. Chapter 15 is a long involved tale about Kirk's passion for collecting "the sum total of human knowledge in the universe" (Kirk?) and a would-be galactic emperor named MacMurray whose planet has three suns. That's right — in one paragraph, the words Fred, MacMurray, and three suns.

All through the book, Gerrold goes out of his way to make a joke. He names a character Katholin in order to have Kevin Riley say "I'll take you home again, Katholin." You can see it coming for a mile — but it is rather funny!

And then there is the sentence on page 125 "They headed for Ellison's star — a catastrophic variable in this spiral arm of the galaxy." Check your socks, Harlan Ellison!

This book is stuffed full of that sort of thing. The problem is, he takes an 80 page story and embellishes it to the 223 page point. At times, the reader can lose sight of the plot completely as we are treated to a page on the purpose and history of the briefing room, two pages on navigation in space, two pages of Vulcan fable, pages and pages of L-5 based "history" a page on how phasers work, several pages on cursing and how it cam to be actively encouraged at Star Fleet Academy. All of it mildly amusing but distracting. The plot? It may seem familiar. The Enterprise comes across this huge derelict colony ship whose inhabitants have come to think of their origins as mythical. The Enterprise has to con tact the natives and get the engines working in time to prevent the ship from meeting disastrously with a pair of black holes.

The most annoying feature of the book is Gerrold's suddenly acquired habit of putting words in italics. There often seems to be no reason to emphasize those particular words — and why so many of them? Pages 6 to 7 have 14 of them. It occurred to me that perhaps if you listed all of them you could come up with a secret message, but as it didn't seem to be an obvious one I quickly abandoned the effort. I found this continual emphasis disrupting to the flow of reading. Every page or paragraph forces the reader to stop and consider a word, a pun or a tuckerism. It is not smooth going.

Gerrold invents a character, "Speck", a historian. Specks occupies Chapter 16 and thereafter fades into the background. His purpose is to provide vital background information on the lost colony ship to Kirk. Specks then reveals that he put the info on the hips library channel yesterday. Kirk's reaction? "Mr. Spock? Did you know about this?" Spock doesn’t. Kirk thanks Specks and leaves. I find this hard to believe — the Kirk I know would have chewed Specks tail right off. A good crewman gives his commander information before it is needed, or as soon as possible. What other Enterprise officer would withhold vital information until it was asked for?

On the positive side, Gerrold can write. It is refreshing to see Kevin Riley as a major character. Spock has some excellent lines. Except for some aspects of Kirk, the characterizations are all good. The novel has something for everyone. Fans of Robert Heinlein will be busy sorting out the Heinlein based Solomon Short references and Heinlein book titles.

If you want a book to read for the fun of it and have a background in SF this is for you. If you want a solid, straight trek story it will drive you nuts. I'd say buy it. Don't be afraid that I've given away all the funny parts in this review, either. I deliberately didn't mention the best ones — and there must be a dozen references I missed. Have fun!

David Gerrold's latest Star Trek book is "The Galactic Whirl pool." Here, the Enterprise, while scouting for Klingons, comes across the Wanderer, a ship carrying a "lost colony" of Earthlings. Kirk discovers that the Wanderer is headed for a catastrophic variable, which will throw them into a double black hole (the "Whirlpool" of the title). But the Wanderer's people have been torn apart by rebellion, and most of her fusion plants have been shut down. They don't trust the people of the Enterprise. Kirk and crew struggle to overcome the fear and resistance they meet, before it is too late to reactivate the engines which could save the Wanderer.

Gerrold is not a bad writer, and is far from an atrocious book (though it does seem to be a retelling of "For The World Is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky."). It does, however, contain flaws. For instance, there is a major inconsistency later in the book. On page 176, Captain Gomez (leader of the Wanderer's rebels) says to Kevin Riley, "Trust is the only thing we have down here. We have it in abundance." Then, on page 184, he says to Kirk, "I have not had much experience in trusting." It's a jarring note, and there are other, more minor inconsistencies scattered through out.

Gerrold also tends toward dissertations. Every so often the plot grinds to a halt so that we can be enlightened about Earth history, black holes, what a communications officer does, whatever. Informative and entertaining as such asides may be, they belong in a textbook (or should be appendixed), not clogging the narrative flow of a fictional work. It's as though the author were showing off all the bits of knowledge he possesses. I don't like this particular mode of exposition. Not everyone may feel as strongly as I do about this, of course, but it does annoy me.

There is also the same tiresome sexism to deal with. Katwen, the main female character, is portrayed as a warrior, true, and. there are references to competent female crew members. But the women are the ones who dither and faint; Katwen is often alluded to as a "frightened little girl"; and she winds up babysitting at the end of the book. All the important, powerful figures (the Wanderer's two Captains, Dr. Hobie) are male.

There are minor grammatical errors here and there, but that's not the whole story. "Whirlpool" has very good points, too, particularly the development of Kevin Riley, an interesting character whose potential, on the TV series, was never fully explored. There is insight into Kirk and his "conscious compassion", and some fascinating background on Starfleet training (particularly the creative cursing class). The inner workings of the Enterprise are nicely delineated, and it's good to be reminded that the ship consists of something besides the Bridge and Sickbay. They even have a librarian and a lawyer! Gerrold's own idea of a contact team (which makes a good deal of sense) is fully explained here, too.

For those who appreciate such things, there are myriad puns, plays on words, and sly references to other media-and-literary worlds laced throughout "Whirlpool."

In all, this hook has a better premise for getting Kirk and company to interact with other humans then all those "parallel universe" dogs; and Its execution Is sharper and cleaner than the dreadful "Spock, Messiah!" (by Cogswell and Spano) of a few years ago. It's interesting reading despite its weaknesses. Moreover it is good Star Trek, with no glaring inconsistencies in the development or major Enterprise characters. Give it a try.

1982

The most substantial of the Star Trek novels I have read lately, excepting only Vonda McIntyre's novelization of STII, which was very good indeed. This one premises a floating society in a ship/world as in the Yonada episode, but a less primitive society, and a divided one. The Problem: to bring the two sides together in order to prevent complete destruction of the entire population. Gerrold's fictional writing is less objectionably arrogant than his non-fiction, and although his style is occasionally too colloquial or too just plain sloppy for my tastes, he nonetheless has a good feel for pacing, and a basic understanding of the characterization of the ST characters.

David Gerrold, our "Tribbles" friend, has written a Star Trek book - and a very good one. It is an absolute delight to read, with action, humour, quality SF concepts and a dash of philosophy thrown in for good measure.

Gerrold has written the story in a similar method to Robert Heinlein’s "Stranger in a Strange Land" swinging from drama to comedy very effectively in the space of a few pages.

"The Galactic Whirlpool" has two 'stars' - Kevin Riley and Captain James Tiberius Kirk. They share the spotlight well, and it's refreshing not to be confronted with yet another heat-wrenching, soul-searching Kirk/Spock/McCoy story. There are insights into each of them, but they are not the crux of the plot. The action comes in constant doses. The discovery of a giant space ship - a world in space - is the centrepoint of the story. That and the sequence of events revolving around it. There are a few good fights, moments of suspense, danger and surprise.

Scientifically, the facts seem to be pretty accurate. I know nothing about science, actually, but admittedly everything seems feasible and logical. The philosophy involved is also only a small part. It touches briefly on human nature a smidgen on the K/S/McC relationship and explain briefly briefly why Kirk likes breaking General Order Number One. Glimpses of 20th century wisdom comes in the words of one Solomon Short - a Terran philosopher.

My favourite aspect, however, is Gerrold's wicked sense of humour, which ranges from terrible puns (Riley's line "I'll take you come again Katholin") to the wittier one-liners ("He named the planet Noah because it had three suns").

He advances from this to entire sections of goldmine laughter - such as details on the Academy's 'cursing course', and an incident in Kirk’s early days with the Enterprise in which Jimbo, old son, surrenders the universe and everything in it, without a struggle, to the Emperor of a completely insignificant little backwater planet. I could recite the best parts of each with relish, but I won't. Read the book and savour it yourself. If you like Spock humour, it's there. If you like McCoy, or Kirk, humour, it's there. That and the cute quirks that are characteristic of David Gerrold.

Another thing that delighted me was the completeness in which the history and culture of the travelling, mechanical world was worked out. This world is fascinating in itself.

I loved the book. The story was pacey (except for the single chapter of history - that of the space-ship/work and it was necessary) and interesting (which that chapter was). All in all, it's a very complete story. It has everything in it.

In other words, fascinating.

1983

The biggest disappointment in terms of ST novels was David Gerrold's "The Galactic Whirlpool." In addition to being sixty pages too long, it was simply a regurgitation of Haldeman's "World Without End." Hopefully, Gerrold will someday write a novel (a STAR TREK novel) that recaptures the glory he brought to the reader and the viewer in "The Trouble With Tribbles" and "When Harlie Was One."

1986

As I don't have a VCR (and can't view the original episodes on tape) and none of the television stations in my area have shown any Star Trek episodes in the past several years, I anxiously await all of the newly published novels from both Pocket Books and Bantam. While I will admit that some of them do not live up to the expectations I hold for ST (and I will admit that my expectations are high), all of the novels do serve to keep the ST dream alive. As a collector of all the novels (and in Syracuse, it is difficult at times to find some of the early Bantam books -- it took me almost two years to find a copy of David Gerrold's "Galactic Whirlpool"), I enjoy the stories without trying especially hard to find fault with the authors. As others have pointed out, we fans all seem to think that ST should be viewed as we see the universe, and yet everyone has their own conceptions of said universe.

2014

The Galactic Whirlpool is one of the most interesting and intriguing Star Trek novels. As with Vulcan’s Glory or Mosaic, it is interesting to see how one of the defining creative voices on Star Trek approaches the world without any of the limitations (in budget, in scale, in setting, in continuity) imposed on televised episodes of the franchise. The Galactic Whirlpool stands head and shoulders above many of its contemporary novels, and Gerrold proves quite the coup for the tie-in novel publishers.

Truth be told, the Bantam tie-in novels were not always the most faithful to the source material. The publisher did not seem to operate particularly high standards of quality control, and so the novels could often feel a little quirky or eccentric. In many cases, they felt like traditional pulpy science-fiction paper backs adapted slightly for the world of Star Trek. These were novels with trashy titles like Spock Must Die! or Spock, Messiah! or Devil World – titles that demanded exclamation marks. In many respects, they feel like companions to the Gold Key comics. They were fun and enjoyable, but quite distinct from the world of Star Trek as familiar to fans. So having David Gerrold write a stand-alone novel for the series was quite a coup. Gerrold’s name grants the Bantam books a greater measure of legitimacy. After all, Gerrold is not only an established science-fiction writer in his own right, but a Star Trek veteran. However, Gerrold is not just any veteran of Star Trek. Gerrold is the author of one of the best-loved Star Trek episodes of all time.

So that grants Gerrold a certain amount of weight and substance, particularly when writing a licensed tie-in. There is a sense that Gerrold is aware of this. One of the most interesting facets of The Galactic Whirlpool is the way that Gerrold tends to branch off on tangents and diversions, as if dropping tasty little nuggets for readers who want to know how Gerrold saw the Enterprise and its crew members. So the book is populated with tidbits and trivia, details offered with the certainty of somebody who actually worked on the show.

For example, The Galactic Whirlpool allows Gerrold to expound upon Kirk’s middle name. Gerrold had established James T. Kirk’s middle name as “Tiberius” in BEM , and so continues to develop it here. According to Gerrold, it is “more of a nickname than a real middle name”, one that Kirk earned at the Academy...

[...]

There are lots of other diversions in The Galactic Whirlpool, as Gerrold fleshes out the world of Star Trek in a very casual and conversational style. “There were actually three shuttlecraft bays on the Enterprise,” he states at one point, in what feels like the opening line from a documentary on the ship’s shuttles.

It seems like an inordinate amount of The Galactic Whirlpool is given over to these little flourishes and tangents – as Gerrold builds up the world of the twenty-third century. So we get a glimpse at the “bug spot event” training employed at the Academy and confirmation that the Vulcans helped to build the Enterprise. There are points where it feels like Gerrold is more interested in world-building than storytelling, although there are enough little details and trinkets to make it an enjoyable experience.

In fact, there are more than a few points in The Galactic Whirlpool where it seems like Gerrold is winking at the reader, referencing events or details from the production of the show, rather than the world of the show. Most obviously, Kirk’s oblique reference to “the extra kilos of mass creeping up on him” might be a shout-out to William Shatner’s difficulties maintaining his weight during the production of the show. Indeed, Shatner tended to put on extra weight as each season progressed, due to understandable pressures and practicalities.

There are points where it seems Gerrold is being a little bit too cute. The Galactic Whirlpool ties into The Trouble With Tribbles quite directly, a point apparent from the earliest chapters – and something that becomes even more apparent towards the end of the novel. It seems like Gerrold is winking a little too heavily at the audience, working a little too hard to stress the connections to one of the franchise’s most beloved episode. It is hard to blame Gerrold for this, but it is a little distracting.

[...]

The Galactic Whirlpool is a fascinating read, even if it feels more like a treatise than an adventure. It is written in a funny and conversational style by an author who clearly cares about the material, and is well worth a look for anyone who enjoyed Gerrold’s Star Trek work. Which would seem to be most fans.

The concept is good and intriguing. The execution however.... Gerrold has this odd way of conveying ideas. He doesn't have the characters just explain themselves. Rather, he uses a "let me tell you a story..." method where an awkward aside is taken by the characters themselves. The story is going along and then, it's "Spock, tell us a story" time. Or "In Starfleet, we have this saying...." Or, "back in my academy days..." It doesn't work.

Written in 1980, this book is using well-established characters. Why then does Gerrold think he can suddenly change these characters' behavior and personality? When in a stressful situation, has Kirk ever mumbled under his breath, "Tiberius." Not that I've ever seen. And yet in this book, he does this repeatedly. This is but one example of many odd character choices taken by the author.

Another issue I had with "Whirlpool," is that it doesn't follow its own rules. The inhabitants of that ship you see on the cover have a particular way of speaking. Much time is spent on this. But two-thirds of the way through the book, this detail is simply abandoned. Either they speak differently, or they don't.

Meh.

2015

Some very old-school "Star Trek", courtesy of one of the original series' break-out writers. It's as much a pure science fiction novel in its own right as it is a "Trek" adventure; there is a great deal of world building, character development, scientific examination, and minute attention to detail. It can slow the pace of the book down considerably, but the slower pace doesn't make it any less enjoyable. That said, it does feel very different to more recent "Trek" novels, and as a result, the experience was quite refreshing. Kudos to Mr. Gerrold for also filling in open-ended backstory that adds depth to the Federation of the 23rd century without contradicting anything added or established by the post-movie/TNG universe. A truly timeless read.

2019

Gerrold writes an interesting story that feels a bit between a Star Trek story and a regular SF offering of it's age. I think part of that is that it's a 'big dumb object' story, with humans encountering a large structure traveling at about a third the speed of light. There's not much in the story that demands it be a Star Trek story. But, the main characters are there, and without them it wouldn't be quite the same story either.

[...]

Structurally the two real weak points are the fact that a lot of background info gets dumped on you in one large expository chapter. It'd be hard to avoid it, and its presented well, so I think Gerrold was trying to avoid the problem. The other problem is that the name of the novel doesn't come up until about halfway through. A pair of black holes, with orbiting neutron stars, and associated other things falling into certainly qualifies as a 'galactic whirlpool', but it gets sprung on you a bit suddenly.

Past that, it is well done, and the second half of the novel, after everything is finally in place, really works well. The build up is a bit slower and piecemeal than I'd like, but it does come together, and is well worth the journey.

2020

A fun and engaging story with decent characterization and some detailed (now non-canon) insight into Starfleet's — and Earth's—past.

Unfortunately, it tends to get bogged down with awkwardly presented "information dumps" that read like encyclopedia entries. There is an especially egregious scene of "tell rather than show" consisting of a librarian character (who is painfully clearly the author's avatar) going on a chapter-long historical diatribe that we're meant to believe occurs as a presentation to senior staff. I understand the need for exposition but yikes.

There was also a sudden and terribly convenient accidental death that reads like the author couldn't write himself out of a corner and took the easy way out. That was a bit disappointing, and it was hard to believe that no one so much as commented on the tragedy.

There was a painful lack of consistency in the speech patterns of the new characters, both as a people and individually, that increased in occurrence as the book wore on, with the new speech patterns being nearly forgotten by the final chapters. If you're going to decide a people (or a single person) speak a certain way, then you've got to commit, or the whole thing feels disingenuous and pointless.

I thought it was especially fun to often have the focus on one of the background characters of the show, who we've met but know little about, to break up the constant focus on well-known senior staff. "Kirk gets the girl" is even more predictable and boring than "the hero gets the girl," so it was nice to at least have "the girl" latch on to someone else for a change.

Speaking of "the girl," I would have liked to understand more about how this woman, who appears to be quite young indeed, managed to have a dozen careers before the one she's in now. She appears to have been this, that, and the other thing, all professions that require a certain level of training and study, yet she seems to be no more than 20, and there's no explanation for this. I kept waiting for it to come along, but nope! I'm not sure if this is a plot point that ended up getting dropped but not fully erased, or the author forgot where he was going, or we're really just supposed to believe that this young woman managed to hold so many disparate jobs in the last few years, while apparently being equally efficient at all of them.

Despite the flaws, it's still a fun read, an enjoyable interpretation of a well-worn SF plot, and one of the better early Star Trek novels. I'm glad I read it, though it is perhaps not worth a second go.

2021

The Galactic Whirlpool is one of the early Bantam Star Trek Adventure books (#14) and hence the last one, in fact. Despite David Gerrold’s writing, there are some very uneven aspects to this story. If you are like me a lover of the Star Trek novels, you will recognize that this is pretty typical of the books. Disparate writers are going to have their own views of Star Trek, and of course write a novel that is refracted by that prism of understanding. There is nothing wrong with that, but if that vision conflicts with the readers view, the experience is going to be altered. In some ways good and in other ways bad. I admit that I expected a lighter story when considering that this novel was written by the creator of Tribbles. This novel was written as a hard science fiction novel where the hero of the story is not even a Star Trek regular. Not bad, not great. I have to say that overall, this is a middle of the road read for me. I love that D. C. Fontana wrote the forward.

Longer than it should have been, Kirk and Spock aren't in it much. Apocryphal as a lot of early Trek novels are. Gerrold lays some good world building down but you can see the seams. Reads a little like Lt. Kevin Reilly fan fiction.