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BOOK
Star Trek
Voyages of Imagination - The Star Trek Fiction Companion

Author: Jeff Ayers
Pocket Books
RRP: £14.99, US $21.00, Cdn $26.99
ISBN-13: 978 1 4165 0349 1
ISBN-10: 1 4165 0349 8
Available 04 December 2006


Through four decades, five television series comprising over seven hundred episodes, ten feature films, and an animated series, fandom's thirst for more
Star Trek stories has been unquenchable. From the earliest short-story adaptations by James Blish in the 1960s, followed by the first original Star Trek novels during the seventies, and on throughout the eighties, nineties, and into the twenty-first century, fiction has offered an unparalleled expansion of the rich Star Trek tapestry. But what is it that makes these books such a powerfully attractive creative outlet to some and a compelling way to experience the Star Trek mythos anew to others...?

Voyages of Imagination takes a look back on the first forty years of professionally published Star Trek fiction, revealing the personalities and sensibilities of many of the novels' imaginative contributors and offering an unprecedented glimpse into the creative processes, the growing pains, the risks, the innovations, the missteps, and the great strides taken in the books.

Author Jeff Ayers has immersed himself in nearly six hundred books and interviewed more than three hundred authors and editors in order to compile this definitive guide to the history and evolution of an incomparable publishing phenomenon. Fully illustrated with the covers of every book included herein, Voyages of Imagination is indexed by title and author, features a comprehensive timeline, and is a must-have for every fan.

Both new and long-time fans will welcome this one-of-a-kind guide to the four-decade history of Star Trek publishing - including the very earliest works published in the 1960s and 70s. Covering more than 500 novels, novellas and short stories, this must-have collection is filled with black and white illustrations of book covers, plot summaries and interviews with Star Trek authors and editors. It also includes a complete chronological listing of all the books within the Star Trek timeline - an essential tool for readers wanting to make sense of a multiplicity of series each of which coincides with one or more of the others regarding where they fit within Star Trek history.

Voyages of the Imagination is an extraordinary labour and a unique tribute to the enduring popularity of one of the best-loved science fiction series of all time.

If you are a regular reader of Trek books you don't need my recommendation - you'll already know that you have to own this collection. The only possible downside I can think of is that with one or two new Trek books published by Simon & Schuster each month, this collection will soon be out of date. Let's hope that some sort of regular update is planned for this companion in the near future.

Pete Boomer

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