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Rating:  -
Troublesome Minds is classic Star Trek at its best. Dave Galanter has an excellent grasp of the characters as he nails each one to perfection. The story is nicely paced. This story takes place during the last year of the 5 year mission. Enterprise and crew become involved with a conflict between two planets after rescuing a individual from sure death. This individual Berlis has a mind so powerful he can control the entire population of his planet which makes his planet a danger to the other planet. As war plans are prepared by both planets Enterprise attempts to prevent all out war. What I enjoyed was the use of sign language by the people of Berlis planet. Spock uses his telepathic ability with the help of female named Meshu to stop Berlis from controling his planet. During the process and during the entire story Spocks relationship with Berlis and Meshu cause him to question his "emotions" and how they affect him and what he should do about them. If you are a fan of Star Trek and of the original series you will enjoy this book.
Rating: -
Stopping an unknown vessel from destroying an unarmed one, the Enterprise unknowingly puts itself in the middle of an interstellar conflict. The Enterprise has saved a man named Berlis from death by the hands of his own people. Berlis is from a telepathic race. And according to the Isitri, Berlis can control people with a thought. To make matters worse, a nearby race is ready to commit genocide against the Isitri, if they discover a "troublesome mind" like Berlis is allowed to live.
Captain James T. Kirk must choose the lesser of two evils - killing a man who claims to be innocent, or letting him live and condemning an entire planet. Kirk doesn't have much time to come up with a plan when Berlis escapes and leaves behind a confused Spock. The build of suspense paired with such a moral dilemma, makes for a wonderful installment of Star Trek. True to form, the crew of the Enterprise becomes absorbed in global conflict and face it with skill and creativity.
Galanter has come up with a new and exciting challenge for the original crew. And I was more than impressed. The characters are relatable. The predicament is thought provoking. And overall, the story was completely enjoyable. Original series fans, don't miss this latest Star Trek release.
Rating: -
I'm a reader who snatches up every Trek novel as it is published. Overall the quality is as high as I expect, but all can't be equal. Some are ok fun. Some are good, solid stories. And some are great and I speed through those as fast as I can.
This book I read in two sittings. The story was fascinating, and the characterizations were spot-on. It was like looking over the shoulders of the Big Three as they navigated this adventure. I also really liked it that the antagonist was *not* evil, and all the "guest characters" were equally well drawn.
Kudos to Dave Galanter for the very enjoyable, thought-provoking read. I liked the different take on a telepathic society, and the inclusion of a substantial portion of the race being deaf. My only quibble where I didn't really follow the author's logic, was the total lack of books or any written language. But that minor detail by no means detracted from the rest.
Rating: -
After recently watching the new Star Trek movie - TWICE! - I wasn't surprised to find myself wanting to relive some childhood days with some Star Trek The Original Series (TOS) goodness. However, that seems to be in short supply these days. However, I found the new Star Trek TOS novel, TROUBLESOME MINDS, in my local bookstore and picked it up as an impulse buy.
Over the last couple dozen years, I've read several of the tie-ins, but few of them, although often well-written, seemed to catch the characters of Captain James T. Kirk, Spock, and Dr. McCoy as I was convinced they were to be portrayed. The mix never seemed to be really right, and after the movies came out, everyone seemed determined to write prequels or sequels to them film.
I honestly missed the feeling of the original five-year mission episodes, where everything seemed new and the crew was still learning a lot and hadn't seen it all. TROUBLESOME MINDS really hit the spot because not only did the author David Galanter really nail the three main characters, but he also introduced a radical concept regarding telepathic societies that I hadn't considered.
Star Trek, the television show as well as the novels, is always at its best when it seeks to shed some light on the human condition and play fairly with the conceits all the way around through the crew. The decisions people make aren't easy, and they aren't easy in this novel.
Galanter opens the novel up with some great action, employing Kirk in the captain's chair acting to save a doomed ship. As soon as he succeeds in his efforts, he's rewarded by being attacked by the world he's come to meet. As a diplomatic mission to introduce the emerging space race to the Federation, he becomes an immediate failure.
In short order, Kirk and the Enterprise crew learn about the danger the Isitri (the dominate civilization on the planet) seek to avoid. One of the men aboard the doomed ship is Berlis, what they call a "troublesome mind." I loved the concept of one mind being strong enough to take over an entire telepathic world. I hadn't thought about what it would be like to know the secrets of everyone on a planet, or about how easily that kind of society might be able to be subjugated.
(Okay, maybe there was a message in there about advertising and people looking for infallible leaders, for those readers seeking such things, but I chose to look at the plot problems and remain firmly entrenched in the entertainment side of things.)
The author does a wonderful job of pushing the pyramid of major characters (Kirk, Spock, and McCoy) into various confrontations that stem from their personalities and the situations they get into. I loved the dialogue and the emotional arcs that took place within the framework.
In addition to the spot-on characterization, Galanter succeeds in amping up the risk and threat thresholds. The taut, tightly-written scenes are short and direct, and beg the reader to turn the pages quickly, which I did. I figured most of the plot out as I went along, but that just made the read more enjoyable. There are twists and turns aplenty, and enough new thinking thrown at you to keep you guessing.
As it turns out, Galanter has written other Star Trek books, but I hope he gets the chance to write another TOS book. I'm going to look for his others, but I'm going to cross my fingers that he gets to pen another early adventure of the Enterprise's first five-year mission.
Rating:  -
So I had just seen the new Star Trek, and was eager to see if the books were any good.
It would have been so easy to make this book strained or unrealistic, but it read like an original-character novel, not a book based off of a movie. And it was good; very good.
Good novel, anyone should be able to enjoy it.
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