Strangers from the Sky (Star Trek) [Paperback]

Titan Books continue their series of giant novels based on Classic Star Trek with #02: Strangers From The Sky by Margaret Wander Bonanno.
This book is set in three separate time zones, Earth in the year 2045, on the Enterprise just prior to the events of `Where No Man Has Gone Before' and finally on Earth just prior to `Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan'. It also makes a direct reference to Star Trek novel #10: The Final Reflection but it is not critical to read this beforehand.
The story starts with McCoy trying to get Kirk to read a new and controversial book called `Strangers From The Sky' which indicates that first contact between Terrans and Vulcans did not happen as suggested in the history books. With Kirk's days filled with training cadets in the Kobayashi Maru simulator and working in the Admiralty he has little time for McCoy's musings but in the end he gets a bookmaker to create a hard copy for him so he can see what all the fuss is about.
The book centres around an agrostation in the pacific ocean in 2045 and the two people who man the station, Yoshi and Tatya. A Vulcan ship, which has been monitoring Earth for some time malfunctions and crashes into the kelp beds of the agrostation. The two surviving crew members, T'Lera and her son Sorahl, are rescued before the ship sinks. When Captain Nyere's ship, the CSS Delphinius, makes it's stop at the station the possibility of keeping the Vulcan's presence a secret becomes increasingly difficult.
Soon after reading the first part Kirk experiences vivid dreams and half remembered images, some from the novel and some from the Enterprise. He tells McCoy, who thinks he may be in need of medical rest, and then disappears in search of something in his dream.
As this develops, Kirk relives one his first missions as Captain of the Enterprise. While on a star charting expedition, Spock discovers a mystery around an unstable star - a planetoid that keeps appearing and disappearing. Kirk leads a landing party consisting of himself, Spock, Gary Mitchell, Lee Kelso and Dr Liz Dehner down and they promptly vanish with the planetoid. They awaken and find themselves on Earth in what appears to be ancient Egypt.
Bonanno obviously has a passion for classic Trek and litters the story with references to episodes like `Space Seed', `Requiem For Methuselah' and ties in comments that characters had made in `Where No Man Has Gone Before'.
The characters in each timeline are very well drawn, both the established ones we all know and the ones she has created as well. In 2045, the four key characters of Yoshi, Tatya, Jason and his Melody Sawyer are a treat to read, Sawyer particularly so as her Scarlett O'Hara / John Wayne attitudes act as a good foil for the others.
The landing party crew with Kirk and Spock are also nicely rounded out. Having only seen Mitchell, Kelso and Dehner briefly in `Where No Man Has Gone Before', Carey makes great effort to give them all a lot more background and as familiar to the reader as any other member of the Enterprise's key crew.
The three stories run parallel and eventually combine in a clever way, giving rise to either a well crafted predestination paradox or an intentional manipulation of the past to create a future.
Strangers From The Sky is a joy to read and despite the 400+ page count you'll find you won't be able to put it down. So, for fans of Kirk era Trek then this one is definitely for you.

The story is gripping and a complete page turner...or perhaps button-clicker for those kindle-equipped. But £8.99, regardless of who set the price is insane.
Yes the book is well worth reading, the story, characterisation and descriptive writing is at its best.
But to quote from a well-known Trek episode; "Surely you'll want--" "Not at your price!"

I've read a few star trek novels. One the whole they are fun, easy to get into with some enjoyable ideas and present some light reading. This one is of a higher standard to most. The other review does a good job detailing the plot. I would add that i thought the author made the 'first encounter' between the more advanced vulcans and the humans of the (near) future both entertaining and credible and the non 'start trek' characters were interesting. This was the best thread in the novel, though the tie in of the other threads was done cleverly.