Star Trek: Signature Edition: Duty, Honor, Redemption

This is one of my favorite story arcs of all time. Plus with the novelizations there is so much more background to characters such as Lt. Saavic (She's half Romulan?!) and David Marcus.

'Duty, Honor, Redemption' is the compilation of the novelizations of Star Trek II, III and IV. As with most Star Trek novelisations, it is well worth the read. Reading it made me feel like I was meeting up with an old bunch of friends that I hadn't seen in years. The books are written faithfully to the films, obviously taken from the script, with extra scenes added here and there, most of which is I suspect scenes that never made it to the final film. Vonda N. McIntyre does a mesterful job with all the characters she writes for, and, in particular, Saavik. Ms Mcintyre explores Saavik's Romulan side in much more detail than the films. One of the most interesting aspects of these books, for me, were the sections detailing what the Enterprise did immediately after Star Trek II, in particular, the scene where Kirk, Estaban and Carol Marcus debate the future of the Genesis Project. Another fascinating section are Saavik's eerie premonitions of Mr Spock. Having recently rewatched Star Trek III, I found it to be a little too fast paced at time, and I think it could have benefited from some of this material. This book is a thrilling and fascinating read. I highly recommend it.

This is a great way to get the novelizations of the three best Star Trek movies in one book. Tthese three movies came about at the end as a trilogy, and anyone who enjoyed the movies will love this book. As far as Nan Lewis's several reviews with one star about buying books only to find out at home they were re-releases, a simple look at the back of the books would reveal this. Why would someone buy a book without knowing anything about it? That one-star reviews are not for the content, but the reviewer's foolishnes.

This is a handsome trade paperback which reprints Vonda N McIntyre's excellent novelizations for Star Treks II, III and IV ("The Wrath of Khan", "The Search for Spock" and "The Voyage Home"). The only changes to the original books are the correcting of errors, such as "McGivers" for "McGiver". Sulu also goes back to the rank of "Commander" (where McIntyre had promoted him to captain in her novelizations, as per the dropped scene from ST II that was never picked up on by the other movies). If you've never read the ST II or ST III novelizations before, you are in for a treat. Heaps of great scenes and characters that were never in the movie! Lots of background on Saavik, Peter Preston, the Genesis Project scientists and even an explanation for why Spock's mother Amanda was not present at his Fal Tor Pan ceremony in ST III. The ST IV novelization doesn't add as much new stuff, but is still enjoyable. The size of the print in this omnibus is very tiny and I feel sorry for people who order this book thinking it's an all-new novel, but there is so much to like about these "Signature Edition" books. I bought this even though I already have first editions of all the movie novelizations. The cover is eye-catching (the lower quarter of Kirk's colour portrait) and matches the other six books in the "Signature Edition" reprint series. Oh, there is one new component, too: a three-page essay on "Harve Bennett: The Man Behind the Movies" by Terry J Erdmann.