Treks Not Taken: What If Stephen King, Anne Rice, Kurt Vonnegut and Other Literary Greats Had Written Episodes of Star Trek: The Next G

This book was a great deal of fun, as it created ST:tNG stories that parodied various well-known authors. Now, keep in mind that someone who is not conversant with ST:tNG will probably have a hard time finding the humour in these stories, as the book relies on the premise that those reading it will be fans on the show. Additionally, if a reader is not familiar with some of the authors, some of the jokes will fall a little flat. However, with those concessions out of the way, I loved this book - I laughed my way through it in about 2 1/2 hours time. Some of my favorite "episodes" were: "A Clockwork Data," which is filled with the same sort of crazy verbiage that can be found in "A Clockwork Orange;" "Less Than Data," which is very funny in many different ways; "Lady Fed" is raunchy but fun; "The Vampire le Forge" of course had me rolling with laughter - not only did it parody the writing of the original, but it made fun of the writing of the original story in a very clever way; "Even Androids get the Blues" did a terrific job of playing with English, just like Tom Robbins does - it really captured the essence of Robbins' style; "Q Clearance" makes fun of the way very simple matters can escape people who are full of themselves; finally, "Moby Trek (abridged)" had to be the funniest of the bunch, as the abridgement notes make fun of the over-wrought style of the original (very similar to "The Vampire le Forge"). That said, there were a couple that were difficult to catch all the jokes (likely because I haven't read the original stories): "Trek 22" left me scratching my head - it's so full of double-speak and multiple negatives in the same sentence that I realized I really needed to read "Catch-22" so I can grasp the humour more. "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Fan" was likewise pretty dense - again, I suppose you need to have read the original story to really catch the humour here. There are several more stories in this text, and all of them have their moments of humour. I definitely recommend this for any fan of the show - you won't be sorry you took the time to find this text.

Obviously better educated than some of his critics, Boyett captures the essential style of each and every author he parodies. The author of "Ariel" (1984) and "Architect of Sleep" (1986), Boyett isn't known for his humorous works, but shows us with "Treks" that he can take us anywhere he chooses. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves (or hates) Star Trek, to the educated reader who enjoys a well-crafted parody of the old (and new) favorites, and to anyone who appreciates wonderful writing in any form.

Witty, erudite, broad, crude, shameless, knowledgeable, and astonishingly well pulled-off. The reader who said it should be "quarentined" is wrong - who you gonna trust, me or someone who can't spell "quarantined"?

One reviewer here has faulted Boyett for parodying works the reviewer hasn't read. How can that be Boyett's fault? The more you know, the funnier Boyett's book is. If you don't get it, that says more about you than about Boyett, for goodness' sake.

This book is far more extensive and parodic than THE BEAVER PAPERS could have hoped to be! "BP" suggested the style of other writers; TNT is written IN the style of 20 different writers. It's hysterical, literate, broad, subtle, and best of all, doesn't pander but trusts that you're in on the joke. The MOBY DICK parody opens with "Call me irresponsible," for gosh sakes!