[These notes were made in 1984:]. The latest Star Trek novel and rather a good one, tho' the scientific concept on which it is based - the defeat of entropy - is a little boggling for a pedestrian mind like mine. Luckily I can see past the scientese - creating a "heavenly" state of no death or decay is simply Duane's way of creating a situation for dramatizing what she feels is the essence of each of the ST characters: Kirk's joy in command and the trust of his followers; Spock's devotion to truth and intense loyalty to Kirk; McCoy's overwhelming compassion and hatred of death, etc. It's quite deftly done - Duane doesn't get lost in her own abstractions as the Marshak/Culbreath team does. There's style, humour, and fidelity to the originals. I'd definitely put this in the top three - and I think on the whole the quality of these things is getting better as time goes on.
