The Galactic Whirlpool - David Gerrold - Book Review

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November 1981 Cover Image

BOOK DETAILS

223 Pages
October 1980
Bantam Books
Paperback

ISBN: 0-553-20854-3

The Galactic Whirlpool

July 1984 Cover Image

ISBN: 0-553-24170-2

THE GALACTIC WHIRLPOOL

By: David Gerrold
The author of 'The Trouble With Tribbles'

(Text taken from the November 1981 edition)

Beyond the realm of the Federation,
beyond the edge of the galaxy,
a lost colony of humans in space
drifts inexorably toward the galactic whirlpool.
Kirk blazes new star trails to these strange people,
isolated for centuries. Unless he can convince
them that the Enterprise crew members are
not 'demons,' they will be sucked into a
churning one-way funnel of doom!

(Text taken from the July 1984 edition)

From The Log Of Chief Medical
Officer Leonard McCoy

The young woman brought back aboard the
Enterprise by Lieutenant Reilly's contact team is
responding well to treatment: physically, there's no
question she's going to be fine. I'm more worried
about the culture shock, the mental strain imposed
by the sudden discovery that the world she's grown
up thinking of as the be-all and end-all of the
universe is nothing more than a spaceship - a ship
we need her help to gain control of before it and
her entire world are destroyed. So far, her response
has been to regard everything that's happened as
a 'demon trick': this could be masking some
deeper strain, but we don't have the time right now
for a gradual indoctrination. The captain has to
convince her - and soon - that the crew of the
Enterprise is not composed of 'demons' - And he'd
better do it before she gets a good look at Spock...

TREKKIEGUY'S REVIEW

I really enjoyed this story although I do have a couple
of complaints about it. First, I don't think a detailed introduction
of each of the main characters is necessary in a Trek novel.
I'm sure we all know who Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock are.

Second, the character of Specks, ships historian.
He goes on and on .... and on and on, giving us back story
about life on Earth in the 21st and 22nd centuries.
It starts out ok but just goes on too long and
gets boring and unnecessary.

Other than that the story is quite good.
As the characters are wandering around the huge
ship you really get the sense that it's very old and very big!

OVERALL RATING

THE FINE PRINT

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