Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country by J.M. Dillard

Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country Reviews

• 
  Louie the Mustache Matos

  As a Puerto Rican Trekkie it pains me to write about this novel because it rankles me whenever the themes of racism and bigotry are glossed over, as they are in this book. Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country by J. M. Dillard is a great adaptation of the movie. If you were a fan of the Original Series, there were some major impediments to your enjoyment of it. There is an overt racism that hangs like a pall over the crew. However justified as they might be, especially in the case of Captain Kirk and the loss of his son, it still feels wrong to root for the bigots. Yes, the Klingons have always endeavored to demonstrate themselves the unconquerable, but the Klingons are at a crossroads. They are vulnerable and when your enemy is vulnerable, the enlightened show mercy. Some motivations are clarified here where in the movie they are off-putting, and the mental rape of Valeris is anesthetized. Gross! And the fact that it is an authorized action by a superior officer does not justify the action. I believe that this adaptation works well and enhanced my enjoyment of this movie, but I still have some major gripes with the plot.
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  ⚧️ Nadienne Greysorrow ⚧️

  Did you know that the Organians disappeared?
  
  This was a tremendous effort of a novelization for Star Trek VI. It filled in so many other little bits and pieces that actually made the story make a lot more sense, like the Organians disappearing. Tensions run high throughout the Federation as a rogue, maybe cloaked, Klingon "warbird" (read Bird of Prey) is attacking Federation colonies - almost killing Carol Marcus. The Organians have disappeared and Valeris is actually a Klingon name, given to her by her Vulcan parents, in an attempt at a peace offering to the Klingons, but they were ultimately killed and she was raised by Humans - hence her entirely non-Vulcan attitude. Plus, the Organians have disappeared. There's no Colonel West (Rene Auberjonois cameo), instead it's an unnamed "young Lieutenant" who presents the briefing and states the Federation will "clean their chronometers"...and the assassin is a Klingon and not Colonel West.
  
  Spock no longer "rapes" Valeris with the mind-meld, either. In the book, as he melds, he allows her into his mind so that she can gain his perspective on things, and then she willingly allows him into hers - that's a MUCH better scene than in the movie. I mean, what with the Organians disappearing and all that, we don't need that additional trauma - plus, it's very anti-Spock. There are also some elements that I found somewhat confusing, as this is a book, we are given Chang's and Valeris' inner thoughts and they do not come across as traitors - they seem totally genuine - so, their later switch seems to come out of nowhere. It's almost as confusing as the Organians disappearing.
  
  By the way, I'm saying that over and over and over again, because the first half of the book mentions the Organians disappearing somewhere between eight and twelve times, if I had to guess.
  
  The battle between the Bird of Prey (the Dakronh), the Enterprise, and the Excelsior, is one of my most favorite starship battles ever portrayed on screen. It's not flashy, bang bang lights flying all over the place, with a million little specks of stuff going every which way...it's actually a logical battle, where the cloaked opponent keeps changing position and prolongs the suffering as he plays with his opponent. It's just the cat's pajamas. In the novel...not so much...even though it remains fundamentally the same...it's just not...
  
  If you like Star Trek VI...and you should...it is probably the best, if not easily in the top three of Star Trek movies, I have no doubt that you'll enjoy this book.
• 
  Wendy

  This novelization did some things better than the movie, some things not as good as the movie. Taken together, they sort of balance themselves out. The Carol Marcus/Kudao/Themis backstories helped make the crew's bitterness and bigotry make more sense than in the movie, where it seemed out of character. An interesting read, if you've seen the movie and enjoyed it.
• 
  Billie

  I listened to the audiobook and I will always love to listen to any Star Trek books.
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  Jonathan Koan

  THIS is how you write a novelization!
  
  I've read quite a few novelizations, all ranging from bad to great. The mark of a great novelization is how it enhances your viewing of the movie with new lines, moments, and scenes that aren't in the movie, but still took place. This book is full of those scenes, and yet has all of the wonderful moments from the movie.
  
  This story is already an awesome story. I believe that Undiscovered Country is my second favorite Star Trek movie, but has the best overall plot and character development. This book takes that good plot and gives it not only depth but meaning.
  
  We understand the context of several events happening such as the Klingon attacks on Kudao and Themis, which injure Doctor Carol Marcus, and further provide context for Kirk's present anger against the Klingons in the movie. This also provides very informative and special scenes featuring Gorkon, Azetbur, Chang and Kerla, which provide context into the Klingon way of life, the Klingon's reasoning for the peace talks, and explains the line of succession problem in the movie.
  
  And the book does this all in 300 pages...normal size print. I tell you, J. M. Dillard has done something else with this book. It is simply stunning and impressive. It didn't need to be any longer or any shorter. It was precisely the right length.
  
  Overall, this has become one of my favorite novelizations, ranking up there with "Rogue One"(which possibly edges it out). Nonetheless, wonderfully done. 9.8 out of 10! Great job Dillard!
  
  "You havenever experienced Shakespeare until you read him in the original Klingon". Qapla'
• 
  Paxton Holley

  Wow, this was a really good adaptation of the movie. Added some extra information, a few extra scenes. Was a rollicking good read.
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  Lois Merritt

  I finally got this audiobook! Alas, it is like all the older ones is abridged, so allowing for that, I still liked it - hey, it's the movie, one of my top favorite Trek movie, nothing strangely new or changed from it, and I like James Doohan's narration. So while it would be so much better unabridged, since it's not, you can get better than everything above. :)
  ------
  5/26/2021 - listened to the unabridged story, still like it; love this movie as is, but this still fills in a little to make it even more full. :)
• 
  Chad

  There’s some interesting depth added to the story that explores the apparent surge in Kirk’s animosity for Klingons, his relationship with Carol Marcus as well as the loss of David in Search for Spock. It also feels like much more of a continuation from Star Trek 5, where the movies felt more standalone.
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  Heather Domin

  I find it interesting that in the novelization (which is often based on the first version of the script), the Spock/Valeris mind-meld is very different; a gesture of gallantry instead of a brutal rape. I wonder who made the decision to change it in the film.
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  Indika de Silva

  I loved the movie... So decided to read the book...
  
  The book was very interesting as it fills out the gaps that was quite visible during the movie...
  
  A must read for the fans of the Star Trek Original series...
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  Lucy

  I enjoyed reading this Star Trek story...it is a little gem of a book!
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  Dennis

  This has always been my favorite Star Trek movie so I saw this in the audible store and thought I'd give it a listen. Aside from the great narration by James Doohan (Scotty!) I must say this was nowhere near as good as I expected. So many story points crucial to the story were omitted. As a huge Star Trek fan from way back close to the beginning of the show I must say this could have and should have been done better! Makes me hesitate to even trust another audible Star Trek book in the future.
• 
  Chris Haynes

  Awesome book
  
  I have to say I loved this book!! The writing was fantastic, it was fun and exciting, and a little sad because it was the last adventure of the original crew of the USS Enterprise. If you are a Star Trek fan and haven't read this book, what are you waiting for!?!? Highly recommended!!
• 
  Rob

  Some good and bad, I guess I want so much more detail if the book was made from a movie, I want it to be like a Stephen King book with so much new background info that you know who Kirks elementary teacher was dating. This was still a good read.
  
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  Jeremiah Murphy

  I think this is my least favorite of the novelizations so far. I enjoyed all the detail, but the movie’s plot was a bit dull in novel form and some of the characters seemed a little too “90s action movie.”
  
  I usually like Dillard’s books but I guess my criticism has more to do with the screenplay.
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  Victoria Schreiber

  A very enjoyable read! The art of turning a movie into a novel is a difficult one, but the author does it well. And while of course I already knew the plot of the movie, it was nice to be able to see inside the minds of the characters.
  
  
• 
  Ashley Beery

  Loved hearing good ol Scotty reading me this book. The sound effects were on par and reminded me very much of the movie. Plus, Scotty does the voices for each character and it is AMAZING.
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  Ian

  This and other J. M. Dillard books reviewed here:
  https://fsfh-book-review2.webnode.com...
• 
  Ron Lang-Alon

  Pretty good. Worth a read. I do enjoy most of her novels.
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  Ranette

  Who is responsible for ruining a peace conference?
• 
  Griff "Wildcard"

  Best if experienced in the original Klingon.
• 
  Papiertiger17

  Eigentlich hatte ich mich auf die Romanfassung des sechsten Kinofilms gefreut: der Film ist sehr unterhaltsam und die Bewertungen des Buches sind gut. Aber: Die Autorin hatte sich dazu entschieden, zwei alte, bereits abgearbeitete Handlungsstränge aus dem dritten Film wieder aufzugreifen. Die ersten fünfzig Seiten beschäftigen sich leider intensiv mit Kirks verstorbenen Sohn und die in die Brüche gegangene Beziehung zu dessen Mutter, deren Leben zu allem Überfluss an einem seidenen Faden hängt. In beiden Fällen sind natürlich die Klingonen schuld. Das Ganze führt soweit, dass sogar Filmdialoge um diese Themen erweitert sind. Fast auf jeder Seite wird wieder von neuem das Traumatische für Kirk daran herausgearbeitet, als wenn der Leser das nicht schon im Prolog verstanden hätte. Auch nach 65 Seiten ist immer noch nicht Ruhe damit. Ständig driftet die Schriftstellerin in tragische und depressive Klänge, was völlig an der Stimmung des Films vorbeigeht. Ab da war es dann mit meiner Geduld zu Ende.
• 
  Hyowon

  Star Trek VI Undiscovered Country brings the Star Trek's series' underlying theme of thinking vs. feeling (or logic. vs intuition) as the main focus of the story, and thus very interesting and somewhat philosophical. I've always been intrigued by the contrasting interplay between Captain Kirk's human/intuitive approach and Mr Spock's cold logical approach - and especially how the combination of these worked so well in times of difficulties. I can imagine a completely different story, not a sci-fi but something like a melodrama or love story, that has similarly extreme cases of two characters and solving problems together and realising neither one of the quality is good enough. Excellent stuff.
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  Mrklingon

  Turns into Science Fiction for reals.....
  
  I'm now on a quest to read the novelizations through Nemesis at least. I've always liked these because the author has the liberty to fill in the cracks, provide motivations and even add details not in the movie. I've got the movie (at least in my head) for the visuals, but the characters and story are better served by putting it in print. For me, the general rule "the book was better," applies not ONLY for book-into-movie, but movie-into book. Thanks, Ms. Dillard!
  
  
• 
  Daniel Kukwa

  The best of JM Dillard's movie novelizations. It's not quite reaching for the same level as Vonda McIntyre's Star Trek II adaptation, but it makes up for any stylistic safety with a great deal of imaginative continuity usage and an unabashed enthusiasm for the movie script. I had the great pleasure of spoiling the movie for myself with an advanced copy of this novel...and I was quite pleased that the actual film lived UP to its print adaptation!