Reviews

Star Trek IV: Voyage Home by Vonda N. McIntyre

cuteasamuntin's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The Voyage Home is such a fun Trek movie with a surprisingly complex emotional undertone hidden beneath its one-liners and comedic timing. Due to the film’s dynamism and established Trek lore, the novelization is simply at too much of a disadvantage to truly excel, but it does an admirable job. The highlight was certainly the occasional windows into Kirk’s and Spock’s thoughts and feelings, which makes this a worthwhile read for fans of either character or of The Premise.

While the 1980s audiobook version is heavily abridged, Takei and Nimoy are excellent narrators, their words well-paced and clearly enunciated. One round-trip work commute passed far more quickly and enjoyably for me while listening the audiobook, which I borrowed from my local library through Libby.

libraryofrick1801's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

vanillaphantoms's review against another edition

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I loved the in between chapter parts that give more insight into Spock’s perspective. Those bits alone definitely make the book worth getting. Besides those bits, the book struggles to live up to the comedic timing of the original movie, but I do love the movie so it’s hard to complain. The audiobook is narrated by George takei and he does a phenomenal job, plus the Spock perspective bits are narrated by nimoy himself

jennms_qkw's review against another edition

4.0

Nice to re-visit, written by a woman too. <3

mousie_books's review against another edition

4.0

The most fun of the original Trek movies, even as a novelization.

chimichannika's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

emersonernest's review against another edition

3.0

2.5 stars I feel bad about writing a bad review, but to be fair, it was awful. 1 star because the movie is one of my all time favorites. 1 star because I listened to George Takei and he is amazing and I will listen to ANYTHING he reads. So really this book is a 0.5.

Just watch the movie, because the book is not worth the paper it is printed on. I know that movie adaptations are tough. I feel for the author, but someone should have stopped this book before it went to print.

divadiane's review against another edition

4.0

I listen to the abridged version from 1986, which I got on Audible. I didn't realize it was abridged when I bought it, but that's ok. This was excellently read and acted by George Takei with little vignettes by Leonard Nimoy. Takei even does a wonderful job imitating the accents and vocal cadence of the actors from the series. There are sound effects and music, which enhanced the experience. Since this was, in my opinion one of the weaker Star Trek movies I think I'm glad it was abridged although I was looking forward to a ST novel by Vonda mcIntyre and thought it might be improved by her treatment. Alas, it was too abridged to say for sure.

djwudi's review against another edition

4.0

(This review applies equally to [b:Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan|77349|Star Trek II The Wrath of Khan (Star Trek)|Vonda N. McIntyre|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170900096s/77349.jpg|74749], [b:Star Trek III The Search for Spock|76725|Star Trek III The Search for Spock (Star Trek #17)|Vonda N. McIntyre|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170899647s/76725.jpg|1529686], and [b:Star Trek IV The Voyage Home|1078437|Star Trek IV The Voyage Home (Star Trek)|Vonda N. McIntyre|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1180802754s/1078437.jpg|824875].)

In a move that (if I remember correctly) was rather unusual for the time, the Star Trek franchise created three films that were direct sequels: each stands alone as its own story, but they also comprise three parts of one overarching story, with all the events taking place over the course of just a few months.

In a wonderful turn of events, author [a:Vonda N. McIntyre|23503|Vonda N. McIntyre|http://photo.goodreads.com/authors/1223870851p2/23503.jpg] handled the novelization of each of the three films, and did a masterful job of adapting each one, creating a whole at least as good as the sum of its parts. Diving deeply into not just the events of the films, but the motivations and repercussions for the characters and the universe as a whole in each book, McIntyre's novels stand as a model of what successful movie-to-film adaptations should be, and all too often aren't.

lillucys's review against another edition

4.0

Probably my most favourite of the old school Captain James T Kirk movies and I also really enjoyed reading the book! It was a great bit of escapism without too much deep thinking...I like this kind of book sometimes! :D

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/13870714