[.ca] Strange New Worlds VII (ISBN 074348780X)

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds VII:
Star Trek: Strange New Worlds VII edited by Dean Wesley Smith, with John J. Ordover, Elisa J. Kassin, and Paula M. Block is the seventh edition in the Strange New Worlds series. This collection of short stories is from the readers of Trek submitting their works for review. What makes this book interesting is that you get to read some of the early works of some very promissing writers along with some seasoned submitters of previous editions. Getting to read about what the readers think should be going on in the Trek universe is intriguing. There are seven submissions in the Star Trek Original Series, six submissions in the Star Trek: The Next Generation... included are the Grand Prize and the Third Place writing of the contest. There are two submissions in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine section, while the Star Trek: Voyager section has four submissions. The Star Trek: Enterprise has one submission and the is a new category called Speculations with three submissions and includes the Second Place prize. There are some very inventive and interesting stories in this years crop of stories and I truly enjoyed them I hope you get a chance to pick up a copy for your library and you can later compare some of these stories to later ones written by some very promissing authors later in time as these writer compete for a writing contract with pocket books for future stories. The three prize winners and the ones that I liked the best are: "Life's Work" (Grand Prize) by Julie A. Hyzy "Guardians" (Second Prize) by Brett Hudgins "Adventures in Jazz and Time" (Third Prize) by Kelly Cairo There are other stories in this book that could have been winners of a prize as they were that good, but alas, there could only be three winners. If you like some off the common road short stories than this is your book as you can read a short story from this anthology before bed to get a quick fix of Trek. Enjoy these stories as I did and you can follow the progress of these writers in the future.

Ho-hum...good but not great...:
...it might have been a bad omen that the release date was 01 June but SNW7 was not available until late June. The story ideas had promise (the repercussions of cadet Kirk's "solution" to the Kobayshi Maru, tribble thinking, Kirk & McCoy dealing w/post-traumatic shock after Rura Pente, Juliana leaving Noonien Soong, the first meeting btwn Keiko & Chief O'Brien) but the endings left me wanting. It wasn't til the final section (Speculations) that my favorite stories appeared: the Horta guarding the Guardian of Forever, Dax gets an assist from an old friend, and how the Borg came to be. A good read but not as good as SNW5 or 6...