(1979) I know I'm supposed to dislike the movie but y'all, I remember going to see it (at the drive-in, kids, remind me to tell you about drive-ins sometime) and you can't tell me it wasn't awesome because man I was there. The book is not objectively good -- it has *footnotes* for crying out loud, and the prose about Ilia's pheremone powers is cringey -- but so what? I can't hear old-man-me's objections over the cheers of my inner 11-year-old.
Thought I had read this one but it‘s not on my shelf. ETA Diane Duane has yet to go awry. Another excellent voyage with an underlying theme regarding the essential nature of play.
A couple more thoughts on this Federation history:
1) fucking Malcolm Reed makes captain? And he expected to roll up and big dog the Organians?!
2) convergent evolution already exists on planet Earth, I don't think it's that radical to think it could exist across planets (the extent it exists with the humanoids does seem unlikely)
In a book full of drawings, this page was a real lol
#bookhaul 15 Star Trek books for 40$. It's a great find!