Sanctuary (Star Trek, Book 61) by John Vornholt

You can't go home again

I picked my title for this review for two reasons:

#1 - Sanctuary describes a legendary planet called 'Sanctuary' - a place where any and all fugitives are welcomed and spared from any further persecution. Unfortunately, McCoy, Kirk and Spock discover that once you come to Sanctuary you can never leave again. Thus the main challenge of the book - how do our intrepid three break out and get back to the 'Enterprise'?

#2 - I used to be a gigantic reader of Star Trek books. In the 80's and very early 90's I had a rather large collection. In fact, my cousin and I had a complete collection if we put ours together. I was quite the fan. I ran across this book and picked it up for old times sake and discovered that 'You can't go home again'. The old magic just was not there. Not that I dislike the characters or even the basic plot idea. It was the way the book was written:

-The supporting characters are one-dimensional cutouts.

-There's no character development.

-The planet is apparently covered with the same plant life since they encounter it in nearly every outdoors scene.

-I found myself being drawn into the last scene until I realized that my own fear of heights was making me imagine it much, much better than it was written.

Probably the last of the series for me. It's not the fault of the series - I have moved on to greener literary pastures and expect more.

I give this one a grade of 2 stars out of 5.

This book can be found on Amazon.com here: Sanctuary (Star Trek: The Original Series Book 61)

Reviewed on April 11, 2006.