A very odd Trek book: published after TNG was already a Thing, it involves Kirk being kidnapped by Klingons who trick him into believing he has been thrown into the future—a future of peace between Klingons and the Federation. The most interesting part was the Manchurian Candidate-style Klingon sleeper agents, their personalities suppressed by drugs. I kinda need to chew on that whole idea: is it ridiculous? Interestingly believable when discussing truly alien beings? Both? In any case, I don't think I could label this book as "good" or "bad"—just "unusual."

It is a solid three stars for me. The usual characters are explored, and by this point the "canon" of Star Trek books has become solidified and this one is #40 in the series (just before "The Next Generation" starts its run).

The Enterprise finds itself in the same part of the galaxy where "The Tholian Web" took place and a similar jump through time occurs. This time, though, Kirk finds himself not in and out of the Enterprise but solidly on board a Klingon warship with a crew of strangely garbed Klingons. They are gentle and thoughtful, and tell him that he has jumped forward 100 years through a space-time disturbance.

As time passes, both onboard the Enterprise, on Earth, and on the Klingon new/old ship, bits of things start to occur that make the plot really start to evolve. Kirk, who has fallen in love with a Klingon woman, finds that she is out of consciousness for a while and his host is getting more short-tempered. Further, there are gaps in the history of which he is supposed to play a part. Spock finds strange occurrences between high-ranking members of the Federation and parts of Earth (and other planets) that were utterly destroyed, and a brilliant scientist is becoming unglued. These final plot twists really saved the book for me and helped it be out of the ordinary. ( )

David Dvorkin's novel is one that hinges heavily on its premise of James Kirk being suddenly transported into a future in which a friendlier group of "New Klingons" have achieved the Organian-prophesied peace with the Federation. Unfortunately the story's twist is easily predictable, and too much of the plot hinges on a James Kirk who is far more credulous than one would expect his character to be in his circumstances. It's unfortunate, too, as Dvorkin's novel contains elements that, in the hands of other authors, could have resulted in two or three nifty novels for the franchise (and which prefigure episodes of both The Next Generation and Deep Space 9). In this case, however, the plotting doesn't live up to the promise of the ideas devised for it. ( )

Well played author, well played. ( )

I wanted something easy and fun to read. This did the trick well enough. I picked up a batch of these old Star Trek novels recently and I think I am going to be enjoying them when I want light reading. I used to look down my nose at these sorts of books but I can enjoy them now it seems. I should perhaps blame John Scalzi's recent work "Redshirts" for even making me think of reading these books.

Timetrap is something of a trickster sort of book. The Klingons are acting strange. Are they still the bad guys here, or are they new Klingons? Watch out. There is a lot of attention to details so this felt much like watching an episode of the original series. Since this is only the 2nd Star Trek novel I have read I don't know how it compares to others. I can only say that although this felt a little drawn out, it wasn't awful and I enjoyed it OK as an easy read. ( )