NIGHT OF THE LIVING TREKKIES

QUIRK BOOKS

Written by Kevin David Anderson and Sam Stall

Copyright 2010 by Kevin David Anderson

Designed by Doogie Horner
Production management by John J. McGurk
Cover illustration by Glen Orbik



In Night of the Living Trekkies, written by Kevin David Anderson and Sam Stall, a Star Trek convention is held in a hotel in Houston, Texas - and gets invaded by zombies.

It should be duly noted that on both the front and back covers of the book, as well as a blurb on an inside page, are disclaimers that Night of the Living Trekkies is not officially sponsored or affiliated with the Star Trek brand and that this book is a parody.

A combination of Star Trek and Night of the Living Dead, this humorous book was actually much more fun to read than I thought it would be. Anderson and Stall are obvious science fiction fans and have captured the Star Trek fan experience with zombie lore and have made a very entertaining zombie fiction book. The chapter titles are actually titles from the Star Trek series episodes and I felt that the titles that were used for the chapters were quite appropriate for the subject of that particular chapter - with most of the chapter titles coming from the episode titles of Star Trek - The Original Series. The other chapter titles I had to look up as I am not as familiar with the other Star Trek series episode titles as I am with The Original Series.

Military Afghanistan veteran, and former Star Trek fan, Jim Pike is an assistant manager of a small hotel in Houston that is hosting a Star Trek convention. When mysterious prisoners escape from a secret military facility, the prisoners wind up at the convention - and start eating the Trekkies, turning the Trekkies into zombies. Now Jim must lead a group of fanboys and fangirls who have survived the zombies to get out of the hotel - to escape the Wrath of Con.

I liked the scientific explanations of how the zombies actually functioned, incorporating most - if not all - of the tropes of zombies to be explained scientifically with the zombie virus coming from space. As the city of Houston falls victim to the zombies, I get the claustrophobic feeling that this was a story of the apocalypse as the zombies gather around the hotel. I have always felt that there is a certain amount of bestiality about zombies. Having the Trekkies becoming zombies seemed like an appropriate comeuppance to most of these Trekkies who have gone overboard on the fandom. The Trekkies in the book have become graphic victims to the determined zombies, so the book would be rated at least a PG-13 book. So, as much as I like Star Trek, I am glad that I have not gone as overboard into the Trek fandom as these Trekkies have. Although I once was a Gopher at one of the first Star Trek conventions that was held, which was held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, mainly so I could get a discount on the convention. Actually I think it was the first Star Trek convention at the LA Convention Center way back then since I was 17 at the time, but I am not sure if that convention was actually the first Trekkie convention. So I know the scenes written of the convention were fairly similar to what I had experienced at the Convention Center.

I would have liked to have seen an introduction from authors Anderson and Stall as to how the two of them came up with the idea of Night of the Living Trekkies, to make the book a little more personal. There was only just a little two sentence blurb on the back cover of the book about authors Anderson and Stall.


Pancho
All people smile in the same language.