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.
