One of the great things about the Star Trek publishing phenomenon is that it allows fans to explore and look at the Star Trek universe (and our own universe) in ways that a single television series or movie doesn't allow. Star Trek books are, for the most part, novels that allow long-form Star Trek stories to be told, but there's also a wealth of other kinds of Star Trek books as well.

"Star Trek: The Starfleet Survival Guide" by David Mack is one such book. Presented as "non-fiction," this manual is a send-up of all kinds of "How To" or "Survival" guides you can find in any bookstore, only the context is within the Star Trek universe.

For fans curious to know more about the workings of Starfleet technology in detail, the book starts off with a section about using standard-issue equipment for novel uses from as simple as sterilizing drinking water using a phaser to as complicated as reconfiguring a subspace transceiver to generate a short-duration, low-power force field. Kudos to fans who can trace the episodes where these various uses Mack documents originated.

The book also features sections about Unconventional Medicine, Dangerous Life-Forms, and Extreme Scenarios, with a great deal of humor to be mined from situations such as "Avoiding Mind Control by Elasian Women" and "Recognizing and Neutralizing a Dikironium Cloud Creature."

Accompanied by smart, simple illustrations by Timothy M.M. Earls, Mack's text is straightforward and serious, giving the book verisimilitude that enhances the reader's enjoyment and allows it to be both a nice trip down Star Trek Memory Lane as well as a fun parody of the survival guide genre.

[Paul]