Night of the Living Trekkies

I really enjoyed this novel; the author's take on zombies was fascinating and unique, and I appreciated it greatly. It arrived quickly and I finished it in a day. Overall, great read.

Dieses Buch ist eine Mischung aus Star Trek (aus der Fansicht) und dem Zombie Genre, das mir eher neu ist. Ich kenne mich im Zombie Genre nicht so aus, aber es scheint eine typische Zombie-Geschichte zu sein, angereichert um ein paar Star Trek Fans, die auf eine Convention ums Überleben kämpfen. Ich mag solche Parodien, die sich selber nicht zu ernst nehmen, besonders lustig fand ich z.B. den disclaimer am Anfang des Buches:ATTENTION ALL STARFLEET PERSONNELThe following text is an original work of fiction/horror/parody. Night of the Living Trekkies is not sponsored by, affiliated with, or endorsed by the owners of the Star Trek® brand. Any personnel claiming otherwise will be sentenced to one year of hard labor in the penal colony of Rura Penthe.Das zweite wäre z.B. das Bild auf der Innenseite, eine Zombie-Hand mit Knochen unten, die den vulkanischen Gruß zeigt. Wer solchen selbstironischen Sachen lustig findet, wird an dem Buch auf jeden Fall auch Spass haben. :)

First of all, a confession: this story brings together two of my great loves, Star Trek and zombies. Ok, my greatest loves are my wife and kids, but they don't feature in the book, so we're heading down the list a bit, but even so...I became aware of its existence through the trailer on YouTube, which I found extremely funny (although it transpires it bears little relation, narrative-wise, to the plot of the novel), and decided it was probably merited a read.My first reservation was the fact that some years ago I'd read Star Wreck, a so-called parody which I found excruciatingly difficult to read, given that I found nothing at all even remotely amusing in it. This could be just as painful, or even worse!My second reservation was the whole "Trekkie-culture" parody thing, which I assumed would be some guy who has a grudge against Trek making Trekkies/Trekkers look like life's biggest losers (or an uneducated fanboy trying, and failing, to lift the profile of his pastime into a respectable position)My third reservation was the fact that the nominal hero is called Jim Pike. Yes, that's right. Jim Pike.So I got the book anyway. It reads as neither a parody nor a comedy, although there are moments of both, and done well at that. The story centres on a group of fans attending a convention trying to survive against a zombie horde. The text openly references Dawn of the Dead, and makes no apology for it. But there are so many Trek references (no, I'm not telling you, find them yourself...) that it's clear the author has a profound love of Trek and the culture it promotes. The Star Trek/Star Wars grudge match also gets an honourable mention in a cool way...Despite the book giving all the outward appearances of a vanity-published fanboy work, complete with the "unauthorised by anyone connected with Star Trek" tagline, this is a well-crafted story with fantastic pacing, genuine suspense, and a simple but captivating plot. Jim Pike makes for a very believeable character. The in-jokes are scattered liberally, but serve only to enhance the story rather than detract from it.I feel I owe it to people reading this review to find something to criticise about it in order to present a balanced article. I'm sorry, I just can't. It's worth five stars, and that's it.Someone, somewhere, in an official Star Trek capacity should read this book and give the author a place on the writing team. Or at least ask them to organise the next convention. But without zombies...

Nachdem ich irgendwo im Netz über einen Link zum Trailer von "Night of the Living Trekkies" gestolpert bin und nach der anfänglichen Enttäuschung, dass es leider keinen dazugehörigen Film, sondern "nur" ein Buch gibt, habe ich mich durchgerungen das Machwerk bei amazon zu bestellen - ich meine, Zombies und Star Trek - was kann man da falschmachen ?Das Buch liest sich flüssig an einem längeren Nachmittag, einigermaßen ordentliches Schulenglisch ist ausreichend, da es dem Thema angemessen recht einfach geschrieben ist. Wichtiger sind natürlich Star Trek Vorkenntnisse, ohne die geht hier gar nichts. Und man muss mit dem Humor etwas anfangen können - wer über Galaxy Quest nicht lachen konnte, der wird auch hier keine Freude haben.Die Story hat keine Längen, Witz und Horror sind in guter Kombination vorhanden, unsere Helden sind sympathisch, es sind ausreichend Zombies vorhanden und die Handlung findet sogar ein logisches Ende - was will man mehr für einen verregneten Urlaubsabend ?

I really enjoyed this book, sadly it took no time at all to read but that's partly because I didn't want to put it down. A very traditional zombie story but the trek angle is what kept me interested. Saying that I did find they went a bit far with the explanations, surely someone reading this book will be fairly well versed in the trek Universe and therefore won't require the author to spell out every reference. I did find that quite annoying. But that's the only negative which is why it got 4 rather than 5 stars.If you're a trek fan then I think you'll enjoy it. I must admit zombies are my least fave horror genre but that didn't put me off at all.