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Star Wreck #4
Star Wreck IV: Live Long And Profit
A nearly bankrupt StarFreak Command orders Captain Jean-Lucy Ricardo on a money-making mission: find the Fountain of Youth and bottle its precious waters for sale throughout the universe. Unfortunately for Captain James T. Smirk, financing the mission means putting him and his U.S.S. Endocrine out of commission...
133 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
28 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
June 7, 2022
Star Freak Command sends the crew of the 'Endocrine' on a money raising operation: locate the Fountain of Youth and claim it for the Federation. Unfortunately, this will put Smirk and his crew out of a job, so they are determined to thwart their counterparts.
Rewolinski's short novel is funny and full of science fiction in jokes.
Rewolinski's short novel is funny and full of science fiction in jokes.
September 14, 2023
It's hard for me to review a book like this. I really don't like giving living authors bad reviews, but I review everything I read here and I have to be honest. Remember, of course, that this is my opinion and yours might differ. I have no problem with that. I knew going in that this kind of "parody" is not really my cup of Earl Grey, but I saw it for 10 cents at a book sale and I'm a huge Star Trek fan, so I thought I'd pick it up. It's also very short so when I was looking for something on my shelves for a quick read this seemed a decent choice.
I suppose this is a parody but the genre that comes to mind for me is "Farce." The dictionary online defines a farce as: " a comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay and typically including crude characterization and ludicrously improbable situations." This meets those criteria. In that sense, I guess the book succeeded, and if you are a fan of that genre then this book and the various prequels and sequels might be for you. I was hoping for a few laughs along the way but the book didn't strike me that way.
Just to give a few examples of things that didn't seem funny to me. Starfleet becomes Starfreak. Commander Scott becomes Snot, and Spock becomes Smock, while Beverley Crusher becomes Flusher (having to do with toilets). On the other hand, we also get Captain Jim Smirk, and I actually thought that was a good one because Kirk does occasionally have a bit of smirk to him. Since the name reflected a "piece" of Kirk's character, I thought it worked. I couldn't find any such connections in the others. The Enterprise is the Endocrine. I guess that reflects the horniness of everyone on board the ship so maybe that's OK theoretically, but I didn't personally care for it. But Vulcans become "Vultures" and that just left me scratching my head.
The overall situation involves a mixing up of the crews of TOS and Next Gen, and they end up competing against each other to try and find the fountain of youth, which the "Romanumens" are also trying to find.
Again, even though I didn't care for this, it was competently written and you might quite enjoy it. As long as you know what you're getting into.
I suppose this is a parody but the genre that comes to mind for me is "Farce." The dictionary online defines a farce as: " a comic dramatic work using buffoonery and horseplay and typically including crude characterization and ludicrously improbable situations." This meets those criteria. In that sense, I guess the book succeeded, and if you are a fan of that genre then this book and the various prequels and sequels might be for you. I was hoping for a few laughs along the way but the book didn't strike me that way.
Just to give a few examples of things that didn't seem funny to me. Starfleet becomes Starfreak. Commander Scott becomes Snot, and Spock becomes Smock, while Beverley Crusher becomes Flusher (having to do with toilets). On the other hand, we also get Captain Jim Smirk, and I actually thought that was a good one because Kirk does occasionally have a bit of smirk to him. Since the name reflected a "piece" of Kirk's character, I thought it worked. I couldn't find any such connections in the others. The Enterprise is the Endocrine. I guess that reflects the horniness of everyone on board the ship so maybe that's OK theoretically, but I didn't personally care for it. But Vulcans become "Vultures" and that just left me scratching my head.
The overall situation involves a mixing up of the crews of TOS and Next Gen, and they end up competing against each other to try and find the fountain of youth, which the "Romanumens" are also trying to find.
Again, even though I didn't care for this, it was competently written and you might quite enjoy it. As long as you know what you're getting into.
February 1, 2025
I thought this was the best of the series so far, but that isn't saying much. I think I chuckled... one time? I started to enjoy the story just a little by the end, but I still can't go beyond 2.25 stars for this. It's just not funny is all.
February 6, 2013
Sadly, the joke is really done at this point. Distorted versions of the characters of the first two Star Trek franchises have now been divided into numerous different factions and have been at each other's throats in a variety of juvinile and cartoony ways. The jokes have all been recycled numerous times and there is little new stuff. Just about all that can be done with the concept has been. The series has over-lived and over-profited, just as it pokes fun at it's source material for. One book was great, two were good, and three were ok, but four books devoted to this, even though they are quick, is a bit much. The characters are not really cute anymore and are just anoying by this point. I understand that there are three more books in this series and one of them is devoted to Deep Space Nine, which would be cool, but this really seems to be a good dropping off point as it has gotten too inane and meaningless. It is still fun and enjoyable to still see these characters and this concept somewhat, but though it was fun, good things need to come to an end and should not be milked to death.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews