The MONSTERS OF STAR TREK

by Daniel Cohen

Introduces energy vampires, giant space amoebas, ancient races, androids, and other strange creatures and alien beings encountered by the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise in the Star Trek television series

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Reference, Tv, 20th Century, Pop Culture, Young Adult

128 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1980

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name.

Daniel Edward Cohen was born on March 12, 1936, in Chicago, Illinois. His parents divorced when he was very young and his mother, Sue Greenberg, married Milton Cohen, a veteran of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Daniel Cohen attended Chicago public schools and was a "hanger-on" in the bohemian community around the University of Chicago while in high school in the early 1950s. He attended the University of Illinois at Chicago where he abandoned an interest in biology for journalism. He graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign with a degree in journalism in 1958. Cohen married Susan Handler, a writer, on February 2, 1958. He briefly worked as a proofreader for Time, Inc. in Chicago; but, demoralized by the paternalistic organizational culture, he took a job as assistant editor of Science Digest magazine in 1959. He was transferred to New York City shortly after being hired.

In addition to his editorial work, Cohen wrote articles for Science Digest and for other publications. Encouraged by praise of his articles on paranormal subjects, Cohen published his first book, Myths of the Space Age, a collection of skeptical essays on paranormal creatures and phenomena, in 1967. The Cohens moved to a farmhouse in Forestburgh, New York, in 1969 so Daniel could write full time. He originally planned to write popular science books, but the demands of the market led him to concentrate on books about ghosts, monsters, UFOs, and psychic phenomena. Since then, Daniel Cohen has written on an astonishing variety of subjects beyond just the paranormal: historical and current biographies; advice for teenagers; world history; science and technology; animals and nature; urban legends; and popular television, music, film, and sports personalities. He has noted that he writes mass-market paperbacks for children who are reluctant to read and not especially gifted. Thus, he chooses subjects of interest to such readers.

Susan Cohen was born on March 27, 1938, in Chicago, Illinois, to Martin and Ida (Goldman) Handler. She earned a B.A. degree from the New School for Social Research in 1960 and an M.S.W. degree from Adelphi University in Garden City, New York, in 1962. She worked as a social worker in the mid-1960s before writing The Liberated Couple, a feminist tract, in 1971. She wrote eleven gothic romances and mysteries under the penname Elizabeth St. Clair between 1974 and 1981. Susan and Daniel Cohen began collaborating on books in 1982 to help alleviate Daniel's workload. They have written books primarily on popular entertainment, advice for teenagers, and animals. The Cohens currently live in Cape May Court House, New Jersey.

Reviews

[Louie the Mustache Matos · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received this book from a big Star Trek lot on eBay. It was a simple bit of nonfiction that I remember now having read when I was a kid. There was of course some nostalgia factor here. The book is really dated for anyone who was ever a fan. I did not need to read this. I remember the TV show quite vividly and really seems to be a primer on the original television series. Still fun. Still great, but I know I am wearing nostalgia goggles and hence, I cannot be trusted to be objective. The monsters are in fact the aliens of the original show and is not really an exhaustive list. Aliens and monsters are not the same thing, but Cohen uses the words here interchangeably. I went middle of the road on this so I don’t steer you wrong, but if you’re a hardcore fan you already know this stuff and hence, might want to skip this. For me, despite its redundancy, it was worth the space it occupies on my shelves and Daniel Cohen really just reminds fans about some of the aliens in the TV show. No harm; no foul.

[Xian · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was ok.

[Clayton Barr · Rating 1 out of 5]

A book very much for middle schoolers by an author who writes like a slightly talented one.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have such vivid memories about this book. As as a kid, I must have read it a dozen times while shopping in the local mall bookstore. I found it again recently in a used book store, and once again sat down and read it cover to cover. By adult fandom standards, it's pretty basic, and the photos used are rather poor quality. But it's still a surprisingly simple yet informative overview of TOS' menagerie of creatures (though the first movie is visually shoe-horned into book). I can see why the little boy I was loved every word in this book; to a young Trek neophyte, in those pre-internet days, this was an enjoyable, nearly biblical revelation. And there is a Mugatu on the cover -- what else do you need?

[Reesha · Rating 2 out of 5]

I struggle to see the value of this book. It's obviously written for young kids, but why would a child need a small book to introduce them to the monsters, aliens, and unusual creatures of Star Trek while spoiling the plot and ending of every episode they appear in? It would be a terrible way to introduce a kid to the show!

The only use I can think of is if a young child is so obsessed with Star Trek that they want to read everything about it, but are too young for the majority of the novels that exist. Then perhaps they would greatly enjoy reliving episodes and creatures through this book's text.

Clearly not for me.

[Philip Athans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, what can I say?

This book combines two of my favorite things of all time: monsters and Star Trek.

Okay, it does so in a poorly written (reads a bit like a middle school book report), sketchy (huge print, few pages, lots of pictures), often incorrect (the planetkiller misidentified as a berserker--no credit to Fred Saberhagen), and insubstantial way (recaps of TOS episodes but without any depth and very little thought put into what the monsters represent, etc.) but still it was a lot of fun in a small package.

Recommended for hardcore Trekkies and collectors like me.

[Phil Giunta · Rating 3 out of 5]

Giving it three stars as one of the earliest "reference books" about Star Trek. This was clearly aimed at the young adult audience of the time as reflected in the juvenile, often clumsy, writing style. Nevertheless, it covers the various alien lifeforms encountered by the USS Enterprise during Star Trek's original three seasons.

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

This brought back many memories of my childhood. I was eight years old when Star Trek premiered on Television.

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I note this book because it inspired my son to become a Star Trek fan. He discovered this book when he was at the Virginia Mason Clinic day care for sick children called TLC. Upon on his second or third stay there, the staff permitted him to keep this book. It inspired one of his most memorable childhood fears—that of the salt vampire, a fearsome monster with a sucker for a mouth and others lining its fingers, that could create an illusory appearance based on your thoughts and then attack you for the salt in your body. But it was this book that sparked his fascination and obsession with Star Trek. It was, at least, an interest we could share together.

[Jean-Pierre Vidrine · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is not as comprehensive a book about the various alien species and entities from Star Trek as I would have liked. Some of the races I really wanted to read about were either glossed over or left out altogether. Some of the language Cohen uses sadly dates the text such as referring to Sulu as "Oriental" and unnecessarily pointing out the beauty of female characters.
What I had hoped might be a nice little reference book for one of my favorite TV shows is little more than a nostalgic novelty.

[Jason · Rating 2 out of 5]

All you wanted to know about the Gorn and the Salt monster.

[Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lightweight but pretty entertaining. I enjoyed it because it covered many of the most interesting creatures on the original Star Trek series.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember reading this as a kid, before I'd even seen most of the episodes described in the book. I still liked it, though.

[Benjamin Plume · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, hello 70s. Not so great unless you're a big, big fan.

[Frederick Klein]

A socialist drunk and agoraphobic agrarian from Newfoundland gave me this book as a gift, so I felt compelled to leaf through it.