The Folded World

Star Trek: The Original Series

by Jeff Mariotte

An original novel set in the universe of Star The Original Series!En route to a diplomatic mission, the U.S.S. Enterprise receives a distress call from the U.S.S. McRaven. As the Enterprise approaches the area where the McRaven appears to be, Captain James T. Kirk and his crew encounter an anomaly unlike anything they’ve ever experienced. Space itself seems inconsistent here . . . warping, changing appearance. But during the brief periods of calm, the McRaven is located along with other ships of various origins—all dead in space and devoid of any life forms, all tightly surrounding and being held in place by an enormous unidentified vessel that appears to have been drifting for a millennium. As incredible and impossible as it seems, this anomaly is something that can only be described as a dimensional fold, a place where the various dimensions that science has identified—and the ones it cannot yet name—have folded in on one another, and the normal rules of time and space no longer apply. . . .

Genres: Star Trek, Science Fiction, Star Trek Original Series, Fiction, Ebooks, Science Fiction Fantasy

308 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2013

About the author

Award-winning author Jeffrey J. Mariotte has published more than 30 novels, including horror epic The Slab, award nominated teen horror quartet Witch Season, and the recent supernatural thrillers River Runs Red and Missing White Girl, in addition to tie-in novels and many, many comic books. He is also co-owner of specialty bookstore Mysterious Galaxy in San Diego. He lives in southeastern Arizona.

Also writes as Jeffrey J. Mariotte.

Reviews

[Kieran McAndrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

What should be a simple mission transporting a Federation diplomat to a planet seeking membership is endangered when the 'U.S.S. McRaven' issues a sudden and abrupt distress call, making Captain Kirk delay his mission to the Ixtoldans' homeworld.

An excellent science fiction concept that captures the feel of 'Star Trek'. Marriott has expertly managed to mimic the style of the show.

[Jerry (Rebel With a Massive Media Library) · Rating 4 out of 5]

An enjoyable take on Spock, Kirk, and crew.

[Michael Hanscom · Rating 2 out of 5]

Mostly a trek through a haunted house, with weird vistas and spooky monsters or villains jumping out. Some odd characterizations that seemed a bit off. Not horrible, but not a standout, either.

[Andrew Beet]

It was a good star trek novel nothing special about the story basically the USS McRaven was like a haunted house because of it being trapped in this dimendional fold in the particular area of space that the enterprise was sent to I liked that the landing party would go into different areas of the ship and see all kinds of things going on in the rooms the part of the book I didn't understand was that whole chapter with the character aleshia who Spock saw later on if someone can explain the reason behind that character I would love to read the explanation overall an average trek novel

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very exciting and well-plotted novel, with some really interesting new characters added.

[Randy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I looked forward to this one for a couple of reasons. I'm an old geezer, an original Trek fan(Trekkie or Trekker, I answer to either), there for first time broadcast of The Man Trap, the first Trek episode aired. The other reason is my admiration for the work of author Jeff Mariotte, original or tie-in. You're always in for an enjoyable ride when you crack a book of his.

Here, the Enterprise is on a diplomatic mission when they receive an SOS form the McRaven, another Constitution class ship. It was four days ahead on the same course, same destination.

What the crew finds is a strange anomaly, space folded over on itself, dimensions overlapping and a large number of ships caught up in it. The McRaven is one. They also see a Romulan, a Tholian, a Klingon, as well as many of unknown origin, all grouped tightly around a huge ship, also unknown. Sensors find no life and little signs of ship energy.

A rescue mission is sent in, two shuttles, against the wishes of the Ixtolian ambassador aboard the Enterprise, led by the ship's top three and a contingent of red shirts.

Things start to go haywire inside the fold with people seeing and experiencing weird stuff that is all to real.

At the same time, Jeff has another story going on of a primitive race experiencing giants that stomp through their town, oblivious to what their steps are doing, acid rain decimating folks not undercover, and a race of beings landing, and herding survivors aboard their ships.

How all this ties together is the crux of the story and had me trying to figure it out along the way.

Had a fine time with this one.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

Christmas 2014/early 2015.

There was a gift pack available in Easons, with said sealed pack including 2 sci-fi film magazines, and one of six Star Trek novels. As the pack was sealed, there was obviously no way of knowing which novel is in which pack.

When I purchased said pack, this is the novel that was in mine - if I'm honest, it's probably not one that I would have picked up in a bookstore, nor was it the novel I was hoping would be included.

Set during The Original Series era (i.e the original TV series) of Star Trek, this obviously therefore includes all the central character of said TV show: Captain James T Kirk, Scotty, Spock, Dr 'Bones' McCoy, etc. That is, the 'original' of those characters, rather than those in the more-recent J.J. Abrams reboot.

The plot has to do with Captain Kirk and co receiving a distress call while en-route to a diplomatic mission, and boarding a spaceship unlike any they have ever seen before, where (once again) the usual rules of time and space do not apply.

While readable enough, I have to say, it's also pretty forgettable, with nothing to really convince me to pick up other books by this author, or (while I admit it may be somewhat unfair to base my perception of the whole on this alone) to go looking for other Star Trek books unless they come highly recommended.

[Gene Wines · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is definitely not one of the better Star Trek®: The Original Series books. The concept seemed interesting, that of a spatial anomaly that folds space and time, but the execution leaves much to be desired. Huge sections of the book involved tramping around on a gigantic spaceship, seeing largely the same things over and over.

The dialogue of the main characters seemed awkward, at best, and the characters introduced in the story just weren't that interesting.

There's a drinking game you can play if you do decide to read this. Take a drink every time the author uses the word "retinue", because he obviously doesn't know of a synonym for it, and apparently doesn't own a thesaurus. You'll be blasted by the end of the book.

I'm glad I borrowed this one from the library, because I certainly would not want to pay good money for it.

[Dan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A generally entertaining and fast-paced novel, The Folded World was a fun read. The anomaly was interesting, but not satisfactorily explained in my opinion. Some of the character stuff was a little too melodramatic, but works for the most part. I did really enjoy Scotty's part in the novel, and it was a great deal of fun seeing him wrestle with the fine points of diplomacy while trying to deal with the Ixtoldan ambassador and the Federation diplomats aboard the Enterprise. His coming to a greater appreciation of the difficult job that Kirk has was a nice touch. While not the highlight of Trek novels from this year so far, The Folded World was enjoyable for the most part.

Full review: http://treklit.blogspot.ca/2013/05/th...

[Jimyanni · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an okay read, pretty standard fare for the genre. There were some plot holes, and the conclusion wasn't as clear a "win" as original series Star Trek usually manages, and there was a bit of a deus ex machina to manage even as much of a win as there was. But it wasn't bad at all; I've read plenty of far worse Star Trek stories. When I try to analyze it, it sounds like I ought to be rating it three stars, but truly, it was a better read than that. Not great by any stretch of the imagination, but an enjoyable read.

[David · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting premise, but boring writing and uninteresting characters.

[Mark Oppenlander · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Ixtoldans desire to be part of the Federation and the Enterprise has been tasked with taking a delegation of Ixtoldan and Federation diplomats to their home world to initiate the process. En route, they receive a distress signal from USS McRaven, a Federation ship that appears to be caught in a spaceship graveyard created by a space-time anomaly of some sort. The Enterprise diverts, much to the chagrin of the Federation diplomats, and Kirk takes a shuttle craft to explore the "folded" space and attempt to save the McRaven and understand the phenomenon.

Much of this novel is entertaining, and Jeff Mariotte seems to have a good handle on the characters and the relationships. But the plot proves to be nothing more than a mish-mash of other elements which Star Trek fans have seen too many times before. Within the folded space, the laws of space and time don't operate normally, reminding me of "The Magicks of Megas-Tu," while the fact that the crewmember's thoughts can manifest physically reminded me a bit of "Shore Leave." There are also hints of the Cardassian war and "Time Trap" among other allusions. Not to mention that apparently all Federation diplomats are jerks (cf. "A Taste of Armageddon" among others).

Mariotte does have some ambition. There is a backstory that leads off the novel, involving a young woman on a planet being attacked by alien forces it does not understand. This prologue snippet remains unexplained for a very long time, with strands of the story cropping up as interludes from time to time. It's an intriguing enigma, but the final execution lets Mariotte down. He does explain how this story connects to the Enterprise's tale, but everything gets sewn up a little too fast, as if the author was racing a word count to resolve all of his various threads. A longer novel might have helped - or better yet, a simplified plot.

I was on the fence between giving this book two or three stars, so realistically this might be two and a half. It's entertaining enough, but too much of it feels rushed and/or like other, better Star Trek stories. This one probably exists for die-hards only.

[Mike Shen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had hoped to get something interesting and mind-boggling from the disarray of time and space. However, all I got was WHAT YOU THINK IS WHAT YOU GET, which has already been used and is much more successful by Michael Crichton in his SPHERE.

[Melvin Patterson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good Star Trek TOS story. Well-written with dramatic tension in both the plot and sub-plot, lots of action and the characters were all very familiar. Enjoyable read.

[Melvin Lance]

Enjoyable

[Jason Barney · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not so good.

[David King · Rating 3 out of 5]

“The Folded World” by Jeff Mariotte is a Star Trek Original Series novel set during the Enterprise’s initial 5 year mission. The plot follows the crew of the Enterprise who intercept a distress call from the U.S.S. McRaven which was heading towards the same system as the Enterprise as part of a twofold diplomatic mission. Upon reaching the McRaven, they find that has become trapped in an anomaly unlike anything they’ve ever experienced before. Upon investigating the anomaly, the crew find themselves facing a world in which the usual rules of time and space do not apply.

I find myself in two minds about the plot of the book as the premise was quite interesting and I enjoyed seeing how the anomaly itself functioned and affected both the world and characters. It was fun to follow the crew as they became unable to tell the difference between reality and fantasy. There was also a few intriguing sub-plots such as the original diplomatic mission that the McRaven and Enterprise had been sent on that had did entertain me as I tried to work out how they all fit together.

However, there are some issues, firstly there is the fact that Mariotte seems to just utilise several un-original plot points seen in many other Trek stories. I honestly don’t know how many times I need to see Spock help save the day by mind melding with some disembodied creature or why we need to send the main characters into a deadly scenario time after time. Further to this, it was quite disappointing that there was no real attempt made to explain the anomaly in which the McRaven was trapped.

In regards to the characters, Kirk, Spock and McCoy’s are acceptable enough although at times they didn’t always feel exactly right. Simply put, I have read better, but I have also read worse so overall I could live with how Mariotte portrays them here. Mariotte does also try adding few original characters and whilst I applaud him for the attempt, the execution is rather lacking. Whilst Tikolo did have a reasonably interesting backstory, the two others, Vandella and O'Meara were one-dimensional and rather uninspiring. Then there was the “love triangle” between them all which was rather painful to read and the less said about it the better.

Overall, “The Folded World” is an average Original Series novel with a superb looking cover. It isn’t the best Original Series novel I have read this year but it also far from the worst.

[Paul Lunger · Rating 3 out of 5]

New Star Trek author + Original series story = another somewhat ho-hum entry in the Original series novels. Jeff Mariotte's debut Star Trek novel "The Folded World" actually is a concept that in theory works. The Enterprise is headed toward the Ixtolde system when it intercepts a distress call from the U.S.S. McRaven which is also headed toward the same system ahead of them on as part of a twofold diplomatic mission which is to allow the planet into the Federation. When the Enterprise reaches the location of the McRaven, they find it caught in an interdimensional fold. Upon investigating the rift, the crew gets caught in a rather odd world where fact & fantasy tend to intertwine with the passage of time being something all but becoming irrelevant. Marriotte's story isn't bad in concept from the issues Scotty has on the bridge with the Ixtoldeans and their diplomatic secret to the very well thought out mystery of the rift & the inhabitants within it.

The problem is that when the Romulans make an appearance within the rift out of the blue & start attacking people which is essentially reliving a battle that a crewman didn't directly witness that the story heads south into unbelievability. We also for the 2nd book in a row (see April's "The Weight of Worlds" by Greg Cox) have Spock performing a mind meld on something completely implausible this case a non-corporeal being which mysterious provides the entire history of the Ixtolde people & gives the urgency needed to escape the fold. Don't get me wrong, "The Folded World" is a good story from start-to-finish, but there are too many plot holes & implausible factors within it that make it another case of authors seemingly running out of good story ideas for the cast & crew of the original Enterprise.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the more science-fiction-y Star Trek books. I enjoyed it a great deal and would recommend it.

[Branwen Sedai *of the Brown Ajah* · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Would it have been better to admit his fears to the doctor? Should he take advantage of the momentary calm to tell McCoy goodbye and that he never served with a better officer and a better friend? Should he go back up and say the same to Spock?"

While on a diplomatic mission, the Enterprise receives a distress call from the USS McRaven. But what they find when they track the ship down is a cluster of ships all caught within a strange dimensional fold, where nothing is as it seems. When Kirk leads a landing party into the fold it becomes hard to distinguish who is friend or foe, and what is real and imagined.

This was a fantastic story set in the original series of the Star Trek universe. There isn't any real background knowledge about the Trek universe that you need to enjoy this book, although a good basic understanding would make it more pleasant. It's a standalone novel, so its good to read if you don't feel like getting caught up in a saga or a trilogy or whatnot. This was a great story, with lots of action and great character interaction. I would recommend it to any Trek fan.

[Neil Campbell · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a fool for Kirk and company. I laughed out loud more than once at the aciurate portrayl of the tri-chotic relationship of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. When you add in reluctant acting captain, the firehearted no nonsensical Scotty, to the captain's chair, well.. Classic Original Star Trek. While all that machismo made for a nostalgic return to the series, the story was inventive and fresh. As fresh as theoretical dimensional folds with no closure as to their cause are concerned. Some explanation is required; perhaps a sequal is in order.

This was a good action story with beloved familiar, characters. I gave it 3 stars for a fun, quick read.

[J.D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Would it have been better to admit his fears to the doctor? Should he take advantage of the momentary calm to tell McCoy goodbye and that he never served with a better officer and a better friend? Should he go back up and say the same to Spock?"

If not one of my top ST novels, then it comes inches from being one. It has everything, that keeps me in good characterization, the feel of ST, a mystery, and the friendship that shines thru. it is fast and well written. Some OCs were getting on my nerves, but it can be easily overlooked. Another star for Scotty being a kick ass acting Captain!!

[Zombie0721 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been away from the Star Trek books for awhile, but when I saw this in the shelf I figured it would make a good time killer.
It's by no means a bad book the story reads like a mix of Event Horizon meets Trek so it's really fun. The characterization is spot on you can hear the voices of Deforest Kelly, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy and the rest of the classic Trek actors as you read the story.
If your looking for a fast fun sci fi story you could do much worse than this and if your a Trek fan like myself this is a good original series timeline story that would've made a great episode.

[Lily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought this book was good, it was a story that involved some temporal disturbances. There is a character that is lost in a memory of her encounter with the Romulans. The Romulans come to life not only with her but with the rest of the landing party. I'm not quite sure why she was not stunned sooner.

I liked the relationship Spock had with Aleshia. And of course Kirk's reaction to leaving Spock behind. It was like leaving a vital part of himself behind. But he had no choice.

I wish more books would have Kirk and Spock's relationship in it.

[Daniel Kukwa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now THIS is my kind of "Star Trek" novel: a crisp writing style, a concise plot, a temporal anomaly with a very interesting twist (in your eye, TNG), and a confident command of both the regular cast of characters and the story's guest stars...especially the red shirts, who are anything but cliches. But most appreciated is the fact that the novel charges ahead from page one, and the intense pace doesn't quite until the final page. Classic "Star Trek" at its best.

[Kristina Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story had a very enclosed feel to it, the crew being trapped where the normal rules of physics don't apply. While this gave scope for creativity in the writing, there was no sense of greater drama and it relied on emotional attachment to the characters. Having only just met the majority of the cast this was tenuous. That said, the familiar interactions, particularly the banter between Spock and McCoy, kept the reader involved.

[Rich Meyer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good TOS novel...with a lot of action. There's also a lot of good characterization, especially with a lot of the new obligatory red-shirts on the Enterprise's crew. This is well-written story, with a new race for the ST universe.

[Sean Whelan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A little tough but a fairly faithful trek.

[Dorthea Kemp · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not up to the usual Star Trek standards. A rambling story which tries to focus on one crew member and her back story. I couldn't really get up much interest in any of the action.

[Anne Thorpe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyable story with good characterizations of the major Trek figures plus interesting new personnel. Just what you want for an escape story.