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Star Trek: The Next Generation - Starfleet Academy #13
The Haunted Starship
Accused of seeing things until another cadet also witnesses the ghostly image, Geordi La Forge meets the ghost of their spaceship's former captain, who bears an important message as the ship nears an asteroid belt. Original.
128 pages, Paperback
First published December 1, 1997
105 people want to read
About the author
Brad Ferguson
32 books8 followersBrad Ferguson (born 1953) is an American science fiction author.
He worked as a writer, editor and producer for CBS in New York, and is the author of a number of Star Trek tie-in novels, several short stories, and the post-holocaust novel The World Next Door.
He is married to scientist Kathi Ferguson, with whom he collaborated on one novel.
He worked as a writer, editor and producer for CBS in New York, and is the author of a number of Star Trek tie-in novels, several short stories, and the post-holocaust novel The World Next Door.
He is married to scientist Kathi Ferguson, with whom he collaborated on one novel.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 23, 2015
Geordi on a haunted starship- nice little novel.
June 5, 2025
This is described by Amazon as a YA book, but reads more like MG despite the characters being in their late teens and early twenties. It centres on five Starfleet cadets on their first unsupervised training mission. One of the cadets is Geordi LaForge; the others are original characters who, as far as I know, do not reappear. The plot is a basic SFnal ghost story.
Geordi is faithfully characterised, and the Star Trek values of diversity, curiosity and integrity are clearly present. However, the cadets sometimes act as if it's tgeir first time in space at all, which it clearly cannot be, and the authors seem not to have been aware that Starfleet protocol uses "sir" as a gender-neutral honorific. There is an excessive amount of exposition, which makes the plot feel slow at first. There is also an annoying epilogue that undercuts some of the earlier messaging. Finally, I was disappointed in the illustrations, which are in a very old-fashioned, almost caricaturish style.
Geordi is faithfully characterised, and the Star Trek values of diversity, curiosity and integrity are clearly present. However, the cadets sometimes act as if it's tgeir first time in space at all, which it clearly cannot be, and the authors seem not to have been aware that Starfleet protocol uses "sir" as a gender-neutral honorific. There is an excessive amount of exposition, which makes the plot feel slow at first. There is also an annoying epilogue that undercuts some of the earlier messaging. Finally, I was disappointed in the illustrations, which are in a very old-fashioned, almost caricaturish style.
March 9, 2019
Yes, the story is predictable but given I am an adult and not the target audience for these books, that is not surprising. I think the three Geordi books I have read in this series are the some of the strongest ones (and no, is he is not my favourite character!). His characterisation is not strong, but it is consistent with how we see him in TNG, and the other characters are not just props for whatever Geordi needs, they are fleshed out. A fun read.
April 7, 2024
This was my least favorite jr novel so far. The first half was boring, and wasn't much of a story and the second half seemed hastily slapped together. I didn't find the epiloge very amusing either.
The author never used the correct terms when referring to the ship. Always leaving off "the" at the beginning at the name.
The author never used the correct terms when referring to the ship. Always leaving off "the" at the beginning at the name.
December 27, 2024
This book belongs to a Star Trek sub-genre that I really enjoy: Starfleet history and haunted starships. I found this quite entertaining. I also quite liked the interior illustrations by Gordon Purcell.
December 20, 2017
Meh. Barely remember this one. Don't think I read any more of this series.
June 13, 2015
rereading this book was a surprisingly emotional experience and I was not expecting it to be at all. some of the scientific exposition was a little clumsy, but I appreciated it anyway (it certainly didn't strike me as clumsy when I was 7), and I also was very pleased at the attention it devoted to characters besides just Geordi. definitely one of the strongest books in the series, as a self-contained book.
difficult to integrate into post-ENT canon, but so it goes. "Outstanding!", as they say.
difficult to integrate into post-ENT canon, but so it goes. "Outstanding!", as they say.
July 9, 2012
I bought this book at the age of 15 in hopes of a view to the character of Geordi LaForge, but to my disappointment he was characterized poorly, and didn't even come across as a proper protagonist. The plot was weak, the storytelling predictable. Why on Earth are adolescent characters always depicted as total dimwits, I wonder...
August 13, 2015
Geordi is part of an academy training mission to map an asteroid belt. People start seeing ghosts. This is an ok story, it just seemed rather generic, and Geordi was not really Geordi. Such a disappointment as usually the academy books are good. An ok read.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews