I picked this book up at an outlet (remainderer, is the correct term, I believe) and enjoyed it quite a bit. It's a collection of several short stories which follow a single character through various adventures. The first suffered from a fairly obvious logic flaw (IMO) but was still exciting. I would actually like to see more stories about the same character/universe; I feel they are unfinished, that a few more stories are needed to explain a few things and bring closure to some of the events. Anyway, if you come across a copy, it's worth checking out.

Julia Ecklar does an excellent job capturing the reader's attention, and keeping it. This book is one that you won't want to put down, whether you're an animal lover or not. The adventure, mystery, and suspence in the stories are interwoven perfectly to make for a fantastic journey that you'll never forget.

Julia Ecklar does two things with the Kobayashi Maru simulation that was one of the most interesting sub-plots in "Star Trek II: the Wrath of Khan." The first is that she goes back and tells the story of how Jim Kirk became the only cadet at Starfleet Academy ever to beat the "no-win scenario." The second is that she also tells the stories of the cadet encounters of Chekov, Sulu and Scotty with that same scenario. The framing story involves a freak shuttlecraft accident with gives the four officers and McCoy nothing to do but tell their stories.

The four stories are quite different. Kirk's story, "The No-Win Scenario," is devoid of dramatic punch since we all know the outcome, but it does establish that the Kobayashi Maru test is less about tactical decisions and more about an individual's character. Obviously young Jim Kirk is going to have all the attributes that would make him "The Captain Kirk." Chekov's chapter, "How You Play the Game," spends little time on the Kobayashi Maru test focusing more on a survival exercise on the Moon base and Pavel's desire to be just like the great James T. Kirk. In "Crane Dance," Sulu tells the story of how he came to make the decisions he did during his taking of the test. The shortest and funniest tale is Scotty's "In Theory," which shows the engineer was not suited for command, even though he exhibited an unprecedented talent for destruction, when he could be bothered to pay attention to all those attacking Klingon war dragons.

These are an interesting set of stories, not particularly insightful but certainly true to the characters. I have been surprised that the idea of the Kobayashi Maru as a standardized Star Trek Rorschach test has not been repeated in the other series. After all, what Star Trek fan would not be interested in finding out what Spock, Worf, Data, Sisko, and everybody else did when confronted with the no-win scenario?

This book is four stories, three in the past and one in the present. Chekov, Kirk, Scotty, Sulu and McCoy are trapped in a ripped up shuttle and must stay alive (they live, DUH). They have nothing better to do than let Kirk, Sulu, and Chekov tell about their expirience with the Kobayashi Maru scenario (no-win scenario). The best story is od Checkov in a shootout in an abandoned space station with other cadets. That alone is worth the entire price of the book. The Next best story is of the actual fight to stay alive ion the shuttle. Then comes Kirk's story which is pretty good. The only part of story I didn't like was the big emotional story thing with Sulu. THIS BOOK IS WORTH READING!

While waiting for the Enterprise to rescue their severely damaged shuttlecraft, Kirk, Chekov, Sulu, and Scotty describe their experiences taking the Kobayashi Maru test, as taken by Lt. Saavik in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.

This is a very interesting book. We've known for years that Kirk "passed" the Kobayashi Maru by reprogramming the computer, but the other stories were even more surprising:

Chekov surrenders and evacuates his crew before setting his ship to self-destruct, much as Kirk & co. would do with the Enterprise in Star Trek III. Sulu absolutely refuses to cross the Neutral Zone, knowing that the Klingons would take it as an act of war and destroy his ship. And Scotty's story drives home the point that you should never send a devout engineer to do a captain's job. The stories they tell are personal, touching, and very heartwarming.

The authors who publish under the pseudonym L.A. Graf have turned out some of the best Original Series professional fiction available. "Ice Trap", unfortunately, is one of their worst collaborations. The characterizations are poor, the setting is highly derivative, and the writing is uneven and choppy.

One of the reasons we read Original Series profic is that we love the characters. What a shame it is, then, that the most important characters in this book are portrayed so badly. I was embarrassed by Uhura's overt sexuality while on duty and annoyed by Chekov's neurotic whining, but Spock: poor Spock comes across as a pathetic bookworm who loves the sound of his own voice and who wouldn't lift a hand to save his own captain.

The poor characterizations make it difficult for the reader to suspend disbelief long enough to enjoy this book. Unfortunately, the setting compounds the difficulty. The writers seem to have written this book as a tribute to Canada; the original characters are mostly Canadian, and the alien world, Nordstral, is astonishingly similar to northern Canada -- or to what a Californian might think Northern Canada was like if they'd never actually been there. It's as if they got everything from an outdated copy of the Encyclopedia Britannica. It's distracting and at times unintentionally hilarious: in one scene, a character swears there are no sailboats in Calgary, which might not have been as funny had I not been on a sailboat in Calgary at the time I read it.

To top it all off, the writing is weak and very uneven. It's as if one writer contributed the A story, the other the B story, and both collaborated on the bridges. Unfortunately, it doesn't work.

This is perhaps the weakest of the L.A. Graf collaborations. I don't recommend it.

This is one of the good-but-not-too-spectacular novels. It has two major plotlines, one with Uhura and Chekov, the other with Kirk and McCoy. Poor Sulu doesn't even show up, all he has is dialogue (why does he always get the short end of the stick?) And Scotty and Spock are there for about five seconds! I found it really focused on Uhura, Chekov, and McCoy. The better storyline was Uhura's because of the descriptions of the aliens' culture. The story was tied up rather quickly, though, and right at the end I found what seems to be a plot hole concerning the plankton (I don't want to give anything away, you'll just have to read it!) Also - I can never decide in what time this book is set - in the original 5-year mission or somewhere in the movies? The cover and the use of flip-up communicators seem to indicate the first possibility, but uniforms and some ranks make a later setting more likely. Read it and decide for yourself!

I enjoyed Ice Trap, and recommend it for fans of the Original Series. Uhura and Chekov share the main storyline, and their adventure on an ice planet is suspenseful and exciting. There is a weaker subplot involving McCoy and Kirk, but still engaging. Especially worthwhile if you want a change of pace from the novels that always feature Kirk and Spock at the forefront.