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If you happened to read my wonderful, witty and insightful review of Star Trek Logs One and Two, I'll immediately put you at ease by reassuring you that this review won't have a long back story before I get to the actual review. In fact, I don't have much to add to what I'd said in that review about the nature of this series, so I'll just plow on and talk about the book. I should say, however, that if you happen to be a fan of the original Star Trek series, take a look at that other review. It might bring back some memories.

Star Trek Logs Three and Four, adaptations of the animated Star Trek series, are everything you'd expect from one of the original Star Treks. The stories are fun, fast paced, entertaining, and Alan Dean Foster tackles them with obvious relish (and perhaps a bit of mustard as well). As Mr. Foster is always an entertaining read, this isn't entirely unexpected. What IS unexpected is the quality of the stories, which originally were created for Saturday morning television. If you liked the original Star Trek stories, there's no reason on Earth (or anywhere else in the galaxy), where you'll not enjoy these.

The first episode, "Once Upon a Planet" takes the Enterprise crew back to the pleasure planet first introduced in "Shore Leave," one of my favorite episodes of the original series -- not surprising, since the original story was written by Theodore Sturgeon. The Shore Leave planet reads the minds of people who are there, and instantly provides their dreams and desires, no strings attached. At least that's how it HAD BEEN…

"Mudd's Passion" revisits Harry Mudd, one of the most popular characters from the original series, and the only one to appear in two episodes. What is that delightful, notorious scoundrel up to now? You'll have to read it to believe it.

"The Magiks of Megas-Tu" is my least favorite story in the book, but still entertaining, if not particularly original. In it, the Enterprise probes the secrets of the center of the Universe and finds another Universe where physical laws are turned on their head (if they have a head, which I sort of doubt).

"The Terratin Incident" is a fantastically fun tale in which the crew finds themselves out of their depth, or rather far into it. Is the ship growing, or are they shrinking? This is my favorite story in the book.

"Time Trap" deals with the Klingons, a freak anomaly of space time, and betrayal, (in the words of Julie Andrews, a few of my favorite things). Can Kirk trust the Klingon commander to keep his word, or will the Enterprise be trapped forever in a small pocket of space time (complete with lint)? A good story, if a bit predictable.

"More Tribbles, More Troubles"... yes, they're back, but you've never seen a tribble like this. That's because it's the size of a cat… no a dog… no a tiger… could these tribbles be growing? Revisit Cyrano Jones, an irate Klingon commander and all the fun you've come to expect from a story by David Gerrold (yes, he wrote this one too). A rousingly fun story for anyone who loved the original episode.

Star Trek Log Three and Four has only one issue that I found annoying, the omission of blank lines to indicate scene breaks. There are a huge number of these, that consistently pulled me out of the story, until I realized the presence of unannounced point of view changes. Still, by the end of the book, I'd adapted. Other than that issue, this is a fun and fulfilling read for any fan of the original series, or any fan of space opera. With the Shore Leave planet, Harry Mudd and tribbles all in one book, how could it not be fun?

Steve Lazarowitz is a speculative fiction writer, an editor, a father, a husband, an animal lover and a heck of a nice guy (not necessarily in that order). Steve lives in Moonah, Tasmania with his family and four giant spiny leaf insects. You can check out his work at http://www.dream-sequence.net.