Planet of Judgment

I needed a break from regular reading, a quick read with which the brain could just coast along - and Star Trek tie-in books are always a good choice for that niche. I knew Joe Haldeman had penned a few, Haldeman being on the top shelf of the best of serious sf grand master writers. So, this seemed like a good choice. Oh boy. Well. Haldeman pretty much phoned this one in. Characters spout all their cliche lines and phrases, even when it seems out of context - it feels like Haldeman's editors gave him a to-do list which he dutifully checked off. Oddly enough, at the same time, many of the our beloved characters often act very much out of character. And, to add the final insult, he rehashed the super-being plot with almost eye rolling sameness – even to the point of referencing as a aside (with a wink) one of the TOS episodes with super beings (in a footnote, no less). Finally, Haldeman literally cuts and pastes a passage from James Blish's novelization of Amok Time - to fill out his required word count perhaps? Well, I hope the author met his rent payment or got his new dishwasher with this dashed-off work. Not unpleasant but unsatisfying.