A mission to a primitive planet suffering raids from its high-tech neighbors leads Captain Kirk to investigate its inhabitants, who are split into two kinds: real people and clones with no civil rights.

Amazon.com Review

Mission to Horatius, the very first Star Trek novel, is only mediocre as a story, but its nostalgia potential is vast. In the introduction, editor John Ordover dedicates this authentic facsimile hardcover edition, complete with cheesily wonderful original illustrations, to "every Star Trek fan who was ever 8 years old." If that's you, switch off your late-century cynicism and return to 1968, when the starship Enterprise's weekly voyages were pushing the frontiers of mainstream America firmly into science fiction territory.

The Enterprise has been on patrol too long--the crew is restless and irritable (especially that cranky old charmer Dr. McCoy), the engines are straining, and food is running low. But Captain Kirk is under sealed orders to head to the far away Horatius system to answer a mysterious distress call from some decidedly anti-Federation colonists. When our intrepid crew tries to help, they run afoul of stone-age creeps, drugged fanatics, and oppressed clones. To make matters worse, they (you guessed it) face a moral conflict with Federation General Order One, the so-called Prime Directive, which mandates noninterference with native cultures. With the reissue of charming oldies like Mission to Horatius, classic Trek will live long and prosper. --Therese Littleton

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