Prime Directive

This is the second novel by Canadian couple Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, the fifth or sixth of the larger "unnumbered" novels in the Pocket Books series. I liked it, but didn't love it - 4 of the 5 Star Trek novels I've read recently were better.

All of the main original characters are involved, dealing with a potential Prime Directive violation in their own way. This was interesting, and I liked the differing styles. My favorite was probably Scotty, who found his way around the letter of the law, as it were. While science fiction (or space opera), a sub-genre could be murder mystery, on a massive scale. I can't go further without spoiling it, but I found the ending a little unsatisfying.

Clearly the authors were watching (and or planning to write for) Star Trek: The Next Generation. Kirk muses about adding a bar to the ship, among other things that came to pass. The Kirk I remember wasn't that much of a visionary...

According to Memory-Alpha, the audio version is read by the late James Doohan, and must be abridged, at 2 hours 57 minutes. It would be awesome if somebody read the abridged parts between the narrations, editing it together. Most of the audio versions of Star Trek novels seem to be abridged - this would be a fair amount of work, but would preserve the original novels for that audience.