Star Trek: The Starfleet Survival Guide

My 13 yr. old got this two weeks ago & loves it. He's read through it twice already.

Remember, this is a guide. It is great fun. Many interesting descriptions and a few tech BW images of comm badge, phaser modifications and alien monsters. There is also a description where and who first encounter a problem (reference to Star Trek episode). The most interesting writing style - it's like all the Star Trek universe is NOW. Great. I was a little disapointed - I was hoping for more. It's too short.

I used to have a very simple definition of a textbook: a book that contains a great deal of factual information, but puts you to sleep while attempting to absorb it. This totally fails to meet the second criteria (unlike, for instance, the TNG Technical Manual). Essentially, this is a collection of Trek trivia, in terms of equipment, creatures, and medical techniques, from the shows. However, from the style it is written in one can clearly picture a Starfleet officer actually reading and using this Guide. The descriptions are very clear, concise and interesting. One of them - Section 1.11, "Surviving Atmospheric Re-entry in a Pressure Suit" - is downright compelling reading. The mental picture of each step is incredibly vivid, and so involving that one can actually feel worried when reading the fatal consequences of anything going wrong. This is a brilliant piece of writing and extremely entertaining. For someone starting to collect Trek trivia books and/or manuals, this is definitely the one to recommend buying first.

This is a great book for any Star Trek fan. This is a documented list of unconventional uses of standard equipment for situations that Star Fleet personel may encounter that requires a creative, if not vital, method for survival.Great book. A lot of technical information, and if you're a fanfic writer of Star Trek, there are a lot good things you can incorporate into your writing.

Star Trek: The Starfleet Survival Guide written by David Mack is a unique little tome in that it is written in computer manual style... starting with 1.0 and ending at 4.15.But more importantly, this book makes you alert to the countless dangers that arise in space and how to cope.This book has uses for standard-issue equipment that are nonstandard, for exanple remodulating a universal translator into a jamming device, recalibrating transporter enhancer armbands as temporal shields, or this one that you just can't live without sterilizing food and water with a phaser. The second chapter is unconventional medicine which I found to be enlightening like modifying a type-1 or type-2 phaser into a scalpel, neutralizing Denevan neural parasites, or this one the proven herbal remedies for Mugato venom.The third chapter is dangerous life-forms which helps with some very unique advice such as avoiding mind control by Elasian women, surviving an attack by a Crysstalline enity, or this onenavigating inside a Borg Cube or Sphere. Chapter four is extreme scenarios like the following inducing solar eruptions for tactical purposes, surviving if you are shifted out of phase, or this one detecting and escaping temporal causality loops.This book is full of things that happen or could happen and what to do. So, if you are traveling the universe soon... get your copy and don't leave home without it. There are illustrations in this book that help take you through the techno-jargon and I only mentioned some of the information in each chapter. Reading this book will enlighten you to a lot more survival information.As it states in the book, "it should be noted that "The Starfleet Survival Guide" does not contain information on basic survival techniques..." This guide is intended as a specialized supplement to the basic survival manual. It reads quickly and is a weath of quirky information.