Night of the Living Trekkies

Halloween has always been one of my favorite holidays. As a child, the opportunity to don an alter ego, gorge on candy, and stay up late in pursuit of said candy always made me ecstatically happy. And as an adult, truth be told, not much has changed. Every year I get giddy picking out a costume, eating enough candy-corn to swear it off (conveniently eleven months seems to be just the right amount of time to forget this resolution), and defiantly staying up later then I ought to to celebrate ghouls, ghosts, and all that this holiday has come to mean in our culture. So, in an effort to stoke this flame I ventured to our Sci-Fi section and grabbed "Night of the Living Trekkies" by Kevin Anderson and Sam Stall.

Brought to you by the same publishing geniuses that rewrote the classics "Sense and Sensibility" and "Pride and Prejudice" into far more entertaining if less educational works entitled "Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters" and "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies", "Night of the Living Trekkies" ranks high on the entertainment scale.

Set at a Star Trek convention in a hotel in Houston, the authors do indeed attempt to add substance to the narrative by creating out of Jim Pike, their main character, a disillusioned Afghanistan veteran struggling with civilian life. Don't let the veneer fool you though. When a strange virus starts turning both the Trek fans and the residents of Houston into the walking dead, Jim's combat experience comes tremendously in handy as he leads a small band of the non-stricken in an escape attempt.

I won't spoil the ending for you but I will deliver a spoiler. "Night of the Living Trekkies" is a hilarious romp that draws deeply on zombie, horror, and Star Trek cliches and references. Thus, if Vulcans, clumsy cannibalism, and completely predictable but still wonderfully monstrous plot turns aren't your thing, read no further. But if you are looking to simultaneously giggle and gag or simply want to get in the mood for the upcoming holiday of horrors, I strongly recommend beaming this book off the shelf.