Strangers from the Sky
The epic novel of first contact between man and Vulcan!

Strangers from the Sky is a Pocket TOS novel – the second so-called "Giant" novel – written by Margaret Wander Bonanno. Published by Pocket Books, it was first released in .

Summary 
From the book jacket
James Kirk didn't normally pay much attention to this thing – a best-selling book, and a controversial one at that. But Strangers From the Sky had piqued his interest – and everyone else's, it seemed. For the book disputed a fact well known to every Federation schoolboy: That Earth's first encounter with alien life had occurred when the UNSS Icarus came upon the humanoid people of Alpha Centauri in 2048.

Strangers claimed that history was wrong…that humanity's First Contact with another sapient species had taken place years earlier. And that when the two races met, something happened. Something so climactic, so dangerous, that it had been wiped from the records and kept secret by both worlds for almost two centuries.

But when Kirk read the book, it triggered strange dreams… nightmares that threatened first his health, then his sanity. It was only when he discovered that Spock also shared those dreams that the Admiral began to wonder: Could there be more to this book than he or anyone guessed…?

Background information 
 The premise of this  (a Vulcan scoutship crashing and forcing Vulcans and Humans to interact before the "official" first contact between the two races known to history) was reused in a very similar manner in .
 The framing sequences of this story are set prior to  and between  and .
 Author Bonanno noted that the framing sequence was suggested by her editor, in order to keep it in the same timeframe as the preceding "Giant" novel, Enterprise: The First Adventure. ()
 The "author's foreword" of the novel within the novel puts the "official" first contact between man and Vulcan as occurring in the year 2065 (some 17 years after first encountering beings from Alpha Centauri in 2048). These events were overridden by those seen in .
 Strangers from the Sky reached number seven on the New York Times Best Seller List for , its second week on the list.  It remained on the list for at least six weeks.
 The Science Fiction Book Club released a special hardback edition of the novel in .
 The book was re-released in  to mark the 40th anniversary, with a new afterword by author Bonanno.
 The audiobook adaptation was performed by George Takei and Leonard Nimoy, and was released on cassette and as part of the Star Trek 25th Anniversary Audio Collection CD set.

Cover gallery

Characters 
James T. Kirk
Spock
Leonard McCoy
Nyota Uhura  Kirk met Uhura in Earth Spacedock who was in company with Cleante al-Faisal.
Dr. Krista Sivertsen  A former student of McCoy's who attended his lectures when he was still married. McCoy visited the psychiatrist to talk about Admiral Kirk with her. Krista was also the roommate of Elizabeth Dehner during their internship and exchanged letters until Dehner's first space mission after Aldebaran.
Purdi  The Troyian Purdi owns a bookstore on Earth where Kirk bought Strangers from the Sky.
Cleante al-Faisal  Kirk met her in Earth Spacedock. She was the decisive factor why Kirk bought Strangers from the Sky as she claimed a character from the novel was an ancestor of her.
Cleante is a character from the author's novel Dwellers in the Crucible.
T'Shael  Vulcan with a blood disease who needs to consult Dr. M'Benga on a regular basis.
T'Shael is a character from the author's novel Dwellers in the Crucible.

Vulcan crew 
T'Lera  Commander of the mission. She had no contact with her son's father Sotir for a long time. Together with her son, she is one of two survivors of the crash-landing in 2045.
T'Preth  Helmsman and linguist.
Savar  Prefect Savar established the rules of interstellar exploration and was the father of Commander T'Lera. He observed the last two major wars on Earth. In 2045, he died at the age of 221.4 years.
Sorahl  Navigator aboard the Vulcan explorer and son of T'Lera.
Selik  Astrocartographer of the mission. Selik was a member of the Vulcan High Command and would act as representative if contact was established with Earth.
T'Syra  T'Syra monitored Earth's radio signals and acted as the healer and xenobiology expert on the mission. She was Selik's partner and accompanied Commander T'Lera in all but their first mission.
Stell  Sociologist and musician, who also worked as a technician.

Argo III inhabitants 
Yoshi
Tatya Bilash  A "full-figured" woman of Ukrainian descent.

USS Enterprise crew (2284) 
Tran Van Ky  Communications officer who received three commendations during Spock's training missions.
Mathee  Lieutenant

USS Enterprise crew (2265) 
Gary Mitchell
Elizabeth Dehner  Psychiatrist aboard the Enterprise who died after in the first year under Kirk's command. Elizabeth Dehner was a student of McCoy's and was once the roommate of Krista Sivertsen during her internship. Until her posting aboard Enterprise, she worked at Aldebaran.
Lee Kelso

Delphinus crew 
Jason Nyere  Captain
Melody Sawyer  First Officer
Henry Moy  Ensign
Reeta Patel  Lieutenant

References 
AeroNav  The military arm of United Earth for a period of time after the Third World War. It is a partially combined military service embracing all aerospace and naval forces (with Ground Forces apparently having a separate command), and is identified as an organization that, eventually, evolved into (or provided an inspiration for) Starfleet. The Delphinus was one of its combat/patrol ships, which operated out of an AeroNav base at Norfolk Island, an Australian territory in the South Pacific. 
M-155
Argo III  Tang farm in the Pacific Ocean.
Kiev  Capital city of Ukraine. Tatya has an aunt working as a news correspondent in Kiev.
Starbase 6  McCoy visited Starbase 6 in 2265, with Dr. Piper taking his position as chief medical officer aboard the Enterprise during this trip.
Carl Sagan  Melody jokingly speculated Carl Sagan once said aliens look like petunias.
T'Sri  T'Sri is a healer specializing in psychology. She was the only expert close enough to Earth, but was on a 17-day remote to Rigel XII.
T'sai  The Vulcan master who guided Spock through kolinahr.
The name was taken from the ization of .
Commander Kyle  Former transporter chief of the Enterprise originating from Australia. Kirk had not seen him since Kyle's transfer to the Reliant.

Timeline 
Note The timeline of this book was originally based on the Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology.
1823  Savar is born.
2028  Melody Sawyer participates in the tennis finals on Goddard Moonbase and finishes second.
2045  The Vulcan scoutship crash-lands on Earth.
2048  The Icarus arrives in the Alpha Centauri system.
2055  Major breakthrough in warp technology research.
2065  The Amity rescues the crew of a disabled Vulcan ship in the Solar system. This marks the official first contact.
2265  Kirk, Spock, Kelso, Mitchell, and Dehner beam down to M-155.
2284  The novel Strangers from the Sky is published.
The time difference between  is originally given as fifteen years, because that was the same time used in .  therefore sets the first part of the book a year before the events of Star Trek II.

External links 
 
 
 

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