One of the significant criteria which John Ordover, over at the Pocket Books (Trek Books publisher), states for writers considering penning a Trek novel is that "you should write something that couldn't be done on the small screen." In other words, what would be the purpose in writing a book that could, in fact, be just another episode? He wants the writer to take the reader somewhere else, into worlds unexplored and parts unknown ... so how did BY THE BOOK meet those standards? Giving a gracious … more