Thrilling Wonder Stories was supposed to be a quarterly publication, according to some interviews I read with Engle (the lettercol in Volume 1 promises Volume 2 will appear in "2008 at the outside"), but Volume 2 didn't make an appearance until Spring 2009. It's obvious that Engle intended the whole thing to come out much sooner than it did; most of the copyright dates for individual stories are either 2007 or '08. And, unfortunately, almost all of the "next issue" teasers in Volume 1 go unfulfilled, aside from an exploration of Marc Scott Zicree's Star Trek: New Voyages episode. Star Trek turns out to be the basis of the entire second issue; every story, classic and new alike, is penned by an author who also worked on the television series at one point.

The first new story is "Enterprise Fish" by David Gerrold ("The Trouble with Tribbles"), which has a very interesting premise but no real resolution. You realize why at the story's end: it's not a story at all, but an excerpt from one of his Chtorr novels. Disappointing. "Manifest Destiny" by Michael Reaves ("Where No One Has Gone Before") and Steve Perry seems to think that being in a Star Trek-themed volume requires writing a Star Trek story with the serial numbers filed off. There's a shocking ending, and I might have cared had the story had a remotely original moment of characterization prior to that point. Disappointingly, the usually-excellent Diane Duane turns in a too-Trekkish story with "Palladium" as well, though it has a couple moments. "A Gift Though Small" by Melinda M. Snodgrass ("The Measure of a Man") is a tale of a son estranged from his father, and offers little new or interesting. "Moon Over Luna" is by David R. George III ("Prime Factors"), one of my favorite Trek novelists. This story, which parallels the appearance of a second moon over Earth with a man grieving for his wife, never comes together. He handles the human impact very well-- we get snippets of different reactions around the world (this is everything Eddie Robson wanted to do in The Eight Truths and failed), and the man grieving is excellent. But the grief plotline never connects with the moon one in a meaningful way, and moon goes unexplained to boot. Decent, but it could have been better. "Float Like a Butterfly" by Norman Spinrad ("The Doomsday Machine") is resoundingly pointless: a long dream narrative with a paltry sf frame. Why the heck should I care? "Dark Energies" by Larry Niven is a neat idea for a story wasted-- it consists of one character explaining his idea to another over two pages. Boring.

The first classic story is by Harlan Ellison® ("The City of the Edge of Forever"), a short called "Life Hutch". It's a decent, enjoyable puzzle story, but I don't have much to say about it. "The Seventh Other" by Jerry Sohl ("The Corbomite Maneuver") sets up an excellent dilemma for its characters... almost too good, as the solution is somewhat dissatisfying. Still, I enjoyed the story; George was a fantastically creepy villain. I liked "The Golden Helix" by Theodore Sturgeon, about a group of human colonists adapting to the weird evolutionary system on an alien planet. A haunting story, with a lot of great moments. "F---" by Richard Matheson ("The Enemy Within") has a great premise, but doesn't really do anything very interesting with it. "Arena" by Fredric Brown, the basis for the classic Trek episode, is also included. I've read it before; it primarily serves to demonstrate that the Trek episode (by Gene L. Coon) is way, way better.

There's no editorial this time, which disappoints-- I want to know what happened to make Volume 2 take so long! And what motivated Engle to do a Star Trek issue. Several of the features deal with Trek itself; Marc Scott Zicree's "Where No Scribe Had Gone Before" is an interesting look at literary sf writers who worked on the show over the years. Crystal Anne Taylor contributes a making-of for Zicree's New Voyages fanfilm, "World Enough and Time". It's a little fawning, but it's genuinely interesting, and it almost has me interested in watching a New Voyages episode... though after suffering through "Blood and Fire", I know better. Adam Weiner covers the science of Star Trek in "I Canna Change the Laws of Physics!" He has one really good insight (about phasers) and a bunch of banal ones you've seen a million times (sound in space is dumb, inertial dampeners don't make sense, the ship shouldn't tilt when hit, &c.). Yawn. "Columbus of the Stars: A Trek Not Taken?" chronicles a 1964 pitch for an sf series by Ib Melichor and Vic Lundin. I'd never heard of it (I guess it never really went anywhere) and it's tantalizing to see what could have been picked up in lieu of Gene Roddenberry's ideas. I don't think it would have had the longevity or potential of Star Trek, but you never know. Also unmade is a classic Trek pitch by George Clayton Johnson ("The Man Trap") called "Rock-a-Bye Baby, or Die!", which seems all right. It's hard to judge an episode in this format. This volume's Scientificats are as underwhelming as those in the first: did you know that the Earth's magnetic poles periodically reverse!? The Televisualizer is again highly entertaining, even though it makes no effort to tie into the book's Star Trek theme. I sort of want to see Attack of the 50-Foot Woman now. Throughout the book are excerpts from NASA press releases, usually used to take up space at the bottom of a page. A neat idea, but even at mere months old, they already feel dated and pointless. The volume closes with a "Dr. Zotts" that, though still not amusing, seems to demonstrate that in the two years since Volume 1, Engle learned how to ink.

From reading this book, you'd easily think that the writers of Star Trek actually aren't very good. Unlike Volume 1, which had a number of classic stories vying for the standout spot, there's nothing really that special here. Most are likable, but none of them fully click. And the original stories are almost universally disappointing; the best is David R. George's "Moon Over Luna", and even that didn't work for me in the end. What saved the book for me were the features, which were almost universally enjoyable and entertaining, and occasionally even informing.

I'd love to keep on reading volumes of this series, but it looks like the problems that have plagued it are never going to stop; as of this posting the publisher's official website doesn't even exist anymore. That doesn't bode well, because with one excellent volume and one mediocre one, I'd certainly pick up a Volume 3. Not to mention I want Cleve Cartmill's Space Salvage, Inc.!