Trek To Madworld begins with an introduction in which it is revealed that the author is secretly a koala. It almost reads like a piece intended to mock the trans community, but written decades before it became fashionable in some circles to do so and before most people even knew that trans people existed. It is every bit as weird and unfunny as that description makes it sound. Unfortunately it may be the funniest part of a book that is meant to be whimsically funny.
Like all great comedy the book begins with Captain Kirk sexually harassing the daughter of a visiting VIP, only for said VIP to then die horribly of radiation poisoning. Spock determines this radiation poisoning is a danger to the colony of 700 people the VIP had started, so the Enterprise is dispatched on a rescue mission. Kirk decides on a risky navigational gambit to save some time, and then the ship is swallowed into a strange bubble universe where the laws of physics don't apply. They are soon joined by a Klingon ship and a Romulan ship, before the being who brought them here makes his introduction. Enowil is from a race of beings Kirk and company encountered in the first season episode Errand of Mercy. These beings have incredible powers, because for a "hard" science fiction show Star Trek has a real love affair with magical beings. This is illustrated when the crew list off all the magical beings they have encountered over the course of the show.
Enowil has a problem that he wants help with, and whichever faction solves his issue he has promised to grant a wish to. Kirk wants to be on his way to fulfill his rescue mission, as does the young lady mentioned earlier, but dares not let the Romulans or Klingons win a magic wish. He inexplicably allows the woman to join the Enterprise's delegation, and they visit the world Enowil has made for himself to help him figure out what he is missing. The young woman gets roped into a plot by the Klingon commander to blow up the Romulan vessel, with some very contorted logic to convince the avowed humanitarian that it's justifiable to kill a shipload of Romulans in cold blood. Enowil creates people and creatures willy nilly, begging the question of if they are real or simulation and thus how powerful is he? Does he actually have the ability to create life? He goes out of his way to protect his visitors on his planet, but allows his creations to die, sometime horribly. In some cases the visitors are even forced to kill the native creatures to save themselves.
I won't give away the ending, but it is pretty obvious. Nor is this the only problem with the book. The fact that it seems obvious these 3 ships were picked specifically by Enowil renders the earlier plot point about the risky navigational tactic moot. Enowil himself is prone to liberally quoting Gene Wilder's lines from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory verbatim. I guess if whimsy is your target but you're not good at it, one might try to just steal it from another piece. There are the problems with characters doing things that make no sense for them to do, as mentioned with the woman that tries to blow up the Romulans. The book is just an unfunny, godawful mess. I read reviews of it where people said it felt like watching an episode of the original series. I am the first to admit that not all of the episodes were winners, but none of them were as irredeemably bad as this stinker. Usually a book with as many oddities as this one has entertainment value just in it's weirdness, but this one is weird and boring and honestly a little irritating in it's brazen theft from Roald Dahl. (Incidentally a character is named Roald, so no doubt the author thought of it as tribute rather than theft. But it was theft nonetheless.) I would recommend skipping this one, unless you are a hardcore Trek fan completist. This is mercifully Goldin's only Star Trek novel. I've never read any of his other work, and this book gave me no desire to do so.
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