She looked at him. “What’s the matter?”
“Well,” he began. “I can’t – ‘ere, maybe it’s easier if I just show you.” He lifted his robe to reveal a long, angry gash along the length of his thigh. T’Pina gasped involuntarily, her own pain forgotten.
Not a very inspired cover all told. Not much of these three in it either… |
I selected Jean Lorrah’s second Star Trek book The I.D.I.C Epidemic (#38 Pocket, #7 Titan) in a strategic move to get rid of what I expected to be one of the weaker books in this selection of ten (#31 to #40) so I could enjoy the rest of them peacefully (ignoring Battlestations!), and because I knew that if The Vulcan Academy Murders are anything to go by this book should be quite easy going.
Nisus is an inter-species science colony, so inter-species in fact that there is even a Klingon representative (who turns out to be quite a decent main character) of the ‘Final Reflection’ mould, and Orions are also involved. Being a colony, there are whole families there and within them, many mixed heritage children, the implication for much of the book is that the diversity of the people there and in particular the children has caused the terrible mutating plague. It begins with introducing the plague, the Klingon main character and emphasising the mentality / presence of the Orions. Lorrah also introduces the strange additional peril of ice damaging turbines and spring melts potentially flooding the colony; this whole side story I find quite a strange inclusion to be honest and ultimately just adds more silliness and drama to the plot.
The Enterprise leaves Vulcan some time after the events of The Vulcan Academy Murders carrying Sendet and a band of aggressive Vulcans which are supposed to be delivered to a penal colony of some form. Also on board are Sarek and Amanda (now recovered from their ordeals in TVAM) on their way to a diplomatic meeting and two more characters from TVAM Sorel, the Widowed Vulcan Healer and Daniel Corrigan, a human doctor who married Sorel’s daughter after the events of TVAM. Also included in this group are T’Kar a Vulcan nurse and widow, and her adopted daughter T’Pina who were to be returning to their home Nisus which is now coincidentally plague ridden. You following? Good.
But really the whole idea of the plague is secondary to Lorrah, what she really wants is a stage for her modified Vulcans and inter-species couples whom she had developed extensively in fanzines in the 1970s. She has a particular love of Sarek and Amanda’s relationship and has developed these characters in her fanfic writing. I think this is why I felt (and I guess still feel) a disconnect when reading TVAM and TIE; Lorrah has developed this characters to such an extent in her own mind that they have changed significantly from their incarnations in the series. I guess if you haven’t read her fanzines then meeting these two characters in her novels can feel a little bit disjointed, if you see what I mean. The same goes for Lorrah’s Vulcans who I find are characterised a little strangely, but again I feel this is due to her own development of Vulcan culture… I think definitely influenced by her friend Lichtenberg and her Kraith series.
Lorrah wants to make sure her characters are happily paired off in the end. Her Widower from TVAM is pared with her new main character’s mother – a widow – and by the end of the book her new girl character (who ends up being a Romulan… yep just let it roll) is paired off with the charming and probably cockney (sigh) half Human-half Orion pirate son, ‘looks human, bleeds green‘ Beau Deaver.
There isn’t really too much more to this book, since it’s really about showcasing these original characters and their thoughts and feelings and actions. McCoy and Kirk appear every so often. Amanda ends up ill and on the verge of death again. Spock ends up ill and we very briefly hear a bit of angst from Kirk. Uhura is a voice over the intercom and Scotty pops into the narrative a couple of times before going back to doing whatever he likes with the Enterprise engines.
A real weakness to this story however is the premise that medical personnel wouldn’t be able to spot plague transmission vectors and a say, Klingon engineer would because he’s not thinking like a medical professional but like an engineer. Once you kind of pick up on how ridiculously simple the answer to the problem is and how silly it is to be so far in the future and apparently they still don’t know how to deal with plague outbreaks… it somewhat breaks your suspension of disbelief. If Lorrah had understood a little bit more from a medical perspective, perhaps it would have worked a little bit better.
“They cannot collaborate with you, write the stories you want to tell (you’ll have to do that yourself), or critique your novels (they’re busy writing their own). All authors though, are happy to receive comments about their books, and most will answer questions.”
Now, it’s all very reasonable… I guess, but the tone of this (and the rest of the foreword) just rubs me the wrong way. It seems a strange thing to put into a foreword but then again, looking at her fanzine history (and her slightly strange demands/requests as part of that) I’m not incredibly surprised. I get the feeling that Lorrah has a lot of ego, in some aspects deservedly, but in others…
I think that in her foreword she is writing in her ‘academic’ style. I haven’t read any of her academic writing, but I suspect it will read rather like the foreword.
Thing is, in my opinion the quality of the novel and her ability as I have experienced it doesn’t really warrant the arrogance with which she writes. In her academic / non-fiction writing she could well be brilliant, or even her short stories which she produced for fanzines could well be top notch but at the time this novel was produced she really isn’t a very good novelist.
Which isn’t to say the novels I’ve read from her aren’t enjoyable per se. The Vulcan Academy Murders was enjoyable because it was ridiculous even if the writing wasn’t that good and The I.D.I.C Epidemic is similar in that it’s so silly and saccharine at times you can’t help but laugh. So… depending on your taste, you might want to give The I.D.I.C Epidemic a go, certainly if you enjoyed Lorrah’s previous book The Vulcan Academy Murders but equally if you just want a bit of light read with OC characters as a focus. I think this is the last Star Trek TOS novel which was released with side characters / OCs as the main protagonists to the story; it might be worth reading just for that!
3/5 – Plague! Crashes! Flash Floods! Romance! A nearly absent main cast!
Sorry for the delay, although I’m feeling much better than before the operation I’ve been somewhat out of sorts! Hopefully back to normal programming soon!