Star Trek – Time For Yesterday

The harsh, pain filled breaths were coming from Spock, who was crumpled beneath him.  Zar quickly pushed himself  up, realizing he must have shoved the Vulcan down and then fallen on him when the worst of the – the whatever it was – hit.

Kneeling, he carefully turned the other over, gently brushed some of the ashy dirt from the austere features.

“Father?” he whispered hoarsely.  “Are you alright?”

Reminds me somewhat of a certain fanzine cover with Spock on an alicorn…

Time For Yesterday (Pocket #39, Titan #) (1987) is A C Crispin’s sequel to Yesterday’s Son.  It really is a sequel so it’s pretty pointless to read it unless you’ve already read Yesterday’s Son,  since Crispin refers to specific events and relationships throughout.  Actually, in order to get maximum reading pleasure you should probably catch up with the previous novels written by Diane Duane, Brad Ferguson, John M Ford, Jean Lorrah, Vonda N McIntyre ( 😦  ) and Howard Weinstein as characters and events which occur in their Star Trek novels are mentioned in Time For Yesterday and picking up on the references is precisely 10% of the fun! …Captain.

Ok, well, I can’t be 100% sure of the 10% figure, but I can tell you it gave me fannish kicks.

So… maybe you’ve finished Yesterday’s Son and you’re thinking, but I wonder what happened to Zar?  I mean, we know he influenced Sarpeidon’s past by causing a period of rapid technological advancement… but just how did it come about?  And did he meet a lovely lady and produce green blooded pointy-ish eared sproglings?  And of course did I really read A C Crispin right and does she really ship K/S that hard?  Followed by can I have more for dessert please?

Well, if you have asked questions frighteningly similar to mine, then the answers are:

Crispin clears that up, yes – two actually, yes, and finally yes (just a little bit of sugar).

Once again Crispin returns to The Guardian in order to facilitate her jaunt into the past.  This time the Guardian seems to be malfunctioning, causing time waves to emanate from the ancient portal causing irreversible damage to stars and planets in its vicinity and resulting in the loss of a colony planet and a Starfleet vessel.  If the time waves aren’t stopped they will surely cause the destruction of all life, naturally Starfleet turns to one man (and his select crew) to try to stop the Guardian’s apparent malfunction; Admiral James T Kirk!

The resulting adventure takes Kirk, Spock and McCoy into Sarpeidon’s past in order to find Zar, bring him back to their present and use him to speak to the Guardian telepathically.  Ultimately the reason for the Guardian’s malfunction is revealed and we also get to meet the remaining creators of the Guardian.

However, the ending isn’t half as satisfying as the medieval fantasy romp which makes up a large portion of the book.  It’s fun for the reader, it was obviously fun for Crispin to write, and it feels suspiciously like a guilty pleasure.  The fantasy romp has almost nothing to do with the peril the universe is actually facing, and more to do with relationships.  The relationships between fathers and their sons, between lovers, between friends.  Time has passed differently for Zar and Spock, their age gap has closed and both are older and wiser men.  Spock is now more open with his feelings, while Zar has become a wiser, jaded man who has seen much hardship and personal loss.  I found the reigniting of the father-son dynamic for these two Vulcans very sweet, Spock’s reactions in particular are endearing.

I’m reminded of a comment I read a while ago which equated the relationship of Sarek and Spock with the father-son relationships in the 50s/60s.  The father being detached and aloof, not showing emotion and pushing the son away for not being the man he wanted him to be.  In a way, Spock had to overcome that conditioning in Yesterday’s Son, in Time for Yesterday however we see in Spock the more modern father, desiring of a closer relationship with his son, unafraid to show that he loves him, that he’s proud of him and that he’d risk his life for him.

Crispin contrasts this with Kirk’s apparent knowledge of David (this book takes place between TMP and TWOK) and his confused feelings of being an (by request) absent father.  We of course know that Kirk would meet his son during the events of TWOK and then lose him by TSFS.  It’s an interesting comparison, Spock and Zar vs Kirk and David.

I feel that Crispin very much wanted to finish Zar’s story for the sake of Spock, herself and her readers.  Everyone likes to know what happened next, they also like happy endings for the most part and Crispin delivers that… but not without a little tragedy.  Zar loved and lost many years ago and refused to remarry afterwards, however during the course of the novel he falls in love and bonds with a woman who otherwise would be his enemy (I’m going to comment again about the apparent fertility of Sarpeidons).  However she refrains from telling the whole story, leaving his eventual fate after he leaves his father’s side for the final time.

Is there a comparison between father and son here? You bet your pointy ears there is!  You might remember the commentary which ran through Yesterday’s Son in which Zar had problems understanding not only his relationship with his father, but also his father’s relationships with others, in particular Kirk.  However, towards the end of the novel he realises that they are incredibly close (like bonded close), by the time we get to the events in Time for Yesterday it’s not even questioned, it’s even the subject of a bit of humour.

“Fair enough. Why haven’t you remarried?” 

It was the Vulcan’s turn to raise an eyebrow.  “There is no single reason.  Once the liaison the family arranged for me was terminated by divorce, there was no reason to enter another immediately… so I elected not to do so.  Time went by… and my contemporaries were all partnered.  Then our five year mission was over, and I began the the study of Kolinahr disciplines.  When one is an acolyte in pursuit of Kolinahr, one must give up… external… links.”  He steepled his fingers.  “By the time I left Kolinahr, I also left Vulcan.  I have not been home since.” 

“So, you just haven’t met the right woman,” Zar said, deadpan. 

Shared amusement touched his father’s eyes.  “You could put it that way.”

Cute.

Characterisation wise Crispin was spot on again.  Really strong characterization of the trinity (McCoy was in top form again) and nice use of Uhura in one of the novel’s minor subplots (very minor).  I quite liked the medieval Sarpeidons as well… I could definitely tolerate another book with just Zar and his world in!  Crispin manages to create an interesting world for the length of book she’s been allowed.  One thing I would change however would be to cut a couple of sub plots which are quite unnecessary and turn over more attention to the end with the creators of the Guardian – but this is all quite minor (and I want more of the mindmeld bit, it was over too quick imo!)…

I don’t want to spoil anymore for those who haven’t read it, so I’ll just end with; read Time for Yesterday… I definitely recommend it, it definitely will not disappoint!

5/5 – would visit ancient Sarpeidon as a holiday destination.

Star Trek – The Romulan Way

“But if Intelligence learned of what you have just told me, hru’hfirh?”  It struck Arrhae even as she said it that the question was unnecessary, one with an obvious answer.  She was even more right than she guessed.

“Then they could have learned from only one source, and would also learn – from a similarly anonymous source – that my so-trusted hru’hfe is a spy for the Federation, suborned by her late master tr’Lhoell,” said H’daen silkily.  “Tell me, whom would they believe?”  Then he swore and scrambled to his feet with his hands reaching for her shoulders, for Arrhae’s face had drained of colour so fast and so completely that he thought she was about to faint.  “Powers and Elements, Arrhae, it was a brutal answer to the question, but I didn’t mean it!”

The Romulan Way (1987) by husband and wife team Diane Duane and Peter Morwood, is a novel of two distinct parts which is equally fascinating and frustrating.  Fascinating because I love Duane’s Romulans and the thought that went into describing their leaving Vulcan and the subsequent birth of the Rihannsu culture; frustrating because the alternating ‘story’ and ‘history’ chapters cause a ‘stop/start’ narrative which makes it difficult to settle into the story.

I feel those small figures at the bottom feature on many movie posters and book covers from the 1980s.

I honestly do love to read novels by Diane Duane (no experience of Peter Morwood at time of writing), but sometimes I do have to be in the right mood for them.  Subsequently, I didn’t pick this book back up for nearly three weeks after my surgery.  The reason?  The structure really bothered me, I really didn’t get on with the alternating chapters even though I could see the reason to them.  I think they needed to be there to set the ground work for Duane’s Romulans – her Rihannsu.  In order for her story to make sense and I think at this point to set herself up for sequels with her rogue Romulan Commander ‘Ael’, she needed to explain her Rihannsu history.  Since I doubt the powers that be would allow her to produce an independent non-canon Romulan/Rihannsu history book, the necessary history needed to be slipped into a novel, hence The Romulan Way.  The novel in its entirety is really just ground work for further novels, not only is it setting up the Rihannsu past, it is also giving exposition of their culture, their symbolism, language and their ‘current’ political situation ending with Ael taking away an ancient symbol of her people because she didn’t believe they deserved it any longer – they had become too dishonourable.

Memory Alpha in depth summaries

The ‘story’ is quite small scale for Duane, which is necessary since she and Morwood, were putting so much history in.  The blurb at the back of the book describes The Romulan Way as a ‘startlingly different adventure’, although it seems to be more referring to the history aspect, the story narrative itself is also quite different.  For much of the book the characters are all very small.  They aren’t larger than life heroes like Kirk or heinous villains – even McCoy is subdued.  Instead, the characters are fighting their own mostly inconsequential battles, making small overtures, small actions which in the scheme of things for the most part don’t have repercussions.  The main character Arrhae or Terise is one such character.  She is an extraordinary woman – no doubt – but she is just an intelligence officer who hadn’t made a report in two years while undercover as a Romulan.  She works as a housekeeper in a minor house, having worked up from the status of a slave.  She’s been changed so that she looks Romulan, and genetically changed so that she now bleeds green but she is just a Terran human.  Arrhae/Terise has been undercover for ten years living a quiet but hard life, but because of her long silence, Intelligence wants to pull her out, fearing that she’d ‘gone native’ and instigates a plan involving McCoy’s capture in order to make contact with her and bring her back to Earth.

For her part, she doesn’t want anything to do with it.  Her conditioning is so strong she is more Romulan than Human now, but McCoy’s peril at the hands of Romulan justice rouses her to continue her work for the Federation.  Of course, nothing much actually happens of much import in her sections of the story.  Backed up by the history sections, her master’s (and her) actions are explained, but Terise (or more commonly Arrhae) herself is mostly concerned with trying to live her everyday life.  At times it may as well have been ‘day in the life of a house keeper’ (although it is much more interesting than The Remains of the Day).   As such…. it’s somewhat difficult to give a summary of the story without basically telling you what happened blow for blow.

Again what I really liked was Duane/Morwood’s transient characters, the ones that fleetingly visit the narrative, and exit on their own business never to be heard of again.  This I find a real mark of an accomplished writer since there are rounded characters that the author doesn’t feel the need to ‘make a main character’ just because they’ve spent time creating them.  These fleeting characters are a bit of a theme in The Romulan Way however, punctuated with the final actions of an ensign who was only introduced a few pages previously.

I very much enjoyed the dynamic between Arrhae/Terise and her master H’daen.  Much of what you learn about H’daen is through Arrhae’s eyes, she is sympathetic to him and despite their differing status’ he is fond of her.  The end for them is very sweet I feel, and I am very much glad it ended the way it did, although I must admit I expected Arrhae to leave with McCoy since, from my perspective she was up against insurmountable odds.

Something that does bother me is that Arrhae/Terise will be significantly weaker than a Romulan woman (if they retain the strength of their shared Vulcan roots) and she will also be aging faster than the Romulans around her.  Romulans don’t have the lifespan of Vulcans, but they are still able to live some 80 years longer than humans.  Arrhae/Terise notes this a couple of times, so she is aware, but it doesn’t seem like a problem she (or anyone else) dwells on.

The Romulan Way is a good story and a great Romulan/Rihannsu history book.  It’s enjoyable once you get your head around the alternating chapters although perhaps it’s possible to read the history characters first and then read the story?  Perhaps that would be a more enjoyable way to read it?  Either way, if you’ve liked Diane Duane previously, you’ll like this novel too.  I’m not sure how much influence Peter Morwood had on this novel, since it reads like Diane’s hand throughout.  Although I’ll need to read the rest of Diane’s series of Rihannsu books to be sure, I do think that you need to read  this one to make sense of the rest, especially since Ael’s actions at the end are sure to have ramifications for future books.

5/5 – You should read this, mnhei’sahe.

Oh! I almost forgot to mention, a glossary is included at the back to help explain those pesky Rihannsu terms which are untranslatable into English!

Star Trek – My Enemy, My Ally

“Yes,” she said absently, “it would have been a shame to blow up Enterprise too.  The workmanship appears excellent.”  She flashed a smile at him: Jim became aware he was being teased.  “Captain, I come to you because I see my world in danger – and incidentally yours – and there’s no more help to be found among my friends.  At such a time, with millions and billions of lives riding on what is done, pride dies, and one has recourse to one’s enemies.  Of all my enemies I esteem you highest…”

Well… what can I say that hasn’t been said before? Diane Duane has produced a superb book again, this time in the form of a high stakes adventure involving the Romulan Empire in My Enemy, My Ally (1984) (#18 Pocket, #21 Titan).

I’ve used one of the new covers this time.  It’s not so different and it shows the artwork off nicely 🙂

My Enemy, My Ally is quite frankly a phenomenal read and it is of little surprise that Duane should spawn a mini series from this book.  The Rihannsu Saga is a five book series written between 1984 and 2006 and has left fans demanding that it should be made canon.

I’ve previously reviewed The Wounded Sky and Doctors Orders by Diane Duane, if you’re interested, go check them out!

When I talked about The Wounded Sky I waxed lyrical about the necessity of entropy and how the book was literally falling apart while I was reading it.  Well, the condition of this first edition copy of My Enemy, My Ally is only slightly better.  It’s obviously well read, its spine utterly broken and the pages threatening to fall out… though it hasn’t disgraced itself quite yet.

Now, a confession.  When I first tried to read My Enemy, My Ally  a couple of months ago, I wasn’t in the mood for it.  I ended up selecting a much shorter, snappier novel that suited my mood better.  I’m really glad I didn’t try to push through it when I wasn’t in the right frame of mind, because I wouldn’t have enjoyed it half as much!  My Enemy, My Ally isn’t a light read, there’s a lot of backstory to set up, new characters, a political situation and indeed, much of Duane’s version the Romulan culture.  What is nice is that in the forward Duane pays homage to D C Fontana, and says that she has tried to use much of Fontana’s vision of the Romulans and Vulcans, as Fontana was heavily involved in their creation.

My Enemy, My Ally documents an unusual alliance between the crew of the Romulan vessel Bloodwing and the crews of the Federation’s Enterprise, Intrepid (II), Constellation, and Inaieu as they try to prevent the permanent (and detrimental) alteration of the Romulan species and then the rescue of over four hundred of Intrepid’s Vulcan crew – just in case the stakes weren’t great enough.

At the centre of all this is an original character -Ael- who is a distinguished Romulan Commander who also happens to be the aunt of the Romulan commander Spock and Kirk had a hand in disgracing in The Enterprise Incident, an event which comes back to haunt both Ael’s loyal Romulans and the crew of the Enterprise late in the novel.

In My Enemy, My Ally, Duane has fixed I think many of the complaints people had of The Wounded Sky, namely the pages of techno babble that some have found confusing or boring (personally I like it, but hey) and instead keeps it to a more palatable level.  In its place she adds in swathes of Romulan (or Rihannsu) language which reminds me strongly of Tolkein’s high elven (which is a mix of Finnish and Welsh language), and extensive exposition of their society, culture and beliefs.  I think the language is a bit of a mixed bag, as it both adds and takes away from the narrative a little bit.  For example, we often are privy to conversations solely in Romulan, but why would it be there without translation when we are observing through Ael’s eyes and her thoughts we are able to understand.  On the other hand the language difference is effective when dealing with new concepts which are not easily translated.  At some points a word which represents a broad concept is explained and then it is used frequently in the text in its original form.

Duane’s development of the Romulans is in depth but interestingly not too removed from Ford’s ideas about the Klingons in The Final Reflection.  Duane’s Romulans are also scheming and aggressive although not so overtly savage as they wear a veneer of civilisation.  The Romulan savagery comes from their complex, tiered society and their political games.  Whereas Ford’s Klingons affirmed that with determination, guile and luck that even a nameless orphan could rise through the ranks and make a great commander, in Duane’s society there is clear demarcation of the ‘haves’ and the ‘have-nots’; the Romulans have a rigid class system.

Another crossover between Ford’s Klingons and Duane’s Romulans is that they both have a fixation on ‘names’ and ‘houses’.  However, Ford’s Klingons seem to be able to create their own lineages (albeit with some restrictions) whereas Duane’s Romulans appear to to lose all status if their names are removed from them and don’t appear to be able to create a new name to try and rise again.

Duane’s Ael is also used to introduce an element of spirituality to the Romulans, although her beliefs seem a little out dated as they are not referred to by any other Romulan we encounter without prompting from Ael herself.  The Romulans seem to have the belief in opposing and complementary elements; basically something like Taoism.  Ael uses this belief system to understand those around her, and attributes various elements to characters like, for example, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy to explain what their roles are and why they work as a team.  Ael’s reflections actually give some really nice exposition on the characters we know and love, but also has a narrative function in that it’s these observations which allows Ael to accept the differences and similarities between the Romulans and the Federation crew.

And really, like Krenn in The Final Reflection her ability to break from the mental mold of her people and find kinship with people from the Federation is also what eventually isolates her from her people and even face betrayal from members of her own family.

However it is because she is so loyal to her people that she doesn’t wish them to change themselves to make themselves more like the Vulcans, she sees that this would not only destroy their culture but also cause them to destroy themselves because of the way their culture and society has developed.  In saving them, Ael faces permanent isolation from the people she loves so much with only her much depleted loyal crew as company and support.  It’s testament to her ability as a commander that so many of her crew do stay loyal to her despite the fact they will be pariahs.

It’s really hard to pick out a part of My Enemy, My Ally that could be considered ‘best’, but I certainly enjoyed reading about the developing relationships between the Enterprise crew and Ael’s Romulan crew.  I really enjoyed the recurrence of  characters first seen in The Wounded Sky, like Harb, and the Sulemid crew members.  Duane also includes a Horta in her mixed crew!  I really do like how she includes so many different species on the Enterprise crew and elsewhere in her novels!  Of course, one of the most moving aspects of this is the message that with exposure, even the most xenophobic people can become friends and allies of ‘the other’.  This is exactly what happens to the Romulans when they mix with the diverse crew of the Enterprise.

The relationship between Kirk and Ael builds up slowly between the two captains and by the end of the book, they trust each other completely.  It begins with a grudging respect of a talented commander, and progresses slowly to an unshakable trust based on a true assessment of each others character.  Knowing Kirk well, we understand the trust he has to place in Ael in order to put his crew and ship in danger, Ael’s thought process is, by necessity more exposed by the narrative.  She gradually makes her assessments, she sees that Kirk is of the element of fire (like herself) and that his crew (especially Spock and McCoy) balance him out.  A funny little observation is that Ael sees the three of them moving as one, as if one entity – essentially, all the elements together.  I suppose I should point out that the relationship between Ael and Kirk is platonic, Ael herself is Romulan and has a grown up son (who is her second in command), and does show her age somewhat, though Kirk is left to speculating how old she truly is.

My Enemy, My Ally is set between Star Trek TMP and TWOK (about 2275) which I think is a really interesting time to set a novel,  as you have all that character development from TMP especially between Kirk and Spock but also because he is a seasoned commander and the Enterprise is pretty much an icon of the Federation.  One confusing thing however (and perhaps I’m missing a trick) is that uniform wise we appear to be in the TOS era, while Kirk seems to be going by the title of captain despite being an admiral at this point?

Ah while I think about it, there was another funny inconsistency (?) I noticed, well my partner did (despite the fact I play World of Warships and it should have been apparent), was that Duane calls the Inaieu a ‘destroyer’…  Destroyers are little ships, I think what she really meant was ‘dreadnought!’.  Oops!

Anyway, I guess I’m nitpicking, because I’ve gotta make a point – those few thing are literally all I’ve got to complain about!  Everything is just so tight!

Something I seriously can’t complain about is Duane’s ability to write interesting hand to hand fight and space battle scenes! Kirk of course has to get stuck in with an incredibly large assault group and manages to get injured – thankfully he gets off light this time!  Bless him, that little cinnamon roll!  Duane just makes the fight scenes flow, she can write tension but she knows when to break the tension with humour too.  She also throws the eye of the reader around a little, she doesn’t just concentrate on one perspective of the fight but updates us on how other crew members are doing.  I particularly like her updates on her OC crew members, who supply some variation to the fights!

Duane’s space battle scenes which of course I can’t talk too much about without giving away the story, were just fantastic as usual.  It got very tense close to the end when Kirk is not in the captain’s chair, I tell you!  However, it was rather gratifying to note that Kirk ‘called it’ at the end!

I’ll leave you now with one exchange that made me spit out my tea when I read it!

“All right,” he said.  “I consider myself warned.  But if you two are going to play ‘mother hen,’ don’t either of you be surprised if you find me holding your hand.”

“Fine by me,” McCoy said.  “But watch it with Spock.  People start the damndest rumors about this ship’s crew, even without provocation….”

“Doctor, how does one hold hands with a mother hen?” Spock asked innocently. 

“Gentlemen!!”

Ael kept her laughter to herself.

 Well, someone certainly has read the Roddenberry Footnote!

5/5  – Just read it, it’s a no brainer.

Star Trek – The Final Reflection

“There is always,” Manager Akten said, “the Komerex zha.“
“I do not acknowledge the existence of the Perpetual Game,” Margon said without turning.  “Society is society, war is war.  If they are games at all, surely they are not all the same game.  I deny it.”
“That is a favoured tactic,” Akten said.
“Green Lancer to Level Nine.”

If I wasn’t systematically working through all these Star Trek novels and gave myself an option of whether to give myself a pass on ones I didn’t like the sound of (based on the blurbs), The Final Reflection (#16 Pocket, # Titan) (1984) by John M Ford would have been one of them.  If I had indeed done this and not just forced myself to read something that sounded ultimately uninteresting to me I would have seriously missed out on a top notch Star Trek novel from the Pocket Books series.

Spock and Krenn play a game of chess while Sarek looks on? (Sarek isn’t there in the book)

Saying that, I wouldn’t say that it has converted me to novels with this kind of focus, it is still not really to my taste, however saying that I can’t deny that it is well written, well plotted, well paced.  Characterisation is very strong, the narrative is consistent and well framed.  The suggestions about Klingon society believable and well thought out (unlike the later novel Pawns and Symbols).  It’s almost a shame that this is a Star Trek novel because I think it could almost be better not constrained by Star Trek.  Much of the novel is I suppose speculative in a way and set well outside most fans knowledge of Star Trek bar the framing narrative it could be its own standalone story.  I expect that the framing narrative was bolted on in order for it to be published by Pocket Books as a TOS novel since although the narrative works it isn’t the strongest.  Although I generally like framing narratives and the like (this is pretty much the earliest example of it in a TOS novel) I do feel it is the worst aspect of The Final Reflection.

The late John M Ford seems to have been an interesting character to say the least (he died in 2006).  The Final Reflection was his fourth published novel and was released hot on the heels of his 1984 World Fantasy Award winning novel The Dragon Waiting.  Ford would go onto write another Star Trek novel ‘How Much For Just The Planet‘ and also write a Klingon orientated RP scenario for the FASA RPG series.  Ford was known for his aversion for doing things that had been done before, which would explain his framing narrative (not seen until now in the Pocket Book series) and his introduction of ‘Klingonaase‘.

The framing narrative is an effective if perhaps a little ham fisted way of getting rid of the TOS cast for the duration of the actual ‘story’ that Ford wants to tell.  In essence, you start The Final Reflection, the Pocket Books version you are holding in your hands, read the prologue, and then start the book that Kirk is reading in his cabin; title page, contents, prologue and all.  I think it was a nice touch to have the contents page there and the ‘note from the author’, as well as quotes from the characters who reportedly took part in the events of the novel within the novel.

As a consequence of the novel within a novel format, we end up with three dates to take into account.  The Final Reflection of our world was released in May 1984, the events of the framing narrative take place in the 2270s (I’d say between TMP and TWOK), and the events of the novel within the novel take place over about 15-20 years… ish… in the 2230s.  It’s interesting to note that TSFS came out in June 1984.

The acknowledgement by Ford at the front of the book asserts that Ford had been developing this story for about 15 years… and it shows in two ways.  Firstly, it is an excellently constructed story which frankly, only comes about from serious time and work.  Secondly it is also regularly confusing as some characters / sections seem to have been added in to account for the change in looks between the TOS Klingons and the Klingons from TMP onwards.  As far as I understood while reading the main character is of the ‘new’ style Klingons (pointy teeth and forehead ridges), although sometimes it seems he isn’t (especially as he seems to be a ‘fusion’ – hybrid to you and me).  There is a notable character who seems to be a ‘TOS era’ Klingon who is definitely a ‘fusion’.  However, I could be misunderstanding, it would however possibly fit in with various fan theories at the time (one being that the Klingons seen in TOS were a group used for diplomatic purposes etc.).  Of course we now have an explanation for the change in appearance thanks to Enterprise, but at this time there was no such explanation.

The bulk of the novel follows the life of Krenn and his fortunes, starting as a talented youngster and ending as an established commander and one could say, diplomat.  There are through necessity frequent time jumps, some of which can be a little confusing.  Krenn is generally a likable character for a Klingon, I mean, he’s still a murderous bastard but he is intelligent and charming in his own way.  The friendships he builds up and his relationships especially with Dr Talgore are endearing.  Although I think the sweetest moment of the whole novel is that he ends up romancing his childhood sweetheart… well as sweetheartish as Klingons get anyway.

Of course, this low key but super cute (do I need to add for a Klingon again?) beats the Kang relationship in Pawns and Symbols hands down.  It’s quite obvious that The Final Reflection heavily influenced Pawns and Symbols, as there are quite a few cultural parallels between the Klingons and the narrative is similar in that the ‘main cast’ are excluded from much of the action.

There are a good few scenes/characters that stick out to me.

– The death of Krenn’s adoptive father and his household.
– Sarek & Amanda – then the chess game between Krenn and Spock
– Scene with McCoy’s grandfather.

Honestly, the assassination of the ‘Thought Admiral’, his consort (who happens to be an Orion), and his servants is possibly the most gut wrenching event.  Testament to Ford’s writing ability, I actually felt appalled and saddened by the deaths of these characters he barely told me about.  The death of the ‘winged’ alien was particularly nasty.  Krenn thought so too, although all he was doing was watching a video of the assassinations taking place.  I thought it particularly moving that he realises ‘love’ between his father and the Orion consort, although he doesn’t understand it until much later.

The chess game depicted on the cover is a very minor cameo of a young Spock, and Sarek never sees it, Amanda does.  Some nice observations here.

McCoy’s ‘cameo’ is by reference.  Some people have derided the choice of actually referencing him instead of making it more ambiguous, but I actually like the way it’s done and I don’t actually think it detracts at all.  I had to laugh though since Kirk was no where near born at this point, but I think McCoy has been aged a little?  I could be wrong.  I think Spock is just a child (much younger than the picture, so I think it makes sense… I haven’t done the maths).

Life as a Game – Klingons and the Perpetual Game.

At the forefront of The Final Reflection is the idea that everything that occurs is part of a universal and never ending game.  Some people subscribe to it, some people reject it, some are players and others are pawns.  Ford suggests that Klingon society revolves around this belief and that Klingons see their actions, their lives and interactions with others as a game – this to a certain level accounts for the Klingon distrust of each other, and their devious nature.

Excluding the framing narrative and the book ‘bumf’, the opening of Krenn’s story is a game in which he is a pawn – a lancer – in a bloody deadly game where the ‘players’ move pieces (children in this case) around a board.  When they meet an opponent they have to fight until one is incapacitated defending a ‘goal’.  The one who reaches the top wins the match.  Characters are introduced and just as quickly exit the story; their games are elsewhere for the time being.  Eventually some characters will come back as pawns or players in their own right.  Ford does very well in creating the illusion that the universe is bigger than just Krenn, characters weave in an out of the narrative playing their own games, Krenn is just one player amongst billions.  Krenn doesn’t know all the characters (nor does the ‘novelist’ persona) but there is just enough information about them to make you want to know more, which, for the most part you are never given.

Krenn (or perhaps more accurately the novelist) plays games in a broad sense with the reader.  One of the lessons Krenn learns young is not to say anything you do not wish to be heard, basically ‘keep your own council’, because of the constant surveillance of the Empire.  The reader is also kept in the dark at several points, which sometimes makes Krenn’s actions inscrutable.  At times the reader does not realise that Krenn knows something, which can make him hard to follow.  This actually fits into the framing narrative, because the novelist also doesn’t know everything, he’s recreating events that sometimes, not even he understands.  Not even the author understands the rules of the game.

Different games are mentioned and/or explained.  They are predominantly board games which resemble to a differing extent, chess.  A few are referred to throughout the novel as events unfold and they are reflected in the moves and goals of the games themselves.  Like the first game we see, the game of life is lethal and Krenn relearns this lesson early as he witnesses the fall of his adoptive father, his father’s consort, and his household, because his father is outmanoeuvred in his play.  It takes some time for Krenn to realise the extent of his father’s love for Rogaine (his Orion consort), even when watching his father reaching toward her as he died.  Krenn realises his own feelings later, and no doubt acts with his father’s actions in mind.

Krenn’s final ‘play’, which prevents galaxy wide war isn’t just an altruistic action.  Although it prevents war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire which is obviously a good thing from our perspective, it also prevents the Federation from fully allying through fear and pooling all their resources against the Klingons.  Krenn’s stance?  It is left up to the reader, but from my perspective Dr. Talgore was successful in his influence of Krenn and although his actions benefited the empire in the long run, I think Krenn, with his exposure to the other races and his strategic mind had decided peace would be a better option if not joining with the Federation.

For his part, Krenn influences those around him by changing the way he is perceived in order to get the upper hand in an exchange of words and wits.  He has many masks, which are assets to him in his game.

So, what is the final reflection? Humans and Klingons reflect each other, or at least the Klingons reflect an aspect of humanity which is pretty much how they were developed (although sparingly) and then developed through the future series and films.  In The Final Reflection, we see instances of humans playing the same games as the Klingons, corrupt games of power, misdirection, and devious strategies – even inciting a war is not too great a price to pay in these games.  However, the reflection is like looking into an infinity mirror.  Even whilst we point out the flaws of the Klingons, Ford points to their humanity, to Krenn, and his trusted friends – the ‘other’ isn’t so different after all.

Essentially Ford is drawing attention to the way we perceive and treat our enemies.  Klingons, Conservatives, Socialists, Liberals, Muslims, Jews, Christians, pro-life, pro-choice,  people gain from demonising the other, they benefit from dehumanising and preventing conversation.  Even in the final section, the closing of the framing narrative Kirk reports that Star Fleet are announcing that The Final Reflection is all fiction, even though its effect appears to be positive.  The Final Reflection, a novel within a novel tries elicit understanding beyond the Organian Peace Treaty, which does not facilitate understanding at all (it’s essentially mutually assured destruction – a cold war). 

The Final Reflection contains some of the best that Star Trek has to offer.  Star Trek is always at its best when being used as a vehicle for asking (and answering) the big questions of our time.  Ford shows us a story told without the main cast can be done and done well, however I still think some of the charm is lost without their presence.  Even though the development of the series took the Klingons in a different direction to Ford’s vision, this is still a great read and well worth your time.  Call it an AU or put The Final Reflection as a work of liberal Federation propaganda, either way I seriously recommend it.

5/5 – Let the games begin!

“Be a storyteller, an embellisher, a liar; they’ll call you that and worse anyway.  It hardly matters.  The Tao which can be perceived is not the true Tao.” 

– Dr. Emmanuel Tagore, to the author.

Star Trek – The Wounded Sky

Breathe, damn you!  Breathe!  Breathe!
It was his worst nightmare come true.  He damned for the thousandth time the idiot courage that let this man throw himself among wild beasts and into blaster crossfire for his crew’s sake.

There must be some sort of irony in the fact that, whilst reading a book which at its core espouses the beauty and necessity of entropy, that I spent quite some time trying to save the book itself  from entropy.

I find, with used books it’s often a good sign when the book is so well worn that the glue holding the pages together has failed.  Annoying as it is to have to keep picking up and carefully reinserting the pages, it means, often, that the book has been well read and loved – such as it is for my copy of The Wounded Sky (1983) by Diane Duane (#13 Pocket, #19 Titan).

My copy of The Wounded Sky is currently held together with a lot of tape; fifteen pages have been stuck in with care by my hand, and they will probably now hold together long after the two hundred and forty other pages have given in to the fate of badly produced mass market paperbacks.  The wear on the book was not a result of my eager thumbing of the pages, but of its previous owner, whoever he was.

I assume it was a he.

I also assume he is dead.

You see, this and about eighty other Star Trek TOS novels I imported from the states some months ago.  They are mostly Pocket Book first editions, with gold or silver embossed titles, they were collected over a number of years and they all have the same little label on them with the price and the code the shop has given them – the same shop.  Most of them are in good condition, they have been stored on a shelf and at some point a book worm (or whatever a book worm really is) had eaten holes into some of them.  I found a shed ‘shell’ from one of them, and I was a little worried that I had imported infected books and I would be solely responsible for introducing some terrible book eating insect to the UK ecosystem (I haven’t by the way…).  The books were slightly damp, musty and dusty like they’d been in storage for a good while.

In my head canon, the daughters of the dead man were getting rid of his possessions.

I bought over eighty books, eighty of this man’s collection that he had dutifully maintained, buying every book as they came out for years and years, for about $24.  It cost me less to buy them in the states and import them with all the charges and shipping fees than it would be to get them from my own country.  It’s a little sad isn’t it, for someone’s collection to be sold by someone else for virtually nothing.  Even sadder that the people selling it had no idea that just one of the books was worth me paying all that.

Out of all those dutifully bought, kept and loved, ‘The Wounded Sky’ is the most read.

On the first page of The Wounded Sky there are two recommendations from other authors. “AN EXCELLENT STAR TREK NOVEL (…) ALWAYS ENTERTAINING” espouses one enthusiastically.  Another writes “IS A REMARKABLE NOVEL IN ANY CATEGORY AND BEYOND A DOUBT THE BEST STAR TREK NOVEL EVER WRITTEN” not insignificant praise for a ‘media tie in’, but accurate.

Hum… looks like TOS style uniforms… The Wounded Sky is set in 2275… Between  TMP and TWOK.

Lots of people review Star Trek books with a proviso, ‘Yes, I give this book 5/5, it’s good for a Star Trek book‘ and I also review on that kind of scale.  This book however could easily stand on its own, it’s not simply good for a Star Trek book, it’s a good book and I think able to comfortably  be compared with other non tie-in  novels of the time.  Essentially what I’m saying is that The Wounded Sky doesn’t rely on being a Star Trek book to succeed, it doesn’t need Kirk, Spock or McCoy or The Enterprise, but for a fan of Star Trek it just makes it sweeter and Duane’s effortless characterisation of our favourite characters is the cherry on the proverbial cake.

The Wounded Sky is Duane’s first published Star Trek novel, she also had another published in 1983 –  the first in her ‘Young Wizards‘ series.  I have read and reviewed another one of Duane’s Star Trek novels Doctor’s Orders, you can definitely see Duane reworking ideas from The Wounded Sky in her later novel (certain aliens reappear with different names, aliens with a different concept of time etc.)!

I have to confess I thought on looking at the cover (so deceptive, as usual) that the jellyfish thing was going to be the ‘enemy’.  I remember thinking well jellyfish are disgusting so obviously they make the best villains, well I’ll put this right first of all – the jellyfish on the front isn’t a jelly fish at all, but a glass spider with twelve legs!  She also isn’t the villain but simply the cutest glass spider you ever did lay your mind’s eye on!  More on K’t’l’k later (she’s so stinking cute).

I think it would do this novel a disservice to write a ‘summary’ as I do for others.  In fact I’m not sure that with only one reading of the novel behind me I can do an adequate one.  The Wounded Sky is complex and Duane draws in many narrative threads which she weaves in at various points in the novel.  Despite having so many different threads Duane has managed to create a very cohesive story, and it merits another read from myself to try and get my head around why it’s so bloody brilliant.  Me reading it out loud even made my partner want to read it!  He liked Duane’s easy turn of phrase and strong characterisation, but he particularly liked Duane’s scientific knowledge as he reads quite hard sci-fi and he commented that she must have been keeping up with contemporary scientific papers.

It is easier to talk about themes rather than story, so I’m going to talk a little about them.

God, Religious Experience and the Soul

I was probably most surprised at this theme turning up.  K’t’lk introduces talk of the soul when talking about the beliefs and rituals of her people but the entire last section of the book questions the idea of what God is, what heaven would be like and the shape and the transformation of the self / soul into it’s best form.

The crew are exposed to beings of such power that they are essentially described as proto-gods, and in fact, they will be gods in their own universe creating and experiencing as they will it or until they stop playing the game. The playing the game theme crops up throughout the novel especially through an original character the ‘recreation officer’.  I’m not sure whether it has more significance generally, but within the novel itself it is pretty important and well built upon.

It is implied that the crew all experience a religious experience on approaching the proto-gods.  It’s heavily implied that a place without entropy is tantamount to heaven (and the transformation of the Enterprise crew supports that).  However, the crew perhaps recognise that their experience isn’t ‘heaven’ and they don’t belong there, they have a sense of purpose and they give that purpose to the proto-gods.  These supremely powerful beings did not create this universe, but have the power to create and play in theirs – however, this still requires the input and interruption of the crew to bring about.  Perhaps God of this universe (or at least the Star Trek one) is still working on creating, and through His vessels having a hand in creating another?

The Best Self


This theme is woven throughout The Wounded Sky and for those of us who enjoy character exposition and development the last section of the book will reap the biggest rewards.  Even if you’re put off by the the harder science sections, stay with the book to the end, it will be worth it!

‘The Best Self‘ idea is tightly linked to the ‘God / Religious Experience‘ theme.  For someone with a Christian background the imagery is very familiar and the transformation the crew go through with their selves being transformed into a reflection of the greatest good, devoid of ‘entropy’.  This section is from Kirk’s perspective (though the idea of perspective is skewed here anyway), and through his eyes he sees his friends and crew utterly changed into their best selves.  Naturally, Kirk never truly perceives or realises the change in himself and in fact, we only get one comment from McCoy that indicates Kirk’s own physical transformation.  Duane pin’s down McCoy’s compassion and healing, searing in its strength and passion.  She nails Spock’s dual nature, the power of his mind and potential to be great.  Kirk feels awed that someone such as Spock, with so much ability and brilliance should choose to serve under him –

This great mind has been standing behind me and quietly obeying my orders all these years?  Why??  He could be so much more – But in this place, the answer was plain to read.  Loyalty was frequently unreasonable and illogical – and Spock had long since decided that this one aspect of his life could do without logic.

“Spock,”  Jim said – and ran out of words.  He was deeply moved, and didn’t know how to express it – until he abruptly felt Spock feeling the emotion with him, and knew there was nothing more that needed saying on the subject.  “I’m fine, Spock,” he said then, and glanced over at McCoy.  Bones was gazing at Spock in a curious, almost grudging calm.

Seriously, how powerful is that?

Much of our exposition of Kirk is done through the other character’s reaction to him and his reaction to their transformed selves.  Kirk describes his role for much of the telepathic experience as ‘passive’, he is moved by the fact these 400 souls follow him while feeling unworthy himself.  In his own estimate, he sees himself as a conduit that can focus the abilities of his crew, this is demonstrated through his ‘weaponising’ of Chekov and Scotty’s emotions and beliefs.  While the crew is being transformed or being followed by strange manifestations of themselves and their desires, Kirk comments –

 Hidden natures are getting loose, Jim thought.  What we conceal doesn’t stay that way, here.

So, what is McCoy’s observation –

 “- That armour getting heavy?”  Bones said, sounding a bit tentative now.  Jim shook his head, thinking What armour, what’s he seeing? … 

That is literally all we get as to Kirk’s transformation – how frustrating!  Kirk’s character is left open to debate, but it certainly isn’t just a conduit as he believes it to be.  Certainly, we know from other characters and our own knowledge that he inspires fierce loyalty and trust, and that he himself is self sacrificing (as demonstrated earlier in the novel during an event which renders him without a pulse for some time).

Of course, we don’t just learn about the transformation of the ‘main’ cast.  Several other crew members have extreme transformations… one which sticks out is the crew member who transforms into a six legged Andorian alicorn…

The best self theme isn’t just limited to this one section however.  During various experiences using the inversion drive we see the crew acting in ways which hints at their best selves.  Uhura, Chekov, Sulu and some new characters introduced in this book (original characters done right!) all get their chance to shine and have their own exposition.   The way Duane uses this theme to bind the book together keeps you turning pages, thirsty for more character exposition!

Sex and Relationships

Initially I thought that this theme was surprising to find slotted in to a section in this book, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense in context especially taking into account the Christian imagery and tone in some sections of the book.

There’s a very special scene slotted in around the middle of the book which is all kinds of awkward,
sweet and serious. The glass spider K’t’lk and Kirk sit together in Kirk’s cabin talking, K’t’lk makes reference to Kirk’s ah, let’s say sexual encounters in this cabin.  This being commented by anyone, let alone by a twelve legged glass spider would make anyone choke on their drink, Kirk is not an exception to the rule.  K’t’lk then tells Kirk about how her species reproduces, how their courtships are long and the pairs build up each other and their lives together (her last courtship was one hundred years) until it meets it’s crescendo and they copulate.  The downside to this is that the female eats the male in true spider fashion, adding his DNA and ‘soul’ to hers.  When she creates the egg, that is the new vessel for both his and her spirits, a mixture of both.

This is of course in contrast to Kirk’s passions that K’t’lk refers to, but more akin to the relationship that Spock and Kirk have.  You don’t need sex to be lovers is essentially the message, and K’t’l’k’s regret of consummating the relationship is palatable, after all it ended hers irrevocably.  The same could be said for Kirk’s conquests, sex or some sort of physical interaction is the  goal after which the relationship ends.  Of course in Kirk’s case, the breaking of the relationship is not necessarily as a result of sex or physical interaction of some description, circumstances dictate Kirk’s commitments.  However in K’t’lk’s case the although reproduction is the end goal, they also have the goal of building each other up, very little of that happens in Kirk’s relationships.

Weight of responsibility

Kirk and K’t’lk are both burdened with great responsibility.  Kirk for his ship and crew’s lives and K’t’l’k responsibility for her part in the creation of the universe / reality breaking inversion drive.  I think that although she has more affinity for Scotty and his engineering prowess she is most like Kirk.  Kirk must make decisions for his crew, he feels the weight of command and often feels overwhelmed.  K’t’lk also feels the weight of responsibility, however she is sure of herself and of what her course of action must be.  Admittedly, she has 800+ years of life and 3 rebirths (at least) to enable her to act with the self assurance she does.

This is a theme that is visited frequently in the original series and in the novels, in fact it is fundamental to the development of Kirk’s character and is core to the original films too.

The Importance of Command

This is a bit of a funny one (funny strange not funny haha), and seems a little bit specific for a ‘theme’ but a large section of the book is dedicated to command, and not just Kirk’s but other characters too.  During the last section of the book, the entire crew of the Enterprise is involved but in order to keep them together and moving onward, the section heads mingle among their charges, which gives the rest of the crew the strength to continue.

Of course, this ties in with the theme of the best self, especially when talking about Kirk whose raison d’etre is to command.  Kirk doesn’t just hold together a section, but the whole ship.  However, as explained previously, Kirk doesn’t see his talent and ability for what it is, modestly only as a conduit or a gun to shoot the bullet.

Best Scene?

Picking out a best scene is actually pretty hard since there are just so many excellent bits to The Wounded Sky.  I’ll settle for two.

Would you look at that – I can use this picture again.

Probably the most memorable scene (for me at least) was where you rejoin the action from McCoy’s point of view after Kirk has selflessly thrown himself in front of Spock to save him.  Excellent characterisation of McCoy just makes the scene, it’s also essential.  I’ve discussed how we get very little in the way of revelation from Kirk himself, about himself, so we have to rely on other narrators to give us a little insight.  McCoy of course gives us insight into Kirk’s character here.  There’s obviously a good amount of insight into McCoy too.  The extension of the scene involves Uhura’s memories (which involves her being totally badass) and Kirk coming to in his command chair injured, and realising that the unreal shared visions that the crew had been sharing are in fact as real as their every day reality.  I have to admit, I love that the drama is mixed in with plenty of humour.

The second scene I can’t go too much into, but it’s near the end of the book when all the crew is being transformed into their ‘best selves’, the imagery is pretty intense and I loved Duane’s creativity mixed in with more traditional imagery.  The character exposition was really varied and just… excellent.  You might have noticed I’m a character-centric person…. You’ll know the scene when you get to it.

If you’ve stayed with me this long – congratulations!  This novel certainly warrants more than I’ve written about here… Perhaps I’ll come back to it later…

You’re probably wondering why I told you that story at the beginning, well… Entropy is central to this novel, without entropy our universe would have ceased to exist, ceased to be and ourselves, the crew of the Enterprise and the universe as they knew it would be driven mad and suffer without it, we perceive time after all, that’s how we organise our world, how we define our lives.  How can we possibly comprehend all time happening simultaneously – we can’t, after all, the book itself progresses the story as if time is passing.  Things happen sequentially, in page after page while the universe around Kirk and his crew begins to slow down and speed up all at once.  Happily, Duane gives the crew a kind of protection from this although it  obviously isn’t total protection from all effects of the anti-entropic space.

Thing is, somebody died thousands of miles away in a country I’ve never been to.  Entropy took it’s course, old age or illness, time passed and his books were sold and in a sequence of events, his books got to me.  Those books with their worm holes and falling out pages tell a story far different from the story between their pages.  McCoy asks if they could spare the new gods knowledge of illness and death, and K’t’lk responds:

“One thing.  When you write your equations – do you have to give Them death?”

The brilliance was dimmed.  So was that in K’t’lk’s eyes – their blue belonged, for the moment, more to twilight than to noon.  “L’nrd,” she said in somber notes, “you said it yourself.  Time is what They need.  They can’t have that without entropy too.  And death will inevitably come along with that – rundowns, breakdowns -“

Entropy is part of time and through time we experience the world, because a man died in America, a girl in the UK can read the books he collected and read, time and entropy made an impossible connection happen.

And that’s one hell of a story.

5/5 – Always be yourself, unless you can be Kirk… Then be Kirk.

p.s. I am super late with this post!  I had various things crop up, I went away, was ill, became a greater number, lots of things. I was hoping to get this in at the end of May but obviously that didn’t happen!  Back to regular programming now!

Star Trek – Yesterday’s Son

Their eyes were on a level as Zar said quietly,  

“Spock… First Officer of the Enterprise… my father.”  A flat statement, hanging in the stillness.   

Spock drew a long breath.  “Yes.”

Something I can definitely say about Yesterday’s Son by A C Crispin  (1983) (#11 Pocket, #8 Titan) is that is is lovingly written.  There’s no one particular aspect which makes me feel this way, but it just feels like a lot of care and thought went into the book.  And the content is… incredibly sweet.

And for once, I’m not going to complain about something being so sweet it’s given me tooth ache.

It’ll give you tooth ache too, I guarantee it, in the last quarter of the book I thought I was going to melt into a sugary pink puddle.

Enough with the metaphors? Ok.  But really though, I feel all warm and fuzzy!  My sweet level is dangerously high!

Yesterday’s Son was a real surprise to me actually.  I have to admit, I didn’t expect the quality that the book offered me, simple as that.  And take it from me, you do want to read this one, so if you don’t want spoilers stop reading here and come back later.  After all, this was the first Star Trek novel to get onto the bestseller lists.

Ok.  Still with me?  You sure? Ok.  

***SPOILERS from here on!***

Ignore Spock’s age on the cover, this book takes play near the end of the five year mission!  Spock is young!

The premise is that the union between Spock and Zarabeth in the episode All Our Yesterdays resulted in a son whom Zarabeth calls Zar.  Spock learns about this via pictures of cave paintings from the now non-existent Sarpeidon.  One of the images is of a young man with Vulcan characteristics, Spock immediately understands the implications and decides that he cannot allow his child to grow up on the freezing  planet, and formulates a plan to get him back.

Of course, his solitary plan shortly becomes a plan for two and then at the last minute three as Kirk and McCoy refuse to let him go alone.  Using the Guardian of Forever the trio return to Sarpeidon five thousand years in the past but instead of finding a child, they find an adult of 24 years.  Spock is understandably shocked at finding that the child he expected is in fact an adult and reacts reticently and withdraws even further from his own emotions.  His cold attitude is in contrast of what Zarabeth told Zar, which was of someone warm and loving, gentle.  This difference in perception and reaction is the basis of much of the misunderstanding between Spock & Zar throughout Yesterday’s Son.  It’s also the vehicle for some character development for the trinity too!

Zar is intelligent, and well liked although very much a stranger in a strange land aboard the Enterprise.  His relationship between himself and his father, Spock, is disastrous.  Spock is acting the Vulcan’s Vulcan, while Zar who is naturally more emotional, possessing empathic powers and can’t make sense of his father’s cold, often confusing emotional state.

Zar forms easy relationships with Kirk and McCoy, who between them give their own guidance as almost surrogate fathers.  McCoy gives Zar emotional support, while Kirk gives him a stable and open relationship.

The Enterprise receives a distress call from The Lexington, Kirk orders their return to the planet of the Guardian.  The Romulans are suspicious of the starship patrols and attack the planet.  While the Lexington and the Enterprise battle the Romulans, Romulan vessels slip through to the planet’s surface.  Kirk sends down a landing party with drastic consequences.  The Romulans capture and torture the Federation archaeologists studying the Guardian as well as killing the entire landing party.  It transpires that Zar felt their deaths due to his empathic abilities.

Zar and Spock end up sent on a mission to try to set up a shield around the Guardian, using Spock’s technical know how and Zar’s ability to sense where people are without seeing them.  During their time together they bond and the barriers between them break down as they come to an understanding.  Unfortunately they are unsuccessful, a concerned Kirk beams down with a landing party to try to find them and as he gives up and orders everyone to be beamed out, he notices Spock and Zar coming towards him.  He moves of range and is the only one left on the planet to help Spock and Zar.

Spock and Kirk decide they have to try again to stop the Romulans, but not before Spock incapacitates Zar with a Vulcan nerve pinch.  Kirk and Spock make an attempt to infiltrate the Romulan camp again, but are captured because Kirk is not dressed for stealth being in his command gold.  On their capture they are taunted by the Romulan commander, Tal, and Kirk is beaten up in front of Spock.  Tal promises to come back with a new torture device (what are they, Klingons?!).  The Enterprise crew mount a rescue operation with the now conscious Zar.  As expected, Spock and Kirk are rescued and Zar uses the Guardian to go back to the Sarpeidon of the past, this time in a warmer part, in order to start a period of enlightenment.  Yes, you guessed it, it’s a bootstrap paradox.  The end of Yesterday’s Son plays out as expected, neatly closing with a little bit of closure and a return to the status quo.

It’s been a while since I did a big summary like that huh?  Well, I honestly really enjoyed it.

Spock & Zarabeth – All Our Yesterdays

The overall story just… works.  It pulls together nicely, and I seriously expected it to be cringe worthy as many fanfictions meet the unknown child of X main character usually are.  Of course, it’s seriously helped by the fact that the union did happen in the series.  I often think though, how virile these characters must be to copulate once and then have an illegitimate child.  Spock isn’t even with Zarabeth very long!  What is it, like a day?  Maybe Sarpeidons are really fertile (lets say nothing about Vulcans not breeding with other species very well because of their copper based blood)?

Anyway, I’m kind of glad that Zarabeth had company in the form of a child (at least in this novel), her fate was a very cruel one.  Mind you, she could have been a mad axe murderer as far as we know.

I was actually really surprised that they found an isolated but surprisingly cultured young man.  I suppose in my head I expected him to be some kind of savage, but that makes no sense because Zarabeth was (seemingly not an axe murderer) normal, literate, intelligent.  Perhaps I’m just anticipating the worst at this point!

Zar was beautifully written, Crispin managed to avoid many ‘Mary Sue’ pitfalls while maintaining a likeable, intelligent character.  That being said the empathic abilities were a little under utilised or perhaps, strangely utilised.  The portion where he felt the deaths of the landing party, while interesting, served little purpose in even moving the plot along since it didn’t even really demonstrate the ability that is used when essentially scouting the Romulan camp.  The more important feature is his ability to project his emotions, the ground work for that particular ability was laid early.

Zar being particularly likeable of course makes it even more frustrating that Spock seems unable to bond with him, or at least, accept him for who he is.  In many ways Zar is not unlike Kirk, a noticeable comparison which isn’t accidental, which makes Spock’s reticence to treat Zar fairly (from our perspective) even more perplexing.  There’s a small plot point slipped in which stems from a misunderstanding of a Vulcan word which could explain it.  It suggests that Spock is feeling intense shame and that Vulcan society would not shame the illegitimate child, but Spock himself.  I wonder if Spock’s reaction would have been different when faced with a young child and not a young adult.

Which leads me onto this point, ignore the age of Spock on the front cover.  This book takes place nearing the end of the five year mission.  At several points Spock says that having Zar as a son would be a physical impossibility.  Seeing as his first pon farr happens in the first year of the five year mission (when Spock was 35), having a 24 year old son would be impossible!  This is a point of contention, since Spock refuses to acknowledge Zar as his son to others, perhaps because of his shame, but his given explanation appears to be that it would be impossible to explain when the workings of the Guardian are kept secret.  Zar of course is understandably hurt by Spock’s refusal to publicly acknowledge him.

Generally characterisation is excellent.  I particularly enjoyed McCoy and Kirk’s sections.  McCoy was just, top notch classic McCoy, I could SEE McCoy with such clarity when Crispin described him, facial expressions, actions, the lot.  His dialogue and descriptions are spot on, like as follows:

“Jim’s all right – well, depends on your definition.  Shock, exhaustion, three broken ribs… he should be in sickbay.  But if I know him, he’ll want to -” The Vulcan could hear several shots from the hypo hiss, then McCoy’s grumble again, “… the worst patient in Star Fleet, won’t rest, has to do it himself, you watch-“

By this time Spock could see, watched as the doctor, never ceasing his monologue, deftly bound Kirk’s rib cage in an elastic bandage that automatically adjusted for maximum support.  By the time McCoy had finished, Kirk was conscious.  

This picture just seemed fitting!

What I really liked and had sorely missed was McCoy’s presence as one of the trinity.  In the ten previous books he was sorely underrepresented, but here he’s given I think pretty much the same page time as everyone else.  He interacts with Kirk and Spock, the banter is there, he is recognised as an important character.  This is probably mostly due to this book not having any particular agenda, or definitive ‘kink’.

Kirk’s characterisation is simply ‘Jim Kirk’.  While there isn’t a particular memorable quote, there are memorable scenes which stick out and just made me say to myself, yes, that’s Kirk.  From pulling rank and blackmail to get himself in on Spock’s trip to the past, to his stubborn and self sacrificing actions.  His wisdom, as facet of his personality often forgotten by writers is also used well, particularly when dealing with Zar and later, the Romulan threat.

Possibly the most satisfying part of the book concerning Kirk is one in which his involvement is quite passive.  For those of us who are slash fans, it is squee inducing vindication.  For those of us who are not slash inclined then it simply demonstrates the depth of the platonic love between Kirk and Spock, especially from Spock’s side.  Basically, Zar senses that Kirk occupies a huge part of Spock’s mind, that essentially his feelings are greater than the feelings for him.  Refreshingly, Zar’s reaction to this is quite fair, he doesn’t for example lash out at Kirk for this, but he is confused.  However, he does finally realise after been knocked unconscious by Spock, that he was left in safety while Spock went with Kirk into danger.  He realises that, Spock cared for him enough as a son that he wanted to keep him safe from harm, and that this is different from the strong emotion shown towards Kirk.  Later they share a mind meld where all is explained.  This is especially heart wrenching when we realise that in TNG, Sarek will confirm he had never mind melded with Spock, so Spock never knew how proud he was.  In that context, this moment is even more powerful.

Before Zar goes back through the Guardian, he turns to Kirk, concerned at the possibility of him being in trouble for breaking General Order Nine.  Kirk reassures him it’s going to be alright and Zar replies –

The laughter in the grey eyes died, as he leaned close and whispered, “Take care of him, please.” 

Kirk nodded.

He knows.  He knows and understands, and it’s ok.

Oh golly.  It isn’t just that bit either.  Remember that Spock and Kirk are captured prior to this? Well…  Even the Romulans tacitly acknowledge the depth of bond between Spock and Kirk, to the point of harming Kirk in order to try and get Spock to crack and give them information about the Federation’s activities on the Guardian’s planet.

Hohum, we’re going in that direction are we?

I read the section when Spock and Kirk were captured and subsequently rescued to my partner.  He came to the same conclusion I did concerning the K/S relationship there.  A quick example –

The Vulcan wished he’d been able to leave Jim behind, too.  He had no personal fear of death – it was simply a lack of biological existence, with either something or nothing following – but the thought of Kirk’s death was a pain that mind control could not block.

Do you think that Spock would have revealed the mystery of the Guardian in order to save Kirk’s life?  We know from the series the depth of feeling he has for Kirk, his reaction even as early as in Amok Time is quite telling, while in other episodes he becomes quite illogical (much to McCoy’s amusement) when he doesn’t know if Kirk is safe or not.  I think it would be a pretty tough call.  Luckily for him, Spock and Kirk are rescued before he is put to the test… but not before Kirk almost kills himself.  I was in two minds about this, was he trying to cause a distraction, or did he realise that it was too risky to allow himself to be used as a bargaining chip / threat against Spock?

… Anyway, I think I’ve probably gone on about this book for too long.  Safe to say I loved it.

TLDR Yesterday’s Son is probably definitely one of the best I’ve read.

5/5 – Read it, like, yesterday.

I didn’t even write anything about A C Crispin herself!!  She’s a really interesting character too!  Maybe next time!

Star Trek The Motion Picture – Novel – Gene Roddenberry

I actually read this about six months ago, but I didn’t want to write about it until I’d watched it again… and I didn’t want to watch it again before I’d rewatched TOS.  So FINALLY I get to write about one of the most thoughtful and beautiful novels which just should be an essential counterpart to the film.

The Star Trek The Motion Picture novelisation is actually the only Star Trek novel Gene Roddenberry  wrote himself, which is both wonderful and sad – wonderful that we get to see his writing and ideas ‘first hand’ but sad because it is only the one novel, and he has a wonderful writing style.  One of the things I have read about Roddenberry is that he was a ‘big picture’ person – big ideas, but leaving the details to others – however this novelisation is all about the details.

My first introduction to the novel was actually via ‘the Roddenberry footnote’, which introduces the concept of th’yla – more on that later – of course I had to read the novel after reading just a footnote on it.  Following up the footnote subsequently caused me to read William Shatner’s first biography Where No Man, which gives some insight to Roddenberry’s thoughts going into the movie and the kind of influences on him at the time.  Incidentally the two women who wrote Shatner’s biography (which takes the form of, in many parts, interview) are also the writers of a few Star Trek novels published through Pocket Books and I happen to be reading them at the moment.  They seem to stick very closely to the sentiments expressed by Roddenberry and Shatner as well as the details in the Star Trek The Motion Picture novelisation.

The reason I suggest that this novel should be an essential counterpart to the film is because there is a lot of explanation and expansion of scenes and characters.  For example, why are the characters in the transporter accident significant?  What happened to Kirk to change him from that charismatic leader to the dour, broken individual we see through most of the film?  What does Spock telepathically sense on Vulcan?  What were Spock’s motivations for purging himself of emotions once and for all?  There’s a whole host of questions left unanswered by the film that do have their answers in the book.

Now I’m not saying the film can’t stand on its own per se,  it can, but reading the novel and watching the film (preferably the novel before the film) just makes the experience a helluva lot richer.  I feel that this novel is what novel adaptations of movies should be, not just a cash cow, not just rehashing the story scene by scene, but actually significantly adding to the understanding of the film.

It’s significant that Roddenberry wrote this much expanded companion to the film.  It’s significant new terms are introduced and it’s significant that it overtly adds what the film couldn’t due to trying to bypass the censors or because it was trying to appeal to a broad audience.

For your information, I consider this novel 100% canon.  If this can’t be considered  canon, I don’t know what can.

Before I dive headlong into my gasping appreciation of the Kirk/Spock relationship exposé, which frankly is the whole point of the film I’ll point out a few things which make the film that much more comprehensible.

New Humans – knowing about the New Human movement goes a significant way into understanding just why Kirk is in the situation he is in.  You don’t learn about this movement in the film, but you do in the book, and you also get an indication of the malleability of Human thought and importance of individuality in an increasingly homogenous society in the preface (written by none other than Kirk himself of course!!).  The implication is that Kirk was made an admiral and kept on Earth after the end of the five year mission as a figurehead representing the best of humanity and the pinnacle of individualism.  We get much description of how Starfleet and it’s personnel are old fashioned and that the new and more advanced humans are moving towards almost a group consciousness and are wooed by greater intellects, something that we are told make them unsuitable for deep space exploration.  The New Humans are said to have been increasingly critical of Starfleet and Kirk was used as a pawn to secure support on earth.

McCoy left Starfleet in protest because they made Kirk an admiral despite his protests and his opinion that Kirk would not be suitable for the position:

‘Upon learning that Admiral’s stars were to be offered to Kirk, McCoy had protested vehemently and had secured the backing of other prominent medical officers in the fight.’

McCoy resigned because his recommendations were ignored.  We don’t know what happened in those last two years of the five year mission, but when Kirk got back, he wasn’t the man we left at the end of the third season.  We also don’t know what happened to make Spock leave (pfft), but we do know that Kirk couldn’t process that at the time:

‘Also, he had not really understood how deeply Spock’s abrupt departure for Vulcan had affected him. He had been depending on the Vulcan’s friendship and logic much more than he realized.’

 He (McCoy) knew his friend would be broken (and possibly was already broken) in his new position.  I have little doubt that McCoy realised Kirk was going to be used with little consideration to his mental health and as a doctor he couldn’t stand by and watch it happen.

There are extra sections, extra insight from McCoy into Kirk’s mental state in the book, and it is McCoy who redresses Kirk for his actions.  Their relationship needs time to heal, the slow speed in which it occurs however is a poignant indication of Kirk’s broken state.

The novelisation adds significant observations from and about the rest of the crew which are not included in the film.  The original crew recognise that Kirk is different, that he’s dangerous in his current state.  It’s a testament to their belief and loyalty to him that they still follow him into the breach regardless, even when he has lost his charisma and charm.

We also learn about Lori, the woman who died during the teleporter malfunction.  Lori was Kirk’s lover on earth in the first year after taking up his position in the admiralty.  She was sent to him by Admiral Nogura to ‘heal and pleasure’ him, which he accepted, however he knows that she was there to help control him on Earth.  He knows this, but is relatively unconcerned, he isn’t vengeful he isn’t angry, he just accepts it… he’s completely dispassionate.  She was involved in Nogura’s manipulation, which is made clear to him in scenes not in the film.

Of course, we also get a hell of a lot of insight into Spock’s character, and into the relationship between him and Kirk.  In particular we get given the concept of T’hy’la and it’s explanation in footnotes.  We also get told that T’hy’la is the term Spock attributes to Kirk – it means ‘friend, brother, lover’.  I’m not going to go into an analysis of that now, that’s a whole ‘nother blog post, but we can safely say that at the end of the five year mission, something happened and Spock went running away to purge his ‘shameful’ emotions on Vulcan.  We get so much extra narrative about Spock’s ‘feelings’ on Vulcan, we also get an explanation of what Spock ‘hears’… He ‘hears’ Kirk thinking about him, calling out to him from Earth to Vulcan.  Spock fails to purge his emotions because of Kirk.

Spock refers to Kirk as his T’hy’la and all that implies, Kirk who lacks that word (presumably, otherwise I suppose he would have used it) he describes their relationship like this:

‘But still it felt painful to be reminded so powerfully and unexpectedly of his friendship and affection for Spock – their had been the touching of two minds which the old poets of Spock’s home planet had proclaimed superior to even the wild physical love which affected Vulcans every seventh year during pon farr.’

He lashes out at Spock when he is jilted, he wants to hurt him, but he also desperately needs him.  Even in this reduced capacity, once Spock is on the Enterprise again Kirk regains himself, and even Decker feels his respect towards Kirk increase.

Basically, if you want to learn about the inner workings of the characters, read this book, I’m barely touching on the additional content.

The novelisation has no qualms about the exposition of the two parallel  relationships of Decker/Ilia and Kirk/Spock.  None.  At. All.  The movie only thinly veils the comparison, the novelisation doesn’t even bother.  And the overall theme of the movie?  That is basically sidestepped all the time (probably because of the two narratives) – love – you don’t get to read that another way.  Love is referred to strangely in the movie / novelisation, have you noticed that Kirk calls even overt love ‘friendship’ – e.g. he calls Ilia and Decker’s relationship ‘friendship’ and he hesitates and calls his relationship with Spock ‘friendship’ too.  I’m fairly sure that Kirk uses these terms interchangeably – much like the term ‘t’hy’la?  DAMN and I said I wouldn’t get into this right now!

By the way, there are some extra parts to the um, ‘sickbay scene’ that make the whole thing completely ‘un-misreadable’.  He is comforted, told that he didn’t have to worry about ‘shame’, he ‘clings’ to Kirk, he feels ‘needs’.

Q.E.D.  Roddenberry confirmed it right there.

The end of the novel plays out pretty much the same way as the film does.  There is an extra line at the end in which Spock banters with Kirk, indicating they are healed and that this is the start of more great adventures.

The novelisation is just… wonderful.  Wonderful companion, wonderful exposition, wonderful vindication.  Read it – I know I’m about to read it again!

5/5 – L.L.A.P

Star Trek – Dreams of the Raven

‘When the deck tremors began, the first officer was already braced for the movement but McCoy immediately lost his balance.  Above the whine of the ship’s engines came the shatter of glass hitting a far wall and the crack of bone against metal.‘

Dreams of the Raven (#34 Pocket, #3 Titan) (1987) by Carmen Carter is a strong character driven tale which also has a well crafted plot, if at times arguably cliched. Although the book’s focus is McCoy there is also a great deal of character development for Kirk, Spock, and even Nurse Chapel.

Carmen Carter is better known for get Star Trek TNG novels, having penned three.  She has also written a few short stories and a good many Star Trek themed essays!  I think some will be easier to get hold of than others (Vulcan as a Meritocracy (1986)) but I want to at least read a couple!

Carmen Carter on isfdb

I didn’t really know what to think when I (belatedly) picked up Dreams of the Raven for the first time, but the blurb intrigued me and the cover is unusual… though not ‘pretty’ by my definition!  However, I do like the expression on McCoy’s face… but I am a little confused with what Kirk is doing here, since it has zero bearing on anything in the story.  The ships in the background kind of  illustrate a scene in the novel… kind of.  I did think that Dreams of the Raven was going to be another ‘supernatural’ type story like Ghost Walker… I was fooled!  Well, it seems if you’re like me and choose Star Trek novels by their covers, you’ll always be surprised by the content!

I’ve often wondered what kind of briefs were given to the artists for these covers (as you know) because sometimes they are somewhat offbeat, but also who comes up with the tag lines?  The editor?  The author?  Someone paid outrageous sums of money to read books and come up with exciting but usually inaccurate statements?  And do they also write the mostly inaccurate blurbs?  I’ll ask an author friend of mine and get back to you!

I feel obliged to inform you first that I didn’t like this novel, I LOVED IT.  From the first page of the prologue to the very last page of the final chapter and when I finished it, even though I knew the story had reached it’s conclusion and tied up all its ends neatly, I wanted more.  It ended too soon.  Dammit Carter, why did you only write one TOS book?!  I could have read a series of books by her, she has a real gift for writing characters, she can write suspense, she handles combat scenes with consummate ease and she manages to make it look easy.

The story on it’s own was rather good.  The Enterprise is docked at a civilian station when they receive a distress call from a Frenni merchant ship.  The Enterprise goes to the aid of the civilian ship but instead is ambushed.  The civilian ship rams the Enterprise – which is only saved by the virtue of its shields – crippling a nacelle and effectively disabling the ship’s warp capabilities.  Low on power and hobbled the crew of the Enterprise must fend off alien attacks whilst trying to work out what these new and terrifying aliens are and what they want!

Meanwhile, McCoy suffers a head injury which seemingly causes him to suffer from amnesia, making him forget the last twenty five years of his life!  However, the true cause of his reversion to his twenty four year old self is not as simple as a bump on the head, and relates more to the terrifying new aliens than anyone (even he) realises.

That’s it.  That’s all I’m going to tell you story wise, because it’ll be truly spoilt otherwise.  It’s worth reading – do it.

Carter manages to tap into the rhythm of the characters – she doesn’t miss a beat for example when Spock and McCoy are having a tiff you just know what is going to come next and she isn’t afraid to show the effect of McCoy’s absence on Kirk, or even Spock whose emotional response is keenly observed by his friend.  Dreams of the Raven presents a broken trinity in a way that simple death or belief of death doesn’t manage, because McCoy is alive an well in front of them but is unreachable.  The palpable sense of loss from Kirk is heart breaking, especially as the McCoy in front of him hasn’t matured enough to respect him as a Captain, let alone ever consider him close friend material.  I think Kirk suffers more here, isolated as he is from his confidante, friend and sounding board.  Carter implies something touching, that Kirk’s strength is drawn from his two friends, when one is missing he is plagued with doubt.  Kirk of course isn’t so dependant that he can’t function under the circumstances, we know his will is greater than that, but we can see that his victories come with more of a struggle, and his confidence in his own decisions wavers, even with the acceptance of his first officer.

Spock’s loss is tacit, not characterised by emotions like Kirk’s roiling sea, but instead calm and still… too calm and still.  Kirk sees it, his understanding translating the slight hesitation and the unspoken question.  I was tempted to say that Spock is lonely without McCoy there, but that’s not quite right since Kirk really is his anchor and I don’t think he could ever be lonely with his t’hyla beside him, it’s more… ripples in his calm sea.  A motionless sea reflects like glass but ripples reflect and distort and make things interesting.  That’s the imagery that came into my head anyway.  I love extended metaphors.

McCoy hasn’t lost a thing by his estimation, only gained a second chance to live his life without regret.  I’ve got to commend him for his quick acceptance that he has lost the memories of 25 years of his life, but then, adaptability is the power of youth, eh?  Some people have bad things to say about this novel because they don’t like the characterisation of McCoy, that he’s too different or unlikable, but that’s the point isn’t it?  It took 25 years from that point for McCoy to become the man he did, wouldn’t it cheapen him to be the same man at 24 as he is at 49?  The other thing people complained about was that Carter used the ‘amnesia’ plot device and that it made the whole situation too ‘cliched… have they watched TOS?!  Anyway, it transpires that the whole ‘amnesia’ thing wasn’t really caused by the fall at all but his own subconscious trying to remind him of a patient he had seen as a young doctor who had encountered these aliens but had been considered insane.

Some reviewers have also said that Dreams of the Raven is mainly concerned with adding more backstory to McCoy, I’m not really sure that is true.  Carter dips her feet into his history just enough to show character growth which ultimately makes him essential to the Enterprise.  I guess I feel this story is more an analysis of how and why Kirk and the Enterprise succeeds where others have failed and gives credit where credit is due.

ANYWAY – although I love this book, I really don’t want to write anymore about it because I’d end up spoiling it, and the suspense will be ruined if I say anymore.  So read it dammit and enjoy it!

5/5 – I’m a doctor not a xenobiologist!  

Star Trek – Doctor’s Orders

He laughed softly. ‘Fine.  I just wish the Captain would walk in here.  You know the trouble with this chair?’
‘Wish I did’ Devlin said with undisguised envy.
‘You’re nuts,’ McCoy said.  ‘Well, each to his own insanity.  This thing has no back support to speak of.’

So, I was looking for something that would lighten my mood a little bit, something that would allow me to de-stress.  I was starting to feel a little fatigued by the emotional onslaught of ST:TOS fanzines and my novel choices had been a little heavy!  Jen I thought, you’ve got to pick something a little more therapeutic this time, otherwise you’re going to be an emotional wreck this week!  Who better to see when you need a bit of therepy than a good ol’ country doctor?

This cover makes me feel inexplicably happy!

Doctor’s Orders (#50 Pocket, #36 Titan) (1990) by Diane Duane was just the prescription I needed!  Initially I thought I’d reviewed a novel by Diane Duane before, the name was so familiar, but on checking, no I hadn’t!  I have got several books by her that I have yet to read however which kinda explains it.  At least, I recognised it as being a name attached to The Romulan Way which I have multiple copies of… 

Diane Duane is pretty prolific when it comes to Star Trek!  By the time Doctors Orders was released in 1990 she already had eight Star Trek related projects under her belt including other novels, a computer game and even a TNG episode!  Post 1990 Duane has also written a ST:TOS manga series, a TNG comic mini series and adapted her works for audio production.  Most notably she has her Rihannsu series of ST:TOS novels, which originally started as two standalone novels My Enemy, My Ally and The Romulan Way but now encompasses 5 novels which have now been collected and published as The Bloodwing Voyages.

Needless to say I knew none of the above when I decided to read this, however it soon becomes quite clear that Duane is a seriously talented writer with a real love and understanding of Star Trek.  It isn’t just her delicate hand when it come to crafting familiar main characters or new species that makes her writing great though, she’s also quite capable of baffling pseudo-science!  It seems really unusual for a writer (either male or female) to be able to balance satisfying (for me!) characterisation and scientific jargon without either producing strange robot characters or conjuring some sort of space magic.

Honestly, the gorgeous cover of this book was enough to make me want to read it, but really it’s the cherry on top when next to premise of McCoy being put in command of the Enterprise and pretty much everything going wrong.  Not only does Kirk go missing soon after McCoy is put in command, but a Klingon ship appears in orbit of the planet the crew of the Enterprise is surveying and their crew goes missing!  This compounds with McCoy having to deal with an overzealous Starfleet, Klingon reinforcements cruising for a bruising and to add insult to injury, an Orion pirate ship of colossal proportions joins the party with designs of making the Enterprise a trophy (why yes, I did enjoy using all those idioms).

As you can probably imagine, there is a lot going on in the narrative of this book, there’s McCoy ‘s narrative, Kirk’s narrative, and also a couple of short Klingon narratives.  Despite the many threads and characters – Duane is careful to include all of the ‘first family’ – nothing feels rushed or as if she has less interest in one section than another.  Duane’s characterisations are spot on, and this is especially noticeable in McCoy’s case – he grumbles, mutters, curses and has more than a few periods of introspection where he realises that possibly his own simplistic suggestions to Kirk might have been not so helpful after all!  An example of a nice touch, is when he realises that perhaps the captain comfort eats in times of stress and that he might have to bring that up in his next physical.  Kirk’s characterisation plays on both his impish sense of humour and his uncanny ability to take everything in his stride.  Kirk’s narrative is split between the Enterprise (before he gave command to McCoy) and his time ‘missing’ on the planet’s surface while talking to a strange species called the ;At.  Kirk also deals with (with the ;At’s help) a small group of very confused Klingons.

I’m not sure how Duane does it, but she manages to make the Klingons endearing.  Not very often that ones wants to cuddle a Klingon, but I certainly want to now!  Well, these are TOS Klingons, no pointy teeth or forehead ridges, so, perhaps that’s more acceptable!  McCoy’s interactions with the Klingon commander are wonderful,  especially because he just can’t help being a Doctor and advising on the Klingon’s medical condition, all the while insulting him.  His ‘good’ relations with the Klingons ends up benefiting him since they come to his aid against the Orion pirate ship.

The new aliens in the book are pretty interesting, and after all they are the main reason that the Enterprise is orbiting the planet in the first place.  Initial surveys from Starfleet suggest that three different sentient species have evolved on the same planet, and since this appears to be the only planet where this has occurred they want to study the peoples of the planet.  The inhabitants of the are very much ‘others’ not just because they are happy little slimes or ‘ents’ but because they perceive the past, present and future simultaneously.  The ;At, who is perceived as moving stones or vapour is a little more mysterious, and yes I’m having trouble writing about it/them, as its existence is mutable!  I really enjoyed the Enterprise crew trying to get the universal translator to work and trying to make sense out of creatures that simultaneously appear to exist in the past, present and future.

The final space battle with the Orions is really impressive – so well written!  I loved McCoy’s reactions here and the overall competence of the crew.  When Kirk is back in the drivers seat however, everybody is relieved!  Another thing I liked here is how Kirk literally just appears on the bridge of the Enterprise, in the middle of combat, and just gets down to business.  Assesses the situation and makes it all work without breaking a sweat (afterall McCoy is doing all the sweating!).

It was good to see the Enterprise take part in what should have been a routine mission which was scientific in nature.  Sure, strange things happened but it wasn’t the great drama we’re kind of accustomed to seeing.  The Enterprise is in orbit for much of the book, the Captain has an incredibly restful time (for once!) and much of it is concerned with a rather peaceful dialogue with other aliens, both resident of the planet and of the Klingon variety.  As I said at the beginning, it was just what I needed to feel more peaceful and pleasant again, it’s a very calming book!

5/5 – The past, present and future walk into a bar.  It was tense.

Star Trek – Ishmael

‘The face of an intellectual Satan, thought Stemple; pinched and sunken with the last extremities of pain.’

Ishmael (1985) (#23 Pocket, #26 Titan) by Barbara Hambly has certainly impressed me, and seems set to be one of my few ‘comfort’ novels; novels that I return to again and again to scratch a certain literary itch.  I’m actually pretty shocked that I haven’t come across her work before, as she’s quite prolific and many of her books fall squarely in my usual thematic hunting ground.  Thank you, Star Trek novels for introducing me to more fuel for the imagination engine! 

Hambly’s Website.

Hambly is an incredibly strong author, her narrative is engaging, the characters are en pointe, and her turn of phrase is just… so succinct.  I’m sorry, I’m starting to gush aren’t I?  Well, I can’t help it!  From my perspective, Hambly didn’t put a foot wrong and I’m not necessarily the intended audience. 

As I’ve said before I generally read books blind, I buy in bulk and when selecting my next fix I spread a pile of books on the floor and look at the covers – yes, I’m that superficial (in my defense, when you have about 60 books in your ‘to read’ pile, sometimes that’s the only way)!  The day I chose Ishmael I was obviously in a ‘Spock’ mood (don’t you just love his expression?), I think I was pretty charmed by the cover, and I just LOVE time travel stories and alternate universes and… bootstrap paradoxes.  I had no idea that the characters on the front of the novel could be based on characters from another T V series.  The other thing, is that I’m woefully undereducated about the period of American history much of the novel takes place in (being from the UK), it’s pretty alien to me, and actually, this makes it even better, because I go into these stories with virtually no expectation of what might or might not happen.

I also have a very patchy knowledge of American TV from the 60s to 80s, don’t be too judgemental, I was born 3 years after this book was published, however if you wanted to know about British TV from that time period, I’d be a lot more knowledgeable!  I really want to make it clear that I read this book, this cameo heavy book and picked up on, one perhaps two inconsequential cameos and it didn’t affect my enjoyment of it at all.  If I had known that Hambly uses the characters and setting from the 1968 series Here Come the Brides before reading Ishmael I probably wouldn’t have read it, believing that I wouldn’t enjoy it because I’d have no understanding of the references.  Emphatically, I have to state, even if you have zero knowledge of any of the cameos, it will not affect your enjoyment of the book;  Hambly is an incredibly competent author, writing to essentially two different levels of readership, and she frankly, pulls it off.

Back to the book itself.  The main narrative is Spock’s (or Ishmael’s) narrative which takes place over a period of four months located in 1867 Seattle, there’s also a secondary narrative which takes place in the Star Trek ‘present’, which involves Kirk trying to work out cryptic messages left by Spock just before his disappearance; this takes place over a course of a week.

The story opens with Kirk in a state of distress, he doesn’t know whether or not Spock is dead, he actually hopes that Spock is dead, as he knows that the Klingons are masterful at torture, and twenty-four hours is a long time to be under their interrogation.  Kirk then reflects on the events which led up to Spock’s disappearance.  Before they lost contact with Spock, who had infiltrated a Klingon ship disguised as a starbase technician, he sent two cryptic messages, which Kirk and his team on the Starbase 12 spend much of their time trying to decrypt, in order to prevent whatever the Klingons are trying to affect in the past.  Three new characters are drafted in to help with this work, an aged Vulcan historian named ‘Trae’, Maria Kellogg the human commander of Starbase 12, and Aurelia Steiner a Drelb astrophysicist.  Trae and Maria are pretty standard.  Trae is an ancient Vulcan historian who eventually helps point the team in the right direction and Maria is refreshingly helpful.  The most interesting (to me) is actually the Drelb, Aurelia.  Remember the Sackers from The Three-Minute Universe?  The Drelb are pleasant versions of the same idea, they change colours and give off nice smells when they are happy.  They also create eyes for the benefit of other species (to allow eye contact) and morph hands for themselves when they need to take things from others, instead of using tentacles.  Ishmael came out in 1985, The Three-Minute Universe came out in 1988 and it’s hard not to think that the Drelb influenced the ‘Sackers’.

As you can guess, after some altercations on the Starbase, Kirk’s team manage to work out the Klingon plan and use a spacial anomaly to travel into Earth’s past, keep in mind that until fairly near the end they believe Spock dead.

The longer and more involved narrative is Spock’s sojourn in Seattle.  Now, I absolutely love, love love, ‘stranger in a strange land’ stories, mix that in with a bit of time travel, a splash of colonial fiction, and really, you have a winner for me.  What’s really great, if that I know very little of frontier Seattle either, so, I’m a stranger too!

Spock is found half dead by Aaron Stemple, who realises almost immediately that he isn’t human, not least because of the masses of green blood exiting Spock’s body.  Being a ridiculously reasonable man, he decides that this ‘intellectual Satan’ is enough human to save, and takes him back to his secluded cabin and nurses Spock back health.  Spock doesn’t remember himself, although he is aware he is not human.  He has no memory of his past, or what he is doing here, save glimpses when he gets reminded of something, however trying to remember causes him great pain, just a memory of pain.  Aaron gives Spock a new name Ishmael and presents him to the other residents of the town as his Nephew.  This is fitting because Aaron Stemple is played by Mark Lenard, Mark Lenard plays Spock’s father, Sarek.  This is a really important (meta) plot point…

I tried to think why Hambly would use the name Ishmael, I don’t think it’s a common Jewish name because it’s more commonly associated with Islam.  Ishmael means in Hebrew approximately ‘God hears’, hears what, who is ‘god’ here?  I can’t even work out if Aaron Stemple is supposed to be Jewish or not?  I assumed he was while reading because Mark Lenard and Leonard Nimoy are both Jewish.  I don’t seem to be able to find much information on ‘Here Come the Brides’ either, infuriating.  At this rate I’ll be buying the series and blogging about that too so that I can get the answers to my questions!  Perhaps I’m just thinking too much about this… on the other hand, Hambly doesn’t seem like a writer just to use any name.  I just don’t know.

Anyway back to the task at hand.  Spock lives for four months without his memory, he interacts with many of the recurring characters from ‘Here Come the Brides’ essentially giving them an end to their stories since the TV show was cancelled after two seasons, and giving Spock almost a ‘beginning’ of his.  He  ‘logically’ advises people to get together, helps to develop a gambling system and by his mere presence ensures his own future, in fact that his own birth will come to pass.  Ah, the joys of a bootstrap paradox, all this had to happen because it had already happened.  The Klingons, in their desire to prevent the Federation from existing, from humans ever being able to develop themselves, actually cause the humans to reject Khasid influence.  The human who prevents it?  Aaron Stemple.

I don’t want to spoil too much of what goes on in Seattle, because it is just so well written and so much fun to read, I’ll leave that to you, but Spock edges gradually to embracing his humanity, his human characteristics to the point of showing genuine affection for Biddy Cloom, who as it turns out, is his maternal ancestor.

Hambly strings you along a little bit throughout the novel, especially where relationships are concerned.  Spock is always on the edge of emotion, but not quite.  Kirk is on the edge of a break down, but keeps himself busy, because there is a past to save, his grief can come later.  Which we do see in the series itself, for example when his brother and sister-in-law die.  I was expecting Spock to remember Kirk somehow, I was possibly influenced by ‘Killing Time’ in this respect!  He doesn’t get reminded of a likeness, but he can’t think through the fog of pain to grasp the memory.  However, all my desires for Kirk and Spock interaction were sated by the following passage:

At the table a man slumped, his head bowed on his folded arms, his breathing slow with sleep.  From the dark mane of uncut hair and the plaid wool shirt McCoy assumed it to be Stemple, and started to turn towards the door to the other room.  Kirk paused, recognizing something, even in sleep, in the attitude of the sloping shoulders.

He came back, softly, to the sleeper’s side.  “Mr Spock,” he whispered.  “Spock.”

Spock raised his head.  His dark eyes were clouded with a fatigue extreme even for a Vulcan; they regarded Kirk for a moment with a kind of blank incomprehension, then closed again, and for a instant Spock’s crushing grip locked around Kirk’s hands.

That was my major character / relationship development reward for reading this book, you do get a few more moments after this, but I just felt like this was so well done, I squealed with delight!  I just love reunions!

The ‘baddie’ Klingons are somewhat… absent throughout most of the novel.  You know they are there, you don’t know quite when they are going to turn up and they aren’t really developed as characters, the Klingons are essentially just goons.  Which is fine, usually I’d want a bit more development but it does work in this novel, and I don’t really feel the need to nitpick at all.

There are SO MANY cameos in this novel, there are at least four Doctor Who cameos (the fourth doctor is in a bar on the Starbase), Star Wars references (Han Solo is also in the bar), and characters from Bonanza and Man with No Name make their appearance in Seattle, as well as others.  This is all reported, I only picked up on like one cameo in total, because I am an abject failure… I’m British and I don’t actually like Doctor Who in the slightest…

This novel just works really well!  It was successful from a Star Trek perspective, and it’s managed to sell me another TV series I didn’t even know existed.  Additionally, it manages to shamelessly borrow a whole cast of characters, and not tip you off if you haven’t seen the shows.  I love it, I’m totally in love with this novel, why are you still reading this?  Go read Ishmael.  Go on!

5/5 – Here Comes my Bride.

PS:  I feel slightly less bad about not knowing about ‘Here Come the Brides’, I asked an American friend and he hadn’t heard of it either.  I feel vindicated.