Star Trek – Memory Prime

Spock walked back to the interface console.  He inserted his hands.  Kirk winced as he saw Spock give a final push to make sure the leads were embedded directly in his nerves.  Then Spock went rigid.

It has taken me so long to read Memory Prime (#42 Pocket, #16 Titan) (1988) that I can barely remember the beginning, and that really saddens me because I was really looking forward to reading a novel by Gar and Judith Reeves-Stevens.  Why? Well, because they wrote the ‘Shatnerverse‘ novels and I’ve heard good things about them.  I wanted to enjoy Memory Prime because that means I’d be looking forward to all the other novels they have written… unfortunately Memory Prime was…

… boring …

The cover is horrible and while it contains elements of the plot it’s almost completely unrelated to what actually happens.

There, I said it.  It bored me, I simply didn’t want to pick it up.  When I read a few good books in a row nothing can stop me, Memory Prime brought me to a screeching halt.

A while ago a lady commented that the early novels were the best and that she lost interest as the Star Trek novels lost that little bit of special something, perhaps a bit of heart that the more amateur fan authors nurtured, a little bit of joyous play instead of the little too serious veneer of the professional author.

Memory Prime  is well written, but in my opinion paced poorly.  It took three quarters of the book to actually get going, I was reading a couple of pages every couple of days but I really couldn’t find the motivation to keep reading until I hit the turning point and the ‘action’ started.  The final sequence itself was full of good characterisation and then… perhaps a bit of Tron?  I felt Spock’s ability to ‘dive’ into the computer was a little contrary to the ‘canon’ they had set up in the novel, it felt clumsy and lazy.

I’m getting ahead of myself again.

Memory Prime on Memory Alpha

Unsurprisingly neither Memory Alpha or Memory Beta have a detailed summary I can link to… Perhaps other people also feel that nothing much of anything actually happens?  I’m also not going to write a summary because I can’t remember enough of it.  Which having taken a peak at the goodreads page seems to be a recurring theme.  As a side note, who keeps rating the Star Trek novels so highly on goodreads?  Even the bloody awful ones often end up with a stirling 3 stars, do people just randomly go through series of books and rating them without reading them?  Thinking about it, I really wouldn’t be surprised.

The big problem with Memory Prime is the sheer number of dead ends in the narrative, and although I guess the authors were trying to deliberately obfuscate and try to make it like a ‘real life detective story’, but still many of the digressions just feel like a waste of time.  This also goes for the characters that get developed, I don’t feel particularly invested and I certainly don’t feel the story is any richer for their inclusion.  The narrative seems complex for complexities’ sake… not for the bettering of the narrative.  In some ways this is what Diane Duane does, but done badly, and at least the fleeting characters have some use in progressing the narrative and don’t feel like cheap filler.

Speaking of Diane Duane her lore regarding the Romulans is referenced in Memory Prime.

Another issue with Memory Prime is that much there are far too many characters with ISS (inexplicable stupidity syndrome)… the plot wouldn’t function about it.  Just when you think a character couldn’t overlook another key plot point because it’s so blindly obvious, they defy your expectations and fail… badly.  As you know, I hate HATE, ISS, it’s just simply bad and lazy writing.

Screen cap from review on goodreads by ‘Robin’.  Do they ship them? I think they do.

The main plot involving the computer intelligences was actually pretty endearing, at least when you were reading about their thoughts, it was a fun addition to an otherwise dull novel.  I really liked the different characterisations of the intelligences which was related to what they had been originally or how old they were.  However Spock interfacing with the machines despite not having any of the training / equipment / implants was hard to swallow especially since it had been built up that only the people with the implants could do that and they were proud of that.

Which reminds me.  The whole subplot with Spock being arrested with absolutely no evidence and the (female) commander with a chip on her shoulder just deciding she was going to ignore any protocol and threaten everyone because she was in control now?  Literally half the tedium of the book would be cut out if that character wasn’t so contrived.

I guess what is really, truly annoying about this book is that it’s written ‘well’ but the the content is poor.  You can tell, especially once the action starts that Gar and Judith are good writers but have settled on the most mediocre content.  The fact it’s ‘well written’ is the only reason it’s not getting a 1/5.

2/5 – as exciting as scanning for iridium.

Star Trek – Battlestations!

I’m not going to let him work our windward Piper, bring the jib sheet in two pulls.  You left it too free.”

Always the cut.  Always the barb.  Why?  Didn’t he have enough laurels to sit on?  Not ten people in a million had his status.  Why pick on me?

But as I glared at the captain, ire mixed with a stab of sympathy for him…

Irritation.  Disgust.

That is my overall feeling when reading about Lieutenant-now-Commander Piper, and the strong desire to put the book down shortly after picking it up.

Battlestations! (#31 Pocket, #  Titan) is Diane Carey’s sequel to Dreadnought! 

Once again the adventures of one Piper nee Mary Sue is the last novel in a group of 10 that I had to read, and the prospect of reading another  adventure of Piper the cringe inducing wasn’t very attractive.  Now, I feel I was pretty magnanimous when I reviewed Dreadnaught!, these novels just aren’t for me… perhaps a younger me would have loved them, but not now and I can’t be forgiving now that I have read two of them.

From the outset Battlestations! is ridiculous.  The events occur mere weeks after the events of Dreadnaught! although Piper (Carey?) seems to have a weak grasp on what weeks actually means and Piper is on a sailing ship, on earth, with James T Kirk on whom she has a sizeable crush.  Dr McCoy is on the schooner (named Edith Keeler) presumably to stop any potential cheating on their respective Vulcans.  Suddenly, Kirk is whisked away on charges of stealing transwarp technology, brave Piper then has to sail the schooner (not before assaulting a number of security personnel) to a rendez-vous point where she meets up with old pals Scanner, and Merete and her new command the Tyrannosaurus Rex soon renamed S.S. Banana Republic (because renaming a ship is your first concern right)?  She also meets Spock later who informs her that Sarda (her pet Vulcan) is with the traitors who have stolen the transwarp technology.

The motley crew (Piper is in charge of course, even of Spock and McCoy) upset Klingons (while undercover in a bar on a technologically backwards planet) but eventually are joined by Kirk (having got off being arrested for stealing transwarp technology?).  They storm a research facility save(?) Sarda, get captured, watch as Spock and Kirk exchange deep and meaningful looks after they have been captured, get attacked by Klingons (again).

The moral repugnance of the main traitor is underlined as not only is she trying to sell of the transwarp technology to the highest bidder (causing an interstellar scramble) but also used a dangerous drug to knock out Enterprise’s crew, take control of the Enterprise and install the transwarp drive in her.

But.  That’s.  Not.  All.

Piper the ever annoying manages to damage one of the nacelles with the Banana Republic, she and her crew then get on the Enterprise and save the day, however the day is not saved as Klingon, Romulan and other powers start trying to take control of the crippled Enterprise.  A firefight ensues where Kirk orders the transwarp drive be repurposed as a weapon and used on the enemy ships, with… somewhat devastating effects.  After what seems like an eternity the cavalry come to save the day and finally the end of the book is in sight.

Still.  Not.  All.

Bonus(?) comedy chapter to prolong the reader’s suffering longer.  Piper is going to go sailing with Kirk again, she’s going to remain on the Enterprise, and Scanner video’d her unfortunate veil dance and initial harassment by the Klingons.  Then, when she goes to get some sleep, Scotty comes in because she broke his ship.

End.

There.  Now you don’t have to read it.  I’ve spared you from the incessant Mary-Sue-ing, the bad writing, the ridiculous contrivances, and ISS (Inexplicable Stupidity Syndrome).  And lets face it, the universe must have come down with ISS, because that’s the only way Piper(Carey?) could ever be the brightest bulb in the box.

I’m not alone!

Now, in my review of the previous book, I gave it/Piper/Carey the benefit of the doubt.  Now that I’ve had to suffer two of these unfortunately unforgettable books, I’m less inclined to play nice.  It’s getting a 1/5 (instead of Dreadnought!’s 2/5), I can’t handle the sheer amount of utter tripe I’ve had to read from this author so far.  Apparently the other ST novels she’s written are better, and from a fellow cynic!

And you know, it isn’t just a dislike of first person narratives.  I mean, I don’t particularly like them or dislike them as a narrative style… but as you know I’m picky, fussy, and critical and I just want books I read to be written well.  Even if you overlook that Piper is an awful character, even avoiding the stigma of the term Mary-Sue, both Dreadnought! and Battlestations! are terribly written.  They are simply badly written, poorly structured nonsense that frankly shouldn’t have been published.

“… hair fell around my face as I stared at the floor, cloaking me from their eyes.  I’d have liked to think of my hair as golden, but somehow it never got past pyrite.  The worse the situation got, the browner my hair felt.  Even after all those weeks under earth’s sun… 

How did my hair get into this?”

This is the level of inanity ladies and gentlemen, and this is frankly what I hate.  I really, really don’t care about this girl’s thoughts, I don’t care one iota.  I don’t care about her hair, I don’t care about her various insecurities or about how much she idolizes Kirk.  I don’t even want her reasoning for anything because it is flawed and silly and just screams ineptitude.

I really don’t want to watch as perfectly acceptable characters have to be shotgun to this girl idiot who can only exist in the position she is due to obscene plot contrivances.  One part that really irked me (one of many) was they were trying to break into the computer of the Banana Republic that Spock and Kirk had put on autopilot.  Why were they trying to break into the computer?  Because Piper doesn’t like being manipulated, also Carey has to show that Piper can out think Spock.  Everyone is amazed that Piper out thought Spock and nobody else could have come up with such a easy way to bypass the computer… after all –

“Machines are idiots.  They’re marvelous tools, but they’re stupid.  You know why they don’t put legs on computers?  Because they’d walk off a cliff if you told them to.”

Wonderful.  Thank you for you insight.  You’re fabulous Piper.  I am surely enriched by your words.  Please carry on. ((She hasn’t heard of the three laws of robotics then??))

The only down side to Piper being designated a Mary-Sue is that it gives you a false hope that she’d die at the end of the story.  Alas, she remains fully alive to the end and beyond.

Unlike the goon she disintegrates with a Klingon disrupter because she “needs to be taken seriously”.

Apparently Carey has been very open about Piper being a Mary-Sue character, well done Carey, you sold two sub par stories and got a nice little pay cheque out of it, you also ensured that there would be no further Star Trek TOS books with a focus on a main character NOT of the main cast, since after these two sorry excuses a ban was put in place prohibiting them.

1/5 – “Aw, that stinks” quoth a character with a brain cell.

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 – Dwellers in the Crucible

Some small part of her mind marvelled at the words that came out of her mouth.  She who had been known for the quality of her silences was transformed by her own rootlessness and her need to save one other.

Kaiidth! She would bargain with the Klingon and she would win, though the winning kill her.  The crucible of the t’hy’la could also immolate. 

Dwellers in the Crucible (#25 Pocket, Giant #2 Titan) (1985) by Margaret Wander Bonanno is very much the spiritual successor of its two cited inspirations The Final Reflection by John M Ford, and My Enemy, My Ally by Diane Duane.  Not only does Bonanno use the concepts of the Klingon and Rihannsu (Romulan) empires explored in Ford and Duane’s respective novels, but she also minimises the impact of the Enterprise crew and characters, instead telling a story where the cast we know are incidental and two original characters take the fore.

I have to admit, I initially skipped over this one because I thought it wouldn’t be an easy read, especially if it did follow in the footsteps of The Final Reflection and My Enemy, My Ally.  Truth be told, I was right, however the two mentioned instalments turned out to be fantastic, so what was I worried about? 

Margaret Wander Bonanno was already a professionally published author having penned three novels previous to Dwellers in the Crucible.  She is a talented writer and her previous experience in world crafting and character development is clear from the outset of Dwellers and her previous independence leads her to create an adventure within the Star Trek universe, using lore from other successful authors, but outside of the usual tinted lens of the Enterprise and her crew.

However, however, although Dwellers in the Crucible has the pedigree: good material, talented writer, good characters, it doesn’t have the illusive something, that little bit of stardust which would elevate it into something (in my opinion) great.

Have you ever read The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro?  There’s a film of it too starring Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson.  It’s a very clever book; cleverly written, a sad character analysis with a sad, hopeless ending.  It’s a prize winner, a literary masterpiece – it is also one of the most dull, unrewarding, uninspiring books I have ever read.  It’s a lesson in drudgery, of patience and dogged determination, AND frankly if a reader manages to get through it on their own steam they should reward themselves (a slice of cake will do) because you get not a jot from the book.  The film isn’t much better, brilliant but good grief I shall not watch that exercise in dreary fatalism again!

Why have I told you about The Remains of the Day?  Well.. Dwellers in the Crucible elicits the same feelings from me.  I love the fact Bonanno knows how to write, I love that it’s a ‘quality’ book, I like it’s cleverness, it’s structural peculiarities, I like the different focus.  I also think it is rather unrewarding and often painfully dull.  I can’t truthfully call it bad (it simply isn’t), but I also can’t say I enjoyed it (because I didn’t).  I’m glad I read Dwellers but on the other hand I had to force myself to pick it back up; the experience can probably be summed up as all stick and no carrot.

The Story

Dwellers in the Crucible is a story of captivity, friendship and survival of powerless civilians.  It’s not a pleasure to read; it is heavy going and often hard to continue.  It contains torture, sadism, murder and suicide, but also loyalty, self sacrifice, compassion and love.

The Federation has adopted an initiative based on an ancient Vulcan practice – The Warrantors of Peace – an important person or people to the current world leaders are held hostage with a capsule embedded in their hearts which will detonate if removed or if the planet commits an act of war/violence on another.  The concept boils down to the threat mutually assured destruction should one planet commit an act of violence toward another (an agreeable cold war?).

The Romulans and Klingons in their uneasy alliance, formulate a plan to kidnap a number of Warrantors in order to destabilise the peace of the Federation.  Once the Romulans kidnap the Warrantors they are passed into the hands of the Klingons (frankly a terrible idea on the part of the Romulans) who amuse themselves by torturing their civilian charges whom they have under their control for about six months.

Meanwhile the Enterprise is on ‘standby’.  Sulu is dressed up as a Romulan and sent undercover in the Empire (which we barely hear about), Scotty gathers information from the Klingons, and Uhura sets about sowing incorrect information for the Romulan listeners to decipher.  Kirk… well Admiral Kirk is getting rather agitated about the whole thing, while Spock keeps him company?

Eventually the remaining Warrantors are saved, and Kirk and Spock see a reflection of themselves in the two women.  The Federation finally decides this whole ‘Warrantors of Peace’ concept was a terrible, terrible idea and is in the process of scrapping the whole program by the end of the book.

The overarching story isn’t at all well developed.  Some reviewers have had a problem with the ‘Warrantors of Peace’, however the Federation is capable of doing remarkably stupid things so I can give it a pass… plus the Vulcans suggested it so I can conceivably imagine the Federation diplomats and higher ups agreeing it was a good idea.  Other problems include the under developed Sulu mission which could have been a book all by itself, Admiral Nogura’s strange decisions about what Kirk should or shouldn’t be doing, and the fact that the Enterprise is left idling for six months.  I imagine Kirk was climbing the walls!  However, Dwellers in the Crucible is not concerned with ‘the big picture’, but with the relationships between the Warrantors, and the Warrantors and their captors.

The Crucible(s)

The term crucible in the title applies to different aspects of the story, but is most strongly summed up in the following quote:

The Vulcan friendship mode is a crucible.  There is that in it which can purify, refine, strengthen.  There is also that which can immolate, destroy.

Just remove the reference to ‘the Vulcan friendship mode’ (I really hate the ‘mode’ terminology since Vulcan Command Mode) and replace it with ‘love’.  Love is the crucible.  Poignantly this novel is set between TMP and TWOK, and in TMP love is the word which is never mentioned except in euphemism.  In Dwellers, love of the same flavour as Kirk and Spock’s is explored – t’hy’la – through the guise of two women, Cleante al-Faisal – a human female, and T’Shael – a Vulcan female. 

However, love isn’t the only crucible in Dwellers, although it is the most poetic.  There are several events which act as crucibles, some are in the novel’s ‘present’ others in the characters’ pasts.  The shared pasts of Cleante and T’Shael (which is a significant portion of the book) highlights moments of change which would eventually lead them to the realisation of their status of t’hy’la.  Some of the moments of dramatic, others are moments of understanding for one, or both of them.

I think the most obvious ‘crucible’ is their prison on the abandoned planetoid – certainly a place which can purify, refine, strengthen or immolate and destroy.  The situation as engineered by the Klingons (or specifically Kalor) causes the deaths of the three Deltans.  The Deltans lived for love both physical and mental however in the crucible that love destroyed them.  On the other hand, the pressure felt by Cleante and T’Shael to save the other caused both of them to be forged into something better both as individuals and as a unit.

Cleante & T’Shael

Cleante and T’Shael are Kirk and Spock’s stand ins respectively.

What makes it quite interesting however is that Cleante and T’Shael are civilians and come from very different backgrounds to Kirk and Spock.  I think it would be interesting to speculate what changes there would be to this story if they weren’t civilians or if it was Kirk and Spock in this same situation… No doubt there there is a fanfiction on this subject somewhere.

I can’t talk too much about the characters without giving away too much of their story.  However Cleante is very much an impulsive, young, human woman with altogether too much pride; T’Shael is a reticent, reserved young fully Vulcan woman who is humble and ‘known for the quality of her silences’.  Both women come from less than ideal families, Cleante’s mother never affectionate and work driven while T’Shael’s parents are dead – her uncaring mother died on the Intrepid while her father died of an incurable wasting disease.  However, both women are incredibly lonely and this loneliness brings them together despite their difference.  I think this is also what is brings Kirk and Spock together initially, command is a lonely place.

I think it interesting that although Cleante and T’Shael are the analogues of Kirk and Spock, that they are not copies.  T’Shael is humble however Spock has great pride (as I think most Vulcans do), while Cleante is prideful while Kirk will lower himself for the greater good.  These differences in both relationships evaporate however when they are truly ‘bonded’ and when the other is in danger both pairs gain the capacity for great self sacrifice.

I think perhaps most women will find something of themselves in either or both Cleante and T’Shael, perhaps that’s what made their situation (their captivity and torture) so horrible to read about.  It’s much easier to read about the appalling treatment of a male hero character; it’s not so close to home and you know that the hero character is trained for this and they can handle it.  In Cleante and T’Shael’s situation you don’t have any of that reassurance, you’re wondering when they are going to break.  I think it’s most galling because you can’t even put your trust in Vulcan fortitude, you’re wondering when T’Shael will break too, not just the highly strung human.

Ford’s Klingons and Duane’s Romulans

To me it seems odd to set out to use existing lore by other novel writers and then use so little of it that it almost seems wasteful to have considered it in the first place.  Although there are nods to Ford and Duane’s ideas, the Klingons and the Romulans remain more Bonanno’s creations that the other writers.

Ford’s Klingons were sly gamemasters, and if a Klingon should rise through the ranks from a lowly background you’d expect them to be intelligent – not so apparently.  Krazz is one of the more stupid villains despite his rise to a position of power.  Ford spent much of his novel The Final Reflection giving a different reading of the Klingons, trying to find common ground that perhaps even Kirk could in some way empathise with.  However Krazz and Kalor (Krazz’s second in command) are simply exactly like you expect a Klingon to be – and to be honest, if I were Kirk the actions of Krazz and Kalor would have closed me down to any possible positive feelings towards the Klingon species.  Kalor is the worst of the two, a cruel sadist who engineers the deaths of the three Deltans under the premise of science.  Lets face it, if he was a ‘scientist’ doing experiments on rabbits and enjoying causing them suffering, you wouldn’t want to know him right?  Ok, well now apply that to three Deltans, one of which is a child.  No Bonanno, he can’t have my sympathy now that he’s found he has a soft side now that he’s coerced Cleante into sex in order to save her friend from his sadistic experiments.  Nor am I going to listen to Cleante when she starts sympathising with him as her mind is breaking.  His ‘redemption’ came too late in the game, I think he’s a poor representation of Ford’s Klingons.

Duane’s Romulans / Rihannsu are represented a little better perhaps, but this may be because we don’t see them half as much.  Bonanno seems to have used some key points from Duane’s Romulan development like the term Rihannsu, and the imagery associated with the Praetor / Empire.  Much of what could have been included regarding the Romulans (and perhaps there was more in the first draft) would have been Sulu’s adventure undercover in the Romulan Empire,  but since this is barely touched once introduced (and consequently the results of the investigation is only a confirmation of what they already know – they would have gone to the same place without confirmation anyway), so it isn’t really important in the long run.  I found it interesting that one of the main plot points to Duane’s story My Enemy, My Ally is that the female Romulan/Rihannsu Commander whom Spock tricks in order to get the cloaking device is disgraced and sent into exile,  however in Bonanno’s iteration she still has the favour of the Praetor – surely this is a major change to Rihannsu thought?

All in all, I don’t think Bonanno uses enough Ford and Duane’s ideas to have really warranted her giving them credit at the beginning, although… there is mild influence.  I don’t think the representation of either species is bad though, don’t get me wrong.

Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Sulu, Scotty

Odd.  Just Odd.

I don’t know whether it’s because Bonanno is doing her best to keep them out of the limelight, but the established characters are often a little ‘off’.  Out of all of them, I’d say that Scotty and Uhura have the most true to form characterisation.  Uhura certainly feels like she’s presented similarly as in other novels (although some of her dialogue with Spock is a little saccharine), while I could vividly see Scotty on his mission in my minds eye – shame it was so short.

Sulu was… out the way for much of the novel, doing something simultaneously important and unimportant, which ultimately didn’t lead anywhere.  It was kind of annoying really as for once I wanted to know what Sulu was actually doing (my dislike for Takei unfortunately bleeds into my feelings for Sulu) as his mission was the most dynamic of the lot.

Kirk, Spock and McCoy only really get going in the final section of the novel when we’re beaten with the t’hyla stick – but frankly if you hadn’t got that Bonanno has made a parallel couple out of Cleante and T’Shael in order to investigate the depths of the concept of T’hy’la whilst circumventing the radars of certain audiences then perhaps you deserve it.

No need to open her eyes this time.  What little strength she had left she raised one hand.  It was gently embraced by two human hands, and T’Shael’s pain receded in the emanation of love from those hands.

Did she dare smile? If death were to claim her before she could let Cleante know the depth of her gratitude, her yes – call it love – even in the presence of strangers –

For the first time in her life, T’Shael smiled.

“I’m here,” was all Cleante said, and it was all that was needed.

Jim Kirk looked at Spock, who acknowledged the scene in silence before setting the controls (…). 

Sound familiar by any chance?  It’s pretty much a verbatim rendition of Spock and Kirk’s scene in TMP.  This book is also set between TMP and TWOK… Whodathunk.

McCoy knows everything, and even when Kirk is being dense he makes sure to hit him with the t’hy’la hammer:

“(…): whatever happens to her depends in large part on Cleante.  And vice versa.”

Kirk gave him a puzzled look.

“Explain.” 

 “Oh, come on Jim!  You’ve seen it as well as I have, and so has Spock.  These two are forged together for life.  They’re almost a mirror image of you and Spock, both of them falling over each other in self sacrifice.  There’s an old phrase in Latin – amicus usque ad aras. ‘A friend in spite of all differences; a friend to the last extremity.’  There’s even a Vulcan word for it, isn’t there Spock?”

“The word, Doctor is t’hy’la,” Spock murmured, ignoring McCoy’s obtuseness.

There is also a section where McCoy leads Cleante away and sees the same look of devotion in her face as he had seen so many times in Jim Kirk’s.  McCoy’s role here is very much to draw attention to the parallel couples and I guess his character development / exposition is the depth of his understanding of his two closest friends.

So regarding Kirk and Spock… sure they have only a small part to play in this novel ultimately, but despite this the novel is about them or at least their relationship.  Nobody really cares about a couple of one off characters who disappear into the ether at the end of a novel, not really – what do they change ultimately?  Well nothing at all except perhaps our understanding of the term t’hy’la and the personal transformations which take place in a relationship of that depth.

While thinking about Dwellers and the concept of the ‘crucible’ and forging an unbreakable bond, I thought… when was the point that where at least one of them realised he was bound to the other?  When was Kirk and Spock’s ‘crucible’ moment?  I thought about it for a while, but certainly Spock’s ‘moment’ had to be Amok Time; I think that would be the time he realised he was bound to this human for life (that smile when he realises that Kirk is still alive…).  What about Kirk?  Well… like Cleante I think Kirk innately knew and recognised the other part of his soul, perhaps he didn’t think about it in poetic terms until later, but from Kirk’s reactions and the way he looks at Spock from the beginning (aided by Shatner’s phenomenal acting), I think he knew all along.

So yes ultimately Dwellers in the Crucible is a very good, well thought out character study.  A little bit subversive, a lotta bit clever – I would recommend reading it for the questions it asks and for the thoughts it provokes.  However it is not an enjoyable book, I didn’t take a lot of pleasure in reading it and it was at times a chore to read which is not a feeling I like.  I did feel like I was forcing myself to turn the pages, so this leaves me in a strange position.

I didn’t like the book, but I liked the points it made and the questions it evoked… which is why I’m going to give it 3/5!

Star Trek – Mindshadow

She turned sideways in order to face Kirk directly.

“You have requested a replacement, haven’t you, Captain?”  She looked from the surprise on the captain’s face to McCoy, whose eyes were downcast.  “Perhaps you haven’t been told the true extent of Spock’s injuries.”

“Are you telling me Spock will not return to duty?”  Kirk’s jaw tightened so much it ached.

Her eyes were sympathetic but unyielding in their honesty.  “That’s one possibility.  The best we can hope for is that it will be months before Spock is able to return to duty again.”

Mindshadow (#27 Pocket, #41 Titan) (1986) is J M Dillard’s first flirtation with novel writing and I guess, how she got ‘outed’ as a Trekker to her husband whom she had been keeping in the dark about her obsession by surreptitiously acquiring and reading published Star Trek novels.  She even wrote Mindshadow secretly and sent it off without anyone else reading it (Starlog – Issue 125).

I like the cover this time… It’s kind of clever…

I’ve previously reviewed Bloodthirst, Dillard’s third Star Trek novel and I went back and cribbed it before I started this review.  In some ways Dillard improved between Mindshadow and Bloodthirst, but the weaknesses that reared their heads here in Mindshadow are still strongly affecting her work in later Star Trek instalments.

I’m happy I get to use a new term I picked up (from Joan Verba) to describe Mindshadow – it is to a certain extent a ‘get’em’ story and for once it’s a ‘get Spock’ story instead of a ‘get cinnamon roll Kirk’ story.  Spock suffers a devastating injury to the left side of his head after falling down a cliff while investigating strange tricorder readings on a beautiful garden planet with technophobic inhabitants which pirates have been raiding.  The Federation has been asked to help these people protect their world and way of life however this all goes awry when the attacks do not come from above, but from below.  

Spock’s recovery is not certain and McCoy sends for a specialist in Vulcan neurology to ensure his best chances.  When she comes (a petite, small, woman… doctor… very talented… excellent at hand to hand combat… everyone loves her – I’m sure I’ve seen this character before…) it soon becomes clear to the reader (if not the characters…) that she’s not what she appears.  Unfortunately, the Federation’s success depends on Spock regaining his memory and solving the mystery on Aritani, but his recovery is slow and he’s dogged by saboteurs, who even go as far as slitting his wrists…

Kirk however can’t just sit and wait for Spock to possibly recover, he must continue to act without his first officer, but every move he makes is countered and he soon comes to realise that he has a traitor on board when a captured Romulan pirate is killed in the brig, and unauthorised transmissions are being sent from somewhere on the ship.  Members of his crew are killed on Aritani in a devastating attack, and Scotty is framed as a murderer!

IN ADDITION to all this, McCoy has fallen in love with the new doctor – Emma Saenz – and she with him… but she also rather fancies Kirk… and he her… and everything goes terribly sour.

Kirk also has to ferry diplomats to Vulcan, which of course results in murder and general mayhem.

AND Spock ends up going home to Vulcan in order to get well again, meets another hybrid, faces an assassination attempt, gets framed with murder and gets his wrists slit… again.

To conclude the Enterprise returns to Aritani, Kirk gets the Romulan treatment (because who doesn’t like Kirk with pointy ears… aside from Spock!) and things end with a bang!

I think you’ll probably agree that there’s a lot going on there and to be honest there are far too many things going on for a 250 page paperback.

I mean, it’s a very sweet book in that there is some serious passion and love for Star Trek there… but it does feel like Dillard is trying to write her favourite episodes into her book, she’s trying to do everything at once and the novel suffers for it.  For example, she obviously really liked Kirk getting pointy ears and Spock making disparaging comments about it, so that went in.  She also liked Journey to Babel, as she somehow manages to fit in the Enterprise collecting diplomats and even a murder!  I think for every element there is an analogue in the original series, and there are a lot of elements.

Characterisation is variable and my biggest disappointment was probably due to there being too much going on and too few pages to do it in.  I was all geared up for some touching K&S, you know the unbreakable friendship on the cusp of being broken because Spock would possibly never be ‘Spock’ again.  It looked like it was going to happen, I would be indulged and my heartstrings pulled in that bittersweet way that makes fangirls swoon… but… time passed, Spock got marginally better and the scene was never written… and Kirk apparently stopped visiting so much.  The hinted mental link?  Not really used.  Kirk knowing that Spock even in his mentally compromised state wouldn’t try to kill himself – well he gave Spock the benefit of the doubt.

But where was that marvellous scene I was waiting for?!
It didn’t happen.

Reunion after Vulcan…
Didn’t really happen there either.

To be fair though, although I didn’t see the emotional scene I was waiting for, I did get Spock related cinnamon roll Kirk angst, where Kirk didn’t sleep for two days and was an irritable sod because Spock was in critical condition.  I suppose I can be appeased that way.  Plus there is quite a lot of emphasis on the ‘love’ between the trinity, the friendship, which I think thematically ties in well (especially with the movies…).

Characters at time seemed to be hit with ISS (inexplicable stupidity syndrome) quite regularly, including McCoy who apparently couldn’t tell that Emma Saenz was Romulan… I mean come on.  Her body temperature was Vulcan high, she didn’t sweat in high temperatures… and she was really strong… I don’t think you can even put it down to building muscle from being on a high gravity planet…  McCoy has sexy times with her and still doesn’t realise she isn’t human!

Kirk was quite well characterised I think, although he did seem emotionally neutered at times… I do think we could have done without his attraction to Emma Saenz and the little love triangle that developed between Saenz, McCoy, and Kirk.  Or perhaps it was just an indication that Kirk has a preference for lovers with pointy ears (hohoho… I’m kidding, I’m kidding)?!

There was one particular bit concerning Scotty which made me quite annoyed.  It was his reaction to Kirk when her thought that Kirk had talked about his feelings over one of his engineers being killed.  His disrespect and jumping to conclusions about his captain did not sit right with me.  Again, it was a story element that didn’t need to be there.

As for the original characters, there were two of note.  Firstly of course Emma Saenz, who at times is well constructed and at others utterly frustrating.  She’s an interesting character, but because Dillard drops the reader lots of not-so-subtle hints rather early about her identity she’s a little too transparent.  If Dillard had chosen to reveal her a little later it would have worked significantly better.  I was confused at one point about her position as a double agent and Admiral Komack’s insistence of keeping Kirk in the dark,  I don’t really see what her purpose was in her double agent role when she was on the Enterprise?  What benefit could she have been to the Romulans then?  It’s a little bit contrived, why couldn’t Spock recover, why did it have to be her?  Why couldn’t they have just used another doctor?

The other character is Lieutenant Tomson, who appears in more books by Dillard and I think in one or two by other authors too.  Tomson is… infuriating but in a very fallible way… She isn’t overused which is a good thing but unfortunately is involved in the erroneous murder charged levelled at Scotty.  This and the murder of one of the diplomats seem to be engineered so that Tomson can do something…  But as I’ve mentioned before, those elements could have been left out entirely.

Oh!  There’s also Spock’s replacement Varth…who is a nonentity…

The conclusion of the novel is a little weak and more than a little rushed, which could have been avoided if Dillard had kept the story a little more simple and done some serious editing.  Personally I would have cut out a lot of the superfluous bits of story in the middle and extended finale, given more details of the complex, more details of the Romulans, made more of the adventure and of Kirk and Spock working together again at the end.  As it was it ends up being a little bit flat, not terrible just a little lacklustre.

I did enjoy this book however.  Dillard proves that she can write characters well and she’s especially good at dialogue, but her narrative structure is messy and she makes far too much of linking the events in the novel with events in the series and the animated series (of course, it isn’t worse than Marshak and Culbreath actually footnoting all their references).

I’m going to be nice however and give Mindshadow a generous 3/5 – since a two would be overly stingy since it was a frustrating pleasure to read.

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 Trellisane Confrontation

Kirk had been staring into space, not lost in thought, but helpless and hopeless, stunned by the loss of his ship.  He had never felt quite so abandoned, so lost, his very foundation removed.  McCoy leaned toward him and said softly, “Jim.  Captain Kirk!”

I have to say I was elated on reading The Trellisane Confrontation by David Dvorkin (1984) (#14 Pocket, #31 Titan), after all I was bracing myself for a literary blooper after having three excellent books on the trot.  After the hit and miss approach to the first ten books in the series, I have to admit I was getting a little downhearted at the prospect of having to suffer more of the same in books #11 to #20.  Honestly, it’s like they turned a corner at Web of the Romulans, hopefully they don’t look back?

That isn’t to say The Trellisane Confrontation doesn’t have problems, it does… a surprising amount in fact considering how short it is but it does have more of a feeling of an episode than the previous three books, which felt like they could never really be episodes (I acknowledge The Wounded Sky was adapted to a certain extent for an episode in TNG).

Okok, note on the cover.  Accurate uniform on Spock, this novel takes place in 2269, so during the original five year mission.  I actually like this cover a lot, it’s colourful, it’s fun… it’s… who is that woman in the middle?  I was waiting for a damsel to appear but uhm… she doesn’t?  I had a thought that it was supposed to be Chapel, but then why not put her in uniform, and I don’t really think she fits the description of the warrior women of Nactern either, other than those mentioned and other than Uhura (who it most definitely isn’t) there aren’t any other female characters?

Edit:  Ok, people seem to think it’s Christine Chapel…  I’ll believe them, I suppose Spock looks facially squiffy too…

The Trellisane Confrontation follows a quite a simple plot.  The Enterprise is transporting dangerous criminals who are affiliated to a political faction who wish the Federation to go to war with the Romulans.  Whilst transporting them, Kirk decides to go to the aid of a peaceful, neutral, planet being attacked by it’s aggressive sister planet in a system in a precarious position between the three powers (Federation, Klingon Empire, Romulan Star Empire).  Spock and McCoy express their reservations about going to aid this planet with dangerous prisoners on board, but Kirk is adamant and proceeds without confirmation from Starfleet.

Naturally, everything goes wrong.  The prisoners on the Enterprise escape and gain control of the ship in order to try to start a war with the Romulans while Kirk, Spock and McCoy are on Trellisane.  The Trellisane people are not the peaceful progressive people they appear to be, the attacking Sealons and Klingons step up their invasion plans, and Spock and Kirk are captured by the Klingon and Sealon forces, leaving McCoy to organise a the Trellisane people and uncover their dark secrets.

That’s the set up for The Trellisane Confrontation, and although a little simplistic at times the first half is a pretty strong and enjoyable read.  The pacing is good, it doesn’t sweat the small stuff and expects the reader to fill in some gaps.  However, in the second half of the novel Dvorkin appears to lose impetus and aside from a very interesting section with Christine Chapel melding with an alien it doesn’t have many other high points, in fact I became quite irritable about some inconsistencies I couldn’t un-see!  The novel resolves itself a little too quickly not allowing Dvorkin to really get the meat (ha) of his story.  We get a need to know exposition via McCoy of the Trellisane culture, a rather pathetic bunch who are essentially cowards and cannibals.  The Sealons, the species being manipulated by the Klingons turn out to be a bit on the rough side but rather more likeable than the Trellisane people, despite never hearing a word directly out of their mouths.  The political situation gets resolved in a couple of pages… and Klingons and Romulans beam straight onto the bridge for discussions?

My main complaint however is what I can only suggest are strange, loose, narrative threads that by the end of The Trellisane Confrontation are not resolved.  The odd moralising at the end which attempts to give an illusion of tying those threads but really just leaves them broken.  This is really shame because it really does spoil the book, in my estimation, after a well paced and pleasant first half.

Here’s an example; Spock notices behaviour he doesn’t like in Kirk, and this rattles him and his confidence in Kirk.  Personally I didn’t see a problem or out of the ordinary behaviour, but I ran with it.  I spent from that time onwards waiting for some sort of revelation that something was wrong with Kirk, like, there’s something in the air on Trellisane, or there was something in that delicious delicious meat her ate… but it’s nothing.  It turns out that Spock hero-worships Kirk and just hadn’t seen this aspect of him before…  We are in the same year as The City on the Edge of Forever guys…  you know each other quite well at this point!

Spock followed him, and as Kirk leaned over to offer him a hand to help, Spock was amazed to see that his captain’s face wore a broad grin.  It was something beyond simple levity or the release of long suppressed tension, Spock thought; it seemed more the joy of a young boy on a long-awaited long-delayed holiday.

(…)

Now, suddenly, the control seemed to have disappeared.  In this earnest, deadly business, James Kirk was behaving with boyish glee rather than the calm determination Spock night have expected.  Kirk was dropping to the level of the average human, and Spock, who would have been greatly insulted had anyone suggested to him that he was capable of hero worship, was deeply disturbed. 

 This actually connects with analysis of the criminal who takes control of the Enterprise.  In several sections the criminal (Hander) is likened to Kirk and in a final exchange with Spock and McCoy, they underscore their similarities.  Now, I might be a Kirk devotee, but I think this is a bit of a stretch and Spock and McCoy’s final condemnation? criticism? of Kirk’s character and actions during the events of the novel was quite inaccurate and very unfair.  Kirk was right to be angry about what they were saying!

The slave/cannibal aspect of the Trellisanians was interesting, especially when reflected by McCoy.  I particularly liked the ‘not all as things appear theme’ which was prevalent, and probably does the best job at holding the story together.

The subplot (?) on the Enterprise where Hander Morl and his five alien allies take control of the bridge was actually pretty enjoyable, and I especially relished my least favourite character Sulu being the one to cock up utterly and cause the whole situation.  Chekov’s scenes were excellent, and his trying to emulate Kirk was wonderfully written and very funny.  Uhura was very much in the background but what did surprise me was as mentioned before, Chapel’s section.  I think that was very well done although ultimately she doesn’t reveal her experiences.

Ultimately, The Trellisane Confrontation is an enjoyable book and well worth a read.  It doesn’t reach the heights of The Wounded Sky or the tension of Mutiny on the Enterprise, this book is smaller in scope and less detailed than the previous couple of novels.  Characters are a little out of character at times, although Dvorkin seems to be better at characterising the likes of Sulu and Chekov than Spock and Kirk.  Action is a little disjointed and at times frustratingly sparse on details, but not necessarily bad.  I don’t think The Trellisane Confrontation adds anything to the existing characters, Dvorkin does create an interesting culture in the Trellisane species.

3/5 – don’t order the steak.

Star Trek – Mutiny On The Enterprise

“Of course life is precious.  That’s why our mission to Ammdon is to prevent a war.”  Kirk wasn’t the least bit surprised when both Ross and Kesselmann scoffed at that.  This was the single most prevalent opinion  he’d ever encountered among his diverse crew.  “Have you considered that you did not hold this odd belief until after you spoke with the alien Lorelei?”

You would not believe how much I wanted to read Mutiny on the Enterprise by Robert E Vardeman (1983) (#12 Pocket, #45 Titan), and that was before I read The Klingon Gambit.  Unfortunately Mutiny on the Enterprise is the last Star Trek novel by Vardeman published by Pocket Books, which I personally feel is a great shame because he really is an excellent author.

Mutiny on the Enterprise takes place during the original five year mission – ignore older Kirk and Spock in strange uniforms on the front cover.  Seriously, why can’t they illustrate the covers with the correct ages / uniforms of the characters?!  Was there some sort of Pocket Books edict that all covers must be wholly inaccurate?  That being said looks like the right bridge is in the background (red railing) and the alien Lorelei pictured on the front fits with her description.   Perhaps making Shatner and Nimoy (especially Nimoy) look 80s hero haggard and old was in vogue?

For once the tagline is accurate (shocking I know):

On a mission of peace, a bewitching woman sets the Enterprise at war – with itself!

I wondered, what would cause the crew of the Enterprise to mutiny?  The crew of the Enterprise doesn’t mutiny not with James T Kirk as captain or without some serious alien intervention!  Well, it is the latter, serious alien intervention, the funny thing is, it wasn’t until I looked up my review of The Klingon Gambit that I realised that Vardeman definitely has favourite story elements!

• Alien psychic intervention
• Mutiny / Crew disobedience
• James T Kirk & Spock remaining mostly immune
• McCoy definitely not being immune
• Threat of an established villain mixed in with some new aliens

All the above appear in both of his novels, I often notice that some authors revisit a particular story / characters / set of themes in an effort to, I guess, produce the perfect story.  It’s like they’re hammering away at this idea in their head that means a lot but can’t ever be happy with it.  An author who wrote one of my favourite trilogies as her debut does this, and although there are problems with her first iteration, I think it’s the best.  Subsequent iterations never quite capture the magic of her first attempt.  It would be interesting to read his other sci-fi works and see if he revisits these again under a different guise!

I kind of get this feeling with Mutiny on the Enterprise however, although Vardeman revisits the same story elements the story itself has a different overall message / theme.  In this way, it is more in keeping with the moralistic bent to the episodes than say the previous novel in the series Yesterday’s Son.  

Mutiny on the Enterprise starts in a rather cliched fashion, the Enterprise in on it’s way to a Starbase for some much needed repair work and some R&R for the crew, however a situation has arisen and diplomats will need to be transported to a distant system in order to avoid a war between two hostile planets.  Why is this so important?  The Romulans are trying to get a foothold in that part of space and are looking to capitalise on the encroaching war to achieve this.

Unfortunately for the Enterprise, it really is in need of repairs and can only make a weak warp two, sometimes three, for short periods of time.  Before they get to their destination they pick up a distress call, which is when the milk run turns sour.  They pick up a survivor from a very broken ship, she tells Kirk she is a speaker of the ‘Hyla’ a yet uncontacted race by the Federation, and her name is Lorelei.  Kirk notices that although she is not pretty she is attractive, he feels she has some sort of effect on him.  They continue on their way but Lorelei comes to Kirk, concerned.  The Hyla are total pacifists who (it is revealed) will not stand by and let another species go about its own business.  Basically they would ignore an idea like the prime directive in a lesser species if it would stop fighting, they would not allow a species to self determine because only their doctrine of pacifism should exist.

You can probably see where this is going to go horribly, horribly wrong.

Lorelei soon gets to work on subverting the crew to her way of thinking, using her own indoctrination techniques to control the crew and undermining Kirk’s authority.  Of course, she is never violent but her way of thinking even to the most forgiving of readers is destructive.  In a bid to get his crew under control (only Spock seems unaffected) Kirk sets up almost a speaking competition between the Tellarite diplomat and Lorelei.  Unfortunately, as good as the Tellarite is, he does not have the strange powers Lorelei has, and Kirk’s plan backfires as the Hyla woman cements her control over the crew.

How they should look…

The Enterprise is damaged, most probably sabotaged, and is left without warp power.  Left without warp they limp towards a planet which appears to have advanced humanoid life and crucially, a source for the shielding required to repair the warp engines. Spock, Mccoy and a security detachment beam down in order to negotiate with the inhabitants, however, this all goes sour as initiating contact caused an extreme reaction and they are imprisoned in a living prison.  The diplomats disobey Kirk and beam down, they also find themselves captured and one of their number is killed by the planet itself.  Finally, Kirk finds himself with a need to use the ship’s phasers to fire on the planet in order to break his crew and the diplomats out of their prison, however Lorelei’s pacifistic control of the ship is absolute and she exiles Kirk from Enterprise and beams him down onto the hostile planet.

While looking for the landing party, Kirk observes that even the buildings are alive and appear to grow and, it seemed that as long as he didn’t disturb anything he could wander unimpeded by the planet.

Kirk manages to save Spock, McCoy, the security detachment -1, and the diplomats -1.  They notice that there is an Enterprise shuttle going back and forth from the planet to orbit, they surmise that Lorelei has coaxed the planet into giving them some of the much needed shielding.  They manage to hijack the shuttle and escape.  McCoy gives everyone waxy earplugs in order to preserve them from Lorelei’s effects.  Unfortunately, all the diplomats are now well and truly dead.

The final parts of the novel play out as you might expect.  I won’t spoil the end, which frankly was a little bit of genius, but it was as satisfying as it was a bad idea (very).

Mutiny on the Enterprise has some interesting points.  There’s some talk on what total pacifism means – what does it look like when taken to extremes?  Well, like any extreme ideology it appears to have no room for reason and it breaks it’s own ideological ideals in order to maintain it’s status quo.  For example, Lorelei would strand Kirk and McCoy, probably Spock too on the hostile planet in order to avoid ‘disruptive influence’ despite the fact it would ultimately directly lead to their death by the planet organism.  Her ideology allows her to indirectly kill in order to ensure and propagate her agenda.  She also denounces self defense, even when her thralls are being eaten alive the ideology dictates they can’t use violence to defend themselves.  As such, this line of thinking extends to the Federation, she does not believe that they should have weapons for defense, despite knowing they have to defend themselves against foes like the Klingons and Romulans.

Probably my most hated character of all time….

She’s a hypocrite.  In order to stop Kirk she uses force and violence.  In order to keep control she would indirectly kill.  She espouses an ideal of total pacifism where you can’t even defend yourself.  Absurd.  She reminds me of another character dedicated to total pacifism which drove me utterly bonkers – Relena Peacecraft from the anime Gundam Wing (1995).  The thing is with this character archetype, they still need other agents to do their dirty work and generally they don’t acknowledge that.  People are also expendable as long as it furthers the pacifistic ideal, even if it could mean the preservation of life.

They also tend to be incredibly naive and narrow minded, like most extreme ideologies of this nature, everything is black and white, never grey.  In the case of Lorelei, she is privileged in that she can enforce her ideals by brainwashing and eradicating those proven to be uncontrollable.  In Relena’s case she was privileged by birth, she had money and prestige and the sheltered environment needed to nurture her naivete.  The other children who pilot the war machines from the space colonies had no such privilege and had to develop inline with their abilities and experiences.

Sorry, went off on a bit of a tangent then!  But Gundam Wing is one of my sci-fi favs and my first corrupting fandom influence!

I actually really liked the idea of the planetoid organism.  I didn’t expect that, but then perhaps if I’d thought about The Klingon Gambit perhaps I should have since Vardeman uses the idea of interconnected organisms on a planet in that one too!  Moving trees that attack… all the creatures being able to feel each other’s pain etc.  Of course in this case it’s slightly different as everything on the planet is one organism and even the humanoid creatures that live in the growing houses are as cells are in our bodies.  The unknown creatures such as the Enterprise crew are treated as bacteria or viruses, quarantined or broken down as our cells would to invaders.  The planet was able to be at least partially put to sleep by Dr McCoy using an anaesthetic (local) but it could also be wooed by Lorelei’s words.  I have to admit that was a little odd, since it was stated that there was no sound made by the beings on the planet and that nothing had ears… so how did she get what she wanted?  Perhaps I should let that one slide.

Characterisation is at times very strange, but that is easily explained by the brainwashing effect of Lorelei’s honeyed words!  I really enjoy Kirk centric novels (as you might have gathered) and I think Vardeman got his characterisation down pat.  Spock’s was also strong, although in one of his more aloof states although there was plenty of banter between him and McCoy.  McCoy was also wonderfully… McCoy about the whole drama, plenty of emotion, plenty of snide comments.  Keep ’em rolling!

A Tellarite from ‘Journey to Babel’.

I haven’t really touched on the diplomats yet, they were actually an interesting bunch and I kind of expected more to be made of them, I was quite sad when they all died!  We were meant to dislike them to a certain extent when compared with the gentle Lorelei but I couldn’t help but think that they could have been so much more.  The Tellarite diplomat got some good exposition, but the sentient plant was a really interesting character that didn’t get developed and met a grisly end.  The death of the immaculately clean and fashionable human diplomat was a disappointment, we learned he was actually a good man and he got killed by the planet.  So unremarkable was his death I actually read the section twice trying to identify when he died… poor fellow.

The last section of the book has Kirk playing diplomat.  Lorelei’s prediction of failure and the Enterprise being a catalyst for war was a self fulfilling prophesy.  I couldn’t help getting frustrated!  Well of course they’ve failed!  They were delayed by Lorelei, their diplomats are dead, their ship is currently held together with duct tape and a prayer, what was going to be the outcome?  I should think that had they been able to fulfill their mission of peace unhindered they would have succeeded.

I guess we’ll never know.

Again, this is a really strong entry into the series.  Not quite 5/5 but a respectable 4/5 on my highly subjective scale.  I did have a look at some reviews which bemoaned it as not being a good follow on from Crispin’s Yesterday’s Son, but I think it’s very much it’s equal.  Different scope, different style but just as enjoyable.  Mutiny on the Enterprise builds on Vardeman’s ideas in The Klingon Gambit and is definitely worth a read.

4/5 – No R&R for you!

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 – Web of the Romulans

A gleam was born in the captain’s eyes.  Spock, watching it glow, felt a stab of trepidation.  He was always nervous when Kirk began to work from inspiration instead of logic.

“Countess…” said Kirk in a voice that made Uhura, Yeoman Kouc and Ensign Stewart blush.  Spock looked startled and McCoy incredulous but the captain continued in his dark, velvet voice.  What he had in mind was a long shot, but it was all he had.

As I’m reading these ST:TOS novels I’m often thinking about how I’m going to review the book.  At about half way through on a shorter book, perhaps every quarter on a longer one I stop and think and start forming my opinions.  I ask questions to myself, what’s the theme, is the characterization good, is the story compelling, are there any memorable moments so far?

So as usual at about page 130, I did the same to Web of the Romulans (1983) (#10 Pocket, # Titan) by M S Murdock.

What’s happened so far?  Um…  Not much.

What’s the story?  Romulans… are attacking but not attacking the Federation?  A disease!  Yeah, there’s a disease and they need to, uh, get medicine!

You’re just remembering what you read in the blurb, aren’t you?  Yes…

So… what you’re saying is that you’ve read half the book and if you hadn’t read the blurb you still wouldn’t know what was going on and nothing much has happened?  Correct.

Fascinating.

Essentially, Web of the Romulans is, well, for lack of a better word… slow.  Not in a boring, arduous sense but in a I really feel that by about half way through there should be some sense of something happening.  This is somewhat deliberate, the whole story is a series of waiting games and a lack of action which wears on the readers and the characters alike.  Saying this however without expressly saying that it is also enjoyable would be doing it a disservice.  I was actually surprised to find myself approaching the middle of the book.  But nothing has happened yet! I thought.  And furthermore, I’m not bored!  And that was the surprising thing, despite nothing really happening and getting to half way though with virtually no action what so ever, I didn’t really mind.

On the flip side, I wasn’t in a particular rush to finish it either.

I must quickly comment on the cover.  Notice anything strange?  Well aside from Bones’ rather dapper get up (so suave)!  Spock and Kirk’s insignia are on the wrong side!  Not only that, but the insignia are flipped too.  You’d think that that meant that the image had been flipped, but the artists signature is the right way around… I’m sure there’s going to be a story behind this mishap!

It became apparent in the first page that M S Murdock is a female author.  Her descriptions on the first page gave the game away.  Her descriptions paint a detailed picture with a feminine eye, and although her imagery is often somewhat overwrought it is none the less pleasurable to read.  As the plot develops at it’s sedentary pace it becomes very clear where her focus is – love and relationships.  It shouldn’t surprise anyone who reads Web of the Romulans that at least part of it was written by Murdock for a fanzine.  Web of the Romulans has a definite division in the stories the more developed ‘computer loves Kirk’ plot and the less refined ‘Romulans need medicine’ plot.

To some extent, the slow pace of the novel is explained by the two story lines.  Initially the plot with the Romulans is introduced however, the narrative with the computer has to be resolved before the Romulan plot can continue, since the story with the computer effectively disables the Enterprise.  Since the computer plot is essentially a standalone, go nowhere, what if, silliness found frequently in fanfiction, it’s an interesting if lengthy diversion.  This somewhat explains my confusion re. ‘nothing has happened, why aren’t I bored?’ Basically, I was occupied for most of the book with the amusing problem of the computer devoting all its resources to Kirk and an understanding of love (a follow on from ‘Tomorrow is Yesterday).  This problem isn’t so much solved by the end of the book so much as bypassed.  Reminding us of auxiliary control serves a purpose for the other narrative, which was a neat link.

The Romulan section of the narrative which is utterly unrelated to Kirk’s problems is pretty well written however, I would like to have seen more of it.  S’Talon and the Centurion were likeable, sympathetic characters, as was the aged mentor and his friend.  The Praetor was a little tropey and predictable but served his purpose in the narrative.  I wanted to read more about the Romulans and their problems, more character development, just more!  The weakest part of the story was probably the reasons given for the Romulan’s actions, the Praetor’s role, the under developed bit about the planet where the miracle drug is.  On the other hand, if you don’t look to closely at it, it is fine!  Mixed in with the Romulan intrigue is some Federation intrigue, in which an admiral who works in intelligence believes that the Romulans intend to start a war with the Federation.  He is completely obsessed with the idea and so manipulates the situation to be in the frontline.  However, this isn’t his only problem, he also wants to conduct a war with the Romulans like a game, and he wants to be the victor.  So… basically he’s completely off his rocker.  Through this story line we’re introduced to three or four Federation characters who are generally likeable, interesting characters.  I also wanted to read more about these characters but I was denied this too!

So frustrating!  Perhaps this bothers me most there’s a really good story line concerning the Romulans but Murdock’s main concern is that silly fanfiction she wrote.  If the book had been one hundred pages longer, the Romulan narrative would have had more room to breathe and develop, as it is there is a frustrating amount of potential that just isn’t utilised!

Of course, this just highlights the main problem of this book – nothing much happens.  I mean, it’s impossible not to realise that two large sections of the book are comprised of 2 or more star ships sitting for days on end looking at each other over an invisible boarder in space.

It’s also hard to miss that the cash poor Romulans mount an invasion force, get to the planet with the drug that they need and then… sit and negotiate?  Or that these very same cash poor Romulans buy the whole supply of this miracle drug – enough to save their whole Empire?  No boots on the ground?  No drama with S’Talon?  The Romulan ships get fired at and they just… sit there?

There’s lots of cameo scenes recognisable from the series, Rand being stuck in a turbo lift is one, for example, and characters are generally well written.

So, in essence, Web of the Romulans has some serious problems, which are mitigated somewhat by a pleasant writing style and a good sense of humour and timing from the author.  It is just a pleasant sojourn, not stressful, not exciting, just a bit of a ramble.  Read it by all means, but don’t look too hard / think too much about it.

3/5 – Countess of…. what?

I must add that I am laughing hard at people calling it misogynist.  Dear me.