Star Trek – Mission to Horatius

Grang said excitedly, “This way! Quickly! The warriors will soon be upon us.”

Kirk looked at him.  “I assume you mean the real tribal warriors.  Very well, Grang, we’re in your hands.  We have nowhere else to go.  Lead the way!”

Needing a change of pace (and because I had misplaced Memory Prime) I pulled out Mission to Horatius (1968) by Mack Reynolds and illustrated by Sparky Moore.  For those that don’t know Mission to Horatius (published by Whitman) was the first original novel based on the series and is targeted at a child audience.  The first published book written for an adult audience would be Spock Must Die! authored by James Blish and published by Bantam books in 1970.  Mission to Horatius would be the only original fiction published by Whitman based on the series.  The book was republished in 1999 by Pocket Books (Whitman had gone out of business) in celebration of their holding the Star Trek license for 20 years.

Mission to Horatius was a very quick read.  In the preface to the 1999 edition, the editor – John Ordover – recounts his finding the book in a used book store in 1970, when he was eight years old.  Having recently just discovered Star Trek he was delighted to find a book devoted to his new found heroes; the book was bought and devoured in short order.  Ordover obviously enjoyed the book as an eight year old as the memory of it stayed with him and I think that now we must keep in mind that Mission to Horatius was written at a very different time, and aimed at a particular audience.  This, however, shouldn’t be used to excuse the failings the book does have but we should certainly think of it a little more charitably.

The author, Mack Reynolds (1917 – 1983), had been active since the 1950s and was quite a prolific writer, arguably the 1960s was when he wrote his best works.  I’m unsure if previous to Mission to Horatius he had experience writing for a younger audience but certainly it feels to me like the prose you’d find in many contemporary children’s stories, although possibly a little dated and perhaps stylistically leaning more towards the 1950s.

Perhaps Mission to Horatius’ dated feeling was part of Roddenberry’s dissatisfaction with the novel.  Producers of the television series felt that the novel was dull and badly written, it was also felt that there were lots of inaccuracies with terminology and characterisation.  There was also concerns about offensive descriptions of Sulu and Uhura; Sulu was described as a ‘bland faced, short oriental’ and Uhura as a ‘negress’ who sings a ‘spiritual’.  Ultimately changes were made; however, Roddenberry remained unhappy with Mission to Horatius and wrote an analysis about what was wrong with the novel.  I don’t have a copy myself so I can’t give any examples to you, however I can certainly guess!

Mack Reynolds used his favourite themes in Mission to Horatius, which generally revolve around the ideas of ‘Utopia’, alternative socio-economic systems, and revolution of the systems / Utopias.  Although interesting subjects (certainly some of my favourite sci-fi deals with this!) I think as a subject for a children’s book in which there is no intention to really delve into or demonstrate the various situations because of either page constraints or the misguided over-simplification which children’s literature often suffers, it is indeed dull.  That being said, Reynolds does create an interesting situation which probably would have benefited from being written as an adult book.  The scope of Mission to Horatius is a little too large, Reynolds would have been better condensing his ideas and cutting out some of the more superfluous elements (Mickey the Space Rat being one of them).  On the other hand, I have to remind myself that it’s a children’s book and so I need to accept that Mickey the space rat is probably a good move for the younger audience.

The structure of the narrative is relatively simple, the Enterprise receives a mission to answer a distress call from a distant system.  On arriving at the system the Kirk and the Enterprise must investigate where the distress call came from.  The first planet they investigate is Neolithia which is populated by humans who wish to live a primitive (stone age) existence, obviously the distress call did not originate here.  In their investigation of the planet they meet a young teenage boy named Grang, who acts as the reader’s surrogate.

The second planet, Mythra, is a theocracy, the inhabitants of which are living in a strange mixture of time periods from the medieval (from observation) to the 1900s (on the basis that they have radio).  Kirk and his crew find out that the Mythran elites have been drugging the population in order to keep them happy and compliant.  Naturally Kirk makes sure this can’t continue by releasing an antidote to the drug into the water supply.  These people too are too under-developed to have sent a subspace transmission however and so the Enterprise moves to the next planet.

The third planet, Bavarya, is basically populated by Nazi’s who clone themselves and want to take over the other planets in the system, eventually trying to dominate the entire Federation.  It turns out that the distress call was sent by Nummer Ein‘s daughter, who wanted to try and stop the corrupt government.  Kirk, Spock, and Grang are forced to fight a gladiator style battle against clones before breaking out and destroying the cloning facility which causes the death of all the cloned soldiers.  Mission accomplished Enterprise turns for home (after dropping off Grang), however, McCoy fears a break out of Space Cafard, which is basically cabin fever, and engineers a game of hunt the rat in order to give the crew something to do and to prevent madness.  The game is a success (although not for the rat) and the crew stay sane until they can have some much needed R&R.

The idea itself of the contrasting societies isn’t a particularly creative one; however, I was most interested in what Reynolds had to say about the cloning, the idea of ‘ghost dubbing’ (a term I’m borrowing from Shirow Masamune for convenience) and the question of whether clones have souls… well at least clones made in a particular way (the answer here is no by the way!).

Ghost Dubbing Machine in Shirow Masamune’s Ghost In The Shell (1989-1990)

I think probably the most disappointing part of Mission to Horatius is that ultimately the ‘big bads’ are space Nazis, which is just lazy narrative shorthand for “look, aren’t these people irredeemable and deplorable?!”.  Well, that and there’s not an alien in sight just fringe humans being mostly terrible to each other; which somewhat defeats the object of having alien races representing different facets of humanity, yes?

Characterization isn’t very good on the whole, but perhaps would be satisfactory to younger children.  it surprises me that a capable author would get stuck on some characterization elements,  There’s only so many times you need to mention that Spock looks ‘satanic’ for example.  Kirk’s characterization is very off key and isn’t really the Kirk we can really recognize from the TV show, books, or fan fiction… he’s just wrong.  Whilst I accept that everything is simplified; bad characterization doesn’t have to be a direct result of writing for children:  If anything characterization should be stronger in a children’s novel.

A definite shortfall which blights the whole book is that it has been artificially simplified ‘for children’ and so made dull.  That being said adults seem to have hated it while children liked it, so what do I know, eh?

Anyway, I think it’s an interesting, quick read for those interested in fiction contemporary to Star Trek being on television.  I don’t think there’s much merit to the book personally although the dated illustrations and language add to it’s charm somewhat.  I’m glad I read it out of interest, but I’m unlikely to read it again, if you see it going for pennies, it might be worth getting, but otherwise don’t worry about adding this one to your collection.

Star Trek – How Much For Just The Planet

Arizhel picked up the Cat robber and shoved him into the closet.  She pressed the lock button, since Charlotte had the key, then shut the door, listening for the click.  She heard the cat stir within.  That was disappointing; she must be out of practice.
She went back towards the door.  Stitches popped like bursts of gunfire.  Instinctively she grabbed at the scraps of black as they fell away.  It seemed to make things worse.
But she did not need the Cat costume any longer.  She could simply change back into her dress…
Which was  locked in the closet, behind the Cat.

How Much For Just The Planet (#36 Pocket, # Titan) by John M Ford is another slightly experimental story in keeping with Ford’s rule not to write the same kind of story twice.   I think HMFJTP is a kind of marmite story, but very much in the style of TOS in that it could have very much been an episode of from the TV series.  Incredibly campy both in writing style and the events in the story itself, it is also very self aware.  Ridiculous things happen in HMFJTP, the whole latter half of the book is orchestrated slap stick comedy ending in a pie fight between all the characters.  The end is also moralising, and highlights one of the problems with the Organian treaty – what if the people of the disputed planet want nothing to do with either the Federation nor the Klingon Empire?

I was in two minds while reading HMFJTP, it was pure TOS through and through, brilliant characterisation, a refreshing approach to story telling, hell, I enjoyed it.  On the other hand the prolonged slapstick comedy sketch didn’t quite work for me and I couldn’t help cringing at this comedy of errors.

Stylistically HMFJTP is really interesting.  When the Federation and Klingon diplomatic delegations beam down to Direidi to attempt to negotiate who would be developing the planet and it’s dilithium resources the reader is made immediately aware that what the crew are experiencing is all staged and an act.  The reader has been told of ‘Plan C’, we know it’s all scripted and throughout the surreal experiences we often get given small ‘behind the scenes’… well… scenes.   The Direidians break into musical-esque song at the merest provocation, much to the bemusement of the Federation and Klingon crews, who are trying to be accepting of this strange people (which of course helps to keep the ruse going).  The songs are written in italicised stanzas, predominantly in rhyming couplets, and are often quite lengthy!  The songs work as a kind of shorthand for setting the scene, much as they would in a piece of musical theatre (they’re also mostly awful!).  We expect for the hi-jinx to begin when the ‘worlds collide’ as it were, however the strange, theatrical occurrences happen from the beginning of the narrative and in the formatting of the text itself.

Something that stands out immediately is that every chapter has a title, for example:

– In Space, No One Can Fry an Egg

– The Dilithium Crystal As Big As The Ritz

– All’s Fair In Love and Dilithium

and there are also ‘interlude’ chapters such as:

– Educational Short Subject: Useful Facts about Dilithium

– Historical Interlude: The Only War We’ve Got

which are written with a theme and are written stylistically differently.  The ‘Educational Short Subject’ is written as if it’s a sponsored children’s infomercial, the ‘Historical Interlude’ is a comically written explanation of the terms of the Organian Treaty and the Federation and the Empire’s respective opinions on it (that interlude tickled me!).

It’s also interesting to note that the strange goings on or perhaps the tone of the novel starts immediately in the narrative too.  From the beginning the whole story has a certain humour to it.  Whether it’s the replicator’s inability to produce orange juice which isn’t blue, Kirk deciding he was brave enough to try the electric blue concoction, or that the events of the story may have been put into motion by a sloppy Vulcan who spilt a minty milk shake over integral parts of her ship’s computer, causing it to become quite insane.  These events continue as Kirk & Co. are brought into the story, the diplomat for the mission is an old flame (whom he’d forgotten) and the sloppy Vulcan is known to Spock (he exhibits a slight tick when he suspects she’s involved); this is even before the diplomatic party arrives at the planet.

I mean… on one hand we have the expected ridiculous and scripted events on Direidi which really are laugh out loud funny (the cherry on the cake was the utterly ridiculous ‘pie fight’, but the multiple cases of misdirection and tongue in cheek film / theatre references) and on the other we have the ‘universe’ acting in much the same way which makes it both less and more absurd.  This is quite in keeping I feel with episodes of TOS which can vary between serious intellectualism to broad comedy, though HMFJTP is far beyond anything featured in the show.

I really did like that Ford continued with his expansion of Klingon society.  I really did like the internal thoughts of the Klingon characters who were by Klingon standards, quite pleasant.  ‘Proke’ was quite the match to Uhura and was definitely a development from Ford’s Klingons.  Proke and Uhura both worked out what was going on on Direidi, and so their adventure was the most strange (and the shortest) as they were preempting the directed events and essentially identifying the tropes and their origin films / series as they came across them.

I think the most fun comes from the variety of different adventures the different groups of the diplomatic party had.  One section was shamelessly drawing from ‘She’ (which made me chuckle), another with the party running over a golf course amid shell fire I know I’ve seen but I can’t recall the film.  Eventually the sets start to fall apart but by that time everyone is ready for a stress reducing pie fight!

Of course, unless you’re a director, you’re not going to escape a situation like this without egg on your face, and in this case the people of Direidi who don’t want any part of politics manage to manipulate the situation in such a way that their preferred proposal for Dilithium mining on their planet has to be accepted by the diplomats of both the Federation and the Empire.

Like I said How Much For Just The Planet is a reader’s marmite, I can’t guarantee you’ll like it, but I can honestly say that it is a well written Star Trek novel with a premise that could only be pulled off in practise by someone with Ford’s ability. 

If you know your 1940s, 50s, and 60s cinema and contemporary theatre, you’ll have a good time picking out the references!

4/5 – Here’s looking at you, kid.

Star Trek – Chain of Attack

Dr. Jason Crandall lay fully dressed on his bed, futilely trying to decide which was worse – the terrifying nightmare from which he had just awakened or the bleak reality that had replaced it.

Chain of Attack (#32 Pocket, # Titan) (1987) by Gene Deweese is one of those books which is sincerely a pleasure to read.  Almost clinical in its execution, Deweese’s clarity and excellent characterisation is only let down by a slight feeling of detachment as the author takes a ‘hands off’ approach to his characters emotionality.

As I was reading Chain of Attack, it felt very familiar and, looking back at my blog I notice that I have indeed read another book by Gene Deweese – Renegade which is #55 in the Pocket Book series.  Reading that review (from just over a year ago!) confirmed some of the impressions I got from Deweese’s writing; clinical, masculine, and lacking emotional depth paired with strong characterisation, story concept, and effective use of supporting cast.  I do think that Chain of Attack is a stronger story than Renegade however.

Memory Beta Chain of Attack story summary.

Chain of Attack begins with the Enterprise being hurled into a distant region of space via a spacial anomaly that appears to have been created by an ancient (and presumably extinct) species.  Isolated and with no way back home, the Enterprise explores the space around where the anomaly deposited them.  To their horror all the planets they come across have been decimated by weapons of mass destruction and over a long period of time.  Eventually they come across other space faring craft, however they attack the Enterprise on sight… as well as attacking each other.  Fortunately they are not as technologically advanced and the Enterprise has little trouble with dealing with these encounters, bu the crew are horrified by the alien species’ propensity for suicide.

Both species the Enterprise encounters refuse to communicate to either the Enterprise or each other… lost and along in this strange region of space, Kirk finds himself trying to understand these strange and destructive peoples and eventually, attempting to broker peace.

However, there is dissent in the ranks, and Kirk has to fight on two fronts.

It’s funny how different reviewers see different books.  Often when I feel strongly about something I ask my partner (as regular readers of this blog will know) to see if he agrees with me.  Often we do see things the same way, other times he gives me a different perspective.  I also double check myself on goodreads, sometimes a reviewer there will give me a better perspective… and very often I wonder if we’ve read the same book!  Some reviewers have said that they don’t think Chain of Attack has very good characterisation and that Kirk especially is out of character – I think completely the opposite!  To confirm how I felt, I gave my partner a few pages to read and he agreed, the representation of the characters is right on the money.  We both felt that when reading character interactions especially (but not limited to) between the trinity that they were jumping off the page, that it’s like what could have been acted out in, I think, season two of TOS.  I feel like possibly some commenters haven’t seen the series itself recently and so have a different impression/memory of Kirk et al.  The other criticism is one I have made of other Star Trek novels, but I don’t think applies here and that is that it’s not really a Star Trek story and that the characters are bolted onto a general sci-fi story.  I disagree, I think absolutely that Chain of Attack was conceived as a Star Trek story, it even has a character type seen in the original series and an slightly too convenient resolution for that character!

As well as the excellent characterisation of Kirk, Spock and McCoy (I’ll restrict my gushing, lest it get a little repetitive), Deweese’s original character Doctor Jason Crandall is actually a really enjoyable character to get to know.  I mean, he’s infuriating on one hand, but on the other because Deweese lets us ‘see’ his thoughts and thought processes he’s almost understandable but with that you get a kind of tension… you know he’s going to do something but you’re not sure what the something is going to be.  The funny thing is that when he does act it’s a laughable failure, and that is… almost tragic I guess?  Crandall is just so deluded and his understanding of the situation so wrong he ends up being a really effective tragic character.  Even the fact that Kirk writes his attempts at mutiny off as not being particularly worrisome makes the character effective.  I get the feeling that possibly Crandall got some of his character traits at least partially from people who dislike Star Trek, or criticise Kirk as a leader/captain/character.  Certainly I have seen similar commentaries to Crandall’s in articles about Star Trek or various Facebook posts; He isn’t realistic, he has too much ego, he only wishes to satisfy his own sense of adventure, he throws his crews lives away – that kind of thing.  Crandall echoes this commentary, and if I’m right… that’s a fantastic in joke (with a clever tongue in cheek resolution).

I really liked the two alien species that were encountered, I liked how different they were physically but how similar they were mentally.  I liked their individual characterisations, that they didn’t all react in the same way (not all painted with the same brush) even if they were a little bit frustrating for Kirk to deal with.

Near the end of the book an unexpected third species is discovered, and actually an unexpected resolution for Crandall and the Enterprise crew.  Naturally, the crew of the Enterprise return to their original part of the galaxy (with some relieved passengers) and leave behind them the beginnings of peace for the two species they encountered there.

All in all a really solid novel, clean and concise with a very ‘Star Trek’ ending.  My only complaint is that Deweese is very distant emotionally and that is less enjoyable for me, but that being said I did really enjoy Chain of Attack a great deal, and even if you (like myself) like the more emotional novels, this one is worth a read.

It’s not very fun to write about though…?

4/5 – It’s done, I made it!

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 – The Wounded Sky

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

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

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

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

I assume it was a he.

I also assume he is dead.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

God, Religious Experience and the Soul

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

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

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

The Best Self


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

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

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

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

Seriously, how powerful is that?

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

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

So, what is McCoy’s observation –

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

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

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

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

Sex and Relationships

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

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

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

Weight of responsibility

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

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

The Importance of Command

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

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

Best Scene?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

And that’s one hell of a story.

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

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

Star Trek – Yesterday’s Son

Their eyes were on a level as Zar said quietly,  

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

Spock drew a long breath.  “Yes.”

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

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

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

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

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

Ok.  Still with me?  You sure? Ok.  

***SPOILERS from here on!***

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spock & Zarabeth – All Our Yesterdays

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

This picture just seemed fitting!

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

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

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

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

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

Kirk nodded.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

5/5 – Read it, like, yesterday.

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

Star Trek – The Wrath of Khan – Novelisation

“Jim,” he said, “I have been, and will be, your friend.  I am grateful for that.  Live long, and prosper….”

His long fingers clenched into seared claws; the agony of the assault of radiation overcame him.  He fell.

“Spock!” Jim cried.  He pounded the glass with his fists.  “Oh, God no…!”

McCoy tried to make him leave.  Jim snarled and thrust him violently away.  He hunched against the window, his mind crying denial and disbelief.

I find it singularly incredible that an author could be given a gift – a gift – of an adaptation to write, and still manage to faff it up with her own bias and preferences.

It’s actually a remarkable skill, to cock up writing one of the most powerful scenes in cinema.

Good ol’ Vonda has that skill though.  Not only can she manage to make Spock’s iconic death scene a spectacle of mediocrity she also manages to, once again make the mind numbing decision to give more thought and reflection to an ‘original character’ of sorts, and skip merrily past any in depth consideration of you know, an insignificant character like Admiral James T Kirk.

I swear, Star Trek – The Wrath of Khan by Vonda McIntyre could be renamed Star Trek – Biography of Lt. Saavik because that’s what it is.

If you’ve followed my blog before, you’ll know I have a particular antipathy towards a particular author (no prizes for guessing it’s Vonda McIntyre), and it’s not without good reason!  I swear it!

Here read my other reviews, I’ll wait.

#2 Star Trek – The Entropy Effect

 Enterprise – The First Adventure

Put it this way, I knew what to expect and she didn’t surprise me one iota.  I mean, if there’s information you didn’t need or want to know, Vonda will provide.  If there’s a female sub character / original character she can give more pages than necessary, she’ll do it.  If she can somehow give more page time to Sulu, he’ll get it and, frankly, she hates Scotty.  She adores Spock though, so I guess the depressingly badly written death scene might have been a little unexpected… but then again, shorter death scene means more time to lavish on Lt. Saavik.

Well at least after this book I only have, what, three more Vonda-cides to go?

I guess I better start at the beginning?

I don’t know what your feelings are on books and film adaptations and where you draw the line between canon and not, but I think they need to be taken on a case by case basis.  For example, the previous film novelisation I would call canon, it was written by Gene Roddenberry after all and I feel he added significant insight with the novelisation, the novelisation actually makes the film make sense, fills in the gaps;  I reviewed it here.

This adaptation… I’d say should be in the category of don’t touch it even with a stick, there’s so much utter rubbish inserted, so many liberties taken I just can’t accept it.  I mean, I know I don’t like Vonda’s writing style in the first place and have very little patience for her generally, but come on!  If you’re going to write a film novelisation at least leave your bias at the door!

Lots of people have positively reviewed this ST:TWOK novelisation and said that it ‘explains it all’ and that they ‘didn’t enjoy TWOK because they didn’t understand it and this fills in all the gaps’… no, it doesn’t it makes up page count with utter trash filler that, if you’ve read a couple of McIntyre’s ST novels you know it is just self indulgence on her part.

What kind of trash filler you ask?

I don’t need to know that two of the scientists on Carol and David Marcus’ team are jokers with a thing for Lewis Carol.  I don’t need a whole poem by Lewis Carol reproduced for me to read.  I don’t need to know that these two genius scientists make games in their spare time and leave that as data for Khan and co to pick up instead of the genesis project information.  Why did you have me read pages of utter rubbish about nothing characters that are shortly going to die?

Is Scotty really a prissy, thin skinned uncle?  Do we really need to know that his nephew has a crush on Saavik and has maths lessons with her?  Do we really need that painfully written scene with Spock trying to explain a ‘crush’ to Saavik?  Or that Saavik really doesn’t like omelette because it’s bland and has to use chilli on it to make it palatable, or a vegetarian diet makes (half) Romulans sick?

On that note, I know the director pretty much edited out everything to do with Saavik being a Vulcan/Romulan hybrid because she never really acts like a Romulan, so he decided to simplify it with the view of if she always acts like a Vulcan, make her Vulcan, in fact, the actress was a pretty big Spock / Vulcan fan and so she pretty much acted like a Vulcan would – as she had done in make believe as a child (she used to pretend she was Spock’s daughter).  So, if we keep in mind that her background in regards to Romulan heritage was edited out, a large section of the book which is dedicated to her and her tragic background is now erroneous.  Why wasn’t this caught and edited out?  Couldn’t they at least keep it consistent?

Speaking of consistency, wouldn’t it be fantastic if dialogue actually in the films was accurate?  Especially for the most important scenes?  It probably didn’t escape your notice that the dialogue quoted above does not fit with the dialogue in the film?

Found this wonderful comparison on facebook  a while back.  Sorry I don’t know where it was originally from!

And really, this dialogue proves to be some of the most important when it comes to Spock / Kirk relationship analysis (doesn’t matter if you think that it is a platonic or sexual relationship), as in the graphic above the scene is a reflection of Spock’s response as early in the series as Amok Time.

This is how it plays out in the film:

Ergh.  Gets me right in the feels every time.  Every. Single. Time.

I think what really characterises that whole scene is its quietness.  Kirk’s quiet agony at watching his friend die, his t’hy’la (soulmate/brother/lover) die and Spock’s characteristic calmness… but with that obvious pain and distress.  What really gets me is that the charismatic leader that is James T Kirk is struck virtually dumb, such is his utter despair and pain.  What does he say, ever so quietly?  ‘Spock’.  ‘Spock’.  ‘Yes’.  ‘No’.  Spock reaches out for contact he can’t have, a contact he should have had, which was even expected by Sarek as we see in the next film.  If there was ever a perfect piece of cinema, it is this scene.  What does McIntyre do, well aside from mutilate it with her clumsy writing and stilted sentences?  She makes it loud.  Gone is the quiet despair of Kirk, instead we have outbursts.  Instead of a distressing, intimate moment between two souls saying good bye, we have an interjection by… Saavik.  I read it and wanted to scream, shut up Saavik!  You are not in this scene, of course Kirk will not understand because you are intruding, intruding I say!

You can have a picture ’cause I aint typing it all out.

Even if this was in the original script she saw, if that was how it was done, I don’t know, an editor should have caught all this.  Oh wait.  Hold on.  If you edited out Saavik from this section then you would have no reason to return to her for almost three solid pages as she visits Spock’s coffin and comes out with zingers like ‘Admiral Kirk’s opinion was of no significance‘.  Well if his opinion is of no significance Saavik, then I don’t know whose is!  In comparison, Sulu (another Vonda fav.) gets about a page of shared dialogue with Chapel, while Kirk gets a page of shared dialogue with Carol Marcus.  Then we are straight back to Saavik again for a paragraph before we get to Spock’s funeral.  Where Saavik is the first one mentioned.  Again.  I don’t care about a character introduced for this film, I really don’t.  I want to know about the characters I’m invested in.   And I have a real problem with those three scenes that McIntyre has inserted.  They aren’t in the film, that’s fine, but they don’t add anything either.  They could have been brilliant scenes, revisiting all the old crew, but no, we get too much Saavik, we get Sulu (urgh) and a pretty rushed scene with Kirk and Marcus (double ergh).  Honest to God, she loves her side characters!  That is a Bones and Kirk moment, absolutely, 100%, but no, Carol Marcus it has to be, why use the original cast anyhow?  Additionally, having Saavik as the ‘bread’ of the sandwich in these scenes makes her too important.  She is used to hold the *two* scenes involving original cast together, she isn’t that important, just WHY.

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻)

And you know, the really unfortunate thing about all this, is that it makes me really dislike Saavik, which really isn’t fair on the character.  In the film Saavik is enigmatic, she;s Vulcan with a little bit of extra emotion.  Perhaps it’s youth, perhaps it’s just in comparison to Spock she’s a little bit more dynamic, but she is acted superbly and the tears at Spock’s funeral are poignant because as far as we know, she’s Vulcan and displays of emotion like that are a faux pas.  She reflects Kirk at this time, who is unable to hold it together, just about getting the words out.

And I do understand she acts as a kind of audience surrogate… oh, no she doesn’t.  Saavik does not work as an audience surrogate, she’s new blood as Decker was in TMP, but she is not a surrogate because she is an enigma even to us.  She is a very strange choice to base the much of the perspective of the book from, personally I would have gone for third person omniscient, and not focused on Saavik.  Sure, she can have her exposition, but enough is enough!

Right, I think I have gone on enough about this.  There are serious problems with this novelisation of ST:TWOK and frankly, unless you have some morbid curiosity about Saavik’s non canon origins I don’t really see the point in reading it.  In contrast to the ST:TMP novelisation, McIntyre’s first novel adaptation of the film series adds nothing to our understanding of the film as much of it can’t be considered canon.  It does highlight however a severe lack of editorial oversight.

In my opinion, a novelisation should at least be accurate to the scenes included in the film and any extra content should be relevant and add to the reader’s understanding of it.

The author should also be competent and not struggle with sentence structure and flow.  McIntyre never, improves on this front (at least in her Star Trek novels).  I have no desire to read any of her other series to see if she actually does improve, I fear I’d feel the urge to claw my eyes out.  Just these will be enough.

1/5 – Don’t bother.

((McIntyre’s work to me is as a red rag to a bull…))

Star Trek – The Abode of Life

Two nearly simultaneous explosions from the humanoids’ handguns shook the glade.  There was the solid sound of a projectile hitting one of the trees, followed by the whistling of another projectile ricocheting off some surface to warble off into the distance.

White smoke having the smell of rotten eggs, the characteristic odor of exploded black gunpowder, filled the air.

Oh dear, it has been a while!  I’m afraid I was on a bodily enforced hiatus – it was either mild flu or a cold with delusions of grandeur!  Either way it wiped me out for weeks (I’m only now feeling awake enough to write again!), and considering I’d pretty much finished The Abode of Life when I came down with it, I’m now having to stretch my Trek addled brain far further back than I’d like in order to review it!

The Abode of Life (Pocket, Titan) by Lee Correy was a welcome break from the overly dramatic silliness of Marshak & Culbreath and also allowed me to legitimately avoid reading another two that I’m not very excited about, to say the least.  Ok, what I really want to say is that I needed a man’s literary touch and Lee Corey managed to scratch that itch.  I’ve often said that there is a definite difference between male and female writers and it couldn’t be more exemplified than in the comparison between the emotional writing of Marshak and Culbreath and the succinct prose of Lee Correy.  The Abode of Life is spartan and Correy is generally uninterested in emotional exposition or character development (he in fact seems to have difficulty expressing emotion at all -Vulcan?-, I’ll talk about that later), instead his interest lies in writing an expanded episode, showing us a whole new culture and having Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise make first contact with a technologically advanced species so cut off from the rest of the galaxy that they believe they are the only sentient life and whose culture is built around that belief.

The cover is… ok? I kind of like Kirk and Spock being full length instead of floating heads though…

I don’t want to give the wrong impression, I really did like The Abode of Life, it was just what I needed and that’s all right with me.  As much as I like character driven stories full of exposition and relationship / character building, sometimes I just need to be reminded just why I like the series in the first place.  Essentially, it’s very easy to get bogged down with ‘fanon‘ (which is wonderful) that you forget just why it was love at first sight.  I didn’t get annoyed, I didn’t get emotional, I just got taken on a Trek adventure

The author is worth mentioning before I move on.  Lee Corey is a pseudonym of G. Harry Stine who as well as an author is one of the founding figures of modern model rocketry.  He has a physics background and worked at the Naval Ordnance Missile Test facility.  The Abode of Life is his only Star Trek novel, however he wrote a number of novels including his ‘Warbot’ series.  He has also published non fiction books on model rocketry and a number of space / space travel related books.  His non-fiction writing style peeks through in The Abode of Life, economical with language, a general lack of emotional description but a really in depth creation of a world and a culture and the possible science behind it.  Lee Correy writes plausibly, everything is believable from the science to the reactions of the characters.

The Enterprise is asked to scout a dangerous area of space full of spacial gravitational distortions.  Naturally, in an encounter with one of these distortions the Enterprise gets thrown across space to a sector of the quadrant which has not been yet discovered / explored by any other known race.  Badly crippled by the ordeal, the Enterprise limps under impulse engines to a lone planet circling a lone star, the readings of which defy even Spock’s understanding of star behaviour.  It soon becomes clear that the star and the planet were victims of the same phenomenon that the Enterprise experienced, albeit many years previously, explaining the odd behaviour of the star.

Due to the state of the Enterprise, Kirk makes the decision that he must make contact with the people on the surface of the planet.  Scans indicate they are technologically advanced and use a transporter system though they have not developed space travel.  Kirk finds himself in a first contact situation with a people who have no concept of any other life in the universe except for their own, and whose unique society could be irrevocably changed by contact with aliens…  Of course, the situation becomes more urgent when it is revealed that the unstable sun is due to start a cyclical event which will cause it to throw out lethal amounts of radiation, enough to destroy a crippled starship and her crew.  Kirk must decide whether to break the cycle and change a planet’s society forever, or save the Enterprise from certain destruction, all the while playing the part of Federation ambassador and tactician.

It’s pretty much a no-brainer, isn’t it?  I mean, even those of us who will defend Kirk to the ends of the Alpha quadrant know that there are certain things he won’t allow:

1) Destruction of his woman the Enterprise (unless it involves Spock, see 3))

2) Loss of his best bro, McCoy

3) Loss of his space husband first officer, Spock.

So once the negotiations inevitably break down, Kirk has to take action.  In doing so he changes Mercan forever, which of course means that the story doesn’t stop there.  The Abode of Life is unusual as it continues on well after the main event has occurred, Kirk has to take responsibility for his actions, and that means helping to mend the rifts between the various factions on the planet and try to bring the isolated planet into the Federation for protection and for strategic purposes.

Much of the action The Abode of Life comes from the conflict between three factions which can probably be described simply as conservatives, liberals and military.  In this case the conservatives hold the power in the Mercan society being part of a ‘church of science’ (?) and they hold the knowledge of how to predict their sun’s behaviour and have control of the bunkers which the people have to hide in to survive.  The liberals represent ‘new-science’, challenging old views and trying to work out what the conservatives know in order to shift the balance of power.  The military are pretty self explanatory, they work for the conservatives but only want to act for the good of Mercan.

Pretty standard fare isn’t it?  The meat of the story itself is not original, but the setting is.  I think the real strength comes from the Correy’s world building.  His new characters are average, but the well thought out world with it’s interesting martial society and mix of new technology (world wide transporter system) and old (black powder pistols) is really interesting.  I actually liked the idea of this isolated, advanced society having this duelling system that uses old pistols to settle disputes.  The ‘mythology’ of the planet was really interesting too, after all, there had to be a reason they didn’t ever bother developing space travel and such. 

One of the points I had to laugh at was the characterisations, they were accurate I think, but because Correy’s weakness is description you get funny repetitions like ‘Kirk snapped’.  ‘Kirk snapped’ was used so many times that it kind of becomes a joke.  Does Kirk do nothing else but ‘snap’ as his crew?  It’s like he’s suffering a sugar low or something!!

It was nice having Kirk just being a captain and demonstrating how capable he is.  You know showing you just why he’s is the captain of a starship charged with not only the responsibility of the 400 or so lives on board, but as a soldier and as a negotiator and representative of the Federation – a diplomat able to initiate and preside over first contact situations.  Correy really emphasises Kirk’s sense of responsibility and his wisdom. 

Correy used a wide selection of the main cast, including Rand, who gets to be part of the landing party.  I’m actually rather fond of Janice Rand and when she is written into a story it tends to be rather satisfying for me.

The Abode of Life is really worth the read, it’s just good, solid, Trek.  What more do you want?

4/5 – Kirk snapped.

Star Trek – The Klingon Gambit

Kirk felt drained.  Spock fluctuating emotionally before his eyes, Scotty and his pilfering, Chekov and his wild desire to blast the Klingon out of space, the crew becoming edgier and edgier – all took a toll on his nerves  He felt more like  a mediator in civil disputes than the captain of  starship.  The dull throbbing in his head refused to die down as long as he sat in the command chair.

“Mr Spock, you have the conn.”

For the first time, Kirk added under his breath, “And I hope the ship survives it.” 

So if there ever was a book to teach me not to judge a book by its cover I guess this is the one!  The Klingon Gambit (#3 Pocket, #33 Titan) by Robert E Vardeman was actually one of first Star Trek novels I bought (it was included in a bundle of books on ebay), but I have repeatedly put it to one side simply because the cover art wasn’t to my taste. Foolish girl!  Will you never learn?

In my defense I am generally more attracted to stories with heavy character development in and they more often than not have compellingly large renderings of the relevant characters on them so I am naturally more drawn to those covers.  And… although I like star ships and technology I prefer people and aliens… and… Look frankly I find this cover ugly as sin, the Klingon ship is drawn in an ugly way, the colours don’t attract me in the slightest.  Believe it or not, the Titan Books edition is even less inspiring than the pocket books edition pictured here.  What’s more, the tag lines on the book makes it sound awful.

IS THE ENTERPRISE DOOMED AT LAST?

THE KLINGONS ARE HUNGRY FOR WAR… THEIR TARGET: THE ENTERPRISE

It sounds so generic, so uninteresting, so you will forgive me for being less than enthusiastic about this one.  But actually… it was really, really good.

Sorry, say that again?

It was really, really good.

… and I read it in two sittings.  Sure, it is a very modest book only 158 pages long, so that has something to do with it but even so it is very good, it’s a real page turner.  It kept me guessing.

The Enterprise is called away from mapping a new planet  in order to investigate a possible attack by Klingons on a Vulcan research vessel.  When they arrive at the scene they find the Vulcan ship drifting serenely in space and all the Vulcans on board dead.  There are no signs of struggle and the corpses of the Vulcans appear to indicate they died in a state of meditative repose.  Wary that the Klingons might have used a strange and powerful weapon, Kirk and the Enterprise approach the Klingon Dreadnought and make contact with the archaeologists on the surface of the planet.  The Enterprise keeps herself between the Dreadnought and the planet in order to protect the archaeologists,  but it is not long before the crew start acting strangely.  Spock starts to swing between being emotional wreck to being a cold computer, Scotty starts stealing parts to try to eke out extra power and efficiency from his beloved engines, Chekov is having trouble controlling his  violent urges to attack the Klingons – the whole crew is degenerating as each man starts to fulfil his own desires over his duties.

To make matter worse, the Klingon vessel is having similar problems.  Mutiny is rife and the Klingon commander tried to keep his charges under control, which adds even greater problems for Kirk – how will these erratic Klingons react? 

Kirk needs to work out what is causing the strange behaviour in both crews while trying to keep his in control and safe.  What did the Vulcans find?  What is causing the strange behaviour in his crew?  Are the Klingons to blame?

Throughout the novel there is one piece of information that we’re missing which keeps us in the dark (and turning pages) until the end – until Kirk asks the right questions.  The whole situation is utterly puzzling, made more perplexing by the fact that Kirk doesn’t appear to be influenced by ‘whatever it is’ and has to navigate the situation on his own as McCoy becomes increasingly cantankerous and anti-technology and Spock swings from emotional extreme to non-emotional extreme.

The book would be utterly spoiled if I reveal anymore on the story, so you’ll have to read this one yourself to get the whole story – I ain’t spoiling this one for you!

I really liked the overall message of the story, the ‘moral’ as it were.  The story is based around acting selfishly on your own desires and the damage that a person can do if he acts solely for his own contentment.  The Enterprise is society in microcosm, and this book demonstrates how a society breaks down if it becomes totally selfish.  It also demonstrates that people can be better and can beat their impulses and desires for the greater good – sometimes (like in the case of Chekov) we just need guidance from others to understand right from wrong.

Stylistically The Klingon Gambit is easy to read, and Vardeman has included a good amount of humour in his story.  I particularly enjoyed Scotty’s escapades with the engines!

My only real complaint is that it wasn’t long enough!  I honestly can’t fault it, it was just enjoyable.

EDIT:  I forgot to say!  The tag lines are completely misleading / off the mark!  The target was never the Enterprise and they aren’t hungry for war!  I say again – who writes these things?!

4/5  – I’m getting soft in my old age.

Star Trek The Motion Picture – Novel – Gene Roddenberry

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

5/5 – L.L.A.P