Star Trek – Dreams of the Raven

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

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

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

Carmen Carter on isfdb

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Star Trek – The Entropy Effect

‘The bridge was in chaos around them.  Blood splattered deck and bulkheads and glistened on the illuminated data screens.’

The Entropy Effect (1981) (#2 Pocket, #17 Titan) by Vonda N McIntyre is a frankly bizarre first entry to the Pocket Books novel series (discounting Star Trek: The Motion Picture novel release).  I have to be honest, I was trying to avoid reading/reviewing this one because of the travesty of Star Trek – The First Adventure, also by McIntyre.   Unfortunately, my three (perhaps four – don’t ask) copies of The Entropy Effect kept catching my attention; moustached Sulu haunting me, incorrectly uniformed Kirk staring balefully at me, baiting me.  

Some people have pronounced this novel one of the best that the Star Trek TOS series has to offer; to those people I pose a question – Are you high?

Having read McIntyre’s prequel story Star Trek – The First Adventure I feel I was braced for her little, idiosyncrasies.  For example, the story takes about 73 pages to actually get started (about 25k in a 78k word novel) because of her love of her ‘original characters’ which she lavishes precious pages on.  I expected her hatred of Scotty, her undying love for Sulu (it was McIntyre who gave him his first name ‘Hikaru’ which became canon 10 years after the writing of this book), and her penchant for strong females and their groupies.  She did surprise me a little bit with her Kirk/Spock slashy moments which are so overt that Kirk’s relationship issues with the woman ‘Hunter’ are rendered null and void, because he has a boyfriend, and he has pointy ears (even if Kirk doesn’t realise it yet).

The story itself is relatively simple, but manages to be convoluted because it involves time travel.  Stripping it back to it’s bare bones leaves you with an unimaginative time loop tale, only involving a single person, Spock, and by the end the novel not even he can clearly remember what has happened, neither is there any real effect to the universe in general.  It seems such a waste of time to have an entire story take place and it essentially be relegated to nothingness at the end.

As I mentioned previously, nothing really happens in the first 73 pages in which McIntyre introduces her numerous original characters.  If you’ve read The First Adventure you’ll know of Hunter who is referenced by Sulu as a hero of his, and in The Entropy Effect, an ex-lover of Kirk with an uh, interesting polygamous family life.  Hunter seems a little shoehorned in, I’ve no doubt McIntyre believes she’s important, but she could be replaced with a generic male captain and we could skip some useless character development.  We could also avoid some erosion of Kirk’s character, which reduces him to being totally puerile.  Luckily he’s dead for a significant part of the novel, which means he gets bypass the McIntyre makeover (such a shame he doesn’t manage to be dead in The First Adventure too).

And this is something I find really bizarre, who kills the main character for the majority of a novel which is supposed to be starting off a series of (non film) books?  Kirk is dead for over half the book.   Admittedly, he dies a very satisfying death (if by satisfying you mean, painfully and in Spock’s arms), and you know what?  Surprisingly this scene is written rather well!  It gave me chills to read it, because it was rather brutal and McIntyre had come up with a particularly nasty way to kill someone.  In fact, I’ve read the scene several times, because it is really well written, and I think, this is the scene which sticks in people’s minds, which makes them forgive (?) the rest of the book.  The scene is too long to quote here, but rest assured there are plenty of slashy moments… and a reference to an original character (Hunter) who is so important that Kirk thinks about her while he’s dying.  I really, really have a problem with this, ‘this’ being when original characters take on a more important role than the regular cast.  Uhura and Chekov for example are non-entities in this novel, but the three new security officers? Hunter?  A new reader could be forgiven for thinking that they were regular characters.

I must also congratulate McIntyre in not making Spock cry hot Vulcan tears when Kirk dies.  He’s close, but manages to keep it under control unlike in the First Adventure, and this is far, far more satisfying.  Spock tries to ease Kirk’s pain via a mind meld –

Spock grasped his hand, holding him strongly, deliberately leaving open all the mental and emotional shields he had built during his long association with human beings.
‘You will be alright, Jim,’ Spock said.  He put his right hand to Jim’s temple, completing the telepathic, mystical circuit linking him with his friend.  Pain, fear, and regret welled out into him.  He accepted it willingly, and felt it ease in Jim.  ‘My strength to yours,’ he whispered, too softly for anyone to hear, the words a hypnotic reminder of the techniques he was using. ‘My strength to yours, my will to yours.’

However, there is nothing to be done, Kirk realises that he’s going to die, and severs the mind meld knowing that ‘Spock would follow him down the accelerating spiral until he had fallen too deep to return.  He would willingly choose death to save Kirk’s life.’  which results in –

‘The physical resonance of emotional force flung Spock backward.  His body thudded against the railing, and he slumped to the floor.  He lay still, gathering his strength. (…) Spock pushed himself to his feet, fighting to hide his reactions.  (…) Spock felt himself trembling.  He clenched his fists. (…) The captain’s body was alive; it could be kept alive indefinitely now.
But Spock had felt Jim Kirk die.’

The whole scene is really quite touching, and before the tedium of the time travel narratives takes hold, we have a another heart breaking scene in which Spock urges McCoy to turn off the machines keeping Kirk’s body alive.

Unfortunately, from this point onwards, the novel’s readability takes a serious nose dive.  With Star Trek novels (or any other tie-in series I guess), you know everything has to be back to the status quo by the end of the book, so, you know Kirk isn’t going to stay dead and Sulu will probably be shaving that ridiculous moustache off soon.  However, this makes stories regarding time travel problematic, because, you either write a story revolving around a bootstrap paradox  or you write a time loop tale.  Bootstrap paradoxes are easier to write because you can put lots of original content in, but theoretically, it has already happened in the existent universe, so nothing is expected to change – it’s already been changed into the universe we know.  The joy of this type of time travel is that it’s not the destination, it’s the journey, the question of how the events play out in order to achieve the universe we know.  Time loops are more difficult, you need to show that a time loop is happening, map out where characters are at any one time and not make it tedious for the reader to read the same events over and over again.  It’s pretty tough, especially when the main event (Kirk’s death) is described so early, it’s hard to really follow up with anything interesting.  Additionally, having to bring such events to a close with no effect to the universe makes it even harder to achieve a satisfying resolution.  Needless to say McIntyre doesn’t quite manage it.

Much of the drama of the time loop come from the aggressive actions of a prosecutor (original character), and McIntyre’s weak minded Scotty.  The prosecutor has no business subverting the command of a Federation vessel, and Scotty is portrayed as a thin skinned maid who would turn against Spock and McCoy because he wasn’t put in command by Spock after Kirk’s death.  Where is the trust that Scotty has?  The resilience that is built up during the series?  If you have read The First Adventure, Scotty’s portrayal shouldn’t be a surprise, McIntyre dislikes the character intensely.

Why McIntyre, why?

The villain(?) of the tale is really an unsuspecting scientist who sent his friends into the past, per their wishes.  This unfortunately causes ‘the entropy effect’ which would destroy the universe within one hundred years if the original time travel takes place.  The meat of the story would be Spock’s time travelling escapades, if the story was well written.  Unfortunately, McIntyre would rather write about the trials and tribulations of her original characters instead.  Oh, also Sulu and his moustache.

After the time travelling / time looping has come to an end.  Kirk is restored to life (because those events never happened) and Spock is unconscious in a state of exhaustion.  Naturally, Kirk is by Spocks side when he wakes up, and you get this little scene:

‘Jim!’ Spock sat up so quickly that every muscle and joint and sinew shrieked: he was aware of the sensation but impervious to it, as he should be, but for all the wrong reasons.  He grabbed Jim Kirk’s arm.  It was solid and real.  Relief, and, yes, joy, overwhelmed the Vulcan.  He slid his hand up Jim’s arm; he started to reach up to him, to lay his hand along the side of his face to feel the unsettling energy of Jim’s undamaged mind.’

I love this scene, but it also freaks me out.  Not because it’s a slashy/spirky as you get, but because… well, have you ever had someone run their hand up your arm.  Don’t try doing it to yourself (it won’t be the same sensation), get a friend or partner do it to you, or both so you can compare.  I’ll wait.

…

Tried it?  Ok, how did that make you feel?  If your answer is, FREAKED OUT and I FEEL LIKE SPIDERS  ARE CRAWLING UP MY ARM, then you feel the same way as me.  Having a hand moving like that, up your arm and towards your face is like, so intimate, so unsettling.  My partner and I tried it on each other and we gave each other the shivers (not in a good way), it feels weirdly predatory.  Kirk doesn’t react to Spock’s behaviour.  Pities sake, Vulcans don’t like prolonged touching, or touching generally but this is… I don’t know, primitive longing, as I said, predatory, desire?  Obviously there is joy and relief there but it just seems very intimate (then again, so is feeling somebody die whilst your minds are joined, or joining minds and sharing pain – QED).  I’ll let you join the dots.

The novel ends with a trite little Captains log which ties up McIntyre’s precious ‘OC’ story arcs and prevents Sulu from any further consideration regarding leaving the ship and joining Hunter’s fighter squadrons (are there even fighter squadrons in canon?).  Oh, and Kirk is going to talk to the OC Hunter, and probably hook up, because just when you think you’re in the clear (because they haven’t met up in this timeline), OCs come back to haunt you, like last night’s vindaloo.

I really, really want to give The Entropy Effect a 1/5, but I’m going to settle for 2/5.  Why?  Well, because there is good writing in it at times, and does have some interesting parts.  Also, I think it should be read because of it’s position as the first non-film novel in the Pocket books series.  I think, if you’re into slashy writing, you should read it for Kirk’s death scene and Spock’s recovery, even if the rest of the book is dire.  What I find interesting is that Vonda N McIntyre was one of Roddenberry’s ‘inner circle’ (I think I referenced that before) and she wrote the novel adaptations for the following couple of films.  He obviously didn’t have a problem with Kirk and Spock’s interactions being so very… ahem.  Then again, he didn’t have a problem with the quality of the writing in this book, he may even have liked it?! Ah well, no accounting for taste.

2/5 – thankfully, no equiraptors.

Star Trek – The Three Minute Universe

‘”We had better prepare ourselves, Jim.  There’s a very real possibility that he may be dead.”  Kirk lifted his head.  “From what we know of the Sackers,” he said heavily, ‘maybe we’d better pray that he is.”‘

The Three-Minute Universe (1988) (#13 Titan, #41 Pocket) is by Barbara Paul, a mystery and science fiction writer active between 1978 and 1997; this is Paul’s only Star Trek novel.

I have to admit, I don’t really know where to start with The Three-Minute Universe, and I’ve been kind of… putting off this review.  I can’t say that the writing is bad – it isn’t.  I can’t say the story is unoriginal – there are clearly worse offenders.  I also can’t say it’s particularly appealing.  It took me three attempts and a break of 3 weeks to actually finish reading it and, considering I generally read books of this size in one or two sittings, it wasn’t a great start.  I think the most annoying thing about this novel is that it had a lot of potential, the idea is good, the writing is good, it just trips at the last hurdle and falls apart.

The premise is that an sensorially abhorrent race known as the Sackers have stolen a device capable of ripping the fabric of space and tapping into the energy of another, forming universe to draw off potentially near infinite energy.  They wipe out the home system of an entire race in the process of activating the device, but chaos doesn’t stop there; the new universe is expanding through the tear, causing a wave of blistering heat to surge onwards, engulfing all in its path, threatening to destroy our own.

So we have some really interesting ideas here.  Paul introduces a completely disgusting looking race we haven’t met before, I mean, they are so revolting that it causes seemingly every other Federation species to become violently ill, so offensive is the Sacker presence to the senses.  However, until now the Sackers have been passive, peaceful.  They simply trade with the Federation and then leave again; they are even mindful of their appearance and adapt how they dress and present themselves in order to illicit less of a response from other species.  This is how Kirk responds to seeing a sacker on his vidscreen:

‘All his training and natural tolerance seemed to have deserted him.  Meeting alien races had been an integral part of his adult life; he would feel as if he’d lost a part of himself if it were to come to an end (…) But this race… just a two dimensional image of its only technically humanoid members was enough to make him feel queasy’.

We then get our first description of a Sacker, in which we are told they are large blobs in a state of ‘self-regenerating decay’, their mobile, white slug-like organs are visible and small maggot like things seem to move between the organs.  Kirk feels bile in his mouth just looking at them, they are by all counts revolting.  Somewhat understandably, how they look and smell has coloured interactions with species within the federation, making them a ‘lepur’ race, pariahs.  I think this might actually be one of the problems with how I feel about the book, the aliens are SO alien (as kirk said, only technically humanoid) they are hard to relate to.  This is actually one of the major plot points, but it’s quite hard to really blame the Federation races for reacting the way they do against the Sackers; after all when they are so disgusting your eyes water, you vomit AND if there are a few of them you pass out, it’s hard to imagine not wanting to avoid them at all costs.  As it turns out, the reason for the Sacker actions is how they are treated by everyone else; the reasoning is essentially that since they can’t be accepted, they will either destroy or dominate every other species.

They seem pretty irredeemable right?  Well, the way that Paul gets around the completely alien and ‘evil’ nature of this race, is that when Kirk, Scotty, Uhura and Chekov end up captured by the Sackers, she makes them… children, adolescents.  The adults on this ship (the one that was stolen at the beginning of the book) have all died and the child Sackers are trying to continue their mission against the rest of the galaxy.  The reason they capture the Enterprise officers?  In order to have the likes of Kirk, Scotty, Uhura and Chekov teach them how to pilot their ship.

The child Sackers end up being rather endearing all told.  They are children pretending to be adults and making bad decisions because that’s what the adults told them to do.  The latter half of the book is somewhat painful, or should I say uncomfortable, to read as the Enterprise crew use the innocence of the children against them.  Sure, they are mass murdering monsters, but they are also sincere and look up to their mentors.  Kirk, Scotty, Uhura and Chekov even name them, inadvertently initially; it’s really hard to really dislike creatures named things like ‘Iris’, ‘Blue’, ‘Babe’, ‘Bonesovna’ and… ‘Orangejuiceandwodka’.  I suppose I must just… feel uncomfortable with the fact that the Enterprise officers are being giant jerks… to children.

In the end I felt really, very sorry for these kids, I mean, they really did try hard to do what they were told, and the commentary from Spock and Sulu on the Enterprise wondering what exactly they were doing by rolling the ship over and doing all these odd maneuvers made me feel highly embarrassed.

When Kirk and the others finally make their move to take the ship, it does turn out they have become quite fond of the children, and are genuinely saddened when there is a death.  The high point, however, is the mental image of the five crew members all in a very small box playing a form of extreme twister as they take cover from a raging fire on the Sacker ship.  I read this part out to my partner, and just about made it through the section without crying with laughter.  It might be worth reading the book just for this scene.

Paul introduces the Bubble Universe Theory as the ‘science’ behind the Zirgosian device.  It’s a multiverse theory and in this case it posits that our universe is a bubble in a sea of bubbles, pressed up against one another in a state of eternal inflation.  The title The Three-Minute Universe refers to the age of the adjacent bubble universe when it is initially tapped into by the device.  Essentially, if the tear between universes isn’t repaired, then the younger universe would expand into the prime universe, destroying everything in an advancing wave of fire.

Fire and fear of fire is a pretty big theme in The Three-Minute Universe. Paul decides to develop Uhura’s character by giving her a tragic back story.  Uhura is deathly afraid of fire, due to an event which occurred in her dorm when she was a child.  Her friend and roommate T’iana gets trapped under a fallen beam and dies in the blaze, Uhura is unable to help her before she succumbs to the heat and fire.  Uhura still dreams about the blaze, and the fear comes back most vividly during the events of this book.  She faces the fear both abstractly and physically, and in the end conquers her fear.

Spock also gets some development in The Three-Minute Universe, although this comes belatedly, literally the last few pages of the novel.  Spock feels fear at the impossible odds facing them, and after the Enterprise’s victory, retreats from the bridge, closely followed by Kirk.  On being questioned by Kirk, Spock reveals that he has felt fear for the first time.  In response, Kirk gives him a pep talk which concludes on this note:

“Yes! Don’t deny your fear.  Use it.  You’ll see, it will add  whole new dimension to your life – you’ll start seeing things in a way you’ve never seen them before.  Anyone with human genes in him who’s never known fear – well, he’s not.. whole.  Oh, Spock, don’t you see?  You’ve found a part of yourself that was missing.  Don’t despair, Spock!  Rejoice!  Rejoice.”
    For a long moment there was no response.  Then the Vulcan slowly lifted his head, looked his friend straight in the eye… and rejoiced.”

Ok, I admit it, this in actually a pretty ADORABLE moment, but I’d kind of expect it in a novel which had been more slashy, or even just one which had actually been more Spock-centric.  This ending scene just seems to have been thrown in out of nowhere, why are we suddenly focusing on Spock’s first (really?) experience of fear and not having a final resolution with Uhura?  I don’t know if I can really accuse Paul of being trite here, because we’re still relatively early (well, below #50 Pocket) but… Spock having a break down to add extra emotional weight, implying this is the fist time he has felt fear, I just don’t buy it, you’d have to put this whole episode incredibly early in the initial 5 year mission to make that statement.

I’ve only really talked about the latter half of the book, but really, the first half if a bit redundant and only sets the scene for the capture of the Enterprise officers.  Put it this way, once I got past the first half, I read the book pretty quickly.

So, what’s my opinion?  It’s… okay.  It’s nothing to really write home about, but it isn’t bad per se.  There is quite a lot of humour with the Sackers, and you do get the odd moment which is written really well, but on the whole if you’re not worried about reading every Star Trek TOS novel, then you can probably, safely give this one a miss.  If you are a big fan of Uhura however and her character development, this is probably of interest for you, but otherwise it’s not really worth it.

2/5 – DO NOT HUG THE SACKERS.

Star Trek – The Kobayashi Maru

“It was a no-win situation,” Kirk told him.  “No matter what you did, or how hard you tried, you always lost.  All the possible decisions were wrong.”

The Kobayashi Maru (1989) (#30 Titan, #47 Pocket) is by Julia Ecklar of L A GRAF fame.  This novel however, is one of her earliest works, some three years before her first outing as L A GRAF (Ice Trap – 1992).  The writing in this novel is pretty strong, confident and well considered and takes on a slightly unusual format.  The structure of the narrative is separated between the events that Kirk, McCoy, Sulu, Chekov, and Scotty experiencing in the present and their (with the exclusion of McCoy) memories of the Starfleet Academy test they took as cadets.

As many of you will no doubt know, the Kobayashi Maru is an unwinnable simulation which command cadets were required to undertake as part of their training.  One cadet would be selected to be captain of a constitution class starship and they would be backed up by their ‘crew’ of classmates as bridge crew and engineering etc.  The simulation would present the cadets with a problem, while patrolling the space on the boarder of the Klingon neutral zone, they would receive a distress signal/communication from a freighter within the neutral zone.  The cadet captain would have to make decisions against rapidly diminishing odds of success; the computer compensating for a cadet’s successes with even more overpowering odds.  The Kobayashi Maru simulation is a no-win situation.

The novel begins with a shuttle accident due to a ‘gravitational mine’, Sulu and Kirk are injured, while McCoy, Chekov and Scotty are unscathed.  The shuttle is irreparably damaged, and aside from minor repairs in order to keep themselves alive, they must wait until Spock, in command of the Enterprise, finds them.  This is no easy task as their communications are down and the distortions in this area of space would prevent Enterprise from finding them with any ease.

Their situation reminds them of the no-win scenario ‘The Kobayashi Maru’, which was kept a secret from class to class.  McCoy, who is the only one of the group to have not taken a test (having not gone into the command academy, being a medical officer) is intrigued and encourages everyone to recount their experiences of the simulation.  Two of the stories are told very well, one of them is a little bit long winded and one is a little… stereotyped.

Kirk is injured during the initial accident, seriously damaging his knee, which keeps him essentially immobile for much of the duration of the ‘present time’ story.  His story is the first told and one of the better ones.  Essentially Kirk in his youth was not unlike Kirk in the present, he has never and will never believe in a no-win scenario.  Having failed the scenario in under five minutes, he refuses to be beaten and throws himself into study of famous tacticians, captains and battles.  He tries again, but again fails (though he believes he was marginally better this time), and one of the instructors takes pity on him, telling him he is the only one to have taken the scenario twice and that The Kobayashi Maru test was unbeatable.  This infuriates Kirk, he doesn’t believe that it can’t be beaten so commits himself to fervent study.  After a fateful conversation, he comes to the conclusion that if the program cheats, then he should be able to cheat also and reprogrammes the simulation to ‘even the odds’.  In fact, he adjusts the scenario so that when he introduces himself, the Klingons recognise him and help him recover the Kobayashi Maru.  At the end of the test, Kirk is dangerously close to being reprimanded, however his solution is finally recognised as brilliant and ‘creative thinking’.  Kirk’s solution is simple – he bends the laws of the universe to his own will, much like he does in his later adventures.  I’ll hazard a reference to the ‘Romance’ of Killing Time, in any reality, Kirk must captain the Enterprise, Spock must be at his side and if this balance is upset, reality itself will bend to accommodate it.  Kirk must prevail.

Back in the present time, McCoy is amused and comments that he should have guessed that would have been Kirk’s solution; Chekov is shocked and a little hurt that his hero cheated the test.  Sulu who is badly injured and rendered immobile remembers Chekov’s solution.  Chekov begrudgingly recounts his solution.  Unlike Kirk’s story, the actual events of Chekov’s Kobayashi Maru experience are not the focus, but lay the foundation for Chekov’s solution to a second, new cadet training scenario.  Chekov’s solution was to blow up his ship’s four antimatter drives, destroying the attacking Klingon forces, but also killing his crew which he had admittedly attempted to save by evacuating them (he reasons that capture by the Klingons would be a worse fate than death).  Another effect of the detonation would be that that area of space would be a virtual communications black hole, the Federation would not be able to operate in or observe the area.  Chekov is unrepentant however, and his attitude soon sets him up for a fall, there is a lesson to be learnt.   The majority of Chekov’s narrative is concerned with a ‘survival test’, in which the cadets are confined on a station and are told that there is one assassin (they are not told who), and that they have to survive.  Chekov (who idolises Kirk) is determined to be the best and to be the last one standing and through cunning and deception ensures that, when faced with falling at the final hurdle, ensures that everybody else falls with him.  The instructor announces that all the cadets have failed this scenario, and that there was only ever one cadet to pass, James T Kirk, because he realised he could beat the scenario by securing an important area and only allowing people in if they gave up their weapons.  As such, nobody ‘died’ because of his intelligence and charisma, his ‘command’.  Chekov’s ‘Kobayashi Maru’ story disappointing to me, because, firstly, he seems a little out of character.  I mean, I know he’s Russian but please, he acts like the stereotypical KGB agent, suspicious, paranoid, ruthless, unable to understand people who do not think in a Russian way (whatever that means).  Secondly, his only purpose seems to be to make Kirk shine even brighter, this is highlighted by Chekov’s account following directly after Kirk’s and the references to Kirk’s achievements within it.  I don’t really recognise Chekov, even when compared with ‘Ice Trap’, so I’d hazard a guess that Ecklar’s hand was in the Kirk/McCoy adventure than Chekov and Uhura’s.

Returning once again to the present time, while Scotty is in the process of jury-rigging a device that will save them from danger and hopefully attract the attention of the Enterprise, the four men in the shuttle listen to Sulu‘s experiences as a cadet.  He warns them that unlike Kirk and Chekov’s tales, his is not amusing.  Much of Sulu’s account is concerned with events leading up to taking the test itself: starting at the command academy, the decline of his great grandfather’s health, learning philosophy and responsibility.  Sulu learns the burden of choice, of command and the value of life (the death of his great grandfather).  His own solution to the Kobayashi Maru is to not enter the neutral zone to investigate the distress call, and to continue to his original destination, thus completing the simulation without conflict; he narrowly avoids mutiny in the process.  Sulu’s story is probably the most touching, and I think one of the most in character.  Sulu is certainly portrayed as the most wise and emotionally mature.  Kirk, Chekov and Scotty all approach their simulations as a game to be beaten, whereas Sulu approaches it with wisdom and makes the toughest command decision, to preserve his ship and the lives of his crew, even risking mutiny in doing so.

Scotty is injured while outside the shuttle, but he manages to do the necessary work and returns to the others.  After his injuries are tended to, he tells his story.  Scotty didn’t want to be in command school, he would much rather be in the engineering section, however he was pressured by his family into command.  His engineering designs catch the eye of an instructor, who realises that Scotty is wasted in command.  Scotty is asked a question, if he could be transferred to the engineering section in such a way that his family would accept it, would he transfer.  Scotty answers that yes, he would.  Scotty soon finds himself in the simulation’s command chair, and destroys multiple Klingon ships, however, the computer always generates more, in a final attempt Scotty uses ‘Perera’s Field Theory’ into action, destroying fifteen war dragons in pursuit.  After the simulation ends, he is questioned by the admirals and instructors who had been watching.  Essentially, Scotty had used an obsolete theory, but the computer’s calculations had allowed it to happen.  Scotty realised that the computer would calculate ‘Perera’s Field Theory’ as correct, and used its error to try to beat the simulation.  It is later revealed during this exposition that Scotty was the engineer that proved the theory incorrect, and he did so at the tender age of sixteen.  At this revelation, the admirals realise he is wasted in command, and transfer him back to the engineering decision.  Essentially, Scotty’s story highlights Scotty as a genius, but as a fish out of water when it came to command academy.

With all the tales told, the five men await their fates in the shuttle.  They realise that, although they managed to save themselves from one danger, the Enterprise has not seen them.  Kirk, who has been strangely passive throughout the present day narrative (mainly due to injury) struggles to accept that this is the end.  Even as he gives into exhaustion he maintains he doesn’t believe in a no-win scenario.  Waking suddenly, he reveals he has a plan, and the crew coax the last life out of the shuttle’s circuits and Kirk brings the best out of his crew, pushing them to their limits.  Kirk’s plan works and they are spotted by the Enterprise.  The resulting scenes of reunion are strangely satisfying, they gave me the warm and fuzzies!  Spock welcomes them back to the Enterprise and helps Kirk away from the shuttle; the end is quite tender and sweet, wistful almost as Kirk thinks on the experience in the shuttle and the lessons learnt as cadets.

Sorry! That ‘summary’ was longer than I meant it to be, I’ve left the ‘present day’ story vague, so I haven’t spoiled too much (hopefully).

I really enjoyed this book, it was for the most part satisfying and gave me the wonderful fuzzy feeling on finishing it, but it isn’t without problems.  Stylistically it’s pleasant to read, the framing narrative is well developed and interesting on its own, and the character development is pretty good; shouldn’t it be scoring higher than a 3/5?  Ecklar is good, but she’s no Greg Cox or John Vornholt, and ultimately, ‘The Kobayashi Maru’ is very, very safe.  If you read Vornholt’s ‘Sanctuary’, there is a massive amount of world building and scores of new characters introduced, but the ‘The Kobayashi Maru’ is just so much more limited.  There is also a sense of claustrophobia in the narratives, the framing narrative is within the confines of a failing shuttle, Kirk, Scotty and Sulu’s stories take place almost exclusively in the confines of the academy and Chekov’s story again takes place in a confined space.  I’m not sure whether the sense of claustrophobia is deliberate or not, or whether the circumstances of the framing narrative had an effect on Ecklar’s depiction of the simulations.

I did really enjoy the character development, and it was interesting to see Kirk ‘out of action’ as it were until the end.  Funnily enough, even though McCoy had no story to tell, his development and actions in the framing narrative were really insightful.  I’m sure Ecklar wrote the Kirk/McCoy narrative in Ice Trap.  The one complaint I do have however, is how Chekov is portrayed, I think he’s pretty out of character, especially in his simulation story.  I get the feeling Ecklar didn’t know what to do with him, so she relied heavily on a Russian agent / KGB characterisation which was pretty shallow.  Chekov’s story really seems to be there to highlight how awesome Kirk is, and to give an extra titbit of information about Kirk’s other performances at the academy.

If you’ve read this far, well done!  You can probably guess that I’m going to recommend this book to pretty much everyone!

3/5 – I don’t believe in a no-win situation.

P.S.  It got me thinking – what would I do in a Kobayashi Maru situation?  What would you do?

Star Trek – Sanctuary

‘Fascinating,’ remarked Spock.  ‘Apparently, the purpose of this society is to make people feel welcome.’

Star Trek Sanctuary (1992) (#56 Titan, #61 Pocket) is a novel by Star Trek veteran John Vornholt; he does not disappoint with this installment.  Sanctuary, presses all my buttons.  It’s very well written, multiple narratives, good pacing and dialogue and also, the story itself is unusual.  If I had to try and put a finger on the influences, I’d say it’s a weird hybrid of Brave New World and The Island of Doctor Moreau (it took me a while to pin down why I felt so familiar with the book, there might be something else I’m missing).

The cover, is pretty beautiful but unfortunately doesn’t have the third person of the trinity on it (like the Holy Spirit, McCoy is often forgotten) which is surprising because he is also one of the main players in the story.  It’s also pretty disappointing,  as this painting is really pretty and I would have loved to have seen McCoy rendered with Kirk and Spock here.  That’s just a personal gripe though, it’s just the cover!

The initial premise is deceptively simple.  The Enterprise is in pursuit of a dangerous criminal ‘Auk Rex’, the chase brings them into a sector of space previously unexplored by Starfleet and a planet, previously only considered a myth, called Sanctuary.  This planet is considered the last refuge of the persecuted, renowned amongst the criminal underworld.  Auk Rex flees to the planet, closely pursued in a shuttlecraft by Kirk, Spock & McCoy.

Upon entering the atmosphere of Sanctuary, communications are lost, however Kirk continues the high speed chase with Auk Rex, until finally the pirate crashes into the mountain side, ejecting escape pods at the last moment.  Kirk, Spock and McCoy land their shuttle in an effort to look for survivors, however, after searching for the rest of the day, it appears that Auk Rex has, for the time being, escaped.  Returning to the shuttle’s landing site, they find that it has vanished.  A white robed figure greets them – Zicree – and introduces himself as a ‘Senite’, a race of androgynous beings who inhabit Sanctuary.  Although initially pleasant, even in its refusal to return their shuttle to them, it soon becomes hostile when it learns that the landing party are Persecutors, and not the Persecuted and promptly disappears.

Meanwhile Scotty, who has been left in charge of the Enterprise in Kirk and Spock’s absence is contacted by an old Klingon commander whose ship is one of several orbiting Sanctuary.  The Klingon commander informs Scotty that the landing party is lost to them, since there is an impenetrable shield surrounding the planet which allows no communication or ship back through.  Scotty is shocked to hear that Kirk, Spock & McCoy are stranded on Sanctuary, but bluffs, trying not to let the Klingon commander know how ignorant the Enterprise crew are of the situation.  The Enterprise maintains orbit with the Klingon ship and the other bounty hunters.

Vornholt manages to maintain two interesting narratives.  One is the narrative on the surface of the planet with Kirk, Spock & McCoy, and the other is up on the Enterprise with Scotty in command;  I think this is where Sanctuary is head and shoulders above Ice Trap.  Vornholt manages to weave an interesting narrative for the stationary Enterprise while its commanding officers are absent and the action is else where.  In Ice Trap  the Enterprise is cut off from contact with the landing teams due to electrical interference, which is very similar to Sanctuary however, Ice Trap does not give us any insight to the drama or work being done in orbit, there is not the slightest bit of narrative.

I rather liked Scotty’s story.  We get to see him playing the diplomat and building relationships with a Klingon commander and a female bounty hunter, and trying to give Kirk, Spock & McCoy enough time to find a way back while Starfleet is trying to call the Enterprise away to another mission, accepting that the landing party is lost.  This part of the story just gave the whole situation more urgency and also allowed Scotty to have some much needed attention.

The main narrative, as I mentioned before, ticked all my boxes for an enjoyable read.  I can tell you that for once, I didn’t expect the shocking reveal.  I feel like I really should have, because the narrative is so familiar, which makes it pretty frustrating!

The events of the novel do actually take some time, perhaps about a week in total (without reading it again and making a note of the days passing, I can’t say for sure) as there is a lot of time lost travelling from point to point and it takes some time for the landing party to get their bearings.  During the course of the novel we meet several different groups of people living in their own communities: the wildmen in the mountains, the isolationists, the revellers on the coast, the ‘intellectuals and women’ on their idyllic island, the Senites and the pioneers at the ship graveyard.  Each group either accepts of rejects the hedonistic ideals of Sanctuary; this is where I get the biggest jolt of familiarity.  If you’ve read Brave New World you’ll understand where I’m coming from.

On the surface Sanctuary is the perfect… sanctuary, in that, not only are the people who flee there permanently free from their persecutors, but they are also cared for by a, for want of a better word, monastic cult who don’t appear to want any payment in return for their services and aid.  Those who have sought sanctuary are encouraged to live a hedonistic lifestyle, the Senites even provide themselves as prostitutes to sate the predominantly male population of Sanctuary (at the coast).   The Senites use pleasure and hedonism and consumption to stop their charges from thinking. However, Kirk, Spock & McCoy do meet other groups who do no trust the Senites.  The first group is a small group of criminals who reject the Senite hospitality and prefer to live their lives in the mountains, keeping to themselves.  Another group are isolationists, who refuse contact with those outside their hidden community.  There is also another group which get skimmed off by the Senites, all women and intellectuals who perhaps are seeking political asylum or are born on the planet live in comfort on an island which also the location of the Senite monastry.  Finally, there is a group of people living away from society in the ‘ship graveyard’ who live to try to find a way to escape Sanctuary, using the husks of ships they are left with after the Senites remove essential components.

The big twist (skip this paragraph if you don’t want spoilers) is that the Senites, drug and then process the criminals in order to ‘reproduce’.  They can’t reproduce themselves, so they physically alter the criminals, castrating them, chemically and genetically altering them to create the illusion of unity, or a species.  They also brainwash them so they all think the same too.  Any individual too unlike themselves gets terminated during processing.  The processing plant is a particularly harrowing situation, especially since our three favourite officers are completely dependant on outside help.  The whole idea of this processing plant really disturbs me, and I couldn’t help thinking how utterly miserable Kirk would be post castration (and I doubt any brainwashing would work on him anyway!).  The scenes from the Senite factory, really are horror material and stick in my mind most vividly.  Sensationalist, yes.  Enjoyable (in a macabre way)? Certainly.

This processing of sentient beings and the stratification of the society based on intellectual ability, the travelling from society to society together with the hedonism and consumerist ideology is why I associate this instalment so strongly with Brave New World.  The horrendous events in the Senite factory makes me think of The Island of Doctor Moreau, and the vivisection of the animals, making them something other than they are.

All the characters a brilliantly written,  Kirk, Spock & McCoy are all on point, as is Scotty.  The new characters introduced all have a life of their own; I couldn’t help liking the Klingon commander or Billiwog or Renna or really disliking the Senites!  There are of course many more, there are a lot of characters introduced, sometimes for only a short while but all pretty believable.  Even each Senite retains a little bit of personality and you can’t help but laugh at their frustration at Kirk, Spock & McCoy.

I could just keep going but I’d end up forensically analysing this book and killing it for anyone else.  I can’t really fault it, it’s good fun, it’s interesting and worth the time spent reading it (and in my case, reviewing it),  Just read the book, go now and get it, before I start nattering again.  Shoo!

Essential shelf addition – 5/5 

Star Trek – Devil’s Bargain

‘The problem is twofold,’ Spock Replied.

Devil’s Bargain is written by Tony Daniel a veteran sci-fi author who has already penned another Star Trek novel Savage Trade (2015).  Devil’s Bargain is a relatively recent release (2013) and is almost entirely sensible.  It’s so sensible in fact, that I put it down and read another novel before picking it back up again, forgetting half the story in the process.  It just didn’t do anything for me.

As you might have guessed from looking at the cover (and previous posts), this novel was a recent purchase and selected on the grounds that it has Spock on the cover… I actually don’t like the cover much, I don’t really understand why Spock is red and the background is industrial and grey… it doesn’t really fit with the the actual content of the novel.

The premise of Devil’s Bargain is a simple (and well worn) one, Enterprise is sent to a frontier colony in the Omega sector – Vesbius (people really should stop foreshadowing their own disasters) – to evacuate the planet before an unstoppable meteor decimates the planet, causing an extinction level event.  However, the colonists refuse to leave the planet, preferring to take their chances with the meteor, claiming that their lives depend upon staying.  In the face of their refusal to leave the planet (a veritable Eden) the Enterprise crew must find a way to save the colonists.  In an inspired moment, Spock suggests they enlist the help of the Horta in order to have them tunnel and break the meteor into smaller pieces.  It’s easy peasy, grab the Horta, get back to the planet, get the Horta to munch through the meteor, simple!  And that’s pretty much how the ‘action’ of the narrative plays out.

Genetic engineering is generally considered a bad thing in the Federation, and is especially contentious to Kirk;  the genetic engineering on Vesbius is not particularly different.  Although the original purpose of the genetic engineering is a sincere desire to remain on Vesbius and it’s Eden like habitat, it soon twists certain individuals into supremacists, ala Khan.  The vast majority of Vesbians are peaceful people, but there are elements in their council who want to subvert the peaceful populace… zzzz… *yawn*.  Basically, terrorists, xenophobia, irony that Spock comes up with the idea to save them…

The terrorists simply wanted to leave the planet.  I don’t really see how this was a problem since they would die anyway within a couple of weeks and it’s unlikely they could reverse engineer themselves in the time they had remaining… Surely, surely they could have just been allowed to leave and then the problem would solve itself?  It doesn’t make a lot of sense either, since they want to leave and they are also horrendously xenophobic.  I can’t even reconcile this plot point to the rest of the narrative, but I guess Daniel wanted to bring some sort of sentient villainy into the genetic engineering story line.  Oh! And someone had to blow up the Vesbian emergency shelters and highlight that they were badly made and wouldn’t survive the extinction level event.

The teenage Horta were quite irritating, but then, I can’t think of a teenager who isn’t, so perhaps the characterisation gets a pass.  This narrative thread involves Spock making a bargain with the Horta, that if some of their number come and help Vesbius then he will stay with them and be their ‘All Mother’, because the original mummy Horta is dying and the teenage Horta are afraid.  They are pretty much characterised as whiny children, and do the equivalent of throwing poo at each other, causing arguments.  After many misadventures they do pull through however and help save Vesbius.

Also, they create a new clan and one of them wants to join Starfleet.  Kirk thinks that this one Horta could one day Captain a Federation starship…  Yes… Sure, whatever you say Kirk.


Kirk falls in love with an important daughter of Vesbius, and walks right off the cliff we call characterisation and into the sea of parody.  They fall in love, have sex, and Kirk becomes pretty obsessed.  The absolute worst part of this is that we get these long internal monologues from both parties of how this has to be temporary, but their love is beautiful, but perhaps Kirk can leave Enterprise and forget the stars to be with her, but no, alas he can’t survive on Vesbius because of the genetic engineering…  I can’t even put a humorous spin on this.  I’m sorry.

I have to disagree with Spock, the problem isn’t two fold.  There are many, many more problems with this instalment than two.  The worn out narrative and it’s uninspiring characters, the bad characterisation which makes the crew seem like parodies of themselves are problems.  Daniel tries to pull in too many threads, too many story lines from the series and failing to do any of them really well.  The humour is missing and Daniel just takes it all so seriously that it becomes boring.

I’m sorry, but I just can’t recommend Devil’s Bargain – 1/5.

((I didn’t like writing this review either… It’s just… not very inspirational))