Star Trek – Crisis on Centaurus

Kirk ran it through his mind again.  We’re relatively safe as long as we stay in here, as long as Burke knows where we are and feels in control.  If we leave Burke will think he’s losing control, and we’re dead.  But we’ve got to leave.  Now just how the hell are you going to pull this one off, Jim?

First question: Was this novel sponsored by American Express, Coca-Cola, Hilton, and British Airways?

Second question: Did I watch the same Star Trek as Brad Ferguson (author)?

From the outset Crisis on Centaurus (#28 Pocket, #47 Titan) (1986) by Brad Ferguson delivers a quite warped view of the Star Trek future.  I’m not going to pull any punches; the story was pedestrian, characterisation was poor, and understanding of the Star Trek almost nonexistent.

Crisis on Centaurus isn’t getting a good score, that’s for sure.

There were so many things simply wrong about this book, it’s difficult to know where to start.

Summary of Crisis on Centaurus – Memory Beta (as of time of writing detailed but incomplete).

The Story

The story was simplistic and uninspired and hinged upon beliefs and mentalities confirmed to be eradicated by this time in human history.  We know that the concept of money is a little hazy and that we know that racism within humans is pretty much unheard of, and we also know that Alpha Centauri IV (or in this case Centaurus) is a thriving Federation colony (in fact a founding member of the United Federation of Planets).  Much of the narrative of Crisis on Centaurus hinges on Centaurus being somewhat at odds with the Federation and Federation principles so ultimately Crisis is based on a faulty premise to begin with.

Initial conflicts of interest / principles with the Federation are apparent from the first page.  What really stuck on page one was the ‘American Express‘ cash machine.  The use of real big name brands occurs throughout the book and to me indicates not only a lack of understanding of Star Trek but also a severe lack of imagination.  I might have been able to ignore the rampant capitalism if Ferguson had bothered to invent an equivalent but… for me the inclusion of American Express (which highlighted a monetary system), Hilton, Coca-Cola, and strangely British Air(ways) broke my suspension of disbelief.

Stretching for ideas, Ferguson uses racism to try and make his villains more… villainous.  Humans who are not only xenophobic of other species, they are also white supremacists!  So, did we watch the same Star Trek or did we see two different shows?  Star Trek TOS explicitly says racism doesn’t exist within humans two or three times, humans have grown past that.

Additionally, part of the plot is that the planet’s defence system has gone haywire and is shooting nukes at anything that flies…  Sorry, are we part of the Federation or not?

The story is so badly structured and conceived that in order to have an understanding of the motivations of the plot the main remaining villain gives a long winded hypothetical exposition.  Look, Ferguson, if you’ve got to the point where you’ve got to wrap up a book and the only way you can do this is by having the bad guy (who really wasn’t behind the big explosion anyway) tell you everything from the motivations to the execution of the events because otherwise everyone is going to be none the wiser… you’ve failed.

A subplot is that the Enterprises’ computer system has been damaged and it might have been sabotage!  Except it wasn’t and nobody really thought about it too much and took quite a cavalier attitude to the fact there might be a saboteur on the ship, in that nobody actually investigated anything.  As it turns out a tiny black hole winked in and out of existence while the Enterprise was travelling at warp two and that’s what damaged the computer system.  It’s not really investigated until the end.

Ferguson also seems to forget how the chains of command works on the Enterprise and makes a big thing about Uhura being put in charge of the Enterprise (presumably because she’s black or something and it fits with his white supremacists plot point).

Characterisation

Characterisation was poor all round with Kirk having some terrible dialogue and out of character moments, just take a look at this example of sterling writing:

“You can’t afford to sneer, Barclay,” Kirk said.  “You’re too close to being dead right now.  So shut that hole in your face and stay down on the floor.”

 Um… What even is this dialogue?  Much of the ‘character development’ for Kirk revolves around that he’d much rather kill the criminals behind the atrocity but he’s going to do his duty despite his desire to end their lives himself.  Laughable.

Spock gets off lightly and Ferguson puts in a few emotional lapses so he isn’t a complete robot 100% of the time.  No really terrible dialogue that I can recall but nothing wonderful either.

McCoy is barely in the novel, nor is his daughter Joanna.  You’d think there would be character development here, McCoy being worried about his daughter, some exposition through his daughter.  Well Joanna makes an appearance for about 25 pages, McCoy for reasons unknown doesn’t go down to the planet to help until after she is found alive.  Personally I would have thought that nothing would have stopped McCoy from going down to the planet especially since he wouldn’t be going on the transporters since they are non-functional throughout the novel.

An OC nurse however does go down to the planet’s surface in McCoy’s stead.  Her purpose is to provide some cringe inducing dialogue from Chekov and to create some sort of tragic, abortive love affair with him.

Which reminds me every-single-woman is commented on or leched at by Kirk and/or Chekov.  Every time those lines came up I felt like shrivelling up in embarrassment.

The Villains are non-entities.  The scientist who started the blast was a bland nothing, the bad-guys Kirk was trying to save in order for them to be taken to trial and avoid the Centauran death penalty (what?) were bland, uninteresting and ‘the big bad’ was cliched.  The best villains were the government agents, who weren’t villains at all and just wanted to arrest the terrorists under their own laws.  Kirk didn’t like one of them… probably because the government official was competent and doing his job unlike everyone else in this version of Star Trek.

Basically, don’t read Crisis on Centaurus.  It’s a waste of time.  It’s not even a good story, let alone a good Star Trek story.

1/5 – Product Placement.

Star Trek – Dwellers in the Crucible

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Story

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Crucible(s)

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

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

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

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

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

Cleante & T’Shael

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

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

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

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

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

Ford’s Klingons and Duane’s Romulans

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

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

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

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

Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Uhura, Sulu, Scotty

Odd.  Just Odd.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kirk gave him a puzzled look.

“Explain.” 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Star Trek – Demons

Spock looked away as her chin trembled.  “It was you father who killed both Starnn and Silek.”  She covered her face with her hands.
“My father,”  Spock corrected her gently, “killed no one.  Whatever, whoever controls Sarek now is responsible for their deaths.”  He gently pulled her hands from her face, and she tried to smile at him.

I skipped ahead to Demons by J M Dillard (#30 Pocket, #43 Titan) (1986) because at least she is a known quantity to me, and the three left over in this ten made me wince a little bit when I read the blurbs.  To be fair so did Demons, but at least I have some idea of what Dillard is going to throw at me now…

… and to be fair it was very ‘Dillard’.

Like Mindshadow there was a lot going on, but it wasn’t quite as crowded with references and loose end story threads, and I’m happy to say there was no wrist slitting, though Demons did contain:

• Wrist spraining
• Spock braining
• Kirk’s rib breaking
• McCoy poisoning and,
• Cast brainwashing

Not to mention:

• Sarek shaming
• Vulcan murdering and,
• OC powerupping

Ok, you get the picture.  It’s still busy and if you’ve read Mindshadow you’ll get the idea that Dillard really likes a few particular story elements:

• Keeping Kirk ignorant, because who tells captains anything these days
• Vulcans doing un-Vulcan things
• Vulcan (the planet)
• Injuring the main cast, no pain no gain
• Sarek and Amanda
• Starfleet / Federation being super sneaky (also in Bloodthirst)
• “Super amazing” female OC everyone loves, also McCoy ends up as her romance option and is a very jealous lover
• Kirk is left out of much the action
• OC Soap Opera
• ISS

Sorry about that but Demons is… well.  It’s a bit special.

Demons is J M Dillard’s second published Star Trek TOS novel, the first being Mindshadow (1985) and the next being Bloodthirst (1987).  She would go on to write two more Star Trek TOS novels and six Star Trek movie novel adaptations.

I said in my Bloodthirst review that I would be interested in seeing Dillard’s progression, and I can honestly say that she does improve but she remains pretty mediocre.  Mindshadow was amateurish fantasy fulfillment that needed more editing than it got, Demons improves marginally as she makes her narrative a little tighter but there are still too many threads and not enough exposition.

So, what is Demons (1986) about anyway?

Well, imagine The Exorcist (1973) in space, but instead of demonic possession it’s sentient subatomic particles binding to the brain’s neurotransmitters.  These subatomic particles propagate via hypnosis and feed on the fear and pain of the people they commit cruel and sadistic acts upon.  These ‘demons’ have destroyed an ancient civilisation before, what will they do to the Federation?!

Oh dang, I’ve read this before.  Wait, wait, I’ve got it.  Legends End 1 (1984).  Oops.

Well, it could be a coincidence, Legends End has sadistic dark elves who feed off fear and act of sadism via brain implant type things.  I’ve been searching through some contemporary reviews and I haven’t seen any comparisons at the time but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any there – my access to such things is far from comprehensive.  Also, reviews of Demons seem very positive – even today, I’m sorry ladies and gentlemen, I simply don’t see the merits of this book!

Some reviewers have even said that it’s a masterpiece of Trek fiction.  Don’t-Make-Me-laugh.

One of the big red flags for me was the inclusion of the character Anitra, who it turns out was a Starfleet/Federation intelligence agent (human) who has a super high psi rating (over 500!).  She is beautiful, she has amazing hair, she is super intelligent, can read minds, does something that could get her court martialled, doesn’t get court martialled, everyone seems to love her.  A reviewer in IDIC 15 comments that she’s the same character type as Evan Wilson (Uhura’s Song), which pretty much makes perfect sense as to why I particularly disliked her – hi ho Mary Sue!

The reason given for Anitra’s inclusion as a character in the first place is that because of her super high psi rating she can sense the evil in things.  Wait, I thought we had a scientific explanation for all this, Vulcans seem to have psi ratings at about this level, and there are other telepathic species in the Federation.  Humanity on the other hand are pretty much universally psi-null aside from one or two exceptions… even then I don’t think they’re a touch on Vulcan telepathy.  What’s made slightly worse is that she’s given the same kind of telepathy as Vulcans have – touch telepathy.

So frankly, I don’t know where Dillard is coming from.  In Bloodthirst she did this funny mixing of science and the supernatural – well I say mixing, but it was pretty much oil and water – but it was clumsy and just didn’t seem to work well, Demons is the same.  We have a scientific explanation, we have scientists working on the problem, why oh why are we still using terms like ‘evil’ and ‘demons’ when this is all explainable?  Now if, if Anitra was a mystic of some sort and Dillard had left in some sort of inexplicable mysticism as part of the story then Demons would have worked better – and it wouldn’t have been outside of Star Trek’s track record at all.

Characterisation of the main cast was okay?  It wasn’t anything to write home about, and the fact Kirk is never told what’s going on really chafes.  I mean why would Starfleet keep it secret from him?  Why would they only tell Spock?  Kirk would have been able to take the right course of action from the beginning if he’d only been told, he’d have been able to protect his crew.  Of course, that would mean Dillard would have had to have thought a little bit harder about how to progress the story.

Having this strange love triangle between Spock, McCoy and Anitra was…  awkward.  Although I had to laugh since McCoy got the girl in Mindshadow as well, and was a jealous lover then too!  Instead of Kirk being his rival, it was Spock this time!  Oh dear, McCoy is such a green eyed monster!

Dillard’s OCs were present, but this time Security Chief Tomson had a useful role and was a little more of a rounded character.  I did like that Kirk doesn’t actually like her though!  I have to wonder what happened to Nguyen though… last we heard of her she was told to hide in her quarters about halfway through the book, and she doesn’t resurface…

One section I particularly liked however was when Kirk ‘is cured’ of the demon affliction and basically has to save his hostile crew on a scuttled Enterprise, whilst Spock, McCoy and Anitra have their own little adventure on Vulcan (they left him!).  I thought this was actually the strongest part of the book (and that’s not just because Kirk was in it…), it was pretty tense and trying to work out who was safe or not was stressful!  Certainly there were strong TV horror elements although I’m not 100% sure they work with Star Trek, it didn’t quite sit right with me.  Of course, having the Enterprise as basically a hot lab meant that Kirk actually figured out the solution via trial and error quicker than the ‘scientists’ on Vulcan.

Once Demons reaches its crescendo the narrative hurtles at breakneck speed to the end – in only twelve pages the book wraps up, with a lot of questions.  One thing that really bothers me is that Dillard does not return things to the status quo, there are a lot of repercussions from this story which in her haste to finish, have been swept under the carpet.  There’s been murder on Vulcan, murder on the Enterprise, torture.  What about the ships which left Vulcan already infected (Dillard stated that some must have got to Earth already), how about the ship which fired on the Enterprise?  If a starship captain can work out the solution, why oh why did we need the Mary-Sue character in the first place?

Demons is really quite trashy and is quite reminiscent of popular ‘horror’ fiction of the time.  Not my cup of tea (and it’s not because of the horror aspect) but some people obviously like it.  I’m not a fan of the Mary-Sue character type, I think the narrative could have progressed without Anitra, and I feel that the effects of the events of the novel were too far reaching and dire to be essentially glossed over at the end.  That being said Dillard’s writing writing style is is pleasant and easy to read, so despite the content being not so great you still end up enjoying ‘the writing’ if nothing else.

2/5 – Leonard McCoy, Green Eyed Monster MD

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 – Shadow Lord

Mr Spock stared at the back of the prince’s head as if he wished he could impress his words directly upon the prince’s brain.  “As painful as life on the border may be, it is a place where change first begins for a culture; and something new and better can be created.”

Bibil opened a jar and proffered it to the prince with a bow of his head.  “As your father said when he sent you on your journey, we must find a way to combine technology of the Federation with our own higher spiritual values.”

Shadow Lord by Laurence Yep (#22 Pocket, Giant Novel – Titan) (1985) is not the finest example of Star Trek fiction; this is mainly because Yep has no interest in actually writing a Star Trek novel.  The result of this is a sword and sorcery novel with Star Trek characters slotted in to enable it to be sold to Pocket books.  I wouldn’t be surprised if the first draft of this novel had a stoic elf sorcerer and his plucky halfling bodyguard in the place of Spock and Sulu.

And I would totally read that book.

Frustratingly, Shadow Lord is  generally well written and I did enjoy it, but if the criteria for ‘well written’ is ‘accurately portrays Star Trek characters and their universe’ then unfortunately it falls flat.

Well Jen, if you seriously enjoyed it, surely this is a success? Well no, questioning voice in my brain, it isn’t.  If I want to read a sword and sorcery novel, I’ll go out and read a sword and sorcery novel, I won’t pick up a Star Trek book, capiche?  Also I read Star Trek novels because I like Star Trek characters so when they are completely out of character (touchy feely, smiley, comforty, Spock for example) then it kinda stops being a Star Trek novel.  I also like the Star Trek universe and the technology, and the spaceships etc. but that doesn’t really feature either in Shadow Lord.  When both of these rather important aspects Star Trek are missing…then how can this be considered a Star Trek novel?

I’ll make it easy for you.  It can’t be.  But… an author’s gotta do what an author’s gotta do, right?

Shadow Lord  was not Laurence Yep’s first publication.  From a brief look at his history, his earliest published work appears to have been in 1968 – although I would be surprised if there were earlier publications.  Yep is a prolific author with plays, novels, and picture books under his belt, he would write and publish very few science fiction stories ultimately (four – one children’s story and three adult), he would later write predominantly fantasy novels (surprise surprise).

So essentially, great writer, wrong genre.  As testament to to his skill he manages to make a ‘bad’ Star Trek book not just readable, but enjoyable.  I would like to know if he actually watched the series properly or if he was involved in the fan community in any way because his image of the characters seems to be quite superficial a lot of the time and yet when we have say an argument between McCoy and Spock, it seems to be on the money.

The story itself is pretty simplistic and run of the mill and… so not anything close to Star Trek.

The premise is that a reluctant prince from a world which technologically is stuck around the seventeenth century and socially… well I’d say they were medieval, is returning home in order to influence his planet’s modernisation under the guidance of the Federation.  However, when he returns to his home planet he finds that the unguided modernisation his father has begun has caused great suffering and poverty and a coup takes place.  The prince escapes with the help of Sulu, Spock and some loyal retainers and makes his way to his family’s land in order to drum up support.  On the way he sees the horrors of his world and decides that although he’d rather stay on the developed worlds of the Federation he must help his people.  The prince gets support from his people, fights a battle where his people win because they have guns and the ‘bad guys’ army have plate armour and swords.  The prince wins a duel using a technique Sulu showed him at the beginning of the novel, and the prince becomes emperor.  The Enterprise returns to pick up its two officers and leaves some of its other crew to help with the modernisation process.

The story isn’t new, it isn’t anything ground breaking, it certainly isn’t inspiring.   It’s pretty much a stock fantasy story sandwiched between two ‘Enterprise’ sections.  It’s a stretch to involve the Federation at all at this point however, I mean they shouldn’t be messing with the development of ‘undeveloped’ worlds in the first place.  Of course this modernisation is going to cause fear and resentment in the people of the planet, they’re barely able to get their heads around the fact aliens exist and when they do the result is xenophobia.  I think this is reasonable when you’ve got an unfathomably big organisation which is unfathomably more developed trying to influence your medieval planet where the height of diplomacy is sticking someone with a sword!

The characterisation, like I mentioned before, can be both strong and weak.  The original characters are better characterised than the established Star Trek characters.

Sulu

Sulu is probably the most natural choice for this story as a representative of the Enterprise / Federation especially when you’re beaming down to a planet where the people live and die by the sword (because of the revelation that he enjoys fencing in the episode ‘Naked Time’).  Personally, when I saw it was a novel where Sulu was going to shine I almost put it down in disappointment.  I generally dislike the characterisation of Sulu and I don’t particularly like George Takei. However, Yep’s characterisation is so off the mark that it makes Sulu palatable, probably the first time I’ve actually praised a bad characterisation.

The reason I wondered if Laurence Yep was involved in the fan community is because his characterisation of Sulu is incredibly ‘fannish’.  There’s like this mythos around Sulu that he’s this sword fighting fanatic with a massive obsession with outdated militaria.  It’s beyond that he’s an expert, it’s highly romanticised.  Most of the time this is emphasized and as a result his science capability and his interest in exotic flora is forgotten.  Despite this ‘fannish’ interpretation, Yep produces a palatable Sulu and made the book readable for me – thank you OOC Sulu!

Spock

Spock is probably the most out of character of the lot, it’s not that he’s too emotional, it’s that he does things that he simply wouldn’t do.  Comforting someone by grasping their shoulder for example, openly smiling.  His major contribution to the novel is to bridge the gap between the prince and his duty.  Spock is used as a ‘child of two worlds’ and is a parallel to the prince who feels the same way, having essentially grown up in the Federation.  After reading a little about Laurence Yep, I realised that Spock (and the prince as well, really) was probably interesting to him as a vehicle to explore his own feelings as a ‘child of two worlds’.  Spock manages to be removed from the action when he takes a spear to the hip (better than an arrow to the knee I suppose), but the situation seems quite forced.  I’m not sure why he needed to be removed from the action, unless Yep really likes Sulu? It’s not like Spock was overpowered or anything in this story, if anything he was underpowered.

Original Characters

Yep’s original characters are probably the strongest (they’re the ones he actually wanted to write after all).  The prince (Vikram) is initially foppish (although this is mainly an act) but proves that he’s actually worthy of running a planet and reforming it.  The character’s development isn’t much of a surprise as it’s all pretty telegraphed including his budding relationship with Urmi, an initially untrustworthy character who learns to love the prince after travelling with him and helping him get to his family’s land.  It just so happened to be that she was his guardian’s (?) niece.

Vikram’s guardian, Bibil, was a likeable character who had a heroic rat beetle related death and was characterised well.  Actually, most of the minor characters were characterised nicely, even if they are introduced for only a couple of pages which I think is testament to Yep’s ability as a writer.  The one character where I’d say it falls down is the villain of the story ‘Lord Rahu’, he’s a bit of a non entity whose actual motivations aren’t really fully realised.  A proxy for Lord Rahu is used much of the time, so although we sympathise with the proxy (a good man, doing the right thing for the wrong reasons) and get to know him, we don’t really learn about Rahu.  Rahu never really achieves the magnitude he needs to be truly effective.

Finally…

Shadow Lord is an enjoyable story if you’re not really expecting to be reading a Star Trek novel.  It doesn’t really add any understanding to the characters, nor does it offer a particularly inspiring sci-fi / Star Trek scenario.  It’s hard for me to say ‘don’t read it’ because despite its many flaws I found it enjoyable, on the other hand it’s not really a successful Trek novel and I don’t think you’re missing o out on a dose of Trek if you don’t bother with this one.

1/5 – Sorry!

Star Trek – Uhura’s Song

And Kirk said, “Do you mean, a song to help you remember – not only the symptoms – but the cure for the disease?  You know the cure to ADF?”

It was as if he had struck her, but she only said, “There is no cure on Eeiauo, Captain.  The last verse is missing.  Sunfall ended the song there, and her ears drooped and tail… I can’t describe it, sir.  She looked at me in despair, and she told me it was a song for another world, not hers.”

Well… I can certainly see why this was considered a ‘giant novel’ when released in the UK!

Uhura’s Song by Janet Kagan (#21 Pocket, Giant Novel – Titan) (1985) is… a long book.  I mean, in the scheme of things and compared to other science fiction novels (like those written by Peter F Hamilton) it isn’t that long but… it’s certainly long for a Star Trek novel of this era.

… Yep.  Definitely long.

It isn’t quite pulling teeth to read long, but it is overly… long.

Did I mention it’s long?

It isn’t ‘bad’ per se, but it misses out on being ‘actually good’ by a fair margin.  This is actually a real shame, as it started with a lot of potential, certainly with a lot of passion but just lost the plot, if you’ll allow me to quip.

Let me get this big niggle out the way real quick before I launch into this properly, but you’d think, you’d think, that a book called Uhura’s Song would have Uhura playing the lead role (instead of an epitome of a Mary Sue).  I mean, it’s not like Tears of the Singers, her name is in the title for pity’s sake.  I also completely disagree with the review in Star Trek: Adventures in Time and Space (1999) the Uhura’s Song as one of two defining novels for Uhura (together with Tears of the Singers) which “gave Uhura the chance to expand her range beyond hailing frequencies”.  Uhura is defined with much more clarity and direction in books not toted as Uhura centric, and frankly if these are the best representations of Uhura, they can keep them!  I don’t really think she’s portrayed particularly well in either of them, however Uhura’s Song gives her a better characterisation, but she’s pretty quickly overshadowed by the shameless Mary Sue Evan Wilson.

So what is Uhura’s Song about anyway?

Put simply: Space Ebola, the Odyssey, Folklore, Memory, coming of age.

A plague has broken out in the Federation amongst a feline species (it’s pretty much like mange), previous outbreaks had been handled by the people themselves, however as the latest outbreak pushes them to breaking point they ask for Federation help.  Unfortunately, the disease affects humans as well, but it progresses faster through a human victim.  Leonard McCoy and Christine Chapel are already infected and reports are coming in from across the Federation of outbreaks… Kirk and his crew are tasked with finding a cure for this deadly disease with only a song Uhura was taught by a member of the feline species as a clue to find their lost planet of origin… and a cure. 

As you might imagine, Uhura has a prominent part to play… initially.  She works with Spock to decipher the astrological clues the song leaves to finding the home planet of the Eeouians.  Her attributes as a driven and talented linguist are emphasised.  However, once the initial detective work is finished she starts to move into the background and although she is part of the action (theoretically) it’s very easy to forget she’s there, even when she’s in an away team on a perilous mission.  That being said her characterisation is very strong when she’s the focus.  I actually really enjoyed the way she was presented working with Spock, she was competent but also slightly unsure; someone who is excellent at what she does suddenly being told to get results in a field she has never really explored.  There is a subtleness here which is quite charming, I wish Kagan could have continued this development to the end of the novel, instead of relying on an OC ‘Mary-Sue’ to smooth over any narrative difficulties she would face.

After Spock and Uhura locate the planet, they beam down to meet the local inhabitants… this is where Uhura’s Song turns into sci-fi anthropology novel and actually, this section stands rather well on its own.  Kagan really manages to build a believable society which doesn’t buckle under close scrutiny and despite the sheer length of it managed to hold my attention.  It helps that I like cats I suppose and the characterisation of the species is ultimately endearing.  I kept checking how many pages of this section I had read, and was often pleasantly surprised at how much I had read and yet it didn’t feel like it was dragging.  However, after the world and society building had being completed and the narrative started to step up a gear again I started to get restless.  Uhura was pushed into the background, and the previously background Kirk stepped forward – not a problem for me – as did Spock.  Chekov was also pretty busy, which was nice to see, I think his characterisation was fitting, if not a bit too competent.  However, three OCs took the foreground, two of which I am happy with (they were of the cousin species of the Eeiauons), and one which essentially ruins the novel utterly.

Evan Wilson… A female character who is incredibly important to this novel… and who could be edited out with a little bit of thought and the story would be significantly better for it.  There is virtually no reason why every incredible action she takes couldn’t have been done by another of the landing party.  There is no reason to have her there to make the required leaps of logic, between Kirk, Spock, Uhura, and Chekov there is no need for her – even her leap of medical knowledge could have been made by someone not ‘in the know’.  In fact, Uhura would have and should have been the one to solve the mystery.

As it happens, the answer to the problem was in the songs all along, and the terrible disease was only a ‘child’s disease’ with a simple cure.  It apparently needed Evan Wilson to see this… despite that Uhura was well versed and more than qualified to make these inferences.

Of course… all is revealed later when we learn that Evan Wilson is not in fact Evan Wilson… we don’t learn her real name… we do learn that she’s a secret space operative / pirate who wears foppish shirts, who is a mechanical genius, who is also apparently a medical genius, who everyone liked, and Kirk probably wanted to ‘romance’ (he was very disappointed when it turned out he couldn’t have R&R time with her…)…

Honest to goodness, this character broke the whole book for me.  What a mess.

Despite the above mentioned character, it’s still a book I’d recommend for the sake of Uhura and the careful thought that went into the creation of the different felinoid societies.   The other characters are well written, and the writing itself isn’t without merit.  Just… the whole story is terribly let down by one very poor character choice, one which some editorial guidance should have caught and reversed.

2/5 – Space Ebola.

As a side note, I’ve lost my Pocket Books edition of Uhura’s Song, so I had to switch to my Titan Books edition.  I swear these books grow legs.

Also, I’m sorry for this sorry excuse of a review… the Mary-Sue pulled my tail!  I’m like… fixated on her!

Perhaps when I feel more energetic I’ll add to this review… but the book miffed me off so much that I don’t really want to talk about it And I don’t want to rip it apart (which I’d usually do) because aside from the Mary-Sue it wasn’t bad… urgh…

Star Trek – The Tears of the Singers

“Wait,” Maslin said, eyeing her curiously.  “You’re not like these vapid socialites.  What are you?”

She found it odd that he asked her what rather than who she was, but she ignored it, and answered, “I’m a Star Fleet officer assigned to U.S.S. Enterprise.”

“Impressive, if one happens to be awed by that institution.  But what’s a technocrat like you doing at one of my concerts, Madam Star Fleet?”

The Tears of the Singers (1984) (#19 Pocket, #39 Titan) was Melinda Snodgrass’ first published novel.  Snodgrass would later become a prolific writer and still writes today under both her own name and pen names.  Snodgrass notably wrote the script for for TNG’s The Measure of a Man, which was nominated for the Writer’s Guild Award for outstanding writing in a drama series.

The Tears of the Singers is overall a good book.  It’s well conceived and hints at the brilliant writer Snodgrass would become, however, it does regularly hiccup and suffer from an occasional heavy handedness which becomes a little wearisome.  Pacing is also a problem throughout this novel, which could be a symptom of Snodgrass’ immaturity as a writer and her difficulty in writing the quantity of characters she does.  Her writing also suffers somewhat from a certain ‘blandness‘, and it’s unfortunate that she should use a character concept similar to characters in  Diane Duane’s The Wounded Sky – when compared to Duane’s colourful language, Snodgrass’ falls short.

And that all sounds very negative I know, but I needed to get it out of my system first.

Saying all that, I need to stress that The Tears of the Singers isn’t a bad book, however unlike The Wounded Sky or The Final Reflection it doesn’t shine as bright.  When Snodgrass writes well, it’s inspired and she can get the image or the characterisation across quickly and easily… succinctly I guess?  Her characterisations are generally good, although at times a little cliched, and she does paint fine scenes with her words.  Her approach is a little formulaic and almost a ‘tick box’ Star Trek novel, but that might work in her favour a little bit as it keeps the plot moving though it makes it rather predictable all told.

Ah… the reason perhaps that I’m struggling here is because every time I think of something complimentary, I can think of two or three other things that really let the book down, and that is so frustrating!

The ‘Singers’ are pretty much these…

The Tears of the Singers is a thinly veiled eco-fable at heart, which is drawing particularly on the practice of seal clubbing – a particularly revolting ‘hunt’ (if you can even call it that) where men go out on the ice and club seals to death (or not, in some cases), in order to acquire meat and an unbroken pelt, sometimes under the guise of ‘conservation’.  The first major protests against the practice can be seen as far back as 1967, and in 1983 the EU (European Union) banned the import of white coat harp seal pup pelts (pelts from pups under two weeks of age).  More recently (2009) the EU has banned the import of all seal products, causing the value of pelts to fall from $100 to between $8 and $15 each.

Why would I go into all that?  Well, aside from standing on my soapbox, it’s because the crux of The Tears of the Singers is that hunters have been killing a seal like creature for the tears they shed at the moment of death, which solidify into gems which have become popular throughout the Federation with the wealthy… and you’d have to be wealthy since the small number of gems available fetch extortionate prices.  These creatures were deemed non-intelligent during a survey and thus are fair game to hunters greedy for easy money.  However we find out during the course of the novel that the survey of the planet and the Taygetians was cursory at best and that the creatures are in fact a people, devoted to singing a hymn of salvation for their people, bending time and space to protect their planet.  The hunters disrupt their song by killing the adults which causes their song to become discordant, causing a rift in space time, the rift of course is what causes Star Fleet to send the Enterprise to investigate the anomaly.

This however, is not the whole story.  Since this is a boarder planet between the Federation and Klingon space, the Klingons have also noticed the anomaly and sent two ships to investigate.  It just so happens that the leader of expedition is Kor, the same Kor as involved in the incident with the Organians.  Kor, it turns out, is having trouble with mutineers (even with a loyal captain on the second Klingon ship), who disagree with his more peaceful, co-operative approach.  Kor recognises Klingon shortcomings and realises that working with Kirk and his scientists would be the only way to solve the problem of this dangerous phenomenon.  Eventually however, the Klingons act predictably and mutiny causing trouble for the Enterprise and the Klingon officers.

The romantic sub-plot concerns Uhura and a mercurial musical genius Mozart Maslin.  Although it is nice to see Uhura take a more active, almost ‘lead’ role for the first time in the Pocket Books series, this narrative thread is also one of the most irritating.  Essentially Mozart Maslin is drafted in to help the Enterprise solve the musical conundrum of the singers, he’s not happy with it and is generally bad tempered, and egotistical.  Somehow, Uhura falls in love with this particularly irritating little man, who also conveniently (from a narrative perspective) happens to be quite ill, and this final musical problem will be his requiem.  I suppose love doesn’t have to be sensible, but not unlike the abominable JJ movie Uhura, love makes her stupid and disobedient.  Now, I’m no ‘feminist’ (let’s settle for egalitarian, shall we? This is not up for debate), and my reaction will generally be ‘suck it up buttercup’ as opposed to some sort of militant defence or righteous outrage, but it frustrates me that you can have a template like Uhura and still mess up characterisation!  I mean, I can almost forgive a male author for cocking up a female character, but it’s just mystifying how a woman can write Uhura as a main character and make her into a… a…. spineless, gooey, love struck fool of a woman who lashes out at her captain for doing the right thing.  That isn’t the Uhura we know!  Well, the lack of professionalism, foolish, prissy little girl character sums up the JJ Uhura, but not the TOS Uhura!

Now, perhaps this wouldn’t be so bad if there wasn’t a balancing female representative on the Klingon vessels, but there is… Kor’s wife.  Unfortunately, she isn’t characterised successfully either, in fact, the way she’s written actually emphasises the problems with Uhura’s characterisation.  The Klingon romantic subplot isn’t too much better.  Kali (Kor’s new, young, wife) is… essentially a go-between, a bridge between the Klingon parties and the Federation representatives, but she serves more to highlight Kor’s abnormality than a character in her own right, though she does have her moments.  I was a little disappointed that Snodgrass decided to make her a ‘strong because of love’ type character as opposed to ‘strong because capable’ (which she doesn’t seem to be).  She does redeem herself near the end of the book however and saves the Enterprise contingent, which was a relief.

I’ve already mentioned Uhura’s flaws as regards to her role in the romance sub-plot, but how does she react on her own?  Unfortunately, Maslin is by necessity introduced very early and Uhura’s character is basically represented and expanded on via her relationship with Maslin.  Instead of being Madam Starfleet and doing her job as an officer, she quickly degenerates into Maslin’s tag-along.  She serves a purpose, sure, she is the only one who can get Maslin to listen, and she looks after him because of his ailing health, although by the end she is also redundant in this way.  Maslin does change, he understands and listens to Kirk and the other officers and his health deteriorates beyond the point of no return.   Uhura caught in the throws of love forgets duty, her dreams, her discipline, her ability as an officer in order to take the typically female role of carer, mother, empathic.  I don’t think she really even truly contributes to the work of deciphering the language of the seal people, Maslin and Spock do most of the work.  While I don’t begrudge a woman being caring, emotional, and/or in love, I really didn’t enjoy Uhura’s characterisation in this as she just became a little too malleable and didn’t seem to retain enough of what I would consider herself in her interactions with other characters.

Maslin, otherwise known as Mozart is an insufferable character who gets some character growth but overall makes you seriously dubious about Uhura’s taste in men.  He is an arrogant, selfish, mercurial man who is unfortunately talented enough to get away with it.  He does have some redeeming qualities in that he is a hard worker however, I feel that he isn’t so much working hard for the good of others, but for the achievement of working out a puzzle, that’s what motivates him.  I think he’s a good character but I disliked him because he was just, so irritating.  I both liked and disliked his growth in the end that he would end up accepting that Starfleet wasn’t as he perceived it to be after all.

Kirk, Spock, and McCoy were pretty standard characterisations.  Kirk was quite passive for much of the novel (much to his chagrin), Spock was ever pragmatic, and McCoy was the emotional ‘heart’.  They basically worked in  their standard dynamic where Kirk has to make a decision (this time, regarding Maslin and his health / sacrifice of one for many or few for the many) and Spock and McCoy come in on opposing sides of the argument.

Kirk of course does get his action, and proves that what he expects of Maslin is something he himself would do – and more.  Their final experience focuses on Kirk, so I imagine he is mollified!

There are two sets of antagonists in The Tears of the Singers, firstly the human hunters who are pretty much the kind of people you’d imagine who would club baby seals to death for money and who get dealt with satisfactorily.  Secondly there are the the Klingons, who are pretty well behaved for much of the novel – until Kor’s second in command decides to incite mutiny in the two Klingon ships.  Kor’s problem is mainly that he has grown to disagree with the Klingon Empire’s policies, and… he likes Kirk and grows to like the the humans he meets as representatives of the Federation.  His young wife is also forward thinking and significantly more empathic than the average Klingon.  I mean, sure, they have no problem with executing people, but certainly they are cuddly Klingons.  Ultimately, I liked Kor, he is reasonable and pragmatic and someone I’d definitely have a drink with!

Kind of like how small groups of Romulans can get along with the Enterprise crew too… and their crews mutiny…

Finally…

Although Snodgrass sort to expand the character of Uhura, she ends up falling short and limiting her (Uhura) by her own narrow horizons and by using plot elements that had been used before and better.  Uhura ends up still caught in this web of generic female characterisation, which is disappointing coming from a female author who has deliberately placed her as the supposed centre of her story.  Uhura ends up defined by a male character which is galling, considering in the 60s she was defined by her own parametres, not that of a man and here we see in the 80s a step backwards where her ‘leading’ role is as a support to a weak but talented man who arguably is actually the main character.

On a particularly immature and disappointing note is Uhura’s consideration of whether she has to become a lesbian to be a captain.  Oh Snodgrass, did you feel a little bit naughty using the term lesbian?

Generally my feelings for this book can be summed up with ‘but someone else did it better’, and that someone else happens to be Diane Duane.  Uhura’s sections of The Wounded Sky for example, do more for the characterisation of Uhura than the whole of The Tears of the Singers.

3/5 – disappointing but worth a read (probably).

Star Trek – My Enemy, My Ally

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

“Gentlemen!!”

Ael kept her laughter to herself.

 Well, someone certainly has read the Roddenberry Footnote!

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

Star Trek – The Final Reflection

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Life as a Game – Klingons and the Perpetual Game.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

5/5 – Let the games begin!

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

– Dr. Emmanuel Tagore, to the author.

Star Trek – Corona

Kirk was eternally fascinated by the procedures for making the Enterprise ship-shape for a long voyage.  He was familiar with every action as a man watching his wife dress in the morning, and yet… it had that same sort of fascination, of responsibility mixed with a perverse and impossible kind of ownership.  No individual could own a star ship, any more than a man could actually own his wife.  Still, the Enterprise was his.  He wondered what the day would be like when he had to give her up, and whether, if any of his Starfleet colleagues assumed her command, they could possibly remain friends.

Corona by Greg Bear (#15 Pocket, #24 Titan) (1984) is a really interesting instalment in the Pocket novel series for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, we’re seeing the theme of entropy again, and this is really exciting for me because I’m finally seeing what I expected to see in the novels that is patterns and trends in themes and content of the novels.  Secondly, for the first time I’m seeing direct references to Gene Roddenberry’s 1979 TMP novel and in Greg Bear’s case, he has borrowed (to a certain extent) the writing style, characterisation of Kirk, and taking relationship cues from it too.  I was most surprised at the relationship inferences because I didn’t expect them from a male author.  Finally, it’s interesting because its time line is incredibly kooky which makes it a little confusing as to when exactly the novel takes place – I’m going to run with any time.  I can only imagine that the majority of the story was cooking for a long time (pre-films) and so there’s some artistic license in there too.

Greg Bear himself is still an active author and although Corona was his first and only Star Trek novel, he is still active in the community.  Bear writes a wide selection of fiction, including tie-in novels for the Halo universe.

Find more about the author at his site www.gregbear.com and on his page on imdb.

Corona itself is, for me at least, a ‘so-so’ novel.  Whilst I was reading it I would visualise a big 3/5 stamped across the cover.

Read a brief summary of Corona here (memory beta).

There are lots of problems with it for example the time line is pretty much as kooky as you can get.  The novel listing I often refer to lists Corona as taking place in 2270, which is just after the original series.  Keep in mind that TMP occurs in 2273, got it?  Ok, there’s this funny ‘dating’ (not that kind) paragraph:

Spock sat stolidly on his immaculate stone meditation plank, eyes closed, deep in mathematical exercises he had taken up lately, conditional to his entry into the third stage of Vulcan life at age seventy-nine.

Hold up!  Seventy-nine?!  Spock was born in 2230 and if this is 2270…  That makes him forty, surely?  Much of the narrative implies that it is within the scope of the five year mission, but why age Spock this way?  Is Kirk supposed to be older too?  And where does this leave poor Amanda and her age, and Sarek for that matter?  Anyway, I think it’s safe to assume that it is 2270 and not later because the rest of the crew are present and in their same positions – even Yeoman Rand is there!

Bear has an odd take on Vulcans at times too, strange little rituals and ticks.  The story very hinges on the Vulcan ‘otherness’, but in making them a little too ‘other’ or ‘strange’ they kind of feel a little odd to me.  I can’t pin it down well, but it’s like seeing through a glass darkly.  I can accept a certain amount of artistic licence but sometimes there’s some strange ‘insight’ from these authors, possibly because it is before much of the ‘official’ details of the Vulcan species had been finalised.  It was interesting however to have Vulcan children play a role as we don’t often see Vulcan children portrayed (there’s little reason to).  I guess they are essentially little adults, ignoring of course the brats who bully Spock in the AU (who frankly just act like bully children, not something ‘other’ as I imagine Vulcan children to be).  The resolution of Corona hinges on the fact that the child Vulcans haven’t gone through a ritual to make them adults, and although this does happen canonically I don’t think it is supposed to be an event which comes from without, but instead it’s the completion of a trial which marks them as adults.  This kind of ties into a loose theme of ‘coming of age‘ but it doesn’t really dwell on this too much and appear somewhat accidental (even if this links into ‘Mason’s’ story line.

Anyway, none of that is really that interesting, I just needed to get some of those thoughts out the way.

The first thing that I really noticed while reading Corona was that it is the first novel that has really drawn from Roddenberry’s TMP novelisation.  The characterisation of Kirk, his somewhat uncomfortable phrasing and too-long idling over sexual thoughts – they are all there in Corona.  References to the telepathic connection between Kirk and Spock are in there too – and certainly their closeness.  Furthermore, I think that this is the first instance of the brain implant being referenced, which also makes its first appearance in the TMP novel.  I am surprised that it has taken this long for these features to make their appearance in the novel series thus far, or at least a real indication that writers have read the first book in the Pocket Book series (the TMP novelisation).  Ok, perhaps I’m deliberately ignoring Marshak and Culbreath because of their blatant agenda and kinks, their two additions to the series (Triangle and Chains of Prometheus).  I really like that it’s a man picking up on these aspect too, quietly adding in the telepathic link between Kirk and Spock that kind of rumbles in the back ground of their relationship.

Of course, it does fit in with the story with Kirk should have the implant as mentioned in the TMP novelisation.  Much of the novel is given over to ‘the monitors’, a computer system installed at the beginning of the story, with the capacity and authority to override commands / requests of personnel on board the Enterprise.  They are meant to prevent for example, captains from making bad decisions, if the monitors disagree with the captain’s decisions then they will override the captain and take action without anyone else’s say-so.  There are also monitors for sick bay too, much to McCoy’s chagrin.

Does anyone else find this uncomfortable?  I certainly do!

Kirk doesn’t care for it much either, but with little choice given to him he has to play by the rules.  He ends up with an additional monitor as well, in the form of a young woman reporter.  I was actually really happy to see this story line used, because this is the first instance of the ‘reporter / monitor’ character and really the first time we see this kind of… conflict within Starfleet where they are trying to tighten control of their fleet and personnel.  Bureaucracy of course is seen in the original series, but certainly in TMP we know there are problems on earth and Starfleet is under pressure from ‘New Human’ groups.  A later novel that I have reviewed with a similar theme of Kirk having a monitor is The Starship Trap.  Ultimately, the female monitor in both novels ends up being a boon to Kirk, but interestingly there is no romance involving Kirk in either of them.  The ‘monitor’ storyline is tied up by them being judged not fit for purpose, with the moral that commanders (and medical officers etc.) should be able to act as they see fit in the circumstances, without any computer intervention.

Interestingly, the monitors do take control away from Kirk in the end, because he chooses to hold fire.  He felt conflicted about firing on the station and thus possibly killing Spock and Mason in the process.  The monitors fired on the station because Kirk didn’t want to act, because he was ‘too concerned’, and that possibly he didn’t act because he knew the monitors would take the weight off his shoulders and make the decision for him.  In a way this is a challenge, would the imposition of these monitors stop people growing?  Stop them from being the best humanity has to offer?  Additionally, Kirk’s humanity and respect for life makes him who he is, his judgement not to fire, his empathy being over-ridden by an algorithm… would a captain ever be truly followed when the crew knows their judgement is going to be constantly judged and changed by an algorithm on a computer?

Just a thought.

Finally, I was really interested to see the theme of entropy appearing again.  It certainly seems to be the strongest / most common theme so far, especially since the last use of it was in The Wounded Sky, the last book but one, the first was The Entropy Effect.  All three stories have dealt with the theme a different way however.  The Entropy Effect was caused by the actions of a man and has to do with time travel, The Wounded Sky again is to do with the actions of scientists but concludes with the meeting of a new, God-like, life form.  Corona handles it differently again, a non-corporeal life form wishes to accelerate entropy in order for it to cause the end of  our universe and the rebirth of the environment needed for it and its species to exist (essentially the big bang).  Funnily enough, it also has to use technology to achieve its goals, which it achieves through using the Vulcans as its arms and legs and the frozen ‘sleepers’ as memory storage units.

The ‘action’ of the story is a little bit messy and at times the author seems to forget which crew members are present (poor Chapel!) and whether they are capable of critical thinking at all.  The story itself feels like it was written some time before publication, perhaps even before TMP but was revised afterwards to add in extra bits of lore.  Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to have been edited enough to make the old and the new mesh and the story can be somewhat bitty as a result and unfortunately at times, pretty contrived.  However, on a whole its passable, and it is obvious by Bear’s success that he improved greatly in subsequent books to working on other popular sci-fi franchises and series of his own design.

For the modern reader, the story feels quite tired.  I think in particular using the trope of ‘possessed children’ but then not really building on that as something scary was a bit of a let down.  Perhaps that was somewhat endemic in the whole book, things were kind of introduced but the ideas weren’t really developed, almost like the author didn’t know quite where he wanted the ideas to go.  The idea of the monitors was built on, but when it came down to the execution of their orders over Kirk’s it was a little… anticlimactic.  Mason’s xenophobia never really peaks, and her character development just doesn’t seem that compelling.  That being said, on the subject of characterisation, I did enjoy the Roddenberryish portrayal of Kirk’s character, Spock’s wry moments and McCoy’s humourous, cantankerous nature.  I think Bear was a little weak on the development of the female characters though – Chapel’s description as ‘spinsterish’ was particularly harsh!

3/5 – take a cold shower Kirk!