Notes from Sweden

“Provenance of Shadows” is the first of a new trilogy of Star Trek original series books by David R. George III, each centering around the three main characters, McCoy, Spock, and Kirk.

In his foreward George says he had a problem adding something new to all the TV shows, movies, and books already written about these characters. Instead he looks at their entire lives, but with a crucial point of departure, the events of the TV episode “City on the Edge of Forever”.

In that episode McCoy goes back to 1930 and changes history, saving the life of social worker Edith Keeler, who goes on to found a pacifist movement that keeps the United States out of World War II.

That leads to Nazi triumph and the non-existence of the United Federation of Planets.

After McCoy disappears into the Guardian of Forever and the Enterprise vanishes, Spock uses his tricorder to record the changed timeline, so he and Kirk can go back before McCoy arrives in the past, and prevent him from changing it.

“Provenance of Shadows” has two story lines which alternate. One continues from the end of “City on the Edge of Forever”, dipping into classic events from the later shows and movies. You see the impact of these events on McCoy in a new way. An interesting back story is how the chronometric particle, the time particle referred to in later Star Trek episodes, was discovered, following years of research.

The other timeline is the one created when McCoy went into the past, the one where he saves Edith Keeler’s life, the one recorded on Spock’s tricorder. I found it painful at times to follow, and kept wondering why Kirk and Spock didn’t show up. But in retrospect it was fascinating, and George even plays with readers when he brings in a character from a “Deep Space Nine” alternate timeline (of sorts). McCoy’s experiences in the past, his reaction to racism in his native south, the alternative history version of World War II, are captivating.

Bringing it all back together, McCoy gains insights from that alternative recording that greatly help him in his real timeline.

“Crucible: Spock: The Fire and the Rose” is due in November, “Crucible: Kirk: The Star to Every Wandering” in February. Based on this first part of the trilogy, I’ll definately be reading them.

The “Trek Today” review ends:

Provenance of Shadows is unlike any media-tie in novel I have ever read, and by far one of the most extraordinary. If the final two books in this trilogy, Spock: The Fire and the Rose (Dec. 2006) and Kirk: The Star to Every Wandering (Jan. 2007), even come close to the matching the depth and scope of the character exploration demonstrated in Provenance of Shadows then this trilogy will surely become a classic that ranks right up there with novels like Federation and Imzadi whenever the merits of Star Trek novels are debated.