Notes from Sweden

This is the sequel to “Crucible: McCoy Provenance of Shadows”, and the middle book of a trilogy revolving around the three main characters of the original Star Trek, McCoy, Spock and Kirk. The three books are all supposed to center around a key incident in the lives off all three, the visit to 1930’s New York in the TV episode “City on the Edge of Forever”, in which Kirk is forced to allow his love Edith Keeler to die to preserve the timeline of the future.

There seems to have been some confusion regarding the publication of the Spock book. It was due in November, but suddenly in mid-November Amazon.com was saying it would be released as a hardback in January, while at the same time people were commenting online that either they had received the book or had been notified it was on the way. Last week it appeared at our local science fiction bookstore, in paperback, as originally announced.

The events of “City on the Edge of Forever” play a less central role in this book compared to the first. That may be naturally because fully half of the McCoy book was about his living the alternative time line, in which saves Edith Keeler’s life, and she goes on to start a peace movement that delays the entry of the United States in World War II. What is exactly the same in the two books is that the main characters gain insights along the way that allow them to find love at the end, which sounds a bit more trite that it is depicted in the books. (Although the first time it was interesting, the second time it was turning into a pattern.)

The nice touch is that both books take up the consequences of events in the TV episodes, filling in the lives of the main characters between what we saw on TV, and allowing them to react and follow-up on what happened there. In this book we see how Spock made the transition from Star Fleet to the diplomatic corps, his second attempt at the emotion-purging Kolinahr, and how he deals with the news of the death of his mother Amanda. (Ironically the book comes days after the death of actress Jane Wyatt, who played Amanda on both television and in the film “Star Trek: The Voyage Home”.)

There are always difficulties with books like this, trying to reconcile them with the TV episodes, films, and other books. While the television and movies are basically canon, the other books can be ignored if they get in the way of a good plot ingredient. One of the best examples of this was the excellent book “Strangers in the Sky” which was completely invalidated by the film “Star Trek: First Contact”. Not having read every Star Trek book, I don’t know how much this Crucible series incorporates them. But I do know that there was a book, “Star Trek Vulcan’s Heart”, in which Spock has a long relationship with Saavik. That is completely missing here, and their only liaison referred to here is a brief episode in the film “The Search for Spock”.

I can see why author David R.George III has done this, because he invents a new love of Spock’s life. But I think he could have worked in the earlier relationship somehow, and found a reason for it to end, while still keeping the structure of this book. But it’s a good read and gives us more about Spock’s life. However, my favorite book about Spock and Vulcan remains Diane Duane’s wonderful “Spock’s World”.

The third volume in the series, “Crucible: Kirk: The Star to Every Wandering” is due in February. I truly wish they could avoid the silly return of Kirk in the Next Generation time line, from the movie “Star Trek Generations”, but I suppose that would be too much to ask. Since they do seem to be ignoring at least some of the books, we can hope that the final volume will not refer to the all the embarrassing continuing glories of Kirk in the series authored by William Shatner (with apparent help by others).