Star Trek novels often run into the same issue as Marvel movies. They often take place between installments of shows or movie franchises, so these big important things happen only to never be spoken of again. This book has some of that. It also tries to develop a backstory for a character introduced in Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, and chose to give one that makes little sense. The half Romulan, half Vulcan Saavik was of course going to get stories focused on her. But this book sets her story right after Star Trek The Motion Picture, where Spock discovers her on a Romulan planet during an illegal Vulcan rescue mission. She is feral and speaks in a pidgin language. And her presence on this world is tied to a Romulan plot to start a war and wipe out the Federation.
The book states there are 6 years between the events of The Motion Picture and it's story. Which means that if the events of WOK take place immediately after, which is not the sense given, they are 6 years (or more) as well. That seems too long a stretch. It also seems too short a stretch for the total transformation of Saavik from feral savage to pseudo-Vulcan convincing enough to pull the wool over the eyes of a crew who have spent years on a ship with Spock. Then there are the new characters introduced. They range from kind of dumb to mildly interesting, with little time given to much development. But none of them are present in WOK so at the end a convenient device is given to shuffle them all off.
The mainstay characters are mostly handled well. At first I was a bit put off by Spock's treatment of his fellow crew members, but remembered that he had been through his aborted attempt at Kolinahr at this point. Of course his tenderness with Saavik at certain points makes this explanation a bit tenuous. Then there is McCoy's seemingly outright hostility to Spock, until the end when the author seems to remember that he is actually fond of the half Vulcan. Kirk is erratic and a bit petulant, which fits his character pretty well from the first two movies. He was having a bit of a midlife crisis during this period, part of the reason the first two movies seemed closer in timeline than six years to me. Uhura, Scottie, Sulu and Chekhov are all handled very well, coming across much as the familiar characters from t.v. and the movies.
As for the story itself, once I got past my gripes about timelines and such, it was actually pretty good. At times the writing was a bit clunky, especially when the author tried to have overlapping dialogue (which doesn't work as well in the printed format as it does in an audio/visual one). But the story itself was clever and fun. And while there were a couple of chapters devoted to the Romulan point of view, it did not make the very common mistake of giving them equal time. In the story there is a shadow movement of Romulans who want to force the Empire to rekindle its war with the Federation. They have been working on a superweapon that destroys oxygen, and manage to detonate it on Earth. It is able to be contained, but not indefinitely.
Of course the weapon and it's development are tied in to the planet where Spock, his father Sarek, and other Vulcans had previously gone to rescue abducted Vulcans. No Vulcans had been found, but several half Vulcan half Romulan children were rescued. Saavik, as mentioned, was one of these. Spock's encounter with her on the planet made him take a special interest in her, and he had helped tutor and guide her. She is now a cadet at Starfleet Academy, and by coincidence visits the Enterprise when the weapon is set off. She recognizes the weapon from her mostly submerged childhood memories, which prompts Spock to take the Enterprise back to the planet in question. Kirk is trapped underground at Starfleet HQ, and doesn't have a very big role in the story.
There are some really good elements to the story, some that are just too contrived, some that make little sense (why wouldn't they bring the scout ship on board the same way they did the smuggler's ship?), and too many forced happy endings that seem to undo some of what made the story really have an impact. But overall, it is a fun read and a decent addition to the Star Trek canon, certainly better than some other entries. It was almost ruined by the author's apparent need to tie in Saavik's backstory, but she managed to pull out a compelling enough read that you're able to give it a pass. There are characters that didn't need to be included, and in fact don't make much sense to be on what is in fact basically a military vessel. But again, they are handled in a way that you end up not minding all that much after some initial annoyance. (Until the "and they lived happily ever after"s tacked on at the end as mentioned, at least.)
This is apparently the only novel, Star Trek or otherwise, that Carolyn Clowes ever wrote. That's a shame, because for a first novel it's really good and she likely would have gotten much better. She is also obviously a big Trek fan, referencing episodes of the old show in her story. And her story was clever, while a few of the things I didn't like had the whiff of editorial intervention to make it more "universally appealling". Maybe this was the only story she wanted to tell. Whatever the reasons I applaud her for getting this one out there. It's not going to be a book for everyone, but if you're inclined to like Star Trek, you'll enjoy this book. If you're not, I'm not sure why you'd even have read this far into my review.
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