Chapter By Chapter> Star Trek: The Vulcan Academy Murders chapter 29

Chapter By Chapter (usually) features me reading one chapter of the selected book at a time and reviewing it as if I were reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as a read-along book club.

Last time we caught the murderer…except there’s seven chapters left, counting this one, so maybe not.

So we’re at that part in the one-chapter-at-a-time novel reviews when I’ve pretty much run out of things to say. Otherwise I’m just repeating everything I’ve been saying up to this point. I’m not sure when I’m going to get to the sequel, The IDIC Epidemic. It was the book I read first and remember enjoying enough at the time that I went and tracked down this novel. They’re interesting characters and I’m curious if Jean Lorrah or any other author used them after that. It will probably be the next Star Trek novel I review, but we need to finish this one first. Thanks to the article series intro I think that’s enough space for the homepage, so let’s see what happens next.

This chapter is a bit short and if it weren’t for the major scene change next chapter I’d probably combine the two. With recent events I can accept six pages as a chapter, and it does break in a good narrative spot.

What takes place is preparing for a “Verification”, where Vulcan healers will try to go into Sendet’s mind, but only look for information pertaining to his attack on Daniel and the accusation of killing T’Zan…and Remington. Apparently we’re forgetting him now. The healers are not keep on Daniel taking part not out of xenophobia but concern that as a non-telepath he might get hurt, especially if Sendet tries again to attack him or break his bond with T’Mir. T’Pau melds with Daniel and uncovers an ulterior motive that even he wasn’t aware of.

Daniel understands that Sendet may not have realize the extent of the damage he was causing in his un-Vulcanlike rage. He’s surprisingly open-minded about the situation, which is what leads to him being allowed to take part in the Verification. As a Christian I approve of his perspective, realizing that while Sendet did at least one bad thing, he might not have realized the extent of his actions. We’re still going with the belief that Sendet is behind the murders and possibly even the fire that damaged the records, but it’s an honest approach we should see in more court cases. It’s not quite “innocent until proven guilty” but more a…well, a verification of their suspicions. It’s aptly named.

This is what I wanted more of in this story, a proper mixing of the character elements and the murder plot promised by the title and teaser. Daniel Corrigan is a good man with a healthy understanding of people in general, and his time on Vulcan has helped him understand Vulcans as well. We also get another hint of how the marriage bonding works between them as he “checks” everything is okay, but pulls away to not interfere with T’Mir’s work, still relieved they’re still mentally bonded. The Verification will have to wait a couple of chapters according to my spoilerless skim. Next time we check in with Kirk’s date with Eleyna. If my suspicions are correct this may be more tied in than it appears. We’ll find out soon enough.