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.
Our previous chapter ties this book back to The Vulcan Academy Murders and sets up the non-disease antagonist for our book, or that’s what I’m assuming with the fighting Vulcans. It’s not the first time we’ve seen Vulcans not act like Vulcans. I think by this point Star Trek V had come out with Sybok, the first Sarek kid we didn’t know existed until Michael Burnham the adoptee. We didn’t need either one of them. There was also Stephen, the emotion-seeking Vulcan from Enterprise: The First Adventure, if anyone remembers that book. It was one of the earliest Chapter By Chapter book reviews.
You know, when transported exiled Vulcans who were planning to take over the planet and were only exposed because of an unrelated murder, you’d think they’d be the wrong ship to call to a plague world…unless Starfleet was hoping to wipe them out. Was Jonathan Archer still working there? “I get to make Vulcans suffer? Sign me up!” We’re on chapter 3 of 44, page 21 of 278 and we have eight pages of reading. That’s enough for a decent chapter, so let’s see how Kirk handles the latest news.
We start on the bridge just before Kirk arrives. The author takes time to catch us up on other details. Nurse Chapel is at a seminar. The ship was also going to pick her up after dropping off Sarek and Amanda and picking up a different set of ambassadors. I’m not sure why Sarek and Amanda have to be part of this story, but it’s early on and I haven’t read it in many years, having only read it once previously. Hopefully they’re here for more than Jean Lorrah really wanted to write them again. As for Nurse Chapel, I don’t think we needed a reason for her to not be in the last book. She missed a lot of episodes. Only Ensign Rand missed out on more adventures. She didn’t even get to be in the animated series. Nurse Chapel was a player in at least two or three.
Kirk arrives and gets his marching orders: go back to Vulcan, get the doctors from the previous story, and then go to Nisus colony, then go on the rest of the trip. I’m betting the Followers Of T’Vet are going to make that difficult. Of course the Enterprise is the closest ship, but carrying important ambassadors and a bunch of violent exiles, code of honor or not, seems destined for trouble in bringing them to this situation. We can’t even get alternate transport for Sarek and Amanda, meaning we’re going to force them into this story whether they want to be or not. Again, I hope they actually matter to the story and not just Lorrah wanted to write them some more.
McCoy is going over the data from Starfleet so Kirk calls for a meeting in an hour. Spock goes to tell his mother about the delay since his dad is helping one of the crew with her astrophysics exam. I hope that’s the reason, because Lorrah already had a father/son bonding subplot as part of her relationship study in the previous book. We’re also reminded that Amanda had undergone a treatment for a condition she picked up as a human living on Vulcan, as we see her exercising to help her recovery. Most of the rest is the narrator, and thankfully not clunky exposition by Sarek and Amanda–the good part of narration–going over her situation in the previous book, the concept of Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combination, and how the virus striking everyone at a colony of species within and without the Federation getting sick (wait until they learn the details) might be a challenge to IDIC. We’re also reminded that there are plenty of medical scientists already on Nisus, so even I wonder how Dr. Corrigan, Sorel, and McCoy will make a difference outside of the story needing them to?
Most of this chapter is setting up the situation, which in a way the last chapter was as well. We have a novel to pad out, and Lorrah does a good job making the set-up an interesting read. How long will that continue? We’ll find out in the next chapter and beyond.
BW Media Spotlight 