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.
In the previous chapter we met some of the newest supporting cast to the author’s take on Vulcans. I have never read an interview with Lorrah so I don’t know why she was so interested in Vulcan versus Earthling culture and how it pertains to romance, or creating a group who rejects Vulcans’ logic pursuit when we already have the Romulans. Regardless, this is at least her second time in this area and I enjoyed the last one. I even enjoyed this one enough to get the last one so many years ago even though this is only the second time I’ve gotten to read this novel.
This chapter will be taking us back to the Enterprise. One advantage books have over television is they don’t have to worry about building sets, hiring actors, or creating and applying alien make-up prosthetics. So they can get away with following other characters, creating different aliens by building on the races we already know from the show, and having locations that might not be easy with a 1960s TV budget. A good writer makes it appear in your mind, something I’m not so good at. Yes, that’s why I fell more into making comics. I just have to show you.
This is a rather short chapter, only four pages. Unlike…a few other novels I’ve reviewed for Chapter By Chapter, it’s not too bad so long as it doesn’t become a habit like those books. Plus I’m low on time today so it’s to my advantage. I like when that happens.
There are two scenes in this chapter, but with no visual break between paragraphs. Quite often I find that putting an extra line of space between paragraphs help sell the idea that a scene is changing, like a transition in a television show versus a hard cut. The TV analogy of course works more in a book based on a TV show (this is set during the original five year mission as far as I know, so somewhere during the original or animated Star Trek), but it’s something I like to see.
The first has Kirk meeting with Sendat and Satat. Satat also has distant relatives on Nisus. I wonder if anyone on Vulcan doesn’t have ties there at this point. Even after hearing the couple he tried to ruin a bonding of will be on board during the trip, he and Sendat agree that they would do nothing to cause trouble. This is a medical emergency, and despite keeping some of the old, more violent ways, Sendat insists they aren’t barbarians. I’m still wondering why they’re here, which I probably didn’t think about back then but having read the first novel it is pointing itself out to me this round.
The other scene has Kirk dropping in on sickbay, where McCoy and Spock are going over the data. It’s pretty much just stuff we already know, but it allows the opportunity to get some of that classic Spock/Bones banter. McCoy realizes that Spock leaving as part of that banter means there’s no answer in the new information, since they don’t appear to have the Therian’s data, which only he knew what he saw anyway. Spock won’t be joining them despite his research talents because the plan right now is still to drop everyone off and go back to the transporting the Vulcan exiles. If memory serves, that’s not how it’s going to go, but Kirk is right in not wanting to lose his chief medical officer and his second in command.
It’s a short chapter but it shows we haven’t forgotten Satat’s actions in the previous novel, and that they (allegedly) won’t be an issue…again, why are they here? I can only assume Lorrah wanted to stick with familiar characters of her creation, but that doesn’t fully answer the question if they don’t end up adding to the primary narrative. There’s no new information so this is all character stuff, which is fine as it doesn’t slow the story, lets us know what they know, and it’s important to the characters’ stories. So it’s all good…for now. Where it goes will decide if ultimately they’re a good piece to the story or not, which we’ll continue going through next time.
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