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 set up some more of the personal conflict that’s going to be attached to this story. Is Satat going to try to ruin a marital bond again or is he a man of his word, putting the colony first?
We’re going back to the colony this chapter. Korsal is that rare TOS era Klingon we can root for, like Konom in the DC movie period comics. I wonder if Jean Lorrah was imagining him as the original and animated series depicted him, with just the tanned skin and heavy hair, or the movie version onward that added those unnecessary ridged foreheads? Over time I’ve come to accept them, and it beats whatever the hell Discovery was doing with them, but I would have been willing to accept them as they were. Maybe someone thought they looked too “Fu Manchuish” with those goatees? I don’t know, but someday I should look up the reason for the change.
By the TNG era the Klingons and Federation got along as pals, but this is when that wasn’t the case. I wonder if that’s going to matter? We already saw an Orion thought this would be good money for them as a bioweapon…until he became infected, I’d wager. This would also be before Kirk started hating Klingons after a group of them killed his son. It’s wrong to blame ALL Klingons for that, but that’s the kind of thing were racism starts. We shouldn’t see that from him here if this is set in the TOS period, as suggested by the shirt collars on the front cover. We’ll see. I’m just padding out the intro for the homepage. Interestingly, chapter eight is eight pages long…well, seven and three fourths but that’s nitpicking. Let’s get to it.
Building Korsal as a character is the priority of this chapter. It feels less useless than it did in the Op-Center novels because his family is going to be part of the story, kind of by necessity given what we currently know. It also takes time to explain why a Klingon is at a Federation sponsored science colony. Long backstory short, Korsal was more into science than combat, a rarity for a Klingon but given his poor eyesight until he came here and took part in tests for a chemical to restore eyesight (possibly Retinax V or one of the first four, mentioned in the second Star Trek movie), it was to his personal benefit. It’s an interesting look into how Klingon society probably goes.
Korsal is considered clean and is sent home. He’s worried he might still be a carrier, but they need those beds for “officially” sick people. The plague takes up most of the rooms, but other illnesses and medical conditions don’t care if there’s a plague going on. As he walks home from the bus station he sees kids all playing in their own backyards rather than together in the streets, noting how depressing that is. Given the 2020 plague, I think we can all relate to this situation.
We also meet Korsal’s sons, as his wife is out shopping. Kevin is 14, so old enough to watch his younger brother by both human and Klingon cultural standards (or at least standards when the book came out–these days we hear about parents afraid to even let their kids outside). Karl and Kevin both follow the Klingon “K” naming that tends to be the norm, but with Earth names. That’s a nice compromise. Kevin’s a teen and Karl seems to relate more to his Vulcan friends. Kevin also shares Korsal’s eye issues, requiring him to wear glasses until he’s old enough to get the same treatment Korsal did. I wonder if that’s for flavor or if that will be important later?
We don’t have time to consider. The chapter ends with Korsal getting called to the dam for an emergency. Looks like they could use T’Pina fast.
As I said, this exploration of Korsal to make him a character the reader wants to see works better than Op-Center because it feels important to understanding the Klingon engineer and his motivations. That seems to be a going theme, as we’ve seen Vulcans who are either from Nisus or have family there and either want to help or promise not to interfere. We get an idea of Korsal’s engineering expertise and what led to him being here and choosing a human wife. The kids add concern to Korsal’s worries since he doesn’t want them to be sick, and there’s something about the children connected to this, as Theron figured out before he died from the plague. It doesn’t just feel like random trivia like most of the Op-Center backstories because he’s a central character to the story beyond the Enterprise crew and characters from the author’s last book making a return. One way or another this will be on the test later.
Next chapter the doctors are beamed aboard the Enterprise. What will ensue?
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