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.
The previous chapter showed us that not every action scene has to be a fight. Even with the tensions on display, the action was focused on stopping a potential disaster in an already existing disaster situation.
The chapter we’re looking at today doesn’t feature any of the original cast. That’s not a problem if that isn’t the trend. Author Jean Lorrah is trying to set up the tensions. She focuses more on personal drama, but unlike too many woman writers today we know from the previous book and the scene in the gym in a previous chapter that she can handle the action and tie it into the personal drama. We even saw that last time.
I do hope that the crew plays a larger role soon. This is the second time I’ve read this book but the first one was so very long ago that I barely remember it. It’s a new–ish experience for me. We’re going to check in with the Vulcans created for this book, a subplot I hope works and isn’t just an excuse for the writer to reuse some of her old characters. Thus far I don’t see a reason for the Followers Of T’Vet to be here, though I do understand reusing doctors she’s familiar with in a story that’s going to lean more on them than the previous one. Let’s see how she does.
We start with Sendet and T’Pina’s…well, I guess “date” isn’t accurate, which is good for Sendet, because he blew it. It doesn’t take long for their opposing views on IDIC to come into play. Sendet grew up on Vulcan as one of the Followers Of T’Vet, and gained some negative views to how humans and possibly other races were, in his mind, weaking Vulcan personally despite still being a minority on the planet, and in Vulcan blood by intermarrying. He’s all into Vulcan purity because he’s known a time without Starfleet either by personal experience or by the teachings of T’Vet.
T’Pina, on the other hand, grew up on a science colony of a group of races beyond just the Federation. She has embraced the idea of diversity of thought, perspectives, and biologies. Mixed race children are nothing new to her, as is going on an ocean cruise. She suggests it, not knowing he’s being taken away almost immediately to where the followers are being exiled, but she’s able to pick up from the conversation that he’s part of that clan. (cult?) She decides he’s the Vulcan equivalent of an idiot and leaves him behind.
At her quarters, she finds her mother talking to Sorel. Naturally he’s trying to warn T’Kar about Sendet, given that he once tried to sever his daughter’s newly formed bond with Corrigan, and mentioning his name is what sets Sendet on the Vulcan version of a rant about diluted Vulcan blood. Whether it’s bigotry or just him still being upset T’Mir chose a human over him I’ll leave up to you. (Sidebar: I had to go back and fix the name because I kept writing “T’Mir” instead of “T’Pina”. The downside of having every Vulcan woman using “T'” in their name. Luckily I caught it during writing.) He also notes that T’Pina is now “of age”. You know, Vulcan puberty or whatever. She can have kids and now her biological clock is starting, hence her interest in a mate. Was that necessary? I don’t think so, but it depends on how alien you prefer your Vulcan marrying instincts.
There’s also a thought that she’s about to attempt to play Cupid with her mom and Sorel, but given his wife just died a few months ago I’m kind of against that. We saw in this story that, at least internally, Vulcans still have emotional responses similar to ours, and it might be early for a rebound romance, especially given the Vulcan lifespan. It would be like a human getting a new girlfriend a few hours after death. Let the healer heal himself firs, T’Pina.
I’m wondering if this romance plot is supposed to play into the situation on Nisus or if it will turn out to be a distraction. It’s obvious IDIC comes into play, and I’m trying to remember which of two ways it ends up going, but I’d rather be re-surprised. We’re maybe a quarter of the way through the book and I’m hoping they get to Nisus soon. We’ll be going back there next chapter, however.
BW Media Spotlight 