Star Trek: Vulcan's Forge | |||||||||||
Josepha Sherman & Susan Shwartz | |||||||||||
Pocket Books, 288 pages | |||||||||||
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A review by Alexander von Thorn
The story introduces David Rabin, a human who befriends Spock at
his presentation at Mount Seleya, and the plot shows two intersections in
the lives of Spock and Rabin, once as boys and then years later when both
have the rank of Starfleet Captain. The two plot lines run in parallel.
In the earlier plot line, a dissident Vulcan visionary named Sered disrupts
a ceremony at Mount Seleya and takes a group of hostages, both Vulcan and
visiting Federation dignitaries. Sered's plan is to restore the qualities
lost by the Vulcan people when they were sundered from the Romulans; he
brings in Romulan allies to further his end.
Spock and Rabin, alone, trek
across the harsh desert known as Vulcan's Forge, even across its volcanic
heart, a hellish place known as the Womb of Fire. In a confused melee
involving hallucinogenic lichen and improvised weapons, Spock kills a
Romulan to protect the hostages. Raised to respect life, even to the point
of being a vegetarian, Spock is forced to take a life to protect others for
the first time. He realizes that his curiosity about the universe is too
large to be contained by the Vulcan Science Academy, and that peace
sometimes requires effective action to secure the needs of the many. He
applies to join Starfleet on the recommendation of David's mother, Captain
Nechama Rabin. The conflict between Spock and Sarek erupts for the first
time here.
Many years later, Captain David Rabin is posted to a Federation
outpost on the backward world of Obsidian, near the Neutral Zone. Rabin's
efforts to protect the people of this radiation-scarred world makes little
impact, partly due to a series of setbacks and unfortunate coincidences.
When the wells of Kalara City are poisoned and the storehouses set ablaze,
Rabin suspects the forces moving against him are more than just local
malcontents. He calls for help, and the nearest Federation ship responding
is the Intrepid II under the command of Captain Spock. Spock comes
to the aid of his old friend Rabin, while Dr. McCoy comes to the planet to
try to find solutions to the endemic problems of solar radiation, and
Spock's second, Commander Uhura, holds the bridge while he is on the
planet. Obsidian is a pre-industrial world with crowded cities and nomadic
tribes, giving a Lawrence of Arabia cast to the setting. The local hermit
mahdi turns out to be a certain familiar Vulcan, with a new contingent of
Romulan henchmen. Again Rabin and Spock must cross hostile terrain, on a
landscape that makes Vulcan's desert look positively lush by comparison.
McCoy is captured by natives and Romulans, while he copes with
characteristic humour.
The story ends, as it should, with logical introspection and a new
transition. Spock's facility for dealing with non-Vulcans gives him new
options. Afterwords by the two authors personalize their connection to
storytelling in this popular milieu.
The writing style is deft, and the adventure-style pacing makes it
easy to keep track of what's going on here, even with the twinned story
lines. There is an interesting cast of background characters, some of them
familiar, from a glowering adolescent Stonn to the cheerful Ensign Prince. A good
story is one that has the reader sitting back to think about the broader
issues, and this story achieves that, for the sort of reader who is a fan
of Star Trek's Vulcans. Vulcan's Forge makes an important
contribution to the background of the Star Trek universe, and it's an
enjoyable read to boot. Best of all, it's only a beginning: the two authors
are promising a sequel, Vulcan's Heart, for later in 1998.
Alexander von Thorn works two jobs, at The Worldhouse (Toronto's oldest game store) and in the network control centre of UUNET Canada. In his spare time, he is active in several fan and community organizations, including the Toronto in 2003 Worldcon bid. He is also a game designer, novelist-in-training (with the Ink*Specs, the Downsview speculative fiction writing circle), feeder of one dog and two cats, and avid watcher of bad television. He rarely sleeps. |
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