Crucible: Spock--The Fire and the Rose (Star Trek (Unnumbered Paperback)) [Mass Market Paperback]

David R. George III (Author)

Book Description

Series: Star Trek (Unnumbered Paperback) | Publication Date: November 28, 2006

Spock, displaced in time, watches his closest friend heed his advice by allowing the love of his life to die in a traffic accident, thereby preserving Earth's history. Returning to the present, Spock confronts other such crises, and chooses instead to willfully alter the past. Challenged by the thorny demands of his logic, he will have to find a way to face his conflicting decisions. Once, he preserved the timeline at the cost of Jim Kirk's happiness. Now he is forced to re-examine the fundamental choices he has made for his own life. Unwilling to accept his feelings of loss and regret, he seeks that which has previously eluded him: complete mastery of his emotions. But while that quest will move him beyond his turmoil, another loss will bring him full circle to once more face the fire he had never embraced.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

DAVID R. GEORGE III wrote the Crucible trilogy for Star Trek's 40th anniversary as well as Olympus Descending for Worlds of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Volume Three. He previously visited DS9 in the novels The 34th Rule, set during the timeframe of the series, and in Twilight, set after the finale. His other Star Trek contributions include a first season Voyager episode, "Prime Factors," and one of the Lost Era books, Serpents Among the Ruins, which hit the New York Times bestseller list in Fall, 2003. Currently he is writing a novella for Star Trek: Myriad Universes: Shattered Light, coming in December, 2010, from Gallery Books.

In his almost nonexistent spare time, David enjoys trying his hand at new experiences, from skydiving to auditioning--with his lovely wife, Karen--for "The New Newlywed Game", from hiking a glacier in Alaska to belly dancing in Tunisia, from ocean kayaking in Mexico to having dinner at an actual captain's table somewhere in the Pacific Ocean. Recently, he performed his first wedding ceremony--which he and Karen also wrote--marrying their friends Jen and Ryan Van Riper. David believes that the world is a wide, wondrous place, with exciting adventures waiting around just about every corner.

He remains free on his own recognizance.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Star Trek (November 28, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743491696
• ISBN-13: 978-0743491693
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #833,415 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The last third made it worth the ride, January 12, 2007

By 

Michael Hickerson (Smyrna, TN) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Crucible: Spock--The Fire and the Rose (Star Trek (Unnumbered Paperback)) (Mass Market Paperback)

I've read more than my fair share of Pocket Book's Star Trek novels over the years. They're not great literature, but they're not intended to be. They're a nice way to revisit the universe of Trek and enjoy a new adventure of whatever crew is featured in the novel I've picked up.

Last year, the granddaddy of them all, classic Star Trek celebrated its 40th anniversary. Without any series on tv and no prospect for a feature film, for the first time in 20 years we had no on-screen celebration of all things Star Trek. Instead, this honor was turned over to the line of novels.

The centerpiece of the celebration was a new trilogy of novels, focused on the big three from the original series: Kirk, Spock and McCoy. The first novel in the series focused on McCoy and was one of the best Star Trek novels I've read in years.

One of the great things author David R. George III has done is he's made these novel focus only on continuity established in adventures we've seen on-screen. I love the Star Trek novels but of late they've become too self-referencing and intertwined at times to the point I feel as though I'm missing some of the party becuase I haven't made detailed notes of the minor character for the novels who appeared three years ago and we're just not bringing back to center stage. George makes a good choice making these books more accessible to the more casual Star Trek fan and maybe even the impulsive buy reader who just wants to revisit the Trek universe.

The novels all feature a crucial crosspoint in the lives of our heroes--the classic episode "City on the Edge of Forever." The first two novels in the series focused on the characters lives leading up to the events portrayed there and then how it affected them across the rest of their life's journey. McCoy's story was compelling because George chose to follow two time-lines and parallel how McCoy's life went following the events of "City." With Spock's story, it all takes place in one central timeline, but two eras of Spock's life--the events leading up and including
the death of Edith Keeler in "City" and the later movie-era Spock who has to deal with the consequences of the choices he made there, as well as other choices he's made involving traveling in time and altering history.

Which brings me to the part of the novel that frustrated me most--George falls into the trap of assuming we've never seen "City on the Edge of Forever" and so for the first two-thirds of the book, we're stuck with flashbacks that are a re-telling of this pivotal story. He does fill in a few things and expand the storyline a bit, but it feels like so much filler as wait for the revelation of just what it is that is bothering Spock so much. The first two-thirds or so of the book set up the events of what happened and how it changed Spock, maybe not for the better. It's also the hardest part of the book to get through because you keep waiting for something to happen and it just never does.

At least not until the last third of the book when George's premise kicks in and the book takes a turn for the better. We learn how his actions in "City" and other time travel episodes and stories (the animated series story "Yesteryear" is essential to this story) lead Spock to an crisis of his personal ethics and conscience. When we get to this part of the story, the book hums along and I feel as though George is finally tilling some new soil in the Star Trek universe. The last third of this book rescues the story from being just a rather pedestrian Star Trek novel and puts it almost on-par with the McCoy segment as one of the better Trek novels in recent memory.

One of the interesting things between both novels is the way Kirk is presented as an engima, even to his cloest friends. He's distant and while they are close, you get the feeling that neither McCoy or Spock really understand Kirk and at times feel distant and as if they don't really know the captain. It should make the final segment of this trilogy, which focuses on Kirk that much more interesting when it comes out next month.

13 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Read for all TOS fans, November 25, 2006

By 

J. McCain "Jim McCain" (Shreveport, LA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Crucible: Spock--The Fire and the Rose (Star Trek (Unnumbered Paperback)) (Mass Market Paperback)

It is hard to write a useful review without giving away some of the book but I am going to try. David George has a sure winner here. This story of Spock is like a finely woven tapestry. It is a fine wine to be enjoyed and savored. David Georges characterizations of our familiar players are dead on accurate. This story is a very introspective look at Spock. I thought it would move slowly but I didnt find that to be the case at all. We see a more detailed take on City on the Edge of Forever and the effects it has on Spock over the years. The author is faithful to screen Trek in this book. I like the references to various characters from Star Trek that are woven into parts of this tale. A warning -- This book is so good be prepared to read it in one sitting, its almost impossible to put down. So if you dont have this book and have just finished reading my review get up and go to the store and buy this novel--buy two or three and give them to friends. Its a sure fire winner

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing study of relationship between character and event, June 7, 2007

By 

Joan C. Scott (New Mexico and Oregon) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Crucible: Spock--The Fire and the Rose (Star Trek (Unnumbered Paperback)) (Mass Market Paperback)

The three Crucible books present the story of the Hugo-winning TOS episode "The City on the Edge of Forever" (in which Edith Keeler is killed) in three new ways, incorporating ideas about time travel that were developed in Star Trekiana years after this episode was aired. The main character in each book (in this book, of course, Spock) experiences this adventure they share in different ways, and for each it becomes a central (if not THE central) event among their many life experiences which simultaneously shapes, defines, and expresses the character of the individual. The story is expanded in ways that might have been inconceivable at the time the original episode was written. If you love the TOS characters as much as I do and if you enjoy what I can only term psychological fiction, then you will truly enjoy all three of these books -- but I don't think any one of these books is truly meaningful without the other two.