Customer Reviews

Star Trek: The Original Series: Vulcan's Soul #3: Epiphany: No. 3 (Star Trek Vulcan's Soul)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

All througout the trilogy the sorry tale of the people who eventually became the Remans and the Watraii was well chronicled. It led me to believe that eventually...there would be great resolution to their plight and sufferrings at the end. Unfortunately, while most of the trilogy and this last book in particular was pretty good...I am really let down by such a weak ending. Unless they are planning more sequels...the ending is really quite weak.

Firstly...we never find out how the Romulans eventually subdued or controlled the mutants on Remus that eventually became the modern-day Remans...intitially it seems they had lots of trouble even finding the hidden lairs of these telepathically advanced mutants.

Secondly...I don't like how Spock portrayed the Watraii and the Romulans as somehow both equally right and equally wrong during his speech to the Federation Council. It sounds too much like a convenient political solution instead of actual recognition of the sorry plight of the Watraii because of the callous betrayal of their fellow exiles from Vulcan.

Thirdly...the last chapter tells us...rather vaguely and with few details...that the Remans revolted and somehow this caused a war between the Federation, the Klingons, and the Romulans...and Remus ending as a Klingon protectorate. What's missing in all this is what of the Watraii? Did they join the war? Aid the Federation in helping the Remans? The Watraii after all have an ancient vow to help free their former fellow slaves on Remus when they were "strong enough". But we are not told what the Watraii did during this Reman Revolt. Nor are we told what the current fate of the Watraii are. All we know is a Vulcan healer was sent to their homeworld...and after that...we don't know what else becomes of them, or their claim to Romulus.

And very confusingly...Charvanek vows to aid Spock in going to Remus and doing what she can to "right" Romulus' ancient wrong (after the Reman Revolt / War is over). But she gives conflicting thoughts on the Watraii. It says she is convinced of the truth of their claims based on the information from the Coronet about Sarissa and the people who left Remus with her. Yet at the very last page, Charvanek thoughts seem to indicate she wanted "more proof" regarding the Watraii's grievances and their claims. And that if she got this so-called proof she will do her best to aid them, as she is going to aid the Remans, including taking the throne of Romulus itself (if she could) as honor would demand.

This is one of the most confusing endings I have ever read. It provides no clear resolution to the plight of the Watraii, the people and decendants of the betrayed family of Vulcan exiles who we got to know so well during this entire trilogy. I hope there will be a sequel that eventually addresses what this book does not.

This was a good read, a well-crafted book that put the finishing touches on the story that began in "Exodus" and continued in "Exiles". But it is just a story fragment; it doesn't stand on its own. I would probably rate the entire trilogy at four stars, but individually, this book just doesn't hold up. This was very clear to me as I read it, because it had been long enough since I read the previous entry in the series that it was almost like starting from scratch with this book, and it was more than a bit confusing. Granted, the more I read, the more I remembered and the more sense it made, but still, it is clear that this book is only readable if one has read the previous books in the series. As such, it has no beginning and that is a serious flaw in terms of my review of this book.

I enjoyed all three books of the "Vulcan's Soul" trilogy, although I found the first book a little slow. The last book, "Epiphany," was the best of the three. I highly recommend this collection for anyone who wants to understand how the Romulan branch of the Vulcan evolutionary tree ended up on Romulus.

Thankfully this is the third and last book in this series. The three books could have been combined into just one book if you take out the nonsense and the rambling. It was often slow and dull and it took some effort to just get through this third book. After three books the ending was anticlimactic. I have read many Star Trek books and these three are by far not the best.

Thumbs down. Don't buy this one. What I want to know is "Where are the editors on this? Weren't they doing their jobs?" This collective work doesn't hold a candle to that of A.C. Crispin or Diane Duane. Besides being dull and boring, here's why I didn't care for this:

* Whoever wrote the "Memory" chapters about the Vulcan sundering and the founding of the Romulan Star Empire has a terrible writing style. The sentence structure was complex and cumbersome and littered with too many adverbs. What the author was trying to say in instances was hard to fathom even after re-reading passages several times.
* The plot for the "present day" part was thin and predictable. The storyline was not helped by all the cameo appearances of various Star Trek characters; they were an annoyance. The details concerning "present day" characters on Romulus has me scratching my head; what is the relevance? Is there another sequel coming?
* After re-reading the first chapter of "Exodus" after completing the entire 3 volume work, I still can't understand the intent or the necessity of this chapter. In addition, there were characters introduced here (this chapter) in detail who played no role in the rest of the novels. What a waste of my time to try and decode!
* The scene selection and the detail in which they were presented in the "Memory" chapters is questionable. There was material presented, although somewhat interesting, that added little value to the story line. The reason for Karatek's (and his family's) exile to Remus was more tell than show. Why wasn't this developed more fully?
* Some of the books used regular dates; the middle book used star dates. Confusing.
* I think those who follow Star Trek understand that this is basically fantasy. However, there is still a certain amount of fundamental physics that you need to get right. When you have an explosion in deep space (i.e., vacuum), you can't have a shock wave because a traditional shock wave can only be propagated with continuous media like an atmosphere or an ocean. But, you can have ejecta!

There are more faults that I could find with this work. Do yourself a favor and read something by Timothy Zahn or Tom Clancy.

This book was a great read & finished giving the background to the Vulcan/Romulan split & the Romulus/Regus split plus the explanation of the Watraii origin. I enjoyed it immensely but I love all things Vulcan!

I have probably read over 100 Star Trek books over the past 15 years. This book is by far the worst one I have ever read. It jumps all over the place randomly, never connecting the 3 stories going on together. I cannot tell you how much I hate this book. DON't DON'T DON'T waste your money on this one. I will never buy another book written by these two authors.