Customer Reviews

Star Trek: The Original Series: Crucible: McCoy: Provenance of Shadows (Star Trek (Unnumbered Paperback))

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In the classic Star Trek episode "City on the Edge of Forever," Doctor Leonard McCoy -having accidentally injected himself with an overdose of powerful medication - fled the starship Enterprise and, after traveling back in time to Depression-era New York City, prevented the death of social worker Edith Keeler. Keeler's vitality energized the pacifist movement in America and effectively destroyed the future that Leonard McCoy knew. Only the intervention of James Kirk and Spock saved McCoy and the future that they knew.

Except, they didn't.

In Provenance of Shadows, the first book of the fortieth anniversary Crucible trilogy, David R. George III paints a picture of two lives, struggling to find purchase in an ever-passing existence.

In the `restored' timeline (i.e., the story we know as Star Trek), Leonard McCoy returns to duty shortly before the events depicted in the episode "Operation -- Annihilate!" and we follow the good doctor's loves and losses, professional triumphs and personal sorrows, for close to a century. In the `altered' timeline, we follow the life of Leonard McCoy the lost... lost in a time that is not his own, unable to practice his passions, and fearful of altering the timeline.

But all is not well in either timeline as Leonard McCoy must deal with the echoes of his past: the loss of his mother, his painful relationship with his father, and an ill-fated marriage. McCoy, in both timelines, holds his secrets close to his vest, hiding who he truly is from those who love him, and often from himself.

If I have any complaint concerning this book, it is actually the `restored' timeline's attempts to cover such an expansive life in brushstrokes. We learn a great deal about Leonard McCoy's life in the familiar timeline, but the glimpses we get only serve to whet the palate for further adventures and stories (for both McCoy and the rest of the crew) set in some of the `lost years' of the crew of the Original Series. These fleeting glimpses, however, often raise more questions than they answer (at least for this reviewer), and as a result lead me to want to see those details filled in. While it in no way detracts from the mission of the book, the brevity of the snippets was a bit distracting to me on an individual level. Others may find it to be far more palatable. After all, the mission of the story is to share the broad story of Leonard McCoy from the time of his encounter with the Guardian of Forever through the history we have of him.

In one respect, George is able to take a greater deal of latitude in dealing with McCoy's life and details, because (as he notes in the foreword) he deliberately decided to use only the televised details of McCoy's life as the basis of the story. In another, however, he has total freedom, because the details of McCoy's life in the altered timeline are completely open to interpretation.

George, while weaving a masterful tale of what McCoy's twentieth century life would have been like, does so in such a manner that the circumstances of world affairs - details that lead to McCoy's continued presence in the twentieth century - don't undermine the character work that Provenance of Shadows attempts to be. In the best tradition of Star Trek, the interweaving tales featured in Provenance of Shadows uses technology, politics, and adventure to explore the human condition in a way that serves the story without overriding the prose. Ultimately, the `altered' timeline accomplishes this far more effectively than does the `restored' one, but both lives remain eminently readable to those interested more in a character piece and less in a space-based shoot-em' up.

Of personal interest is the interplay between Leonard McCoy the Humanist and the religious townsfolk he encounters in the south of the 1930's. George incorporates a typical southern Church into his story in credible way... something of a second town center where people go for comradeship and support just as they would go to town hall for assistance in temporal things. George's positive portrayal of a small-town Church in the midst of a Star Trek tale is most gratifying.

Shockingly, in the spirit of confronting social ills of the times, Provenance of Shadows also has a deeply riveting exchange that nearly sends McCoy packing again when he discovers the true nature of his community's attitudes towards others.

There is just so much within Provenance of Shadows that it is nearly impossible to truly review the book without spoiling the entire story. Needless to say, this -the longest ever- Star Trek novel is a unique and worthwhile beginning to the Crucible trilogy and the fortieth anniversary celebrations of Star Trek.

For those of you who are fans of the original Star Trek this book is a must read. Its a detailed character study of Leonard McCoy told with a richness of detail that is often lacking in tie in novels. It starts ever so slowly then gradually it grows upon you and you find yourself unable to put it down. The last 50 or so pages are worth reading the entire book for. Its unlike any Star Trek book you've seen before. Try it you will like it.

After reading Olympus Descending in the DS9 Worlds series, I had really high expectations for this book. Not only were they not met, I did not enjoy this book in its own right. The most obvious reason is the tedious nature of how the author does his descriptions. The detail level is mind-boggling. At one point, he spends a paragraph on describing some hay McCoy wipes off his shirt. It reminded me of a Star Trek RPG tip for Narrator's, that they don't have to go into minute detail about the environment, the players have seen it on the show. Someone could have advised this author that all of his readers grew up on Earth, and we know what it looks like around here. On the flip side, the author doesn't go into much detail about about the setting's effect on the characters. When someone enters a room for the first time, everything is about the appearance and little is said of the character's reactions to it. It even shades over to affect the dialogue, which is what David R. George otherwise excels at. For the first two hundred pages, we get bland descriptions of people's emotional stances or reactions, which should have been, and often are, clear from their speech. Thankfully after that the characters talk a lot more, and the book finally becomes truly readable.

However, by that point another problem has become evident. Usually, the only times the characters truly sound like themselves are when the author has lifted the dialogue from the show. (With the exception of Spock. With his minutely detailed descriptions and love of dry sarcasm, the author's book on Spock might be worth reading.) The author looked into McCoy's past, of which the incident that stands out most is his fleeing from a failed marriage into Starfleet. The author took that one event, spun it into a life-long pattern, extrapolated back to childhood events that could have caused it ... and then retrofit McCoy's personality to match that generic psychological profile. McCoy's best traits are his rampant emotionalism, his great compassion and his ability to empathise with people. This McCoy is a hollow man. He cannot bring himself to really care about other people, and because he does not understand himself and refuses to try, he cannot really understand anyone else either.

There isn't much point in reading a book about one character when that character is done wrong. There are actually quite a few times the book is worth reading, but when they feature McCoy, only when the author is treating him as the Star Trek character and not as a walking psych profile. I would not recommend this book for fans of the Original Series in general or McCoy in particular. Also, I have to say that there is evidence that the author intends to treat Kirk the same way he did McCoy, and so after reading this I am quite unlikely to get the third book in this series.

I am totally in awe of the writing skill of David George III. I have read most if not all of the TOS (my favorite of the lot). I love the concept of time travel, time lines etc anyway, but this was presented so smoothly it was simply beautiful. I've now started on the Spock Crucible and then will start the Kirk one. "Bones" has always been my favorite character anyway and this just proves to me why. Well done Mr George, well done!!!

I almost didn't pick up this book! When I discovered that it was about "City on the Edge of Forever" I grabbed it right away. I have to wonder if a story like this was proposed years ago and turned down. Why wasn't this book written years ago? I have to wonder if original "City" author, Harlan Ellison took a look at this? He should, because it's one of the best Star Trek books to date. This one brings all the events in this episode to influence the fate of Kirk,Spock and McCoy.

The timeline shifts in which McCoy saves Edith Keeler.

That was enough to keep me reading until I finished the book.

The funny thing is I expected this to be the least interesting of the "Crucible" trilogy released as part of Star Trek's 40th anniversary celebration. While Kirk Spock and McCoy are without a doubt the "main three" of that series, McCoy would be at the bottom in that trio, with Kirk and Spock being the most important characters. Instead, I found this to be the most interesting of the three, though I did enjoy the other to very much.

David R. George III is good at taking those glossed over chapters in Star Trek history and turning it into something wonderful. He did it on an epic scale in "Serpents Among the Ruins" and on a more intimate scale in "Olympus Descending" by giving us an important conversation between Odo and Kira that was reduced to a joke in the episode it happened in. In this "Crucible" novel, David does it again by showing us the changed history of "City on the Edge of Forever" before Kirk and Spock set things right. This was merely a device to tell a more thematic story about the Life of Dr. Leonard McCoy, but still to me it was very nice to see how this version of history unfolded.

I'm so glad I picked up this book. It was well worth reading every page of the longest Trek novel yet published.

This book was absoluetly fantastic! It held my interest so much that some nights I would read until way past midnight. A fascinating "fan fiction" that focuses on the life McCoy could have lived in the past if Edith Keeler had been allowed to live, "Provenance of Shadows" is the one book all Trekkies should read. Excellent! One warning though--you will stay up all night reading it!

This enthralling "Star Trek" novel was my vacation reading of choice. 628 pages, on super slim paper to keep the chunkiness to a minimum, it was indeed an excellent selection! I got totally sucked into the universe that is "Star Trek: Crucible", greedily sneaking off for extra chapters at every opportunity.

The events stretch from the end of "The City on the Edge of Forever", one of the most popular TOS episodes, until several years after retired Admiral McCoy's visit to Picard's Enterprise in "Encounter at Farpoint" (the premiere episode of "The Next Generation"). Even though the "Crucible" trilogy purposely works in its own continuity, as regarding other ST novels, it seemed to me that David George purposely worded his description of the Enterprise's return from "Out there, thataway" (in ST:TMP) to include wiggle room for a recent and popular novel set in that time period, "Ex Machina".

That Filmation's animated ST series of the 70s (TAS) is so well referenced was a delight to me! Many more aspects than I expected: first names for (Paul) Bates and (Jimmy) Clayton, welcome cameo appearances by Randi Bryce and M'Ress the Caitian, and cheeky references to Mantilles, Dramia II, Edoans, Phylosians, Vedala, Aquan surgo-ops and even practical joking computers!

I'm very curious how much the upcoming "Spock" and "Kirk" instalments of this new trilogy will intersect the "McCoy" novel, and how much will focus on new events, and events barely hinted at in "McCoy". The three bookcovers will make a triptych mural, too. A very cool 40th anniversary event!

I'm of two minds with this book. On the one hand, I love the prose. It's a beautifully written, richly detailed character study of Leonard McCoy. I can see where some folks might complain about the wordiness of it (I read it on Kindle, so don't have a sense of the sheer HEFT of the physical novel), but it's nice to have a Trek book that isn't just A to B to C. Some of the descriptive passages were just lovely, especially in the first half of the book, as McCoy struggles to take in and understand life in the early 20th century. I liked the characters in the small South Carolina town, and I could see in my mind's eye the gradual assimilation of this 23rd century doctor who eventually realizes he's not going home.

On the other hand, the "future" parts of the story were kind of disjointed and, well, dull. It felt like a Trek survey course. I found myself skimming the 23rd century parts until I could get back to the other universe. I kept waiting for something to happen to dovetail the two universes, to give it some point. But it never did. And, frankly, I just wanted stuck-in-the-past McCoy to find some freaking happiness. So the end of that universe's story was more than a little disappointing.

***mild spoilers ahead***

There were things I just didn't get, even though I went back and re-read carefully. Like, why were Natira and Lynn described as doubles for each other? Why didn't 20th century McCoy come down with that fatal disease that 23rd century McCoy did in For the World is Hollow...? Why was McCoy so disturbed, really all of a sudden, about the prospect of an early death - so much so that he could remember events that happened in another reality? (And a really minor one: why didn't Spock go to McCoy's wedding?) I felt like there were plot points that maybe were covered in other books that weren't explained in this novel, yet other plots were mentioned over and over again even though they happened on-screen.

Especially in the "future" portion, there were so many characters and situations introduced and referred to that just...never went anywhere. For example, how many pages were devoted to the M'Benga numbers and the chronometric particles - leading me to believe that it would have something to do with past-McCoy - yet it had absolutely nothing to do with that part of the plot. So by the end of the novel, I was thinking, Well, I read all that quite carefully so I wouldn't miss any clues, and it didn't matter one bit!

Honestly, I think I would have enjoyed this book better if it had been JUST the alternate reality part, McCoy's struggle to adapt to life in the past. That was compelling.

I can't NOT recommend it, because the 20th century part is almost completely wonderful. But I can't fully recommend it because so much of the 23rd century plot left me with a so what? feeling.

And I've probably read over 200 of them. This book starts from the point at which, in the episode "City on the Edge of Forever", Kirk and Spock have to go back into the past to prevent McCoy from inadvertantly changing history. The chapters of this book alternate between following McCoy's life once they return, sometimes filling in details that we never saw during the series but which are eminently plausible given what we do know, and other times detailing events which we recognize in order to give a recognizable time-frame to the story, with other chapters which delineate McCoy's life in the timeline that WOULD have happened (did happen?) had Kirk and Spock not successfully prevented the change in history (before they successfully repaired the change?). It is a delightfully in-depth look at McCoy, not just in one life, but in two.

What's more, it made me THINK. (How often does a Star Trek novel manage THAT?) What's more, it made me think about something that wasn't even part of the story: what if, in the altered timeline, it wasn't simply her surviving the traffic accident that caused Edith Keeler to change history? What if, after having saved her life, McCoy became romantically involved with her, and through his long-term association with her, inadvertantly, gave her enough emotional support to enable her to move beyond small-time, local charity to have the confidence to dare to move in circles that enabled her to become the force behind the peace movement that delayed American entry into the war? If so, then simply removing McCoy from the timeline after he saved her life would have been sufficient to set things right, and Kirk's traumatic decision to let her die in order to save the proper course of history was wholly unneccessary. As it happens, this is NOT the history envisioned by this author, but thinking about the question of what McCoy did during his long stay in the past in the timeline in which Kirk did not put things to right brought this thought to my mind.

It is, perhaps, a sign of a truly successful novel when the story inspires the reader to think "what if" BEYOND the plot of the story itself. Furthermore, the characterizations in this book were handled superbly, the plot(s) were fascinating, the timing/pacing were perfect, and the actual nuts and bolts of the writing -- which is to say, the editing and proofreading -- were flawless or nearly so, MUCH better than in most mass-market paperbacks.

For any fan of the original Star Trek series, to say nothing of any fan of the character McCoy, this book is an absolute must-read. For anyone not actually antagonistic to the Star Trek universe, it would make an excellent and thought-provoking read. And even if you are, generally, hostile to Star Trek and consider anyone who follows it to be a geek, you really ought to consider reading this book; it is, apart from its Star Trek setting, a very well-written and thought-provoking story.