Customer Reviews

Time For Yesterday (Star Trek: The Original Series)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(4)
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this is another one of my fave books. Truly delves so much better in the relationship of Zar and who he is and his relationship with Spock then Yesterday's Son did. Shows really how both have grown and accepted who they are...it is a must read, especially if you are a fan of Spock

This is an excellent "Star Trek" book, a sequel to Star Trek #11, "Yesterday's Son", which was itself a sequel to the original series episode, "All Our Yesterdays". "Yesterday's Son" was good, if not spectacular. This book is much better; one assumes that the author has matured a bit as a writer in the interim. It utilizes a plot device that is unduly common: Kirk & the Enterprise must save the entire universe. But unlike most books that use such a device, this one actually manages to make it more or less plausible, and handles the concept well. Further, the characters are well-written, and the language is handled with a smooth competence unusual in mass-market paperbacks. The plot moves well, and the book accomplishes all that it sets out to.

Excellent read for the Star Trek fan, and probably worthwhile for the casual reader, as well.

The sequel to Yesterday's Son by the same author, and even better than its prequel. Spock and Zar are reunited when the Guardian of Forever stops working properly and causes time waves that make time move fast enough to kill stars - and so also the planets around them. Spock, McCoy and Kirk go back to the past to find Zar so he can return with them and mind meld with the Guardian to tell it to return its consciousness to the 23rd century and resume its duties. Spock goes back shortly before Zar's death, hoping to bring him back for good, but Zar is determined to go back to his own people and his new wife to fight the battle that killed him. It's a wonderful story that goes from fun to heart wrenching to just plain loveable. We get to see a dimension of Spock that was never explored on the show, and for once in a Star Trek book the emphasis isn't on Kirk's postulating. I loved this book, I urge everyone to buy it!

This is a great sequel to Yesterday's Son. Again Kirk, Spock and McCoy travel into the past to find Spock's son Zar, but this time he is the leader of a tribe in the midst of a struggle to bring civilization to his ancient world. Of course, the Enterprise Three get involved in the fighting, but more than that, they witness the determination and greatness of character it takes to build a civilization. This makes the book not only a good adventure story, but a chance to gain insight into the kind of men it took to build the ancient civilizations on our own world, and maybe the kind of people needed to continue building civilizations for the future.

Yesterday's Son was the first Star Trek novel to hit the best seller list. I read it with pleasure after its 1983 release, but I somehow missed out on its 1988 sequel. I remedied that recently, and I'm very glad I did.

In the Star Trek episode that inspired Yesterday's Son, half-Vulcan Starfleet science officer Spock and Dr. Leonard McCoy pass through a time portal - the Guardian of Forever - into the past of a planet about to be destroyed. The people of that planet, Sarpeidon, have already fled into their past, where it was once their custom to exile those they might otherwise have imprisoned. In Sarpeidon's great ice age, Spock and McCoy are rescued from the killing cold by Zarabeth, a banished political prisoner from a far later era. Going backward 5,000 years in time causes Spock to regress to what the Vulcans of that period were like. In Yesterday's Son, Spock learns that he fathered a son with Zarabeth, and that this son - Zar - has grown up marooned in the ice age with only his mother's companionship. With Zarabeth dead, Spock decides to bring Zar forward in time and give him a chance at life. Zar chooses, at the book's end, to return to Sarpeidon's past after seeing evidence in the planet's history that his leadership is destined to guide that world's warring tribes through their first steps toward civilization.

It's 20 years later from Zar's viewpoint, although less time than that has passed for Spock. The Guardian of Forever is malfunctioning, and sending out time waves that cause stars to age at incredible rates. As Starfleet races to evacuate populated planets in stricken systems, Admiral James T. Kirk and his two closest friends reunite aboard an Enterprise now captained by Spock. Their mission: to pass through the Guardian's portal again, find Zar, and bring him forward in time to repeat what he did once that no one else has done successfully. Mind meld with the Guardian, to find out what's wrong and set it right. Hopefully before more worlds, star systems, and lives are lost.

In Zar, A.C. Crispin has created an original character who fits into the Trek universe as if he'd always been part of it. Her Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are exactly the men we knew and loved in the original TV series; and the secondary characters, including Scotty, Uhura, and Sulu, are also spot on in their portrayals. Sarpeidon and its people have enough similarities to Earth and to humans so that identifying with them is easy, but they're also alien enough to make them believable. Reading this book is like watching a long forgotten episode.

It was the first Star Trek novel I've read, and it's still one of my favorites. I love time-travel stories, especially if the characters meet they relatives in the past or future (like in Back to the Future). Events in "Time for Yesterday" can be understood without knowing its prequel and the TOS episode "All Our Yesterdays" (on which the whole story is based.) The main character is Zar (son of Spock and Zarabeth), ruler of a prehistoric community on Planet Sarpeidon. His country is attacked by the enemy, and he must seek allies, so he marries a daughter of another ruler. Meanwhile, the Enterprise travels back to the past to find Zar who is the only one who can save the universe from collapsing. Zar meets his father again. Spock takes Zar to the future to save the world, and he wants him to remain with them, because he studied the history of Sarpeidon and he knows that Zar will die in a battle. Still Zar goes back to his people and his wife. Then Spock travels back to the past again to save his son...

I really like both "The Yesterday's Son" and this sequel.This book is great!Zar's world is developed very well,and I really empathized with his dilemma.I liked seeing more of Spock(of what his feelings are) and the way their relationship developed.Good reading,enjoy!

This book plus Yesterday's Son (by Crispin) is by far the best two sets of Star Trek books written today. Both show the emotional sides of both Zar and Spock and what really happened when they went into the time machine in the Star Trek episode "All of our Yesteryears". Ann Crispin is just fantastic in her descriptions of Zar's home world and the love he has for his people. The ending is also fantastic. A very well thought out book that is excellently written. If you have not read this book you are truly missing out on a great piece of Star Trek. Get it, you won't regret it for a second.

I had been looking for a copy of Time for Yesterday for quite a while. I tried used bookstores, yard sales, and even goodwill stores. So when I found a copy in such good conditions I was thrilled. As usual the service was excellent. If you ever want to find a out of print copy try Amazon first and save yourself a alot of trouble.

This surpases the privious novel (Yesterdays Son) by leaps and bounds. A terrific read, full of brilliant characters and a well rounded plot. I found myself eager to turn each page.