Vulcan's Heart (Star Trek) [Mass Market Paperback]

Susan Shwartz (Author)

Book Description

Series: Star Trek (Unnumbered Paperback) | Publication Date: May 1, 2000

2239. Now a diplomat for the United Federation of Planets, Spock agrees to a bonding with Saavik, his former protege and an accomplished Starfleet officer in her own right. More than a betrothal but less than a wedding, the sacred Vulcan rite is attended by both Spock's father, Sarek, and a nervous young Starfleet officer named Jean-Luc Picard.

Plans for the consummation of the pair's union are thrown off course when Spock receives a top-secret communication that lures him into the heart of the Romulan empire. Enmeshed in the treacherous political intrigues of the Romulan capital, undone by a fire that grows ever hotter within his blood, Spock must use all his logic and experience to survive a crisis that will ultimately determine the fate of empires!

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The energy and invention that made Sherman and Schwartz's previous Spock outing, Vulcan's Forge, so fascinating is fully in evidence in this even more ambitious follow-up. This time, the duo have added a satisfyingly complex level of political sophistication that makes the interstellar intrigues ring with a truly authentic note. Acting as a diplomat for the United Federation of Planets, Spock reluctantly undertakes a bonding with Commander Saavik. This betrothal-style rite is attended by Spock's father--along with an unconfident young Starfleet lieutenant. The latter is one of the book's many felicitous strokes, for the novice is no other than Jean-Luc Picard. Of the many attempts to meld the two Star Trek universes, this is one of the best integrated and most successful. As the narrative leaps forward many years, and Ambassador Spock is forced to travel incognito to Romulus to prevent catastrophe from descending on the entire quadrant, he has two pursuers: Saavik and Picard. As before, the narrative moves with real gusto, casually throwing in some impressive world-building. But what of Spock himself? One can only hope that Sherman and Schwartz are custodians of the legacy for quite some time, since they are adroit at creating a thoroughly rounded, conflicted, and sympathetic portrait of our favorite Vulcan. --Barry Forshaw, Amazon.co.uk --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Focusing primarily on Spock's love life and his superhuman control when confronted by his own hot-blooded emotions, this newest entry in the Star Trek canon should delight romance fans while leaving cold those SF fans not wholeheartedly invested in the series' characters. Spock finally bonds with his adopted Vulcan love, Saavik. As logic dictates, the couple then skip the honeymoon and go back to their respective ships. Fifteen years later, Spock, now a diplomat in the service of the United Federation of Planets, travels secretly to the planet Romulus to aid an honorable old enemy, Charvanek, who has warned the Vulcan of a plan by Romulus's power-mad Praetor Dralath to destroy peaceful Klingon and Star Fleet colonies. Romulus is a highly illegal place for Spock to be, and Captain Uhuru, head of Star Fleet's security agency, sends Saavik undercover to Romulus to aid her beloved and to bring him quietly back to Federation Space. Weighty matters of state are dangerously ignored by both Spock and Saavik entering pon farr, a state in which it is difficult to think of anything but making violent love to one's mate. In the end, Spock and Saavik are saved, more by the Romulan concept of honor than by Vulcan ideals of order and logic. This not quite otherworldly novel features cameos by Jean-Luc Picard, Bones McCoy, Beverly Crusher and Tasha Yar. (July)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 378 pages
• Publisher: Star Trek (May 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671015451
• ISBN-13: 978-0671015459
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #650,461 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Star Trek's best reads!, September 15, 2002

By 

K. Wyatt "ssintrepid" (Cape Girardeau, MO United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vulcan's Heart (Star Trek) (Hardcover)

To say the very least, Star Trek Vulcan's Heart is one of the best Star Trek novels to date! We have a betrothal between Ambassador Spock and Commander Saavik. Attended by a great many dignitaries and a young Lieutenant Picard. Shoot forward in time, and Spock is well into his research into unification. Spock receives a communiqué from Commander Charbonek, (the unnamed Romulan to whom he more or less seduced while he and Captain Kirk stole the Romulan cloaking device in the TOS episode). She warns him of trouble in the empire and is seeking his assistance. What entails after that is clearly one of the best Star Trek novels you'll ever read. It includes, the Romulan Emperor; the Romulan Praetor; Ruinek from Vulcan's Forge; Captain Picard in charge of the USS Stargazer; the Enterprise C commanded by Captain Garrett; the previously unwritten story about Lieutenant Tasha Yar and what happened to her after the events of "Yesterday's Enterprise; and a great many other people and tie ins that I'll leave to you the reader. Hopefully we will be seeing a whole lot more novels by this writing team. Thank you very much to the authors for this. The audio book is extremely well done as well, read by Tim Russ (Lt. Tuvok).

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant., July 8, 2000

By 

Elim Garak (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Vulcan's Heart (Star Trek) (Hardcover)

Excellent book, one of the best books of 1999. Great detail into the Romulan races, continuing the story of the Romulan Commander from the 'Enterprise Incident', and tying up a loose end from 'Yesterday' Enterprise. I always found the Romulans more fascinating than the Klingons, they were so devious, the Klingons are just brutes. The battle was good, and having Picard on the Stargazer was a nive touch. It's sort of like an intermediate point between TOS and TNG, 2344 to be precise. This book actually shows the battle the Enterprise-C has with the Romulans at Narendra III, it's brilliant. If you want a good book to read, buy this book.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Susan Shwartz & Josepha Sherman Interview, April 26, 2000

By 

Anthony F. Tellado (USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Vulcan's Heart (Star Trek) (Mass Market Paperback)

After their sucessful collaboration on Vulcan's Forge, Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz have a new novel, Vulcan's Heart which is a sweeping tale that impacts the whole Star Trek Universe and one of its most central characters, Spock. I chatted with the authors and invited their editor from Pocket Books, John Ordover, who was a past guest on the radio show, to offer his comments as well.

Tony Tellado: The fans have been asking for Spock and Saavik to get together for some time now. Was this story to appease those fans ? What about the emotional side to the story between Spock and Saavik ?

Susan Shwartz: Vulcan's Heart wasn't written to appease the fans; in fact, I suspect that some fans had other candidates in line. The Spock/Saavik pairing is a very logical one, however, and we were careful to show that Sarek arranged it. Actually, I suspect he gave a push to what he had observed and to what McCoy would probably have described as "About time they made honest Vulcans of each other." Emotions ? Vulcans have them and since Spock is half human and Saavik half Romulan, they certainly have them. Pon Farr would only bring them out more overtly. Both are aware of their "emotional" sides, and controlling these emotions becomes a major issue in writing this book. Another issue was to show a developing relationship that starts out in mutual respect and friendship and heats up -- very considerably -- without resorting to human tropes and explicit description.

Josepha Sherman: Vulcans do, indeed have emotions, just controlled ones. With Spock's human blood and the drive for Pon Farr..enough said. Also, anyone who saw Sarek with Amanda or Tuvok with his wife can't deny that Vulcans do feel love !

John Ordover: Actually, I haven't felt any demand to put Spock and Saavik together - the poll on the Sci-Fi Channel gave us a 35% approval rating on the pairing, and that was higher than we expected, since there are -so- many choices for Spock to marry, and there are so many people who wouldn't be satisfied unless Spock married Kirk, or married them.

Tony: There is a lot of references in this book to Trek episodes and characters from two generations. How did you do your research so it would fit into the Star Trek Universe perfectly?

SS: John - does - have an extraordinary memory. The Star Trek Encyclopedia and Omnipedia are wonderful; and my VCR is wearing out from re-watching films and episodes . Being a historical fantasist helped me, personally. I worked from a time line of events significant to the major characters and even minor ones (I probably "know", for example, more about Vice Proconsul M'Ret's subsequent history than any sane person needs to ! Then there's the "fear" factor. We knew that Vulcan's Heart was a grand sweep up the center of the Star Trek story and we wanted to avoid making the sort of mistakes that that mean you have to cancel all your e-mail accounts and hide from long-time fans (from the first series). There's a desire to get things right ! And finally I admit it I get compulsive about research

Tony: This has a political thriller aspect to it. Do you see the similarity to Ancient Rome and the Romulan Empire?

JS: Personally, I saw more a parallel to the Political intrigues of the late Soviet Union, some of which I witnessed firsthand. I don't want to make too close a parallel to ancient Rome and "modern " Romulus, frankly, because the parallels made in the original series always seemed like an easy shortcut!

SS : I minored in Latin in College and have spent a great number of time and about six books working with various versions of the Byzantine Empire. To me the Romulans are Pagan versions of the Byzantines -- with ears...but we reserved the right to adapt anything else we could. Jo's mentioned the USSR; Japan is another good example of material we borrowed from. (Hint: Check out the Showa Emperor -- Hirohito)

Tony: How did you both collaborate on this story ? , which by the way has a lot of interesting layers to it.

JS: I'm glad you enjoyed the intricacy of the layering! We alternated writing chapters, then edited each other's chapters.

SS: As Jo said, we exchanged chapters. Before this, we collaborated on an immense plot summary from which we worked. The layers sort of emerged as questions about the plot and the culture emerged.

Tony: I think non-Trek fans can appreciate this but I found reading this that when certain things were revealed, I said, I wonder if they will then do this next, so it fits in the Star Trek Universe ? And you do, making the journey to there fun for the reader.

JS: We wanted to give the reader a good, exciting, intricate story with plenty of "senzawunda," without getting away from the Star Trek Universe and all it has going for it!

SS: There's a certain logic to epic; elements are in stories not just because they fit the narrative but because they are psychologically necessary, in my opinion, to writers and readers alike. If you grow up on Trek, certain linkages are just plain logical --inevitable, in fact. The idea was to tell as big and complex a tale as we could. Glad you liked it!

Tony: Praetor Dralath literally has the potential to unravel the Star Trek Universe in this story by his actions. Is he based on any one or other character?

SS: Dralath isn't based on anyone in particular. What you want to notice about him and about the other less-honorable Romulans is that they are predators. If I had to cite anything, I'd cite the Melian dialogue from Thucydides: "For the strong do what they will, while the weak suffer what they must." The honorable Romulans are constrained by their honor in the same way that the Vulcans are constrained by their logic. It is also their great strength.

Tony: How do you compare this to Vulcan's Forge? JS: Vulcan's Forge is a more"personal" story, centering more closely around Spock himself and his life choices. Vulcan's Heart takes in a much wider picture.

SS: We wanted-sweep-and we go it. Also, Vulcan's Forge takes place on the outskirts of consensus Star Trek "reality" while Vulcan's Heart sweeps right up the center.