Customer Reviews

Vulcan's Heart (Star Trek)

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

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).

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.

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.

Have you read Vulcan's Forge? Don't worry, you will, after reading Vulcan's Heart. Each book stands on its own quite nicely. Forgive me if I cover topics you already know; I hope to interest people who are not necessarily fans of the original series as well as those of us who have every episode memorized. :-) This is a complex novel, which opens with the formal marriage bonding of Spock and Saavik. "Less than a marriage, yet more than a betrothal," they will be drawn together when the time is right to mate. Some few years later, a member of the Romulan nobility calls upon the person who captured both her heart and herself to help save the Empire from its corrupt praetor. As fans of the original show will remember, that person is Spock. Starfleet Intelligence gets wind of Spock's destination if not his mission, and "requests" Saavik go to the Romulan homeworld to find Spock. There's no such thing as a "simple" mission to the Romulan Star Empire, which is as riddled with intrigue as ancient Byzantium, but Saavik's relatively uncomplicated task gets more complex as it becomes increasingly obvious that Spock and Saavik are entering Pon Farr. Pon Farr, the Vulcan mating drive, creates both a dilemma and a deadline, for the ancient drives strip Vulcans of their logic, and failure to take a mate is fatal. This tale uses ancient themes that still stir: love that transcends life, duty that transcends love, the difficulty of reconciling honor with reality, and the necessity of civil disobedience in the face of corruption. Heady stuff for those who consider Star Trek "light reading."

(and about TIME too, geeze...)

Just an FYI, from all accounts a romance between Spock and Saavik was planned from the get go, but for some reason the plotline was dropped after ST3. From the beginning I saw this one coming and I was quite pleased that they were going there once I got a good look at Saavik.

I must admit I much prefer Kristie Ally's incarnation of the character to Robin Curtis's but in so far as the character is concerned I have nothing but affection.

I have enjoyed her appearences in other sanctioned books, and in this series in particular.

To those who decry the relationship as inappropriate may I point out the fact that during the time Saavik was growing up Spock was not acting as a parent per se, but more as a mentor. Most of the novels that have explored her history clearly indicate that she was reaching maturity during the time that Spock was still serving in Starfleet, on the Enterprise as Kirk's first officer.

No offense, but being a military brat myself I can tell you that attempting to parent a child while serving on a long term missions isn't really logical.

Saavik in ST3 stated that she had never previously been to Vulcan, but she does seem well known by Spock's family and it's implied that Spock's mother Amanda in particular is fond of her.

And that too is "logical" given that Sarek is a diplomat who has probably spent more time on Earth since his son's birth than not.

Spock may have been Saavik's legal guardian, but that doesn't make him her father.

From what we have seen a more likely conclusion would be that Spock took some time off to get her settled, probably with his folks who were likely living mainly on Earth at the time, and then returned to his duties on the Enterprise, keeping in touch as much as possible, and visiting when he could.

The Savvik Spock found on Hellgard wasn't an "innocent." Not even really still a child. She was an uncivilized savage who would do almost anything to survive. That she stole, lied, perhaps even killed to survive is likely as she DID survive in a place that even a devil would hesitate to call home.

She was most likely the product of rape, and she knew what that meant in terms of her joining Vulcan society. While they might shelter her and give her all she needed, being a half-breed, the likely result of an act of violence would put her at the fringes of Vulcan society, would be awkward, at least at first.

That she did not automatically lay a claim on being "Vulcan" that she instead chose to be her own person, to admit to being BOTH Romulan and Vulcan, says a lot about her. She could have chosen adoption into a Vulcan clan and completely disowned her Romulan half and perhaps in time married etc, but instead she chose to go to Earth, to find herself, and eventually to adopt the Vulcan way as something she wanted for HERSELF.

Probably she originally did that because she wanted to follow Spock's example, but in the end she was her own woman, and clearly much admired by those who encountered her.

When you think about it aiding Spock with his Pon Far on the Genesis world must have been horribly awkward for her, but she did it, to save him. To save him, as he had once saved HER.

That the act was likely to bring them together in a new way, that someday Spock might remember and that they would have to deal with being more than teacher and student, friend, that is a risk she must have considered immense but worthy of taking.

It is not logical to assume that Spock would remain unbonded for the rest of his life. Finally putting attempts at a more religious life behind him, Kohlinar, he like any other of his race, would therefore have to carry on with the matter of acquiring a mate at some point or another.

Sarek might have (as was custom) arranged it?

But I do think Saavik was SPOCK'S choice.

and I think Spock was SAAVIK'S choice.

I think Sarek realized it and being the ultimate dimplomat suggested the match to make it less awkward for both of them.

They are in a word "perfect" mates.

Who can understand Spock's struggles with his dual-heritage better than Saavik?

Who else but Spock can accept and understand her struggle to understand and to be herself?

I have often thought Spock's desire to unite the two people, Romulan and Vulcan must have started with his relationship with Saavik.

"It seemed the logical thing to do..."

That is what Sarek once said to his son about why he married his first human wife.

If you ask me that statement also applies to Spock and Saavik.

:)

As a couple of other reviewers have noted Spock and Saavik were introduced as teacher and student. She was his ward. The Pandora Principle did a beautiful job of telling that story. If you are going to change the nature of their relationship that dramatically you better do some darn good writing that explains how it happened. There was not one word in that book that explained this major role reversal. Quite frankly I felt the authors were demonstrating that they either didn't have the ability or didn't have the guts to tackle that very difficult and touchy issue. How and why does someone go from being a persons surrogate father to husband? Very disappointing book on many levels but this was the most egregious as far as I was concerned.

This book got me pretty hardcore into Star Trek books. I've already read some of them before it, but I love the way they've integrated Spock and the Romulans. Very good and well written story that never lets up in keeping the reader interested. I found it to be the Romulan Way of the present giving some more up to date information on the workings of the Romulan Empire.

If you had told me that I would give four stars to a novel about Spock battling the effects of pon farr, I would not have believed you. I would have said, "I've seen that plot done dozens of times, and they've all been badly done wish-fulfillment by female Trek fans." But this story actually works; it manages to retain the essence of the character even while showing him struggling with emotions of unaccustomed strength. Further, it does a fine job of tying in to the Next Generation episode "Yesterday's Enterprise", showing the battle of the Enterprise C against the Romulan attackers of the Klingon civilian outpost Narendra III.

All in all, the plot is tight and plausible, the characterizations consistent both internally and with what we've seen in other Star Trek venues, both page and screen, and the story is one well worth telling. The writing is competent, although it would help if the publisher did a bit better job of proofreading/copyediting. Well worth reading for anyone familiar with the series; I can't speak for those who aren't.

Vulcan's Heart is fun to read, but I just couldn't except the basic premise of Saavik and Spock together. The fans have already explored this relationship in The Pandora Principle (Pocket Books 1990). Spock was her surrogate father, her mentor, but not her future mate! A fatal flaw-write the same book, introduce a suitable love interest for Spock, and you'd have had a good Star Trek novel.

I found VULCAN'S HEART to be a fascinating look into the lives of Spock and Saavik. Not only do we learn of their marriage -- often hinted at but never revealed -- but TREK fans also get an in-depth look into the world of the Romulan Empire like never before!!

This has a little something for everyone: adventure, well-developed characters, and a plotline that keeps you turning pages for more.

I thoroughly enjoyed VULCAN'S HEART, and I for one hope to see more from Ms. Shwartz in the future!