Customer Reviews

Vulcan's Soul Trilogy Book One : Exodus

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

 

 

Star Trek _ "Exodus: Vulcan's Soul Trilogy," Book 1 written by Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz is a well-written book filling in some of the gaps that are found about Vulcan history. "Exodus" is the first installment of a trilogy called Vulcan's Soul, of which "Exiles" will be the next installment. Being that this is the first of three, we get a lot of character setting, development, and description. This book lays the foundation by which the other books will be layered to complete the story.

"Exodus" is a short story compared to a one and done story books, at 262 pages this book is rather scant. "Exodus" is a story within a story type of book where you have the present day and a historical section going on in alternate chapters so you've got to pay attention to how the story is being told.

We get to read where Spock is married to Captain Saavik, but gets called away on another adventure and spends little time with his new wife. "Exodus" is marketed as an adventure 1 year post Dominion War where there is a lot of rebuilding going on and celebration for the end of the conflict, but there is also Vulcan history being written about throughout the book in the form of a dream sequence through Spock as he puts on a crown that is found about early Vulcan history... and that begins the story in "Exodus."

Admirals Uhura and Chekov survive into this adventure and makes this book rather contrived, in my estimation. Here we see them trying to plan something as the Romulans are under attack from the Watraii, an offshoot of the "Great Exodus" from Vulcan and the Watraii are ruthless, attacking Romulan outposts and are aiming for Romulus itself, believing that Romulus belongs to them. There is mild action-adventure throughout the book, but not the real high calibur space adventure. Most of the book is about the history of Vulcan.

Through the crown, Spock gets to see first hand what Vulcan was like in the time of Surak himself... and the preparations that are being made for the "Great Exodus" from Vulcan. All in all, this book lays the groundwork for future books in this trilogy, thus making for only a 4 star book as there could have been more action-adventure, but this book was more of a history book.

I liked the book as it did fill in some of the gaps in Vulcan history and made the reader aware of what was going on at the time of Surak... but the authours never really told the readers how Surak evolved his philosophy. Maybe that will be for future two books of the trilogy, if so then this trilogy will be very interesting... indeed.

The idea behind this book is quite interesting and could be catchy for many readers. With it's style of 'one chapter in present times, one chapter in the past etc.' it resembles a little "Spock's World", which is a really good book.

BUT...

The authors's style itself is rather clumsy and seems forced.

Some examples:

1) Admiral Chekov? Admiral Uhura?

Using those ST:Classic characters who might still be available, however old they may be, to nourish a story about Vulcans and Romulans is dull at best.
Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz are most likely satisfying their own sentimentalities in unnecessarily "reviving" these characters for their book...or is it just a desperate attempt to attract more ST:Classic fans?!

2) Vulcanoids have green blood - common knowledge among Star Trek fans.

Nonetheless we are being informed about this fact almost every other page. Something/one has always a blood-green tone, shines in the brightest blood-green, resembles the green of healthy blood, has a streak of green blood upon his face etc...
After about 50 pages it made me wanna scream: "YES, I GOT IT! PLEASE STOP, FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE!"
I highly doubt, that Vulcanoids are running around constantly judging the tone of everything green and reminding themselves, and thus also the reader, that THIS is the color of their blood, not red. Fascinating, that these Vulcanoids almost never see any other color worth mentioning in this book, just green.
Did Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz try to underline the exoticism/alienism of Vulcanoids this way? If so, it's a primitive and seriously unnerving attempt.

3) Vulcans are a very intelligent, precise species and know how to calculate without a computer. Nothing new!

Nonetheless Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz feel the need to remind the reader of this fact almost every other page (again!). Their Vulcans make comments about the PRECISE chances for whatever situation (however ridiculously uncalculable it may be) all the time.
Here just ONE example out of SO MANY: "Wouldn't it be wonderful, if the moment could last?" Saavik asked. "If we could all stay so amazingly unified. Of course," she added, "that is logically not possible." There was less than a .00035563 chance of such an intense feeling of unity lasting any longer...(Spock's thinking)
Where did he get all the necessary data to calculate such an amazingly precise number...for something as variable as humanoid behaviour? And why does he do it every other page, whether it's necessary/useful or not? Is it logical to constantly waste part of your concentration on something absolutely useless (and impossible)? Does that properly support the image of an intelligent and logical man/race?

4) Surprise, surprise - did you know, that Vulcans follow a philosophy that revolves around logic? If not, this book makes sure you will notice and never ever forget it!!!

Perhaps Vulcans (or just the authors?) don't have such good a memory and don't exactly know what logic actually is, cause it seems they have to remind themselves and others of the logic in this and that every now and then. If the situation, action, case has something to do with logic or not is rather irrelevant.

If you're just looking for a story and further background information about Vulcans and Romulans, this book will be quite interesting for you. Should you be the kind who likes good writing too, your money would be wasted.

PS: Please forgive my grammar and spelling, but english is not my mother tongue.

It's been a long while in between Star Trek books for Josepha Sherman and Susan Schwartz. The last book, Vulcan's Heart, was a complete and utter disaster as far as this Trek fan was concerned. The overuse of continuity, the bad characterization and annoying writing just soured me on it. However, since I had enjoyed Vulcan's Forge so much, I thought I would give them a chance to redeem themselves. Their latest book, Vulcan's Soul: Exodus, does bring them back up in my opinion. The only problem is (and this could be a Pocket Books marketing decision, for all I know), it's a trilogy of hardcover books that really only needs two books, maybe even one, unless subsequent books are much longer than the first. At a meager 264 pages, the first volume is very slight. At hardcover prices, that's almost a crime, in my opinion.

Vulcan's Soul: Exodus was surprising because, while I thought Sherman & Schwartz would be writing a sequel to Vulcan's Heart, I didn't realize it was going to be a trilogy in itself. It's an interesting concept, as we learn even more about ancient Vulcan history. I'm not sure how well it goes with Diane Duane's Spock's World, which also dealt with ancient Vulcan history, as I haven't read it in a long time. I'd be interested in knowing. Much like Spock's World, Sherman and Schwartz give us a book that jumps back and forth from now to history and back again. Thankfully, they make both of these stories fairly interesting. What I found even more intriguing was the conference between all of the Alpha Quadrant races that took place 14 years before the "current" events of the novel. This is the super-secret conference Spock was attending when he hears that the inscriptions on the crown have been translated, bringing him back to Vulcan and enticing him to put it on. The memories in this crown are what we are shown. Is the conference itself important? I hope so, because we never see it or hear of it again in the first book. I'll be disappointed if it's not.

In addition to this intrigue, I am anxiously looking forward to seeing how the history pans out. If I'm not mistaken, Trek lore states that the violent Vulcans left to find their own planet when they would not follow Surak's teachings. In this book, it looks like the logical Vulcans are the ones trying to leave. I'm sure this discrepancy will be explained, and I can't wait to see how everything pans out. That's one of the strengths of the book. There are so many cool ideas and interesting premises that the book leaves the reader clamoring for more.

Characterization is not forgotten, as Sherman & Schwartz do a wonderful job of it. Most of my complaints from Vulcan's Heart are completely gone, with only a couple stubbornly resisting exorcism. Spock & Saavik still act like teenage lovers at times (not in their actions, but in their thoughts that the authors share with us) which seems a bit out of character, but everybody else is nailed. Chekov is a grown-up version of the young ensign he was in the Original Series. He's much more responsible, but you can see the kid in him trying to burst out at times. The scene in the holodeck where he's training the cadets, throwing one disaster after another at them, is priceless. Uhura is as graceful as ever and, despite the fact that I never would have thought this before, she makes a wonderful chief of Starfleet Intelligence. Even the characters in Vulcan history are really well done. Karatek is the main character, and he's a Vulcan propulsion expert who is working on warships but thinks that resources and research should go to space exploration. When he meets Surak and his followers, he goes on a journey with them, attempting to convince other Vulcans of the rightness of Surak's teachings. He begins the book being extremely skeptical, but by the end, he is a seasoned leader, ready to lead his people across the depths of space.

There are a few problems with the book, but they are extremely minor. The first should have been caught by an editor. Three times in the space of a page, Surak is called "Sarek" by the narration. This wouldn't be an issue if Sarek wasn't Spock's father and a major Trek character. This was really minor, as it only happened in one sequence, but it was there. The other problem (and this was new to my readings of Sherman & Schwartz) was a bit of repetition of character traits that I so despite in Harry Turtledove's writing. They don't do it to nearly that extent, but it is there. It's most prominent in the two children that Karatek ends up adopting. In one scene, Kovar takes his "S name," or the name he will take under Surak's tutelage. Then, in the next memory sequence (after a sequence in the current time period), we are told that Solor used to be Kovar. Yes, we know that. You just told us that. The same happens with his sister, and it got a bit annoying.

Still, it's not enough for me to take any real points off. This was a fantastic follow-up to Vulcan's Heart. While it doesn't redeem that one, it certainly has brought their stock back up to where it was when Vulcan's Forge came out. And that takes some doing.

David Roy

I like the idea of learning more about Surak and the early days of Vulcan, but I'm not sure this is doing it for me. We learn little if nothing about how Surak developed his philosophy - the story just starts with him a known troublemaker and the reason for the exile ships that eventually lead us to Romulans doesn't seem to jibe with earlier stories. I thought these people were supposed to be those opposed to Surak, wanting to keep using their emotions - now here it appears they are his followers? The present day story seems a bit contrived - now not only has Scotty survived into the TNG era (time is a year after the Dominion War), but so have Uhura and Chekov, and they're still active Admirals! Hopefully the next two books will enrich the Vulcan history and make the present day story more enticing. And note to authors: please, please, we know Vulcan's are precise, but do they have to quote odds to the third decimal place on every other page!

Major chronology/continuity issues with this one. Dissappointing, as I liked Shwartz & Sherman's other work.

1. Saavik had to wait 75 years to make Captain? Heck, if that were me, I would've resigned long before...

2. Uhura and Chekov are still alive?? Excuse me?

3. Authors treat the Dominion War as if it happened what, a year, after the movies, forgetting there is a 75 year period of time in between.

This novel just doesn't live up to the excellence of the authors' previous work. Star Trek authors should really watch all of the shows before attempting to write anything.

While the book can be quite enjoyable in its own right, the authors don't seem to be familiar with the much better series of books written by Diane Duane. Her history of the Sundering and the creation of the Romulan (Rihannsu) culture is better established in five previous books, and quite frankly makes better sense considering the way the Vulcan people turned out in the canon shows.

Books are never completely canon when the shows and movies can change details at any moment, but the books could at least be a part of the time line. Based on [...] information Chekov would be 132 and Uhura 138 years old in this trilogy. And I've never seen a hint of Saavik being married to Spock in the shows- that is sort of incestuous considering their early history. It seems a little too pat to have some of these details in the book and feels more like fannish wish fulfillment than good story-telling.

This book was a long time coming and well worth the wait.

It is a richly layered jounery into the famed "Vulcan mysticism". Vulcan's Soul is the type of Trek that fans, like me, have come to expect and hope for. Unlike recent movie and TV Trek, this is not just another episode that is to be forgotten, but rather an epic along the lines of FEDERATION, SAREK and SPOCK'S WORLD. In fact, it may even be better than all of the above.

I'm one happy camper.

Sherman and Shwartz are Trek masters.

Apart from the plot of the book, I'm curious as to how Uhura and Chekhov can still be active Starfleet officers at well over 140 years old. They're only human! Dr. McCoy showed up on Star Trek: The Next Generation in 2363 or so, and he was obviously not in any shape to be on active duty. I find it hard to believe that Uhura and Chekhov are in much better shape, being only a few years younger. Obviously, there would be medical advances in the almost 400 years between now and then, but if medicine has advanced so much that humans are living a couple hundred years, why was Dr. McCoy in such decrepit condition? In "Generations", Picard remarks that there are more days behind him than before him, and I've never heard anything indicating he is over 100. It's nice to have the old characters around, I know, but it just doesn't make sense. Of course, none of the books are "canon", so I suppose that allows for some leeway, but some sort of rationality would be nice.

You will quickly discover that Surak, the founder of all things Vulcan, was just as much a rebel. The story of Surak's past struggle, runs parallel to Spock's. The real differences between Vulcan founder and ambassador blur. We get a glimpse of Surak as a rebel just as Spock was. The Watraii are the adversary in this book. Apparently a creation of the authors. While the first book doesn't tell us a lot about their origins, we get to see them in volumes two and three.

This paticular series of books shows us what happened to Chekov and Uhura. It was good to see that in this universe there were promoted to something other than another Starship.

The only inconsistancy I saw was the death of a major character. The actions that led to their demise doesn't ring true. The character in question was never impulsive.

I'd have to reccomend this series books. It touches upon all the classic elments of a good story. While the Watraii were never mentioned in any novel or movie; they have a mysterious quality that drives the story.

As a fan of the original Star Trek series I am frequently disappointed with the lack of writers willing to tell stories actually set within this time period. There used to be a lot of good material around but these days it's as rare as a carnivorous Vulcan. This novel is yet another example of a story which goes under the guise of an 'original series' adventure but is little more than a dubious mix of debatable Trek history and cliched modern pulp. How many novels have dealt with an alien race coming back to claim an ancient birthright and thus setting off a conflict ?!!! Far too many by my reckoning !!! It is such a tired plot that I'm surprised fans still buy into it, but then in a sea of Star Trek cliches I suppose modern fans will accept just about anything. The irony is that this is actually a well written story from a purely literary point of view. The characters are reasonably well defined, the descriptive prose is enjoyable, and story evolution quite logical, but if you are looking for the fun and excitement of the original Star Trek, forget it !!! This has none of the style of the original series and so for a diehard fan like myself is difficult to get into. The modern part of the story is set after the Dominion War but seems little more than a desparate attempt to legitimise the whole exercise, while the bulk of the material takes place on ancient Vulcan, but as with a number of 'revisionist' novels in recent years lacks any credibility. I am however going to balance this review by pointing out that this novel is typical of much of the writing today and I suspect a lot of modern fans will quite like it. For me though, I long for the days of good old fashioned adventure spiced with interesting science fiction concepts, that was what I believe Star Trek was all about.