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11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Susan Shwartz & Josepha Sherman Interview, April 26, 2000
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.
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