annundriel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
annundriel) wrote2009-07-02 11:04 pm
annundriel) wrote2009-07-02 11:04 pm
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Star Trek: The Entropy Effect
Tuesday I finished reading Vonda N. McIntyre's The Entropy Effect, which is the first Star Trek-related book I've read. It's got singularities and time travel and Spock and McCoy being pretty fantastic. It also supports both Spock/Kirk (boy does it ever) and McCoy/Kirk. While I am a Spock/Kirk girl myself, I am totally behind all the love. I enjoyed the book a lot.
Except for the written Scottish dialect. We know Scotty is Scottish. I don't need to be confused by additional vowels, missing consonants, or random apostrophes. Other than that, though, it was solid. Ending maybe a little anti-climatic.
So Kirk gets murdered on the bridge of the Enterprise by this prisoner, who was once a mentor of Spock's, they are transporting. Except there's no way the prisoner could have escaped and achieved what he did, and he referred to things that had not happened. Turns out, the murderous version of the prisoner is from the future.
Kirk dies in Spock's arms. One thing leads to another, and it turns out the prisoner figured out time-travel, sent people back in time (because they asked), and the Federation is attempting to suppress his work. Because he sent friends to the past, that has now messed with the continuum and the universe is going to end much sooner than previously scheduled.
So Spock has to figure out how to save Kirk, because he's obviously not supposed to be dead, and convince his old mentor not to indulge his friends. He succeeds in the end, but it takes more than one try.
Spock's the only one to remember any of it. When time resets, everyone else is just left feeling a little uneasy.
The parts that really got me were Kirk getting shot, both the first and the second time we see it. And mostly because we witness it through Spock's eyes. The first time as he's in the thick of it, the second time when he's only an observer.
Also, seeing Spock so run down from trying tosave Kirk stop the end of the universe. The moments where he sees events repeating themselves and wonders if he's failed again already were tough. As was McCoy facing the possibility of Spock's plan not working and Kirk being gone for good.
I loved the epilogue where Kirk waits at Spock's beside for him to wake up and how Spock's face lights up when he does and he sees Jim's alive. It very much reminded me of that moment in "Amok Time" when Spock is surprised by Kirk not being dead (and killed by him). It's a really lovely moment, I think, in the book. Made sad by the fact that Spock remembers what happened to Kirk in the divergent time-stream. Which, I realized today, is really depressing and I am almost tempted to explore it/a similar concept with fanfiction. But I guess if you're going to have a character remember something like that, it's best to go with the Vulcan-Human hybrid who can compartmentalize.
I also liked Kirk expressing his complete trust in Spock and his judgment. And McCoy's, "Now that you two have exchanged expressions of undying confidence..."
Kirk's final captain's log kind of got to me, too.
That right there makes me want to write. Characters remembering something no one else does because they fixed time and the events never happened? I might have a bit of a thing for that. So I kind of want to see Kirk be more curious, despite his trust, because Spock remembers and is maybe not quite himself. But then I remember that it is Spock we're talking about and would he even exhibit strange behavior? If he did, though, Kirk would be the one to notice.
It's a storyline I wouldn't mind seeing applied to the new Trek 'verse. Not movie-wise, but fic-wise. I want to see new Kirk and Spock with their different history (and histories) go through this. Because I want to see how they'd react.
Now I really want to read more Trek books.
My love for Spock is massive.
Except for the written Scottish dialect. We know Scotty is Scottish. I don't need to be confused by additional vowels, missing consonants, or random apostrophes. Other than that, though, it was solid. Ending maybe a little anti-climatic.
So Kirk gets murdered on the bridge of the Enterprise by this prisoner, who was once a mentor of Spock's, they are transporting. Except there's no way the prisoner could have escaped and achieved what he did, and he referred to things that had not happened. Turns out, the murderous version of the prisoner is from the future.
Kirk dies in Spock's arms. One thing leads to another, and it turns out the prisoner figured out time-travel, sent people back in time (because they asked), and the Federation is attempting to suppress his work. Because he sent friends to the past, that has now messed with the continuum and the universe is going to end much sooner than previously scheduled.
So Spock has to figure out how to save Kirk, because he's obviously not supposed to be dead, and convince his old mentor not to indulge his friends. He succeeds in the end, but it takes more than one try.
Spock's the only one to remember any of it. When time resets, everyone else is just left feeling a little uneasy.
The parts that really got me were Kirk getting shot, both the first and the second time we see it. And mostly because we witness it through Spock's eyes. The first time as he's in the thick of it, the second time when he's only an observer.
Also, seeing Spock so run down from trying to
I loved the epilogue where Kirk waits at Spock's beside for him to wake up and how Spock's face lights up when he does and he sees Jim's alive. It very much reminded me of that moment in "Amok Time" when Spock is surprised by Kirk not being dead (and killed by him). It's a really lovely moment, I think, in the book. Made sad by the fact that Spock remembers what happened to Kirk in the divergent time-stream. Which, I realized today, is really depressing and I am almost tempted to explore it/a similar concept with fanfiction. But I guess if you're going to have a character remember something like that, it's best to go with the Vulcan-Human hybrid who can compartmentalize.
I also liked Kirk expressing his complete trust in Spock and his judgment. And McCoy's, "Now that you two have exchanged expressions of undying confidence..."
Kirk's final captain's log kind of got to me, too.
Whatever did happen seems to have involved only Spock himself; whatever it was, it has not affected the Enterprise at all.
- 224
That right there makes me want to write. Characters remembering something no one else does because they fixed time and the events never happened? I might have a bit of a thing for that. So I kind of want to see Kirk be more curious, despite his trust, because Spock remembers and is maybe not quite himself. But then I remember that it is Spock we're talking about and would he even exhibit strange behavior? If he did, though, Kirk would be the one to notice.
It's a storyline I wouldn't mind seeing applied to the new Trek 'verse. Not movie-wise, but fic-wise. I want to see new Kirk and Spock with their different history (and histories) go through this. Because I want to see how they'd react.
Now I really want to read more Trek books.
My love for Spock is massive.