Yesterday's Son by A.E. Crispin (Star Trek #11, 1983)

In the TV episode "All Our Yesterdays," Spock and McCoy were transported into a past Ice Age of the planet Sarpeidon where they encountered a woman named Zarabeth who had been exiled there. Spock had reverted to his ancient Vulcan emotional state because of the trip to the past before Vulcans had committed to logic (roll eyes here) and had an affair with Zarabeth. The episode was one of the more far-fetched of the original TV show and served mainly to exploit Spock's character and provide him with a reason, however weak, to show emotion.

This novel is a sequel of sorts to that episode wherein the author posits that a son was born from the tryst of Spock and Zarabeth. Upon discovering a cave drawing of an individual with pointed ears in the planet's downloaded records (saved by the Enterprise just before the planet was destroyed in a solar explosion), Spock resolves to rescue his offspring from the icy planet out of a sense of familial duty.

Ann Crispin, the author, would also write a sequel to this book, to be reviewed later, as well as the hardcover "Sarek" and Next Generation material. She has also written other science fiction books, including work on the Star Wars and V series and her own Starbridge series. This is her first published novel.

Crispin writes with a good feel for the characters, especially Spock. She maintains a good dichotomy between what the young Zar, not raised on Vulcan and indeed with little human companionship, expects, and what a reserved Spock is willing to deliver. Spock in his natural habitat does not act like Zarabeth's descriptions. The description of the original trip device into Sarpeidon's past being responsible for Spock's regression to an emotional state, rather than just a trip into the past, is more palatable than the original explanation. Still, the book suffers a bit from the weakness of the original material. The story is an obvious shot at the reader's emotions, pushing that old Spock button again. This is a popular story among the group of novels, because of the subject matter, but not among the best.

However, first-time novelist Crispin does function well within the story. Her characters ring true, the plot is reasonable if not stellar, and the book is an easy read. Nothing earth-shaking here but entertaining nonetheless.

Web of the Romulans by M.S. Murdock (Star Trek #10, 1983)

Romulan activity is reported near the neutral zone and Commodore Yang of Starbase 8 sends the Enterprise to investigate. There, Captain Kirk and the crew find a Romulan ship which decloaks briefly, then disappears across the neutral zone. However it doesn't seem to move and doesn't attack: it just sits there. Tensions run high and a Federation fleet masses for war speeding to the planet Canara when Romulan ships are spotted there. Can Kirk prevent a war with the Romulan Empire?

Writer Murdock borrows from several of the TV episodes, including "Tomorrow is Yesterday," when Kirk fretted with a computer overhauled on a female-dominated planet which installed an affectionate personality into the computer. Murdock takes that one step further as the computer becomes so obsessed with Kirk it renders the ship useless. It's a cute touch, but is actually unnecessary as the story would do quite well without it.

The plot is somewhat reminiscent of Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country except it deals with a Romulan crisis instead of Klingons and the plot is more absorbing and less gimmicky than that movie (which was an enjoyable movie nonetheless). Murdock plots a fine story and writes it well with dialogue that feels right coming from the established characters and new characters that fit into the established universe comfortably.

The book is not perfect; it does drag in a couple of places. For the main part the suspense is palpable, and the characters especially feel right. Kirk, Spock, McCoy are all written with the right feel and the other characters get brief moments to show their stuff. Murdock also creates some believable Romulans, and several winning Starfleet personalities, not the cardboard figures or paper villains often seen.

Unfortunately this is Murdock's only Star Trek novel outing, and apparently the first published novel. A web search also reveals four Buck Rogers novel tie-ins and a few other books independent of series. Those might be worth reading as well.

Triangle by Sondra Marshak and Myrna Culbreath (Star Trek #9, 1983)

This marks the second Pocket-published Star Trek novel by the team of Marshak and Culbreath, their fourth fiction outing on the series overall. This book like their others is more psychological novel than science fiction. It is also, as far as I can determine, their last published work.

The story proceeds from an idea thrown out by Gene Roddenberry (or perhaps Alan Dean Foster, whispered to have ghosted the book) in the novelization of the first movie, about a group of "New Humans," a humanistic group that is opposed to Starfleet purposes and seeks a higher plane of existence. In the book, Decker is a member of this group, and this is his motivation for joining with V'Ger, as opposed to love for Ilia. Marshak and Culbreath take that further and posit the New Humans as a group mind and also invent another group mind that opposes them, while both oppose Captain Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise. They also invent a new position of Federation Free Agent, something like the Federation's James Bond, double-0 agents commissioned to act individually for the good of all.  That's more in line with Ayn Rand's philosophies than Gene Roddenberry's.

Despite this wide swath of new and potentially interesting plotlines little is done with them. A good writer could have taken any of these setups and turned in an interesting story but the authors are caught up in their usual alpha-male gobbledygook with Spock in the role of Superman and Kirk cast as the Lois Lane captain-in-distress. This time, Federation Free Agent Sola Thane falls in love with both of them, made more complex as Spock enters the Vulcan mating cycle of pon far rendering him conveniently interested and available. This is one "triangle" as mentioned in the title. The other is the two unimind groups fighting to take over Kirk, the greatest galactic symbol of "singletons," the individual minds.

While the ideas are thick here, the book is packed mostly with long dialogues between characters reminiscent of bad comic books. In fact, much of Marshak and Culbreath's writing has the feel of a poorly-written comic book with only a nice cover painting to provide good artwork. The idea of a powerful group mind is a good one but the "group" minds here are actually dominated by powerful individuals and not much here is actually "group" at all; simply one mind dominating others and somehow all apparently magically drawing superhuman strength from the group. A Federation secret (sorry, "free") agent is an interesting plotline but nothing is done with it except to bring a woman into the story who outranks Kirk and therefore one he cannot order around against her will.

So, Kirk is placed in danger, the crew is prey for the two group minds, McCoy cannot detect the group mind influence, and Sola Thane must choose between Kirk and Spock, and whoever she does not choose will likely die. It is suspenseful and there is a certain sense of foreboding here but ultimately the lack of good writing skills causes this book to fail. Kirk and Spock are out of character and the other regulars do not seem to suffer the same fate only because relatively little attention is paid to them.

If you have read from the other three Marshak and Culbreath novels and liked them, this book is very similar, but there is a reason this book is their last published work. Better writers were soon to be found to carry on the Star Trek series.