In A Vulcan Frame of Mind

[bibliogramma]

Publisher Pocketbooks has released an omnibus volume titled Star Trek: Sand and Stars, which contains two novels that focus on the series's main Vulcan characters and on Vulcan culture – Diane Duane’s Spock’s World, and A.C. Crispin’s Sarek. The two writers, of course, have their own visions of what lies behind the aspects of Vulcan culture and character portrayed in the various TV incarnations of Star Trek.

I must confess that for me, just as Duane’s Rihannsu are the real Romulans, her Vulcans are the real Vulcans. This in no way detracts from Crispin’s work, it’s just that what Duane writes, is Vulcan history; what Crispin and other interpreters of the Vulcan way of life write is... alternate history. If an imaginary people can be said to have history, let alone alternate histories.

But I digress.

Duane’s definitive account of the history of Vulcan is set within a frame of a defining moment in Vulcan-Federation relations, as Vulcans debate a referendum proposal to withdraw from the Federation, and Sarek, Spock and Kirk are called to Vulcan to take part in the proceedings. Interspersed with the political strategies, underlying motivations and arguments for and against secession, are snapshots of crucial events in the evolutionary and social history of the Vulcan people. It is unquestionably (at least in my mind) one of the classics of Star Trek literature.

Crispen’s Sarek also looks at interplanetary relations as Sarek and the crew of the Enterprise are drawn into a plot to drive a wedge between Earth and Vulcan, and to ensnare the Federation in war with the Klingon empire. At the same time, the novel explores the story of Sarek’s past, his first marriage, his life with Amanda, his relationship with his son.

Choice reading for the Star Trek fan.

Comments

Word.

[cynthia1960.livejournal.com]

Couple Spock's World with the Rihannsu books (especially The Romulan Way), and you get the clearest study of how the Vulcans and Rihannsu developed. Nobody else in the ST universe has come close.

Re: Word.

[morgan-dhu.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. I find that whenever I think about Romulans or Vulcans, I'm seeing them through Duane's interpretations. Which is good, because then they are both alien and consistent in a way that Star Trek itself really couldn't get to.

Of course, we also have to thank Leonard Nimoy and Mark Lenard, as well as many other actors who portrayed Vulcans or Romulans, for their amazing work in giving the characters the kind of coherence that Duane could work with.