'"We had better prepare ourselves, Jim. There's a very real possibility that he may be dead." Kirk lifted his head. "From what we know of the Sackers," he said heavily, 'maybe we'd better pray that he is."'
The Three-Minute Universe (1988) (#13 Titan, #41 Pocket) is by Barbara Paul, a mystery and science fiction writer active between 1978 and 1997; this is Paul's only Star Trek novel.
I have to admit, I don't really know where to start with The Three-Minute Universe, and I've been kind of... putting off this review. I can't say that the writing is bad - it isn't. I can't say the story is unoriginal - there are clearly worse offenders. I also can't say it's particularly appealing. It took me three attempts and a break of 3 weeks to actually finish reading it and, considering I generally read books of this size in one or two sittings, it wasn't a great start. I think the most annoying thing about this novel is that it had a lot of potential, the idea is good, the writing is good, it just trips at the last hurdle and falls apart.
The premise is that an sensorially abhorrent race known as the Sackers have stolen a device capable of ripping the fabric of space and tapping into the energy of another, forming universe to draw off potentially near infinite energy. They wipe out the home system of an entire race in the process of activating the device, but chaos doesn't stop there; the new universe is expanding through the tear, causing a wave of blistering heat to surge onwards, engulfing all in its path, threatening to destroy our own.
So we have some really interesting ideas here. Paul introduces a completely disgusting looking race we haven't met before, I mean, they are so revolting that it causes seemingly every other Federation species to become violently ill, so offensive is the Sacker presence to the senses. However, until now the Sackers have been passive, peaceful. They simply trade with the Federation and then leave again; they are even mindful of their appearance and adapt how they dress and present themselves in order to illicit less of a response from other species. This is how Kirk responds to seeing a sacker on his vidscreen:
'All his training and natural tolerance seemed to have deserted him. Meeting alien races had been an integral part of his adult life; he would feel as if he'd lost a part of himself if it were to come to an end (...) But this race... just a two dimensional image of its only technically humanoid members was enough to make him feel queasy'.
We then get our first description of a Sacker, in which we are told they are large blobs in a state of 'self-regenerating decay', their mobile, white slug-like organs are visible and small maggot like things seem to move between the organs. Kirk feels bile in his mouth just looking at them, they are by all counts revolting. Somewhat understandably, how they look and smell has coloured interactions with species within the federation, making them a 'lepur' race, pariahs. I think this might actually be one of the problems with how I feel about the book, the aliens are SO alien (as kirk said, only technically humanoid) they are hard to relate to. This is actually one of the major plot points, but it's quite hard to really blame the Federation races for reacting the way they do against the Sackers; after all when they are so disgusting your eyes water, you vomit AND if there are a few of them you pass out, it's hard to imagine not wanting to avoid them at all costs. As it turns out, the reason for the Sacker actions is how they are treated by everyone else; the reasoning is essentially that since they can't be accepted, they will either destroy or dominate every other species.
They seem pretty irredeemable right? Well, the way that Paul gets around the completely alien and 'evil' nature of this race, is that when Kirk, Scotty, Uhura and Chekov end up captured by the Sackers, she makes them... children, adolescents. The adults on this ship (the one that was stolen at the beginning of the book) have all died and the child Sackers are trying to continue their mission against the rest of the galaxy. The reason they capture the Enterprise officers? In order to have the likes of Kirk, Scotty, Uhura and Chekov teach them how to pilot their ship.
The child Sackers end up being rather endearing all told. They are children pretending to be adults and making bad decisions because that's what the adults told them to do. The latter half of the book is somewhat painful, or should I say uncomfortable, to read as the Enterprise crew use the innocence of the children against them. Sure, they are mass murdering monsters, but they are also sincere and look up to their mentors. Kirk, Scotty, Uhura and Chekov even name them, inadvertently initially; it's really hard to really dislike creatures named things like 'Iris', 'Blue', 'Babe', 'Bonesovna' and... 'Orangejuiceandwodka'. I suppose I must just... feel uncomfortable with the fact that the Enterprise officers are being giant jerks... to children.
'All his training and natural tolerance seemed to have deserted him. Meeting alien races had been an integral part of his adult life; he would feel as if he'd lost a part of himself if it were to come to an end (...) But this race... just a two dimensional image of its only technically humanoid members was enough to make him feel queasy'.
We then get our first description of a Sacker, in which we are told they are large blobs in a state of 'self-regenerating decay', their mobile, white slug-like organs are visible and small maggot like things seem to move between the organs. Kirk feels bile in his mouth just looking at them, they are by all counts revolting. Somewhat understandably, how they look and smell has coloured interactions with species within the federation, making them a 'lepur' race, pariahs. I think this might actually be one of the problems with how I feel about the book, the aliens are SO alien (as kirk said, only technically humanoid) they are hard to relate to. This is actually one of the major plot points, but it's quite hard to really blame the Federation races for reacting the way they do against the Sackers; after all when they are so disgusting your eyes water, you vomit AND if there are a few of them you pass out, it's hard to imagine not wanting to avoid them at all costs. As it turns out, the reason for the Sacker actions is how they are treated by everyone else; the reasoning is essentially that since they can't be accepted, they will either destroy or dominate every other species.
They seem pretty irredeemable right? Well, the way that Paul gets around the completely alien and 'evil' nature of this race, is that when Kirk, Scotty, Uhura and Chekov end up captured by the Sackers, she makes them... children, adolescents. The adults on this ship (the one that was stolen at the beginning of the book) have all died and the child Sackers are trying to continue their mission against the rest of the galaxy. The reason they capture the Enterprise officers? In order to have the likes of Kirk, Scotty, Uhura and Chekov teach them how to pilot their ship.
The child Sackers end up being rather endearing all told. They are children pretending to be adults and making bad decisions because that's what the adults told them to do. The latter half of the book is somewhat painful, or should I say uncomfortable, to read as the Enterprise crew use the innocence of the children against them. Sure, they are mass murdering monsters, but they are also sincere and look up to their mentors. Kirk, Scotty, Uhura and Chekov even name them, inadvertently initially; it's really hard to really dislike creatures named things like 'Iris', 'Blue', 'Babe', 'Bonesovna' and... 'Orangejuiceandwodka'. I suppose I must just... feel uncomfortable with the fact that the Enterprise officers are being giant jerks... to children.
In the end I felt really, very sorry for these kids, I mean, they really did try hard to do what they were told, and the commentary from Spock and Sulu on the Enterprise wondering what exactly they were doing by rolling the ship over and doing all these odd maneuvers made me feel highly embarrassed.
When Kirk and the others finally make their move to take the ship, it does turn out they have become quite fond of the children, and are genuinely saddened when there is a death. The high point, however, is the mental image of the five crew members all in a very small box playing a form of extreme twister as they take cover from a raging fire on the Sacker ship. I read this part out to my partner, and just about made it through the section without crying with laughter. It might be worth reading the book just for this scene.
Paul introduces the Bubble Universe Theory as the 'science' behind the Zirgosian device. It's a multiverse theory and in this case it posits that our universe is a bubble in a sea of bubbles, pressed up against one another in a state of eternal inflation. The title The Three-Minute Universe refers to the age of the adjacent bubble universe when it is initially tapped into by the device. Essentially, if the tear between universes isn't repaired, then the younger universe would expand into the prime universe, destroying everything in an advancing wave of fire.
Fire and fear of fire is a pretty big theme in The Three-Minute Universe. Paul decides to develop Uhura's character by giving her a tragic back story. Uhura is deathly afraid of fire, due to an event which occurred in her dorm when she was a child. Her friend and roommate T'iana gets trapped under a fallen beam and dies in the blaze, Uhura is unable to help her before she succumbs to the heat and fire. Uhura still dreams about the blaze, and the fear comes back most vividly during the events of this book. She faces the fear both abstractly and physically, and in the end conquers her fear.
Spock also gets some development in The Three-Minute Universe, although this comes belatedly, literally the last few pages of the novel. Spock feels fear at the impossible odds facing them, and after the Enterprise's victory, retreats from the bridge, closely followed by Kirk. On being questioned by Kirk, Spock reveals that he has felt fear for the first time. In response, Kirk gives him a pep talk which concludes on this note:
"Yes! Don't deny your fear. Use it. You'll see, it will add whole new dimension to your life - you'll start seeing things in a way you've never seen them before. Anyone with human genes in him who's never known fear - well, he's not.. whole. Oh, Spock, don't you see? You've found a part of yourself that was missing. Don't despair, Spock! Rejoice! Rejoice."
For a long moment there was no response. Then the Vulcan slowly lifted his head, looked his friend straight in the eye... and rejoiced."
Ok, I admit it, this in actually a pretty ADORABLE moment, but I'd kind of expect it in a novel which had been more slashy, or even just one which had actually been more Spock-centric. This ending scene just seems to have been thrown in out of nowhere, why are we suddenly focusing on Spock's first (really?) experience of fear and not having a final resolution with Uhura? I don't know if I can really accuse Paul of being trite here, because we're still relatively early (well, below #50 Pocket) but... Spock having a break down to add extra emotional weight, implying this is the fist time he has felt fear, I just don't buy it, you'd have to put this whole episode incredibly early in the initial 5 year mission to make that statement.
I've only really talked about the latter half of the book, but really, the first half if a bit redundant and only sets the scene for the capture of the Enterprise officers. Put it this way, once I got past the first half, I read the book pretty quickly.
So, what's my opinion? It's... okay. It's nothing to really write home about, but it isn't bad per se. There is quite a lot of humour with the Sackers, and you do get the odd moment which is written really well, but on the whole if you're not worried about reading every Star Trek TOS novel, then you can probably, safely give this one a miss. If you are a big fan of Uhura however and her character development, this is probably of interest for you, but otherwise it's not really worth it.
2/5 - DO NOT HUG THE SACKERS.
When Kirk and the others finally make their move to take the ship, it does turn out they have become quite fond of the children, and are genuinely saddened when there is a death. The high point, however, is the mental image of the five crew members all in a very small box playing a form of extreme twister as they take cover from a raging fire on the Sacker ship. I read this part out to my partner, and just about made it through the section without crying with laughter. It might be worth reading the book just for this scene.
Paul introduces the Bubble Universe Theory as the 'science' behind the Zirgosian device. It's a multiverse theory and in this case it posits that our universe is a bubble in a sea of bubbles, pressed up against one another in a state of eternal inflation. The title The Three-Minute Universe refers to the age of the adjacent bubble universe when it is initially tapped into by the device. Essentially, if the tear between universes isn't repaired, then the younger universe would expand into the prime universe, destroying everything in an advancing wave of fire.
Fire and fear of fire is a pretty big theme in The Three-Minute Universe. Paul decides to develop Uhura's character by giving her a tragic back story. Uhura is deathly afraid of fire, due to an event which occurred in her dorm when she was a child. Her friend and roommate T'iana gets trapped under a fallen beam and dies in the blaze, Uhura is unable to help her before she succumbs to the heat and fire. Uhura still dreams about the blaze, and the fear comes back most vividly during the events of this book. She faces the fear both abstractly and physically, and in the end conquers her fear.
Spock also gets some development in The Three-Minute Universe, although this comes belatedly, literally the last few pages of the novel. Spock feels fear at the impossible odds facing them, and after the Enterprise's victory, retreats from the bridge, closely followed by Kirk. On being questioned by Kirk, Spock reveals that he has felt fear for the first time. In response, Kirk gives him a pep talk which concludes on this note:
"Yes! Don't deny your fear. Use it. You'll see, it will add whole new dimension to your life - you'll start seeing things in a way you've never seen them before. Anyone with human genes in him who's never known fear - well, he's not.. whole. Oh, Spock, don't you see? You've found a part of yourself that was missing. Don't despair, Spock! Rejoice! Rejoice."
For a long moment there was no response. Then the Vulcan slowly lifted his head, looked his friend straight in the eye... and rejoiced."
Ok, I admit it, this in actually a pretty ADORABLE moment, but I'd kind of expect it in a novel which had been more slashy, or even just one which had actually been more Spock-centric. This ending scene just seems to have been thrown in out of nowhere, why are we suddenly focusing on Spock's first (really?) experience of fear and not having a final resolution with Uhura? I don't know if I can really accuse Paul of being trite here, because we're still relatively early (well, below #50 Pocket) but... Spock having a break down to add extra emotional weight, implying this is the fist time he has felt fear, I just don't buy it, you'd have to put this whole episode incredibly early in the initial 5 year mission to make that statement.
I've only really talked about the latter half of the book, but really, the first half if a bit redundant and only sets the scene for the capture of the Enterprise officers. Put it this way, once I got past the first half, I read the book pretty quickly.
So, what's my opinion? It's... okay. It's nothing to really write home about, but it isn't bad per se. There is quite a lot of humour with the Sackers, and you do get the odd moment which is written really well, but on the whole if you're not worried about reading every Star Trek TOS novel, then you can probably, safely give this one a miss. If you are a big fan of Uhura however and her character development, this is probably of interest for you, but otherwise it's not really worth it.
2/5 - DO NOT HUG THE SACKERS.
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