Star Trek - Ghost Walker

'Dammit, Spock! Kirk screamed at him, voiceless, helpless, from the corner of the room where he stood; and he was standing, he told himself - feet on the floor, elbow a few centimetres away from the wall - he did have a shadow of corporeal body still... Don't bend that fine Vulcan mind of yours to finding a reasonable explanation!  You're the only one who might be able to hear me - who might be able to save me, to save Helen!

Well, it's back to my usual programming for this post!  

As usual I approached my teetering pile of books, head craned to one side as I endeavoured to read the sideways spines.  'Oooh Ghost Walker' I thought to myself and plucked it right from the middle of the stack, unceremoniously toppling the rest.  I've never claimed to be sensible, especially where books are concerned.

Then I looked at the cover...  No!  A bird man is on the cover.  Previous bird people related trauma grips me, until I notice the name Barbara Hambly.  A warm fuzzy feeling and a memory of a rather good book surfaces... And yes, it is one I've reviewed before - Ishmael, it's also one I completely gushed over and gave it a top notch 5/5.  

Barbara Hambly, I have perfect faith in you, don't let me down!

Ghost Walker (#53 Pocket, #44 Titan) does not disappoint, although not quite as brilliant as Ishmael it is still rather good and rather charming.

When I started reading Ghost Walker I did wonder whether I was in the right frame of mind for this kind of story.  I'd just put down a fanzine (it was making me too stressed) and picked up this one to recuperate from the destruction of the federation.   Surely Hambly would be able to soothe my grieving soul?  No, Hambly poked deftly at one of the more stressful concepts for me - the idea of a double or impersonation.  In this case it's more a case of possession than duplication like in Double Double, but it still completely stresses me out!

Ghost Walker is a scifi ghost story, Kirk's body is possessed by the mind/spirit of an individual from race of tiny little not-quite-birdmen.  On being transported back to the Enterprise his own mind is forced from his body and the birdman takes over.  Kirk exists as a kind of poltergeist on the Enterprise, desperately trying to hang onto to consciousness, while the other consciousness controls his body with the intent to cause harm to the crew of the Enterprise and to destroy elements of his own people who would make peace with the Federation.

These events come about because the Enterprise transports a group of anthropologists to a disputed planet, they are trying to gather evidence that the inhabitants of the planet have a culture and are a people who need to be protected from the designs of the Klingons.  Meeting the creatures the 'Midgwins' Kirk allows telepathic contact with them, this is the action which allows the 'ghost walker' the opportunity to possess him.

A subplot to this book is Kirk's relationship with one of the anthropologists Dr Helen Gordon, in the weeks they have been travelling together to the planet of the Midgwins they have fallen in love with each other.  Although she was travelling to work with the anthropologists, she decides that she wants to stay on the Enterprise with Kirk, which involves her in the meat of the plot.

The plot itself is interesting and quite enjoyable and Hambly is careful to back up some of the more farfetched aspects of the story with references to actual episodes, but in trying to set up the 'haunting' aspect of the story the narrative stalls somewhat.  Although Hambly tries to mask what is going on, it's almost immediately obvious what has occurred, so until the crew actually works out the nature of the events on the Enterprise the reader is stuck in a frustrated limbo.  Perhaps if you didn't work it out rather quickly the prolonged mystery of the poltergeist wouldn't be so frustrating.  That being said, the 'haunting' episodes does allow Hambly to do what she does best - detail.  Hambly slips in snippets of information and description succinctly (rather unlike me...) and creates additional characters and scenes.  I really enjoyed the additional minor characters she added in, they didn't factor in with the main plot, but they did help the Enterprise come alive and made it seem less like a handful of people work on the ship.  Kirk in his poltergeist form is privy to all sorts of goings on amongst his minor crew members; an archivist has bribed an engineer to pressurise part of the hull so he can hide books in it, while another crew member has been trying to get the replicators to properly replicate chocolate.

Actually, while we're on the subject of original characters let me talk about Dr Helen Gordon, to whom I hold a particular antipathy towards.  She's an original character for this novel and, don't get me wrong, she's a well written character, but she's presented as a kind of new 'love of Kirk's life' character.  My problem with this really is, because it's one of these novels, we know it's all going to have to return to the status quo at the end.  The reader knows the relationship isn't going to last, so when I was reading the novel I was kind of always against her.  The decisions she makes as a character initially are based on the fact that she believes she can have a life with him, but it's just so futile!  I felt particular antipathy towards her because despite her expertise, intelligence and relationship with Kirk she doesn't actually put two and two together until Spock has already done so.  Possessed Kirk also rapes her, and tries to kill her (secretly) but she never comes forward with her concerns particularly, even with her girly chums Uhura and Chapel.  Helen Gordon just seems to be there to have horrible things done to her for virtually no reason, well, aside from extend the haunting sections of the novel.

I did like the use of Uhura and Chapel though, they are often sidelined in the novels so it was nice that the two of them were proactive and well written.  They were really in supporting roles to Helen, and despite their suspicions about the captain, they also don't say anything.

As you can probably guess, Hambly really likes the character of Spock; Ishmael almost solely centers on Spock and Ghost Walker also puts him in the hot seat.  I can kind of forgive Helen Gordon for not realising that Kirk's strange behaviour isn't Kirk, after all, she's only known him for a couple of weeks, but Spock?  Spock just logics strange behaviour away and carries on as usual while poltergeist Kirk is trying desperately to get him to realise what is going on.  This is actually questioned by Kirk once he's able to communicate, who unfortunately accepts a less than satisfying answer.  One of the key points is the idea of Katra, which is essentially what Kirk is existing as.    At one point possessed Kirk denigrates the idea of Katra, which does hurt Spock, but he still doesn't twig that it isn't Kirk! GAH.  What does save Spock is that Hambly's characterisation of him is consistent and  at times quite endearing.  I kinda of expected Spock to end up keeping Kirk's Katra within his own mind, however that didn't happen, I may have been influenced by a certain fanfiction I read, I was a little disappointed then that didn't happen.

I don't know how I really felt about Kirk's consciousness being stored within the framework of an AI on the ship's computer, that I find a bit of a stretch, although Hambly is careful to explain why she feel this could be allowed to happen... ok I'm more than little bitter that Spock didn't retain Kirk's Katra.  Sorry.  On the plus side, Kirk ended up the 'ghost in the machine' and the ghost in the machine - don't try to tell me Hambly wasn't aware of Ryle's The Concept of Mind.  I think actually the whole idea of Katra is based off Descartes and mind body dualism, but that's an exercise for another day when I'm motivated enough to think about philosophy... yuck.  I was quite nervous about Kirk being put in the computer, because he is essentially digitised... doesn't he die when that happens?  I guess if I can accept that they are not being killed every time they use the transporter I should accept that he hasn't died if his consciousness is put in a machine?  Kirk didn't have much of a choice though, as he was unable to rest in the state he was in, as he was only tenuously able to hold himself together.  This is the same for the mind possessing his body - Kirk's body does not sleep for a week by the time the events of the novel are over.

McCoy needs to hand in his medical license.  He gives the captain a physical but doesn't seem to notice that he's close to keeling over.  I don't know about you, but after two days without sleep, I look like hell,  I think Kirk has a physical at about four days without sleep?  I think Kirk's body should be failing at seven sleepless days!  Although admittedly the record was set in 1964 by a high school student, who stayed awake for 11 days (264 hours) for a science project.

There are two high points in the novel (both in the last quarter) which I particularly liked.  The first one was when Kirk (still in poltergeist form) warns the women about the danger Spock is in by writing in condensation.  This is the point when the everyone starts adding the events together and realise that the total jackass captain isn't Kirk at all!  Poor James T... Your crew fail you again!  The other is when Spock and Kirk finally face off against the possessed Kirk, I won't spoil but there is a particularly 'Spock' moment which will make you smile!

The end of the novel is actually incredibly satisfying!  It must have been so tempting to extend the ending, but Hambly makes the right decision.  I have to assume Spock did his naughty 'memory wipe' since we never hear about Helen again (of course!).  Thankfully, Kirk is left unable to remember much of what happened to him while separated from his body,  I can't help but think that it would be terribly traumatic to remember everything that happened!

I really do recommend Ghost Walker by Barbara Hambly, it's a good, solid entry to the series.   It's a little ponderous at times but persevere through yonder slow bits and ye shall have thy reward!

4/5 - Bird People... redeemed?