Kirk was eternally fascinated by the procedures for making the Enterprise ship-shape for a long voyage. He was familiar with every action as a man watching his wife dress in the morning, and yet... it had that same sort of fascination, of responsibility mixed with a perverse and impossible kind of ownership. No individual could own a star ship, any more than a man could actually own his wife. Still, the Enterprise was his. He wondered what the day would be like when he had to give her up, and whether, if any of his Starfleet colleagues assumed her command, they could possibly remain friends.
Corona by Greg Bear (#15 Pocket, #24 Titan) (1984) is a really interesting instalment in the Pocket novel series for a couple of reasons. Firstly, we're seeing the theme of entropy again, and this is really exciting for me because I'm finally seeing what I expected to see in the novels that is patterns and trends in themes and content of the novels. Secondly, for the first time I'm seeing direct references to Gene Roddenberry's 1979 TMP novel and in Greg Bear's case, he has borrowed (to a certain extent) the writing style, characterisation of Kirk, and taking relationship cues from it too. I was most surprised at the relationship inferences because I didn't expect them from a male author. Finally, it's interesting because its time line is incredibly kooky which makes it a little confusing as to when exactly the novel takes place - I'm going to run with any time. I can only imagine that the majority of the story was cooking for a long time (pre-films) and so there's some artistic license in there too.
Greg Bear himself is still an active author and although Corona was his first and only Star Trek novel, he is still active in the community. Bear writes a wide selection of fiction, including tie-in novels for the Halo universe.
Find more about the author at his site www.gregbear.com and on his page on imdb.
Corona itself is, for me at least, a 'so-so' novel. Whilst I was reading it I would visualise a big 3/5 stamped across the cover.
Read a brief summary of Corona here (memory beta).
There are lots of problems with it for example the time line is pretty much as kooky as you can get. The novel listing I often refer to lists Corona as taking place in 2270, which is just after the original series. Keep in mind that TMP occurs in 2273, got it? Ok, there's this funny 'dating' (not that kind) paragraph:
Read a brief summary of Corona here (memory beta).
There are lots of problems with it for example the time line is pretty much as kooky as you can get. The novel listing I often refer to lists Corona as taking place in 2270, which is just after the original series. Keep in mind that TMP occurs in 2273, got it? Ok, there's this funny 'dating' (not that kind) paragraph:
Spock sat stolidly on his immaculate stone meditation plank, eyes closed, deep in mathematical exercises he had taken up lately, conditional to his entry into the third stage of Vulcan life at age seventy-nine.
Hold up! Seventy-nine?! Spock was born in 2230 and if this is 2270... That makes him forty, surely? Much of the narrative implies that it is within the scope of the five year mission, but why age Spock this way? Is Kirk supposed to be older too? And where does this leave poor Amanda and her age, and Sarek for that matter? Anyway, I think it's safe to assume that it is 2270 and not later because the rest of the crew are present and in their same positions - even Yeoman Rand is there!
Bear has an odd take on Vulcans at times too, strange little rituals and ticks. The story very hinges on the Vulcan 'otherness', but in making them a little too 'other' or 'strange' they kind of feel a little odd to me. I can't pin it down well, but it's like seeing through a glass darkly. I can accept a certain amount of artistic licence but sometimes there's some strange 'insight' from these authors, possibly because it is before much of the 'official' details of the Vulcan species had been finalised. It was interesting however to have Vulcan children play a role as we don't often see Vulcan children portrayed (there's little reason to). I guess they are essentially little adults, ignoring of course the brats who bully Spock in the AU (who frankly just act like bully children, not something 'other' as I imagine Vulcan children to be). The resolution of Corona hinges on the fact that the child Vulcans haven't gone through a ritual to make them adults, and although this does happen canonically I don't think it is supposed to be an event which comes from without, but instead it's the completion of a trial which marks them as adults. This kind of ties into a loose theme of 'coming of age' but it doesn't really dwell on this too much and appear somewhat accidental (even if this links into 'Mason's' story line.
Anyway, none of that is really that interesting, I just needed to get some of those thoughts out the way.
The first thing that I really noticed while reading Corona was that it is the first novel that has really drawn from Roddenberry's TMP novelisation. The characterisation of Kirk, his somewhat uncomfortable phrasing and too-long idling over sexual thoughts - they are all there in Corona. References to the telepathic connection between Kirk and Spock are in there too - and certainly their closeness. Furthermore, I think that this is the first instance of the brain implant being referenced, which also makes its first appearance in the TMP novel. I am surprised that it has taken this long for these features to make their appearance in the novel series thus far, or at least a real indication that writers have read the first book in the Pocket Book series (the TMP novelisation). Ok, perhaps I'm deliberately ignoring Marshak and Culbreath because of their blatant agenda and kinks, their two additions to the series (Triangle and Chains of Prometheus). I really like that it's a man picking up on these aspect too, quietly adding in the telepathic link between Kirk and Spock that kind of rumbles in the back ground of their relationship.
Of course, it does fit in with the story with Kirk should have the implant as mentioned in the TMP novelisation. Much of the novel is given over to 'the monitors', a computer system installed at the beginning of the story, with the capacity and authority to override commands / requests of personnel on board the Enterprise. They are meant to prevent for example, captains from making bad decisions, if the monitors disagree with the captain's decisions then they will override the captain and take action without anyone else's say-so. There are also monitors for sick bay too, much to McCoy's chagrin.
Does anyone else find this uncomfortable? I certainly do!
Kirk doesn't care for it much either, but with little choice given to him he has to play by the rules. He ends up with an additional monitor as well, in the form of a young woman reporter. I was actually really happy to see this story line used, because this is the first instance of the 'reporter / monitor' character and really the first time we see this kind of... conflict within Starfleet where they are trying to tighten control of their fleet and personnel. Bureaucracy of course is seen in the original series, but certainly in TMP we know there are problems on earth and Starfleet is under pressure from 'New Human' groups. A later novel that I have reviewed with a similar theme of Kirk having a monitor is The Starship Trap. Ultimately, the female monitor in both novels ends up being a boon to Kirk, but interestingly there is no romance involving Kirk in either of them. The 'monitor' storyline is tied up by them being judged not fit for purpose, with the moral that commanders (and medical officers etc.) should be able to act as they see fit in the circumstances, without any computer intervention.
Interestingly, the monitors do take control away from Kirk in the end, because he chooses to hold fire. He felt conflicted about firing on the station and thus possibly killing Spock and Mason in the process. The monitors fired on the station because Kirk didn't want to act, because he was 'too concerned', and that possibly he didn't act because he knew the monitors would take the weight off his shoulders and make the decision for him. In a way this is a challenge, would the imposition of these monitors stop people growing? Stop them from being the best humanity has to offer? Additionally, Kirk's humanity and respect for life makes him who he is, his judgement not to fire, his empathy being over-ridden by an algorithm... would a captain ever be truly followed when the crew knows their judgement is going to be constantly judged and changed by an algorithm on a computer?
Just a thought.
Finally, I was really interested to see the theme of entropy appearing again. It certainly seems to be the strongest / most common theme so far, especially since the last use of it was in The Wounded Sky, the last book but one, the first was The Entropy Effect. All three stories have dealt with the theme a different way however. The Entropy Effect was caused by the actions of a man and has to do with time travel, The Wounded Sky again is to do with the actions of scientists but concludes with the meeting of a new, God-like, life form. Corona handles it differently again, a non-corporeal life form wishes to accelerate entropy in order for it to cause the end of our universe and the rebirth of the environment needed for it and its species to exist (essentially the big bang). Funnily enough, it also has to use technology to achieve its goals, which it achieves through using the Vulcans as its arms and legs and the frozen 'sleepers' as memory storage units.
The 'action' of the story is a little bit messy and at times the author seems to forget which crew members are present (poor Chapel!) and whether they are capable of critical thinking at all. The story itself feels like it was written some time before publication, perhaps even before TMP but was revised afterwards to add in extra bits of lore. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to have been edited enough to make the old and the new mesh and the story can be somewhat bitty as a result and unfortunately at times, pretty contrived. However, on a whole its passable, and it is obvious by Bear's success that he improved greatly in subsequent books to working on other popular sci-fi franchises and series of his own design.
For the modern reader, the story feels quite tired. I think in particular using the trope of 'possessed children' but then not really building on that as something scary was a bit of a let down. Perhaps that was somewhat endemic in the whole book, things were kind of introduced but the ideas weren't really developed, almost like the author didn't know quite where he wanted the ideas to go. The idea of the monitors was built on, but when it came down to the execution of their orders over Kirk's it was a little... anticlimactic. Mason's xenophobia never really peaks, and her character development just doesn't seem that compelling. That being said, on the subject of characterisation, I did enjoy the Roddenberryish portrayal of Kirk's character, Spock's wry moments and McCoy's humourous, cantankerous nature. I think Bear was a little weak on the development of the female characters though - Chapel's description as 'spinsterish' was particularly harsh!
3/5 - take a cold shower Kirk!
Anyway, none of that is really that interesting, I just needed to get some of those thoughts out the way.
The first thing that I really noticed while reading Corona was that it is the first novel that has really drawn from Roddenberry's TMP novelisation. The characterisation of Kirk, his somewhat uncomfortable phrasing and too-long idling over sexual thoughts - they are all there in Corona. References to the telepathic connection between Kirk and Spock are in there too - and certainly their closeness. Furthermore, I think that this is the first instance of the brain implant being referenced, which also makes its first appearance in the TMP novel. I am surprised that it has taken this long for these features to make their appearance in the novel series thus far, or at least a real indication that writers have read the first book in the Pocket Book series (the TMP novelisation). Ok, perhaps I'm deliberately ignoring Marshak and Culbreath because of their blatant agenda and kinks, their two additions to the series (Triangle and Chains of Prometheus). I really like that it's a man picking up on these aspect too, quietly adding in the telepathic link between Kirk and Spock that kind of rumbles in the back ground of their relationship.
Of course, it does fit in with the story with Kirk should have the implant as mentioned in the TMP novelisation. Much of the novel is given over to 'the monitors', a computer system installed at the beginning of the story, with the capacity and authority to override commands / requests of personnel on board the Enterprise. They are meant to prevent for example, captains from making bad decisions, if the monitors disagree with the captain's decisions then they will override the captain and take action without anyone else's say-so. There are also monitors for sick bay too, much to McCoy's chagrin.
Does anyone else find this uncomfortable? I certainly do!
Kirk doesn't care for it much either, but with little choice given to him he has to play by the rules. He ends up with an additional monitor as well, in the form of a young woman reporter. I was actually really happy to see this story line used, because this is the first instance of the 'reporter / monitor' character and really the first time we see this kind of... conflict within Starfleet where they are trying to tighten control of their fleet and personnel. Bureaucracy of course is seen in the original series, but certainly in TMP we know there are problems on earth and Starfleet is under pressure from 'New Human' groups. A later novel that I have reviewed with a similar theme of Kirk having a monitor is The Starship Trap. Ultimately, the female monitor in both novels ends up being a boon to Kirk, but interestingly there is no romance involving Kirk in either of them. The 'monitor' storyline is tied up by them being judged not fit for purpose, with the moral that commanders (and medical officers etc.) should be able to act as they see fit in the circumstances, without any computer intervention.
Interestingly, the monitors do take control away from Kirk in the end, because he chooses to hold fire. He felt conflicted about firing on the station and thus possibly killing Spock and Mason in the process. The monitors fired on the station because Kirk didn't want to act, because he was 'too concerned', and that possibly he didn't act because he knew the monitors would take the weight off his shoulders and make the decision for him. In a way this is a challenge, would the imposition of these monitors stop people growing? Stop them from being the best humanity has to offer? Additionally, Kirk's humanity and respect for life makes him who he is, his judgement not to fire, his empathy being over-ridden by an algorithm... would a captain ever be truly followed when the crew knows their judgement is going to be constantly judged and changed by an algorithm on a computer?
Just a thought.
Finally, I was really interested to see the theme of entropy appearing again. It certainly seems to be the strongest / most common theme so far, especially since the last use of it was in The Wounded Sky, the last book but one, the first was The Entropy Effect. All three stories have dealt with the theme a different way however. The Entropy Effect was caused by the actions of a man and has to do with time travel, The Wounded Sky again is to do with the actions of scientists but concludes with the meeting of a new, God-like, life form. Corona handles it differently again, a non-corporeal life form wishes to accelerate entropy in order for it to cause the end of our universe and the rebirth of the environment needed for it and its species to exist (essentially the big bang). Funnily enough, it also has to use technology to achieve its goals, which it achieves through using the Vulcans as its arms and legs and the frozen 'sleepers' as memory storage units.
The 'action' of the story is a little bit messy and at times the author seems to forget which crew members are present (poor Chapel!) and whether they are capable of critical thinking at all. The story itself feels like it was written some time before publication, perhaps even before TMP but was revised afterwards to add in extra bits of lore. Unfortunately it doesn't seem to have been edited enough to make the old and the new mesh and the story can be somewhat bitty as a result and unfortunately at times, pretty contrived. However, on a whole its passable, and it is obvious by Bear's success that he improved greatly in subsequent books to working on other popular sci-fi franchises and series of his own design.
For the modern reader, the story feels quite tired. I think in particular using the trope of 'possessed children' but then not really building on that as something scary was a bit of a let down. Perhaps that was somewhat endemic in the whole book, things were kind of introduced but the ideas weren't really developed, almost like the author didn't know quite where he wanted the ideas to go. The idea of the monitors was built on, but when it came down to the execution of their orders over Kirk's it was a little... anticlimactic. Mason's xenophobia never really peaks, and her character development just doesn't seem that compelling. That being said, on the subject of characterisation, I did enjoy the Roddenberryish portrayal of Kirk's character, Spock's wry moments and McCoy's humourous, cantankerous nature. I think Bear was a little weak on the development of the female characters though - Chapel's description as 'spinsterish' was particularly harsh!3/5 - take a cold shower Kirk!
No comments:
Post a Comment