Star Trek - The Tears of the Singers

"Wait," Maslin said, eyeing her curiously.  "You're not like these vapid socialites.  What are you?"

She found it odd that he asked her what rather than who she was, but she ignored it, and answered, "I'm a Star Fleet officer assigned to U.S.S. Enterprise."

"Impressive, if one happens to be awed by that institution.  But what's a technocrat like you doing at one of my concerts, Madam Star Fleet?"

The Tears of the Singers (1984) (#19 Pocket, #39 Titan) was Melinda Snodgrass' first published novel.  Snodgrass would later become a prolific writer and still writes today under both her own name and pen names.  Snodgrass notably wrote the script for for TNG's The Measure of a Man, which was nominated for the Writer's Guild Award for outstanding writing in a drama series.

The Tears of the Singers is overall a good book.  It's well conceived and hints at the brilliant writer Snodgrass would become, however, it does regularly hiccup and suffer from an occasional heavy handedness which becomes a little wearisome.  Pacing is also a problem throughout this novel, which could be a symptom of Snodgrass' immaturity as a writer and her difficulty in writing the quantity of characters she does.  Her writing also suffers somewhat from a certain 'blandness', and it's unfortunate that she should use a character concept similar to characters in  Diane Duane's The Wounded Sky - when compared to Duane's colourful language, Snodgrass' falls short.

And that all sounds very negative I know, but I needed to get it out of my system first.

Saying all that, I need to stress that The Tears of the Singers isn't a bad book, however unlike The Wounded Sky or The Final Reflection it doesn't shine as bright.  When Snodgrass writes well, it's inspired and she can get the image or the characterisation across quickly and easily... succinctly I guess?  Her characterisations are generally good, although at times a little cliched, and she does paint fine scenes with her words.  Her approach is a little formulaic and almost a 'tick box' Star Trek novel, but that might work in her favour a little bit as it keeps the plot moving though it makes it rather predictable all told.

Ah... the reason perhaps that I'm struggling here is because every time I think of something complimentary, I can think of two or three other things that really let the book down, and that is so frustrating!

The 'Singers' are pretty much these...

The Tears of the Singers is a thinly veiled eco-fable at heart, which is drawing particularly on the practice of seal clubbing - a particularly revolting 'hunt' (if you can even call it that) where men go out on the ice and club seals to death (or not, in some cases), in order to acquire meat and an unbroken pelt, sometimes under the guise of 'conservation'.  The first major protests against the practice can be seen as far back as 1967, and in 1983 the EU (European Union) banned the import of white coat harp seal pup pelts (pelts from pups under two weeks of age).  More recently (2009) the EU has banned the import of all seal products, causing the value of pelts to fall from $100 to between $8 and $15 each.

Why would I go into all that?  Well, aside from standing on my soapbox, it's because the crux of The Tears of the Singers is that hunters have been killing a seal like creature for the tears they shed at the moment of death, which solidify into gems which have become popular throughout the Federation with the wealthy... and you'd have to be wealthy since the small number of gems available fetch extortionate prices.  These creatures were deemed non-intelligent during a survey and thus are fair game to hunters greedy for easy money.  However we find out during the course of the novel that the survey of the planet and the Taygetians was cursory at best and that the creatures are in fact a people, devoted to singing a hymn of salvation for their people, bending time and space to protect their planet.  The hunters disrupt their song by killing the adults which causes their song to become discordant, causing a rift in space time, the rift of course is what causes Star Fleet to send the Enterprise to investigate the anomaly.

This however, is not the whole story.  Since this is a boarder planet between the Federation and Klingon space, the Klingons have also noticed the anomaly and sent two ships to investigate.  It just so happens that the leader of expedition is Kor, the same Kor as involved in the incident with the Organians.  Kor, it turns out, is having trouble with mutineers (even with a loyal captain on the second Klingon ship), who disagree with his more peaceful, co-operative approach.  Kor recognises Klingon shortcomings and realises that working with Kirk and his scientists would be the only way to solve the problem of this dangerous phenomenon.  Eventually however, the Klingons act predictably and mutiny causing trouble for the Enterprise and the Klingon officers.

The romantic sub-plot concerns Uhura and a mercurial musical genius Mozart Maslin.  Although it is nice to see Uhura take a more active, almost 'lead' role for the first time in the Pocket Books series, this narrative thread is also one of the most irritating.  Essentially Mozart Maslin is drafted in to help the Enterprise solve the musical conundrum of the singers, he's not happy with it and is generally bad tempered, and egotistical.  Somehow, Uhura falls in love with this particularly irritating little man, who also conveniently (from a narrative perspective) happens to be quite ill, and this final musical problem will be his requiem.  I suppose love doesn't have to be sensible, but not unlike the abominable JJ movie Uhura, love makes her stupid and disobedient.  Now, I'm no 'feminist' (let's settle for egalitarian, shall we? This is not up for debate), and my reaction will generally be 'suck it up buttercup' as opposed to some sort of militant defence or righteous outrage, but it frustrates me that you can have a template like Uhura and still mess up characterisation!  I mean, I can almost forgive a male author for cocking up a female character, but it's just mystifying how a woman can write Uhura as a main character and make her into a... a.... spineless, gooey, love struck fool of a woman who lashes out at her captain for doing the right thing.  That isn't the Uhura we know!  Well, the lack of professionalism, foolish, prissy little girl character sums up the JJ Uhura, but not the TOS Uhura!

Now, perhaps this wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't a balancing female representative on the Klingon vessels, but there is... Kor's wife.  Unfortunately, she isn't characterised successfully either, in fact, the way she's written actually emphasises the problems with Uhura's characterisation.  The Klingon romantic subplot isn't too much better.  Kali (Kor's new, young, wife) is... essentially a go-between, a bridge between the Klingon parties and the Federation representatives, but she serves more to highlight Kor's abnormality than a character in her own right, though she does have her moments.  I was a little disappointed that Snodgrass decided to make her a 'strong because of love' type character as opposed to 'strong because capable' (which she doesn't seem to be).  She does redeem herself near the end of the book however and saves the Enterprise contingent, which was a relief.

I've already mentioned Uhura's flaws as regards to her role in the romance sub-plot, but how does she react on her own?  Unfortunately, Maslin is by necessity introduced very early and Uhura's character is basically represented and expanded on via her relationship with Maslin.  Instead of being Madam Starfleet and doing her job as an officer, she quickly degenerates into Maslin's tag-along.  She serves a purpose, sure, she is the only one who can get Maslin to listen, and she looks after him because of his ailing health, although by the end she is also redundant in this way.  Maslin does change, he understands and listens to Kirk and the other officers and his health deteriorates beyond the point of no return.   Uhura caught in the throws of love forgets duty, her dreams, her discipline, her ability as an officer in order to take the typically female role of carer, mother, empathic.  I don't think she really even truly contributes to the work of deciphering the language of the seal people, Maslin and Spock do most of the work.  While I don't begrudge a woman being caring, emotional, and/or in love, I really didn't enjoy Uhura's characterisation in this as she just became a little too malleable and didn't seem to retain enough of what I would consider herself in her interactions with other characters.

Maslin, otherwise known as Mozart is an insufferable character who gets some character growth but overall makes you seriously dubious about Uhura's taste in men.  He is an arrogant, selfish, mercurial man who is unfortunately talented enough to get away with it.  He does have some redeeming qualities in that he is a hard worker however, I feel that he isn't so much working hard for the good of others, but for the achievement of working out a puzzle, that's what motivates him.  I think he's a good character but I disliked him because he was just, so irritating.  I both liked and disliked his growth in the end that he would end up accepting that Starfleet wasn't as he perceived it to be after all.

Kirk, Spock, and McCoy were pretty standard characterisations.  Kirk was quite passive for much of the novel (much to his chagrin), Spock was ever pragmatic, and McCoy was the emotional 'heart'.  They basically worked in  their standard dynamic where Kirk has to make a decision (this time, regarding Maslin and his health / sacrifice of one for many or few for the many) and Spock and McCoy come in on opposing sides of the argument.

Kirk of course does get his action, and proves that what he expects of Maslin is something he himself would do - and more.  Their final experience focuses on Kirk, so I imagine he is mollified!

There are two sets of antagonists in The Tears of the Singers, firstly the human hunters who are pretty much the kind of people you'd imagine who would club baby seals to death for money and who get dealt with satisfactorily.  Secondly there are the the Klingons, who are pretty well behaved for much of the novel - until Kor's second in command decides to incite mutiny in the two Klingon ships.  Kor's problem is mainly that he has grown to disagree with the Klingon Empire's policies, and... he likes Kirk and grows to like the the humans he meets as representatives of the Federation.  His young wife is also forward thinking and significantly more empathic than the average Klingon.  I mean, sure, they have no problem with executing people, but certainly they are cuddly Klingons.  Ultimately, I liked Kor, he is reasonable and pragmatic and someone I'd definitely have a drink with!

Kind of like how small groups of Romulans can get along with the Enterprise crew too... and their crews mutiny...

Finally...

Although Snodgrass sort to expand the character of Uhura, she ends up falling short and limiting her (Uhura) by her own narrow horizons and by using plot elements that had been used before and better.  Uhura ends up still caught in this web of generic female characterisation, which is disappointing coming from a female author who has deliberately placed her as the supposed centre of her story.  Uhura ends up defined by a male character which is galling, considering in the 60s she was defined by her own parametres, not that of a man and here we see in the 80s a step backwards where her 'leading' role is as a support to a weak but talented man who arguably is actually the main character.

On a particularly immature and disappointing note is Uhura's consideration of whether she has to become a lesbian to be a captain.  Oh Snodgrass, did you feel a little bit naughty using the term lesbian? :/

Generally my feelings for this book can be summed up with 'but someone else did it better', and that someone else happens to be Diane Duane.  Uhura's sections of The Wounded Sky for example, do more for the characterisation of Uhura than the whole of The Tears of the Singers.

3/5 - disappointing but worth a read (probably).