Bibil opened a jar and proffered it to the prince with a bow of his head. "As your father said when he sent you on your journey, we must find a way to combine technology of the Federation with our own higher spiritual values."
Shadow Lord by Laurence Yep (#22 Pocket, Giant Novel - Titan) (1985) is not the finest example of Star Trek fiction; this is mainly because Yep has no interest in actually writing a Star Trek novel. The result of this is a sword and sorcery novel with Star Trek characters slotted in to enable it to be sold to Pocket books. I wouldn't be surprised if the first draft of this novel had a stoic elf sorcerer and his plucky halfling bodyguard in the place of Spock and Sulu.
And I would totally read that book.
Frustratingly, Shadow Lord is generally well written and I did enjoy it, but if the criteria for 'well written' is 'accurately portrays Star Trek characters and their universe' then unfortunately it falls flat.
Well Jen, if you seriously enjoyed it, surely this is a success? Well no, questioning voice in my brain, it isn't. If I want to read a sword and sorcery novel, I'll go out and read a sword and sorcery novel, I won't pick up a Star Trek book, capiche? Also I read Star Trek novels because I like Star Trek characters so when they are completely out of character (touchy feely, smiley, comforty, Spock for example) then it kinda stops being a Star Trek novel. I also like the Star Trek universe and the technology, and the spaceships etc. but that doesn't really feature either in Shadow Lord. When both of these rather important aspects Star Trek are missing...then how can this be considered a Star Trek novel?
I'll make it easy for you. It can't be. But... an author's gotta do what an author's gotta do, right?
Shadow Lord was not Laurence Yep's first publication. From a brief look at his history, his earliest published work appears to have been in 1968 - although I would be surprised if there were earlier publications. Yep is a prolific author with plays, novels, and picture books under his belt, he would write and publish very few science fiction stories ultimately (four - one children's story and three adult), he would later write predominantly fantasy novels (surprise surprise).
So essentially, great writer, wrong genre. As testament to to his skill he manages to make a 'bad' Star Trek book not just readable, but enjoyable. I would like to know if he actually watched the series properly or if he was involved in the fan community in any way because his image of the characters seems to be quite superficial a lot of the time and yet when we have say an argument between McCoy and Spock, it seems to be on the money.
The story itself is pretty simplistic and run of the mill and... so not anything close to Star Trek.
The premise is that a reluctant prince from a world which technologically is stuck around the seventeenth century and socially... well I'd say they were medieval, is returning home in order to influence his planet's modernisation under the guidance of the Federation. However, when he returns to his home planet he finds that the unguided modernisation his father has begun has caused great suffering and poverty and a coup takes place. The prince escapes with the help of Sulu, Spock and some loyal retainers and makes his way to his family's land in order to drum up support. On the way he sees the horrors of his world and decides that although he'd rather stay on the developed worlds of the Federation he must help his people. The prince gets support from his people, fights a battle where his people win because they have guns and the 'bad guys' army have plate armour and swords. The prince wins a duel using a technique Sulu showed him at the beginning of the novel, and the prince becomes emperor. The Enterprise returns to pick up its two officers and leaves some of its other crew to help with the modernisation process.
The story isn't new, it isn't anything ground breaking, it certainly isn't inspiring. It's pretty much a stock fantasy story sandwiched between two 'Enterprise' sections. It's a stretch to involve the Federation at all at this point however, I mean they shouldn't be messing with the development of 'undeveloped' worlds in the first place. Of course this modernisation is going to cause fear and resentment in the people of the planet, they're barely able to get their heads around the fact aliens exist and when they do the result is xenophobia. I think this is reasonable when you've got an unfathomably big organisation which is unfathomably more developed trying to influence your medieval planet where the height of diplomacy is sticking someone with a sword!
The characterisation, like I mentioned before, can be both strong and weak. The original characters are better characterised than the established Star Trek characters.
Sulu
Sulu is probably the most natural choice for this story as a representative of the Enterprise / Federation especially when you're beaming down to a planet where the people live and die by the sword (because of the revelation that he enjoys fencing in the episode 'Naked Time'). Personally, when I saw it was a novel where Sulu was going to shine I almost put it down in disappointment. I generally dislike the characterisation of Sulu and I don't particularly like George Takei. However, Yep's characterisation is so off the mark that it makes Sulu palatable, probably the first time I've actually praised a bad characterisation.
The reason I wondered if Laurence Yep was involved in the fan community is because his characterisation of Sulu is incredibly 'fannish'. There's like this mythos around Sulu that he's this sword fighting fanatic with a massive obsession with outdated militaria. It's beyond that he's an expert, it's highly romanticised. Most of the time this is emphasized and as a result his science capability and his interest in exotic flora is forgotten. Despite this 'fannish' interpretation, Yep produces a palatable Sulu and made the book readable for me - thank you OOC Sulu!
Spock
Spock is probably the most out of character of the lot, it's not that he's too emotional, it's that he does things that he simply wouldn't do. Comforting someone by grasping their shoulder for example, openly smiling. His major contribution to the novel is to bridge the gap between the prince and his duty. Spock is used as a 'child of two worlds' and is a parallel to the prince who feels the same way, having essentially grown up in the Federation. After reading a little about Laurence Yep, I realised that Spock (and the prince as well, really) was probably interesting to him as a vehicle to explore his own feelings as a 'child of two worlds'. Spock manages to be removed from the action when he takes a spear to the hip (better than an arrow to the knee I suppose), but the situation seems quite forced. I'm not sure why he needed to be removed from the action, unless Yep really likes Sulu? It's not like Spock was overpowered or anything in this story, if anything he was underpowered.
Original Characters
Yep's original characters are probably the strongest (they're the ones he actually wanted to write after all). The prince (Vikram) is initially foppish (although this is mainly an act) but proves that he's actually worthy of running a planet and reforming it. The character's development isn't much of a surprise as it's all pretty telegraphed including his budding relationship with Urmi, an initially untrustworthy character who learns to love the prince after travelling with him and helping him get to his family's land. It just so happened to be that she was his guardian's (?) niece.
Vikram's guardian, Bibil, was a likeable character who had a heroic rat beetle related death and was characterised well. Actually, most of the minor characters were characterised nicely, even if they are introduced for only a couple of pages which I think is testament to Yep's ability as a writer. The one character where I'd say it falls down is the villain of the story 'Lord Rahu', he's a bit of a non entity whose actual motivations aren't really fully realised. A proxy for Lord Rahu is used much of the time, so although we sympathise with the proxy (a good man, doing the right thing for the wrong reasons) and get to know him, we don't really learn about Rahu. Rahu never really achieves the magnitude he needs to be truly effective.
Finally...
Shadow Lord is an enjoyable story if you're not really expecting to be reading a Star Trek novel. It doesn't really add any understanding to the characters, nor does it offer a particularly inspiring sci-fi / Star Trek scenario. It's hard for me to say 'don't read it' because despite its many flaws I found it enjoyable, on the other hand it's not really a successful Trek novel and I don't think you're missing o out on a dose of Trek if you don't bother with this one.
1/5 - Sorry!
Shadow Lord was not Laurence Yep's first publication. From a brief look at his history, his earliest published work appears to have been in 1968 - although I would be surprised if there were earlier publications. Yep is a prolific author with plays, novels, and picture books under his belt, he would write and publish very few science fiction stories ultimately (four - one children's story and three adult), he would later write predominantly fantasy novels (surprise surprise).
So essentially, great writer, wrong genre. As testament to to his skill he manages to make a 'bad' Star Trek book not just readable, but enjoyable. I would like to know if he actually watched the series properly or if he was involved in the fan community in any way because his image of the characters seems to be quite superficial a lot of the time and yet when we have say an argument between McCoy and Spock, it seems to be on the money.
The story itself is pretty simplistic and run of the mill and... so not anything close to Star Trek.
The premise is that a reluctant prince from a world which technologically is stuck around the seventeenth century and socially... well I'd say they were medieval, is returning home in order to influence his planet's modernisation under the guidance of the Federation. However, when he returns to his home planet he finds that the unguided modernisation his father has begun has caused great suffering and poverty and a coup takes place. The prince escapes with the help of Sulu, Spock and some loyal retainers and makes his way to his family's land in order to drum up support. On the way he sees the horrors of his world and decides that although he'd rather stay on the developed worlds of the Federation he must help his people. The prince gets support from his people, fights a battle where his people win because they have guns and the 'bad guys' army have plate armour and swords. The prince wins a duel using a technique Sulu showed him at the beginning of the novel, and the prince becomes emperor. The Enterprise returns to pick up its two officers and leaves some of its other crew to help with the modernisation process.
The story isn't new, it isn't anything ground breaking, it certainly isn't inspiring. It's pretty much a stock fantasy story sandwiched between two 'Enterprise' sections. It's a stretch to involve the Federation at all at this point however, I mean they shouldn't be messing with the development of 'undeveloped' worlds in the first place. Of course this modernisation is going to cause fear and resentment in the people of the planet, they're barely able to get their heads around the fact aliens exist and when they do the result is xenophobia. I think this is reasonable when you've got an unfathomably big organisation which is unfathomably more developed trying to influence your medieval planet where the height of diplomacy is sticking someone with a sword!
The characterisation, like I mentioned before, can be both strong and weak. The original characters are better characterised than the established Star Trek characters.
Sulu
Sulu is probably the most natural choice for this story as a representative of the Enterprise / Federation especially when you're beaming down to a planet where the people live and die by the sword (because of the revelation that he enjoys fencing in the episode 'Naked Time'). Personally, when I saw it was a novel where Sulu was going to shine I almost put it down in disappointment. I generally dislike the characterisation of Sulu and I don't particularly like George Takei. However, Yep's characterisation is so off the mark that it makes Sulu palatable, probably the first time I've actually praised a bad characterisation.
The reason I wondered if Laurence Yep was involved in the fan community is because his characterisation of Sulu is incredibly 'fannish'. There's like this mythos around Sulu that he's this sword fighting fanatic with a massive obsession with outdated militaria. It's beyond that he's an expert, it's highly romanticised. Most of the time this is emphasized and as a result his science capability and his interest in exotic flora is forgotten. Despite this 'fannish' interpretation, Yep produces a palatable Sulu and made the book readable for me - thank you OOC Sulu!
Spock
Spock is probably the most out of character of the lot, it's not that he's too emotional, it's that he does things that he simply wouldn't do. Comforting someone by grasping their shoulder for example, openly smiling. His major contribution to the novel is to bridge the gap between the prince and his duty. Spock is used as a 'child of two worlds' and is a parallel to the prince who feels the same way, having essentially grown up in the Federation. After reading a little about Laurence Yep, I realised that Spock (and the prince as well, really) was probably interesting to him as a vehicle to explore his own feelings as a 'child of two worlds'. Spock manages to be removed from the action when he takes a spear to the hip (better than an arrow to the knee I suppose), but the situation seems quite forced. I'm not sure why he needed to be removed from the action, unless Yep really likes Sulu? It's not like Spock was overpowered or anything in this story, if anything he was underpowered.
Original Characters
Yep's original characters are probably the strongest (they're the ones he actually wanted to write after all). The prince (Vikram) is initially foppish (although this is mainly an act) but proves that he's actually worthy of running a planet and reforming it. The character's development isn't much of a surprise as it's all pretty telegraphed including his budding relationship with Urmi, an initially untrustworthy character who learns to love the prince after travelling with him and helping him get to his family's land. It just so happened to be that she was his guardian's (?) niece.
Vikram's guardian, Bibil, was a likeable character who had a heroic
Finally...
Shadow Lord is an enjoyable story if you're not really expecting to be reading a Star Trek novel. It doesn't really add any understanding to the characters, nor does it offer a particularly inspiring sci-fi / Star Trek scenario. It's hard for me to say 'don't read it' because despite its many flaws I found it enjoyable, on the other hand it's not really a successful Trek novel and I don't think you're missing o out on a dose of Trek if you don't bother with this one.
1/5 - Sorry!
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