Spock walked back to the interface console. He inserted his hands. Kirk winced as he saw Spock give a final push to make sure the leads were embedded directly in his nerves. Then Spock went rigid.
It has taken me so long to read Memory Prime (#42 Pocket, #16 Titan) (1988) that I can barely remember the beginning, and that really saddens me because I was really looking forward to reading a novel by Gar and Judith Reeves-Stevens. Why? Well, because they wrote the 'Shatnerverse' novels and I've heard good things about them. I wanted to enjoy Memory Prime because that means I'd be looking forward to all the other novels they have written... unfortunately Memory Prime was...
... boring ...
 |
| The cover is horrible and while it contains elements of the plot it's almost completely unrelated to what actually happens. |
A while ago a lady commented that the early novels were the best and that she lost interest as the Star Trek novels lost that little bit of special something, perhaps a bit of heart that the more amateur fan authors nurtured, a little bit of joyous play instead of the little too serious veneer of the professional author.
Memory Prime is well written, but in my opinion paced poorly. It took three quarters of the book to actually get going, I was reading a couple of pages every couple of days but I really couldn't find the motivation to keep reading until I hit the turning point and the 'action' started. The final sequence itself was full of good characterisation and then... perhaps a bit of Tron? I felt Spock's ability to 'dive' into the computer was a little contrary to the 'canon' they had set up in the novel, it felt clumsy and lazy.
I'm getting ahead of myself again.
Memory Prime on Memory Alpha
Unsurprisingly neither Memory Alpha or Memory Beta have a detailed summary I can link to... Perhaps other people also feel that nothing much of anything actually happens? I'm also not going to write a summary because I can't remember enough of it. Which having taken a peak at the goodreads page seems to be a recurring theme. As a side note, who keeps rating the Star Trek novels so highly on goodreads? Even the bloody awful ones often end up with a stirling 3 stars, do people just randomly go through series of books and rating them without reading them? Thinking about it, I really wouldn't be surprised.
The big problem with Memory Prime is the sheer number of dead ends in the narrative, and although I guess the authors were trying to deliberately obfuscate and try to make it like a 'real life detective story', but still many of the digressions just feel like a waste of time. This also goes for the characters that get developed, I don't feel particularly invested and I certainly don't feel the story is any richer for their inclusion. The narrative seems complex for complexities' sake... not for the bettering of the narrative. In some ways this is what Diane Duane does, but done badly, and at least the fleeting characters have some use in progressing the narrative and don't feel like cheap filler.
Speaking of Diane Duane her lore regarding the Romulans is referenced in Memory Prime.
Another issue with Memory Prime is that much there are far too many characters with ISS (inexplicable stupidity syndrome)... the plot wouldn't function about it. Just when you think a character couldn't overlook another key plot point because it's so blindly obvious, they defy your expectations and fail... badly. As you know, I hate HATE, ISS, it's just simply bad and lazy writing.
The main plot involving the computer intelligences was actually pretty endearing, at least when you were reading about their thoughts, it was a fun addition to an otherwise dull novel. I really liked the different characterisations of the intelligences which was related to what they had been originally or how old they were. However Spock interfacing with the machines despite not having any of the training / equipment / implants was hard to swallow especially since it had been built up that only the people with the implants could do that and they were proud of that.
Which reminds me. The whole subplot with Spock being arrested with absolutely no evidence and the (female) commander with a chip on her shoulder just deciding she was going to ignore any protocol and threaten everyone because she was in control now? Literally half the tedium of the book would be cut out if that character wasn't so contrived.
I guess what is really, truly annoying about this book is that it's written 'well' but the the content is poor. You can tell, especially once the action starts that Gar and Judith are good writers but have settled on the most mediocre content. The fact it's 'well written' is the only reason it's not getting a 1/5.
2/5 - as exciting as scanning for iridium.
I'm getting ahead of myself again.
Memory Prime on Memory Alpha
Unsurprisingly neither Memory Alpha or Memory Beta have a detailed summary I can link to... Perhaps other people also feel that nothing much of anything actually happens? I'm also not going to write a summary because I can't remember enough of it. Which having taken a peak at the goodreads page seems to be a recurring theme. As a side note, who keeps rating the Star Trek novels so highly on goodreads? Even the bloody awful ones often end up with a stirling 3 stars, do people just randomly go through series of books and rating them without reading them? Thinking about it, I really wouldn't be surprised.
The big problem with Memory Prime is the sheer number of dead ends in the narrative, and although I guess the authors were trying to deliberately obfuscate and try to make it like a 'real life detective story', but still many of the digressions just feel like a waste of time. This also goes for the characters that get developed, I don't feel particularly invested and I certainly don't feel the story is any richer for their inclusion. The narrative seems complex for complexities' sake... not for the bettering of the narrative. In some ways this is what Diane Duane does, but done badly, and at least the fleeting characters have some use in progressing the narrative and don't feel like cheap filler.
Speaking of Diane Duane her lore regarding the Romulans is referenced in Memory Prime.
Another issue with Memory Prime is that much there are far too many characters with ISS (inexplicable stupidity syndrome)... the plot wouldn't function about it. Just when you think a character couldn't overlook another key plot point because it's so blindly obvious, they defy your expectations and fail... badly. As you know, I hate HATE, ISS, it's just simply bad and lazy writing.
 |
| Screen cap from review on goodreads by 'Robin'. Do they ship them? I think they do. |
Which reminds me. The whole subplot with Spock being arrested with absolutely no evidence and the (female) commander with a chip on her shoulder just deciding she was going to ignore any protocol and threaten everyone because she was in control now? Literally half the tedium of the book would be cut out if that character wasn't so contrived.
I guess what is really, truly annoying about this book is that it's written 'well' but the the content is poor. You can tell, especially once the action starts that Gar and Judith are good writers but have settled on the most mediocre content. The fact it's 'well written' is the only reason it's not getting a 1/5.
2/5 - as exciting as scanning for iridium.
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