Star Trek - The I.D.I.C. Epidemic

"Yer right,"  Beau said.  "Only..."  His voice trailed off.
She looked at him.  "What's the matter?"
"Well," he began.  "I can't - 'ere, maybe it's easier if I just show you."  He lifted his robe to reveal a long, angry gash along the length of his thigh.  T'Pina gasped involuntarily, her own pain forgotten.

Not a very inspired cover all told.
Not much of these three in it either...

I selected Jean Lorrah's second Star Trek book The I.D.I.C Epidemic (#38 Pocket, #7 Titan) in a strategic move to get rid of what I expected to be one of the weaker books in this selection of ten (#31 to #40) so I could enjoy the rest of them peacefully (ignoring Battlestations!), and because I knew that if The Vulcan Academy Murders are anything to go by this book should be quite easy going.

Now I can't answer to whether The I.D.I.C Epidemic is one of the weaker books or not yet (I suspect that expectation will still be proven correct) I can happily report that although Lorrah is at this time still lacking in a lot of areas as a writer, she has improved considerably since  she wrote The Vulcan Academy Murders.  I can't say anything as dramatic as 'you'd never know it was Lorrah', ultimately her girlish silliness is still there, her basic narrative formula stops prevents any kind of mystery, and her clumsy, overly simplistic science makes it difficult to accept the greatest medical minds were unable to come up with a solution to the problems presented.  I can say however that Lorrah has matured a great deal since The Vulcan Academy Murders, all aspects seem a lot tighter and better thought out in The I.D.I.C Epidemic and she does a considerably better job on her characterisations generally.  I think this may be partially to do with the fact that she uses the 'canon characters' very sparingly and concentrates more on developing her cast of original characters (and her versions of Sarek & Amanda).  Usually I wouldn't encourage this, but in the case of Lorrah her strength lies with developing her own cast of characters within the Star Trek universe as her grasp on existing characters is tentative.  She tends to bend characters to the narrative as opposed to having the narrative bend to the characters.

The I.D.I.C Epidemic follows directly on from the end of The Vulcan Academy Murders, so I guess if you were set on reading these two books, you may as well read them together and in that order.  Unfortunately, when Titan published these books they were published backwards and four books apart (TIE is #7 and TVAM is #12) which must have been confusing for readers at the time, especially because characters like Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are very minor characters and much of the story is building on characters and events of TVAM.  Lorrah says in her foreword that you can read these two books out of order because 'all the Star Trek novels are designed like episodes, so that it doesn't hurt to miss some or read them out of order'.  I think Lorrah is over estimating her own ability here (as she does in much of her foreword).  Her writing although much improved is not good enough to really make this a stand alone novel, not with her transplanting of characters which had significant development in her previous book but who aren't redeveloped or explained well in the second.  Having read TVAM I still had some difficulty following some of the characters until TIE jogged my memory enough about the previous book.

The I.D.I.C Epidemic starts rather slowly I feel, which contributed to me taking far too long to read it, the story didn't really become interesting to me until over half way through; once I reached that point however I finished it pretty quickly.

Nisus is an inter-species science colony, so inter-species in fact that there is even a Klingon representative (who turns out to be quite a decent main character) of the 'Final Reflection' mould, and Orions are also involved.  Being a colony, there are whole families there and within them, many mixed heritage children, the implication for much of the book is that the diversity of the people there and in particular the children has caused the terrible mutating plague.  It begins with introducing the plague, the Klingon main character and emphasising the mentality  / presence of the Orions.  Lorrah also introduces the strange additional peril of ice damaging turbines and spring melts potentially flooding the colony; this whole side story I find quite a strange inclusion to be honest and ultimately just adds more silliness and drama to the plot.

The Enterprise leaves Vulcan some time after the events of The Vulcan Academy Murders carrying Sendet and a band of aggressive Vulcans which are supposed to be delivered to a penal colony of some form.  Also on board are Sarek and Amanda (now recovered from their ordeals in TVAM) on their way to a diplomatic meeting and two more characters from TVAM Sorel, the Widowed Vulcan Healer and Daniel Corrigan, a human doctor who married Sorel's daughter after the events of TVAM.  Also included in this group are T'Kar a Vulcan nurse and widow, and her adopted daughter T'Pina who were to be returning to their home Nisus which is now coincidentally plague ridden.  You following?  Good.  

The plague itself is found to mutate within the bodies of mixed-species or hybrid individuals, creating various strains and sub-strains in both iron and copper based blooded persons.  The interest that arises in this is the reaction to the mixed heritage people by people on Nisus - and here is the peril - even if Nisus is saved, can it still continue and an inter-species colony if indeed the plague is proven to have been caused by their diversity?  The answer to this is that Lorrah decides to cop out from tackling this question and instead devises a work around so that it becomes apparent that the hybrid children and inter-species couples were not the cause of the development of the plague at all.  This of course makes the resolution of the story relatively simple since one point of friction is easily removed all together.

But really the whole idea of the plague is secondary to Lorrah, what she really wants is a stage for her modified Vulcans and inter-species couples whom she had developed extensively in fanzines  in the 1970s.  She has a particular love of Sarek and Amanda's relationship and has developed these characters in her fanfic writing.  I think this is why I felt (and I guess still feel) a disconnect when reading TVAM and TIE; Lorrah has developed this characters to such an extent in her own mind that they have changed significantly from their incarnations in the series.  I guess if you haven't read her fanzines then meeting these two characters in her novels can feel a little bit disjointed, if you see what I mean.  The same goes for Lorrah's Vulcans who I find are characterised a little strangely, but again I feel this is due to her own development of Vulcan culture... I think definitely influenced by her friend Lichtenberg and her Kraith series.

Lorrah wants to make sure her characters are happily paired off in the end.  Her Widower from TVAM is pared with her new main character's mother - a widow - and by the end of the book her new girl character (who ends up being a Romulan... yep just let it roll) is paired off with the charming and probably cockney (sigh) half Human-half Orion pirate son, 'looks human, bleeds green' Beau Deaver.

There isn't really too much more to this book, since it's really about showcasing these original characters and their thoughts and feelings and actions.  McCoy and Kirk appear every so often.  Amanda ends up ill and on the verge of death again.  Spock ends up ill and we very briefly hear a bit of angst from Kirk.  Uhura is a voice over the intercom and Scotty pops into the narrative a couple of times before going back to doing whatever he likes with the Enterprise engines.

A real weakness to this story however is the premise that medical personnel wouldn't be able to spot plague transmission vectors and a say, Klingon engineer would because he's not thinking like a medical professional but like an engineer.  Once you kind of pick up on how ridiculously simple the answer to the problem is and how silly it is to be so far in the future and apparently they still don't know how to deal with plague outbreaks... it somewhat breaks your suspension of disbelief.  If Lorrah had understood a little bit more from a medical perspective, perhaps it would have worked a little bit better.

Finally, I'd like to draw attention to Lorrah's foreword (N.B. In this case I read from the Titan edition) which has a couple of interesting points.  Firstly, she talks about the fandom, the Welcomitee and the Star Trek Offical Fan Club, she then moves on to drawing the reader's attention to fanzines (which of course she was heavily involved with and where she developed much of her Vulcan/Sarek/Amanda headcanon).  She also talks about how to pursue the lofty position of 'professional author', and perhaps... perhaps I should just quote this bit:

"They cannot collaborate with you, write the stories you want to tell (you'll have to do that yourself), or critique your novels (they're busy writing their own).  All authors though, are happy to receive comments about their books, and most will answer questions."

Now, it's all very reasonable... I guess, but the tone of this (and the rest of the foreword) just rubs me the wrong way.  It seems a strange thing to put into a foreword but then again, looking at her fanzine history (and her slightly strange demands/requests as part of that) I'm not incredibly surprised.  I get the feeling that Lorrah has a lot of ego, in some aspects deservedly, but in others...

I think that in her foreword she is writing in her 'academic' style.  I haven't read any of her academic writing, but I suspect it will read rather like the foreword.

Thing is, in my opinion the quality of the novel and her ability as I have experienced it doesn't really warrant the arrogance with which she writes.  In her academic / non-fiction writing she could well be brilliant, or even her short stories which she produced for fanzines could well be top notch but at the time this novel was produced she really isn't a very good novelist.

Which isn't to say the novels I've read from her aren't enjoyable per se.  The Vulcan Academy Murders was enjoyable because it was ridiculous even if the writing wasn't that good and The I.D.I.C Epidemic is similar in that it's so silly and saccharine at times you can't help but laugh.  So... depending on your taste, you might want to give The I.D.I.C Epidemic a go, certainly if you enjoyed Lorrah's previous book The Vulcan Academy Murders but equally if you just want a bit of light read with OC characters as a focus.  I think this is the last Star Trek TOS novel which was released with side characters / OCs as the main protagonists to the story; it might be worth reading just for that!

3/5 - Plague! Crashes!  Flash Floods! Romance! A nearly absent main cast! 

Sorry for the delay, although I'm feeling much better than before the operation I've been somewhat out of sorts!  Hopefully back to normal programming soon!

Star Trek - Demons

Spock looked away as her chin trembled.  "It was you father who killed both Starnn and Silek."  She covered her face with her hands.
"My father,"  Spock corrected her gently, "killed no one.  Whatever, whoever controls Sarek now is responsible for their deaths."  He gently pulled her hands from her face, and she tried to smile at him.

I skipped ahead to Demons by J M Dillard (#30 Pocket, #43 Titan) (1986) because at least she is a known quantity to me, and the three left over in this ten made me wince a little bit when I read the blurbs.  To be fair so did Demons, but at least I have some idea of what Dillard is going to throw at me now...

... and to be fair it was very 'Dillard'.

Like Mindshadow there was a lot going on, but it wasn't quite as crowded with references and loose end story threads, and I'm happy to say there was no wrist slitting, though Demons did contain:

• Wrist spraining
• Spock braining
• Kirk's rib breaking
• McCoy poisoning and,
• Cast brainwashing

Not to mention:

• Sarek shaming
• Vulcan murdering and,
• OC powerupping

Ok, you get the picture.  It's still busy and if you've read Mindshadow you'll get the idea that Dillard really likes a few particular story elements:

• Keeping Kirk ignorant, because who tells captains anything these days
• Vulcans doing un-Vulcan things
• Vulcan (the planet)
• Injuring the main cast, no pain no gain
• Sarek and Amanda
• Starfleet / Federation being super sneaky (also in Bloodthirst)
• "Super amazing" female OC everyone loves, also McCoy ends up as her romance option and is a very jealous lover
• Kirk is left out of much the action
• OC Soap Opera
• ISS

Sorry about that but Demons is... well.  It's a bit special.

Demons is J M Dillard's second published Star Trek TOS novel, the first being Mindshadow (1985) and the next being Bloodthirst (1987).  She would go on to write two more Star Trek TOS novels and six Star Trek movie novel adaptations.

I said in my Bloodthirst review that I would be interested in seeing Dillard's progression, and I can honestly say that she does improve but she remains pretty mediocre.  Mindshadow was amateurish fantasy fulfillment that needed more editing than it got, Demons improves marginally as she makes her narrative a little tighter but there are still too many threads and not enough exposition.

So, what is Demons (1986) about anyway?

Well, imagine The Exorcist (1973) in space, but instead of demonic possession it's sentient subatomic particles binding to the brain's neurotransmitters.  These subatomic particles propagate via hypnosis and feed on the fear and pain of the people they commit cruel and sadistic acts upon.  These 'demons' have destroyed an ancient civilisation before, what will they do to the Federation?!

Oh dang, I've read this before.  Wait, wait, I've got it.  Legends End 1 (1984).  Oops.

Well, it could be a coincidence, Legends End has sadistic dark elves who feed off fear and act of sadism via brain implant type things.  I've been searching through some contemporary reviews and I haven't seen any comparisons at the time but that doesn't mean there aren't any there - my access to such things is far from comprehensive.  Also, reviews of Demons seem very positive - even today, I'm sorry ladies and gentlemen, I simply don't see the merits of this book!

Some reviewers have even said that it's a masterpiece of Trek fiction.  Don't-Make-Me-laugh.

One of the big red flags for me was the inclusion of the character Anitra, who it turns out was a Starfleet/Federation intelligence agent (human) who has a super high psi rating (over 500!).  She is beautiful, she has amazing hair, she is super intelligent, can read minds, does something that could get her court martialled, doesn't get court martialled, everyone seems to love her.  A reviewer in IDIC 15 comments that she's the same character type as Evan Wilson (Uhura's Song), which pretty much makes perfect sense as to why I particularly disliked her - hi ho Mary Sue!

The reason given for Anitra's inclusion as a character in the first place is that because of her super high psi rating she can sense the evil in things.  Wait, I thought we had a scientific explanation for all this, Vulcans seem to have psi ratings at about this level, and there are other telepathic species in the Federation.  Humanity on the other hand are pretty much universally psi-null aside from one or two exceptions... even then I don't think they're a touch on Vulcan telepathy.  What's made slightly worse is that she's given the same kind of telepathy as Vulcans have - touch telepathy.

So frankly, I don't know where Dillard is coming from.  In Bloodthirst she did this funny mixing of science and the supernatural - well I say mixing, but it was pretty much oil and water - but it was clumsy and just didn't seem to work well, Demons is the same.  We have a scientific explanation, we have scientists working on the problem, why oh why are we still using terms like 'evil' and 'demons' when this is all explainable?  Now if, if Anitra was a mystic of some sort and Dillard had left in some sort of inexplicable mysticism as part of the story then Demons would have worked better - and it wouldn't have been outside of Star Trek's track record at all.

Characterisation of the main cast was okay?  It wasn't anything to write home about, and the fact Kirk is never told what's going on really chafes.  I mean why would Starfleet keep it secret from him?  Why would they only tell Spock?  Kirk would have been able to take the right course of action from the beginning if he'd only been told, he'd have been able to protect his crew.  Of course, that would mean Dillard would have had to have thought a little bit harder about how to progress the story.

Having this strange love triangle between Spock, McCoy and Anitra was...  awkward.  Although I had to laugh since McCoy got the girl in Mindshadow as well, and was a jealous lover then too!  Instead of Kirk being his rival, it was Spock this time!  Oh dear, McCoy is such a green eyed monster!

Dillard's OCs were present, but this time Security Chief Tomson had a useful role and was a little more of a rounded character.  I did like that Kirk doesn't actually like her though!  I have to wonder what happened to Nguyen though... last we heard of her she was told to hide in her quarters about halfway through the book, and she doesn't resurface...

One section I particularly liked however was when Kirk 'is cured' of the demon affliction and basically has to save his hostile crew on a scuttled Enterprise, whilst Spock, McCoy and Anitra have their own little adventure on Vulcan (they left him!).  I thought this was actually the strongest part of the book (and that's not just because Kirk was in it...), it was pretty tense and trying to work out who was safe or not was stressful!  Certainly there were strong TV horror elements although I'm not 100% sure they work with Star Trek, it didn't quite sit right with me.  Of course, having the Enterprise as basically a hot lab meant that Kirk actually figured out the solution via trial and error quicker than the 'scientists' on Vulcan.

Once Demons reaches its crescendo the narrative hurtles at breakneck speed to the end - in only twelve pages the book wraps up, with a lot of questions.  One thing that really bothers me is that Dillard does not return things to the status quo, there are a lot of repercussions from this story which in her haste to finish, have been swept under the carpet.  There's been murder on Vulcan, murder on the Enterprise, torture.  What about the ships which left Vulcan already infected (Dillard stated that some must have got to Earth already), how about the ship which fired on the Enterprise?  If a starship captain can work out the solution, why oh why did we need the Mary-Sue character in the first place?

Demons is really quite trashy and is quite reminiscent of popular 'horror' fiction of the time.  Not my cup of tea (and it's not because of the horror aspect) but some people obviously like it.  I'm not a fan of the Mary-Sue character type, I think the narrative could have progressed without Anitra, and I feel that the effects of the events of the novel were too far reaching and dire to be essentially glossed over at the end.  That being said Dillard's writing writing style is is pleasant and easy to read, so despite the content being not so great you still end up enjoying 'the writing' if nothing else.

2/5 - Leonard McCoy, Green Eyed Monster MD

Star Trek - Uhura's Song

And Kirk said, "Do you mean, a song to help you remember - not only the symptoms - but the cure for the disease?  You know the cure to ADF?"

It was as if he had struck her, but she only said, "There is no cure on Eeiauo, Captain.  The last verse is missing.  Sunfall ended the song there, and her ears drooped and tail... I can't describe it, sir.  She looked at me in despair, and she told me it was a song for another world, not hers."

Well... I can certainly see why this was considered a 'giant novel' when released in the UK!

Uhura's Song by Janet Kagan (#21 Pocket, Giant Novel - Titan) (1985) is... a long book.  I mean, in the scheme of things and compared to other science fiction novels (like those written by Peter F Hamilton) it isn't that long but... it's certainly long for a Star Trek novel of this era.

... Yep.  Definitely long.

It isn't quite pulling teeth to read long, but it is overly... long.

Did I mention it's long?

It isn't 'bad' per se, but it misses out on being 'actually good' by a fair margin.  This is actually a real shame, as it started with a lot of potential, certainly with a lot of passion but just lost the plot, if you'll allow me to quip.

Let me get this big niggle out the way real quick before I launch into this properly, but you'd think, you'd think, that a book called Uhura's Song would have Uhura playing the lead role (instead of an epitome of a Mary Sue).  I mean, it's not like Tears of the Singers, her name is in the title for pity's sake.  I also completely disagree with the review in Star Trek: Adventures in Time and Space (1999) the Uhura's Song as one of two defining novels for Uhura (together with Tears of the Singers) which "gave Uhura the chance to expand her range beyond hailing frequencies".  Uhura is defined with much more clarity and direction in books not toted as Uhura centric, and frankly if these are the best representations of Uhura, they can keep them!  I don't really think she's portrayed particularly well in either of them, however Uhura's Song gives her a better characterisation, but she's pretty quickly overshadowed by the shameless Mary Sue Evan Wilson.

So what is Uhura's Song about anyway?

Put simply: Space Ebola, the Odyssey, Folklore, Memory, coming of age.

A plague has broken out in the Federation amongst a feline species (it's pretty much like mange), previous outbreaks had been handled by the people themselves, however as the latest outbreak pushes them to breaking point they ask for Federation help.  Unfortunately, the disease affects humans as well, but it progresses faster through a human victim.  Leonard McCoy and Christine Chapel are already infected and reports are coming in from across the Federation of outbreaks... Kirk and his crew are tasked with finding a cure for this deadly disease with only a song Uhura was taught by a member of the feline species as a clue to find their lost planet of origin... and a cure. 

As you might imagine, Uhura has a prominent part to play... initially.  She works with Spock to decipher the astrological clues the song leaves to finding the home planet of the Eeouians.  Her attributes as a driven and talented linguist are emphasised.  However, once the initial detective work is finished she starts to move into the background and although she is part of the action (theoretically) it's very easy to forget she's there, even when she's in an away team on a perilous mission.  That being said her characterisation is very strong when she's the focus.  I actually really enjoyed the way she was presented working with Spock, she was competent but also slightly unsure; someone who is excellent at what she does suddenly being told to get results in a field she has never really explored.  There is a subtleness here which is quite charming, I wish Kagan could have continued this development to the end of the novel, instead of relying on an OC 'Mary-Sue' to smooth over any narrative difficulties she would face.

After Spock and Uhura locate the planet, they beam down to meet the local inhabitants... this is where Uhura's Song turns into sci-fi anthropology novel and actually, this section stands rather well on its own.  Kagan really manages to build a believable society which doesn't buckle under close scrutiny and despite the sheer length of it managed to hold my attention.  It helps that I like cats I suppose and the characterisation of the species is ultimately endearing.  I kept checking how many pages of this section I had read, and was often pleasantly surprised at how much I had read and yet it didn't feel like it was dragging.  However, after the world and society building had being completed and the narrative started to step up a gear again I started to get restless.  Uhura was pushed into the background, and the previously background Kirk stepped forward - not a problem for me - as did Spock.  Chekov was also pretty busy, which was nice to see, I think his characterisation was fitting, if not a bit too competent.  However, three OCs took the foreground, two of which I am happy with (they were of the cousin species of the Eeiauons), and one which essentially ruins the novel utterly.

Evan Wilson... A female character who is incredibly important to this novel... and who could be edited out with a little bit of thought and the story would be significantly better for it.  There is virtually no reason why every incredible action she takes couldn't have been done by another of the landing party.  There is no reason to have her there to make the required leaps of logic, between Kirk, Spock, Uhura, and Chekov there is no need for her - even her leap of medical knowledge could have been made by someone not 'in the know'.  In fact, Uhura would have and should have been the one to solve the mystery.

As it happens, the answer to the problem was in the songs all along, and the terrible disease was only a 'child's disease' with a simple cure.  It apparently needed Evan Wilson to see this... despite that Uhura was well versed and more than qualified to make these inferences.

Of course... all is revealed later when we learn that Evan Wilson is not in fact Evan Wilson... we don't learn her real name... we do learn that she's a secret space operative / pirate who wears foppish shirts, who is a mechanical genius, who is also apparently a medical genius, who everyone liked, and Kirk probably wanted to 'romance' (he was very disappointed when it turned out he couldn't have R&R time with her...)...

Honest to goodness, this character broke the whole book for me.  What a mess.

Despite the above mentioned character, it's still a book I'd recommend for the sake of Uhura and the careful thought that went into the creation of the different felinoid societies.   The other characters are well written, and the writing itself isn't without merit.  Just... the whole story is terribly let down by one very poor character choice, one which some editorial guidance should have caught and reversed.

2/5 - Space Ebola.

As a side note, I've lost my Pocket Books edition of Uhura's Song, so I had to switch to my Titan Books edition.  I swear these books grow legs.

Also, I'm sorry for this sorry excuse of a review... the Mary-Sue pulled my tail!  I'm like... fixated on her!

Perhaps when I feel more energetic I'll add to this review... but the book miffed me off so much that I don't really want to talk about it :/ And I don't want to rip it apart (which I'd usually do) because aside from the Mary-Sue it wasn't bad... urgh...

Star Trek - Web of the Romulans

A gleam was born in the captain's eyes.  Spock, watching it glow, felt a stab of trepidation.  He was always nervous when Kirk began to work from inspiration instead of logic.

"Countess..." said Kirk in a voice that made Uhura, Yeoman Kouc and Ensign Stewart blush.  Spock looked startled and McCoy incredulous but the captain continued in his dark, velvet voice.  What he had in mind was a long shot, but it was all he had.

As I'm reading these ST:TOS novels I'm often thinking about how I'm going to review the book.  At about half way through on a shorter book, perhaps every quarter on a longer one I stop and think and start forming my opinions.  I ask questions to myself, what's the theme, is the characterization good, is the story compelling, are there any memorable moments so far?

So as usual at about page 130, I did the same to Web of the Romulans (1983) (#10 Pocket, # Titan) by M S Murdock.

What's happened so far?  Um...  Not much.

What's the story?  Romulans... are attacking but not attacking the Federation?  A disease!  Yeah, there's a disease and they need to, uh, get medicine!

You're just remembering what you read in the blurb, aren't you?  Yes...

So... what you're saying is that you've read half the book and if you hadn't read the blurb you still wouldn't know what was going on and nothing much has happened?  Correct.

Fascinating.

Essentially, Web of the Romulans is, well, for lack of a better word... slow.  Not in a boring, arduous sense but in a I really feel that by about half way through there should be some sense of something happening.  This is somewhat deliberate, the whole story is a series of waiting games and a lack of action which wears on the readers and the characters alike.  Saying this however without expressly saying that it is also enjoyable would be doing it a disservice.  I was actually surprised to find myself approaching the middle of the book.  But nothing has happened yet! I thought.  And furthermore, I'm not bored!  And that was the surprising thing, despite nothing really happening and getting to half way though with virtually no action what so ever, I didn't really mind.

On the flip side, I wasn't in a particular rush to finish it either.

I must quickly comment on the cover.  Notice anything strange?  Well aside from Bones' rather dapper get up (so suave)!  Spock and Kirk's insignia are on the wrong side!  Not only that, but the insignia are flipped too.  You'd think that that meant that the image had been flipped, but the artists signature is the right way around... I'm sure there's going to be a story behind this mishap!

It became apparent in the first page that M S Murdock is a female author.  Her descriptions on the first page gave the game away.  Her descriptions paint a detailed picture with a feminine eye, and although her imagery is often somewhat overwrought it is none the less pleasurable to read.  As the plot develops at it's sedentary pace it becomes very clear where her focus is - love and relationships.  It shouldn't surprise anyone who reads Web of the Romulans that at least part of it was written by Murdock for a fanzine.  Web of the Romulans has a definite division in the stories the more developed 'computer loves Kirk' plot and the less refined 'Romulans need medicine' plot.

To some extent, the slow pace of the novel is explained by the two story lines.  Initially the plot with the Romulans is introduced however, the narrative with the computer has to be resolved before the Romulan plot can continue, since the story with the computer effectively disables the Enterprise.  Since the computer plot is essentially a standalone, go nowhere, what if, silliness found frequently in fanfiction, it's an interesting if lengthy diversion.  This somewhat explains my confusion re. 'nothing has happened, why aren't I bored?' Basically, I was occupied for most of the book with the amusing problem of the computer devoting all its resources to Kirk and an understanding of love (a follow on from 'Tomorrow is Yesterday).  This problem isn't so much solved by the end of the book so much as bypassed.  Reminding us of auxiliary control serves a purpose for the other narrative, which was a neat link.

The Romulan section of the narrative which is utterly unrelated to Kirk's problems is pretty well written however, I would like to have seen more of it.  S'Talon and the Centurion were likeable, sympathetic characters, as was the aged mentor and his friend.  The Praetor was a little tropey and predictable but served his purpose in the narrative.  I wanted to read more about the Romulans and their problems, more character development, just more!  The weakest part of the story was probably the reasons given for the Romulan's actions, the Praetor's role, the under developed bit about the planet where the miracle drug is.  On the other hand, if you don't look to closely at it, it is fine!  Mixed in with the Romulan intrigue is some Federation intrigue, in which an admiral who works in intelligence believes that the Romulans intend to start a war with the Federation.  He is completely obsessed with the idea and so manipulates the situation to be in the frontline.  However, this isn't his only problem, he also wants to conduct a war with the Romulans like a game, and he wants to be the victor.  So... basically he's completely off his rocker.  Through this story line we're introduced to three or four Federation characters who are generally likeable, interesting characters.  I also wanted to read more about these characters but I was denied this too!

So frustrating!  Perhaps this bothers me most there's a really good story line concerning the Romulans but Murdock's main concern is that silly fanfiction she wrote.  If the book had been one hundred pages longer, the Romulan narrative would have had more room to breathe and develop, as it is there is a frustrating amount of potential that just isn't utilised!

Of course, this just highlights the main problem of this book - nothing much happens.  I mean, it's impossible not to realise that two large sections of the book are comprised of 2 or more star ships sitting for days on end looking at each other over an invisible boarder in space.

It's also hard to miss that the cash poor Romulans mount an invasion force, get to the planet with the drug that they need and then... sit and negotiate?  Or that these very same cash poor Romulans buy the whole supply of this miracle drug - enough to save their whole Empire?  No boots on the ground?  No drama with S'Talon?  The Romulan ships get fired at and they just... sit there?

There's lots of cameo scenes recognisable from the series, Rand being stuck in a turbo lift is one, for example, and characters are generally well written.

So, in essence, Web of the Romulans has some serious problems, which are mitigated somewhat by a pleasant writing style and a good sense of humour and timing from the author.  It is just a pleasant sojourn, not stressful, not exciting, just a bit of a ramble.  Read it by all means, but don't look too hard / think too much about it.

3/5 - Countess of.... what?

I must add that I am laughing hard at people calling it misogynist.  Dear me.