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 - Doctor's Orders

He laughed softly. 'Fine.  I just wish the Captain would walk in here.  You know the trouble with this chair?'
'Wish I did' Devlin said with undisguised envy.
'You're nuts,' McCoy said.  'Well, each to his own insanity.  This thing has no back support to speak of.'

So, I was looking for something that would lighten my mood a little bit, something that would allow me to de-stress.  I was starting to feel a little fatigued by the emotional onslaught of ST:TOS fanzines and my novel choices had been a little heavy!  Jen I thought, you've got to pick something a little more therapeutic this time, otherwise you're going to be an emotional wreck this week!  Who better to see when you need a bit of therepy than a good ol' country doctor?

This cover makes me feel
inexplicably happy!

Doctor's Orders (#50 Pocket, #36 Titan) (1990) by Diane Duane was just the prescription I needed!  Initially I thought I'd reviewed a novel by Diane Duane before, the name was so familiar, but on checking, no I hadn't!  I have got several books by her that I have yet to read however which kinda explains it.  At least, I recognised it as being a name attached to The Romulan Way which I have multiple copies of... 

Diane Duane is pretty prolific when it comes to Star Trek!  By the time Doctors Orders was released in 1990 she already had eight Star Trek related projects under her belt including other novels, a computer game and even a TNG episode!  Post 1990 Duane has also written a ST:TOS manga series, a TNG comic mini series and adapted her works for audio production.  Most notably she has her Rihannsu series of ST:TOS novels, which originally started as two standalone novels My Enemy, My Ally and The Romulan Way but now encompasses 5 novels which have now been collected and published as The Bloodwing Voyages.

Needless to say I knew none of the above when I decided to read this, however it soon becomes quite clear that Duane is a seriously talented writer with a real love and understanding of Star Trek.  It isn't just her delicate hand when it come to crafting familiar main characters or new species that makes her writing great though, she's also quite capable of baffling pseudo-science!  It seems really unusual for a writer (either male or female) to be able to balance satisfying (for me!) characterisation and scientific jargon without either producing strange robot characters or conjuring some sort of space magic.

Honestly, the gorgeous cover of this book was enough to make me want to read it, but really it's the cherry on top when next to premise of McCoy being put in command of the Enterprise and pretty much everything going wrong.  Not only does Kirk go missing soon after McCoy is put in command, but a Klingon ship appears in orbit of the planet the crew of the Enterprise is surveying and their crew goes missing!  This compounds with McCoy having to deal with an overzealous Starfleet, Klingon reinforcements cruising for a bruising and to add insult to injury, an Orion pirate ship of colossal proportions joins the party with designs of making the Enterprise a trophy (why yes, I did enjoy using all those idioms).

As you can probably imagine, there is a lot going on in the narrative of this book, there's McCoy 's narrative, Kirk's narrative, and also a couple of short Klingon narratives.  Despite the many threads and characters - Duane is careful to include all of the 'first family' - nothing feels rushed or as if she has less interest in one section than another.  Duane's characterisations are spot on, and this is especially noticeable in McCoy's case - he grumbles, mutters, curses and has more than a few periods of introspection where he realises that possibly his own simplistic suggestions to Kirk might have been not so helpful after all!  An example of a nice touch, is when he realises that perhaps the captain comfort eats in times of stress and that he might have to bring that up in his next physical.  Kirk's characterisation plays on both his impish sense of humour and his uncanny ability to take everything in his stride.  Kirk's narrative is split between the Enterprise (before he gave command to McCoy) and his time 'missing' on the planet's surface while talking to a strange species called the ;At.  Kirk also deals with (with the ;At's help) a small group of very confused Klingons.

I'm not sure how Duane does it, but she manages to make the Klingons endearing.  Not very often that ones wants to cuddle a Klingon, but I certainly want to now!  Well, these are TOS Klingons, no pointy teeth or forehead ridges, so, perhaps that's more acceptable!  McCoy's interactions with the Klingon commander are wonderful,  especially because he just can't help being a Doctor and advising on the Klingon's medical condition, all the while insulting him.  His 'good' relations with the Klingons ends up benefiting him since they come to his aid against the Orion pirate ship.

The new aliens in the book are pretty interesting, and after all they are the main reason that the Enterprise is orbiting the planet in the first place.  Initial surveys from Starfleet suggest that three different sentient species have evolved on the same planet, and since this appears to be the only planet where this has occurred they want to study the peoples of the planet.  The inhabitants of the are very much 'others' not just because they are happy little slimes or 'ents' but because they perceive the past, present and future simultaneously.  The ;At, who is perceived as moving stones or vapour is a little more mysterious, and yes I'm having trouble writing about it/them, as its existence is mutable!  I really enjoyed the Enterprise crew trying to get the universal translator to work and trying to make sense out of creatures that simultaneously appear to exist in the past, present and future.

The final space battle with the Orions is really impressive - so well written!  I loved McCoy's reactions here and the overall competence of the crew.  When Kirk is back in the drivers seat however, everybody is relieved!  Another thing I liked here is how Kirk literally just appears on the bridge of the Enterprise, in the middle of combat, and just gets down to business.  Assesses the situation and makes it all work without breaking a sweat (afterall McCoy is doing all the sweating!).

It was good to see the Enterprise take part in what should have been a routine mission which was scientific in nature.  Sure, strange things happened but it wasn't the great drama we're kind of accustomed to seeing.  The Enterprise is in orbit for much of the book, the Captain has an incredibly restful time (for once!) and much of it is concerned with a rather peaceful dialogue with other aliens, both resident of the planet and of the Klingon variety.  As I said at the beginning, it was just what I needed to feel more peaceful and pleasant again, it's a very calming book!

5/5 - The past, present and future walk into a bar.  It was tense.