Status
Available
Series
Genres
Collection
Publication
Bantam Books (1977), 182 pages
Description
When Captain Kirk is apparently killed in a fire on an outlaw planet, Spock must battle the alien madman Omne to learn the truth.
User reviews
LibraryThing member lycomayflower
This Star Trek novel is one of very few books I've read where bad and frankly annoying writing is completely overwhelmed by my fascination with the subject and plot. I sort of shoved this at my fiance a few weeks ago when he said he wanted to read a TOS novel and then I heard for three days about
Like The Prometheus Design (which I don't remember being so badly written--maybe that one just blinded me too?), PotP is thinky and very much about the nature of the relationship between Kirk and Spock. The book takes as its themes power, the concept of the alpha male, gender roles, identity, and immortality. (I'm going to get spoilery here, just so you know.) The story starts in medias res with Spock beaming back to the Enterprise with the body of a probably-murdered Captain Kirk from a planet run by a charismatic, super-strong, genius madman named Omne. Much Spock-moping and Spock-fury a la TOS episode "Amok Time" ensue. Cue Omne calling Spock back to the planet to reveal that he's developed a process by which he can make an exact replica of a person at the moment of his death by harnessing his mental emissions at the moment before expiring made-up!science blah blah blah. And lo! Omne has just such a replica of Kirk, and guess what, Spock? You can have him if you betray the Federation for me. Non?
But wait, my story gets better. Turns out that the original Kirk did not die and there's two very real, very authentic Kirks running around. And Omne believes the replica is his property, to do with as he pleases. Furthermore, he's determined to get the original Kirk to concede that Omne out-alpha-males Kirk's alpha-male act. Thus begins a literal game of cat-and-mouse with Spock trying to rescue the original Kirk (referred to as either Kirk or Jim throughout) while trying to keep the replica (James) safe and free from Omne's proprietorship. Throw in the Romulan commander from the TOS episode "The Enterprise Incident," who shares a mutual attraction with Spock and develops a bond with James, and you've got a whopper of a romantic triangle laid on top of a crazy power matrix. Seriously, it's like a pop culture mash-up of de Sade, Girard, and Sedgwick. And then once they escape Omne (sort of), the question of what to do with James arises (just which one of them has the right to the life they each remember as their own?) and it gets all metaphysical and awesome.
This was a revelatory text for me as an early teen in a lot of ways (exploration of the dark corners of human psyche and all that) and it's still powerful for me. Shame about those damn dashes though.
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how bad the writing is. I didn't remember much about the writing at all, so my decision to reread it now was largely because I wanted to see if it was as bad as he said. It is. It's overly dramatic and the use of dashes where--ellipses--would better serve was--frustrating. But! By about the one-quarter mark I realized that I wasn't paying any attention to the writing anymore. (This is a mean feat, really. I can ignore bad writing, but that's a conscious decision. With PotP, after a while I just wasn't seeing it.)Like The Prometheus Design (which I don't remember being so badly written--maybe that one just blinded me too?), PotP is thinky and very much about the nature of the relationship between Kirk and Spock. The book takes as its themes power, the concept of the alpha male, gender roles, identity, and immortality. (I'm going to get spoilery here, just so you know.) The story starts in medias res with Spock beaming back to the Enterprise with the body of a probably-murdered Captain Kirk from a planet run by a charismatic, super-strong, genius madman named Omne. Much Spock-moping and Spock-fury a la TOS episode "Amok Time" ensue. Cue Omne calling Spock back to the planet to reveal that he's developed a process by which he can make an exact replica of a person at the moment of his death by harnessing his mental emissions at the moment before expiring made-up!science blah blah blah. And lo! Omne has just such a replica of Kirk, and guess what, Spock? You can have him if you betray the Federation for me. Non?
But wait, my story gets better. Turns out that the original Kirk did not die and there's two very real, very authentic Kirks running around. And Omne believes the replica is his property, to do with as he pleases. Furthermore, he's determined to get the original Kirk to concede that Omne out-alpha-males Kirk's alpha-male act. Thus begins a literal game of cat-and-mouse with Spock trying to rescue the original Kirk (referred to as either Kirk or Jim throughout) while trying to keep the replica (James) safe and free from Omne's proprietorship. Throw in the Romulan commander from the TOS episode "The Enterprise Incident," who shares a mutual attraction with Spock and develops a bond with James, and you've got a whopper of a romantic triangle laid on top of a crazy power matrix. Seriously, it's like a pop culture mash-up of de Sade, Girard, and Sedgwick. And then once they escape Omne (sort of), the question of what to do with James arises (just which one of them has the right to the life they each remember as their own?) and it gets all metaphysical and awesome.
This was a revelatory text for me as an early teen in a lot of ways (exploration of the dark corners of human psyche and all that) and it's still powerful for me. Shame about those damn dashes though.
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LibraryThing member LisaMaria_C
I wasn't sure how to rate this, because it's both a favorite, but a guilty favorite; not exactly the best science fiction, or even Star Trek fiction, has to offer: it's melodramatic and over the top with slashy overtones between Kirk and Spock. But it's very memorable, and I remember eating it up
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as a teen, back when just seeing a Star Trek work of fiction was novel, and it makes a lot of the later pro fiction, with their reset buttons and requirement to stay within the lines, look rather bland. Show Less
LibraryThing member 391
I enjoyed this book - the plot isn't much, and the writing is a little vague, but it's such a guilty pleasure! It's pretty much published, wish-fulfilling fanfic, I guess. And it's a pretty compelling read, which is much better than some of the drier novels that have come out (I'm looking at you,
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"Spock, Messiah!"). Show Less
LibraryThing member ronnyd1
This book is, frankly, terrible. Why have I kept it? I don't know. There's just something that makes you want to drag it out and endure it every so often.
LibraryThing member howermj
Read this again recently. Now I remember why it was never my favorite. Though, for a 1977 Star Trek book...one before the franchise reignited itself...it's not half bad. A bit too philosophical for my tastes. And the dialogue was very hard to follow. A must read for a die-hard Trekker, but not one
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that you would miss if you skipped it. Show Less
Language
Original publication date
1977-07 (eng.)
Physical description
182 p.; 7 inches
ISBN
0553109782 / 9780553109788