The Fate of the Phoenix (Star Trek)

by Sondra Marshak

1984

Status

Available

Publication

Bantam (1984), 262 pages

User reviews

LibraryThing member lycomayflower
Picks up right where The Price of the Phoenix leaves off and starts well with an exploration of what it means physically and emotionally for James to live as a "princeling" in the Romulan Empire. Then Omne shows up again, things get plotty and talky, and the thing sort of stalls. Marshak and
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Culbreath continue with some of the themes from Price, but with Omne, Omne's double in a body that looks like Spock, James (who still looks like Kirk but with Romulan features), a real Romulan princeling named Trevanian who sometimes poses as James, Kirk, Spock, and the Romulan Commander all running around with their own motivations and honors to uphold, things get very sticky and very tricky to keep sorted very quickly. I sometimes lost sight of who was who and who wanted what from whom and why. (And this was a reread!) All told, the first third is compelling, the last third fascinating, and the middle third confusing. The thinky bits are just as interesting as in any other Marshak and Culbreath Star Trek undertaking, though they sometimes get mired down in too much talking this time. The end is incredibly unsatisfying in that it refuses to resolve the thing (this is intentional and pointed, I'm quite sure), and I gave the book a nice heave across the room at the close of the last page (as you do).
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LibraryThing member LisaMaria_C
I loved The Price of the Phoenix, the book this is the sequel to, in all its cheesy glory and its slashy subtext. It might have helped I was a teenage girl when I first read it, and a fan of the original series before it was reborn in film and new franchises such as Next Generation. Back then,
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books like this were the only sign of life, unless you were hardcore enough to send your SASE and check for mimeographed fanzines. Also, unlike most Trek fans, I'm a Kirk fan, not a Spock fan, and say what you will about Culbreath and Marshak, but they give Kirk's heroic dimensions their due. And I think it takes a Kirk fan to "give" the Romulan Commander to Kirk--or rather a Kirk to her. I loved the end of the first book with them off together to change the Romulan Empire, that basically she gives to James the challenge Jim Kirk gave the Spock of the Mirror Universe to summon the future.

So, I think you might guess the problem I had with this book if you've read it. Big time. Like another reviewer, at the end of this I wanted to give "the book a nice heave across the room" when I read the last page. And there's no third book to redeem that ending.
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LibraryThing member vicarofdibley
the usual kirk, Spock, and co win the day
LibraryThing member FFortuna
The first book in this duology was awful, but in an entertaining way. Its horrible writing was entertaining, and the overt slashiness even more so. (I love K/S, but these characters were pompous and so out of character that it could only be laughable.) And there were some interesting philosophical
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elements at play. So, I read the sequel, partly seeking entertainment and partly actually wanting to know how the story might carry on, what happened to Omne in the end.

Unfortunately, I did some Googling partway through, because I wanted to see what else the authors had written. I discovered that they're both staunch Objectivists, followers of Ayn Rand, and all of a sudden the books weren't much fun anymore. It's not just weird bad writing, it's that bizarre conviction that every character should be a pure elemental essence, and every conflict is a primal assessment between two unadulterated forces-as-people, and everyone just knows things by looking at each other, and everyone is a perfect specimen of something, and blah blah blah. No wonder the characters are so out of character; none of them were ever meant to be ultimate expressions of anything. Spock was never even implied to be "one of the best fighters in the galaxy," for instance, but of course he has to be because everyone here is THE BEST BAR NONE.

There were still some good elements, some sections where the writing actually got good. Some interesting stakes, and one long (literal) debate about the Prime Directive that worked really well. But it stopped being fun.
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Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

1979-05 (eng.)

Physical description

262 p.; 7.1 inches

ISBN

9780553246384

Barcode

1601925
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