{"id":106,"date":"2020-01-15T17:17:13","date_gmt":"2020-01-15T17:17:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theyboldlywent.com\/trekbooks\/?p=106"},"modified":"2020-01-17T21:21:39","modified_gmt":"2020-01-17T21:21:39","slug":"star-trek-the-entropy-effect-review-vonda-mcintyre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theyboldlywent.com\/trekbooks\/2020\/01\/star-trek-the-entropy-effect-review-vonda-mcintyre\/","title":{"rendered":"Weird Science: Vonda N. McIntyre’s buckwild “The Entropy Effect”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Cover<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Now that’s a book cover<\/strong>, right there. A colorful, bold design1<\/a><\/sup>It’s interesting that “A Star Trek Novel” and the book’s title are the same size, isn’t it? I’d love to learn about the thinking\/marketing that went into that choice. <\/span>that incorporates some familiar iconography, the ship we all love, and characters like Kirk, Spock, and…Six-Months-Into-His-Vision-Quest Sulu?2<\/a><\/sup>There’s an in-text reason for that particular choice, really. I’ll go into it later.<\/span> Pocket’s design team is making a statement here: it’s 1981 and Star Trek<\/em> is cool again. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Okay, maybe not as cool as they want, but still…that’s a good cover.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway<\/strong>. Here’s the back cover copy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Enterprise is summoned to transport a dangerous criminal from a starbase prison to a rehabilitation center: brilliant physicist Dr. Georges Mordreaux, accused of promising to send people back in time – then killing them instead.<\/p>

But when Mordreaux escapes, bursts onto the bridge and kills Captain Kirk, Spock must journey back in time to avert disaster – before it occurs.<\/p>

Now there’s more at stake than just Kirk’s life. Mordreaux’s experiments have thrown the entire universe into a deadly time warp. Spock is fighting time\u2026and the universe is closing in on itself with the relentless squeeze of\u2026<\/p>

The Entropy Effect.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Sounds pretty cool, right? It is, but I’ve also got problems with how much this reveals, as you’ll see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stop blabbering about the cover and get to it, already. <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Vonda McIntyre was a very logical choice to kick off the new Star Trek<\/em> fiction published by Pocket Books. The founder of the Clarion West Writers Workshop,<\/a> the prolific author had over a dozen published short stories, two novels, and a pair of Nebula awards to her name and an outspoken love of Trek<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

That passion for the franchise was an opportunity for David Hartwell, the editorial director for the Timescape imprint. He’d argued hard with his bosses for the publisher to move into the original novel space. Sure, the novelization had done very well, but they’d seen how Bantam’s books had made less and less of a dent in the market. That, combined with the cost of the license and combined author’s fee’s, made it a risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His solution? Pay the writers less. Cloaking his fiduciary shadiness under a declaration that he needed authors who “cared about what they were doing,” he offered an advance that was half of the $6000 normally paid to authors for original fiction.3<\/a><\/sup>This is detailed in Jeff Ayer’s mammoth 2006 book Voyages of Imagination: The Star Trek Fiction Companion<\/em>. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

McIntyre took the deal, maybe because a lot of the work had already been done by her when she was 18.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wait, did she publish her old fanfic?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Kind of. She actually had a screenplay she’d written while a freshman at the University of Washington while the show was still on the air. She never had a chance to submit it, but it provided a framework that she could use to build out this fast-moving, ambitious adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Okay, cool. Proceed.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As the back cover copy indicates, The Entropy Effect<\/em> <\/strong>involves astrophysics, time travel, and the death of our beloved captain. McIntyre takes her time getting to the big moment, allowing readers to spend time with a well-realized version of the series regulars4<\/a><\/sup> Especially Sulu, who’s definitely McIntyre’s biggest crush.<\/span> and quite a few new crew members created just for this book. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

McIntyre’s use of original characters (especially on the Enterprise<\/em>) is something I really appreciate an author doing. New characters allow writers to create genuine tension by placing them in real danger, something that couldn’t happen with the main cast.5<\/a><\/sup>This is one reason I love the first volume of DC Comics’ Trek<\/em> series so much – the sprawling supporting cast featured people with their own arcs while the Magnificent Seven stayed fairly static.<\/span> Despite coverage in The National Enquirer<\/em> and other outlets that the books had killed Kirk, there was no way a fan with more than three brain cells together believed that any long-term, canonical changes to Trek<\/em> were going to occur anywhere but on-screen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

These new characters cover a wide range of personalities with security chief Mandala Flynn and an old flame of Kirk’s, the mono-named Hunter, captain of the border patrol ship Aerfen<\/em>, getting the most room to breathe in the story. Both of these could be considered Mary Sues by less generous readers. After all, they both are beautiful, smart women who are at the top of their respective field, each with a unique origin that makes them stand out, plus they’re involved romantically in some way with series regulars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, considering the array of additional new characters \u2014 Jenniver Aristeides is a “Changed” human whose DNA has been altered so they can live on high-gravity planets; Snnanagfashtalli is a felinoid alien who’s ride or die for her friends; Beranardi al Auriga and Maximo Alisaunder Arrunja are two security hunks with awesome names6<\/a><\/sup>Snnanagfashtalli, al Auriga and Arrunja all appear in A.C. Crispin’s Time For Yesterday<\/em> as well as Uhura’s Song<\/em> by Janet Kagan<\/span>; Ian Braithewaite is a space DA who serves as an antagonist by trying to get to the bottom of everything without trusting anyone \u2014 I don’t see these two women being a little more prominent as a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After all, you’d have to be pretty awesome to command your own ship or serve as the head of security on the Federation flagship, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We get it – you like characters in your books. Big deal. Keep moving, nerd.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Fine, fine. After the first two chapters of setup, we find that:<\/p>\n\n\n\n