Crucible: McCoy - Provenance of Shadows
David R. George III
Book Description (jacket text):
In a single moment
...the lives of three men will be forever changed. In that split
second, defined paradoxically by both salvation and loss, they will
destroy the world and then restore it. Much had come before, and much
would come after, but nothing would color their lives more than one,
isolated instant on the edge of forever.
In a single moment
...Leonard McCoy, displaced in time, saves a woman from dying
in a traffic accident, and in so doing alters Earth’s history. Stranded
in the past, he struggles to find a way back to his own century. But
living an existence he was not meant to, he will eventually have to
move on, and ultimately face the shadows born of his lost life.
In a single moment
...Leonard McCoy, displaced in time, is prevented from saving a
woman from dying a a traffic accident, allowing Earth’s history to
remain unchanged. Returning to the present, he encounters a medical
mystery he is committed to solving. But the echoes of an existence he
never lived haunt him, and the specter of a premature death will bring
him full circle to the shadows he has never faced.
Opinion:
1996: Star Trek celebrates its 30th anniversary. Besides of uncountable merchandise products, books and much more special DS9 and Voyager episodes are produced to honor the birthday.
2006: Star Trek celebrates its 40th anniversary. Somebody awakes covered in sweat and decides to blow away some dust of some older novels and publish them again together with a few new ones, all labeled with an "anniversary 40".
Of course this is speculation only but what is published as "Celebrating 40 Years of Star Trek" is embarrassing. The older novels are the best thing to mention in this context since they had been really good what is definitively not true for this first part of David R. George III's trilogy.
To say it politely: The book is rubbish.
What is all about?
Based on the episode "The City on the Edge of Forever" the author develops two different time lines around the grumpy CMO. It should not be necessary to mention that it is essential to know the named episode. It had been written by the famous SF author Harlan Ellison and received lots of awards,
amongst them the Hugo International Award for best Science Fiction Dramatic Presentation in 1967. What can be seen in this episode belongs to the best what SF in general and Star Trek in particular has to offer, newer productions included. Essentially "The City on the Edge of Forever" is a time traveling story where a change in history allows the Nazis to win World War 2.
David R. George III continues the story, starting his novel right at the end of the episode. One time line shows known events. The author claws his way through Trek history till McCoy's cameo appearance in the pilot of "The Next Generation". The other time line is based on the assumption that McCoy had stranded alone in the past and had to master his life there. Unknown what could have caused the time alteration he spends at first two years in New York just to end up in the small Southern backwater town Hayden on his way "home" to Atlanta. In the meantime World War 2 continues apparently without end.
What could have been really interesting - after all the series returns too fast to the day to day routine - came down very soon into an unbearable alignment of banalities. The known time line is exactly that: known. Here absolutely nothing of interest is happening. At first some scenes out of the series, then out of the movies, were replayed, reaching the emotional detachment of a concrete wall. Only own idea of the author is an affair/relationship with Tonia Barrows, who had a guest appearance in the TOS episode "Shoreleave" - done in a way that Siegmund Freud would have had fun with it.
Unfortunately the other time line is no more interesting either. How it is possible to describe history so lifelessly is out of my imagination. At first McCoy spends time in New York just to waist the rest of his life in complete meaninglessness. Practically untouched by all historical events around him the (too many) pages goes by with daily life. At no time anything is described which was not already mentioned in "The City on the Edge of Forever". How to depict time traveling problems in a great manor was demonstrated by Diana Gabaldon's highland saga ("The Outlander"). "Crucible: McCoy" offers nothing in this direction. In my view even the characters are not well described.
As mentioned before, the book is the start of a trilogy. Analog to this one the others put a focus on Spock resp. on Kirk. After "Crucible: McCoy" offers 627 pages of boredom only the worst can be expected.
On the other hand it can get only better…
