It's been much too long since my last read of it, but I've always loved this novel too. It actually surprises me a little to hear that someone dislikes it to the point that this would be the first Star Trek novel they declined to finish!
Spoilers TOS: Uhura's Song by Janet Kagan Review Thread
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I did not really enjoy the book and your reasons are largely my own.
I really admired Janet Kagan’s book and I had the opportunity to correspond with her. I, too, loved that she reused Snarl, from Vonda’s novel.
I speculated that she might have also used Caitians, since the plot required a search for a medical solution to an ailment affecting only felinoids. It seemed like a no-brainer to me. Sadly, Janet had never seen TAS, so Caitians simply were not on her radar.
I also wondered if guest character, Evan, was based on Bjo Trimble, “the woman who saved Star Trek”, since the personality and petite stature seemed to suggest Bjo to me. So I asked her. But no, Evan was based on Janet Kagan’s own mother.
BTW, there is a character the same species as Snarl in Vonda McIntyre’s excellent novelization of ST III.
I speculated that she might have also used Caitians, since the plot required a search for a medical solution to an ailment affecting only felinoids. It seemed like a no-brainer to me. Sadly, Janet had never seen TAS, so Caitians simply were not on her radar.
I also wondered if guest character, Evan, was based on Bjo Trimble, “the woman who saved Star Trek”, since the personality and petite stature seemed to suggest Bjo to me. So I asked her. But no, Evan was based on Janet Kagan’s own mother.
BTW, there is a character the same species as Snarl in Vonda McIntyre’s excellent novelization of ST III.
Thank you for that information. It was very interesting. A while back when I re-read it, I downloaded onto my Kindle her book Mirabile. She also wrote quite a number of short stories that appeared in magazines like Fantasy and Science Fiction.
Like you and @Stevil2001, I was unimpressed by Uhura's Song. It was, as you say, an unpleasant slog.And even though @Christopher might argue the point, I found Evan to be super-annoying. Very much fits the "Mary Sue" trope. Many readers find her perky and cute. She strikes me as annoying.
Just to chime in on this, I seem to recall that Vonda McIntyre includes several new characters of Snarl's species as part of the traveling performers in Enterprise: The First Adventure, and a few insights about their culture. Earlier in The First Adventure McIntyre seemed to play coy with naming Snarl by name or even having her appear; yet during the later half of the book Snarl appears without a re-introduction for "newer" readers who hadn't read The Entropy Effect.
There are three of us. Three of us!
Richard Arnold officially came into his vetting licensed tie-ins on behalf of Gene Roddenberry job midway through Vonda's work on ST IV novelization (published December 1986), much to her frustration. But I suspect that RA may have had some influence over E:TFA (published September 1986) as well, since this one was a project that Roddenberry was expected to know well enough to write an appraisal for it, used in publicity for the 20th anniversary of TOS. Until then, Susan Sackett had been reading manuscripts (eg. Bantam novels) on behalf of GR.
Dare I suggest you have started a de facto throwback ST book club on this thread? As long as you're not one of these types who burn through a book in a day or two, I could probably roughly keep up. And I was just thinking it might be time for a metatextual romp through long-forgotten TV westerns
Yeah, the movies are obviously considered a trilogy of a sort. But when it comes to the books there's II, III, and... Well, there's kind of IV. In a way we lost both James Horner AND Vonda for IV. (Totally off off off topic: I still love Rosenman's score for IV. Way more than Vonda's book.)
I am, of course, now projecting all sorts of interference onto IV that might not have happened at all. Maybe she just wasn't inspired or had other things going on or maybe just had a misfire.
But Enterprise: TFA was pretty good and I've actually re-read it in the last ten years.
So it would seem.
Vonda once had an interview (conducted with herself) discussing her frustration with Richard Arnold, on her personal website. It was stuff that wasn't going to be used in Jeff Ayers' official guide to the novels, "Voyages of Imagination: The Star Trek Fiction Companion". Midway through the ST IV novelization, and despite the short timeframe, she was requested to submit it for additional vetting. She was very displeased, since she had had no interference with ST II or ST III.
You can tell the moment she stopped caring as much. After the hilarious 20th century trash-men discussing the Hollywood script that they were writing (in the actual movie they commented on "not seeing" the invisible vessel, but Vonda made their other mundane lines be from a script the two men were writing), there was little or no new material added by her that wasn't in the script.
I am reading Bloodthirst by J.M. Dillard, and Snnanagfashtalli is in that book, too.
One of the things I particularly like about the book is the ending, where she announces (or challenges) Spock to that game of "hide and seek" for a better word. It would have been fun if Kagen had written more books and we could have seen the game progress, or if someone else had picked up on it and used it in their books. I can imagine Spock "finding" her or one of her clues occasionally, and a fanfare and message popping up, maybe even in the rec room.
To be fair, the whole premise of the film doesn't really allow her to do much expansion. Short of showing other incidents of the crew in 1980s San Fran, what can she do to build out the film? Sure, I'd have liked to know what was going on with the Magellan, but where would that fit in Star Trek IV?
In her novel of The Search for Spock the movie doesn't start until 1/4 of the way into the book. She found lots of nooks and crannies.To be fair, the whole premise of the film doesn't really allow her to do much expansion. Short of showing other incidents of the crew in 1980s San Fran, what can she do to build out the film? Sure, I'd have liked to know what was going on with the Magellan, but where would that fit in Star Trek IV?
I think she did include Carol finding out about David's death while Carol was visiting the families of all the dead from Regula I. She also includes an argument between Sulu and Kirk where Sulu felt Kirk was trying to take too much of the blame at the trial making the crew look like pawns (Sulu felt). There's also a nod or two to Sulu not being captain of the Excelsior anymore. Hmmm. I'm suddenly starting to regret not having this one on the shelf.
The book opens up the day after Spock's funeral, David and Saavik have spent the night together. Carol has rebuffed Kirk's attempts at reconciliation. Enterprise proceeds to the meeting with the Grissom where Esteban tells Kirk that Genesis is off limits. David and Saavik transfer to Grissom. Carol, the Reliant survivors and unnecessary Enterprise crewmen are transferred to a another ship which takes them back to Earth while Enterprise takes the slow road home. Once back at Earth, Carol meets with the family members of Regula One. I think Sarek is involved as well. Once back at Earth, Morrow tells Sulu he won't be Captain of the Excelsior pending further investigation into Khan/Genesis. There is also Peter Preston's funeral and Scotty falling out with his sister and niece, who is also a member of Starfleet and who says she'll conduct in investigation into Scotty's actions during Reliant's initial attack to see if anything could have been done to prevent her brother's death. That's what I remember off the top of my head without pulling the book out of storage.
A few days ago, I said something about Ishmael stuff in a thread about Uhura's Song. 
Just so: https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/the-eighties-tos-by-definition-with-maybe-a-smidge-of-tng.315456/A few days ago, I said something about Ishmael stuff in a thread about Uhura's Song.
There is absolutely no way I can be objective about Uhura's Song as it is the very first Star Trek novel that I ever purchased or read, but I absolutely love this novel and it is still in my Top 3 list of Star Trek novels of all time. Yes, the nostalgia factor of it being my first Star Trek novel purchase probably colors my recollections, but I've also reread this book at least a dozen times (or more) since its publication and I have loved it each time.
I find the Sivaoan's culture to be fascinating. The rituals and lore were interesting enough, but how the author was able to weave together the fact that this seemingly rustic culture was actually very advanced and their way of life was a choice and not a necessity really appealed to me. Sure, some of the characters are not as well fleshed out as others, but in what book is that not the case. Evan Wilson (nee Tail Kinker), Brightspot, Jinx and more were a joy to read.
I hear some of the complaints about the Evan Wilson character and understand why some may see her that way, but I found her super-engaging. I loved seeing how her friendship with Brightspot developed and how she was able to bring perspective to Kirk and Company that they probably would have come to on their own eventually, but did it in a way that was fun and a bit of mirror-holding.
There is so much more about this book that so appeals to me. I could go on about the "competition" with Spock, the twist reveal about how the Sivaoans actually saw the landing party, the camaraderie that was on display during the Walk and the danger they encounter and finally how the Sivaoans have to come to terms with themselves and determine how they will react to the news the Enterprise crew brings with them.
I still have that original, cherished copy of the Uhura's Song that I purchased so many years ago (when I was but 12 years old!) and it's still in fairly decent shape for its age. But, that few times I reread this book, I read the e-book version of it to save the wear and tear on that original copy of the book.
I definitely voted '"Oustanding" to this one. It is definitely one of the standouts of those '80s Star Trek books!
I find the Sivaoan's culture to be fascinating. The rituals and lore were interesting enough, but how the author was able to weave together the fact that this seemingly rustic culture was actually very advanced and their way of life was a choice and not a necessity really appealed to me. Sure, some of the characters are not as well fleshed out as others, but in what book is that not the case. Evan Wilson (nee Tail Kinker), Brightspot, Jinx and more were a joy to read.
I hear some of the complaints about the Evan Wilson character and understand why some may see her that way, but I found her super-engaging. I loved seeing how her friendship with Brightspot developed and how she was able to bring perspective to Kirk and Company that they probably would have come to on their own eventually, but did it in a way that was fun and a bit of mirror-holding.
There is so much more about this book that so appeals to me. I could go on about the "competition" with Spock, the twist reveal about how the Sivaoans actually saw the landing party, the camaraderie that was on display during the Walk and the danger they encounter and finally how the Sivaoans have to come to terms with themselves and determine how they will react to the news the Enterprise crew brings with them.
I still have that original, cherished copy of the Uhura's Song that I purchased so many years ago (when I was but 12 years old!) and it's still in fairly decent shape for its age. But, that few times I reread this book, I read the e-book version of it to save the wear and tear on that original copy of the book.
I definitely voted '"Oustanding" to this one. It is definitely one of the standouts of those '80s Star Trek books!
