Finally read TOS Crucible Trilogy (Spoilers)

[Therin of Andor]

ClayinCA said:
You know, when I first read the Spock book, I had the same thought about Spock choosing to attempt Kolinahr again

My feelings exactly. Because Spock was making choices that we, the readers, didn't want him to make, it was often a difficult book to read.

Similarly, when we watched "Unification" for the first time, I found it quite uncomfortable to hear perrin talking, and we realize that the brief, but satisfying Sarek/Spock reunion in ST IV ultimately was followed by more rifts and estrangements.

But David George backs up every choice he made for Spock with canonical evidence, and it was a great read - even if I often disagreed with the characters' choices.

 

[ClayinCA]

Yeah, the Perrin thing bothered me too. Though I would argue that David George's book was much better written than "Unification" was, but that's a whole 'nother argument for a whole 'nother thread...

 

[EliyahuQeoni]

Hmm I don't think I looked at it that way. Now I'm going to have to reread that book again! Which isn't a bad thing

 

[seigezunt]

Have to agree with my man Therin. I really loved this series, though I couldn't quite get into the Spock book, for the way it strayed from what I'd accepted as "real" from other novels. The kirk novel I actually read much of again, since it was so short, and I love it. It gives Kirk a great fate, and improves on one of the greatest crimes in fiction, his death in Generations.

 

[RobertScorpio]

I recently had JURY duty. And while waiting to be called for service I picked up the CRUCIBLE KIRK book in the gift store. Since I haven't read the other two I can only say that I liked this book alot. Who would ever guess that Guinan and Kirk would share 'screen' time like that.

I like to read the books as if they are episodes. So inbetween chapters I always pretend the camera zooms in on Kirk as he gives us one of those 'worried...cliffhanger' looks he was so good at on TOS

 

[EliyahuQeoni]

I think the Kirk volume works well as a stand alone book, but just didn't--to me anyway--seem to fit the feel of the other two volumes.

 

[Lindley]

Just finished Crucible: Kirk, so I've now read all three.

I'll first say that while all three books tell good stories, it may have been a mistake to make them a trilogy. Continually tying everything back to "City" felt far more forced than it should have; and the repeated scenes grew tiresome. Showing a single scene from multiple points of view is fine once or twice, but enough is enough......I don't need every single version of Kirk running around reminding us via his thoughts every other chapter that Korax blew up the Guardian. I read it once already in this very book, never mind the last one!

Now, taking the individual stories in isolation from the "trilogy" aspect, as I feel they should have been to start with.....

The McCoy novel was fantastic. Even if letting him die just after "Encounter at Farpoint" messed up a bunch of other novels, it still felt like an epic tale worthy of a top shelf position.

The Spock novel, as I've previously said, was a great character study (when it wasn't busy reminding us of things we already knew from the TV show or McCoy novel). Its distinctness from the more "common" noncanon events of Spock's live was a bit jarring, but not a deal-breaker by any stretch.

The Kirk novel felt like a short story padded out to a full book, honestly. A great short story, to be sure, but that was the impression I got. I really don't care about Antonia, so that didn't help. We knew that ended badly already, and the story didn't really give us much to work with beyond that, so I have to wonder why spend time on it at all. The temporal mechanics were fun, though. I did regret not seeing the "Don't you read history?" line in either of the two Veridian III sequences, thus making it unclear which of them we were "supposed" to have seen in Generations. After spending so much time re-telling scenes elsewhere, it seemed strange not to highlight the Veridian III differences the second time around. Also, with all the power of the Nexus available to Kirk, he couldn't come up with a better plan for his other-self than dying the same way he did? Why not encode a time-delayed message for Picard warning him about Soran, and leave it sealed (under the Temporal Prime Directive) not to be viewed until after Amagosa goes up?

Final grades:
McCoy: A+
Spock: A- for the original story, B for the whole book
Kirk: B+ for the original story, B for the whole book

The Afterword said you came up with the McCoy concept first. I'm afraid I could tell.