Spoilers TOS: The Eugenics Wars: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh Volume 1 By Greg Cox

[JD]

I finished up this book this weekend and I really enjoyed it. I gave it a 4/5 on Goodreads.
I'd been intrigued by this one for a while, and I'm glad I finally read it, it was a lot of fun.
The book had two main stories, one focused on Kirk and The Enterprise crew in the TOS era and one focused on Gary Seven, Roberta Lincoln, and Khan. I thought both story lines were really good. Often times in books set up like this one story line will be more interesting, and you often find yourself annoyed when it switches plots or even skipping one entirely. This didn't was not the case here, I didn't mind jumping back and forth between the two.
The main focus was on the Eugenics Wars, 1970s/80s storyline and that was great. I really loved the way Greg Cox managed to tie together Trek history and real world history. I really liked the relationship that developed between Khan and Gary Seven. The fact that Khan started out as an ally, and protege of Gary Seven made him a lot more interesting than if he had just been a pure evil villain from the start. All of the different 20th century characters were worked into the story in a way that really worked A lot of times this can be annoying, but I thought here they were all done in a way that felt natural for the story. The same goes for the real historical events. I'd actually never heard of most of these events, so I actually got to learn a little bit of real world history.
This book was a lot of fun, and I'm pretty eager to get into Vol. 2, after I finish the comic book collection I'm reading right now.
I do have a couple questions for Greg:
1. Did you come up with the story first and work the 20th century characters and events into it, or did you come up the characters and event and then develop a story around them?
2. If you had the opportunity would you try to work in the characters from the 20th century episodes that aired after the book was written?
EDIT: Crap, I forgot the poll, is there a way to add one?

 

[Greg Cox]

Glad you enjoyed the book. Let it be noted that I wrote that first book something like fifteen years ago (!), so my memory is a bit fuzzy, but as I recall . . . .

1) It was a bit of both. I approached the project like an enormous crossword puzzle, trying to figure out how to make "real" history and Trek history intersect and, yes, I had a list of twentieth-century characters I was determined to work into the plot. Some ended up being key figures, others were just cameos, and, in some cases, I was picking up on stuff that had been established in previous works of TrekLit. For example: the idea that Ralph Offenhouse (from TNG's "The Neutral Zone") had been one of the financiers behind the Eugenics Wars was something I lifted from a previous Trek novel, DEBTOR'S PLANET by W.R. Thompson. And name of Gary Seven's alien sponsors, "The Aegis," came from a DC Comics story by Howard Weinstein.

2) The idea of rewriting the EW trilogy at this late date fills me with dread (those books were a lot of work), but I suppose it would be an interesting challenge to update it. I definitely could have used the term "Augments" when I writing those books, instead of just typing "genetically-engineered superhuman" all the time, but, alas, those ENTERPRISE eps were still years in the future at the point I was writing the books.

 

[Tomalak]

I loved these books. As a Trekkie and a modern history nerd, you got me at exactly the right time. It was a tremendous job to string all those bits and pieces together, combined with real events and people, yet avoiding it from becoming pure fanwank. I enjoyed the framing narrative too. It was a terrific exploration of where Khan came from, and Roberta Lincoln emerges as the true heroine!

Confession: I've still not read the third part.

 

[Christopher]

2) The idea of rewriting the EW trilogy at this late date fills me with dread (those books were a lot of work), but I suppose it would be an interesting challenge to update it. I definitely could have used the term "Augments" when I writing those books, instead of just typing "genetically-engineered superhuman" all the time, but, alas, those ENTERPRISE eps were still years in the future at the point I was writing the books.

By coincidence, there was a time years before ENT when I was considering a term like "Augmenteds" for enhanced humans in one fictional universe or another (I forget whether it was for Only Superhuman or some comics idea of mine). I even considered calling them "Augmen" (sort of like X-Men), but any cleverness that label had was outweighed by its ugliness. I never quite hit on "Augments," though.

 

[trampledamage]

EDIT: Crap, I forgot the poll, is there a way to add one?

I think there is with XenForo - but I'm not sure how.

Try editing your post and see if there are options to add a poll - failing that, I'll see what I can do.

 

[RandyS]

I read this trilogy five years ago and it must have made an impression on my failing memory, because five years on, they remain one of the highlights of my (large) Star Trek novel collection.

 

[JD]

I think there is with XenForo - but I'm not sure how.

Try editing your post and see if there are options to add a poll - failing that, I'll see what I can do.

I looked around yesterday, but I couldn't find a way to add one.

 

[DimesDan]

I suspect it's a Prem Mem perk.

 

[Christopher]

Maybe you could create a second thread with a poll, and the mod could merge them under this thread's title?

 

[trampledamage]

Leave it with me - I'll look at it this evening and either add a poll or create a new thread. and merge the replies.

 

[trampledamage]

Have added a poll

Interestingly there's now an option that allows you to change your vote. I've allowed that here - for those of us who are clumsy with our mouse-clicks

 

[JD]

Thank you. I voted Above Average.

 

[Kilana2]

Finally. Credit where credit is due: outstanding!!!!

 

[Sto-Vo-Kory]

Have added a poll

Interestingly there's now an option that allows you to change your vote. I've allowed that here - for those of us who are clumsy with our mouse-clicks

Thanks, trampledamage!

 

[uniderth]

I remember borrowing the audiobook from the library years ago(yes, I returned it). I can't remember too much of it now. But I do remember liking that Gary Seven and Roberta were included. There were two things I remember no liking. First was that the Eugenics Wars were these secret behind the scenes manipulations. To be honest, it just seemed to undermine the impact of the story in Space Seed. The second, which I may be remembering wrong, was the Botany Bay being launched from Area 51. And Khan and crew were somehow transported aboard by Gary Seven. Again, having the DY-100 being this secret ship seemed to undermine the story of Space Seed. But I may be remembering that wrong, it's been a few years since I listened to it.

Regardless, I think you did a great job Greg. It was an excellent story and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I think I'll have to find an audiobook of it and give it another listen.

 

[Christopher]

I remember borrowing the audiobook from the library years ago(yes, I returned it). I can't remember too much of it now. But I do remember liking that Gary Seven and Roberta were included. There were two things I remember no liking. First was that the Eugenics Wars were these secret behind the scenes manipulations. To be honest, it just seemed to undermine the impact of the story in Space Seed. The second, which I may be remembering wrong, was the Botany Bay being launched from Area 51. And Khan and crew were somehow transported aboard by Gary Seven. Again, having the DY-100 being this secret ship seemed to undermine the story of Space Seed. But I may be remembering that wrong, it's been a few years since I listened to it.

I dunno if it undermines "Space Seed," because the idea was that it was only secret at the time, and that the truth would've come out by the 23rd century.

And really, I found that the books don't ride too hard on the secrecy angle. It's possible to read it as a narrative about a fairly open conflict that just happens to have some aspects in common with real history. There was that part about the nerve-gas attack on a conference in Europe -- that wouldn't have been secret. And really, its events would only count as a "secret" history from the perspective of Americans, since we pay so little attention to the world beyond the parts that concern us. Khan couldn't have ruled India without the Indians knowing about it. And there's a lot of plausibility to that, sadly. There have been massive civil wars in Africa over the past decade or two that most Americans barely know about, because our news media are so insular. So the Eugenics Wars could similarly have been mostly unnoticed by Americans, yet quite openly waged in other parts of the world.

 

[uniderth]

I agree that there's nothing in Space Seed the explicitly says the war could not have been a behind the scenes manipulation, or lack of media coverage, or something along those lines. Also considering that L.A. was relatively unaffected the two part Voyager episode "Future's End; I can see why the covert war could be an appealing narrative choice. And it's been a long time so maybe I'm just remembering the "covert" aspect.

But from what i remember Greg's narrative just didn't fit with what was implied(of course that's just my own interpretation) in Space Seed. We all know the quotes, but here they are anyway:

SPOCK: No such vessel listed. Records of that period are fragmentary, however. The mid=1990s was the era of your last so-called World War.
MCCOY: The Eugenics Wars.
SPOCK: Of course. Your attempt to improve the race through selective breeding.

SPOCK: Your Earth was on the verge of a dark ages. Whole populations were being bombed out of existence. A group of criminals could have been dealt with far more efficiently than wasting one of their most advanced spaceships.

SPOCK: There is that possibility, Captain. His age would be correct. In 1993, a group of these young supermen did seize power simultaneously in over forty nations.
KIRK: Well, they were hardly supermen. They were aggressive, arrogant. They began to battle among themselves.
SPOCK: Because the scientists overlooked one fact. Superior ability breeds superior ambition.
KIRK: Interesting, if true. They created a group of Alexanders, Napoleons.
SPOCK: I have collected some names and made some counts. By my estimate, there were some eighty or ninety of these young supermen unaccounted for when they were finally defeated.
KIRK: That fact isn't in the history texts.
SPOCK: Would you reveal to war-weary populations that some eighty Napoleons might still be alive?

SPOCK: From 1992 through 1996, absolute ruler of more than a quarter of your world. From Asia through the Middle East.


I imagine that if one man became absolute ruler of India, China, middle east, parts of Russia perhaps, south-east asia, etc., we'd have heard about it. Not to mention the other dictators who took power in the other 40+ nations. Granted this would have been back in the early nineties, but still, there would have been some ramifications for foreign policy, etc. It would have been in the papers.

Space Seed just makes the Eugenics wars out to be this huge thing; and from what I remember, Greg's books just didn't fit with my interpretation of that. But I can see why the Eugenics wars were written the way they were.

 

[Christopher]

I agree that there's nothing in Space Seed the explicitly says the war could not have been a behind the scenes manipulation, or lack of media coverage, or something along those lines.

No, what I'm saying is the opposite of that: That there's really nothing in The Eugenics Wars that explicitly says the wars were entirely secret. It does employ the idea that the events of real '90s history had underlying causes unknown to most Americans at the time, but it doesn't dwell heavily on the idea that the truth is being covered up, and it pretty much requires that a lot of its events are known to non-Americans. So the books can be read in a way that allows for the interpretation that the wars were at least somewhat overt after all. And that makes them reconcilable with the references to the Eugenics Wars in Enterprise.

Also considering that L.A. was relatively unaffected the two part Voyager episode "Future's End; I can see why the covert war could be an appealing narrative choice.

What a lot of people forget is that no major war of the 20th century was fought on US soil (since Hawai'i wasn't yet a state at the time of Pearl Harbor). So there's nothing the least bit unusual about a US city being unaffected by a major war going on elsewhere. Sure, during WWII you'd see plenty of evidence of the war in US cities -- rationing, blackouts, scrap drives, war bond rallies, all the able-bodied young men sent away, etc. -- but you could've been in any major US city during the Korean or Vietnam War and not seen much sign of anything unusual. Not to mention that there's a whole world beyond America, and not every war involves us.

But from what i remember Greg's narrative just didn't fit with what was implied(of course that's just my own interpretation) in Space Seed.

Sure, but that's the interpretation of historians looking back from centuries later. That's bound to be different from the perception of people living through events at the time. History is a constructed narrative presenting a theory of the causes behind past events. It often posits underlying connections or overarching patterns that wouldn't have been obvious at the time.

I imagine that if one man became absolute ruler of India, China, middle east, parts of Russia perhaps, south-east asia, etc., we'd have heard about it. Not to mention the other dictators who took power in the other 40+ nations. Granted this would have been back in the early nineties, but still, there would have been some ramifications for foreign policy, etc. It would have been in the papers.

The thing is, though, there have always been plenty of dictators and warlords and wars and genocides. The 1990s were certainly not free of those things. Greg's postulate was that the general public just didn't realize that all those different dicators and conquerors and mass murderers had a common origin connecting them. It wasn't until much later that history came to understand they had all been Augments and that all those seemingly separate wars and tyrannies and terrorist acts were part of a connected pattern.

And as I said, Americans are terribly self-absorbed. We often ignore major things going on elsewhere in the world because they don't concern us, or because they're happening to non-white people. This is still happening today. ISIL is committing terrorist bombings and mass murders against populations throughout the Middle East on practically a daily basis, but the only time the American news media pay any attention is on those infrequent occasions when they strike a European city instead. This is the sad truth of American bias. The Augments could commit atrocities throughout Asia or the Mideast or Africa, and as long as they left Europe and America alone, most of us wouldn't pay any attention.

 

[Jinn]

but the only time the American news media pay any attention is on those infrequent occasions when they strike a European city instead.

Not so Fun Fact: The wikipedia article on the November 13 terrorist attacks on Paris is longer than the one on the Arab-Israeli conflict.... That's like 1 day + some weeks aftermath againts 68 years.

 

[JD]

This is barely related to The Eugenics Wars books, but I don't want to start another thread.
Greg Cox's Q-Continuum trilogy is available for $1.99 for each individual book on Google Play Books, and Amazon Kindle. I haven't checked any of the other e-book services so I'm not sure about them, but these kinds of sales usually cross all of them so they probably will be.