Star Trek is a niche franchise with many ups and downs throughout the years, and the Star Trek literary world is even more so. Many Trekkies will dismiss them as "rubbish" without opening a book. Others will complain that they are "not cannon." Then some like reading about the further adventures of the Enterprises (yes, there are more than one), Deep Space Nine, Voyager, Discovery (okay, maybe that's not one), and the various literary offshoot incarnations.
According to a line of dialogue from Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), the first feature film takes place only two and a half years after Captain Kirk's original five-year mission aboard the starship Enterprise, even though TOS (the original series) got canceled ten years before the feature film. According to "The Lost Years" acknowledgments, authors J.M. Dillard, Brad Ferguson, and Irene Kress met with then Pocket Books editor Dave Stren and DC Comics editor Bob Greenberger on December 13, 1987, at the Pocket's New York office to discuss Bob's idea of having a series of stories that would "fill in the gaps" between the end of the Enterprise's five-year mission and the events chronicled in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The plan was for The Lost Years—penned by J.M. Dillard (Jeanne Kalogridis)—to kick off the series, followed by Brad Ferguson's A Flag Full of Stars and Irene Kress's The War Virus. Unfortunately, "plans" in the publishing business do not always come to fruition as intended. The Lost Years was released in hardcover in August 1989, while Ferguson's A Flag Full of Stars came out in paperback in April 1991. The War Virus was canceled entirely. Traitor Winds, written by L.A. Graf (Karen Rose Cercone and Julia Ecklar), was released in June 1994. J.M. Dillard returned to write the series' fourth and last novel, Recovery, published in March 1995.
The Lost Years isn't for newcomers; it's for Trekkies, or more specifically, TOS fans, and you'll also need to be familiar with J.M. Dillard's TOS novels, Demons and Bloodthirst, because some of her original characters, Security Chief Ingrit Tomoson, Lieutenant Jonathan Stranger, Andorian Lieutenant Lamai, and Lieutenant Lisa Nguyen, make appearances. I've noticed a number of Goodreads reviews where readers expressed confusion over the new characters. You can only go into The Lost Years if you do some homework on the Star Trek fiction lore.
The novel begins with the Enterprise returning to Earth Spacedock to undergo an extensive refit. Captain James T. Kirk is more or less depressed that his five-year mission is over and worries that Starfleet will promote him to Admiral instead of giving him command of the starship Victorious. Mr. Spock is in the midst of his own dilemma. Kirk is endorsing Starfleet to promote Spock to Captain—where he would take command of the science vessel the Grissom. Spock, while flattered, plans on resigning from Starfleet and returning to Vulcan. Dr. McCoy hints at his retirement and intends to visit the Yonadan people and his love Natira (from the TOS episode "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky") on their new homeworld.
Rarely do things go according to plan. Despite threatening to resign if Starfleet doesn't give him a new starship, Kirk accepts the promotion—with the possibility of returning to the captain's chair one day. Lieutenant Commander Kevin Riley, who serves as Kirk's aide, is the lone link to the Enterprise. Spock resigns from Starfleet to teach at the Vulcan Science Academy, where he becomes betrothed to T'Sura.
Kirk, McCoy, Spock, and Uhura become entangled in a strange, convoluted scheme involving an ancient Vulcan spirit (Katra), a kidnapping, and Romulan spies. Oh, did I forget to mention that there is a tarot card reader?
"The Lost Years" is an intriguing prequel (or sequel) for the TOS crew (without Chekov) that starts to bridge the time between the end of the five-year voyage and the beginning of Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Except for Scotty, who oddly lacks his Scottish accent, and Spock in the first few chapters, who appears irritated that Kirk didn't honor his promise to leave Starfleet if he didn't receive a new command, the characters are, for the most part, just like their television counterparts.
The narrative has certain mystical aspects that some Goodreads reviewers found confusing. It's not the first time a Star Trek narrative has included magic, so I don't see the issue here. J.M. Dillard is a fantastic science fiction author. Although I believed there were some pace flaws halfway through the plot's core, I enjoyed the dynamic conversations between the characters and the Vulcan heritage descriptions.
Even though "The Lost Years" isn't a flawless read, I got sucked in as the spaceship Enterprise arrived at Earth's spacedock in Chapter One and finished the book in two days. There were several pace concerns in the second half with the kidnapping plotline. I breezed through it because J.M. Dillard has a way with words, and by the time I came to the last page, I had thoroughly enjoyed the book. ╌★★★★✰
Sounds excellent. I'm a huge TOS fan so bridging the gap between the show and the first movie appeals to me.
ReplyDelete