The Lost Years (Star Trek)

This is work in progress trying to collect ST books I am missing. I have more than enough for reading yet still could use more. I was there at the beginning when the show began, when the books started appearing at the store. I love all the ones I have read so far.

The title is a bit misleading, because the action only covers a small portion of a year. To my mind, more is needed for this hidden period of history.

This was a pretty good yarn, with lots of classic Star Trek action and fairly reasonable characterization overall. But there were several problems with it. Star Trek in general is pure space opera, and delights people like me, who prefer space opera over fantasy and medieval squalor. It is fairly light on the technical side.

But there were several problems with it, to my mind. First, it glorified tarot. One would not reasonably expect space opera to elevate an occult practice in such a manner. Obviously, it is reasonable to assume that certain mental gifts, such as various forms of telepathy, would be perfectly acceptable when presented as simply a natural gift that some races possess. But tarot doesn't fit into that in the least. Although it adds dimension to the story, it is really not necessary.

The second problem I saw is that in the end, Spock's decision about what to do for the rest of his life was totally illogical. It broke a promise and shirked a responsibilty he had freely undertaken. It was the cry of a petulant child seeking to prove once and for all that he is truly Vulcan, when because of these ethical flaws, it was the polar opposite.

Finally, a major thread of the story was left unresolved. Given its prominence in the story, I think it deserved better.

The book is a long read, and fairly entertaining, but in the end, it didn't quite measure up.

Great book