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SPOCK'S (tm) World
Sep. 24th, 2014 12:12 pmI was idly thumbing through my copy of Diane Duane's novel Spock's World last night; it was at the top of a box of books and it reminded me I hadn't reread my Duane Star Trek in a while. She has done some of my absolute favorite fleshing out of the Star Trek universe--the importance and complexities of the rec deck! Harb Tanzer! Naraht! K('s)'t'lk! A diverse crew bustling with non-hominids! I think if I ever write ST fic, it's likely I'd set it in the Duane subvariant.
Something I'd never thought to wonder about the book, though, is where the title came from. Like, I can't help but wonder if she had a different original title. Because the title as-is, and the cover (at least on mine, which is the hardback), are actually kind of misleading. Spock is not a primary character in the story at all. I'd say Kirk is the everyman (he doesn't propel events, but closely observes them, and we get a lot of his POV while he does so), McCoy is the hero (he pushes events along in every respect, on and offscreen), Sarek is the damsel in distress in a way (torn between his duty and his chosen life/family). We get a little bit of Spock POV when he goes to visit [name redacted for spoilers] to follow up on some of McCoy's information, but not elsewhere that I remember. He's in a similar cleft stick as his father and mother, but frankly his decision if Vulcan does secede seems much clearer and less conflicted, since he has already made his home off-world anyway. (As opposed to Sarek, who would be losing much more, in home, status, kinship networks, property, etc... his ties to the planet are much more concrete than his son's.)
Then of course the rest of the story basically has Vulcan, or more precisely Vulcans, as the main character, in the interleaved chapters following the history and evolution of the Vulcan people and culture, up to Surak.
Not that I think it should have had another title, viewed with the clear eye of marketing--Spock is an extremely popular character, I suspect the most popular Star Trek has ever produced. And Vulcan is his world, in a sense (though not his only one). So, call it SPOCK'S WORLD, put a big painting of him and no one else on the cover, and people who might not jump for "a historical-political courtroom drama about secession!!!11!" are likelier to read it--"Hey look, it's Spock." And if they read it, I would bet they would enjoy it.
I mean, I myself am not usually one for a courtroom drama, or in fact politics, but this book nevertheless has me in its pocket. (Granted, I read The Wounded Sky first, which came before and was a bravura performance, but still.)
Something I'd never thought to wonder about the book, though, is where the title came from. Like, I can't help but wonder if she had a different original title. Because the title as-is, and the cover (at least on mine, which is the hardback), are actually kind of misleading. Spock is not a primary character in the story at all. I'd say Kirk is the everyman (he doesn't propel events, but closely observes them, and we get a lot of his POV while he does so), McCoy is the hero (he pushes events along in every respect, on and offscreen), Sarek is the damsel in distress in a way (torn between his duty and his chosen life/family). We get a little bit of Spock POV when he goes to visit [name redacted for spoilers] to follow up on some of McCoy's information, but not elsewhere that I remember. He's in a similar cleft stick as his father and mother, but frankly his decision if Vulcan does secede seems much clearer and less conflicted, since he has already made his home off-world anyway. (As opposed to Sarek, who would be losing much more, in home, status, kinship networks, property, etc... his ties to the planet are much more concrete than his son's.)
Then of course the rest of the story basically has Vulcan, or more precisely Vulcans, as the main character, in the interleaved chapters following the history and evolution of the Vulcan people and culture, up to Surak.
Not that I think it should have had another title, viewed with the clear eye of marketing--Spock is an extremely popular character, I suspect the most popular Star Trek has ever produced. And Vulcan is his world, in a sense (though not his only one). So, call it SPOCK'S WORLD, put a big painting of him and no one else on the cover, and people who might not jump for "a historical-political courtroom drama about secession!!!11!" are likelier to read it--"Hey look, it's Spock." And if they read it, I would bet they would enjoy it.
I mean, I myself am not usually one for a courtroom drama, or in fact politics, but this book nevertheless has me in its pocket. (Granted, I read The Wounded Sky first, which came before and was a bravura performance, but still.)
