Spock's World

Spock's World by Diane Duane is wonderful. It is a beautiful, well-written novel that captures almost perfectly the personalities, nuances, and characteristics of Star Trek's Big Three: Spock, Kirk, and McCoy. Interspersed with chapters relating the Enterprise crew's efforts to deal with a current crisis, are chapters dealing with the evolution and history of the planet Vulcan and its people. Duane shows us, with excellently wrought language and vivid imagery, the formation of the planet, the evolution of Vulcan mindpowers, scenes from Vulcan's barbaric past, the advent of the great philosopher Surak, the meeting of Sarek and Amanda, and much more. These history chapters alternated with the chapters about the present-day Enterprise and did so with a very nice balance that leads to a satisfying ending. The pleasure of reading this book is enhanced by familiarity with the Original Series episode "Amok Time," and there are references to other events that happened in the television show, but I suspect that not knowing the show would not be too much of a detriment toward enjoying this novel. In addition to being one of the best Star Trek novels I've read (and I've read a lot of them), Spock's World also stands strong as a sci-fi novel in general, especially in how, in examining the alien, the Other, it sheds some light on what it means to be human.