Star Trek: Time for Yesterday

Rating:
Summary: Good story, if a bit fannish...
Review: Back in the day, you often saw a variety of tales told in the Trek universe as Paramount Pictures didn't have as strong a hold on the series as they do now. As a result, you saw some fantastic (and I mean wild) stories being told. Here is one that while not so wild, falls easily into the fannish aspect, bringing up a "What If?" that fans have often wondered about. I doubt it would get produced today. The story telling is very good, with solid characterization. This is one story for the true fan, but not the casual reader of the series.

Rating:
Summary: Read Reannon Bonaventure's Review
Review: I read this Star Trek novel in response to the tremendous "hype" that I had seen regarding both this novel and its prequel "Yesterday's Son."

I have to say that both novels live up to their reputations as some of the best Star Trek fiction you'll find in print.

Both stories are well written and well structured. The author's understanding of and affection for the characters and her dedication to the subject matter permeate both texts providing the reader with a very special experience.

Rating:
Summary: Good story that centers on Zar and Spock
Review: I really like both "The Yesterday's Son" and this sequel.This book is great!Zar's world is developed very well,and I really empathized with his dilemma.I liked seeing more of Spock(of what his feelings are) and the way their relationship developed.Good reading,enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Time for All Our Yesterdays :-)
Review: It was the first Star Trek novel I've read, and it's still one of my favorites. I love time-travel stories, especially if the characters meet they relatives in the past or future (like in Back to the Future). Events in "Time for Yesterday" can be understood without knowing its prequel and the TOS episode "All Our Yesterdays" (on which the whole story is based.) The main character is Zar (son of Spock and Zarabeth), ruler of a prehistoric community on Planet Sarpeidon. His country is attacked by the enemy, and he must seek allies, so he marries a daughter of another ruler. Meanwhile, the Enterprise travels back to the past to find Zar who is the only one who can save the universe from collapsing. Zar meets his father again. Spock takes Zar to the future to save the world, and he wants him to remain with them, because he studied the history of Sarpeidon and he knows that Zar will die in a battle. Still Zar goes back to his people and his wife. Then Spock travels back to the past again to save his son...

Rating:
Summary: Magnificent !
Review: Just finished reading this book. Words cannot express how much I enjoyed/loved it! Without giving away too much - the interaction between Spock and his son was wonderful and brought tears to my eyes more than once. Additionally, oft times a book will end too abruptly leaving me wanting more - or too slowly leaving me wanting to get to the end. This book's end was perfect!

Rating:
Summary: an excellent sequel to "yesterday's son"
Review: the guardian of forever is not running correctly. it is causing
stars to go nova millions of years ahead of schedule. the scientific team sent to investigate has not been heard from. kirk
and spock are called upon to investigate as they were the ones who discoved it. the problem is that the only one who was able to
contact it was spock's son who lives 1 million years in the past.
a new plan is concocted to go back and see if he will come to the
future. but when they arrive, zar has problems of his own. he is
on the brink of war and he does not want to leave his people for
even his father. this story has more twists and turns than any
star trek novel i have read other than "black fire". a must read
for all spock fans and for anyone who read "yesterday's son".

Rating:
Summary: Review of "Time For Yesterday"
Review: This is an excellent "Star Trek" book, a sequel to Star Trek #11, "Yesterday's Son", which was itself a sequel to the original series episode, "All Our Yesterdays". "Yesterday's Son" was good, if not spectacular. This book is much better; one assumes that the author has matured a bit as a writer in the interim. It utilizes a plot device that is unduly common: Kirk & the Enterprise must save the entire universe. But unlike most books that use such a device, this one actually manages to make it more or less plausible, and handles the concept well. Further, the characters are well-written, and the language is handled with a smooth competence unusual in mass-market paperbacks. The plot moves well, and the book accomplishes all that it sets out to.

Excellent read for the Star Trek fan, and probably worthwhile for the casual reader, as well.

Rating:
Summary: one of the best
Review: this is another one of my fave books. Truly delves so much better in the relationship of Zar and who he is and his relationship with Spock then Yesterday's Son did. Shows really how both have grown and accepted who they are...it is a must read, especially if you are a fan of Spock

Rating:
Summary: Half a Sequel Better Than None?
Review: This is the sort of story that comes out of the question, "What ever happened to...?" and the irresistable compulsion to conjure up a compelling answer. Unfortunately, like most sequels there just isn't enough of a story to make the "enterprise" worthwhile.

Which isn't to say that the sheer novelty of seeing the Kirk, Spock, and McCoy of the Trek movie era interact with a now older, sadder, wiser Zar isn't interesting. I enjoyed the characterizations, particularly Spock's warm embrace of his son here contrasted with his cold aloofness in "Yesterday's Son," and Zar's discovery that "doing the right thing" doesn't always have the personal compensations that you might expect. And, of course, Spock's raised eyebrow when his tricorder reveals that his new daughter-in-law, Wynn, is preggers - Grandpa Spock! - is perfect beyond description.

The plot, however, just doesn't do the characters, or the reader, justice. Indeed, it unfolds in systematic, predictable fashion not unlike the directions for a model airplane:

1) Starfleet discovers a mortal threat to the ENTIRE UNIVERSE and that there's only three months to fix it;

2) Spock tries to fix it, can't, and realizes that there's only one other person who can - naturally, Zar;

3) Kirk, Spock, and McCoy go to ice age Sarpeidon to retrieve him, only to find that they've temporally miscalculated and find him as a middle aged ruler of a vast territory under siege from mindless barbarian hordes, so they've got to help him solve his problem before he can solve theirs.

And just as the set-up for these threads is by-the-numbers, so are their respective resolutions. There's not one ounce of real suspense or anticipation in the entire book.

The end result is a novel that answers the "What ever happened to...?" question adequately, but not interestingly, unless you buy the notion of romances that span "Hello, pleased to meet you" to post-wedding night morning sickness in the space of twenty-four hours (Who knew that after twenty years of "getting to know his body better," Zar would turn irresistable overnight?). The "universe is doomed" thread is implausibly and cynically resolved not much more than halfway through the narrative (by Admiral Kirk outwitting the vastly superior, non-corporeal aliens, of course), rendering it a cheat and an unnecessarily overblown contrivance. And even Spock's personal mission to save his son's life, while moving, is more hokey than inspiring (all that was missing was Spock shouting, "By the power of Greyskull!"). But at least this book wasn't written by Bill Shatner, so Kirk doesn't also knock up Wynn and out-fight all of Zar's foes singlehandedly with three water balloons and a sand wedge.

If you can motor past the sterile plot set-up to the character dialogue, "Time for Yesterday" is - marginally - worth the read.