Star Trek: The Original Series #25: Dwellers in the Crucible

Rating:
Summary: Star Trek fiction for adults
Review: A most painful experience. I had to force myself to finish it. It took a long, long time.

Too much mindless chatter, not enough Trek, not enough science fiction. Even forgetting about being a Trek novel, the main characters are not likable. I did not care what happened to them.

I have enjoyed some of the author's other books, but this one missed the mark.

Rating:
Summary: AARRGGHH!
Review: A most painful experience. I had to force myself to finish it. It took a long, long time.

Too much mindless chatter, not enough Trek, not enough science fiction. Even forgetting about being a Trek novel, the main characters are not likable. I did not care what happened to them.

I have enjoyed some of the author's other books, but this one missed the mark.

Rating:
Summary: My favorite book ever.
Review: Dwellers in the Crucible was marvelously fascinating and compelling in every way. The crew of the Enterprise are wonderful in their secondary roles, and T'Shael and Cleante are incredible heroines in the story. The author makes use of wonderful supporting characters and I found the book's unpredictability phenominal. This was, by far, the most captivating novel I have ever experienced. The story draws you in from the first page and makes you feel absolutely every bit of the whole experience along with the characters. On a scale of one to ten, I think it's easily a fifteen.

Rating:
Summary: Friendships through the Ages
Review: Exploring the dynamics of friendships, Dwellers goes where you've always wanted to in a gripping and exciting way. Two women, T'Sheal and Cleante, (Vulcan/Human), have a budding friendship in it's discovery phase when they are kidnapped by an aggressive species. Through this Crucible, they forge a friendship not completely unlike Kirk's and Spock's. The obvious parrallels are made for clarity without preaching. We learn this fantastic authors idea of Vulcan social structure and human fraility. This book made me a fan of MWB for life. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: One of the best books i've ever read
Review: See the friendship of a vulcan & human put thru the gauntlet.
This book is an extreme depature from the later star trek books.

Rating:
Summary: Well written story, with a very weak basic premise.
Review: The basic plot device used to set up this story, which undergirds the whole plot, is that the Federation uses a system of "Warrantors of the peace"; basically, they're hostages for the good behavior of their people, and if their planet breaks the peace, they're killed. This system is a carryover from an ancient Vulcan system.

The only problem is, there's absolutely no way that the Federation would use such a foolish, barbaric system, and it CERTAINLY wouldn't be of Vulcan origin if they did. I mean, Vulcans don't even have a death penalty for brutal, severe crimes. They certainly wouldn't approve of, much less originate, a system where an innocent was hostage to the good behavior of their government, even if it WAS an effective system...which it wouldn't be, if you think about it. All this system would do is to give an unfair advantage to those political leaders who are harsh enough to have no one whose well-being they care about, and to dissuade gentle leaders who care about their potential Warrantor from becoming involved in government. I found this concept a distracting and implausible concept, one that I could not manage to suspend disbelief for.

Which is a shame, because other than this one very unworkable concept that is essential to the storyline, this is a marvellous story, well-told and with excellent characters. It is not, properly, a story of the Enterprise and our usual cast of characters; they have their roles to play, but are only secondary characters. So if you are looking for a traditional Star Trek story of Kirk, Spock, etc, this isn't what you're looking for. But if you are looking for a fine story set in the Star Trek universe, and can overlook the previously mentioned problem, this is a fine read.

Rating:
Summary: Well written story, with a very weak basic premise.
Review: The basic plot device used to set up this story, which undergirds the whole plot, is that the Federation uses a system of "Warrantors of the peace"; basically, they're hostages for the good behavior of their people, and if their planet breaks the peace, they're killed. This system is a carryover from an ancient Vulcan system.

The only problem is, there's absolutely no way that the Federation would use such a foolish, barbaric system, and it CERTAINLY wouldn't be of Vulcan origin if they did. I mean, Vulcans don't even have a death penalty for brutal, severe crimes. They certainly wouldn't approve of, much less originate, a system where an innocent was hostage to the good behavior of their government, even if it WAS an effective system...which it wouldn't be, if you think about it. All this system would do is to give an unfair advantage to those political leaders who are harsh enough to have no one whose well-being they care about, and to dissuade gentle leaders who care about their potential Warrantor from becoming involved in government. I found this concept a distracting and implausible concept, one that I could not manage to suspend disbelief for.

Which is a shame, because other than this one very unworkable concept that is essential to the storyline, this is a marvellous story, well-told and with excellent characters. It is not, properly, a story of the Enterprise and our usual cast of characters; they have their roles to play, but are only secondary characters. So if you are looking for a traditional Star Trek story of Kirk, Spock, etc, this isn't what you're looking for. But if you are looking for a fine story set in the Star Trek universe, and can overlook the previously mentioned problem, this is a fine read.

Rating:
Summary: A different sort of Trek
Review: This book is a little different than most Trek. It focuses mainly on interpersonal interaction between two women. I enjoyed it, especially since the interaction of two women is so rarely seen in the Star Trek universe. And it is a complex and interesting interaction, since one of them is Vulcan and one is human. It might also be a good book for people interested in Vulcans because one of the main characters is a female Vulcan and the book goes into some depth on Vulcan culture, and not necessarily the soft side of it either, although that too is discussed. I'd like to add more, but really can't without spoiling it.

Rating:
Summary: Star Trek fiction for adults
Review: This book was by far one of the best ST novels that I've read, for many different reasons. But I suppose that one of them is the fact that it doesn't shy away from difficult, more adult issues as many Trek novels do. The two heroines of the story find themselves in a frightening situation that is entirely plausible in the Trek universe, and MWB does an excellent job of protraying how two women from two vastly different cultures might deal with that situation. There has been much hype over the newly released hardcover 'Vulcan's Heart', saying that it is the first 'adult' ST novel. However, in my opinion, that title belongs to DinTC.