Unspoken Truth

Unspoken Truth is classic Star Trek the way Gene Roddenberry intended it to be. This story involve Saavik immediately after Star Trek III The Search for Spock and concurrent with Star Trek The Voyage Home and a bit after that. While it explores some of her background on the planet Hellguard it also explores her relationship with an out of the ordinary scientist on a mission of exploration and the first contact with a very interesting new intelligent species of worms called the Deemanot and the second half of the book deals with her playing a roll as a spy on Vulcan. The familiar players are all well drawn even though Saavik, Sarek and Amanda are the ones we see the most. The spy story comes to a conclusion and then there is a nice leisurely 42 page wind down to the story that I thought was very appropriate. I highly recommend this novel for all Star Trek fans and especially fans of the original Star Trek.

I cannot see how anyone would not give this book five stars. I read this in two days because it was so engaging. The MUCH ignored character of Saavik is FINALLY fleshed-out! There is no way that Gene Roddenberry and co. would have taken this character where MWB has. Awesome! I also LOVE how a good portion of the Tiburon species is depected (especially Zora....who's actions are finally explained, but still has mystery to her). Very cagey of MWB to mention Peter Preston as only someone with great TREK knowledge would know the friendship between Saavik and himself. I SO urge you to read this book if you ever even had an inkling whatever happened to Saavik (also see the book "The Pandora Principle" beforehand as reading that book first might give you a better understanding of what the planet Hellgaurd was all about).

Introduced in early Star Trek films, Saavik is a half-Vulcan, half-Romulan protégé of Spock. This is her story. As a child, Saavik was rescued from Hellguard along with other children that the Romlulans had abandoned after a failed biological engineering experiment. Spock brought Saavik home to Vulcan to be raised by his parents, Sarek and Amanda. Saavik is now an officer in Starfleet with a bright future. But her world is turned upside down when childhood friend Tolek, tells her that the now-grown survivors of Hellguard are being hunted down and killed. Then, a Romulan confronts Saavik with news that he is her biological father and that she must help him destroy her adoptive father Sarek's career as an ambassador. If Saavik doesn't agree, not only will she be killed, but Sarek as well. This ambitious novel tracks the life of a minor character (though certainly an interesting one) in the Star Trek universe. Despite Saavik having been portrayed by two different actresses (Kirstie Alley, Star Trek II and Robin Curtis Star Trek III & IV), we are only given a glimpse of her relationship with Spock, and nothing about her origins. Author Margaret Wander Bonanno wrote of one of my favorite Trek novels - Strangers from the Sky. And here, she fills in the blanks about where Saavik came from and her connection to Spock and his family. Bonanno fleshes out this complex character and gives her incredible depth and motivation. It is not a requirement, but definitely helpful to have a good knowledge of Star Trek films II-IV as the novel references all of her scenes and the circumstances with Spock's death and regeneration. But then, what original series fan doesn't know the movies well? Drama, mystery, intrigue, and first contact - this story will appeal to any true Star Trek fan. The plot is as complex as Saavik herself. It's thought-provoking and moving, yet full of wonder and excitement - this is why I love science fiction and Star Trek novels in particular. I will now be tracking down Bonanno's novels that I haven't yet read. First the classic Strangers from the Sky, now this inspiring Unspoken Truth - I am dually impressed.

(I just closed the book, and my thoughts are mostly inchoate, more feelings at the moment.) What a fantastic book. What an even more enjoyable reading experience. First off, Ms. Bonanno has done again so well, so expertly, what she did in Burning Dreams: go behind the screen and behind the mask to reveal what I think of as the unabridged story. In Burning Dreams, it was Vina she brought to life, and although the novel is ostensibly the biography of Christopher Pike--and a fascinating one at that--it was the revelations about Vina, about what was (hypothetically) going on behind the mask and the screen, interspersed between what we saw and heard in "The Menagerie", that was most engaging and electrifying in the novel. I cannot recall the specifics, but I remember at the time thinking, "This is the feminist lens I want and am hungry for in order to make "The Cage" and "The Menagerie". . . I'm not sure what. More complete? Maybe. In Unspoken Truth, she reveals the impact on--Saavik, Spock, Amanda, Sarek, Kirk--and aftermath of the events of the trilogy of Star Trek stories told as the movies/novelizations: "The Wrath of Khan", "The Search for Spock", and "The Voyage Home." (No coincidences. I bought 150 Trek books in 2004 and 2005 after I first read Avatar and A Stitch in Time and realized that these literary adventures did not live down to my feared expectations. I've got 8 books left. I'd meant to read the omnibus--Duty, Honor, Redemption--for over two years but only dove into it in January, so fresh off the broadening and deepening of the narrative and characters presented by Vonda N. McIntyre, I looked forward to another foray into that world. Oh, how my expectations, already high from my love of the author's previous books--the aforementioned Burning Dreams and Catalyst of Sorrows--were left in the dust. Bonanno is terribly gifted--the story she tells, the pacing, the words she chooses like paint pigments from a palette. (Careful, boy, slipping into alliteration.) This entire book was a treasure to read. Writing (and struggling with) my own novel, I found myself in awe as she deftly sketched Saavik's past on Hellguard, interweaved the impact of this on her present in the unfolding story, and interspersed both of these with gems revealed about the immediate past events that Saavik--and we, the reader and viewer, the lovers, of Star Trek--has suffered through: the murder and mayhem perpetrated by Khan; the death and resurrection of her savior and mentor; said mentor's difficulties after the refusion on Vulcan and grief that he is possibly lost to her forever; the murder of David Marcus and guilt that she could have somehow prevented this; setting aside her Self in order to save Spock when the time came for pon-far; her encounter with Spock on board the H. M. S. Bounty before the crew depart Vulcan and her; and all of this on her training cruise as a cadet. Touché, Ms. Bonnano. I don't know if any of us ever really appreciated