Okay, first, it should be noted that this novel certainly happens in the time of the original series. In fact, it seems like it’s fairly early in, and Sulu isn’t entirely sure of his position on the ship, and is also looking at getting the breadth of experience he needs in his later career. This also explains some odd interactions with, largely, Scotty, who feels isolated from events, instead of part of the ‘gang of friends’ we’re used to thinking of. Despite that, Wayne Barlowe’s (original) cover shows the first movie Enterprise and uniforms. Apparently, the initial draft of The Entropy Effect was started while the series was on the air, which explains a lot of this. And yes, that is Sulu on the cover, he has grown his hair out; though by a comment in the novel, he should have a ‘starter’ mustache, instead of the wide one shown.
There are a number of contributions to lore here: First, Sulu gets a romantic subplot, and McIntyre didn’t want a close relationship where he is only referred to by his last name. But, “Sulu” was the only name established in TOS. So she took “Hikaru” from Tale of the Genji as his first name, and when Paramount objected, the editor got Roddenberry and Takei to approve the idea, and got the proposed first name into the novel. From there, it became widespread fannon, and eventually made canon in the opening of Star Trek VI (“Stardate 9521.6: Captain’s Log, USS Excelsior, Hikaru Sulu, commanding.”).
As usual, there’s a number of new minor characters introduced, but McIntyre has us spend some time with the security department, and introduces some characters that would be re-used later. Some of these are just later McIntyre Star Trek novels, but Beranardi al Auriga, Maximo Arrunja, and Snnanagfashtali (my favorite) appear in A.C. Crispin’s Time For Yesterday, with the last also appearing in Janet Kagan’s Uhura’s Song. And several characters are referenced, if not shown, in other later novels.
Now, actual plot: I do think there is a major missed opportunity here. The Enterprise gets called away from close study of a singularity that has suddenly come into existence near a trade route, and gets involved with a transporting the local mad scientist to a correctional facility. This turns into… a reversed closed room mystery. Instead of the victim being in a locked room that no one could get into, the murderer is in a locked room that he couldn’t get out of.
Seen that way, the next step would be a tense investigation aimed at figuring out just what happened. How did the impossible happen? Did the murderer leave his room? (Something that is assumed, but never gets answered. But it was a major question of mine for a bit.)
Sadly, that’s not the structure we get, and characters react to horrific events; are tired, stressed, and things are messy (this is fine). And then, we get another plot thread intruding into things, and we get a split in factions of who is working for what. In general this is good, but at the same time, it feels a little off.
In fact, the biggest problem is pacing. The first half is a little slow. There’s enough different sub-plots going on that the action moves well, and there is enough going on until we hit the center of the novel, and things go horribly wrong. After that, well, all the earlier sub-plots do matter, but some of it is fairly perfunctory, and you could do without them easily. And that’s where things break down. I think we may be seeing a break between initial writing, and finishing things up on a deadline.
However, the main action takes over smoothly for the second half, and we get a solid, but not great, book out it all. Better, despite some quirks I mentioned, the characterizations are good, and just a few brief pages bring to life the security ‘trouble squad’, which I’d read a side series about. I recommend Vonda N. McIntyre in general, and while this is a bit weak for one of her books, it’s still worth a read.
Author: Vonda N. McIntyre (1948-2019)
Fan background: Known to be involved in Star Trek fan activities while the original series was running (photo published in 1968 shows her with a Klingon group).
Initial publication: “New Writers Workshop” (essay; in Locus, 4/1971); “Breaking Point” (short story; in Venture, 2/1970); The Exile Waiting (novel; 1975)
“Of Mist, and Grass, and Sand” was published in Analog in 1973, which won a Nebula, and then it was extended into the novel Dreamsnake, published 1978, which won the Nebula, Hugo, and Locus awards. I don’t have details, but it looks to have been a fix-up novel incorporating “The Serpent’s Death” and “The Broken Dome”, both published in Analog in early 1978. The Exile Waiting is also in the same setting.
She wrote two original Star Trek novels: The Entropy Effect, and Enterprise: The First Adventure. She also did the novelizations of the second through fourth movies (I recommend Star Trek III for a good amount of extra material to enhance the plot), which were collected as Duty, Honor, Redemption, and one Star Wars novel (The Crystal Star).
There is one new novel, The Curve of the World, due out in about a month. Since she died seven years ago, I don’t know what shape it was in at that point, and really, what’s going on with this. It does seem that there is an effort by people who knew her to have all of her novels out in current, good, editions, and this is probably part of that.
While the story as a whole is well put together, you can see how things are being introduced as they are thought up. This was originally a single short story/novella, and then the rest was done a couple years later, with two sections also published as separate short stories, though I suspect that the entire novel was coming into focus as she wrote them instead of this “fix up” novel being completely an afterthought.
