I do not believe the psychological underpinnings of this novel for an instant, nor its portrayal of Vulcans. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it in the way I'd enjoy an iffy lay-Spock fic.

I wrote a (probably too) long review of this over this way, but I'll just put the conclusion here, to save you time. Read the whole thing if you care to see some of the annoying bits of the book.

In short, Vulcan! is several kinds of boring and disappointing. The idea of McCoy having the duty of ensuring crewmembers' personalities mesh well is an interesting one, though little explored here. His taking on the role of psychiatrist is not new to this novel (for example, Blish had McCoy as a specialist in psychology in Spock Must Die!), though he did claim to be "a surgeon, not a psychiatrist" in The City on the Edge of Forever. The few slightly interesting features of the novel don't redeem it, though. It's certainly one to skip. ( )

To be honest, I wasn't really looking forward to reading Kathleen Sky's book. The reviews on Goodreads are almost uniformly negative, dismissing it as a Mary Sue novel with a lousy plot and poor characterizations of the central crew. And after reading it for myself, I found that the criticisms are largely well founded, especially when compared to the many other works written since that do so much better of a job of crafting a story that is true to the elements of the original series. The plot is premised on a ridiculous notion that the border of the Neutral Zone between the Federation and the Romulans that can shift under the influence of space storms, which is an implausible concept that is refuted by the very episode that introduced the Romulans and the Neutral Zone to begin with. The characterizations are indeed poor, with Spock less controlled and logical than he should have been, and McCoy almost predatorial in his romantic aspirations. Worst of all, though is the central character of Katalya Tremain, who comes across as far too petulant and unprofessional for someone who is ostensibly a member of a professional organization like Starfleet.

And yet in spite of all that I found myself enjoying the novel much more than I expected I would. While the premise of a shifting border may be ridiculous, the mission itself to establish whether a species on a key world is sentient or not was an interesting concept that is surprisingly underutilized in the franchise. And for all of the flaws in the characterization of the central crew and her key creation, Sky does provide an interesting examination of crew dynamics that is surprisingly nuanced, addressing it in a way that is far truer to life than Roddenberry's overly-idealized premise of numerous species all working happily together and as later works would demonstrate would prove a fruitful source of storytelling. Perhaps it was a case of having my expectations lowered to a point where I could appreciate the book despite its flaws, but whatever the reason it resulted in the end in a better reading experience and a more nuanced assessment of what Sky's book has to offer. ( )

A friend described these late-70s Star Trek novels from Bantam as "off-model." I took it to mean visually, but that feeling is reflected in the text as well.

The novel focuses on Spock, McCoy, and Kirk, and their characterization seems quite a bit off from how they have come to be presented over the years, in both action and dialogue. This, combined with the rampant libido exhibited by the male characters and the rampant "hysteria" (a term used several times in the text, occasionally more than once on a page) of the antagonist, it's a book best left in the 70s. ( )

Wow, this was a 'fascinating' one. A fan can tell this is an early entry in the franchise, as Sky explores aspects of Spock's psychology & abilities that are almost implausibly human-like. That is to say, the Spock revealed here is the one usually hidden from us. McCoy's character is explored more deeply, too. Not much Kirk, almost no Scotty or Uhura, etc.

And the face-off with the Romulans is very well-done. Lots of death, but no real battle scenes, so the level of adventure was good, imo. The only problem I had was that Christine Chapel's character feels more like a caricature. And the cover of my edition is wrong, but I don't really care about that. David Gerrold's introduction was, imo, boring. I will look for more by Kathleen Sky.

And I will try not to read others' reviews of this book, because I have a feeling some fans may not have liked it as much as I did and I don't want it spoiled. ( )