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leland_hw's review against another edition
4.0
I'm knocking just one star off this really excellent novel because for most of the novel I kept asking myself just where it was going. The events of McCoy's life are presented in almost painstaking detail. Beginning during the Original Series episode "The City on the Edge of Forever", [b:McCoy: The Provenance Of Shadows|17255|McCoy The Provenance Of Shadows (Star Trek Crucible, #1)|David R. George III|http://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1166805390s/17255.jpg|18835] explores two stories. In one, McCoy is prevented from saving the life of Edith Keeler and returns to Enterprise just as happened in the episode. In the second timeline, McCoy succeeds in saving Edith's life and thereby changes history. It was an excellent look at the characterization of McCoy and I really enjoyed reading the story behind the story we already know as well as the "What might have been"
birdkeeperklink's review against another edition
1.0
Ugh, I'm done. I can't take any more of this, I just can't. I know Trek novels are not Great Literature by any stretch of the imagination, but this is bad even for a Trek novel. I will elaborate when I am able to use a real keyboard and not a touchscreen.
Added 13 May, 2014
Okay, here's the elaboration I promised. I hope you weren't expecting paragraphs and paragraphs, because I don't think I have that much to say.
This book is terrible for a couple of very simple reasons. For one, I was on page 39 when I quit and still nothing had happened. McCoy saved Edith, which we already knew was going to happen, in one timeline; in the other, they all sat around in Sickbay speculating on why Kirk and Spock were being weird. McCoy walked Edith from the scene of the near-accident to the mission, then from the mission to her home, and there was a lot of internal monologuing. 39 pages of 'oh, I just love humanity so much, I have to do what I can to help.' It's so, so padded out.
And that was another problem. George spends way too long trying to get across to us just who these people are. Newsflash: this is a Trek novel, and not only that, a Trek novel based on a particular episode! We already know all of these people! You don't need to convince me that Edith Keeler is a great humanitarian by having her repeatedly think and say, 'I just have to help!' We know.
It's pretty melodramatic as well, but in a really...odd way. People weep crystalline tears in specific millimeters. The attempted juxtaposition of poetic description with exact, near-scientific terms just didn't work for me, at all.
The real problem just boiled down to pacing. It was padded to make it longer, which makes everything too drawn out, and probably caused the melodramatic fluff, because every sentence had to be backed by a paragraph of something. If this is just George's writing style, then...ick. Not for me. The beginning of the book, at least, is sooo sloooow that if the rest of the book was that way, then chopping out all the fluff would have made the book easily a third shorter, if not more.
In short, I didn't like it, at all, I didn't finish it, I never want to finish it, I got rid of it already, and I don't recommend it to anyone. It was more disappointing because McCoy is my favorite, but next time I'll know better.
I guess that was a few paragraphs, wasn't it?
Added 13 May, 2014
Okay, here's the elaboration I promised. I hope you weren't expecting paragraphs and paragraphs, because I don't think I have that much to say.
This book is terrible for a couple of very simple reasons. For one, I was on page 39 when I quit and still nothing had happened. McCoy saved Edith, which we already knew was going to happen, in one timeline; in the other, they all sat around in Sickbay speculating on why Kirk and Spock were being weird. McCoy walked Edith from the scene of the near-accident to the mission, then from the mission to her home, and there was a lot of internal monologuing. 39 pages of 'oh, I just love humanity so much, I have to do what I can to help.' It's so, so padded out.
And that was another problem. George spends way too long trying to get across to us just who these people are. Newsflash: this is a Trek novel, and not only that, a Trek novel based on a particular episode! We already know all of these people! You don't need to convince me that Edith Keeler is a great humanitarian by having her repeatedly think and say, 'I just have to help!' We know.
It's pretty melodramatic as well, but in a really...odd way. People weep crystalline tears in specific millimeters. The attempted juxtaposition of poetic description with exact, near-scientific terms just didn't work for me, at all.
The real problem just boiled down to pacing. It was padded to make it longer, which makes everything too drawn out, and probably caused the melodramatic fluff, because every sentence had to be backed by a paragraph of something. If this is just George's writing style, then...ick. Not for me. The beginning of the book, at least, is sooo sloooow that if the rest of the book was that way, then chopping out all the fluff would have made the book easily a third shorter, if not more.
In short, I didn't like it, at all, I didn't finish it, I never want to finish it, I got rid of it already, and I don't recommend it to anyone. It was more disappointing because McCoy is my favorite, but next time I'll know better.
I guess that was a few paragraphs, wasn't it?
brizreading's review against another edition
4.0
Oh my God - the end-all, be-all Star Trek (or any tie-in) book for me. Remember that episode when McCoy jumps into the enormous Cheerio of Space and ends up causing Hitler to not-lose and not-die? YOU KNOW. The one where Kirk falls in love with Joan Collins and Spock fashions the Internet out of 1930s junk material (mostly wood). REMEMBER NOW?
Anyway, like all good Star Trek episodes, this one left some MAJOR issues hanging. Such as, umm, the fact that McCoy bifurcated the world line and thus there's a second McCoy running around some second universe out there. In this most wonderful of books, a book that captures Star Trek's multicultural, zany-physics-professor essence in all its glory, we follow BOTH MCCOYS.
McCoy #1 is basically a rehash of the TOS seasons and movies, with a little bit of filler from his life off-screen. Like, his dating life. You know.
McCoy #2, meanwhile, soon realizes that he's stuck in 1930s New York City FOR KEEPS. And he better get a move on and fix himself a life! So, being industrious, he jumps a train down South and becomes the good ol' country doctor he always was, living amid the small town trials and tribs of Peachville, Georgia (or whatever it's called). That is, until Nazi fighters start bombing America. WTF! You may ask. WTF indeed. WTF, thinks McCoy. Ah yes - he and the Cheerio messed up the world line. And remember when Spock told Kirk about the whole WWII/Hitler issue? Oh, shit, consequencesss. Now McCoy gets to live through it. And so do we!
Sooo good. This book hit all my buttons. It was engaging, intelligent, silly and - at times - absolutely addictive. It made a real effort at portraying non-white, non-male characters (well, apart from the good doctor), and its eventual moral was a progressive, almost post-Freudian, "yo, therapy is awesome and will make you better at relationships!" thing. Adorable and funny, engaging and sad. Highly recommended.
Anyway, like all good Star Trek episodes, this one left some MAJOR issues hanging. Such as, umm, the fact that McCoy bifurcated the world line and thus there's a second McCoy running around some second universe out there. In this most wonderful of books, a book that captures Star Trek's multicultural, zany-physics-professor essence in all its glory, we follow BOTH MCCOYS.
McCoy #1 is basically a rehash of the TOS seasons and movies, with a little bit of filler from his life off-screen. Like, his dating life. You know.
McCoy #2, meanwhile, soon realizes that he's stuck in 1930s New York City FOR KEEPS. And he better get a move on and fix himself a life! So, being industrious, he jumps a train down South and becomes the good ol' country doctor he always was, living amid the small town trials and tribs of Peachville, Georgia (or whatever it's called). That is, until Nazi fighters start bombing America. WTF! You may ask. WTF indeed. WTF, thinks McCoy. Ah yes - he and the Cheerio messed up the world line. And remember when Spock told Kirk about the whole WWII/Hitler issue? Oh, shit, consequencesss. Now McCoy gets to live through it. And so do we!
Sooo good. This book hit all my buttons. It was engaging, intelligent, silly and - at times - absolutely addictive. It made a real effort at portraying non-white, non-male characters (well, apart from the good doctor), and its eventual moral was a progressive, almost post-Freudian, "yo, therapy is awesome and will make you better at relationships!" thing. Adorable and funny, engaging and sad. Highly recommended.
disiscaro's review
4.0
I'd say 3,5/5. Well-written (and written with heart) it's a mainly character-driven rather than a plot-driven novel, which is great, I love some good character development. However I must admit that, yes, sometimes the book does feel a bit long. However, developing Bones's story and character throughout two separate timelines was a good idea, and who doesn't want more Bones, seriously?
caffeine_books's review
5.0
When the last sentence was read & I closed the book, I felt like I was saying goodbye to an old friend. I loved this book about Dr. Leonard McCoy - it was different then I thought it was going to be, instead of just focusing on The City on the Edge of Forever it goes beyond that & what his life would have been like if he stayed in 1930s America. It does a great job of alternating between his life in the 20 plus years he was in Edith Keelers America (in that timeline she lives) & jumping to the timeline where he was rescued. I love how the book really delves into whys of Dr. McCoy, and his journey of self discovery especially with relationships. Loved it!
llamarama's review
4.0
So first off, the best part of this book was when McCoy broke the hand of a racist guy with a tire iron.
Overall I really did like this book, but the ending was much better than the beginning and middle. The structure of the book is alternating chapters between the past timeline occurring after McCoy went through the Guardian of Forever and the “normal” timeline. Unfortunately, I felt like this book was much longer than it needed to be and dragged in the middle precisely because of this structure and the amount of time that was dedicated to the timeline that we all know. A number of scenes were just recapping scenes from the episodes and movies with very little new information or analysis from McCoy’s perspective. I doubt most people are going to be picking up this book without having seen at least most of TOS and the movies. I personally really didn’t need a recap of what happens. There were some characters/events that we didn't get to see fleshed out in TOS that I appreciated the author delving into here to varying degrees (Barrows being a prime example of this) but ultimately there much too much telling the reader what they already know. I would have been in favor of ditching the alternating structure in the middle and just focusing on McCoy’s time in the past because I enjoyed that much more. (As a writer, I know the feeling when you lock yourself into a back-and-forth structure and then realize that one part has more to write about than the other and I feel like that's what happened here). The point of how the events in the past affected the present timeline wasn’t really emphasized throughout the book as I was expecting it to be and didn’t fully come together until the very end. As another review noted, I really thought the M’Benga numbers were going to be something important but then they kind of just…weren’t.
The last 150 or so pages really flew by for me and was the only point in the book where I felt like I couldn’t put it down. I feel like the author did a good job in making me care about Lynn and the past timeline and I did enjoy when everything finally came together and the past timeline tied in with the other timeline. Despite some flaws, it still was an enjoyable read for me.
Overall I really did like this book, but the ending was much better than the beginning and middle. The structure of the book is alternating chapters between the past timeline occurring after McCoy went through the Guardian of Forever and the “normal” timeline. Unfortunately, I felt like this book was much longer than it needed to be and dragged in the middle precisely because of this structure and the amount of time that was dedicated to the timeline that we all know. A number of scenes were just recapping scenes from the episodes and movies with very little new information or analysis from McCoy’s perspective. I doubt most people are going to be picking up this book without having seen at least most of TOS and the movies. I personally really didn’t need a recap of what happens. There were some characters/events that we didn't get to see fleshed out in TOS that I appreciated the author delving into here to varying degrees (Barrows being a prime example of this) but ultimately there much too much telling the reader what they already know. I would have been in favor of ditching the alternating structure in the middle and just focusing on McCoy’s time in the past because I enjoyed that much more. (As a writer, I know the feeling when you lock yourself into a back-and-forth structure and then realize that one part has more to write about than the other and I feel like that's what happened here). The point of how the events in the past affected the present timeline wasn’t really emphasized throughout the book as I was expecting it to be and didn’t fully come together until the very end. As another review noted, I really thought the M’Benga numbers were going to be something important but then they kind of just…weren’t.
The last 150 or so pages really flew by for me and was the only point in the book where I felt like I couldn’t put it down. I feel like the author did a good job in making me care about Lynn and the past timeline and I did enjoy when everything finally came together and the past timeline tied in with the other timeline. Despite some flaws, it still was an enjoyable read for me.
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