A review by octavia_cade
Triangle by Sondra Marshak, Myrna Culbreath

3.0

I had real doubts about this one after reading the blurb. Putting Kirk and Spock into a love triangle with some random woman, who would no doubt never be seen again once the book is over? Not tempting, and it's not helped by the fact that I hate love triangles at the best of times - really, genuinely loathe them. But I was pleasantly surprised... and I think this is due to the care given to the characterisation here. This is the second Star Trek book I've read by the writing team of Marshak and Culbreath - the other being The Prometheus Design - and my impressions are consistent. In neither case am I particularly enamoured of the big science fiction problem of the text (it's another old sci-fi staple here, this time the hive mind) but their understanding of character is pinpoint and rises above their liking for unoriginal concepts. Kirk and Spock are their best selves here, which is a great relief after recently reading the mangled characterisation of the execrable Abode of Life, and the relationship between the two of them is bedrock solid and unwaveringly positive. I'm not at all converted to love triangles - I still think they're horrible - but this one could have been a great deal worse. I'm a Trek fan largely because of the emphasis it places on the positive, on the reaching successfully for a better world, and that philosophy is very much in evidence here.