*drums fingers on desk* I've mixed feelings about this book. I enjoyed reading it very much (and even though I joked that at 624 pages it wins the Interminable Star Trek Book award, I'm sorry to leave George's interpretation of these characters), but I spent the first 550 pages trying to figure out What Was Going On only to realize that the book was doing what it said on the tin all along. Ruminate whilst I illuminate. (Spoilers ahead.)

The Crucible series contains three books, each one dealing with one member of the triumvirate of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy and all hinging on that most fateful of TOS episodes "The City on the Edge of Forever." "City" strands McCoy in Earth's past, where he does something to change the course of history, thus also stranding fellow crew members Kirk, Spock, Scotty, Uhura, and some redshirts on the Guardian planet because the altered history means the Enterprise is no longer orbiting that world (and probably doesn't exist at all). Kirk and Spock follow him back in time to figure out what he did and stop it, thus restoring the time line. They are successful. Provenance of Shadows follows two story lines--one begins with the successful conclusion of Kirk and Spock's mission to restore the time line and continues from there through the next one hundred or so years, focusing primarily on McCoy. The other follows McCoy in the past, where, unlike in the events of "City," he remains stranded in 1930s New York. This story line continues to follow McCoy in the past for about twenty-five years.

Now, seeing this set-up, I'm thinking, "Okay, what weird time-travel shenanigans has altered the time line again, preventing Kirk and Spock from going back and getting McCoy, and how is it going to get sorted?" I persist with this thinking nearly to the end of the book, where it is revealed that the time line in the past really happened, as did the restored time line. Thus: If Kirk and the landing party could experience, even briefly, the altered time line resulting from McCoy's trip to the past (i.e. the Enterprise doesn't exist), that means that McCoy lived out a life in the past. In fact, the whole 330 years between 1930 and the present of the episode played out. Then Kirk and Spock went back in time to stop those events (which had already happened in the future in their past) from happening. McCoy, who comes back with them once the time line is restored, distantly remembers those events and relives them through nightmares.

The point of all of this double time line wickety-wonk is to provide us with a sort of biography-like exploration of McCoy and his pervasive loneliness. This the book does very well. George does a great job illustrating how McCoy put together a new life in Earth's past (and the unfolding alternate time line, which (of course) involves Germany winning World War II, is appropriately chilling) and an admirable job weaving together the threads of McCoy's life in the restored time line using events established by Star Trek canon (though I will say that at times the restored time line story line felt a bit like Guess Which Episode I'm Cleverly Summarizing for My Own Purposes Now). Eventually, the two story lines work together to provide a portrait of McCoy's life and character. Which, in retrospect, is exactly what the book seems to have intended to do. Short of putting a sticker on the front what says "No really! No big sci-fi devilry waiting in the wings!" I don't know how the book could have indicated that this was the case, but I think I would have been happier with it if I had not been expecting the Science-y Revelation that Makes It All Clear for so long. (M'Benga Numbers? Hellooo, MacGuffin.) Not getting that revelation felt a bit like an anti-climax, but that's probably because I picked up a box of Shredded Wheat and expected to find Lucky Charms inside. Can't blame the Shredded Wheat for that. ( )

Provenance of Shadows… I'm still not sure how I feel about it, even now, months after reading it. I'm not a fan of the dual-timeline approach David R. George III took, not when one of the two unhappened. I'm not sure that McCoy's life in the other timeframe really had much if anything to do with the "main" timeframe; it's a nice "what if", but it didn't really seem to add to his characterization. (Which makes sense, seeing as how it's a different character.)

I was expecting a bigger payoff from the M'Benga numbers brought up in the book; not even later books in the trilogy satisfy, though. After the attention paid to them here, it feels like a letdown in later books.

I also wasn't entirely sold on the very end. It felt to me like it happened for no reason - either to complete the parallels with the other story, or to finish the book with one last contradiction of other novels.

But for all that, Provenance of Shadows was an enjoyable read, even if I thought it could've worked better with the trilogy and the line as a whole. ( )

I was looking for a book to read on my flight back to the States and picked up this one. It basically has two story lines branching out from the Star Trek episode "City on the Edge of Forever". The first story line follows the life of Leonard McCoy after he saves the life of Edith Keeler and changes history, the second follows the life of Leonard McCoy after Kirk and Spock prevent him from saving Edith Keeler and they all return to the 23rd Century. How can this be? Well, the explanation is a bit lame. But the story is interesting enough for waiting room material. I'm tempted to check out the other Crucible volumes, if for no other reason than to find out how the Spock and Kirk tales fit together with this.
--J. ( )

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