Killing Time

Parallel universe in which Kirk is a lonely red shirt hooligan and Spock is a peeved starship captain who just wants his soulmate back? Got me like a fish on a line.

fThe real stars of this vol were the pair of Romulan baddies, though. Holy shit. Wanted two more volumes and a tv special out of them, they were so cool.

Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the Enterprise have been patrolling the Romulan Neutral Zone for weeks. Some of the crew have been reporting insomnia and weird dreams. Then, one morning Kirk wakes up as an ensign instead of a captain, and now Spock is the Captain. The Federation ship Enterprise is now the Alliance ship Shi’Kahr. We learn that the Romulans are responsible for this alternate universe, thanks to a bit of meddling in Earth’s past. Can Kirk and Spock figure out what’s going on and return to the true universe before everyone goes mad?
Internet rumor says that this book had so many homoerotic undertones that Gene Roddenberry had the book edited for its second printing and beyond. (Because the utopian future Roddenberry show more envisioned still includes homophobia? Okay. Whatever.) Having come across this rumor, I couldn’t help but wonder: Really?? So: when a box of old Star Trek books came in as a donation and this book was among them, I snatched it up to see for myself. And you know what? The undertones are definitely there in a few scenes, particularly one where Spock wrestles Kirk to the ground while they’re in the ship’s garden. Whether the book was really edited in later editions, I have no idea, but I can see where the rumor started. Fans for decades have imaged what if scenarios in which Kirk and Spock are romantically involved. While I don’t particularly subscribe the fan pairing of Spock and Kirk as a romantic couple, I also don’t have any issue with it. It’s fun to imagine what ifs.
Fan fiction and internet rumors aside, this is a really fun book. It’s got time travel, awesome Romulan women, all the requisite McCoyisms, and plenty of intrigue and action. If you like Star Trek: The Original Series, you’ll enjoy reading this book. show less

Killing Time deserves to be remembered with revulsion as a piece of trash; but I must respect it. It is a novel from the early years before Star Dreck became a hardened corporate franchise; when the writers could get away with anything, which often led to acts of offbeat creativity--and, occasionally, offensive material that should never have been published. Killing Time demonstrates both. It's an altered-history novel in which the Enterprise characters risk everything to restore the original timeline. It could be called a variation on Yesterday's Enterprise, except that it appeared much earlier.

Now that I've appreciated its creative plot and excellent writing for a Star Dreck novel, it's going into my recycling bin where it belongs. show more Would that all works of slashfic met the same fate--death to them. Whether Killing Time is better or worse than Marshak and Culbreath's horrid "Phoenix" novels is difficult to say. show less

Ah, published fan fiction! My guilty pleasure. This one ticks all the boxes, for those who ship Kirk and Spock from the original Star Trek series. Della Van Hise was made to clean up her original story, allegedly, but the 'radio edit' still does the job nicely. We have 'bouncy' Bones (perhaps slightly too much bouncing), the 'golden-haired, golden-eyed captain' (seriously, bonus points for every mention of Kirk's hazel eyes), the Romulan commander from The Enterprise Incident, AU Captain Spock/Ensign Kirk - and lashings and lashings of space husbands.

This is the novel that had real K/S in it (and was later edited to have less). But even the edited version, which I read, is pretty damn slashy. I also liked the Romulan character, Thea. As far as time travel hijinks go, it could be better, but who cares? The characters were enough to carry me through it.

Della Van Hise's novel is one that offers an interesting plot involving a Romulan attempt to erase the Federation from existence by altering the past. There's an interesting twist, too, that sets it apart from most "change the course of history" stories, and I enjoyed what it added to the book. Yet this is more than outweighed by plot elements that make absolutely no sense and characterization that runs contrary to canon. To have Jim Kirk getting "the willies" and Spock expressing emotions on practically every other page made me wonder just how familiar Van Hise was with their portrayal in the original series before sitting down to write the book. It left me with a feeling of disappointment at what was a wasted idea, one that could have show more resulted in a really good "Star Trek" novel had it been paired with recognizable characters. show less

This is very frustrating book, mainly because I want to shoot the person who failed to edit it properly.

There are places where the writer uses words incorrectly, substituting a wrong word for the one she actually means.

The point of view, especially early on, hops around like a rabbit on steroids. At one point, it even managed to change mid-sentence.

The author has a real aversion to the word 'said', using an entire Thesaurus of increasingly improbable words to describe the simple act of speaking.

Science doesn't get much of a look in either. Sonar in outer space?

There's some glitches in the time travel plot as well.

All of which is doubly annoying , because I actually like the story. There's some good original characters (and some good show more female characters) and the Kirk/Spock relationship is as close to slash as you're likely to get in a mainstream novel. Although McCoy is probably the character who has the most spot-on dialogue.

I would have rated this book higher if it had been properly edited - I could have done a much better job.

However, even with all its flaws, I'll probably keep it. show less