Wie Phoenix aus der Asche

Holy shit, this is the slashiest licensed novel ever. Spock is instructed to kiss Kirk like Sleeping Beauty (while Kirk is naked under a "thin sheet") and thinks, constantly, about how Kirk is the only person he's ever bared his "naked soul" to. It's also somewhat incoherent and features a super muscular, kinda butch Romulan commander who (spoiler!) talks a duplicate of Kirk into being her pool boy. I'm half "oh man this is awful" and half "OH MAN i AM SO HERE FOR THIS."

This Star Trek novel is one of very few books I've read where bad and frankly annoying writing is completely overwhelmed by my fascination with the subject and plot. I sort of shoved this at my fiance a few weeks ago when he said he wanted to read a TOS novel and then I heard for three days about how bad the writing is. I didn't remember much about the writing at all, so my decision to reread it now was largely because I wanted to see if it was as bad as he said. It is. It's overly dramatic and the use of dashes where--ellipses--would better serve was--frustrating. But! By about the one-quarter mark I realized that I wasn't paying any attention to the writing anymore. (This is a mean feat, really. I can ignore bad writing, but that's a show more conscious decision. With PotP, after a while I just wasn't seeing it.)

Like The Prometheus Design (which I don't remember being so badly written--maybe that one just blinded me too?), PotP is thinky and very much about the nature of the relationship between Kirk and Spock. The book takes as its themes power, the concept of the alpha male, gender roles, identity, and immortality. (I'm going to get spoilery here, just so you know.) The story starts in medias res with Spock beaming back to the Enterprise with the body of a probably-murdered Captain Kirk from a planet run by a charismatic, super-strong, genius madman named Omne. Much Spock-moping and Spock-fury a la TOS episode "Amok Time" ensue. Cue Omne calling Spock back to the planet to reveal that he's developed a process by which he can make an exact replica of a person at the moment of his death by harnessing his mental emissions at the moment before expiring made-up!science blah blah blah. And lo! Omne has just such a replica of Kirk, and guess what, Spock? You can have him if you betray the Federation for me. Non?

But wait, my story gets better. Turns out that the original Kirk did not die and there's two very real, very authentic Kirks running around. And Omne believes the replica is his property, to do with as he pleases. Furthermore, he's determined to get the original Kirk to concede that Omne out-alpha-males Kirk's alpha-male act. Thus begins a literal game of cat-and-mouse with Spock trying to rescue the original Kirk (referred to as either Kirk or Jim throughout) while trying to keep the replica (James) safe and free from Omne's proprietorship. Throw in the Romulan commander from the TOS episode "The Enterprise Incident," who shares a mutual attraction with Spock and develops a bond with James, and you've got a whopper of a romantic triangle laid on top of a crazy power matrix. Seriously, it's like a pop culture mash-up of de Sade, Girard, and Sedgwick. And then once they escape Omne (sort of), the question of what to do with James arises (just which one of them has the right to the life they each remember as their own?) and it gets all metaphysical and awesome.

This was a revelatory text for me as an early teen in a lot of ways (exploration of the dark corners of human psyche and all that) and it's still powerful for me. Shame about those damn dashes though. show less

Read this again recently. Now I remember why it was never my favorite. Though, for a 1977 Star Trek book...one before the franchise reignited itself...it's not half bad. A bit too philosophical for my tastes. And the dialogue was very hard to follow. A must read for a die-hard Trekker, but not one that you would miss if you skipped it.

I wasn't sure how to rate this, because it's both a favorite, but a guilty favorite; not exactly the best science fiction, or even Star Trek fiction, has to offer: it's melodramatic and over the top with slashy overtones between Kirk and Spock. But it's very memorable, and I remember eating it up as a teen, back when just seeing a Star Trek work of fiction was novel, and it makes a lot of the later pro fiction, with their reset buttons and requirement to stay within the lines, look rather bland. Also, unlike most Trek fans, I'm a Kirk fan, not a Spock fan, and say what you will about Culbreath and Marshak, but they give Kirk's heroic dimensions their due. I loved the ending of this one, the challenge that was set to the characters, show more where they wound up. In that regard though, I did find the sequel The Fate of the Phoenix a great disappointment. show less

One of the best and most inspiring Star trek books, although a little wordy (as is the norm with these two authors). The book introduces one of the most original and compelling villains, Omne, a Vulcanoid hybrid at twice Spock's weight and a malevolent intelligence the equal of any of our heroes. Omne invents a cloning device, apparently causes Kirk's death and barters Kirk's duplicate to Spock. It is discovered later that the real Kirk never died, and there is a series of battles and subterfuges with a stirring final confrontation. The best thing about this book, as with all the author's books, is the extent to which the character and motivations of the players is carried out. I have never read a Star Trek book which has more tested show more the devotion, integrity and loyalty of Kirk, Spock and McCoy. In addition to Omne, other new characters are "James" Kirk, and the Romulan Subcommander Kirk and Spock stole the cloaking device from in a TV episode. show less

I enjoyed this book - the plot isn't much, and the writing is a little vague, but it's such a guilty pleasure! It's pretty much published, wish-fulfilling fanfic, I guess. And it's a pretty compelling read, which is much better than some of the drier novels that have come out (I'm looking at you, "Spock, Messiah!").

not sure how this was published. Read like mediocre fanfiction but I had a good time. Overuse of em-dashes.