Review: Spock Must Die

Spock Must Die!
by James Blish
Science Fiction
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Plot Summary:

Captain Kirk and the crew of the starship Enterprise find themselves in the middle of an undeclared war waged by the Klingon Empire...

The Organians should be consulted about the war but their entire planet has disappeared – or been destroyed...

Mr. Spock entered the transporter chamber. His image would be flashed to Organia by the huge machine's faster-than-light tachyons. But the experiment failed. Suddenly there were two Mr. Spocks. One of them had to be destroyed...

BUT WHICH ONE?

Review:

This is the first Star Trek novel, and I'm afraid it leaves much to be desired.  I didn't particularly feel the author captured the characters just right - especially with Scotty and his exaggerated Scottishness which sort of annoyed me.  The story itself was needlessly convoluted as well.  I felt for such a short book, to focus so much on technical things like malfunctions and tachyons was a shame, because it bogged down the pace, when it would have been nicer to get a more character driven drama.  The story does draw on some TV series references and one episode in particular (Errand of Mercy) plays a part in this story, and that continuity was nice to see.

While the story and the resolution was just okay for me, I did enjoy the idea of there being two Spocks, and no one knowing which one was the true one.  It was sort of a mystery that the reader could unravel, and I was able to work it out for myself, although my reasoning wasn't what the characters in the book used to determine the real Spock.  Overall, I was not very impressed with this book, and it was only seeing the characters and some of their quirks captured on page that made me finish reading this story.