Overview
2329: Now a diplomat for the United Federation of Planets, Spock agrees to a bonding with Commander Saavik. More than a betrothal, less than a wedding, the sacred Vulcan rite is attended by both Spock's father, Sarek, and a nervous young Starfleet lieutenant named Jean-Luc Picard.2344: Ambassador Spock receives a top-secret communication from the heart of the Romulan Empire. Decades before, Spock had met and betrayed an honorable Romulan commander during the so-called "Enterprise incident." Now she needs his help to prevent a catastrophe that could threaten the peace of the entire quadrant. Spock risks everything by traveling incognito to Romulus itself, but his covert mission becomes even more perilous when Saavik crosses the Neutral Zone to rescue him.
Enmeshed in the treacherous political intrigues of the Romulan capital, undone by a fire that grows ever hotter within his blood, Spock must use all his logic and experience to survive a crisis that will ultimately determine the fate of empires. Vulcan's Heart is a powerful tale that explores an untold turning point in the ongoing saga of Spock and the world of Vulcan.
Synopsis
About the Author:
For the past 16 years, Susan Shwartz has been a financial writer and editor at various long-suffering Wall Street firms. For the past 20 years, she has written, edited, and reviewed fantasy and science fiction. Her most recent books are the historical fantasies Cross and Crescent and Shards of Empire (Tor), which are set in eleventh-century and twelfth-century Byzantium, including the First Crusade. Her other books include The Grail of Hearts, Silk Roads and Shadows, and, with Andre Norton, Imperial Lady and Empire of the Eagle (all from Tor). Her anthologies include the two volumes of Sisters in Fantasy (ROC) and two volumes of Arabesques (Avon). Previously, she and Josepha Sherman co-wrote the critically acclaimed Star Trek novel Vulcan's Forge. Her own stories for anthologies on a saint and a barrow wight, T.E. Lawrence and a vampire bey, a werewolf on the Children's Crusade, and Hillary Rodham Clinton in Valhalla. She is currently working on a hard-SF retelling of the story of Lord Jim. She has published more than 70 pieces of short fiction and has been nominated for the Nebula five times, the Hugo twice, and the World Fantasy Award, the Philip K. Dick, and the Edgar once each. She has written reviews for various SF publications and The New York Times, Vogue, and a variety of other places. A lapsed academic, she has a PhD in English from Harvard University, enjoys writing polemical letters to major newspapers, and spends entirely too much time on the Nets, reading military history, shopping for shoes, or going to the opera. She lives in Forest Hills, New York. Her work has been published in England, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Japan, Poland, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Russia, and the Republic of China.
Publishers Weekly
Focusing primarily on Spock's love life and his superhuman control when confronted by his own hot-blooded emotions, this newest entry in the Star Trek canon should delight romance fans while leaving cold those SF fans not wholeheartedly invested in the series' characters. Spock finally bonds with his adopted Vulcan love, Saavik. As logic dictates, the couple then skip the honeymoon and go back to their respective ships. Fifteen years later, Spock, now a diplomat in the service of the United Federation of Planets, travels secretly to the planet Romulus to aid an honorable old enemy, Charvanek, who has warned the Vulcan of a plan by Romulus's power-mad Praetor Dralath to destroy peaceful Klingon and Star Fleet colonies. Romulus is a highly illegal place for Spock to be, and Captain Uhuru, head of Star Fleet's security agency, sends Saavik undercover to Romulus to aid her beloved and to bring him quietly back to Federation Space. Weighty matters of state are dangerously ignored by both Spock and Saavik entering pon farr, a state in which it is difficult to think of anything but making violent love to one's mate. In the end, Spock and Saavik are saved, more by the Romulan concept of honor than by Vulcan ideals of order and logic. This not quite otherworldly novel features cameos by Jean-Luc Picard, Bones McCoy, Beverly Crusher and Tasha Yar. (July) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.