Review: Spartacus, by TL Mancour

Spartacus by T.L. Mancour
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was a huge ST:TNG fan as a kid and teen, and I still love the series. I haven't read one of the novels in years, but I found this one for 50 cents at a thrift store and thought to give it a whirl. I can't recall if I read this one in high school or not, but I didn't remember it, if I did.

In this one, Picard and the crew, having just come through a long, rough storm, comes across a ship in need of repairs. The ship and its crew declares itself as a refugee ship, so all aide is rendered. The situation is made more complex when the strange crew's secrets are revealed, and a force comes in pursuit of the refugees. The destruction they were fleeing is revealed to be not as simple as they presented it.

If you are familiar with the series, you'll guess that this book has a lot of the same themes from the show, including the meaning of compassion and humanity, and the practical applications of the Prime Directive, and various humanistic ethics and positions. These things are pretty standard in any TNG piece. This one also has some interesting exploration of the meaning of freedom, and allusions to earth myth and history (which is also common to TNG). It also has relevance for discussions we hold today over the pros and cons of excessive leisure, entertainment and electronic conveniences, which was not something I had expected. I found this last theme to be quite fruitful.

The story itself is interesting enough, though the races encountered were not as interesting as some of the species in other Star Trek books and shows. We really don't learn a great deal about the Vemlans, but I frankly wasn't all that curious about them, anyway. They seemed quite stock in nature, to be honest.

However, all the favourite characters from the show are here, with very little Troi (a big plus for me), though the Guinan bits were few and felt tacked on. Some reviewers have called this book a "Data story," but he doesn't overwhelm the book, and it's more of a Picard/Data story, which suits me very well.

The worst thing I can say about the story is that it held very few surprises, but I'm not sure that's a major problem. Naturally, most of the Enterprise's stories end up happily, or at least skillfully resolved by the crack Starfleet crew, and this novel holds little surprise for anyone who's familiar with the series. (Many of the themes, issues, and events are quite similar to materials from the show, actually.)

The writing was less enjoyable. I recall an old Elmore Leonard quote, "When it sounds like writing, I rewrite it." Well, brother, did this book sound like writing! A lot of purple going on, with an excess of big words where simpler ones would do, and so forth. It made it slightly tough going, and almost put it down to 2 stars for me. (But the editing seemed fair, and the style doesn't stop me from recommending the book to those who enjoy TNG novels, so I'm going with 3. I did like it, and I found it entertaining.)

One odd thing that did keep me from putting it above 3 stars is a strange misogynistic twinge in the book; especially near the end, where a man working under a woman was likened to slavery, and the comparison went completely unchecked. Granted the actual woman in question was insufferable, but it still bugged me. Perhaps the editors did not expect women to read Star Trek novels?

Spartacus took me a long time to read; it was my "bus book," so it stayed in my backpack for about a month, and I only took it out while on public transit. It didn't grab my attention all that well from the get-go. However, once I got into it, it kept me entertained, and I plowed through the final 3/4 or half in a weekend. I might not have stuck with it early on if I wasn't already a ST fan, though, and I think Masks (#7) remains my favourite of the ST:TNG novels.

If you're a fan of Picard and Data, and the ethical ruminations this series was best at, you might enjoy this book, warts and all.

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