Vulcan's Heart

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)