A wonderful, well written, subversive western-romance story nestled, in all places, the Star Trek universe. If you are a hard-core, action adventure Trekker, this isn't the book for you. Kirk and McCoy are stuck going through piles of those annoying plastic faxes in the future present, while Spock is abducted and ends up in the past an amnesiac in the middle of a "Here Comes the Brides" episode.
Many thanks to Amy H. Sturgis of Star Ship Sofa for sending to me to this truly unique little bit of media-tie history. (Check out Star Ship Sofa Episode 120 for her excellent audio essay.) As a Star Trek adventure book Ishmael is kinda hopeless, the Klingons are faceless thugs who seem only to appear every so often to make yet another blunder in their nefarious plot to much up Earth history, so there isn't really much in the way of thrills or tension throughout the book. The future 'now', with Kirk, McCoy and Base Commander Kellog, is pretty ho hum.
But the genius of the book is taking Spock and putting him in the middle of a western-romance. The romance or perhaps 'story of womanly concerns' (which is what is usually being dismissed) is a sort of unofficial tying up of the TV series "Here Comes the Brides" set in late 1880s frontier Seattle, and it is wonderful! Hambly is really good at getting into Spock's head and cutting to the real crux of the situation (warning: I've never seen the TV show on which this is based, but I found the drama compelling). I was far more interested in Ish (Spock), Biddy, Sarah, Aaron and the Bolt brothers than I was in the Enterprise and those dumb-ass Klingons. So as a Star Trek book this is an oddity, but as a pacific west-western romance it is a keeper.
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