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Sanctuary/War Drums

by John Voornholt

- Book Review (1992)

A matched pair of novels from John Voornholt hits the shelves, "War Drums" being this author's third excursion into the Next Generation era, and "Sanctuary" representing his first visit to the original Star Trek, set at some time during the Enterprise's five-year mission.

In "Sanctuary", Kirk, Spock and McCoy, attempting to arrest the space pirate Auk Rex, are trapped with their intended captive on the surface of the fabled planet of Sanctuary, last resort of both the persecuted and the criminal. Cut off from the Enterprise in orbit they must effect an escape or face a fate far worse than death.

"War Drums" places Worf, Troi and Ensign Ro between two warring factions - a small human colony and a group of feral Klingon adolescents, They must prevent a massacre based on ancient hatreds and predjudices before the planet itself brings death to all of them.

Of the two "Sanctuary" is the more satisfying read, although I have to say that both books are for the most part disappointing. It is not that Voornholt cannot write - his style is easy (sometimes too easy) and his plots are adequate if not inspired - but both these books, in common with far too many of the recent output, exhibit a mechanical quality, a lack of soul if you like, so that what we get is a pale, if superficially accurate, copy of Star Trek rather than the richly textured thing itself. Far too often, believability of character motivation and plot is sacrificed for the sake of weak story-telling. The cast are barely characterised so that, for instance, the acerbic relationship between Spock and McCoy becomes merely the automatic re-hashing of old insults without any spark of real wit or humour. This is sad, as Star Trek at its best has always been a predominantly character-based drama.

But the main faults of both books are purely technical, and this is where my real criticism of Voornholt and his editor(s) lies. The author shows little knowledge of how to build and sustain suspense, no feel for the larger themes that should drive and underpin the event-driven plots, and has a distressing propensity for sacrificing believability (even more crucial in 'fantasy' writing than in other, more realistic, genres) to the demands of his storylines. Some examples:

"Sanctuary" makes use of two regular Trek plot devices - the mysterious pirate whom no-one has ever seen in person, and the planet from which there is no escape. Neither device here is lifted out of cliche. The identity of the pirate becomes obvious far too early in the story, robbing the unmasking of any surprise value it might have had (and incidentally making our main characters seem ineffably stupid not to have realised it at the same time as the readers). Since we know, too, that Kirk et al must inevitably escape the planet, the only suspense inherent in the second device is how they will eventually do it - not enough in itself to sustain an entire book. In "War Drums", again we learn that there is a Romulan spy involved. Since Voornholt gives us only one possible candidate for this there is no suspense whatsoever.

A general fault is that the only problems that the characters in both books face are physical ones. Since we know that our heroes will be back in books no. 57 and 24 respectively, none the worse for wear, there is no real sense of jeopardy - we know that they will inevitably escape. Star Trek has always been at its most powerful and successful where there is a moral dilemma to be faced; where characters must make a decision between two 'bad' outcomes: does Kirk save Edith Keeler, the woman he loves, from certain death, or allow the future to be irrevocably changed for the worse ("City on the Edge of Forever"); does Picard blindly obey the dictates of the Prime Directive and allow the destruction of an inhabited planet by natural tectonic forces, or does he intervene to save the pre-warp inhabitants at the risk of altering forever their natural development ("Pen Pals")? This is drama and it speaks direct to the heart. Will Kirk escape the clutches of the Senites who want to lobotomise (and, perhaps worse, castrate) him? Well, of course he will! Result - no drama.

Thus far, so bad. But Voornholt commits a worse sin, and that is to betray the internal logic of his own storylines. The only really original invention in "Sanctuary" is the method of escape that Kirk and the others use to leave the planet (and it is a good one, which to describe here would spoil). But even here, Voornholt undermines it with a wholly unbelievable moment of forced 'danger' involving the ship's phasers and an explosion which would, by all the laws of physics, instantly cause our heroes' deaths. It doesn't, of course, and the readers' involvement in the story immediately stops because of the sheer unbelievability of the event within the story's own context. There is another of these moments in "War Drums", where a group of colonists who have spent the entire novel trying unashamedly to kill a group of Klingons finally have them unarmed and surrounded by phaser rifles. What do they do? They stun them and tie them up in an unsecured building in the middle of the colony. This is not what they would logically do - everything Voornholt himself has shown us and told us about these colonists suggests that they would simply kill the Klingons out of hand. So why don't they? The truth, of course, is that the writer cannot allow the massacre to happen because it would spoil his plot, and so consistency and believability of character behaviour is sacrificed without a second thought. This is lazy, sloppy writing.

Notwithstanding the above, the two books are entertaining enough in the way that the more pedestrian TV episodes are. No real fan of the two series can fail to enjoy any story involving the Enterprise crews on some level. I suppose my real disppointment is that so many of the recent Pocket books (and Voornholt's are by no means the worst) are only barely adequate, and I think that Star Trek deserves better than that. It was there once. Where are the writers of the calibre of Vonda McIntyre, Diane Duane and David Gerrold now? Where is the sense of wonder that is such an important part of Star Trek. Where is the humour? Where is the underlying message of optimism, the philosophy, the science, the sense of being there? Until that can be recaptured, Star Trek in print will inevitably grow stale and wearisome. It could, and should, be so much more.