Killing Time by Della Van Hise
My Twenty-third book for ljbookbingo is Killing Time by Della Van Hise for the Square, table found here:
Second History: a Romulan time-tampering project that has transported the Enterprise and the galaxy into an alternate dimension of reality. Now, Kirk is an embittered young ensign and Spock is a besieged Starship commander.
Lured into a Romulan trap, Captain Spock and Ensign Kirk must free themselves from both their captors and their own altered selves...before the galaxy hurtles toward total destruction! ~Amazon Book Description
I first heard about this book on tumblr a couple of years ago. Being a lover of fandom history and Spirk I was intrigued upon learning that after the first printing they edited out whole paragraphs due to "questionable material within." You can read the full history of both editions HERE at Fanlore, if you want the complete story. If you wish to know how different the two editions actually are, awesome LJ user
lexx_the_flex has given a paragraph by paragraph break down of exactly what is different between the two. Also they help you identify how you can tell if a book is a first edition or a second edition if you choose to look for one at your local bookstore. You can find this very informative and intriguing post HERE.
And wouldn't you know it one day I was browsing my local used bookstore when I saw they had the first edition. I was super thrilled to just stumble across it like that and finally be able to read it for myself. \o/
I liked it. (Although there was a scene between Spock and a woman was that had me rolling my eyes and was totally unneeded) The questionable material that was removed was probably a bit much for the mid-eighties but nowadays it wouldn't be all that shocking ... although considering how straitlaced some of the showrunners for Star Trek can be maybe it still wouldn't be okay. I would say if it was a fanfic I would label it as preslash. (In fact several times as I was reading it I kept thinking to myself that Spock and Kirk's interactions were only a sentence or two away from making it slash;) It is a plot that hinges on time travel, and whenever time travel is a involved it has to be handled with a deft hand because it can get pretty messy pretty fast. Ms. Van Hise did a good job of keeping the reader from getting confused. I also loved her au versions of Spock and Kirk and how she emphasized their T'hy'la bond no matter what universe they are in. I have recently found out there is a pdf version of the first edition that is available HERE online, if you are interested. Overall, I would recommend this book not only for the story but also because it is part of fandom history.
This entry was originally posted at https://under-the-silk-tree.dreamwidth.org/55774.html