If you’re familiar with Pandora’s Box, then you know this Greek myth is about Pandora, the first woman created by the gods, who was given a box by Zeus, with strict instructions never to open it. Apparently all religions see women as complete morons, so of course out of sheer curiosity, she opens it. Hey, you would have done the same! Anyway, she releases all the evils of the world (sickness, death, and suffering), but quickly closes the jar. However, what didn’t escape, what was left in the jar, was hope. I had hope this book would be good. When I opened it, it wasn’t evil that escaped; but what did escape was… a LOT!
Star Trek #49: The Pandora Principle
Author: Carolyn Clowes
Pages: 273
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Published: April 1, 1990
Publisher: Pocket Books
View on Goodreads
Date Completed: December 18, 2024
My rating: 
Thoughts
The character of Saavik doesn’t appear in a whole lot of novels. After reading Greg Cox’s novel, Lost to Eternity, earlier this year, The Pandora Principle seemed like a good one to read to learn more about Saavik’s upbringing. We already got some in Vonda N. McIntyre’s movie novelizations, but here Clowes dives deep into her past, starting with Spock rescuing her from the planet Hellguard. Her interactions with Spock did a pretty good job establishing their closeness and her growth from a feral child/teenager into an almost Vulcan adult (and her struggle to suppress her Romulan heritage). The scenes with her and Spock were generally pretty good!
Before I get into what really didn’t work for me in this book, let me say that I really liked Clowes’s prose… Clowes prose… the prose of Clowes… heh… rhyming. Anyway, although I’m about to get into story elements that really grinded my gears, her writing was really, really good. Was it good enough? Maybe not in the end, but with a few tweaks to the story (as I’m about to get into), I think this could really have been a really, really good book.
And with that…
I read somewhere that this book was placed in the literary equivalent of Development Hell. Clowes wrote it in 1985, but it wasn’t released until 1990. My friend and Literary Treks co-host, Jonathan, theorized this gap may have been due to Paramount licensing not wanting a Saavik book released quite yet since there were still some simmering plans for her in the feature films. While she only appeared briefly in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, there were plans for her in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country that ended up falling through for some reason. At any rate, I don’t think this five year gap did the book many favors. Who knows what kind of shenanigans were going on with the publisher and what changes to the book were taking place during this time?
This is first and foremost a Spock and Saavik book. Which is great! We don’t need Kirk in every book. To that end, the constant scenes with Kirk in this book were completely unnecessary. Locking him in a vault during an incident at Starfleet HQ? Just say Nogura grounded him and leave it at that! The Kirk scenes just felt shoved-in. Every time I got to one, I just wanted to skip it. And I probably could have since they didn’t add anything to the story.
The way Saavik spoke in the early part of the book was just cringeworthy. She reminded me of the character of Leeloo in the film The Fifth Element. But done badly.
As far as the whole story goes, well there was just too much going on. I kind of liked the idea of this super weapon that would remove all oxygen from the atmosphere. The setup of that as a Romulan plot and their awareness that the Federation wouldn’t be able to hold back its own curiosity about the boxes the weapon was contained within was really clever. But then there was something about treasure which I had completely forgotten about. We had a scene really early on with the Praetor that wasn’t paid off for a really long time.
And I’m pretty sure that there were other story elements happening that I’ve just forgotten about. We talk about some of them on Literary Treks, so make sure to listen to that.
Last but not least, I have mixed feelings on the character of Obo. I felt it was under-used in some ways and completely unnecessary in others. It was a funny little character, adding some comic relief, who then completely saves the day. Given that, I almost wish Obo was in the book more. We’d get a scene with it and then nothing for quite a while. Then another little Obo scene, then nothing. Then, oh it’s sacrificing itself (or is it?) – do I care? Well, we needed an ending and it may as well have been Obo to save it all.
Although the Clowes prose was really well done and engaging, I had a hard time picking the book back up whenever I put it down. With everything going on in the book, I would give this 2.5 out of 5 stars. It just didn’t hit the Saavik itch that I was looking to scratch. I think there were some good ideas that should have been fleshed out a little more and other things that should have been tightened up or removed from the book altogether.
