Dwellers in the Crucible

Dwellers in the Crucible

Author	Margaret Wander Bonanno
Cover artist	Boris Vallejo
Language	English
Series	Star Trek: The Original Series
Genre	Science fiction novel
Publisher	Pocket Books
Publication date	September 1985
Publication place	United States
Media type	Print (paperback)
Pages	308 pp
ISBN	0-671-60373-6 (first edition, paperback)
OCLC	12603784
Preceded by	Killing Time
Followed by	Pawns and Symbols

Dwellers in the Crucible is a 1985 Star Trek: The Original Series novel written by Margaret Wander Bonanno. A bestseller, it was the author's breakout novel, retelling the central Star Trek story of the friendship between James T. Kirk and Spock through the experiences of two female civilians, Egyptian Cleante al Faisal and Vulcan T'Shael. It is noted for its emphasis on interpersonal relationships over action, and for the minimal role played in the story by the franchise's established characters.

Reception and legacy

Dwellers was positively received at publication. While Fantasy Review emphasised the regular cast's incidental appearance in the novel, they recommended it highly despite its "minor flaws": "Dwellers in the Crucible is an excellent study of values ... [t]here are things here to think about which belie the Star Trek image."

Later, recalling Dwellers in 2009, author Keith R. A. DeCandido would describe the impact the "cool" story had on him: "I didn't know that a Star Trek book could do that."

Controversy

In 1992, Bonanno was contracted by Pocket Books to write a follow-up novel to Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. Her manuscript, entitled Music of the Spheres, reintroduced Dwellers characters Cleante and T'Shael. As Dwellers had done, Music focused on Bonanno's characters rather than on the familiar characters from the television show. This had not been a difficulty in 1985, but by 1992 Paramount Pictures had introduced new standards for Star Trek tie-in novels, which outlawed extensive use of original characters.

The story was heavily rewritten, and that rewrite subsequently rewritten by Gene DeWeese. The derivative novel was eventually published as Probe, still naming Bonanno as the author. Despite her wishes, Pocket Books refused to strip her name from the book. Bonanno stated at the time that only one page of the published novel resembled what she had written.

Plot

On the planet Vulcan, several representatives of each Federation world are kept as "Warrantors of the Peace". As close relatives of the leaders of their worlds, they serve as hostages against the actions of their planetary governments, and are immediately killed if their world attacks another Federation planet.

Six of these Warrantors - an Andorian, a human, a Vulcan and three Deltans - are kidnapped and held by the Romulan Empire. The Andorian is killed during the kidnap, and the three Deltans are tortured to death by their Klingon captors, acting for the Romulans. The plot focuses on the cultural differences and eventual friendship between the two surviving captives, T'Shael and Cleante.

External links

• Dwellers in the Crucible at Memory Alpha