Critical Myth-Interpretations

This is the third and final volume of the “Totality” trilogy in the Shatnerverse, and by my accounting, manages to close out the story in strong fashion. Considering how the story began, with a rather small-scale story centered on Bajor, it’s surprising to find the story taking on epic proportions as seen in this novel.

The nature of the Totality is revealed, and it’s one of the more interesting ideas in recent Trek novels. The Totality is the form of life prevalent in “dark matter/dark energy”, and they see biological life as an isolated aberration. The Totality has been jumping from galaxy to galaxy with the intention of helping the biological lifeforms achieve their level of happiness and unity. They don’t understand the need, as expressed by biological life, to remain autonomous.

As expected, Kirk’s son Joseph and his unique abilities factor into the victory over the Totality. The authors tie Joseph’s nature into the Progenitor race from the TNG episode “The Chase” and the infamous galactic energy barrier from “Where No Man Has Gone Before”. In a certain sense, that connection brings Kirk’s story full circle, which gives the story more depth.

Conceptually, I’m not convinced that the idea of “dark matter/energy beings” received the kind of attention and creative treatment that might have otherwise been possible. The concept was developed with the Trek universe in mind, right down to Norinda’s seductive appearance. There were a number of confusing aspects to Norinda’s nature and interaction with Joseph at the end of the book as well. Those two items kept the book from reaching its full potential.

Rating: 8/10