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Cover by Signe Landon

Nightvisions is a very early Kirk/Spock slash 250-page novel written by Susan K. James and Carol Frisbie. It has interior art by Merle Decker, Gayle F and Signe Landon. It is considered by many to be the first K/S full novel published. (Thrust is the first anthology.)

An excerpt from this novel was published in the zine Thrust, as the story "Night Journey."

Summary

Kirk is blinded, and Spock decides to leave Star Fleet to be with him.

Commentary and Reviews

Review by Joan Verba from Boldly Writing: ""The story started out with Kirk going blind, and continued with events designed to help him regain his eyesight. Meanwhile, Kirk and Spock consummate their love affair. I found this an outstanding story; the authors offered a multi-dimensional approach to theplot and characterization in addition to the sexual encounters.^[1]

A fan in 1999 named [R] says: "Like most of this early stuff, it was extremely well written and edited, but the the story was lacking in terms of detailed sex. (Most new fans would get into K/S, find out about all the old stuff, pay a supreme price for the old stuff, and then read it and find out it wasn't anywhere near what they really wanted -- the newer stuff was more what they'd had in mind. Though I think NIGHTVISIONS was unique in that it hit a lot of fans' favorite zines list for many years, because it was so well done.)" ^[2]

From The K/S Press #10: "Nightvisions is a novel that was published way back in the earliest days of our fandom, in 1979... Considerably later than that, when I was in the first flush of collecting K/S zines and didn’t know a menage a trois from a Mary Sue, a collector from whom I was buying recommended the novel to me if I could find it somewhere. “Why?” I asked. “So much love,” she replied. I’ll never forget her statement. I’ve only ever seen two original Nightvisions; I suspect it is hoarded by those who treasure it. One was at a convention, and the dealer wanted $125 for it. No way! That’s the highest priced zine I’ve ever seen. The original is staple bound and has a silver cover. But fortunately I found a friend who had a good copy (which means that someone actually committed the sacrilege of unbinding the zine and putting it through a copy machine page by page!) and I read it early in my K/S-reading career. It’s this copy that is now in The K/S Revolving Library...What follows is a plot synopsis and some small commentary, so if you’re one of those who hasn’t read it and want to, read no further! Nightvisions opens with a gripping, poignant scene. Spock is returning from a month-long leave on Vulcan, but he’s been ordered to Starbase 9 to speak to Kirk. He can’t understand why the captain is not on the ship, and he can’t understand the permanent-looking dwelling where Kirk awaits him on the patio. “… I have a sprained ankle…,” Kirk explains why he doesn’t rise from the lounger. Seeming distant, frequently looking away from his friend, he tells Spock that he’s left the Enterprise and that he’s going to be marrying an Admiral’s daughter in a private ceremony. He’s recommending Spock for command of the ship. Then he basically dismisses Spock, who slips away with “slow and uncertain steps.” But our Vulcan is not to be fooled. He uses the computer to discover the woman in question married several months previously, rushes back to Kirk’s beach house on the ocean, and sees Kirk sitting at a desk before an open window. Though Kirk lifts his despondent head and looks straight at Spock, he asks “Is that you, Bones?” Spock has discovered the awful truth: Kirk is blind. Kirk has been the victim of a new weapon used by the Tholians, and despite Starfleet Medical’s best efforts so far, no cure has been found for him. The blindness is complicated by violent seizures that hold the potential for brain hemorrhage and death. Now Kirk is on medical leave on the Starbase with McCoy, who’s taken a new research assignment that all understand is a sham: he is there for his friend Jim Kirk. The captain did not want to entrap Spock in the same darkness in which he resides, and he knew his only chance was to fool Spock into leaving him on the starbase without knowledge of the blindness. But once the truth is out, there is no question. Spock will stay, and so he takes up residence in the guest room in Kirk’s beach house, while McCoy resides nearby...[Much] later, information that Spock has gained about the functioning of Kirk’s optic nerve through the sight meld brings new hope for research, and the trio moves to the advanced medical facilities on Vulcan. They stay with Sarek and Amanda, and there’s some interesting scenes that reveal Sarek and Amanda’s relationship, and the history of Spock’s clan and the house on Vulcan. Most stirring is a scene that takes place one night between Kirk and Spock in the equivalent of the house’s “family chapel,” where they make love in the room lined with mirrors... Nightvisions provides a thoughtful Kirk characterization that’s difficult to put down. In my mind, it’s definitely a K/S Classic, but it does have its drawbacks. There are huge sections where motivations are told and now shown, and that’s pretty deadly to the rhythm of any novel. Especially, the transformation of Spock from barely tolerated companion to treasured lover is really abrupt, almost as if the authors simply wanted to get on with their story, to the sex scene, and couldn’t be bothered to write what was needed. I never can get over the lack of logic in Spock and McCoy staying with Kirk, Starfleet allowing them their change of assignments when it is transparent what their true intentions are..."

Gallery

Interior art by Signe Landon

Interior art by Merle Decker

Interior art by Gayle F

References