Common Ground (Star Trek: TOS zine)

Zine
Title:	Common Ground
Publisher:	Light & Shadow Press
Editor:
Author(s):	Tiger Tyger
Cover Artist(s):	Lorraine Brevig
Illustrator(s):
Date(s):	2009
Series?:	yes
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	Star Trek: TOS
External Links:	online here
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Common Ground is a K/S slash 133-page novel written by Tiger Tyger. Illustrated by Lorraine Brevig. It is the first part of the trilogy "The Fields of Evermore".

Series: "The Fields of Evermore"

• Common Ground
• Dangerous Territory
• Terra Firma

Summary

Summary from the publisher: "An unconsummated bond, a self-sacrificing Vulcan first officer, and an all-action captain combine for a thrilling romantic adventure. Fraught with danger from within and without, Kirk and Spock navigate the ebb and flow of a new bond, the end of Enterprise's five-year mission, and the new life they hope to forge together as they grope for common ground."

front cover by Lorraine Brevig

back cover by Lorraine Brevig

Reactions and Reviews

This is a new author to K/S fandom who calls hirself Tyger Tiger, according to the zine.

The story itself starts with a familiar trope -- Jim is being attacked and Spock is trying to save him. But the twist is, his attackers are crude but powerful telepaths and they are trying to take over Jim's mind so as to get his command codes, etc... As in the Trek09 movie, no- one mentions that those codes would be swapped out the moment a command officer's mind was breached -- in the real military world, that's how that shit goes down. But it's a minor point and it doesn't make you fall outta the story. Quite. Jim is in Sickbay, in desperate straits; his body can't maintain this level of stress, and nothing Bones can do breaks thru to his conscious mind. So Spock melds with his captain, bonds with him, and using the bond is able to throw the aliens out of his t'hy'la's brain. Off they ride into the sunset together, etc... Catch is, they aren't mated or even lovers yet. Spock doesn't tell Jim how a bond is supposed to work and Jim doesn't ask, just enjoys this new level of access to his friend's mind and how secure he feels. But the bond is relentless in its demands on Spock, and he begins to fail physically because it is still unconsummated and they are not spending enough time in the same room, much less touching/sharing, as the bond demands. There's a lot of political stuff going on in the background of this story, and it's all pretty well done. The process Jim and Spock go thru in learning to be bonded is familiar and also fairly well written. My main problem with this zine is that it is the first of three and therefore ends in something of a cliffhanger, never my favourite tactic. That, and the fact that all of it, even the sex scenes near the end, where the two of them finally begin to explore their bond and truly accept it, has a sort of facile gloss to it. There's a definite sense to me of this author resting on hir laurels and kind of phoning it in. To me this is problematic. It seems to me that quite a bit of this story is done rather pro forma, as opposed to going where the story itself might demand to go. And because this author obviously has more skill than is used here, I find myself wondering why they didn't just do it up right, balls to the wall. This could have been a truly excellent zine with a bit of polishing; instead it's a bit like eating a whole bag of chicharrones -- yer tummy's full afterwards but yer body isn't at all happy about how it got full.

Well worth a read. There's no interior art, although the covers, by Lorraine Brevig, are truly gorgeous.