The Rack & All the King's Horses, All the King's Men
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| Zine | |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Rack & All the King's Horses, All the King's Men |
| Publisher: | |
| Editor(s): | |
| Date(s): | 1981 |
| Series?: | |
| Medium: | print zine |
| Size: | |
| Genre: | |
| Fandom: | Star Trek: TOS |
| Language: | English |
| External Links: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
The Rack & All the King's Horses, All the King's Men is a gen collection of J. Emily Vance's previously published stories, The Rack (published in 1977 in Contact #4), and its sequel, "All the King's Horses, All the King's Men" (published in 1977 in Farthest Star #1).
The author's name, J. Emily Vance, is a pseudonym for Nancy Kippax, Beverly Volker and April Valentine.
Reactions and Reviews
Perhaps the best known story of this type is THE RACK, by J. Emily Vance, which deals with a very controversial subject -- Kirk and Spock are accused of being homosexual lovers by Starfleet, and must deal with these charges realistically and immediately. Though these charges are not true, Kirk and Spock must attempt to convince Starfleet of their innocence, or become separated by Spock being transferred to another ship, and given a command of his own. Not to give any of the plot away, you can believe me that the tortures these two go through are more than any agony any two people should be called on to bear in a lifetime. Though there is some dissent as to whether or not Starfleet would drum up such charges, or even if they would care if Kirk and Spock were lovers, the idea itself works well within the framework given. THE RACK appears in CONTACT 4, a zine which deals with the brotherhood aspect (not physical love) of the K/S relationship. Even if K/S does not interest you in the slightest, THE RACK is one story which should be considered. The charges are trumped up by Starfleet (for god-only-knows-what-reason), and are not true. On a scale of 1 to 10, THE RACK would have to rate somewhere in the range of 15, simply due to the emotional and psychological studies we are given of Kirk, Spock and McCoy. This is one of the best written, and best illustrated stories I have ever had the privilege of reading, and I would recommend it to anyone in Star Trek fandom. The sequel to THE RACK, entitled ALL THE KING'S HORSES, ALL THE KING'S MEN is in the FARTHEST STAR, a new fanzine, and deals with the continuing tragedy as seen from McCoy's point of view. ALL THE KING'S HORSES deals more with what too much power in the hands of the wrong people can lead to, and beautifully illustrates "victory in the face of tragedy" when it is already too late for many of the people originally involved. [1]
References
- ^ by Christopher Randolph in Enterprise Incidents #6 (1978) in The Many Faces of Fan Fiction; a portion of this was reprinted twelve years later in Trek Fan's Handbook (1990).