The Sourdani Journal

Zine
Title:	Sourdani Journal
Publisher:
Editor:
Author(s):	Lynda K. Roper
Cover Artist(s):
Illustrator(s):
Date(s):	1983
Medium:	print zine, fanfic
Size:
Genre:	gen
Fandom:	Star Trek: TOS
Language:	English
External Links:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

The Sourdani Journal is a gen 112-page Star Trek: TOS time travel novel by Lynda K. Roper.

It has illustrations by Tom Gainan, Andrea Kunz, and Sandra Michaely, and two uncredited pieces possibly by the author.

The editor/consultant was Carol Frisbie.

From the Publisher's Ad

"Being thrown back in time to his youth was something Kirk was sure Spock could handle, but the change in the past that resulted in life with a Human stepfather, and an obviously spoiled stepsister, was another matter. And what about this stepfather? He thought of the look of terror in the eyes he saw in Sickbay, and his stomach twisted in to a knot of fear for Spock. A novel of deception, frustration, and love."

Sample Interior Gallery

• 

  Sandra Michaely

• 

  Tom Gainan

• 

  sample text, and uncredited art

• 

  Andrea Kunz

Reactions and Reviews

Imagine an adult Spock trapped inside the body of his 13-year-old self. That is the circumstance in which Lynda Roper places the Vulcan when the Enterprise enters a sort of 'Bermuda Triangle' of Federation space. Spock finds himself on Earth with a whole new family. Sarek is dead, and Amanda has married an Earth man, Professor Daniel Westfeld, who has two children of his own, a 15-year-old and a 6-year-old, both girls. The latter is particularly obnoxious and there were many times when I wanted to slowly kill her. Roper's good at that. She keeps you reading and involves you with her people. Her breezy style of writing, often delivering simple but effective imagery ("straight teeth that had the look of recently abandoned braces"), captures the reader almost instantly, much like one of ST fandom's finest writers, Lois Welling. Roper isn't as mature a writer as Welling, certainly, but the comparison is apt. Such writing impresses me with its ability to take ordinary, everyday cliches (family problems, teenage crises) and bring something fresh to the telling. It usually has an easy, sometimes deceptively, utilitarian style and almost always commits the reader, no matter what complaints you may have. It traps you and swallows you whole, and for the duration, you're simply not in the real world. In fact, this type of writing creates universes that seem to exist on their own, with no conscious creator at the wheel. And it is awfully good at telling a story, one with a beginning, middle, and end. A rare occasion that. Such stories also move. Almost from the beginning, I was involved in Spock's dilemma an adult brain in a boy's body and all the ignominies that entails. The sub plot, which centers around his teen-age step-sister, also impressed me with its portrayal of children as believable people, whether teenage or younger. There are many fan stories about young people, but good characterization is not commonplace. Spock's kindness to her in her boyfriend's difficulties is quite touching. But the main character in the novel is Westfeld, and he is also the most complex. His complexity js shown to us progressively, so that at first he comes across merely as an intolerant, authoritative father with no sensitivity to his stepson's former culture. Perhaps the most objectionable scene is when he forces Spock to eat meat, wholly disregarding what that may mean to the boy. He is also somewhat narrow-minded when it comes to sex, and tends to see it everywhere. When Spock takes a forbidden trip to the library, Westfeld reasons that his step-son is looking for sex books. That alone would be all right, if it weren't for his incredible conclusion that Kirk is a pervert who molests young boys when Kirk tries to rescue Spock. That conclusion is aided by Kirk's unconcious reaction to Westfeld's attractive 15-year-old daughter — a hard-on while wearing tight jeans (thanks to a quartermaster error). Westfeld's provincial attitudes seem out of place in his century, and his shock at the string of obscenities that Spock tells him he heard in high school (actually in Starfleet) seems a bit naive. High school students (hell, grammar school students.) these days say things a street gang would find shocking. We are informed that the real teen-age Spock is nothing but a spoiled brat, but we're never really shown this, so we can only blame the father-son conflict on Westfeld. His constant lectures to Spock, though occasionally and initially poignant, often deteriorate into repetitiveness. The adult part of Spock deals with these indignities well — too well. The very structure of parent-child relationships is innately dictatorial and Spock learns this too uncomplainingly in this novel. Perhaps I'm being too obtuse, but it seems to me that Roper misses a wonderful opportunity to comment on the humiliations a child often suffers at the hands of his/her parents and other adults. An adult in a child's body is itself a fine chance, but having Spock, with all his Vulcan upbringing, in such a situation cries out for some sort of comment. But slowly Westfeld is shown to a sincere, loving father, struggling to understand his son and finally aware of his own limitations. The ending is quite poignant, and one almost wishes that the Westfeld of Spock's original universe really had become his father. As to Amanda, she is almost outside the story. One would thin that after such a trauma as Spock has experience, she would be much closer to her son. Her private scenes with Westfeld are trite, and their relationship does not seem at all equal. We only see Amanda busy in the kitchen. Strange, I thought she was a teacher. Another female character that is done an injustice is when Uhura cries on the bridge. I know, I know, she did it on the series, but do we have to duplicate the creators' chauvinist lapses? But this is Roper's first novel, and amazing fact to digest when one realizes how well-structured it is. I urge her to keep at it. The effect of the whole is very satisfying. Tom Gainan, Andrea Kunz, and Sandra Michaely are the novel's artists, and it looks as if the reproduction didn't do their work justice. Kunz has the fullest illustrations. Michaely has one illo that makes Westfeld's bratty 6-year old daughter, Cindy, downright likeable. Gainan's best illo is of the Big E orbiting Jupiter; it is large and complete. A good buy.

Never judge a book by its cover, or else you miss a real gem with this one. The Enterprise has been ordered to explore a strange pocket of space into which ships have been disappearing a la the Bermuda Triangle. A supposedly unarmed missle is launched into the area, with incredible results: Spock's personality and memories become those of a much younger version of himself who has suffered the loss of Sarek and is adjusting to a new human family since his mother's remarriage. The adult Spock, meanwhile, finds himself in the child's body on Earth, with no allies to help him find out exactly how history has been changed and what to do about it. Characterization is the story's greatest strength, no one is quite what we expect. Westfield, Spock's adoptive father, does not understand his half Vulcan son, but he is not the sterotypical wicked stepfather; he genuinely cares for the boy and is trying to do what is best for Spock. There are some absolutely delightful scenes between the two, as when Westfield explains sex to his son, unaware that an adult consciousness inhabits the child's body. Yet the scene is not slapstick, it's handled with sensitivity and warmth. The major flaw in this zine is the artwork. Having little artistic talent, I hate to throw stones, but frankly the zine would have been better off with it left out entirely. It detracts from the exceptionally fine story. This is one of the best stories I've read in a long while; the writing is quite good, the new characters are all interesting and believable, and the characterizations of Kirk and Spock are right on target. If you only buy two or three zines a year, make certain that this is one of them.

While investigating a 'time pocket,' the Enterprise is thrown back in time approximately twenty years. The circumstances of their journey cause Sarek's death and leave them in the past approximately two years after Sarek's death. And there is another minor glitch: the mind of the mature Spock on the Enterprise and the mind of the juvenile Spock change bodies, despite the great displacement in space. How will Kirk set time right this time? The mature Spock is quite upset when he finds himself in the 13-year old body on Earth and meets his human stepfather and two stepsisters. He also discovers that the juvenile Spock he replaced is a spoiled, precocious little brat. And worst of all, he has to live in this body and cause as little disruption as possible until rescue can be effected. This will be difficult because he has no memories of this altered life to draw on. Wouldn't you like to be 13 again? Remember those happy days of baby fat, braces, acne, and sibling rivalry? Relive those golden days with Spock as he suffers the indignities of spankings, being grounded, and sex education. Meanwhile, the juvenile Spock in the adult body is doing his best to delay rescue. When his stepfather finds out what he did in school yesterday, he is going to get the spanking of his life... I had a mixed reaction to this novel. If one suspends one's critical judgement here and there, it is a downright amusing and often touching story. The stepfather genuinely loves little Spock and is doing his human best to raise him properly and allow him to develop his full potential. The juvenile Spock is a real handful with his human side run amok. Indeed, the scenes between the stepfather and Spock are the best parts of the whole novel. Unfortunately, the other parts are not so satisfactory. Time travel stories are notoriously tricky to write, and this one suffers from many faults. For example, if the two minds could change bodies despite their vast physical separation when the Enterprise disrupts time, why does Spock's juvenile body have to be on the Enterprise when time is restored? And without giving specific details for fear of ruining the plot, I must warn you that Spock's recover is most awkward. Additionally, why doesn't the Enterprise use the cloaking device they stole from the Romulans to cruise the past undetected? But the worst problem is that the adult Spock in the juvenile body acts too juvenile, intellectually, emotionally, and physically. I am not just referring to his attempt to pass as the juvenile Spock, but to the internal mature Spock. He just makes too many mistakes. While he retains all his adult memories, he is unable to use any of the Vulcan mental disciplines that the mature Spock would be familiar with. The explanation offered implies that physical changes in the brain result from repeated application of the disciplines. The juvenile Spock's brain is unable to use the disciplines because it has not been properly exercised. Thus Spock smiles, eats meat, gets drunk, and does a few other things that are completely out of character. Also, despite the fact that the 11-year-old Spock body could pass the Kahs-wan ordeal, the 13-year-old body cannot stay away a few house after bedtime to be rescued. Heck, my five-year old could do that! The print job is good and clean and easy to read with full size type, wide margins, and double spacing between paragraphs. The illustrations are few and range from mediocre to good. The novel is too short for the price. Rated PG.

THE SOURDANI JOURNAL, by Linda K. Roper, partakes of that same solidity of construction, but has much more reason to be a Trek novel and nothing else. Spock's psyche is exchanged with his counterpart in another universe at an earlier time - a young Spock being raised by his human relatives on Earth. The ENTERPRISE has somehow to set things to rights without changing history. It's about the adult Spock's frustrations at being trapped in a child's body, disenfranchised as a child is on Earth, and how he manages to help in his own rescue. It's got the most real science fiction in it of any of the above novels, and perhaps that's why I like it so much.