Provenance of Shadows
Crucible: McCoy

David R. George III

reviewed by Randy Landers

Leonard McCoy is having bad dreams, and it’s eventually discovered that he existed in an alternate universe, namely the one he created when he saved Edith Keeler’s life (before Kirk and Spock went back in time to stop him). This alternate universe takes an interesting look at life in the South, especially Georgia, during the Great Depression and the years afterwards, including the development of Hitler’s war machine and the war to end his reign of terror. McCoy’s dreams are a direct result of these alternate universe life experiences, and they affect his present and future life until he is able to confront the cause of these problems and the paradoxes that were created.

The book is an interesting one, and a lot of detailed research was apparently done to show life in the Deep South as accurately as possible. However, the story is not truly engaging, just ‘interesting,’ and the reader is never really drawn into the story, into McCoy’s problems nor even to the mystery. It’s written in a very dry style that simply fails to inspire.

Despite its stylistic shortcomings, Provenance of Shadows is a decent read. While I don’t strongly recommend it, it’s not a bad book.

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