#44 Vulcan's Glory
By D.C. Fontana
The story of Spock's first mission aboard the Enterprise.
If D.C. Fontana wrote it, you know it's got to be good. The novel opens with Spock on Ka'a Beach, in Kauai, Hawaii, on shore leave just before taking his assignment as Christopher Pike's second officer on board the Enterprise, thus taking place before the events in The Cage. Before his shore leave is over, Spock is called back to Vulcan in order to deal with the matter of his betrothal to T'Pring and shows how they decided to postpone the ceremony until it could not be avoided. Even this early on, T'Pring was cheating on him with Stonn. An interesting, non-Mary Sue original character named T'Pris is introduced as a love interest for Spock. She's a Vulcan science officer specializing in astrobiology. The main plot revolves around a giant emerald, called the "Vulcan's Glory", which was thought to have been lost in the crash of an ancient Vulcan ship called the He-Shii. Unfortunately, T'Pris meets a messy end and this is one of the events which helps to transform the character of Spock into the one we know. The book also introduces a young Montgomery Scott.
There are a few discrepencies in regards to Vulcans serving in Starfleet. It is known canon that Spock was the very first, but there are other Vulcan officers on board the Enterprise in this book, more than one would expect at this period in time. Then there is the matter of a character revealing himself to be one-eighth Vulcan, meaning there was a Vulcan/Human hybrid well before Spock (another canon first). However, it is superbly written.