Vulcan!
By Kathleen Sky
Starfleet exobiologist Katalya Tremain hates Vulcans, but she's put in a situation where she is forced to work with Spock and overcome her hatred.
This book is another fine example of the popular trend among late 70s Star Trek novels having Mary Sue characters. And in this case the character's name and author's name are nearly identical. But in this novel, this quirky new female character loathes Vulcans and refuses to tell anyone why. There's a fair amount of psychobabble making the first half of the novel a bit boring and frustratingly annoying when it comes to Doctor Tremain. The Enterprise has been assigned to find out whether the creatures inhabiting a planet called Arachne IV are sentient or not before the boundaries around the planet change to include it in Romulan space. A team is dispatched consisting of Spock, Tremain, and a team of unfortunate redshirts. And we all know what happens to those brave enough to wear the the red. Tremain ends up stranded with Spock who has a plan to break down her feelings toward Vulcans which includes a series of sexual innuendo, which, while funny, isn't particularly in character, though it does serve to make the story a bit more entertaining. He does succeed and just before the end of the book, we find out her ridiculous (and predictable) reason for hating the Vulcan race. I do have to say that I love the cover art, as it reminds me a bit of a B-movie science fiction film with its giant ant creatures.