History Literature / StarTrekVulcansHeart

* TheyDo: Spock and Saavik marry at the end of the book.

* ScarpiaUltimatum: Tasha Yar must submit to the Volskiar's attentions to keep her remaining Enterprise-C crew members alive. She does.

* TheCaligula: Romulan Praetor Dralath.

* CoolOldGuy: Emperor Shiarkiek.

* GoodIsNotNice: Narviat, the reasonable and honourable praetor who overthrows [[TheCaligula Dralath]]. He's a good man, but he's a Romulan noble who thrives in the cut-throat world of the Imperial court. As such, he's not the Starfleet sort of hero. Indeed, his primary appeal is not so much that he'll be an ally of any sort to the Federation but rather that he's too sensible to start pointless wars. Spock reflects:

* TheyDo: Spock and Saavik.

* DeadlyDecadentCourt: Establishes the Romulan capital as this, and followed up on in later novels.

A book in the Franchise/StarTrekNovelVerse, one of the foundations of its continuity. It expands on several canonically established but underexplored events in the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' timeline -- the Romulan attack on Narendra III and the destruction of the ''Enterprise''-C among them. Its main plot, though, features the courtship between Spock and Saavik.

* ProfessionalKiller: Spock notes the body language of several Romulan youths, which suggests to him that they are this. One of them is Neral, [[CallForward who will one day be praetor]] (though he becomes somewhat more honourable.)

* PlanetOfHats: The novel tries to avert this with the Romulans. Some are essentially warrior-politicians (Narviat, Dralath as a darker and more bloodthirsty variant), some noble soldiers of the ProudWarriorRace type (e.g. Charvanek, Tal and Ruanek (and he's of a different caste to the first two, and so expresses the tendency differently,) and others are little more than thugs. Some Romulans are gentle scholars, some of them quite stuffy, some are slang-talking street youth with a lot of idealism, some are just getting-on-with-things servants and workers.

* YouCantGoHomeAgain: After helping Spock back across the Neutral Zone to safety, the Romulan soldier Ruanek is unable to return lest he be tried for treason. He's reluctantly forced to make a new life on Vulcan. In later books (the ''Literature/StarTrekVulcansSoul'' trilogy), he becomes an academic, and marries a Vulcan healer (a woman he meets at the end of this novel.)

* ArcWelding: The characters from ''StarTrekStargazer'' (established in the novel ''Reunion'') are weaved into the events surrounding the Romulan attack on Narendra III, and the loss of the ''Enterprise''-C.

A book in the Franchise/StarTrekNovelVerse, one of the foundations of its continuity. It expands on several canonically established but underexplored events in the ''Franchise/StarTrek'' timeline -- the Romulan attack on Narendra III and the destruction of the ''Enterprise''-C among them. It's main plot, though, features the courtship between Spock and Saavik.

->2329: Now a diplomat for the United Federation of Planets, Spock agrees to a bonding with Commander Saavik. More than a betrothal, less than a wedding, the sacred Vulcan rite is attended by both Spock's father, Sarek, and a nervous young Starfleet lieutenant named Jean-Luc Picard.

!!This novel contains examples of:

* AscendedExtra: The character Ruanek had previously appeared in another novel in a relatively minor role. He proved so popular with readers that he made a reappearance here, his role greatly expanded. He would go to appear in several short stories and the ''Literature/StarTrekVulcansSoul'' trilogy as well.
* BecomingTheMask: An interesting example with Emperor Shiarkiek. He was always more comfortable as a scholar than an emperor, and over the years "played" at scholar more and more until he forgot his true responsibility as emperor (at least that's how he sees it. He might be being a bit harsh on himself). He also feels that his true identity - defined, as with many Romulans, by his personal honour - is now lost to him.
-->“I was a fool, a fool, so seduced by my scholarly research I forgot what I was. Never do that, never forget. For once you do, once you begin trusting others with what should be yours, you never, ever win it back”.
* BloodOnTheDebateFloor: To the shock of the other senators, Praetor Dralath murders a member of the government on the Senate Chamber floor. There's a reason why a character in later books says that Dralath caused more damage to Romulan honour than any other leader she remembers.

* CallARabbitASmeerp: With actual rabbits - I mean keeriks, sorry. Keeriks.

* EccentricMentor: Emperor Skiarkiek comes close, with his aged body, eccentric personality and odd conversational tangents (plus his preoccupation with flesh-eating fish) combined with a deep wisdom and a good nature.
* EvilChancellor: Dralath, as praetor, is essentially this to Shiarkiek, the emperor (although the praetor has the real political authority, the emperor's figurehead status is still taken very seriously and his spiritual influence is extreme). Dralath even tries to manipulate public opinion by using a drugged-up Shiarkiek as a puppet.

-->Think, Romulans, of our colony worlds. Think of the honest, hardworking, loyal men and women who ask nothing but to serve the Empire. Now picture foreigners imperiling those Romulan men, women, yes, Romulan children. And such invaders do threaten, brutish creatures who know nothing of honour, nothing of glory: Klingons! Klingons who know nothing but blood lust! You ask, how can this be? Have we not dealt peacefully with the Klingons, even purchased warships from them? Yes! We made that mistake! We let them sell us faulty ships - but no more! That was all part of their plan to weaken us, then overwhelm us.
* GoodIsNotNice: Narviat, the reasonable and honourable praetor who overthrows [[TheCaligula Dralath]]. He's a good man, but he's a Romulan noble who thrives in the cut-throat world of the Imperial court. As such, he's not the Starfleet sort of hero. Indeed, his primary appeal is not so much that he'll be an ally of any sort to the Federation but rather that he's too sensible to start pointless wars. Spock reflects:
-->Yes, Narviat was ambitious and, in his own honorable way, ruthless - no surprise there, not from a member of the Imperial family who'd survived so far. He was also far less venal and warmongering - more sensible, was it? - than Dralath.
* MyCountryRightOrWrong: The Romulan military officer Volskiar. Other Romulan command officers, like Tal and Charvanek, have less black-and-white outlooks.
* PatrioticFervor: Volskiar and several other Romulans encourage this in their troops at every opportunity.
* PlanetOfHats: The novel tries to avert this with the Romulans. Some are essentially warrior-politicians (Narviat, Dralath as a darker and more bloodthirsty variant), some noble soldiers of the ProudWarriorRace type (e.g. Charvanek, Tal and Ruanek (and he's of a different caste to the first two, and so expresses the tendency differently), and others are little more than thugs. Some Romulans are gentle scholars, some of them quite stuffy, some are slang-talking street youth with a lot of idealism, some are just getting-on-with-things servants and workers.

* ProfessionalKiller: Spock notes the body language of several Romulan youths, which suggests to him that they are this. One of them is Neral, [[CallForward who will one day be praetor]] (though he becomes somewhat more honourable).

--> Ruanek: “Audacious, hells, yes! But how in the name of all those hells are you going to get in? Just walk right up and order the gates to open?”
--> Spock: “Precisely”.

* ToBeLawfulOrGood: Many of the Romulans struggle with this; Tal most notably. Charvanek is always "good", Volskiar is always "lawful" (even when the law is as corrupt and immoral as it is here), and Tal is caught between them.
* UnusualEuphemism: The Romulan youth are fond of "doubleshine!", which seems to be their equivalent of "bull**it".

* YouCantGoHomeAgain: After helping Spock back across the Neutral Zone to safety, the Romulan soldier Ruanek is unable to return lest he be tried for treason. He's reluctantly forced to make a new life on Vulcan. In later books (the ''Literature/StarTrekVulcansSoul'' trilogy), he becomes an academic, and marries a Vulcan healer (a woman he meets at the end of this novel).

* PlayfulHacker or {{Cracker}}: Kerit is either, depending on how you look. She'd probably be a definite PlayfulHacker in most cases; she's really just having fun. She doesn't mean any harm and treats attempts to access restricted systems as a game. Then again, she ''is'' helping bring down the government here, so there's little doubt from Praetor Dralath's view she's the {{Cracker}}.