An exciting new story of interplanetary adventure.—Spock Must Die! is a Star Trek novel by James Blish, published in January 1970. Although several adaptations preceded Spock Must Die!, this work was the first original Star Trek prose publication by Bantam Books, and the second overall following Mission to Horatius, which was a young reader novel. That makes Spock Must Die! the first original Star Trek prose literature not intended for young readers. Blish had previously written three volumes of TOS episode novelizations before this book, and would contribute to 9 more before his death in 1975. Following the publication of Spock Must Die!, there was no other licensed original Star Trek prose from Bantam until the release of The New Voyages (short story anthology) and Spock, Messiah! (full-length novel), both in 1976.

1985 reprint edition description

Captain's log, stardate 4181.4. We are at war with the Klingon Empire. Launching an unprovoked attack upon the Federation, the Klingons have broken the terms of the Organian Peace Treaty—leaving the Enterprise stranded deep in uncharted space, cut off from the rest of the Federation fleet. To find out what happened to the Organians, Commander Scott rigged an experimental modification to our transportation system designed to enable a tachyon replica of Mr. Spock to travel faster-than-light to Organia. But the experiment failed, and incredibly, left us with two identical Spocks: one of whom is a replica in every way opposite of our first officer, a traitor whose continued existence poses a grave threat to the Enterprise and quite possibly the entire Federation.

One of the Spocks must die. But which one? <…more>