Novel Reviews

The Badlands Book One by Susan Wright  
Plot: The Enterprise has an encounter with Cardassians while investigating the Badlands.

Again, not as good as Book Two, but better than the TOS half.  While nothing particularly exciting or important happens, it was very interesting to see the Enterprise interacting with the Cardassians, and tying it in to early Season Five most especially with Ensign Ro.  The Obsidian Order agent spying on the Enterprise was particularly interesting.  But again there's no real story resolution, it just kind of ends, and the radiation sickness stuff isn't terribly interesting.

#61 Diplomatic Implausibility  by Keith R.A. DeCandido 
Plot:  After DS9's "What You Leave Behind", Worf's first mission as Klingon Ambassador is to a conquered Klingon world.

Good, but nothing classic.  It was great to see Ambassador Worf and the post Dominion War climate in the Klingon Empire.  All too often Worf comes off as a hard ass or a grouch but he's portrayed excellently here, brilliant and with a sense of humor.  However the novel is more about a crew of Klingon characters than it is about Worf (or anyone else in TNG/DS9), and while they're well developed it gets a tad confusing for me at least, especially with them having appeared in previous TNG/DS9 episodes.  My favorite was easily the engineer who talks about "conquering" mechanical problems with gusto.  A character list would've been greatly appreciated in the front of the book, most especially for people who have forgotten or missed those episodes!  The plot itself is unfortunately pedestrian, though it's extremely interesting to learn how the Klingons treat their conquered, and I did love the concept of ten foot tall sentient polar bears.  It's a real shame there wasn't any real kind of rebel action or crisis; instead the almost random attacks by Kreel raiders seem almost like Action Inserts that don't really figure into the plot.  Things seem to end before they get a chance to begin, though Worf's solution is pretty ingenious.  This could've been a stellar novel if something major happened with the rebels revolting or whatnot.

Ship of the Line by Diane Carey 
Plot: Captain Bateman and the Bozeman crew, after missing 90 years of time, take the Enterprise E for its maiden cruise but run into an old Klingon archnemesis.  Picard ventures to Cardassia to rescue POWs from Gul Madred.

This was in several ways an annoying but entertaining novel.  The first fourth of the novel details the Bozeman's battle with Klingons leading to them being trapped in the Typhon Expanse.  On the whole this was a very annoying section; the Bozeman crew especially so.  These 23rd century men are obsessed with talking in acronyms, heavy New England accents, and naval battles from the 16th century.  I mean really!  Plus, they have this ridiculous 'ship mascot' which is an alien octopus which likes to hump their ankles.  Come on!  The most interesting this in the section is the missing end from the TNG episode 'Cause and Effect' where Bateson comes over the Enterprise and learns that he's in the future.  That was entertaining.  Then we get some continuity with the Ent crew sitting around in the aftermath of the Ent-D's destruction, not even sure if Picard will take command of the new Ent-E.  Interesting only for the 'arc' elements.  The novel then splits into the Ent-E plot and the Cardassian subplot.  While Picard coming back to Madred after being tourtured by him was a great idea, the concept was totally  trashed here.  Madred acts completely out of character; he is hot-tempered and insulting rather than the cool psychological villian he was in 'Chains of Command'.  Plus, we are subjected to long chapters detailing how the POWs must fight for their lives in simulated Federation cities.  This just takes up space and leads no where.  After Picard confronts Madred, he quickly concedes and they rescue the POWs.  Yawn.  The most interseting thing about this plot is its relation to the DS9 Arc; it's DS9 Season Four, and the Klingons attacked Cardassia forcing it to make friendly with the Federation.  Least I forget, there's some more stupid empty pages on the Picard plot; in the voyager to Cardassia he goes into these long holodeck semi-novelizations of the Classic Trek episodes 'Balance of Terror' (Romulan space battle) and 'The Enemy Within' (Kirk split into good and evil).  I see the author was trying to teach Picard 'lessons' on being a good captain (this theme went with Bateson and Riker too) but it just fell flat and looking stupid.  The Ent-E plot had some nice character conflict between Bateson and Riker, and had a nice space battle where the old Klingon foe takes over the Ent-E.  There follows the old 'guerilla' battle to take back the ship, but here it ends apruptly before it goes anywhere.  Plus, Picard assembles a rag tag Cardie fleet to attack the Ent-E which is about to attack Cardassia, but this doesn't go anywhere either.  There is no climax, just a quick non-ending with no action.  The Klingon foe was readable if only because he wasn't a hothead just wanted his honor back.

#52 Vectors (Double Helix Book Two of Six) by Dean Wesly Smith & Kristine Kathryn Rusch 
Plot: During Season Three, Pulaski leaves the Enterprise and travels to Terok Nor (DS9) where Bajorans and Cardassians are being killed by an engineered disease.  She must work with her Bajoran ex-husband Kellec Ton and Gul Dukat.  Rom and Nog come to live with Quark and cause trouble.  Kira works with Pulaski to find the disease's source.

This was a good story which was a wonderful visit to the Terok Nor Occupation days, and even the normally annoying Pulaski was good (I suppose its the performance that's annoying).  For a medical drama, it didn't get bogged down in techno-speak and remained entertaining.  The best thing about the novel was the small character 'arc' moments; Rom and Nog first come to Quark, Polaski leaves the Enterprise (and gets to meet Crusher), Odo becomes semi-friends with Kira, etc.  The Ferengi plot wasn't stupid it was very interesting, especially when Rom first gets humilitated by the Cardassians, Quark is teaching him that life is very serious on Terok Nor.  I always loved relationship between Quark and Rom, and its used to great affect here.  However having (one of) Pulaski's ex a Bajoran seemed a stretch to me; if all Bajorans are under the Occupation how did Pulaski meet him, and if he somehow escaped the Occupation to live in the Federation then how did he get back and why would Dukat let him be the Terok Nor Bajoran doctor if he's 'Federation'?  Oh well.  It would have been nice to see more from Kira and Odo, they were actually minor characters here.  Nurse Ogawa from the Enterprise is also on Terok Nor, not that this meant much of anything.  I didn't read the first Double Helix novel, but what I missed was nicely explained away in dialogue.  I find this mysterious cloaked stranger who is releasing these viruses and the mastermind who created them very interesting, and look forward to seeing more in the next Double Helix novels.  Dukat was his usual, a very interesting character, though I think they played up a bit much on his Cardassian-ness rather than his Dukat-ness (ie he was a little too cruel to the Bajorans who he was obsessed with making them love him).  The 'climax' of the novel got a little sloppy though; all of sudden there's a small war going on in the Promenade which came out of no where and was settled off screen.  Suddenly a Cardie fleet arrives ready to toast Terok Nor and Bajor.  Pulaski gets the cure from the Ferengi (I did like that twist) within the last ten pages of the novel, we don't get to see her say goodbye to her ex, we don't get to see the voyage back to the Federation, things moved a tad quickly there.  And the Cardie doctor, Neral, was a nice guy not a typical Cardie which was nice to see.

#49 Q-Strike (Q Continnuim Book Three of Three) by Greg Cox 
Plot: Q shows Picard the end of 0's rampage in the past and returns him to the Enterprise, just as 0 is released from his prison and runs amok on the Enterprise, tormenting Q with death while headed to free The One.  Meanwhile the possessed Faal is experimenting on q, leaving only his son to defeat him.

A definite improvement over the previous chapter.  The flashback tale of the Qs v. 0 and company was extremely interesting.  The releasing of 0 was great, especially the way his insanity has made him even more powerful.  The powered Faal stuff was pretty dumb on a whole.  The Q v. 0 bit was pretty exciting, but it did stretch credibiltiy a bit when they can just be running around the Enterprise not blowing it up when their last battle had stars exploding and so forth.  Plus, Q's escape to the holodeck got pretty stupid.  It was also a bit of a let down that neither the other Qs or 0's terrible trio were involved since they appeared in the flashback, leaving the opening story to be more exciting than the novel's climax!

#48 Q-Zone (Q Continnuim Book Two of Three) by Greg Cox 
Plot: Q takes Picard on a tour of the past between a young Q and the scourge of the galaxy, 0.  Meanwhile Riker is left in command with the Calamarain about to destroy the ship.

This was a huge drop in quality, with a horrible last third of the novel.  This entire novel seemed to be in holding pattern; it takes the whole novel for the Enterprise just to move into the galactic barrier to escape the Calamarain, stretching things out a bit.  Meanwhile we get an introduction to Gordan, (*), and The One and their first moves as well as the origan of the Calamarain.  This stuff was interesting, but the story of the Tkon Empire, which ended up taking a third of the novel, was just horrible.  Not that the story was bad, but because it starred unknown brief characters in a complete waste of space to illustrate the horrible abilites of 0's terrible trio, but in the end this trio never appears in the present, leaving this whole thing to be a waste of space.  Faal beginning to get 0's powers made him almost interesting.

#47 Q-Space (Q Continnuim Book One of Three)by Greg Cox 
Plot: The Enterprise is about to conduct an experiment to pierce the Galactic Barrier when they run awfoul of Q, his new wife Q, their infant child q, and the gaseous Calamarain.  A dying Betazoid scientist who is running the experiment holds a secret.  While Q whisks Picard away to reveal his past and purpose today, Riker is left in command when the Calamarain attack.

This was a great novel that was nice and straight-forward, nothing really spectacular but extremely solid and exciting.  The author makes an excellent use of previous episodes; there must have been about 30-40 television episodes mentioned, with about half of them being integral to the plot!  Some may find this annoying but I found the way this story is a logical progression and explanation of past events to be very captivating.  It was interesting to see the ole' Q introduction because the dynamic has changed so fundementally thanks to his wife Q and their baby q.  Plus, there is a nice long battle with the Calamarain that was very exciting.  The references to a wormhole experiment into the galactic barrier were very interesting as well.  The only slow part was the Faal family; the angry dying scientist and his weener kids.  This part just got dumb fast, and some of the extended q scenes were a little dumb as well.  Once Q grabbed Picard to show him his origans, things got really interesting in revealing Q's backstory.  When Q gets the Guardian of Forever to release 0, things really get moving.

Tunnel Through the Sky (Dominion War Book Four of Four) by John Vornholt 
Plot:  Now united, Picard's and Lavelle's crew must somehow destroy the Dominion's artificial wormhole.  Unfortunately they have a Founder saboteur onboard.

This was another taunt page-turner, because you wonder how they will destroy the wormwhole and how they will defeat the Founder onboard.  The Founder infiltration was a great plot and turned everyone against one another beautifully.  However the plot of them mining ghost ships in the Badlands for some aliens seemed really divulgant from the novel's main plot, though it was pretty interesting because of the mere mystery involved.  The ending where they destroyed the wormhole was not spectacular but a reasonably entertaining ending to this two-parter novel series.  The Riker romance plot got even worse in this novel, as he tries to 'help' her.  Please!  Once again Data was absent during the majority of the novel, but when he did appear at the end he was put to great use.  He holds off hundreds of Jem'Hadar all by himself!

Behind Enemy Lines (Dominion War 1)  by John Vornholt 
Plot:  During the Federation's war with the Dominion-Cardassian alliance, Maquis Ro Laren discovers the Dominon is building an artificial wormhole.  She teams up with Picard in a beat up Bajoran transport to infiltrate Dominion space and somehow destroy the wormhole.  Meanwhile Starfleet officer Sam Lavelle is a Dominon prisoner, working on the wormhole construction.  He is picked to work the Trill scientist collaborator Enrak Grof to pilot a transport and mine a blackhole while he seeks a way to escape.

Well, this was an excellent page-turning novel but it just wasn't what I expected.  I expected a novel featuring the Enterprise E, not some crap-ass Bajoran transport.  Still, the novel was full of action and intrigue.  The whole novel you are left in suspense as to what Picard and Lavelle are going to do as their situations get more and more screwed.  I'd call it more of an intrigue novel than an action novel.  Sure, the Enterprise E got some action at the beginning but then it's in the spacedocks for the rest of the novel.  The Picard-Ro partnership was interesting and their infiltration of the Dominion was pretty suspenseful.  They meet Cardassian dissidents, Ferengi and Orion gangsters, etc... however all of this stuff seems divulgent from the novel's main plot.  Picard spends a sizable amount of time just running into new problems that while interesting are frustrating.  The Lavelle plot was horrible at first but slowly got interesting, when he is captain of a transport but is powerless to escape.  His covert planning for an escape is very interesting and suspense, but his beginning plot is pretty dull.  The Riker romance C-plot was okay but generally bad; he tries to win over the crippled woman in charge of the Ent E's repairs and falls in love himself.  However she has psychological problems... on the whole pretty boring.  However it did use the Riker-Troi relationship well.  This novel opened with amazing action sequences; my favorite is when Data single handedly takes out a whole Dominion Battleship while stranded on the surface of a planet!  Data's android abilites are for once used and they make him very cool in this action sequence; unfortunately he then disapeers for the whole novel!  It seems like a wasted oppurtunity given how this author can actually use Data's special abilites.  I didn't much care for Picard and Ro's adventures with the Ferengi traders but the Romulan take over of their ship was really great and action packed.  I also like the wry and one-armed Romulan character.  The novel's ending was pretty small given what's at stake, it felt like a real tease and just a lead-in to the next novel rather than the ending of a novel.