Faceman Reads Star Trek Books

Q Comtinuum Book 3 (TNG) 2374

gave up on the Q continuum book halfway through book 3. It was just that bad.

Hollow Men (DS9) 2374, Uma McCormick

Just finished DS9s Hollow Men which takes place after In a Pale Moonlight. Not technically a relaunch but intrigued me. It was mostly good except for the random connection between the earth and DS9 plot. The book was mostly a character study that was well done. Refreshing to visit the DS9 universe finally. Next up Imzadi 2. Back to TNG...

Audiences could have put up with all of that, and probably even being hit over the head with the Don Quixote parallel, because hey Star Trek likes its literary connections, but the plot device Ferengi would be seen as jumping the shark.

As wacky as some of that was, I usually enjoy PAD's "everything but the kitchen sink" approach to tying threads from different series and episodes together. Does it strain credibility? Sure, but it's fun.

Another writer who does that really well is Greg Cox.

Mike Ford was a genius, but this one pissed off a lot of people who didn't get the Gilbert & Sullivan connection. His Final Reflection is among my favorites.

Hollow Men - was Roeder 31? I'm unclear. My best theory is they wanted Garak to kill him because 31 is ruthless and wanted to censor him. That he was coincidentally involved in the plot to steal latinum is a plot stretch. I assume 31 used the latinum theft to test the shapeshifter inhibitor device and take scans of Odo to see how the virus was progressing, but that also seems a tad unnecessary. Where the two main plots converge is the book's weakest point, in my opinion.

Triangle: Imzadi II (TNG) 2371/2374, Teaser

Imzadi II - apparently only the framing story takes place chronologically after Hollow Men (season 6 DS9 finale) so this book should have been at the top of my chronology prior to Ship of the Line...it takes place immediately following the crash of the E-D. I'm at the point where Worf and Deanna get engaged and am realizing this has stretched believability - if that's even a word, which apparently it is not. And I have questions about the character of Worf here...

I'm uncertain Greg Cox does anything really well.

YMMV.

Believe it or not, DeLancie and I briefly discussed writing an origin of "Q" crossover novel together (that unfortunately never panned out), wherein the Continuum encounters Eugene Bradford for the first time, and eventually induct him into their ranks.

A hint about the story: The Continuum don't discover Eugene, but vice versa. He stumbles upon them while unstuck in time, after the lab explosion in his final episodes of his run on "Days". To those unfamiliar with soaps, in the mid 80s, many soaps ran with genre sub-plots. Seriously. The Most Ridiculous Science Fiction Plots From Actual Soap Operas

Triangle: Imzadi II (TNG) 2371/2374

Imzadi II was meh. A mucked up romance novel? A story that didn't need telling? Even the "plot" was weak. Word doesn't end up with Deanna in the end, and neither does Riker because it takes place two years before First Contact. Shocking.

Plus, the writer had this bizarre plot with Tom and Sela where Tom works for Sela and Sela wants to kill the Klingons and thinks Tom will be useful - but never actually uses him, or at least needs to use him. Nor does her plan ultimately require any Starfleet officer - to release a virus in a bottle in Qo'nos. There's no reason to put a Starfleet officer near Gowron to do so, if the virus is capable of killing the entire planet in over a day...you just need to drop it off somewhere. So in other words, the entire plot is moot.

On top of that poor concept, the writer couldn't figure out how to get "Riker" out of "assassinating" Gowron. You have essentially three characters in this tale - Worf, Riker (x2), and Troi. And yet, out of the blue, the device to assassinate Gowron is replaced by....Odo!

Yes, out of nowhere Odo becomes the device and his presence is meaningless too since nothing happens there either. The characters never visited DS9 or visited with DS9 characters before Odo appears in the last few pages of the book. It just happens.

I was going to rank this yellow but after writing this, I feel a red is more deserving. What the fuck? Will they let anything get published?

Next up the Battle of Betazed (TNG) which takes place during DS9's 7th Season.

(Books are ranked graded in Post 2 of this thread)

Da fuck? You're a published author?

I'm surprised @Faceman's brain hasn't turned into a puddle of goo at this point.

I gave up on that. The first Imzadi was an entertaining novel.

Peter David's quality nosedived some point after the fourth or fifth Excalibur book, I'm tempted to get the three new Excalibur novels out of a sense of completion rather than one of anticipation.

IIRC Peter David's writing quality started crapping out about the time of his divorce from his first wife.

I am...slowing down.

Divorce is a sin and God punished him thusly.

I'm a sometimes "book doctor". Lousy at actual writing but a whiz at plotting. Have helped several writers who've written themselves into a corner, or are unsure of how to move a story from point "A" to "B". I'd balk at the notion of being a "published author" because many of the things I contribute to a story, while very important to the author, are fairly minor contributions to the story itself. Often, a very slight change is all it takes to get the ball rolling again. In one case, where an author was stuck on explaining a character's motivation, I suggested he make a slight change in the character's ethnicity, thus giving the character a connection to another character (shared heritage) that gave them a motivational connection that was previously lacking. Completely changed the story, but my sole contribution was to ask "Could the cop maybe a quarter Cherokee on his mother's side?"

Regarding the "Q" idea... John was interested in maybe trying his hand at writing. It would have been his baby, had he followed through. I merely offered to help him rough out the plot, and lend a hand if and when he got stuck.

I thought de Lancie wrote a number of things? Including some issues of the TNG comic book.

He wrote I, Q which is coming up on my list in about 3 to 4 books. Not looking forward to more Q. Thanks Greg cox for ruining the character.

Didn't Cox also ruin the Eugenics Wars and the character of Khan Noonian Singh?

First Imzadi was tepid at best, or at least everything I can remember was, and I gave up on Excalibur after four or five books.

The Excalibur stories are wildly uneven. David is best when he sticks to Captain Calhoun. It is when he branches out to rest of the crew of weirdos that things fall apart.

You might be right. I mean, the individual plots had some merit, but the books were just so bogged down with superficial characterization and hamfistedly pairing most of the crewmembers off and ignoring any ongoing plot threads.

Where did I leave off...

Battle Of Betazed (TNG) 2375

Battle of Betazed was pretty good. Tale of the Dominion war, telepath who can slaughter dozens with his mind, moral issue, kewl space battle, destroying a Nor class station. Evil scientist was lame though - all in the name of science, just like the traitor Trill in Tunnel through the Sky. They killed Mr. Homm so that was sad.

Short Stories:

The Sky's the Limit (TNG) 2375

Sky's the Limit: Four Lights: an unnecessary tale that again didn't need to be told (Picard meets Gul Madred a la Ship of the Line)

Tales of the Dominion War 2375
Tales of the Dominion War: 11 Hours Out.(TNG): OK, but also unnecessary. Picard single handedly represses the Breen attack on Starfleet while on Earth visiting. I didn't need to know how they were fought off. IT was a suicide mission at the heart of the Federation. I assumed they got decimated by a superior force.

Prophecy and Change (DS9) 2375

Prophecy and Change: Face Value: an average story about the last days of the war. Kira on Cardassia trying to buy weapons a few days before the end. It's a character piece examining the strained relationship between Kira, Damar, and Garak while they hunker down in Mila's basement. How do they forgive each other enough to work together?

The Left Hand of Destiny Book One (DS9) 2375

Interesting. Klingon centric tale featuring Martok and a little Worf, with Alexander, Sirella, and now Ezri mixed in. A coup immediately falls on Qunos as soon as Martok returns home after the end of the war (making this the first true Relaunch book). He's gone from Chancellor to outcast with no armies. Kahless helps out...to be continued. JG Hertzler wrote the books so the focus on Martok and his heavy burden is a focal point. He's chancellor but he's not accepted it yet, and this coup clearly doesn't help.

Is there some sort of page limit to these books? What's with the duologies and trilogies? There's no real reason to split these stories up. Is this a money grab policy? @garamet ?

Does the author say, hey I have a manuscript but it's 500 pages. It needs editing. It's pretty loose still and there's a lot of superfluous stuff in here.

No no, says the star trek book editor. Just cut it in half and you've got two books.$$$$$$$$$

IIRC, garamet said a few years ago that the stories split up over several novels were said by Pocket to sell better. So yeah it is a money grab by Pocket.

If I got it wrong or misstated what she said, garamet can feel free to correct me.

Back to Hollow Men, which I keep thinking about...this is more of a "Section 31" story than some of the actual Section 31 tales, i.e. Rogue.

This is why my ST book purchases went from several a year to one every several years, I got very much fed up with one good story spread across two mediocre books.

I think LHoD was the exception to that, the plot ephemera added to the story and characters rather than merely the page count.

Almost done with book two hated having to go to bed last night because the last half of the book is intense.