Faceman Reads Star Trek Books

It wasn't even "stark good and evil" in the original TOS story, though. Spock was still an okay guy.

Actually they were though Mirror Spock was close to our Spock.

A nice line in the James Blish adaptation actually explains this nicely.

Our Spock speaking at the end to Dr. McCoy.

"I am a savage doctor. Both in this universe and the other. But some day I hope to outgrow it".

VOY Relaunch 2378.

The first four books, two dualogies, written by the same author are mediocre at best. But that's VOY for you.

Homecoming/The Farther Shore (VOY) 2378

Lacking the nuance and layers of DS9, VOY does what VOY does best - two unrelated plots about the Borg and holograms. I give some leeway for this duology since it is the launching point. Also credit to explaining how Borg queens keep reappearing - it's all software which starts again when a queen dies. The books also serve to introduce new characters. Dr. Kaz, a trill, who will replace the doctor on board. The doctor is arrested for helping a holographic uprising. Apparently holograms are the apes - waiters, menial labor, omnipresent. This is neither mentioned in any book or episode, but apparently Earth is one big holographic projector for holograms are everywhere. The writer is pretty lame. Very touchy feely. Traveling pants. Emotional. The borg queen imposter (a human trying to become a queen by using an EMH to build her) is killed in the end. The holographic uprising leader is found dead but uploaded himself into another hologram at the end. He escapes but gives tasks to his underlings at the end. We'll never hear from this character again...

Spirit Walk (VOY) 2378

Have you ever wanted to read a book about Chakotay and his sister as they navigate native american spirtuality, the sky spirits, and dream land? How about two books? Well have I got a piece of shit story for you. Why does this need to be two books? Also, if the first duology was a plot about what VOY is used to these books offer a what if? What if VOY had been in the AQ the whole time? Why, they'd interact with Cardassians (check) and a changeling (check!). Yes, this book is about a Cardassian teaming up with a disgraced changling, three years after the Dominion war ends. The books drop plots left and right. There's talk about AQ VOY staff and DQ VOY staff not getting along...and then it's dropped. Hmm...familiar? The Cardassian gets captured in the end. The Changling gets away. The changling impersonates Chuckles for the entirely of book 2 while he is held captive (but still won't shut up). Kim and Kaz figure out he's a fake and tell Admiral Janeway. Instead of simply ordering him relieved and put in the brig she send Tom on the Delta Flyer to help take him down by himself. Does she not think the entire crew would follow her orders? Instead the changling is able to escape. But in a fangasm moment, Tom orders VOY to land on the planet so people can walk after him. Because transporters and shuttles won't do...He still gets away.

Over the four books there is a subplot about Belana on Borath - you know the ice planet Klingon monestary? She goes on her own Spirit Walk through the jungles (yes on the ice planet) to find her mother, who she finds then who promptly dies, and then stays there studying old scrolls about her child who is apparently special. It goes nowhere and she remains there at the end of the books.

And there are no more VOY relaunch novels written for five years!

I have now caught up to where I started - the 9 book NEM prequel for TNG. Updated rankings on page 1. Next books will be the TNG relaunch and Titan novels immediately following Nemesis.

Death In Winter (TNG) 2379

This is the first TNG relaunch and it fails to serve its purpose.

The events of NEM did not have to occur for this thin story to exist. The author plugs in characters from his own line of Stargazer books, two of which get more screen time an word and Geordie combined. The book is Picard going after Crusher who is MIA in romulan space. Thus the book abandons the conceit that she took over star fleet medical after NEM. Although she is in that position when she goes MIA it is unrealistic a person in her position would go on a covert mission. Again, NEM need. It have occurred. Picard and Crusher exchange about ten lines of dialogue the entire and on the last page she decides to return to the enterprise (which is in dry dock the entire book and not used) and declares her love for Picard. The end.

This is a reset or a relaunch. There is no relaunch of any kind. It's just a throwaway story. VOY at least made an effort to refocus the mission of the ship and introduce new characters. This was Picard hanging out with one offs from the authors stargazer books. And of course because it was romulan space there had to be a cartoonish version of Adela mixed in.

I mean really. This is the third relaunch they had done after DS9 and VOY and this is what they come up with? Shit.

A title as good as that deserves a strong story.

Yeah, the TNG relaunch is basically killing time until the Destiny trilogy. (Except for Q&A, that was great.)

The second VOY relaunch is much better, though. They even hired the writer of that for the new CBS series.

I saw that. Will get there in 2381.

Star Trek Titan: Taking Wing (TTN) 2279

This is the launch of TTN, the ship Riker takes over after Nemesis. This is a far better "launch" of a series than Death in Winter (see post 94) while interestingly building off a b-plot in Death in Winter. Riker assembles a diverse crew of Starfleet officers from all over Federation space to go study and explore. Before he can, he's sent to Romulus to help mediate a dispute between factions vying for power over its broken government. Many of these characters are introduced into a completely unconnected b-plot in Death in Winter, including the new Praetor TalAura who was the one who set the bomb off in the Senate in the beginning of Nemesis. She is warring with the military, commanded by Donatra from Nemesis, the hardliners, the Tal Shiar, the Remans who had just gotten a taste of freedom, and Spock's unification movement which has fallen out of favor with the Federation council.

Along for the ride is Admiral Aakar, from Deep Space Nine's relaunch series. He's a good character to have along as he's an asshole Admiral who is generally right (as opposed to the cartoon admirals that are always wrong - see VOY) and serves to test the Captains (Riker or Kira). On their way to Romulus, they pass the Great Bloom - the remnant spacial disturbance from the destruction of the Scimitar in Nemesis. Eventually, they negotiate a tense deal where the hardliners are eliminated and the Klingons make Remus a protectorate until they can be given access to habitable land on Romulus. Donatra endorses the deal which forces TalAura to consent.

In the "cliff hanger" (not really, but leads into the next book) Donatra loses her fleet she has hidden in the Great Bloom. Titan and Donatra investigate only to be sucked into the bloom and deposited in another galaxy…

As I said before, this one was an excellent start to a series. The only iffy thing is they pound the 'diversity' of the Titan crew quite a bit (and continue in the next novel). If this had been a Voyager subplot, then I'd be vomiting by now.

And going back to Death in Winter…Crusher not only instantly abandoned the plot detail from Nemesis in that book (going to Starfleet HQ Medical) but the author also wipes out her character arc from the nine book "A Time To…" series that leads up to Nemesis. I had to review some of the plot from the last book to understand how some of Riker's crew was assembled (his XO pick) and recalled that Crusher no longer felt needed or wanted on the Enterprise (specifically by Picard) so she accepted the offer to lead Starfleet Medical. Then the very next novel wipes it out with no reference or explanation.

It’s 2380 and here we go:

The Red King (TTN) 2380

This is the direct follow up to Taking Wing. Titan and the Romulans go through the ‘great bloom’ and end up in another galaxy. This is a weaker book, though still OK. It focuses on characters created by the authors for another book they wrote. Fuck that. Then those characters get mostly wiped out. There’s the concept that a new universe is forming in this galaxy wiping out the space it interacts with. The universe takes over, briefly, a fleet of Romulan ships. The Titan crew think its sentient. That idea is dropped. Like forever. We never learn anything about the red king. They decide to rescue some of the refugees and take them back to Federation space while detonating warp cores to seal the rift. Does it work? They don’t know and never will. There’s some good Romulan intrigue in this book – Denotra kills a lot of people for pragmatisim. But will it be followed up on? I don’t know because Titan is finally off to its actual mission in book 3…

Orion’s Hounds (TTN) 2380

Did you ever want to learn more about the Space Jellyfish from Encounter at Farpoint? Well too bad because in this book the diverse (hit over your head) crew of Titan go to their space and meet another species that hunts them to live inside their corpses in order to fight even bigger space creatures, such as silicon entities and other random shit. Riker gives the Space Jellies (who are telepathic) the ability to avoid the hunters. The hunters are murdered. The hunters demand Riker fix this as it is destroying their way of life. Then Riker talks the Jellies into being trained by the hunters to hunt for them as pets or some shit. No hilarity ensues. I don’t remember how it ends but happily?

Resistance (TNG) 2380

Back to the TNG relaunch and shit. It’s shit. This is a Borg story. Remember the VOY borg relaunch where they explain how a new queen is made. Ignore that. This is about Picard ignoring Janeway’s orders to wait for 7 of 9 to investigate Picard’ belief that a borg cube is being built with a new queen nearby. For some reason. In this book we meet a new helmswoman and a new security chief. Good because they need more characters since Riker, Troi, and Data are gone. Bad, they both die. They also introduce an unlikeable Vulcan counselor who may or may not be attracted to Worf…unclear…a few books later he basically tells her that he might decide to kill her and she leaves the Enterprise. Anyway, predictably, they kill the queen before she can be ‘born’, Beverly helps and that’s that.

Q&A (TNG) 2380

This is a Q book with just the right amount of Q. I don’t remember what this was about. Some perfect planet built as a test by a higher omnipotent being is stumbled on by Picard and company. It is implied that this was what Q has been preparing Picard to face the entire time – defeat them. I don’t know how he did it. I read it and don’t understand what the fuck happened. That’s the best part of Keith R.A. DeCandido. He’s too impressed by himself. Fuck him.

Before Dishonor (TNG) 2380

This is a TNG book where TNG characters don’t appear for like 20% of the book. It’s the 7 and Janeway show. Luckily, Janeway gets assimilated into the new queen at the ship that Picard discovered back in Resistance. Yes, this is another Borg story. Don’t worry…there will be more. The ship gets bigger, consumes ship, and then Pluto. Then it spawns some tinier ships. Picard ignores orders, a mutiny occurs, which was OK, but Worf should have snapped someone’s neck. Here’s the problem with this book – it’s not about building a new TNG universe. It’s just cheap guest spots. Spock, 7 of 9, and Picard team up to defeat the borg. They find a Planet Killer in a museum to help. Janeway dies but it’s implied lady Q abducts her at death. This is after she out-locutus’s Picard and kills a lot of people and destroys…Pluto. Do I care that Janeway died? No.

Sword of Damocles (TTN) 2380

Do you like technobabble? This is the worst book ever written. The first third is pure technobabble with no discernable plot. They’ve detected some…thing…and they’re using their sensors a lot to figure out what those things are. Then they get trapped on some weird planet and there’s some “eye” and time distortions…and it doesn’t make sense. It’s just technobabble in perpetuity. And their science officer is trapped back in time. Forever. He was Bajoran! That’s awful. He’ll contaminate the timeline. Riker and Troi are fighting. They’re background characters and you don’t know why. Some other starship crashes. I don’t what this mess is.

Q are Cordially Uninvited (TNG) 2380

Picard and Crusher get married and before they do…Q. Yes, the TNG writers cannot come up with a new idea to save their ass. Q. The Borg. Q. The Borg. What’s next? The Borg. Anyway. Q sends them on a treasure hunt with Vash then they discover the library of Alexandria on an alien planet. Q then makes every attend the wedding in a drugged like state which they won’t remember. Vash is there too. Why not?

Greater than the Sum (TNG) 2380

This is the next TNG book and it involves…the Borg! I haven’t read it yet but I’m told after this there’s one more book and something good called the Destiny trilogy which obviously can’t involve the Borg…

The Destiny trilogy is pretty good. And yes, it is about the Borg!

What!

-The hunters couldn't settle on any planets because that area of space also had a bunch of crystalline entities that would wipe out their colonies.
-Tuvok gave the Jellies the harmonic frequencies or whatever that the Enterprise D used to destroy that a crystalline entity that time.
-Some of the Jellies now work as glorified sheepdogs, shooing away crystalline entities from hunter colonies.

-"God" or whatever creates reality, and a planet where his creation can interact with him.
-If God isn't pleased with the encounter, he destroys the universe and starts a new one.
-Upon meeting God, Picard laughs like he did at the end of Tapestry, which amuses God sufficiently, saving reality from being destroyed.

Yeah, I know.

Q and A was going along nicely through the first 2/3. Not much Q. Enough Character development and mystery. Then it ends.

I also forgot. Resistance was ok if you can past the part where Picard voluntarily becomes Locutus again and the part where you have to picture crusher naked.

So like 20% was ok.

Q and A was a rehashed I,Q, only significantly less entertaining.

I usually like KRAD's books, but that one was piss-weak.

Resistance was prolly the point I stopped reading Trek books regularly, that's how impressed I was with it

The TNG relaunch has been garbage. Instead of new plots with consistent characters it's the same plot with new characters each book. It's more about stunt casting (Spock, Janeway, 7) than universe building.

wait til you get to the garbage Dayton Ward is writing about TNG, ever five pages he just rehashes and reminds you what happened five pages ago because he's a shitty writer and is just trying to up the word count like a loser writing a term paper the night before its due.

I read a few like that recently. As if they expect you to go weeks between chapters.

Greater than the Sum (TNG) 2380

This is a TNG book about the Borg. Unique, I know. In it, Enterprise investigates a borgified ship going around a system that is itself sentient. Neat. Then Hugh shows up (the borg from I, Borg) and his merry band of ex-Borg. Did you know that Borgs have their genitals removed? It's true! So think about that the next time you see Chuckles pining over 7of9 "pussy". Anyway, this book is average. The borg are defeated, Hugh dies, and word spreads that more Borg incursions are occurring. It's a set up for....

Articles of the Federation (None) 2380

No not this book. This book is about the last year of books in the chronology (2380) told from the perspective of the Federation government. It can be a bit slow at times because it lacks an actual plot. It's the West Wing in Star Trek land. And it works. The characters are blatant rip offs of the West Wing but they're lively and there's zero technobabble. It also sees the resignation of Admiral Ross who's section 31 dealings finally catch up with him. It's about holding everything together and as things appear to be getting better, this happens...

Destiny Books 1 - 3 (All) 2381

Reviewed together as I read the omnibus version, this trilogy may be the best Star Trek book(s) I've read since a few of the DS9 books. It's truly epic in scope - an apocalypse tale without a classic Star Trek reset button. That's right. The damage lasts. It brings together Titan, Enterprise, and Aventine - a new ship Captained by Dax of all people. The tale is really about Erika Hernandez, a captain from 200 years earlier who lost her ship when she met an advanced pacifistic race who get hurled back in time even farther. She lives with these guys for hundreds of years, kept alive by an operation to give her long life. It's their story and it's also the story about the Borg at times. How they were created. And how they will end. The rough spots are the Titan subplots of interpersonal relationships. It didn't fit. Otherwise, stellar.

Losing the Peace (TNG) 2381

Picking up after Destiny, we see the Federation in shambles and suffering a refugee crisis. Picard uses diplomacy and some unauthorized means to keep governments loyal to the Federation, while some of the other characters morn personal losses. One stays behind on Pacifica to help with the refugee crisis there and Starfleet, tired of Picard playing the whole board instead of just his one piece, offer him a promotion to admiral, which he declines. At the end it is revealed that in the wake of destruction, those hostile to the federation who were unharmed join together to form a new government.

A Singular Destiny (None, Aventine) 2381

A sequel of sorts to Articles of the Federation, Singular follows a mutt diplomat as he tries to put out random fires near the divided Romulan empire, Cestus III, Capella IV, and other worlds. Ultimately he discovers that other powers had been working to disrupt trade and the flow of relief supplies through the Federation and to the Klingons, as well as sabotaged the Federations mining facilities. This gives way to the Typhon Pact, made up of the weakened Romulans, the Gorn, Tzenkethi, and a few others I've forgotten. Their new nation surrounds the Federation and thanks to the Borg incursion in Destiny, is likely larger too.

Full Circle (VOY) 2378-2381

This will surprise you. This didn't suck. Think of it as a new relaunch. If you recall, VOY relaunched with four duologies that all were turds.

Full Circle (VOY) 2378-2381 Con't

For some reason I can't continue typing in that last post…

Anyway, it didn't suck. Kirsten Beyer takes over and jumps through time (forward and back) to tell the tale. She wraps up the immediate threat against B'Elana in the first half of the book (though that thread does not drop) and jumps ahead a couple of years and we discover Janeway has been killed (in Before Dishonor (TNG 2380)). This causes Chuckles to turn into a depressed alcoholic who after Destiny washes out of Starfleet, though he's better for it. Powers that be want to send Project Full Circle - a fleet of nine ships with quantum slipstream drives as seen on Aventine in Destiny - into the DQ to ensure that the Borg threat is over and to establish diplomatic ties with the DQ, follow up on things just touched on by VOY, etc. B'Elana fakes her death as well as that of her child on her own shuttle and goes to the DQ ahead of VOY's fleet. VOY is given to a new captain, as Chuckles washed out, the Doctor works on building new holographic technology that can serve starfleet and 7of9 has her own breakdown after coming to grips that she really isn't a Borg anymore. And here's the novel's best fuck you -

The prior author, Christine Golden, had written like 10 VOY novels straight, including the four relaunch novels that were garbage. She'd created her own new characters and relationships. Beyer kills nearly every single one of them off including: 1) the Ops chief 2) 7's aunt and only living relative (also makes her insane!) 3) the new CMO 4) the new helmswoman 5) the changling that got away maniacly at the end of the last relaunch (off screen) 6) Owen Paris. Then she ends the relationships permanently with Harry's girlfriend (she ends up marrying someone else by the end, Bye!); transfers the new chief engineer off the ship, and transfers the new counselor off the ship. She replaces all these characters with her own characters! Nice.

It's also a solid relaunch, that sets up a mission which I'm sure will become as mundane as TTN's but it's a good start. There's also a lot of players on the board that need to earn their way back into the fold. So we'll see.

The Destiny trilogy was awful.

I told the writer that flat out at the TrekBBS.

He was upset.

You are going to be disappointed. Beyer tried to pull off something epic like Mack did with his Destiny trilogy, but ultimately fails. She doesn't have his writing talent.

How could you tell he was upset? You have a limited Theory of Mind.

I suspect as much. The book didn't require her to build any new worlds for the story. Ultimately that's how Star Trek books rise or fall. Compare the Destiny triology (Caeliar, Erika Hernandez) with the episode of the week crap from TTN (cosmozoids? subspace technobabble?). She'll have to nail it pretty hard if she's going to float around the DQ for another three years building new species. If she cribs shitty Voyager episodes while in the DQ, however, she's bound to fail.

I doubt Dayton's musing could upset a person.

Beyer's story has really nothing to do with the DQ. The fact that it takes place there is incidental. She was trying to raise the ante and outdo Mack, and she fails miserably at it. Mack himself, a more talented writer, would've failed.

He responded harshly to me on the TrekBBS and said I was belittling a full year of his lifes work

Seemed upset to me.

I suppose I could ask for a link but I don't have the patience to teach you how to copy/paste

Be nice.

That said, I know which Trek novels to avoid...

Also, I added this thread to the list of review threads