I’ve been playing catch-up on Peter David’s Star Trek: New Frontier series. Here are the last two book reviews, for books 16 and 17 of the series.
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Rather than “Treason,” the better title here might be “Madness.” It seems, at times, like everyone is going insane-mad, or is deeply depressed, or possibly possessed, or is simply getting really, really *angry* mad. And given that one of the insane-mad types is potentially the most powerful beings in the universe, things are even more dire … and that’s before some Grand Guignol ship-board battling that manage to kill of a number of supporting cast members, and a climax that sees yet another original player in the series die.
For all of that winnowing of the overly-large cast — and for all that the new galactic antagonists feel a bit much like an attempt to come up with some even more powerful (if demonstrably mortal) bad guys — this is still a fun book. After criticizing the past few volumes in the series with focusing on cast I didn’t care for, that’s turned right around here, as Burgy, Soleta, Selar, even (oddly enough) Si Cwan all step into the limelight (even if not all of them are in their right minds, or bodies). Amidst rampant paranoia of conniving conspiracies, shadowy aliens, omniscient computers, and secrets than you can shake a stick at, and a final scene to ramp things up still further …it’s a book that grabbed me for all 436 (large-type, wide-spaced) pages.
Blind Man’s Bluff by Peter David
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
In keeping with the previous volume, Treason, this is a book of plots and paranoia, of battles and betrayals, of vengeance and counter-vengeance, of the meaning of power and of life, and … all sorts of other good stuff.
We also end up losing yet another long-time cast member (or perhaps two, and a third is comatose). Given the past several novels, one might almost think David were trying to wrap things up, Hamlet-style. In some ways, this book even provides a nice book-case to the story of Mackenzie Calhoun, bringing him back to Xenex at both the beginning and the end. There’s a chance that this will be the New Frontier novel (Pocket has not re-upped David’s contract), which would be a heck of away to end things, given the plot hooks dangling at the end …
In addition to the huge (if dwindling) cast, we get guest appearances from some (very appropriate) Voyager alumni, which David handles with his usual aplomb (demonstrating once again his ability to handle other folks’ characters with a remarkably spot-on voice).
If I have a criticism of the book, it’s that it’s just too short. The 344 pages sounds decent enough, but I’ve seen smaller text and line space in some of Kay’s old chapter books. I’m glad to get what I can from David, and I enjoyed it all, but being able to plow through a new book in about 4 hours is a bit sketchy as far as value for the dollar.
That said, I’m still hoping for more in the series, and sad I’ve reached the end of this re-read and new-read of the New Frontier series. Not that I’m running low on other things to read …