\n| Re-Readability<\/td>\n | ![](\"https:\/\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars3.jpg\" "\\"Fair") <\/td>\n | Characters<\/td>\n | <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n Story<\/strong>: This book, part of the new Next Generation novels, is a sequel to Resistance<\/em>. Unfortunately, that book was written by J.M. Dillard, and David tries, but can’t quite manage, to pick up the threads from the prequel and carry them along.<\/p>\nThe Borg are back — but, of course, that’s old hat, so they have to be New, Improved Borg. Q is back — or a different Q, rather, which is a shame because David has proven himself quite adept at writing that character.<\/p>\n Things Happen. Lots of Assimilation takes place, and more. A Planet Dies. Lots of Big, Futile Space Battles Wherein Many Starships Get Trashed. Earth is Threatened. Picard Disobeys Orders. There is Self-Sacrifice, Hard Decisions, etc.<\/p>\n David, unfortunately, seems to be doing the book by the numbers. His sense of humor seems muted. His grasp of character is blunted. If told he was working from an Official Outline of where the book franchise owners wanted things to go, I could well believe it — it seems to grate on him, and ends up producing a far less interesting story, with far fewer twists (and those more clumsily handled) than usual.<\/p>\n Way too much “And then something unexpected happened …” ending chapters — and way too much deus ex machina <\/em>(sometimes literally). <\/p>\nCharacters<\/strong>: The book touches heavily on both Voyager <\/em>and Next Generation <\/em>(with a smattering of David’s own New Voyages <\/em>book series), but evolutions in the STU have left the characters largely adrift and out of familiar context, and it shows here. Katherine Janeway and Seven of Nine play lead roles, but largely in a vacuum. Picard is the third protagonist, but he’s surrounded by plenty of new officers and crew — and the new ones feel like cardboard cutouts (this one’s the Angry Shouting One, this one’s the Thoughtful Dedicated One, this one’s the Annoyingly Arrogant One), while the old ones are simply following old patterns without much insight or growth. I don’t expect much out of Geordi LaForge, but making both Worf and <\/em>Spock dull is actually difficult to do.<\/p>\nI know, from earlier TNG novels, that David can do an excellent job with characters — there’s a reason he’s the only Star Trek <\/em>novelist I’ll buy — but the drive toward Big Action and the new setting seem to have either impacted his interest or his feel for interpersonal chemistry, because nobody feels all that real or believable here. <\/p>\nIt doesn’t help that the Borg have been done to death (indeed, they’re the subject of the prequel). While their threat level here is ramped up a serious notch, it’s still, ultimately, the same ol’ same ol’ “Resistance is Futile.”<\/p>\n Oh — a Significant Name dies by the end of the book. That’s probably the most exciting aspect of the whole thing, which is kind of sad.<\/p>\n Re-Readability<\/strong>: There’s so little substance here, so little solid characterization or interesting story, that it’s only David’s name that makes me want to put it on the shelf and read it again some other time. Disappointing.<\/p>\nOverall<\/strong>: I don’t know if David was contractually obliged to do another book and resented it, got stuck writing a sequel he didn’t want to, or what, but this is as close to “phoned in” a novel from him as I’ve ever run across. Even though he tries to do work all the usual interesting bits — humorous exchanges, homage lines, coincidental character interactions, bits of old Star Trek trivia suddenly brought into the present and made significant — the overall effort falls quite flat.<\/p>\nOverall, only suggested for dedicated Star Trek <\/em>fans. Peter David fans should probably skip it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Peter David has written a lot of very entertaining and well-crafted Star Trek novels. This, alas, is not one of them. Star Trek: The Next Generation – Before Dishonor by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[36,360],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media-books","category-media-tv-star-trek"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":20989,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/05\/08\/book-review-star-trek-new-frontier-missing-in-action-by-peter-david-2006.html","url_meta":{"origin":12527,"position":0},"title":"Book Review: “Star Trek New Frontier: Missing in Action” by Peter David (2006)","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 8-May-11 2:17pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Missing in Action by Peter David My rating: 3 of 5 stars I've been plowing through the last several New Frontier novels to get to the most recent three -- ones that I've bought but never got around to reading (because I hadn't had a chance to plow through the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11665,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/07\/23\/book_review_missing_in_ac.html","url_meta":{"origin":12527,"position":1},"title":"Book Review: Missing in Action (Star Trek: New Frontier)","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 23-Jul-07 10:34am","format":false,"excerpt":"Peter David's Star Trek: New Frontier series is a guilty pleasure of mine.\u00a0 It's vaguely embarrassing to be caught reading Star Trek stuff, but David's wit, his great ear for...","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/images\/stars3.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":21008,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/05\/10\/wrapping-up-my-star-trek-new-frontier-marathon.html","url_meta":{"origin":12527,"position":2},"title":"Wrapping up my “Star Trek: New Frontier” marathon","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 10-May-11 7:13pm","format":false,"excerpt":"I've been playing catch-up on Peter David's Star Trek: New Frontier series.\u00a0 Here are the last two book reviews, for books 16 and 17 of the series. Treason by Peter David My rating: 4 of 5 stars Rather than \"Treason,\" the better title here might be \"Madness.\" It seems, at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5769,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/07\/20\/death_of_a_genr.html","url_meta":{"origin":12527,"position":3},"title":"Death of a genre?","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 20-Jul-04 3:06pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Something I've noticed in the last few months at the local Barnes & Noble (and Borders): Where have all the Star Trek books gone? I mean, for the past decade,...","rel":"","context":"In "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/media-books"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":21013,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2011\/05\/11\/tweets-from-2011-05-11.html","url_meta":{"origin":12527,"position":4},"title":"Tweets from 2011-05-11","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 11-May-11 12:45am","format":false,"excerpt":"It's only Tuesday? Rats. # Not quite sure how I managed to walk out the door without my watch, but there it is. Or isn't, as the case may be. # Man, I hate people having long cell phone conversations on the train. I hate being one of them even\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~Tweets"","block_context":{"text":"~Tweets","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/tweets"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":132313,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/15\/movie-review-star-trek-beyond-2016.html","url_meta":{"origin":12527,"position":5},"title":"Movie Review: "Star Trek Beyond" (2016)","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 15-Dec-16 6:21pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A lot better and more entertaining than the original trailer would have had you believe. Occasionally over the top, but also grounded by some major character themes worth considering.Full review: http:\/\/letterboxd.com\/three_star_dave\/film\/star-trek-beyond\/Score: 3.5 out of 5 stars (with a heart)And that wraps up #FatherDaughterMovieWeek with +Kay Hill. Always a good time!\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Star-Trek-Beyond-Posters-Small5B15D.pngimgmax%3D660.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Star-Trek-Beyond-Posters-Small5B15D.pngimgmax%3D660.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/Star-Trek-Beyond-Posters-Small5B15D.pngimgmax%3D660.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12527"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12527\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37123,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12527\/revisions\/37123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} |
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