I like it. Does that make people who like the current direction Contras of some sort? Hm... I'll have to think on that one.
I'm reading the book at the moment. I'm about half way through. It's nowhere near as good as Peter David's other work, however I've found it to be better than all the next generation books that came before it. I'm not sure why people complain about it so much.
To name two things. It involves a "fan favourite" and a wall, also some gallows humour. I rather liked it as well, unlike the other relaunch novels, I've read this one twice.
Former editor, Marco Palmieri, used to say (I'm paraphrasing) that he'd rather have ST books come out that polarized the readership into two distinct camps than to release a book that no one had particularly strong feelings about. This one really fits that first description. Controversy sells books. "Meh" sits on bookshelves.
I meant to say I prefer it to all the previous re-launch books not all the previous TNG novels! I haven't finished it so far but I do know about the death of said character. I've read later books in the timeline so I'm over it. Even though I haven't finished it, even if it goes downhill it can't be any worse than resistance, which is in fact the worse Trek book I've ever read. I know some people have a problem with the style of writing in PAD's NF series. Personally I love it. I thought, storyline asside he showed enormous restraint in before dishonour.
Honestly, these are problems to some extent in all of Peter David's Trek novels. The "Nudge, Nudge, Wink, Wink" factor just went up to 11 in this one. I remember thinking some of his books were clever when I was like 18, but now they just seem juvenile and contain connections, plots and in-jokes that I would expect to see in Fan-Fiction, not professional fiction. I hated that stuff. "Oooh, this will be cool.. I'll have Spock team up with Geordie and Seven to use the Planet Eater to attack the Borg!" sound like something a ten year old would come up with. Its almost as lame as the plot of Vendetta, which it references.
^ Same. If they had to increase Spock's size so that he could put a saddle on the Planet Killer and ride it into the fight with the Borg...well, I would not have considered it much of a departure from the rest of the story.
I just finished this novel myself, and I thought it was pretty average. I thought there was a little too much between all of the different characters and points of view, and I thought that the ending didn't make very much sense at all. It had a lot of potential, but it missed the mark.
One could almost make a Dune analogy with Mu'dib conquering the worm, but that might be asking too much of PAD...
^ Remember that Paul Mau'dib was never as good at riding sand worms as McKenzie Calhoun. The Fremen never saw a more natural rider or respected an outsider like they did Calhoun.
It this is true, then it is time to bring Janeway back. Her return would certainly polarize the readership, and I guarantee that, if done well, it would fly off the bookshelves.
It would also be controversial to discontinue all primeverse books and only do Abrams books, have Geordi LaForge get a sex change, or have a genocidal plague wipe out the Klingon empire. Saying "I like controversy" is not the same as saying "anything controversial is automatically a good thing".