I'm actually... really surprised at all the negative comments in here. I thought this would be nerd high-fives all around. For my money, this is one of the best Trek novels in years, maybe ever.
I only have one complaint here: I think that Picard is less curious about what causes the uprising than he ought to be, and that the fact that the book both does this and doesn’t spend any time on Geordi’s quest for answers must only be because those answers are the domain of the TV show and they didn’t even want to hint at them. But amazingly: that’s the only time that the obvious hand of the necessity of prequel logic comes into play here; this book is outstanding, top to bottom, so close to the Picard scripts that it feels like a novel written well after the show had aired and so full of fascinating characters, plotlines, and details that it could’ve been a trilogy in the hands of an author less succinct and pointed. This is a magnificent achievement, almost impossibly good considering the timeline of its creation.
The character work is remarkable – everyone in the large cast of characters in the book is well-sketched, with the conflicting views of Picard, Raffi, Tajuth, and Jocan making the core of the narrative full of complexity while the similarly conflicting views of Clancy, Picard, and Quest draw the larger arguments well. Geordi’s drive and passion make him more than just a placeholder in the story, too, and the connection with Bruce allows this to be a prequel to that entire part of the story as well which is unexpected. (Jurati is definitely older in canon than she feels in the show, partially because of the choice of actress, and so that’s a little weird but this is literally the only mismatch between the book and the show and canon is allowed to be different from the actors’ details anyway so it’s hardly worth mentioning.) And Raffi, individually, is a revelation – the scene where she describes Romulan indeterminate polyphony, and Picard is like “that's interesting”, and she's like “it's fucking awful” made me laugh so hard I thought I might get in a car accident. Literal tears in my eyes. We see the seeds of her professional / personal disconnect and it’s all so poignant and believable.
McCormack writes real people in a way that a lot of the other authors don’t quite; she can ground their opinions in sensory experiences, feelings and preferences, in a way most other authors miss. There’s plenty to be said about career officers being career officers with the mental structures that affords, but the novels miss the episodes like Family too often, only defining the Starfleet characters by their Starfleet roles, preferences, and interests, and missing out on the human beings (or aliens) at the core and an awareness of how the rest of their lives and societies have shaped them. McCormack writes at small and large scales about all of that – the societies too – and in doing so her Cardassia has been incredibly memorable for years. Bringing that same focus to the frontier worlds and to the Romulan penchant for secrecy make this book sing, and make it feel like something much more than the sum of its parts (a frequent compliment for her writing).
I can’t believe this exists – it’s so, so good. A monumental accomplishment.
People are really this cranky about a few swear words?!
