Death in Winter - Review

[Starbreaker]

Death in Winter, Memory Beta Entry

I'm only about 5 years too late with this, but here it goes. I want to get all the bad stuff out of the way.

• Trying to cram every Romulan ever featured in this book was a little bit over the top. Sela, Donatra, Tomalak, Tal'Aura... okay, maybe not everybody.

• Other cameos were jarring. Greyhorse and Pug from Stargazer hardly have any lines. Janeway makes a very short and very useless cameo.

• It seems like Geordi and Worf are added to the novel as afterthoughts. Instead of actually focusing on the Enterprise crew, we got Romulan cannon fodder.

• For a book that's supposed to be pushing the story forward, we get a full couple of pages to a flashback to Sub Rosa... absolute filler.

• Very poor descriptions of characters, locations, and action sequences.

• Abandoned subplots. What happens to Greyhorse? How did Janeway know that La Forge and Worf were trying to go on a rescue mission?

The good:

• It only took about 6 hours to read. I got to turn my brain off today and enjoy. I hope Resistance is better, though.

 

[lstyer]

I'm only about 5 years too late with this, but here it goes.

I just read this last week, so I think the timing is about perfect. I'm always too late on these books to get in on the threads.

Other cameos were jarring. Greyhorse and Pug from Stargazer hardly have any lines. Janeway makes a very short and very useless cameo.

I didn't read the Stargazer series, so those characters didn't really mean anything. A doctor was necessary for the story, so I guess Greyhorse worked out. Janeway basically served no purpose at all, because . . .

It seems like Geordi and Worf are added to the novel as afterthoughts.

Whether there as afterthoughts or not, Geordi and Worf didn't do anything, so as far as I'm concerned about 50 pages or so could have just be cut completely out without losing a thing, and arguably gaining some cohesion.

For a book that's supposed to be pushing the story forward, we get a full couple of pages to a flashback to Sub Rosa... absolute filler.

Putting the filler issue aside, I'd have rather just forgotten about "Sub Rosa" entirely anyhow.

 

[RonG]

I remember reading DiW just before the "main" TNG-R novels (Resistance and onwards) and the Titan novels, and feeling underwhelmed. I tried to re-read it again, just before Destiny came out (to "remind myself how it all began"), and once more, it just didn't grab me.

I think DiW is more about resolving the Picard/Beverly relationship and the Romulan situation going out of Nemesis, and less about "relaunching TNG"...

Also, I completely agree about the Stargazer characters - I felt they were unneeded (maybe they were MJF's favorites?)

 

[Thrawn]

I remember at the time that it was the only book I can remember reading that managed to feel too short and way too long at the same time... like there was a ton of different stuff going on, but the book was too short to really resolve any of it satisfactorily, so it was bloated and undeveloped at the same time.

Not a favorite.

 

[seigezunt]

It's one to the things that leads to me putting off the TNG-R books, that this seems to be the first one people jump off with. I've not loved works by this author in the past, as much as I'm a continuity whore.

 

[Thrawn]

Really, I'm telling you, skip it. Seriously. There's only one important thing, already spoiled in this thread (Picard & Crusher get together) and there's no interesting story there. Just start with Resistance.

 

[lstyer]

I don't mind that it didn't "move the story forward," since TNG was so episodic anyway. My issue was more the pointless Worf and Geordi stuff. I didn't think it was bad, exctlt, but it seemed like a throwback to older Trek novels, which didn't tend to impress me as much as the newer ones I've read.

 

[Starbreaker]

I would recommend skipping it as well. Just read the synopsis and you'll be fine.

 

[Admiral James Kirk]

I've never read DiW and I don't feel I've missed a thing. So far I've read Resistance and Before Dishonor. CurrentlyI'm reading Greater Than the Sum. I feel like I've lost far more not reading Q & A than I have not reading Death in Winter.

 

[Paris]

I've never read DiW and I don't feel I've missed a thing. So far I've read Resistance and Before Dishonor. CurrentlyI'm reading Greater Than the Sum. I feel like I've lost far more not reading Q & A than I have not reading Death in Winter.

That's how I started the TNG-R as well, by reading those three and skipping DiW and Q&A. BIG MISTAKE. At least on the Q&A front. I got Q&A for Christmas and ploughed through it in just 2 or 3 days. I loved it. It doesn't tie into the whole Borg motif, but I think it was my favorite of the TNG-R books. I really liked GttS and Losing the Peace, but Q&A was probably the most fun .