Have any of the novels ever just made you mad? (

[darkwing_duck1]

It's one thing to find a book a poor read, but I mean have you ever closed the cover of one and just went: "I want the hours I spent reading this back..."

I had this experience with "The Battle for (or was it 'of') Betazed". It started off fairly well, though as pages passed I kept wondering if/when we were going to really see some action scenes. There's an awful lot of skulking and hiding, but precious few firefights.

The part that just royally cheesed me off involved what came to be the big "issue" of the book, to wit:

Spoiler

The back and forth debate about whether or not to use the uberpowerful telepath weapon. After spending considerable page space with Deanna waffling back and forth and back and forth about the morality of doing so, in the end the other telepath just took the whole matter out of her hands by summarily removing himself (and his power) from consideration (IIRC, he killed himself, but it's been awhile)

So the climax of the book was effectively neutered and we were left with neither a satisfyingly dramatic battle nor an interesting moral question to ponder.

I felt so cheated that, as I recall, I literally went straight to a used book store and swapped it for store credit because I didn't want it even anywhere near me anymore.

Overly dramatic? Maybe, but that's how torqued I was at the time.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

When the Romulan War novel ended before the war did. That kind of pissed me off. Of course that was before we knew that another novel in the series was forthcoming.

 

[DevilEyes]

Age of the Empress pissed me off big time the moment a Vulcan rebel leader, of all people, said that Humans/Terrans, no matter how ruthless they are, are not prone to indiscriminate killing. Oh yeah? Real life human history proves otherwise! And she is talking about the ruthless, murdering, genocidal Terran Empire!

Then of course it turned out that the empress Hoshi and the other Terrans are really not such bad guys, at least not compared to those nasty aliens such as Andorians... Or Vulcans. T'Pol, who was resentfully proclaiming that Humanity will one day pay for what they're doing at the end of "In A Mirror, Darkly", now

Spoiler: Age of the Empress

realizes that Hoshi is a better solution, because evil T'Pau killed her ma and tried to kill her.

They're even going to resurrect Archer, who wanted to kill all non-Terrans.

I hate that "Humans are the nicest folks in the galaxy and better/superior than any alien race" crap whenever it rears its ugly head in Trek, but it's even worse when it appears somewhere you'd least expect it.

 

[TiberiusMaximus]

^I agree. I wouldn't say it made me mad but I didn't get it.

 

[Agenda]

Humans/Terrans, no matter how ruthless they are, are not prone to indiscriminate killing.

What gets me is wasn't that precisely what they were going to do the Halkans in Mirror Mirror...the first MU episode?

 

[Rush Limborg]

I'd have to say Balance of Power.

Everyone--and I mean everyone--was COMPLETELY out of character, even to the point that Data said, "That is the gist of it, sir."

"The gist"?

And, while I'm sure the Ferengi pirate captain, the extremely prolongued Geordi-frustration sequence in the beginning, and the drill sergeant-type screamer at the end...were supposed to be funny. But they all just made me stare at the words and think, "Okay...so HOW did this get past the editors at Pocket?"

It's like a poorly-made parody of Peter David's works. The difference is...PAD had the knack. His wackiness worked.

BOP was just cringeworthy.

Good night, and good luck.

 

[ProwlAlpha]

The Needs of the Many and the Romulan War novels especially since I enjoyed his earlier works like The Sundered and Taking Wing. Inception for being so completely short for the price of a normal paperback, that thing should have been a short story or at least a novella.

 

[Therin of Andor]

"Warped", "The Laertian Gamble" and "Into the Nebula": I kept asking myself, was the editor really enjoying these manuscripts, or were they finding the writing just as tedious? And was it really too late to order a rewrite, or break out the red pencil and start slashing away?

I've read that "Double Helix: Red Sector" angered people, who seemingly read Diane Carey's political agenda into everything she writes - but I really enjoyed that story.

 

[Warp Coil]

It's been mentioned to death on this board, but since the question came up, I'll go ahead and mention it yet again... Before Dishonor, particularly the mutiny. I was willing to go along with having T'Lana and Leybenzon as part of the new Enterprise crew, but after that incident, I was glad that the characters left. (For what it's worth I am much happier with Choudhury and Chen as part of the crew instead).

I also became quite irritated trying to read The Lost Era: Well of Souls. Quite possibly the most painful, tedious and difficult Trek novel I have ever read. I didn't give a damn about the characters or the story and had a hard time adjusting to the author's writing style. The best part of the novel was reaching the end.

 

[captcalhoun]

i don't think they've made me mad, but i know several of Carey's novels made me wish i'd not bothered wasting my time reading them. after hating Best Destiny, Dreadnought and its sequel and First Frontier (and Armageddon Sky ISTR), i'll never touch a book of her's again.

 

[ares93]

i have to second the romulan war novel. i was just "AARRG!!! where's the ending?" when i finished it. other than that i have to nominate Wounds (i've read it twice and i still have no idea what its about...), Trill: Unjoined (Ezri-Julian over) and the soul key (simply confusing).

 

[Rush Limborg]

i have to second the romulan war novel. i was just "AARRG!!! where's the ending?" when i finished it. other than that i have to nominate Wounds (i've read it twice and i still have no idea what its about...), Trill: Unjoined (Ezri-Julian over) and the soul key (simply confusing).

Wow--thanks for reminding me about the ending of "Unjoined".

THANKS A LOT, MIKE AND ANDY!!!

 

[Thrawn]

I can't recall ever being mad at a Star Trek novel to quite the same degree I was mad at, for instance, Star Wars: Legacy Of The Force: Inferno. I was kind of frustrated at how pointless a lot of Double Helix was, but nothing's ever made me mad.

 

[F. King Daniel]

When I read a crappy book, I don't get mad at it, I'm just miserable that I've wasted my time.

While not anger, the Nero-V'ger merge in the Nero comic (or graphic novel, to fit the title of the thread) certainly stirred some interesting emotions - but chief among them was disappointment that some idiot allowed in such a load of bollocks to ruin the story and turn it into a complete joke.

 

[Myasishchev]

the Nero-V'ger merge in the Nero comic

What.

 

[Destructor]

I've said it on this board before, but 'Ship of the Line' had a sequence where Picard mentions to Gul Madred about how he was assimilated by the Borg after his torture at the hands of Madred. Still drives me crazy!

 

[Steve Roby]

That doesn't even make my top ten list of problems I had with that book.

If anything made me vaguely angry, aside from some of Diane Carey's novels, it was the gimmick age of Trek books, which struck me as deeply cynical. Crossovers! Galaxy-spanning disasters with no lasting effects! Trilogies with enough material for a single book!

 

[JonnyQuest037]

I really wanted to like Ship of the Line, but it just didn't work for me. The premise of a movie-era 23rd Century starship crew trying to fit into the 24th is still one I find intriguing. I don't think it made me mad, but I made this expression a lot while I was reading the book:

...Didn't the Bozeman crew have some sort of creature on the bridge as a ship's mascot?

After the wonderful and TOS-centric The Provenance of Shadows, I was pretty disappointed that both The Fire and the Rose and The Star to Every Wandering focused more on post-movie era storylines than the first book in the series did. Weird way to celebrate the 40th anniversary of TOS if you ask me.

 

[JD]

The only time I've gotten angry at a book was when it had a big cliff hanger, and I had to wait to find out how it ended.

 

[Agenda]

What about that time they killed Janeway? I like the idea, but others might not.