Re: Star Trek: New Frontier: Blind Man's Bluff Review Thread
Ok, I finished reading this right around kickoff last night so I waited til today to write my thoughts about it...
Like all of his other New Frontier novels, it was a quick read which made me smile throughout. His characters are spot on, at this point he has written them for so long that he has an expert handle on them.
That said, there was some things that bugged me slightly.
I dont have an issue with the continuity errors. I read and enjoy all Star Trek, and while Ive always looked to the books (even the "canon" ones) as a parallel Star Trek Universe to the show, with New Frontier, Ive mentally shifted it into a Shatnerverse mindset ever since the time jump in After the Fall.
While as I said, he nailed his characters, ther gap between books made it difficult at times to follow the story as I had to constantly work my memories out to remember where each character is at, and some characters I dont even remember, Tobias at the Conn for example, I have no idea who this is, was her relationship with Kally in Treason or earlier books? Also I winced slightly when she picked up McHenry's "6th sense" in the 11th hour of the book. A character that apparently possess some kind of uncanny other sense would not be struggling with Kally's spirit connection like was established earlier in the book, it was obviously just added to give the 60 second countdown clock on the Excalibur which they would have otherwise been unaware of.
Related note, I like Seven of Nine and the Doctor, but PAD seemed to a have a disconnect with the characters which was obvious when put up against the natural flow of his own characters. On that note, it kind of bothered me how the Excalibur crew seemed to take a backseat in this book to all the guest stars. Jellico, Seven of Nine and the Doctor brought the solution to the problem the main characters of the series were facing.
Onto the characters stories:
Calhoun: For as much as he was in this book, it kind of felt like "going through the motions" I found it hard to believe that he didnt get a weird sense about Nechayev but that wasnt a big deal, the death of his brother while meant to be tragic felt a little contrived and than the rest of his story was action hero hour. His old rival from school being the man sent to blow up his ship also irked me, in fact I liked that the Commodore was by the book even to the point of tying Jellico's hands in his one track mind of blowing up the Excalibur but I almost wonder if the story would have been more interesting and suspenseful if was Mueller and the Trident facing this choice. It bothered me that we didnt see her again after a setup at the beginning of the book. Her feeling like she let the crew down could have led to a more strict regulations led mindset that could have brought her and Excalibur thread full circle. Instead we never see her reaction to whats happening with Calhoun and the Excalibur and more importantly we never see Shelby's who would Im sure be pulling the "Sulu role" like in Star Trek 6.
Kebron: The only thing constant is change, I get this, and while I loved the big surly single minded rock giant security guard, I was not against when he started to evolve into the new role which also made him the new counselor, the contradictions made him wonderfully complex and were glossed over in this book I feel, there was a little of the "going through motions" like with Calhoun.
Soleta: Interestingly, PAD really ran with her in this book, almost as much book time as Calhoun, while she is a New Frontier character, one could almost categorize her as a guest star role in this book as she hasnt been a crewmember on Excalibur for some time and again in this light she was an outside character on the list that comes in to clean up the main people's mess. That said I wouldnt have him change a thing, I loved that Calhoun had to go to an outside source to deal with the Morgan dilemma. Touching back on the Mueller/Trident alternate ending I proposed, Soleta might not have been the right choice to bring Lefler to Morgan as she was now a member of Mueller's crew. Than again, she gave the plausible excuse to get Morgan to beam everyone over. The other note about Soleta and this one had me screaming and slamming my face into my keyboard was her "revelation" she is in love with Calhoun. Sigh....that was the beginning of the end for the Spike character on Buffy and will ruin Soleta as well.
Burgy: OK, this disconnect that Selar placed in his head has me scratching my head, which is a good thing as it has everyone boggled, Xy especially, with the restraints placed on his emotions I can see Burgy starting to head down a dark path, along with the stresses of first officer he himself feels he is ill suited for. I just hope that the story doesnt ultimatly take the path of Burgy's death. PAD needs to stop killing off main characters!
Robin Lefler: Robin Lefler has just about worked her way out of this series in my opinion. Cwan is dead and so goes her ties to Thallon as she wont return there, She has Cwansi and Kally but is no longer with Starfleet. I really liked the idea of her being on the Trident which was undone as quickly as it was done by the end of the book which was disappointing. Excalibur has enough characters to push the story along without rehashing old characters which it really feels like will happen with Lefler back aboard, and honestly I can see her becoming obnoxious in the bridge capacity while not being a member of Starfleet, she will throw that in Calhoun's face everytime she disagrees with something. On Trident with Mueller's crew I felt like she would have room to grow like Keiko did on Deep Space 9 when she transferred off Ent-D with Chief. Plus with the Morgan storyline resolved, Lefler has very little impact left on the series.
Xyon: Honestly I love and hate this guy simutaenously and not necessarily for the same reasons I have heard other people put out there in either direction. Xyon is like having Calhoun in both the Starfleet Captain and Xenxian Warrior role playing out side by side. The whole hologram Lyja aboard the ship with him annoys me only because PAD is rehashing the idea from when he wrote Spider Man 2099. I suppose one could argue that this is the same character somehow salvaged from the past and pulled from the alternate uinverse over which as far as background goes would actually make her fit in with the New Frontier characters, but thats not what is happening here, its him using the same idea again. She does however serve her purpose which is to give you deliciously in depth and sometimes disturbing glimpsed into Xyon's psyche. Xyon lashing out at Calhoun at the end of the book was in character. He knows its his fault and he will be damned if he owns up to it without a fight.
Overall I did like the book as I have liked any other New Frontier book, I really hope there is at least one more for PAD to wrap this up, at least a jumping off point if not a conclusion to the series.
Ok, I finished reading this right around kickoff last night so I waited til today to write my thoughts about it...
Like all of his other New Frontier novels, it was a quick read which made me smile throughout. His characters are spot on, at this point he has written them for so long that he has an expert handle on them.
That said, there was some things that bugged me slightly.
I dont have an issue with the continuity errors. I read and enjoy all Star Trek, and while Ive always looked to the books (even the "canon" ones) as a parallel Star Trek Universe to the show, with New Frontier, Ive mentally shifted it into a Shatnerverse mindset ever since the time jump in After the Fall.
While as I said, he nailed his characters, ther gap between books made it difficult at times to follow the story as I had to constantly work my memories out to remember where each character is at, and some characters I dont even remember, Tobias at the Conn for example, I have no idea who this is, was her relationship with Kally in Treason or earlier books? Also I winced slightly when she picked up McHenry's "6th sense" in the 11th hour of the book. A character that apparently possess some kind of uncanny other sense would not be struggling with Kally's spirit connection like was established earlier in the book, it was obviously just added to give the 60 second countdown clock on the Excalibur which they would have otherwise been unaware of.
Related note, I like Seven of Nine and the Doctor, but PAD seemed to a have a disconnect with the characters which was obvious when put up against the natural flow of his own characters. On that note, it kind of bothered me how the Excalibur crew seemed to take a backseat in this book to all the guest stars. Jellico, Seven of Nine and the Doctor brought the solution to the problem the main characters of the series were facing.
Onto the characters stories:
Calhoun: For as much as he was in this book, it kind of felt like "going through the motions" I found it hard to believe that he didnt get a weird sense about Nechayev but that wasnt a big deal, the death of his brother while meant to be tragic felt a little contrived and than the rest of his story was action hero hour. His old rival from school being the man sent to blow up his ship also irked me, in fact I liked that the Commodore was by the book even to the point of tying Jellico's hands in his one track mind of blowing up the Excalibur but I almost wonder if the story would have been more interesting and suspenseful if was Mueller and the Trident facing this choice. It bothered me that we didnt see her again after a setup at the beginning of the book. Her feeling like she let the crew down could have led to a more strict regulations led mindset that could have brought her and Excalibur thread full circle. Instead we never see her reaction to whats happening with Calhoun and the Excalibur and more importantly we never see Shelby's who would Im sure be pulling the "Sulu role" like in Star Trek 6.
Kebron: The only thing constant is change, I get this, and while I loved the big surly single minded rock giant security guard, I was not against when he started to evolve into the new role which also made him the new counselor, the contradictions made him wonderfully complex and were glossed over in this book I feel, there was a little of the "going through motions" like with Calhoun.
Soleta: Interestingly, PAD really ran with her in this book, almost as much book time as Calhoun, while she is a New Frontier character, one could almost categorize her as a guest star role in this book as she hasnt been a crewmember on Excalibur for some time and again in this light she was an outside character on the list that comes in to clean up the main people's mess. That said I wouldnt have him change a thing, I loved that Calhoun had to go to an outside source to deal with the Morgan dilemma. Touching back on the Mueller/Trident alternate ending I proposed, Soleta might not have been the right choice to bring Lefler to Morgan as she was now a member of Mueller's crew. Than again, she gave the plausible excuse to get Morgan to beam everyone over. The other note about Soleta and this one had me screaming and slamming my face into my keyboard was her "revelation" she is in love with Calhoun. Sigh....that was the beginning of the end for the Spike character on Buffy and will ruin Soleta as well.
Burgy: OK, this disconnect that Selar placed in his head has me scratching my head, which is a good thing as it has everyone boggled, Xy especially, with the restraints placed on his emotions I can see Burgy starting to head down a dark path, along with the stresses of first officer he himself feels he is ill suited for. I just hope that the story doesnt ultimatly take the path of Burgy's death. PAD needs to stop killing off main characters!
Robin Lefler: Robin Lefler has just about worked her way out of this series in my opinion. Cwan is dead and so goes her ties to Thallon as she wont return there, She has Cwansi and Kally but is no longer with Starfleet. I really liked the idea of her being on the Trident which was undone as quickly as it was done by the end of the book which was disappointing. Excalibur has enough characters to push the story along without rehashing old characters which it really feels like will happen with Lefler back aboard, and honestly I can see her becoming obnoxious in the bridge capacity while not being a member of Starfleet, she will throw that in Calhoun's face everytime she disagrees with something. On Trident with Mueller's crew I felt like she would have room to grow like Keiko did on Deep Space 9 when she transferred off Ent-D with Chief. Plus with the Morgan storyline resolved, Lefler has very little impact left on the series.
Xyon: Honestly I love and hate this guy simutaenously and not necessarily for the same reasons I have heard other people put out there in either direction. Xyon is like having Calhoun in both the Starfleet Captain and Xenxian Warrior role playing out side by side. The whole hologram Lyja aboard the ship with him annoys me only because PAD is rehashing the idea from when he wrote Spider Man 2099. I suppose one could argue that this is the same character somehow salvaged from the past and pulled from the alternate uinverse over which as far as background goes would actually make her fit in with the New Frontier characters, but thats not what is happening here, its him using the same idea again. She does however serve her purpose which is to give you deliciously in depth and sometimes disturbing glimpsed into Xyon's psyche. Xyon lashing out at Calhoun at the end of the book was in character. He knows its his fault and he will be damned if he owns up to it without a fight.
Overall I did like the book as I have liked any other New Frontier book, I really hope there is at least one more for PAD to wrap this up, at least a jumping off point if not a conclusion to the series.
