mackillian said:
Anyway, just popped in to see if any of you P/C lot (or others) have read the two newest TNG relaunch novels. Aaaand, if you have, what you thought of them.
*waits*
I've read the first two post-NEM TNG novels, and didn't really care for either one (my reasonin' was posted in the Trek Lit forum a couple of months ago, I may still be able to find it, though). I'm still goin' to stick with the "TNG Relaunch" just 'cause
KRAD & Peter David wrote the third & fourth books. Those guys rarely screw the pooch when it comes to
Trek lit, so I'm hopin' they're good books.
If not, I'll just add this series to the others on my "not goin' to read 'em" list, which includes ENT, post-finale ENT, VOY Relaunch, and any new
New Frontier.
- edit, to add -
Alright, instead of goin' for the Trek Lit thread, I found the LiveJournal entry I wrote for both
Death in Winter and
Resistance.
Be warned - SPOILERS!!!
I picked up the first post-
Nemesis novel when it came out in paperback a couple of weeks ago, and just finished it the other night.
Didn't care for it at all.
First, it's by Michael Jan Friedman, who used to write a really good
Trek story, before he became so wrapped up in his
Stargazer characters. And, of course, he brings three of 'em into this story - Pug Joseph, Carter Grayhorse and Idun Asmund. Though, to be fair, Asmund only has a quick cameo, while Joseph & Grayhorse are supportin' players to Picard's mission into Romulan territory.
Second, if ya aren't a fan of the Picard / Crusher 'ship, ya are goin' to hate this story. So much of it depends on Picard's "love" for Beverly, his sense of loss without her on the ship & upon hearin' the news that she may have been lost in Romulan territory. And, then there's Beverly's own "life flashin' before her eyes" bit, where she realizes how much she's enjoyed Picard's company over the years.
Third, the other TNG characters used, Worf & Geordi, wind up lookin' like impotent morons thanks to intervention from Admiral Janeway. And Sela is made to look like a heavy handed tyrant, rather than the sneaky behind the scenes type she was shown to be on the series. And, of course, Tomalak doesn't get much to do at all except defend the preator and outsmart Donatra in a battle sequence that doesn't even make sense.
Those are my big complaints about the book.
The story itself is pretty simple. Thanks to previous experience with a group of refugees from Romulan territory, Beverly is sent Romulan border territory to work on a cure for a disease that is spreadin' through the native population of one of the Empire's subject worlds. She's lost in action when Sela succeeds in capturin' her.
Picard gets word from Starfleet Command that they need him to lead a team to the same planet - first order is to develop the cure for the disease, second order is to find Beverly if she isn't already dead. To that end, Pug Joseph is brought in, since he has a civilian freighter to get them across the border, while Carter just happened to work on a vaccine with Crusher durin' her first stint at Starfleet Medical, so he gets sprung from prison (see the events in
TNG: Reunion for that one).
Meanwhile, Worf & Geordi remain on the Big E, tryin' to figure out where Picard may have gone in search of Beverly, and just as they narrow it down, Janeway arrives and castrates Worf before they can leave the ship.
And, in Romulan territory, there's Donatra with her fleet of ships waitin' for the moment to go into battle against Tomalak's loyal fleet while a former Romulan admiral becomes a rabblerouser against the new preator, who was the only senator to survive Shinzon's bomb.
Picard spends the story pinin' for Beverly, while Beverly spends the story in a holdin' cell or bein' held prisoner by a double agent tryin' to make Sela look bad.
And the endin' is so damn predictable, it's downright silly. The free Romulan who spends the mission tryin' to make up for an error early on gets his chance at redemption, only to fail. Picard is able to come chargin' to the rescue, but leaves Sela behind, because it's too much of a risk to take her prisoner. And a cure is available before all hell breaks loose.
Plus, when the new chief medical officer arrives, Picard was expectin' a man. Makes me wonder who Beverly screwed over to take her old post back just to surprise the captain in his ready room.
I've already started the second post-
Nemesis,
TNG: Resistance by J.M. Dillard, and I'm not too impressed with it, either, especially since it starts with a note for note repeat of Picard's Borg nightmare from
ST: First Contact.
...
Just finished the second post-
ST: Nemesis story, this one written by J.M. Dillard, an author who usually sticks with novelizations of the movies, and it shows with the openin' chapter bein' a step by step description of the openin' scene of
ST: First Contact, with minor changes.
The story itself is set "months" after
TNG: Death in Winter, though its the first time since
ST: Nemesis is out of space dock...maybe. Doctor Crusher mentions an away mission that one of the new crewmembers had to be treated afterward, and before this, Crusher was still workin' at Starfleet Medical.
Another odd bit is that the ship's counselor got ferried out by shuttle, to rendevous with the Big E while it was en route to its first mission since the end of
ST: Nemesis.
And if, while readin', ya miss the description of how the new counselor looks when she first beams aboard, don't worry - every member of the senior staff who sees her, except Geordi, creates a page & a half long description of how cherubic, short, and odd, for a Vulcan, she appears to be.
Also, it seems that J.M. Dillard believes there are only four positions on the bridge - captain's chair, first officer's station, counselor's station, and the conn. And the conn officer is the new Mary Sue, a young prodigy, the product of two Starfleet officers, the former chief of security for the Big E before transferrin' to the conn. Though that doesn't make sense in the novel continuity, since Christine Vale was the chief of security in the novels, 'til right before the events of
ST: Nemesis. Why would Lieutenant Mary Sue have been chief of security for a ship in spacedock? Even more, how does that experience make her the MOST experienced one to transfer back when the position opens back up?
And yet another continuity issue, this one caused by
TNG: Death in Winter is that when Worf communicates with Admiral Janeway via subspace, it's noted that he'd never met her in person.
The story is pretty straightforward - on the way to negotiate a cease fire between two alien cultures, Picard hears the song of the Borg, goes against orders to take on the cube before a new Borg Queen can be created, and winds up takin' on the identity of Locutus to do it.
That's pretty much it.
There's a lot of friction between Picard & the new counselor, Worf & the new counselor, Beverly & the new counselor, while Lieutenant Sue gets along well with everybody on the ship, and even trains with Worf on how to use a bat'leth. Sue even gets a one night stand, and can be excused from her station (one of only four, don't forget), to rush to the transporter room to wish her one night lover luck before the mission that he gets assimilated durin'.
The next couple of post-
ST: Nemesis stories have been written by Keith R.A. DeCandido and Peter David, so I'm hopin' they turn out better than the first couple of 'em.
...
http://od0-ital.livejournal.com/231862.html