Peter David's Q-SQUARED reviews/discussion thread....
- Thread starter Emperor-Tiberius
- Start date
Yeah Imzadi is awsome, and not only that but it is by the same guy. Peter David is considered by many people to be one of the absolute best Trek writers, so if you enjoyed those two you should probably check out his other stuff. Plus he also has his own Trek series, New Frontier, which was the very first novel only Trek series. Then if you are a DS9 fan you should check out the DS9 Relaunch which continues the story after the final episode. But that's only the beginning, there's been almost 40 years of Trek Lit, so if you stick with it you will have plenty to read.
I would reccomend all of Peter David's novels, and also William Shatner's post-Generations Kirk novels, written really by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens. The Return and Ashes of Eden in particular, are top-notch.
I LOVED THIS NOVEL...
The classic lines:
Q: Trelane is Driving me CRAZY!
his would have been a GREAT Next generation episode.
The classic lines:
Q: Trelane is Driving me CRAZY!
his would have been a GREAT Next generation episode.
No, they're written really by Shatner, in collaboration with his partners.
One can still be the writer of a book without actually touching the keys of the keyboard, or doing it longhand, you know. Shatner (and the Reeves-Stevens!) has explained in many interviews that he composes the stories by narrating the action and dialogue into a dictaphone. His secretary then types up the manuscript, he checks it, sends it off to the Reeves-Stevens, who ensure he has captured the right personalities of the DS9, TNG and VOY characters, then Shatner plays with it again. So it's a genuine collaboration, not a "ghost writing" operation.
Many, many authors use dictaphones and voice-recognition computer software to write these days. Even Star Trek's Diane Duane!
OK, don't get upset and all. I was just open about it.
In any case, I love his Star Trek Kirk novels...
In any case, I love his Star Trek Kirk novels...
^^He's not getting upset, he's simply providing accurate information to correct a misconception.
That's great to hear, I was worried it was all ghost writing. I love the shatner-verse which is probably because Kirk is my favourite character.
Back on topic though, I read Q-Squared many years ago (it was actually the first Star Trek novel I read) and although I can only remember bits and pieces I do remember it being awesome. Was there an attempt at one point to explain the whole James R. Kirk error or am I just remembering incorrectly.
Charlie
Mmmm. Was it "T" in one timeline and "R" in the other?
Michael Jan Friedman definitely did the "R" explanation thing in "My Brother's Keeper", a Kirk/Mitchell trilogy. IIRC, the two men had a running gag about the "R", making the fictitious "R" initial in both of their names stand for something different, but humorously appropriate to the current situation, every time one of them used it.
Yep. It was James R. Kirk in "Track A" which is one of the alternate universes in the book.
(Track B is the normal Trekverse; Track C is a Yesterday's Enterprise variant)
It's one of my favorite novels. I like Peter David's writing.
Or an audiobook...Is William Campbell still alive, BTW? They would, of course, have to have both of them in there to read for it. :thumbsup:
Yes he is, IIRC. He tirelessly raises money for an actors' retirement home.
I'm not too sure of the order of events now, but IIRC, just after "Blood Oath" was filmed for DS9 in 1994, William Campbell met John deLancie at a ST convention, and they were encouraged to do a "Q vs Q" type performance.
A few weeks later, John deLancie mentioned at an Australian convention that, based on that previous event, he and Campbell would be reading "Q-Squared" (also 1994) for Simon & Schuster Audioworks, but when it turned up in stores, it was deLancie on his own.
We were unsure if Campbell taped his role but it was unusable, or he simply wasn't available.
If you have a computer that can run it, and you can find a copy, the game "Star Trek: Judgement Rites" has an "episode" featuring Trelane, voiced by William Campbell. His interests have moved on to the World War I era, and as Baron Trelane von Gothos, he's shot down a bunch of starships, and only Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and the first officer of another ship who has a giant chip on his shoulder can stop him.
I decided to read this book for the first time in several years after seeing this thread...
I remembered almost nothing about the novel so it was similar to reading it for the first time. Great novel and premise. Trelane as a Q seemed so .... natural. I also really liked the Gary Mitchell tie-in (it made perfect sense) and the "alternate" take on the events in Yesterday's Enterprise. I know we may never see it, but I'd love to see an entire story set in this timeline where the Federation is on the brink of annihilation.
I enjoyed the parts where Q had to slowly travel across all the different tracks to get back at Trelane...must have been frustrating for him
I remembered almost nothing about the novel so it was similar to reading it for the first time. Great novel and premise. Trelane as a Q seemed so .... natural. I also really liked the Gary Mitchell tie-in (it made perfect sense) and the "alternate" take on the events in Yesterday's Enterprise. I know we may never see it, but I'd love to see an entire story set in this timeline where the Federation is on the brink of annihilation.
I enjoyed the parts where Q had to slowly travel across all the different tracks to get back at Trelane...must have been frustrating for him
I always felt just the opposite -- that the differences outweighed the similarities. The Q are all-powerful and all-knowing, or at least close enough to pass for it. Trelane, by contrast, was an extremely limited being. He was dependent on a machine -- which he described in terms that made it sound like little more than a replicator or holodeck grid -- to do his tricks for him. His sensors, although they had extraordinary resolution and even audio capability (somehow), were limited to the speed of light. True, his parents did appear to be energy beings, and he did have the means to fling a planet around, but aside from that, Trelane seemed orders of magnitude below the Q in power. (And this was even before "The Q and the Grey" came along and established that Q didn't have kids as a rule.)
Don't get me wrong, I think Q Squared is a superb book -- I just never agreed with the premise of Trelane as Q. I would've been happier with it if he'd been portrayed as just some other, lesser class of being that the Q were acquainted with.
I always thought the idea that Jack Crusher died in all the other realities but that one in particular was a pretty novel idea.