^ I totally agree. That story line didn't help at all - it would've been better if they still had helped Picard and his team to escape somehow. But maybe they did and it just wasn't written in the novel - that storyline might come up later? Unlikely but a small chance.
I'm pretty sure it didn't. A lot of time, considering what the topic was, was spent on Beverly's husband, Jack. It was almost like there was this weird love triangle going on: Picard/Crusher/Jack. It was understandable, of course-not only was he Bev's husband, he was Picard's friend. But, after some time, it got old. And it didn't prevent anything from happening in the end. And another thing. What was with Beverly's reaction to Picard's profession? It was the weirdest response I'd seen, and not what I expected. And then no explanation is given! There's nothing with Beverly thinking ZOMG, he just admitted he loves me!. It just sort of talks about how Picard's heart sank or something, and how he screwed up royally. And then we cut to the Enterprise, or to Romulus and the events going on there. And then we finally see Picard/Crusher in his ready room.
It's things like that that made the book so ultimately unsatisfying for me. For a 'shippy book like DiW, it is a bizarre choice to linger so much on describing "things that happened" as opposed to what the characters felt about it. The latter is what matters for character development.
^ Yet at the same time, does that not let the reader use their own knowledge of the characters to draw conclusions, rather than being outright TOLD what the characters think? The events described are, as far as I know, mostly the author's own inventions, and relating them with minimal focus on the characters' reactions to them leaves interpretations open. I'm not saying that's necessarily the best approach, simply playing devil's advocate to an extent.
^ I can see what you're saying, but I think it was the wrong tack to take given the characters with which he was dealing. The task on hand with DiW was to get Picard and Crusher from where canon left them to a believable conclusion wherein they are now lovers. We already have scads of back story on Picard/Crusher, loads of actions left wide open to interpretation from the series and the movies. That means the reader already knows what the barriers (necessary to all good romance plots) are. What was needed was for the writer to assess all that, decide firmly upon his own interpretation of what it all meant, and run with a story which would put that in context for the readers, giving them access to why these characters behave the way they do around each other, and why that's about to change. The relationship didn't need more incident to make it work, it needed more insight. It would have been quite a risky move, because you have to take a very firm line on something that's merely hinted in canon, but then some of the best Trek tie-ins are the ones which do just that. With a well written exploration of their feelings for each other this could have been the Star Trek romance novel. Without it, it fell flat.
Going through the TNG relaunch, and starting, for me, with A Time to Be Born, the relationship between Picard/Crusher was very schizophrenic. I mean, we have the two sleep together before Picard gets shipped (no pun intended) off to Starfleet Medical. And then not much happens, until Crusher sleeps with a guy younger than her. And then there's this cooling of emotion, until Death in Winter. Was their relationship, intentionally or not, supposed to be perpendicular (not paralell) to Riker/Troi's? I firmly agree with your line about "more insight". I find that's a problem with a lot of MJF's books, Stargazer included. There's really not much insight into the actions of the characters. I've read most of the Stargazer books, and I couldn't tell you why that one admiral dislikes Picard so much. The relationships in his books are also very...haphazard almost. Greyhorse has a massive crush on one of the Asmund sisters, but there's really not much beyond the physicality of the feeling (she's hot, basically). The only relationship that comes close to being more meaningful is Ensign Jiterica and that Paris guy. There was also a sense of two very short books being combined together in Death in Winter. One was a Romulan plot, and the other was a Picard/Crusher plot. BTW, has anyone managed to ascertain the meaning of the title beyond "Someone dies in the snow and/or winter"?
^ Did the relaunch novels take the "A Time to..." series into account, or do they contradict them? I still haven't gotten around to reading them. I'm slightly intimidated by them for some reason. As to the title, I don't recognise it as a quote from anywhere or anything. I can only think of the obvious things - death in winter carries within it always the idea of rebirth, because the seasons are cyclical. Poetically, winter is a difficult transition point between loss of what was, and the spring to come. (Although, you can fast track straight to summer if you happen to have a Son of York hanging around. )
I thought that the A Time to... was part of the relaunch. *shrug* They're actually really good. The best are the first two and the last three. I think my favorite is A Time to Heal, because it's freaking awesome.
I actually refer to A Time to... as the "TNG pre-launch". DiW contradicts ATt... in that the person Beverly is supposed to replace at Starfleet Medical has a different name than the person named in ATt... DiW also contradicts Titan with the current assignment of Sariel Rager. DiW has her as Gilaad Ben Zoma's new XO, while Titan has her as Riker's Conn officer.