SGZ: Gauntlet by Michael Jan Friedman Review Thread (spoilers!)

[Defcon]

Stargazer: Gauntlet by Michael Jan Friedman

Blurb:

Long before he took command of the Starship Enterprise™, Captain Jean-Luc Picard led another proud vessel through the uncharted regions of the galaxy: the U.S.S. Stargazer. Thrust unexpectedly into the center seat, the twenty-eight-year-old Picard must live up to the challenges of starship command -- and a crew that hasn't yet learned to trust him.
The pirate known as the White Wolf has been wreaking havoc across several sectors, and the inexperienced Picard has been given the assignment to stop him. Surprised at getting such a challenge, Picard soon learns that he is expected to fail in his duty and have his captaincy disgraced before it can even begin.

Given an untested crew and an impossible mission, Picard must beat the odds and apprehend the White Wolf -- but the pirate keeps a shocking secret that leaves Picard to make a deadly decision.

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It has been some time since I read this book, But I remember that I really liked it, less for the story itself, but more for Friedman's character work.
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[Deranged Nasat]

^ It pretty much doesn't have a story. Plot-wise, this is the weakest Trek book out there. Fortunately, the idea of a plot is clearly unimportant here anyway, because the whole thing is about the character interactions. Personally, I quite like the Stargazer books. They're certainly not anywhere near the top of the quality list, but they work well for what they are, and it's an interesting approach to Trek. The characters and their relationships are, again, not the best, but more than enough to hold my interest.

 

[Stevil2001]

Yeah, I remember this one as taking over 50% of the book to get to the plot, an unfortunate affliction of Star Trek novels trying to be "character driven."

The cover is pretty, too.

 

[F. King Daniel]

After enjoying Reunion and The Valiant, this was a big disappointment and I didn't go further with the series. Not enough happened to justify wading through 200+ pages. Contrast with New Frontier, where characters and their relationships are built, but you get a ton of exciting stuff happen in each book as well.

I remember being really annoyed about technical stuff, which usually doesn't bother me. The Stargazer is one of my favourite TNG ships, with it's 1/3 sized bridge, massive hangers around the double-thick saucer, which is covered in greebles. It's unique, and I was really looking forward to reading about adventures in that setting. But the book describes more stations on the bridge than there were on the set, and claims that the ship has only one small shuttlebay. You only have to look at a screencap and count the window rows to see that even the smallest of the bays is five decks tall. The end battle hinges on the use of the Stargazer's navigational deflector, something it doesn't even have (although I'm aware it must have some equivalent.) I kept wondering if MJF was basing the story off the "The Battle" shooting script, which described the Stargazer as Constitution-class.

 

[ronny]

I don't remember the individual books all that well but I thought the series as a whole was decent so I gave it an average rating.