I just completed this novel. As a horror film fan, I enjoyed this novel a great deal. The Enterprise-D and 2 other starships are investigating an area devoid of much intelligent life while investigating the loss of some ships in the area. They come across a pirate ship with one member in a catatonic state. And a colony ship that resists the Enterprise's help and later ends up with a ship full of people in a catatonic state.
Then a mystery planet that apparently can move, move at warp even. The planet apparently has the ability to suck the life force out of sentient beings. In fact, they later learn it's the same malevolent force that doomed two of the Vulcan exile ships that left Vulcan and would become the Romulans (causing one ship to crash land on the planet and the life force of another to be eliminated). It was featured in Duane's earlier Rihannsu novel, "The Romulan Way" as well as the Vulcan's Soul: Exiles novel which used Duane's novel as a basis for Romulan history.
Captain Picard of course wants to first find a way if they can communicate with it. But it's a sinister, extremely malevolent force from a planet who's inhabitants could no longer reproduce. Desperate to survive, they build this planet to carry their own life force in and they survive by draining of their victims life and even get their kicks out of their suffering.
It's a creepy story. Some elements of the intellivore's hive mind are reminiscent of the Borg, as is the picture on the cover, but this is not the Borg. In fact, in a way, this intellivore is worse than the Borg in the sense that not only do they basically remove everything that makes their victims 'alive', they enjoy it.
It was also nice to read a follow up to Duane's previous story (and featured again with a bit more detail in Vulcan's Soul) about what caused the life to be drained from the Vulcan ships that were victimized. It was also interesting to read a Diane Duane TNG novel, as she mostly wrote original series books. I thought she did a good job here with the characters.
The story itself takes place in 2371, sometime prior to Generations.
Then a mystery planet that apparently can move, move at warp even. The planet apparently has the ability to suck the life force out of sentient beings. In fact, they later learn it's the same malevolent force that doomed two of the Vulcan exile ships that left Vulcan and would become the Romulans (causing one ship to crash land on the planet and the life force of another to be eliminated). It was featured in Duane's earlier Rihannsu novel, "The Romulan Way" as well as the Vulcan's Soul: Exiles novel which used Duane's novel as a basis for Romulan history.
Captain Picard of course wants to first find a way if they can communicate with it. But it's a sinister, extremely malevolent force from a planet who's inhabitants could no longer reproduce. Desperate to survive, they build this planet to carry their own life force in and they survive by draining of their victims life and even get their kicks out of their suffering.
It's a creepy story. Some elements of the intellivore's hive mind are reminiscent of the Borg, as is the picture on the cover, but this is not the Borg. In fact, in a way, this intellivore is worse than the Borg in the sense that not only do they basically remove everything that makes their victims 'alive', they enjoy it.
It was also nice to read a follow up to Duane's previous story (and featured again with a bit more detail in Vulcan's Soul) about what caused the life to be drained from the Vulcan ships that were victimized. It was also interesting to read a Diane Duane TNG novel, as she mostly wrote original series books. I thought she did a good job here with the characters.
The story itself takes place in 2371, sometime prior to Generations.
