I made my way through KRAD's duology for the second time, and I got much more out of it this time around. It helped to know the continuity better and the goals of the duology regarding showing our heroes from another POV.
Several passages in these two books are outstanding. The mind meld demonstrates just how much Spock and Worf have in common, and it is one of the highlights of Book Two. I also like the action on Slaybis and the revelation of how Malkus got his artifacts/Instruments.
A couple of things detract from my enjoyment of these stories. The first is the general structure. The viewpoints of other captains and officers are interesting, but it reduces the regular heroes to guest stars in their own books, and that doesn't sit right with me. Also, sometimes the wide variety in the stories came at the expense of a feeling of cohesion and unity in the stories.
My other criticism is the relatively easy defeat of Malkus. It sure didn't take the engineers long to come up with a way to protect the crew and modify the deflector dish.
The duology has a lot going for it, not the least of which is its diverse and entertaining cast. Still, the parts are greater than the whole in my opinion, so I give it an 8/10.
Several passages in these two books are outstanding. The mind meld demonstrates just how much Spock and Worf have in common, and it is one of the highlights of Book Two. I also like the action on Slaybis and the revelation of how Malkus got his artifacts/Instruments.
A couple of things detract from my enjoyment of these stories. The first is the general structure. The viewpoints of other captains and officers are interesting, but it reduces the regular heroes to guest stars in their own books, and that doesn't sit right with me. Also, sometimes the wide variety in the stories came at the expense of a feeling of cohesion and unity in the stories.
My other criticism is the relatively easy defeat of Malkus. It sure didn't take the engineers long to come up with a way to protect the crew and modify the deflector dish.
The duology has a lot going for it, not the least of which is its diverse and entertaining cast. Still, the parts are greater than the whole in my opinion, so I give it an 8/10.
The idea was to treat the regular characters as the "guest stars," and showing how they would be viewed by other crews.
Seriously, getting to do that was a high point of my Trek writing career....
