Interesting thread. I have to chime in and agree with almost everything everyone else has said. But I think you totally hit the nail on the head: the DS9 relaunch did not have these problems.
I just finished reading the TNG "relaunch" novels as well. I have to say, I was really looking forward to this after the excellent "A time to..." series. That was a very coherent series of novels that introduced some really interesting characters and situations.
I was looking forward to seeing how they replaced the members of the TNG cast that were leaving, sort of like they did in the DS9R. Really, the way to make this work is, they needed to introduce well-rounded characters that we end up loving as much as the ones they are replacing. They don't necessarily have to be perfect but they need to "fit" and become the new TNG crew.
They totally did that with DS9, Shar and Taranatar are as much a part of DS9 as Sisko or Jadzia to me now.
So, anyway, then we get
Resistance, where there is one unlikeable character (T'Lana), which is risky but interesting - and two other likeable but blah senior staff replacement characters who die at the end of the book. With T'Lana though, you can kind of at least see how she could end up fitting in eventually and becoming a really interesting character.
I actually thought
Resistance was an okay book. The only part I really hated is how they pulled a cloaking device out of their ass at the end. Worf calls Admiral Janeway and she gives him, essentially, a "cheat code"
that enables the Enterprise to have cloaking technology. What?????
And I thought her "female former chief of security" character was a little too much like Vale, or Tasha for that matter - a very petite and harmless looking young woman who (seemingly unexpectedly) is in the role of security chief. She seemed like a cross between Tasha and Wesley Crusher.
For some reason, she reminded me a lot of Christine Vale (who I really liked), and also made me wonder just how many security chiefs the Enterprise had in between Worfs.
I liked
Q&A the best of the bunch. The character development stuff was very good, and in my opinion exactly what the series needed more of. The new characters KRAD introduced were interesting and likeable, and you could see how they could fit in and eventually become "part" of the crew.
My only complaint about
Q&A is that I thought a little too much time was spent on setup, and not enough on payoff. That is, too much of the novel was spent flashing back and fitting all of Q's previous appearances into the story, plus the time spent showing that the anomalies were happening "everywhere" by having people in all corners of the galaxy witness them. The actual adventure with Picard, Q, and the end of the universe seemed too brief by comparison.
Kind of like when somebody tells one of those really long convoluted jokes with a really short punchline. (Those were popular back when I was in high school. Intentionally annoying jokes. If you don't know what I mean, just pretend that you do, otherwise I may have to tell one and you will all hate me.)
I really liked the character bits that were thrown into it though. It was a good book, I just didn't like it as much as I thought I would.
(One other aside, KRAD - why did you pick such hard names to remember and spell????
)
Then along came
Before Dishonor. It really felt like this book steamrolled through all the character development that had gone before it. The TNG characters seemed off, even. Picard felt more like Calhoun than Picard. (For that matter, Calhoun and his DC Comics Kirk seem like the same character to me too.) Which is especially strange because Picard's "schtick" has traditionally been that he was the "by the book" captain. (I know, the movies kind of changed this.)
Also, I felt like the "mutiny" (justified or not) completely damaged the new characters' credibility in the eyes of the reader, not to mention in the eyes of the TNG crew.
The new characters (who shall not be spelled) introduced by KRAD seemed completely different in Peter David's novel, except for their names. And they grew in the opposite direction from where I think they ought to grow to be successful. They need to (eventually) feel like they are integrating and fitting into the crew - instead this book drove a massive wedge between the "new guard" and the "old guard." And by the end of the book, I really didn't feel like it was really resolved. In fact, one of the new characters, T'Lana, had to leave as a result, which means that none of the new characters introduced at the start of the relaunch in
Resistance even lasted through all of the books. It felt like a lot of setup from Resistance will never pay off.
And don't get me started on what he did to Janeway. I am not a big Voyager fan, but that seemed pretty cold to me. I kept wondering "What about the Voyager relaunch" - especially since Janeway and 7 were two of the most interesting characters on that show. I thought it would be interesting to have her as a recurring admiral. Guess not.
In short, Before Dishonor wasn't a terrible book but it had some really bad choices I think. I actually enjoyed reading it, it was a quick read and an exciting, though often annoying, adventure story.
I think Peter David jumped the shark at some point recently. His NF books have been continually more over-the-top silly and BD felt like more of the same. He used to be one of my favorite writers, and I loved how he handled the TNG crew in particular. His characterization of them used to be spot-on, but in BD it felt way off.
Anyhow, I think my expectations were set really high with the DS9 relaunch and A Time to... and I really felt let down. Here's hoping it will improve.
I was really excited when I first heard about the TNG relaunch. J. M. Dillard, KRAD, and Peter David - 3 of my favorite Trek writers. The Borg and Q - two of TNG's best adversaries.
What could possibly go wrong?
