Since someone asked, my quick take on some Peter David Star Trek<\/i> books…<\/p>\n
Q-Squared<\/i> was a solid romp. Alternate timelines, the fate of the universe hanging in the balance, the tragedy of Jack Crusher. My favorite scene has to be the three Datas discussing their sexual habits while the Enterprise<\/i>-D is about to crash. The scene is so utterly surreal that it’s impossible to believe.<\/p>\n
Vendetta<\/i> is the best Borg story, ever. Even better than “Best of Both Worlds.” “BoBW” had much higher personal stakes for Picard, but Vendetta<\/i> had a lot more personal depth to it. We didn’t get a sense of how “BoBW” affected anyone, but Vendetta<\/i> fired on more emotional cylinders. This might have been the last book to carry the dreaded Roddenberry disclaimer, too. (The reason for the disclaimer: PAD wrote in a female Borg, and at that point in time female Borg hadn’t been established on the show. Talk about Richard Arnold being anal retentive.)<\/p>\n
Imzadi<\/i> was recently voted the best Star Trek novel of all time. I happen to love the book, but the love-story aspect doesn’t do much for me. Instead, I much prefer the conflict between Admiral Riker and Commodore Data; when at the Guardian of Forever Admiral Riker states that he will do what it takes to save Deanna Troi’s life in the past and Commodore Data states flatly that he will kill Deanna Troi himself, you know that you’re about to get deep. I loved the tagline for this one: “The adventure across time in which death is only the beginning.” This should<\/i> be filmed.<\/p>\n
New Frontier<\/b>. The first four books are pretty good. I don’t think they’re PAD’s best work by any stretch. They do what they need to do, introduce us to a brand-new crew and their adventures. As a pilot story it’s okay. But not a great work.<\/p>\n
His best NF work is probably Once Burned<\/i>, the story of Mackenzie Calhoun’s greatest failure: the death of his Captain aboard the USS Grissom<\/i>. The story is handled so well, Calhoun’s voice is so distinct, that it’s just a good novel<\/i>, and who cares that it’s a Star Trek<\/i> novel. Even if you haven’t read New Frontier<\/b>, even if you don’t care about The Captain’s Table, Once Burned<\/i> should be read by all Star Trek<\/i> fans.<\/p>\n
The Excalibur<\/i> trilogy, though, I have very mixed feelings about. I feel that it began well in Requiem<\/i>, that Renaissance<\/i> was a middling effort (mostly because of the boringness of the Lefler storyline), and that Restoration<\/i> was a first-class disappointment. I’ve analyzed Restoration<\/i> at length elsewhere, and if pressed will do so again. I will say this: the Excalibur<\/i> trilogy is neither the jumping-on-point or the turning-point that the series was sold as being.<\/p>\n
The Captain’s Daughter<\/i> is excellent. I really enjoyed this novel, delving into the background of Hikaru Sulu, showing us where Demora came from, and what kind of Captain he became. Very well written, especially the scene where Rand and Sulu are talking about losing a loved one. The way that scene turns you suddenly realize who it is they’re talking about, even if names never enter into the equation. Recommended.<\/p>\n
Another one I’d recommend is A Rock and a Hard Place<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Oh, and the first original DS9<\/b> novel, The Siege<\/i>. Talk about intense. The scene where Meta kills the Cardassian has to be one of the most brutal scenes in a Star Trek<\/i> novel.<\/p>\n
I loved<\/b> Q-in-Law<\/i>. I think it’s one of the funniest Q stories ever done. Haven’t read it in almost ten years (my gahd, has it been that long? came out in 1991….), but I remember it as being a laugh-riot, more so than even Strike Zone<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Triangle: Imzadi II<\/i> never caught my attention. I’ve read it, but I’ve never been excited about it. I’ve always been left feeling vaguely uneasy about it. And I couldn’t put my finger on what<\/i> is wrong with this one, either.<\/p>\n
Peter David’s work sells, and it sells very well, and I’m glad that it sells very well. But I don’t think that his work today reaches the same heights that it did five or ten years ago when he might put out only one or two Trek<\/i> novels a year. I’d love to see him take a sabbatical from Trek<\/i>, but the New Frontier<\/b> novels consistently outsell all other Trek<\/i> novels, so the chances of Peter David leaving the world of Trek<\/i> novels for any appreciable length of time is nil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Since someone asked, my quick take on some Peter David Star Trek books… Q-Squared was a solid romp. Alternate timelines, the fate of the universe hanging in the balance, the tragedy of Jack Crusher. My favorite scene has to be the three Datas discussing their sexual habits while the Enterprise-D is about to crash. TheContinue reading “On Peter David Novels”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74,30],"tags":[158,4089,286,395],"class_list":["post-1026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reading","category-star-trek","tag-peter-david","tag-star-trek","tag-star-trek-new-frontier","tag-star-trek-novels","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1026\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.allyngibson.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}