| Review : |
When I first heard about the 'A Tim To...' series which bridges the gap in time between "Star Trek: Insurrection" and "Star Trek Nemesis" I was excited by the prospect of learning what drove the characters of The Next Generation to move away from the Enterprise. This is the first book in the series, and the book that started my now growing collection of Star Trek novels. While its storyline is exciting, I can't help but feel that this isn't John Vornholt at his best. The storyline is an intriguing one: The Enterprise has been assigned to patrol the Rashanar Battle Site- the location of the Dominion War's bloodiest battle, where none of those ships that took part in the battle came away from it- but what makes the graveyard dangerous are the unexplained anomalies that the crew face- caused by the varied warp drives of each ship. On top of that, there are scavengers stealing parts from ships and a member race of the Federation who owns the graveyard, the Ontailians, are acting strangely. But those dangers pale into comparison when Data and Geordi stumbled across something much more deadly- which will turn the Ontailians agaisnt the Federation and tarnish Picard's career seemingly beyond repair. The trouble with the novel is that the characters aren't really the characters that we knew and love from the TNG series and (loosely) the movies. I found it difficult to believe that Picard would listen to the advice of an android who couldn't explain how he saw an Ontailian ship being blown up and then reappearing- I also find it highly unlikely he would then destroy the ship on such flimsy evidence. Riker lacks much charisma in the novel, to the point where he doesn't feel like Riker and the supposed chemistry between the XO and Troi is all but nonexsistant- they are a couple for goodness sake! the new character of Christine Vale is barely used- shes basically Hoshi Sato for the series, in this book (Thank God she's used much more in Books 3 & 4!). In conclusion, its a promising setup, but ruined by sub standard storyline telling- oh, and the introduction of a certain much loathed TNG character means that this isn't one of the best of the series. |
