madisonreadsbooks's review
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
navithefairy's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
cami5ado's review
2.0
Didn't vibe with this one. I'm really not sure I was reading the same book as other reviewers.
elizabethb81's review
adventurous
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
happentobeshort's review
emotional
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
THIS WAS SO SAD!!!! GOOD BUT SAD!!! I think this one belongs on my list of "actually quite decent Trek novels that aren't pure fanfiction". Helped that I listened to this in audio form read by none other than THEEE de Lancie.
theonlyaaron's review
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
lazy0718's review against another edition
5.0
This is arguably the great Star Trek Novel ever written. It takes place on a grand scale, covering several interesting timelines, then smashing them together.
The real test for novels like these are if the characters sounds like they should...quite often tie in novels will have characters saying things that they never would on the show, which can really pull me out of the book. Thankfully that isn't a problem here. Peter David has an excellent grasp of what makes each of these characters tick. The many references to past Star Trek adventures just serve to sweeten the deal for Star Trek fans.
The Kindle edition is pretty good. I only noticed about a dozen typos, but none were so bad that I couldn't figure out what the actual intended word was. I don't have the paper version to compare it to, so this issue might just be the way the book is written, but within chapters, it can be difficult to spot the perspective changes. Rather than leaving an extra space between paragraphs to denote a chance in perspective/location, the next section just starts immediately after the previous sentence. Sometimes that seems intentional (a joke carries over between sections, characters seem to react to something someone else in another area said, etc.), but other times it just makes it confusing.
Overall I love this book. It was one of the first books I picked up for my kindle, because I wanted to re-read it (I had originally read it many years ago). The only real problem is that this is as good as it gets. It piques the appetite for more books like this, but no other Star Trek novel matches it. Peter David's other Star Trek novels are great (Vendetta, Imzadi, etc.), but this is his best.
The real test for novels like these are if the characters sounds like they should...quite often tie in novels will have characters saying things that they never would on the show, which can really pull me out of the book. Thankfully that isn't a problem here. Peter David has an excellent grasp of what makes each of these characters tick. The many references to past Star Trek adventures just serve to sweeten the deal for Star Trek fans.
The Kindle edition is pretty good. I only noticed about a dozen typos, but none were so bad that I couldn't figure out what the actual intended word was. I don't have the paper version to compare it to, so this issue might just be the way the book is written, but within chapters, it can be difficult to spot the perspective changes. Rather than leaving an extra space between paragraphs to denote a chance in perspective/location, the next section just starts immediately after the previous sentence. Sometimes that seems intentional (a joke carries over between sections, characters seem to react to something someone else in another area said, etc.), but other times it just makes it confusing.
Overall I love this book. It was one of the first books I picked up for my kindle, because I wanted to re-read it (I had originally read it many years ago). The only real problem is that this is as good as it gets. It piques the appetite for more books like this, but no other Star Trek novel matches it. Peter David's other Star Trek novels are great (Vendetta, Imzadi, etc.), but this is his best.
xakana's review against another edition
5.0
It's one of my favorite Star Trek novels. I've read it twice, but it's been so long that I can't remember well enough to give a more comprehensive review.
blchandler9000's review against another edition
2.0
I'd purchased this before moving to Slovakia with the intention that, if I ever missed STNG, I could visit the characters in book form. I'd spent the summer-before-Slovakia watching the show on Netflix, sometimes with Mike and Rachel. I'd adored the show during my teens, but moved on to other pop-culture passions afterwards. Revisiting the series that summer was nostalgic and truly fun. I remembered that I liked the Picard and Data and the rest (except for Beverly Crusher) and enjoyed a lot of the stories they played out. (Sometimes I even remembered lines from the show—dialogue that had sat dormant in my brain for twenty years.) But after coming to Europe and settling in, I never had the desire to "hang out" with Picard and Co.
Then Mike wrote his epic review of the STNG novel "Metamorphosis" and inspired me to finally tackle "Q-Squared," which had sat dormant and unloved on my Kindle for almost two and a half years.
In "Q-Squared" the crew of the Next Generation meets up with Trelane, a Mxyzptlk-like character from the Original Series. The novel—which, during the introduction, author Peter David readily admits is non-canon fan-wankery—reveals that Trelane is actually a young member of the Q Continuum, and a petulant one at that. Q himself is Trelane's godfather and has his hands full while he tries to temper the obnoxious being.
Furious, impatient, and childish, Trelane taps into the very heart of the multiverse and, filled with the powers of chaos, begins to mess about with different universes—namely, the one we all know from the show, the dark alternate universe from "Yesterday's Enterprise," and one in which Jack Crusher never died and captains the Enterprise. Worlds collide, confusion ensues, and Peter David hammers out good one-liners.
Truth be told, this wasn't horribly written. David does a great job of getting the characters' "voices" right. He clearly knows his Trek and dribbles in plenty of in-jokes and references to charm the reader. But he also wanders into Prequel Trilogy mode and makes some connections between things that erase some of the magic and wonder of the Star Trek universe. There's quite a bit of "Remember that episode? Trelane did that. And remember that? That was actually Q!" It starts to become quite fannish in places and feels more like David's playing than writing. That kind of stuff took me out of the book and disappointed me.
(Also, I was never a fan of the Crushers—either of them—and now I got to hang out with the dead-in-all-other-timelines Dad which wasn't too fun. I did, though, get to meet tortured-for-a-decade-by-Romulans Riker. Fair trade? No.)
Oddly enough, I read this book while taking a break from the sprawling Thomas Pynchon novel "Against the Day" and it seems like there's a lot of similarities between these books. I'd dare say that Pynchon does a better job of exploring the ideas than David, though. In "ATD," we find different fictions running into each other, overlapping, doubling, and echoing. Iceland spar, a crystal with unexplained powers, enables viewers to peer through the mineral and see the world duplicated or separated into its disparate elements. Characters we are introduced to in the beginning of the book become fictional people later read about in novels by other characters. Pynchon's alternate universes and duplicates don't deal in as much fan-service as David's (though Pynchon does insert a "Live long and prosper," joke in his book).
And maybe that's the biggest grief I have with "Q-Squared": it's just not imaginative enough. I hoped it would go further. More mind-blowing and less "Wouldn't it be cool if Data was a positronic brain in a flesh-and-blood body?" Peter David had three whole universes to play in, and he decided to use one that was already explored in a classic STNG episode and another that was, frankly, not very interesting. He does create some interesting moments where characters meet alternate universe themselves or loved ones. And the multiple-page scene where Trelane is enticed by chaos to combine all universes into one [spoiler] was actually imaginatively written, breaking the typical adverb-laden dialogue and people making rude comments about the pronunciation and spelling of Worf's name for delicious run-on paragraphs about variety, order, seduction, and power. That part was interesting and a delight to read. One would hope a story about multiple realities would do more with big ideas than "In this universe, Geordi has cloned eyes," but maybe I'm wishing for too much.
I will say there was some fun in hanging out with the crew of ol' NCC-1701-D. (Not to mention that David is a significantly faster read than Pynchon.) If anything, the book has piqued my interest in reading other property-based novels to off-set the heavier stuff I tend to prefer. (That "Kenobi" book is supposed to be more readable than most Star-something pap.) And although my brain is saying DON'T read the Peter David STNG book where a lady gets her hands on a Planet Killer (i.e. TOS "Doomsday Machine") and decides to go after the Borg, a small part of me says, "But, but... it's fun to hear Picard's voice in your head."
Then Mike wrote his epic review of the STNG novel "Metamorphosis" and inspired me to finally tackle "Q-Squared," which had sat dormant and unloved on my Kindle for almost two and a half years.
In "Q-Squared" the crew of the Next Generation meets up with Trelane, a Mxyzptlk-like character from the Original Series. The novel—which, during the introduction, author Peter David readily admits is non-canon fan-wankery—reveals that Trelane is actually a young member of the Q Continuum, and a petulant one at that. Q himself is Trelane's godfather and has his hands full while he tries to temper the obnoxious being.
Furious, impatient, and childish, Trelane taps into the very heart of the multiverse and, filled with the powers of chaos, begins to mess about with different universes—namely, the one we all know from the show, the dark alternate universe from "Yesterday's Enterprise," and one in which Jack Crusher never died and captains the Enterprise. Worlds collide, confusion ensues, and Peter David hammers out good one-liners.
Truth be told, this wasn't horribly written. David does a great job of getting the characters' "voices" right. He clearly knows his Trek and dribbles in plenty of in-jokes and references to charm the reader. But he also wanders into Prequel Trilogy mode and makes some connections between things that erase some of the magic and wonder of the Star Trek universe. There's quite a bit of "Remember that episode? Trelane did that. And remember that? That was actually Q!" It starts to become quite fannish in places and feels more like David's playing than writing. That kind of stuff took me out of the book and disappointed me.
(Also, I was never a fan of the Crushers—either of them—and now I got to hang out with the dead-in-all-other-timelines Dad which wasn't too fun. I did, though, get to meet tortured-for-a-decade-by-Romulans Riker. Fair trade? No.)
Oddly enough, I read this book while taking a break from the sprawling Thomas Pynchon novel "Against the Day" and it seems like there's a lot of similarities between these books. I'd dare say that Pynchon does a better job of exploring the ideas than David, though. In "ATD," we find different fictions running into each other, overlapping, doubling, and echoing. Iceland spar, a crystal with unexplained powers, enables viewers to peer through the mineral and see the world duplicated or separated into its disparate elements. Characters we are introduced to in the beginning of the book become fictional people later read about in novels by other characters. Pynchon's alternate universes and duplicates don't deal in as much fan-service as David's (though Pynchon does insert a "Live long and prosper," joke in his book).
And maybe that's the biggest grief I have with "Q-Squared": it's just not imaginative enough. I hoped it would go further. More mind-blowing and less "Wouldn't it be cool if Data was a positronic brain in a flesh-and-blood body?" Peter David had three whole universes to play in, and he decided to use one that was already explored in a classic STNG episode and another that was, frankly, not very interesting. He does create some interesting moments where characters meet alternate universe themselves or loved ones. And the multiple-page scene where Trelane is enticed by chaos to combine all universes into one [spoiler] was actually imaginatively written, breaking the typical adverb-laden dialogue and people making rude comments about the pronunciation and spelling of Worf's name for delicious run-on paragraphs about variety, order, seduction, and power. That part was interesting and a delight to read. One would hope a story about multiple realities would do more with big ideas than "In this universe, Geordi has cloned eyes," but maybe I'm wishing for too much.
I will say there was some fun in hanging out with the crew of ol' NCC-1701-D. (Not to mention that David is a significantly faster read than Pynchon.) If anything, the book has piqued my interest in reading other property-based novels to off-set the heavier stuff I tend to prefer. (That "Kenobi" book is supposed to be more readable than most Star-something pap.) And although my brain is saying DON'T read the Peter David STNG book where a lady gets her hands on a Planet Killer (i.e. TOS "Doomsday Machine") and decides to go after the Borg, a small part of me says, "But, but... it's fun to hear Picard's voice in your head."