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A review by amandat
The Romulan War: Beneath the Raptor's Wing by Michael A. Martin
2.0
I really want to like this novel (just like I really wanted to "Kobiyashi Maru") but I just can't. It's a slow moving plod of a read (as illustrated by the fact that it took me almost a month to read it). Here are the main points:
THE PLOT
- There's a lot of moving pieces but very little plot arc. Very little remains changed from the beginning to the end- a minor colony gets conquered here, a minor colony gets liberated there, but none of that really matters. There's one colony in particular you'll wonder why Starfleet doesn't better protect - you'll know that part when you come to it (it's a real head scratcher). And after what happened to the Kobiyashi Maru, which in itself is kind of ho hum, only Gannet Brooks (who seems determined to dig up dirt somewhere) and Mayweather (who throws the Boomer equivalent of a hissy fit) seem angry about it. Which is a shame because the novel could easily have done something more about that. Because what the printed word can do, but television can't is give the reader a look inside a character's head. But, since that requires a skill the author doesn't seem to have, that leads into my next point.
THE CHARACTERS
- If you aren't going to have an exciting plot, you should have interesting characters, right? Nope. Mayweather is a limp dishrag who (as mentioned above) has a moment of anger misplaced anger against Archer and because Starfleet seems to be short of mediocre pilots, immediately scores a new job. Lucky for him, because all through the novel we're continually told that Starfleet has a shortage of ships. And Malcolm Reed is a genius (that's sarcasm - you'll know that part too when you come to it). Plus there are a lot of unnecessary and inconsequential characters to keep track of.
The second half is slightly better than the first half, but not by much. Had the book been cut by 200 pages or so to tighten up the thin plot and maybe made us believe the destruction of the Kobiyashi Maru actually mattered to more than just Mayweather, it might (MIGHT) have been a better novel.
THE PLOT
- There's a lot of moving pieces but very little plot arc. Very little remains changed from the beginning to the end- a minor colony gets conquered here, a minor colony gets liberated there, but none of that really matters. There's one colony in particular you'll wonder why Starfleet doesn't better protect - you'll know that part when you come to it (it's a real head scratcher). And after what happened to the Kobiyashi Maru, which in itself is kind of ho hum, only Gannet Brooks (who seems determined to dig up dirt somewhere) and Mayweather (who throws the Boomer equivalent of a hissy fit) seem angry about it. Which is a shame because the novel could easily have done something more about that. Because what the printed word can do, but television can't is give the reader a look inside a character's head. But, since that requires a skill the author doesn't seem to have, that leads into my next point.
THE CHARACTERS
- If you aren't going to have an exciting plot, you should have interesting characters, right? Nope. Mayweather is a limp dishrag who (as mentioned above) has a moment of anger misplaced anger against Archer and because Starfleet seems to be short of mediocre pilots, immediately scores a new job. Lucky for him, because all through the novel we're continually told that Starfleet has a shortage of ships. And Malcolm Reed is a genius (that's sarcasm - you'll know that part too when you come to it). Plus there are a lot of unnecessary and inconsequential characters to keep track of.
The second half is slightly better than the first half, but not by much. Had the book been cut by 200 pages or so to tighten up the thin plot and maybe made us believe the destruction of the Kobiyashi Maru actually mattered to more than just Mayweather, it might (MIGHT) have been a better novel.