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A review by vingilot
Before Dishonor by Peter David
1.0
I am not going to beat around the bush, this is a very poor book, likely the worst long form Star Trek book I have ever read. The saddest part is, it didn't have to be....
Peter David simply doesn't get some basic stuff, one of the things he doesn't understand is the larger Star Trek Canon. What he gets, and what he writes masterfully is TOS style Star Trek, with all the campiness, and over the top stories that come along with that. He also succeeds well in making that believable, if he has characters that work for this, or characters he himself created, see the excellent New Frontier series for what I mean. However even New Frontier feels very different from the TNG era story telling.
Another thing he doesn't get is Starfleet, and the Federation, nor does he seem to like either. It is from little things like him insisting that the federation uses a currency, even though it is well established that they do not, to him portraying Starfleet as an authoritarian organisation limiting the freedoms of federation citizens at every turn.
Finally he doesn't get the secularity that has always been a part of Star Trek, putting multiple entirely extemporaneous religious references in this work, coming from the two least like characters to make them in the entire Trek canon. Namely Janeway and Seven of Nine. It is incredibly frustrating, especially coupled with this author's clear libertarian streak.
Alright on to the book, it could have been pretty good. It is the final big Borg story before the upcoming Destiny Trilogy. It is billed as a TNG novel, however I would say the main character is in fact Seven of Nine, and Janeway as a second. In fact this book *Spoiler Alert* “kills” her off *Spoiler Alert*.
I have noticed Peter David's love for rogue characters before, but this time he takes it even further. He not only creates a new rogue character with a grudge against Starfleet, he has nearly every single character in this book rebel against someone, often for no real narrative purpose beyond libertarian fantasies. None of the existing characters sound like themselves. Janeway, Seven, Spock, and Picard being the clearest examples. They do, say, and thing things that are completely against their established characters. There's a crisis of faith in several characters that simply doesn't make any sense. There's constant questioning of the existence of souls, and a god, that does nothing to further the plot beyond setting up a single page ending scene that didn't need to be set up. I have to wonder about the author's own religious views, because he seems to think Logic is a faith based position as well, when it is the antithesis.
I would have thrown this book out of the window long before, if I didn't know that it was as pivotal for books to come. I knew I had to get through it, so I rushed it and finished it about twice as fast as I usually would. I didn't savour it, or in anyway enjoyed it. If this book had to be written it should have been given to an author that actually likes the characters it pretends to describe. Kirsten Beyer should have written this, since it is a direct set up for her Voyager novels.
Unless you are into this kind of thing I would recommend skipping this one. Read the memory beta synopsis, you will save yourself a lot of time and frustrations...
Peter David simply doesn't get some basic stuff, one of the things he doesn't understand is the larger Star Trek Canon. What he gets, and what he writes masterfully is TOS style Star Trek, with all the campiness, and over the top stories that come along with that. He also succeeds well in making that believable, if he has characters that work for this, or characters he himself created, see the excellent New Frontier series for what I mean. However even New Frontier feels very different from the TNG era story telling.
Another thing he doesn't get is Starfleet, and the Federation, nor does he seem to like either. It is from little things like him insisting that the federation uses a currency, even though it is well established that they do not, to him portraying Starfleet as an authoritarian organisation limiting the freedoms of federation citizens at every turn.
Finally he doesn't get the secularity that has always been a part of Star Trek, putting multiple entirely extemporaneous religious references in this work, coming from the two least like characters to make them in the entire Trek canon. Namely Janeway and Seven of Nine. It is incredibly frustrating, especially coupled with this author's clear libertarian streak.
Alright on to the book, it could have been pretty good. It is the final big Borg story before the upcoming Destiny Trilogy. It is billed as a TNG novel, however I would say the main character is in fact Seven of Nine, and Janeway as a second. In fact this book *Spoiler Alert* “kills” her off *Spoiler Alert*.
I have noticed Peter David's love for rogue characters before, but this time he takes it even further. He not only creates a new rogue character with a grudge against Starfleet, he has nearly every single character in this book rebel against someone, often for no real narrative purpose beyond libertarian fantasies. None of the existing characters sound like themselves. Janeway, Seven, Spock, and Picard being the clearest examples. They do, say, and thing things that are completely against their established characters. There's a crisis of faith in several characters that simply doesn't make any sense. There's constant questioning of the existence of souls, and a god, that does nothing to further the plot beyond setting up a single page ending scene that didn't need to be set up. I have to wonder about the author's own religious views, because he seems to think Logic is a faith based position as well, when it is the antithesis.
I would have thrown this book out of the window long before, if I didn't know that it was as pivotal for books to come. I knew I had to get through it, so I rushed it and finished it about twice as fast as I usually would. I didn't savour it, or in anyway enjoyed it. If this book had to be written it should have been given to an author that actually likes the characters it pretends to describe. Kirsten Beyer should have written this, since it is a direct set up for her Voyager novels.
Unless you are into this kind of thing I would recommend skipping this one. Read the memory beta synopsis, you will save yourself a lot of time and frustrations...