A review by reeshadovahsil
The Trelilsane Confrontation by David Dworkin
3.0
2.5 stars if I had the option. It's okay. It's kind of boring. But it's not bad.
This book never really gets going, even though there are several good moments where everything could start to come together. The issue is there are so many different mini-plots trying to be woven together, half of them too boring to bother with, that nothing ever gets the attention it needs to be fleshed out.
The small subplot with Chapel and 4-joined-beings lifeform, an Onctilliian, is the most interesting part of the novel by far, but it's barely explored. This idea should have been its own full-blown novel, totally separate from all this Trellisane/Sealon/Klingon/Romulan nonsense. A pair of warrior women lovers is another germ of an idea that could have been interesting if handled properly. But they're just background characters who barely even speak to each other despite being mates.
Our beloved crew is in character some of the time, but also out of it often enough to regularly throw one out of the story in annoyance.
The "shocking twist" was painfully obvious about a hundred pages before it's apparently supposed to be, making our heroes look like blithering idiots for not picking up on it.
The Trellisanians are pretty darn boring. Not even slavery, mind control, and rampant cannibalism can make them interesting. The Sealons could be interesting if they were given some more time and attention.
I saw several sparks of possibility scattered throughout this story that it's a shame didn't get more focus. All in all, it's not a bad book, it's just kind of meh. I didn't hate it but I wouldn't read it again or recommend it to a friend.
This book never really gets going, even though there are several good moments where everything could start to come together. The issue is there are so many different mini-plots trying to be woven together, half of them too boring to bother with, that nothing ever gets the attention it needs to be fleshed out.
The small subplot with Chapel and 4-joined-beings lifeform, an Onctilliian, is the most interesting part of the novel by far, but it's barely explored. This idea should have been its own full-blown novel, totally separate from all this Trellisane/Sealon/Klingon/Romulan nonsense. A pair of warrior women lovers is another germ of an idea that could have been interesting if handled properly. But they're just background characters who barely even speak to each other despite being mates.
Our beloved crew is in character some of the time, but also out of it often enough to regularly throw one out of the story in annoyance.
The "shocking twist" was painfully obvious about a hundred pages before it's apparently supposed to be, making our heroes look like blithering idiots for not picking up on it.
The Trellisanians are pretty darn boring. Not even slavery, mind control, and rampant cannibalism can make them interesting. The Sealons could be interesting if they were given some more time and attention.
I saw several sparks of possibility scattered throughout this story that it's a shame didn't get more focus. All in all, it's not a bad book, it's just kind of meh. I didn't hate it but I wouldn't read it again or recommend it to a friend.