Rating: 
Summary: Diane Carey can do better and has.
Review: This is a Star Trek the Next Generation novel. It was the last book that I finished before I got the idea into my head to do book reviews so that is why it comes first in the review list. Diane Carey is a fixture in the Star Trek novel universe, and in this novel she has taken on the task of filling some of the gaps between the first Next Generation movie Generations and the second First Contact. The book purports on the cover to be the story of the first voyage of the Enterprise-E. That would be the monster new ship in the First Contact movie that nearly gets Borgified for all you non-Trek people. Carey has told some interesting tales of the Star Trek universe, but I'm afraid this one comes up a bit lacking on the whole. First, while this is ostensibly the story of the Enterprise-E's first voyage it is also several other stories. The book starts out in 2278, which is the time period of the first Star Trek series. We are introduced to Captain Morgan Bateson, his crew and their ship the U.S.S. Bozeman a small border patrol vessel whose duty is to patrol the border between the Klingon Empire and Federation, as during this time period they are at war. Via an encounter with a surprise Klingon attack which lead to an encounter with a cosmic mishap, the Bozeman is unfortunately displaced in time to the year 2368, which coincidentally happens to be the exact time period that a Next Generation novel should be set in! By sheer luck the Bozeman encounters the Enterprise-D and Captain Jean-Luc Picard and crew by almost running into them as they appear out of the time vortex. Bateson and crew have to now live with the harsh reality that they have been displaced a lifetime into the future. Fast forward three years. The Enterprise-D is kibble and the new Enterprise-E has been built and the construction team has been headed by none other than the time-displaced Morgan Bateson with his crew along to help out. Captain Picard is having doubts about his motivations for commanding the new ship, and Bateson gets to captain the shakedown cruise of the new Enterprise with Riker along reluctantly as first officer while Picard goes on a special mission to the Cardassian empire to look into finding the crews of several missing Federation ships. Got that? Yeah, one of the main problems with this book is that there are probably one or two too many plotlines. The storylines are that Bateson and his crew don't fit in, Picard is a bit traumatized after the Enterprise-D took a header into a planet, there are Federation crews gone missing (we even get little vignettes from their perspective as well so that we can feel for them), Riker has to go along with Bateson whom he doesn't like on the Enterprise-E's shakedown cruise. Then throw in some Klingons from the past and chaos ensues. I won't spoil the ending for you, but I will say that there is much too much going on for just one book. We get Picard's perspective of course, and we get Riker's, Bateson's, Klingon antagonist's, Cardassian antagonist's, Federation captives, and a few others thrown in as well. You can't identify with these people's problems because you get about a minute of reading time before the book switches to the next plot and character. The plotlines and conflicts of course have to be resolved by the end of the book (as in all Star Trek episodes) so everything gets tied up way too quickly and neatly at the end. Actually, until I got to the end and everything was resolved in the span of about pages 20 pages I thought the book was going okay, but it seems that Ms. Carey ran out room and had to tidy up a bit quick. All the plotlines wrapped up much too abruptly in a very tv episode fashion. I think the pressure of writing a novel that takes place right before a movie, where the characters have to end up a certain way at the outset of said movie ruined this book. The epilogue is actually set a few moments before the Borg attack that leads off the First Contact movie. The short summary is, the book is an okay read, it moves along quickly, but ends badly, resolving everthing in a cut and dried manner that is quite clumsy. You would be much better off reading some of Carey's other Star Trek novels. Dreadnought and Final Frontier come to mind as two novels that I think are much better than this one. 2-1/2 stars out of 5
Rating: 
Summary: An okay Star Trek novel that could have been brilliant.
Review: Ship Of The Line is an okay Star Trek Novel but could have been brilliant if not for some silly continuity and character errors It seemed a little rushed towards the end too. Ms Carey's error concerning Gul Madred's torture of Captain Picard being before the Borg's capture of the captain was one glaring faux pas that was irksome but didn't mar my over-all enjoyment of the book. I especially enjoyed Picard's interaction with a holo-deck Captain Kirk. One of the better novelised depictions of Kirk outside of Shatner's Trek Novels. They concerned a retrospective of some Kirk's classic adventures with Picard querying James T. as to his command decisions and motives. The result of Kirk's inspiration is more gung ho Picard. This ties in nicely with his behaviour in 'First Contact'. Picard's conference with the holographic Kirk maybe considered un-necessary padding by some but for me it actually made up for the rest of the book's short comings. I also loved what Carey did with the Captain Morgan Bateman character. It was definitely written with Kelsey Grammer in mind as portrayed briefly in the ST.NG episode Cause and Effect. Laforge was okay but Data, Troi, Riker, and Crusher acted slightly out of character but it could be argued that people do change, especially after their recent ordeal. I'm glad Scotty was included but he seemed a little subdued. clichéd it might be but it would have been nice to have him remonstrate with someone over the treatment of his engines or rather his 'poor wee bairns'. Klingons from the 23rd Century out to reclaim their honour by destroying Bateson. Hmm I'm starting to get fed up of Klingons. I prefer the Romulans, and where are the Federation allies: the Andorians, the Deltans, the Tellarites. All in all a fine effort but I implore Diane Carey to dot the 'i's and cross the ' t's next time.
Rating: 
Summary: Ship of the Line - An exceptional Star Trek story!
Review: Capitalizing on the Star Trek The Next Generations fifth season episode "Cause and Effect" and the sixth season's episodes of "Chain of Command" parts I and II, Diane Carey deftly weaves another great STNG tale involving Captain Morgan Bateson and Gul Madred respectively in "Ship of the Line." Captain Morgan Bateson, seen only briefly in "Cause and Effect," is skillfully brought to life in this tale along with his crew. Gul Madred, the much hated Cardassian interrogator who tormented Captain Picard in "Chain of Command" parts I and II is revisited by Captain Picard. Along with these characters, the author also brings Captain Kirk and Spock into the mix as well. Several Star Trek readers I've talked to in the past have complained of Diane Carey's injecting so much "naval" speak into her Star Trek novels, this is an opinion I do not share as I believe it gives her novels a distinctiveness all her own. I always have and continue to look forward to reading her novels as she is one of the top Star Trek authors. The premise: This outstanding STNG novel begins with the crew of the USS Bozeman in the year 2278 telling the events where Captain Morgan Bateson and his ship were engaged against a Klingon ship just prior to and leading up to the events in the STNG episode "Cause and Effect," where the USS Bozeman came through a temporal anomaly coming forward ninety years and "nearly" colliding with the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D. The novel is now set in the timeframe of approximately five months after the events depicted in "Star Trek Generations," where the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D is lost. Captain Picard and the majority of his senior staff are at Starbase 12 awaiting their next assignment which is hopefully the USS Enterprise NCC-1701-E, the beautiful Sovereign Class starship first seen in "Star Trek First Contact." Of course Worf at this time is on Deep Space Nine. From this point the author takes the reader through a superb story where on one end, Captain Morgan Bateson is in charge of the shakedown cruise of the Enterprise-E and dealing with the same Klingon that forced him into the temporal anomaly and on the other end, Captain Picard is headed into Cardassian territory to deal with Gul Madred, his tormentor from "Chain of Command." I highly recommend this Star Trek The Next Generation novel; it certainly deserved the hardback that it came in as it outclasses many of the Star Trek stories in print. {ssintrepid}
Rating:
Summary: An ambitious novel: much more than Frazier on Star Trek
Review: One look at the cover of Diane Carey's "Ship of the Line" with the faces of Patrick Stewart and Kelsey Grammer tells us this STNG novel is a sequel to "Cause and Effect" (Episode 118), where a temporal loop brought the U.S.S. Bozeman and Captain Morgan Bateson ninety years into the future. But Carey's novel is much more ambitious than that, because not only do we learn what the Bozeman was up to when it was catapulted into the future, we find out what Picard and his crew did after the destruction of the Enterprise-D in the "Star Trek: Generations" movie. In fact, this books ends with the beginning scenes of the "Star Trek: First Contact." But our intrepid author is just getting started for she also works in the characters from the original Star Trek. With Scotty already in the future because of the "Relics" episode of STNG, Carey works in Jim Kirk and the rest by having Captain Picard deal with interactive holographic programs of "Balance of Terror" and "The Enemy Within" episodes of the classic Trek. These provide some of the best scenes in the novel, as Picard questions Kirk about his tactical decisions and the responsibilities of being a Starfleet Captain. However, when Carey also works in Gul Madred, who tortured Picard in "Chain of Command, Part 2," it does become a bit much. I appreciate Star Trek novels that seek to fill in the gaps from the various television series, but Carey does enter kitchen sink territory here. After the giving us the back story on how the Bozeman's encounter with a Klingon warship led to their being flung into the future, there are two main plot lines to "Ship of the Line." First, Captain Bateson has taken advantage of his seniority in Starfleet to not only oversee the construction of the Enterprise-E but also be in command of its shakedown cruise. Riker and the rest of the bridge crew join Scotty and the Bozeman's original crew, unaware that Bateson's old Klingon adversary Kozara is once again gunning for him. Meanwhile, Picard is heading off to the Cardassian Empire to negotiate with Gul Madred for the release of Federation prisoners. Eventually, of course, these two plotlines will converge. Carey, an avid sailor, works in numerous lines from C. S. Forester's Horatio Hornblower novels, and much of the starship action seems more fitting for the high seas than deep space. What will not surprise you is that although Captain Bateson had only a line or two in "Cause and Effect," the character is clearly patterned on Kelsey Grammer. How could you proceed otherwise? In the end we are back to the cover of "Ship of the Line," for it is how Picard deals with Gul Madred and Bateson deals with Kozara that provides the twin climaxes to the novel. There is so much going on here that ultimately the story is simply carrying too much weight, but this is definitely a worthwhile story and an above average effort from Carey. Clearly this is a labor of love for her on many levels.
Rating:
Summary: The entertaining first voyage of the Enterprise-E
Review: Diane Carey continues her tremendous writing success in the Star Trek universe with this exciting and original novel. The story chronicles the maiden voyage of the newest Federation flagship, the U.S.S. Enterprise-E, as it proceeds under the command of not Jean-Luc Picard, but Morgan Bateson, the captain who traveled with his crew forward into the 24th century. Carey uses great detail in defining the characters of the novel, including Picard who is contemplating his future in Starfleet, and Bateson who is considering his role in an entirely different century. Plenty of action and epic space battles exist throughout the novel to complement the strong plot and characterization. With Ship of the Line, Diane Carey creates yet another worthy addition to the Star Trek universe.
Rating:
Summary: Bottom Line: A good read
Review: Most Star Trek novels are not known for their literary prowess or exceptionally profound storylines. This book is no exception. However, I did find it a quite enjoyable read, with an interesting premise and exciting action sequences. I do take issue with some of Ms. Carey's characterizations and use of dialogue (for example Morgan Bateson's fascination with Gabe Bush's accent -- what was that all about?), but overall she does write a good story. This first part of the novel plods along, but once you get to the second half, the story does improve significantly. If you're looking for a good read over a lazy weekend or a day on the beach, this book comes highly recommended. Three stars out of five because it isn't great, but it is entertaining.
Rating:
Summary: Easily the best novel of Diane Carey's that I've read yet.
Review: Granted, she still tries to be too cute with the language, and generally fails miserably when she does, (for example, describing the ship "swaggering" under enemy phasers, rather than the more normal (and accurate) "staggering". Had anybody else written that, I'd have assumed that it was a typo, but given Diane Carey's history, I'm forced to assume that she meant to write that.) This is the only reason that I've rated this book at four rather than five stars; if you don't object to sloppy, incorrect use of the language on occasion, consider this a five-star rating. But she does so far less frequently in this book than in almost any of her other books, and on balance, less egregiously, too. Further, the plot and characterization are even better than she usually manages, and that's always been her strong suit. And as an extra added bonus, she manages to refer back to numerous episodes, something that I always enjoy, and generally only see in Peter David's work. And she does it quite well, too, always plausibly and (where one can check on it) accurately. I understand that some people don't care for that sort of thing; if you don't, consider this a three-star rating instead of four. But I consider it a definite plus.
Rating:
Summary: ST-TNG: Ship of the Line
Review: Star Trek - The Next Generation written by Diane Carey is a book of many facets involving the Star Trek genre. This book adds to the history of several different television episodes like one that I can think of "Cause and Effect" and the book Star Trek: First Contact is just beginning at the end of his book. Like I mentioned, this book seems to tie some lose ends together. There are two main themes in this book that seem to be rather seperated, but later on in the book become apparent that they do interplay. The first is the U.S.S. Bozeman after fighting the Klingon's 70 years earlier is now in their future and we find out what they were up to then as it affects what is going on now. Another time warp anomaly mixing the twenty-third and the twenty-fourth century's timelines. Well, the U.S.S. Bozeman and her Captain, Morgan Bateson are now in their relative future. Bateson pulls rank on Picard and takes the new Starship Enterprise 1701-E on a shakedown, but that's not all as Bateson believes the Klingon Empire is building it's forces and is preparing to strike the Federation. Now the newly minted Enterprise is on a mission to thwart the threat. Secondly, Captain Jean-Luc Picard is sent on a mission to release Federation prisioners held by the Cardassians. As Gul Madred and Picard work out the details for the release Picard hears about what Bateson is upto. From the book "Relics" Scotty is onboard the new Entrprise as are via holodeck James T. Kirk and others. As Picard works out logistics with Kirk. Captain Bateson is not without enemies and of course the Klingons will oblige with Kozara who has been nursing a grudge for decades. Now, Captain Jean-Luc Picard has to decide... choose whether to take back command or let Bateson continue. This book pits present Star Trek with past Star Trek as Carey tries to blend it all together. The book moves quickly and the narrative is lively enough to keep your interest... and the out come is in doubt till close to the end of the story.
Rating: 
Summary: Simply awful
Review: It's been about a year since I read a Star Trek novel. It was Peter David's deplorable "I, Q." After reading the equally regeattable "Ship of the Line" I think I'll wait another year. My love of the original cast is as deep as anyone's but KIRK IS DEAD! Let him rest. No holodeck recreations, no reincarnations, no nothing. I was also put off by the hurried nature of the ending.
"Hey, did you catch the saboteur that's been mentioned every other chapter?"
"Oh yeah, it was just some dude."
And that's it.
I've only read two other Star Trek/Diane Carey books ("Final Frontier" and "Dreadnought") and they were infinitely superior to this slop of a novel.
Rating:
Summary: Nothing against the Writer but...
Review: This book just doesn't (I say doesn't because I'm struggling with trying to finish it) feel like a Star Trek Novel to me as far as the characters are concerned. Riker, La Forge, Troi and Data all seem alittle drippy and too over emotional when faced with having to deal with Bates as the Captain. I think the author in trying to deal with somekind of demon of her own brought on by some tradedy at sea she's possibly expierenced she tries to bring in the old sad salior routine of ships lost at sea. Data I can understand being a little sentamental due still dealing with and working out the bugs of the emotion chip, however Riker Troi La Forge are all seasoned Star Fleet and just don't seem to act that way in this book. I don't know what the rest of the book has in store nor am I sure if I will finish it but for those looking for a good Star Trek read try something like Spocks World or Sarek or anything else before this one.
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