Star Trek: The Next Generation-The Genesis Wave

Rating:
Summary: Genesis is back
Review: Fans familiar with the Star Trek movies will recognize the title of the book from events in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Kahn. This book takes the Genesis Device to a whole new level. Someone has stolen the Genesis Device technology, and weaponized it! Along with the technology that was stolen Dr. Marcus is also taken from her secret Federation facility for unknown reasons. Terror reigns on the scale that no one ever dreamed, not just planetary but against entire solar systems. It seems that the Genesis Device works flawlessly, but who started it? And why?

This book is thoroughly enjoyable and a blast to read. It ties in story lines from the original Star Trek and the Next Generation seamlessly.

Rating:
Summary: Near The Top of the First 10
Review: I started reading these E-books of the various Star Trek incarnations several weeks ago, and, "Genesis Wave Book #1", is the 10th that I have read. It is the first in a trilogy, but if this beginning is an indication of the next 2 books, the series will rank amongst the best I will have read after completing the first dozen Trek books. I will be reading the next 2 books in the coming week, so if you wish for a complete impression from one reader of the three part story arc you will not have long to wait.

Project Genesis will be very familiar to all fans who recall one of the earlier films to feature the original crew of the Enterprise. In addition to familiar faces the movie also included the son of Captain Kirk who played a key role in the development of the Genesis project. The book brings back some characters from the original research team, one who remains in her original form, and two who have yet to be explained by book's end. Like many weapons of Science Fiction or in our own world, science can not leave a project alone no matter what the possible consequences may be. The irony here is that after some 90 years of Genesis being kept at the highest levels of clearance requirements it appears once again, but this time seemingly uncontrolled and doing damage exponentially greater than the original.

The chief engineer is an extremely capable Starfleet officer, but as Data humorously reminds him he is inept with women. It could be argued that Data has had more success with carbon-based life forms that Geordi has. And as a side story in this tale Data repeatedly attempts to help his dear friend succeed where he has only failed before. A character that Geordi had once created on the Holodeck and then fell deeply in love with only to be caught with his Holodeck fantasy by the real woman, the real married woman, once again makes an appearance as a critical player in this book and likely in the following two, Dr. Leah Brahms. And she brings with her a Klingon that will be the last Klingon you would expect to see, but does serve to tie this 90 year separation of common Genesis events together.

This tale has many of the great aspects that make for a good Trek tale, a visit from the past by both characters that were enjoyable, and an event long since believed dead, and then the forced cooperation of species like those from Romulus, Klingons, and a variety of peoples from the Federation. In the midst of all this is the charismatic figure of Captain Jean Luc Picard who always adds to whatever situation he is in the midst of. And depending on the outcome of this first cliffhanger of book #1, another question is will he remain a Captain?

So far so good, and I will keep moving toward the middle with Book #2, and the conclusion of Book #3.

Rating:
Summary: Star Trek II meets The Next Generation
Review: I'm a causal Star Trek fan, seen maybe half-a-dozen episodes of the original series, perhaps thirty of `Next Generation' and `Voyager', and at the most three of `Deep Space Nine' (I'm sorry but Star Trek was meant to be set on a spaceSHIP not a space STATION).

It's a bit different when it comes to the films. Something about their larger scale and them being full of series-changing moments appeals to me more. I'm always felt `Star Trek II' was the best of the lot. The awesome destructiveness of Genesis torpedo was one of a host of ideas that gave us one of science fiction's masterpieces.

I must admit I've always wondered from time to time whatever happened to this technology in the `Next Generation' world. John Vornholt attempts to answer this question in his latest novel `The Genesis Wave'. I listened to the abridged audio version of this book, read by Tim Russ.

Generally, I enjoyed this story, through, like reviews have said, it's ending with the 'To be continued, buy the next book in April 2001.' is very irritating. The act of cutting it into two parts smells heavily of a marketing ploy.

Through, all in all, this is an interesting listen; some points really don't sound true. (WARNING! Spoilers ahead!) An entire section of Federation space goes missing and it takes Georgi LaForge's message not getting a reply before anyone notices? I don't care if it's a backwater section of space, I live in a backwater section of my state and if we went missing people would notice it a lot quicker than this so-called advanced society.

I think Dr. Crusher is a fine officer. She's proven that on innumerable occasions. But why in the heck put her in charge of an abandoned starship? She's a DOCTOR for crying out loud! That just seems really stupid! (Here ends the spoilers)

Tim Russ (best known as Tuvok on `Star Trek; Voyager') gives us a fine performance reading, with an impressive ability to use a different but real-sounding voice for each character without having them sound too much alike. The one major problem with him is that his takes on Data and Piccard are very close but just off-sounding enough to remind us we're listening to someone else play their characters each time we hear them.

All in all, despite it's problems and the fact that it's abridged (which I normally hate), I liked this and recommend you give it a shot as your next Star Trek fix. (Plus it's a couple bucks cheaper than the actual book)

Rating:
Summary: Best Star Trek book I have read in a long time!
Review: Star Trek books usually are McDonalds for the mind, they are great while you are in the middle of them, but once it is gone that's it. Every once in a while a book will come out of the fold and grab me. This is one of those books. This story is filled with a disaster of galactic proportions, promising to threaten not only the Federation, but the Romulan Empire as well.
Carol Marcus is kiddnapped, and six months later the Genesis wave begins to tear through an entire sector of the Federation. Leah Brahms is the only survivor on a planet remade by the wave and barely escapes the system's destruction with another person from her science station. On her way to inform the Federation, she runs into an old friend of ours, (no I'm not telling). Eventually running into the Geordi and the crew of the Enterprise E.
The story is well crafted, the suspense keeps building, all the way til the final page....then you have to wait til April to finish the story. But as long as the second book is as good as the first I will be happy to wait.

Rating:
Summary: The Genesis Wave is coming...
Review: The Genesis Wave was introduced in the second Star Trek motion picture "The Wrath of Khan", and it influenced the original crew until the fourth movie. Now it has returned to make lives of the Next Generation crew more thrilling. The Genesis Wave was originally concepted as a device to transform lifeless planets into earthlike ones with a breathable atmosphere and an environment that sustains all human needs. The Wave is triggered by the detonation of the Genesis torpedo which has to be fired from a starship. If you like to know more, I recommend to read this book; there is a chapter providing all necessary technical information concerning the device.

The story of this book has certain epic aspects about it. The terraforming device had been improved to function as a weapon which had been unleashed upon the Federation by an enemy unknown. The Wave had destroyed several worlds before the Enterprise and the entire Starfleet could begin to intervene. Soon Picard discovers that seemingly nothing can stop the destruction from spreading. The only possibility is to find the party which created it, and this is not very easy. Unfortunately they don't have much time to do the impossible: Earth lies in the path of the weapon and will be destroyed within six days.

Vornholf has done a magnificent job creating the story. Some interesting people from the past whose personalities weren't explored properly during their appearance on TV return to the bridge and lend their hand to the efforts made by Starfleet to stop the threat. There are particularly two people that must be mentioned: One of them is Dr. Leah Brahms, the constructer of the former Enterprise and the woman whom Geordie La Forge loves without her knowing his feelings; the other person is the Klingon Maltz who survived the battle against Kirk in the third movie. Since he was captured by the legendary captain, he lost his honor and had to struggle to survive in the unforgiving Klingon society. Now he is eager to take revenge on the Genesis Device which, he presumes, is responsible for his misery.

Although Vornholt had good intentions with this book, he hasn't been able to make the best of it. He concentrates too much on the Enterprise which is stupid because the entire situation can be considered a global crisis in which everybody is somehow involved. It would have been nice how Starfleet Command and the Federation President react to this threat. In this book, I would have appreciated the "outer" view. The same mistake was made with the Dominion War in DS9: There you often got the feeling that Admiral Ross was the only person responsible for the affairs of war, and that simply wasn't realistic. Furthermore Vornholt can't desribe tragical events. Though several worlds were destroyed under the reader's eyes and a few million people died in the process, the reader didn't really care. A real pity! I don't know exactly what went wrong. Additionally the majority of characterisations was really miserable.

At the end I must say that this book has a lot of values (potential) that are hidden, though. I hope Vorhnolt will uncover them in the continuation which is due to appear in April 2001.