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.
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.
Rating: 
Summary: Au Contraire
Review: There is one interesting thing about this book: all the good stuff happens in the last ten pages, so now I have to debate whether I want to continue or not.
Where I stand: this is not my first ST:TNG book. It's my fifth, and I am also not a complete trekkie. I like the series enough, and I love the books.
Mr. Vornholt, unfortunately, writes a book that is poorly written. The characters are individual enough, but their reactions are all flat.
*spoiler*
For example, there is a scene in which a klingon finds out how to survive the wave. His reaction: oh really? then he changes the subject.
*end spoiler*
Sorry, but if I learned that information, I'd go berserk and try to talk about the issues, not change subjects.
Mr. Vornholt infuses the book with "Yes, Sir" everywhere. I couldn't stand it! Not to sound narrow, but this is one little pet-peeve of mine. In the series, they never said Yes, Sir as often as this, and if it's written, I doubt it's written with a capital S every time!!! It was one thing that completely annoyed me. Yes, Sir. Like two sentences trying to start at the same time.
The book is slow and Chapter 14 could have been condensed, truncated, anything. I forced myself to read it so I could say I read the book entirely.
Needless to say, I was sorely disappointed and will not be continuing the series. And if no one believes me (this is *not* a fast-paced thriller like everyone claims), take a good look at the summary on the 1st edition hardcover: Book 1 of two books.
Mr. Vornholt is up to four books now. The man knows how to take your money and give you nothing.
In praise: while many of the NG characters do not act as they would in a Peter David book, the twists are actually pretty fun.
To conclude: These twists occur in the last ten pages of the book. Good luck.
Rating:
Summary: It could have been so much better...
Review: This covers the first two parts of Mr. Vornholt's Genesis Wave trilogy. I'm not going to talk about the implausibility of waves moving at greater than lightspeed. I'm not going to talk about the number of decks on the Defiant or the location of its bridge or its crew complement. But am I the only one who noticed that Maltz's nightmarish experiences with the Genesis Wave could NEVER have happened?? According to "The Wrath of Khan", Khan detonated the only Genesis device in existence, creating the Genesis planet but leaving no working models behind. So Maltz, who didn't come along until "The Search for Spock", could not possibly have had personal experience of the Genesis Effect--he saw only the report the Klingon spy Valkris transmitted to Kruge (and which showed the Effect as red, not green, by the way), and the Genesis planet's self-destruction, which involved nothing like the original wave. This, of course, makes Maltz's blood quest to destroy the creator of the Genesis Device, Dr. Carol Marcus, a plot contrivance of global proportions. That massive quibble out of the way, I found much of both books dragged--and considering how fast the Wave was moving through space, that was an unpleasant surprise. Also, the events at which Book One ended, the "To be continued" point chosen, seemed more awkward than suspensful. It truly felt like a single good story padded to make two books. And while most of the non-TNG characters were believable and well-rounded, Picard and Co. came off much less so. (For example, unlucky-at-love Geordi is getting a little old....) I've enjoyed most of Mr. Vornholt's other TNG novels...I wish these two could have earned the same comment. If I decide to buy Book Three, it'll be the $7 paperback off a used-book rack, not the triple-that-price hardcover.
Rating: 
Summary: Star Trek The Next Generaion The Genises Wave
Review: This was one of the best star trek books I ever read! John vornholt is a realy good author. I would recomend this book to everybody. I cant wait untill the second book comes out.
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