Rating: 
Summary: Split down the middle.
Review: I've noticed that most of the reviews for this album are either 5 stars or 1...it seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it thing for most. As for me, I may have a rather unique perspective because I was very much of two minds about it. Since ultimately I chose to purchase and keep it for future re-reading, I rounded my 2.5 rating up to 3 stars (2 and 1 are for items I do not keep). In order to prepare for this review, I found myself keeping a pros-and-cons list so that I could try to accurately report both. I found, though, that on some of the very same points, I would feel one way about it one second and the opposite a moment later!Perhaps the best thing that Do Comets Dream? had going for it was the rich descriptive prose. I do not always get vivid sensory impressions as I read, but in this case I could certainly envision myself in this colorful world. Similarly, the richness of the culture he devised was quite enticing, and I vastly preferred the scenes that delved into the history of Thanet to those involving the Enterprise crew. The reason for the existence of the thanopstru was certainly an engaging tale, as well as a look into the political machinations of Thanet. However, I had mixed feelings about the heavy allusions to Earth culture and languages. On one hand, it was rather fascinating to try to pick them all out, but on the other, I also started to see it as a cheap substitute for inventiveness on the author's part. I would have been even more impressed by his inventing his own mythology rather than a retelling (even such a vivid one) of our own histories. Certain parallels were simply TOO close to be believable. For instance, what are the odds of another world developing root words such as "mnemo-" for memory and "thanop-" for death, which are close to words in ancient Greek holding the *same* meaning? This is where it becomes hard to suspend disbelief. As I alluded to before, the scenes with the Enterprise crew were nowhere near as convincing as the ones involving characters of Somtow's own creation (with the exception of Simon Tarses, whom Somtow was pretty much on his own to describe, anyway). Another problem that I had with this book was the extremely shoddy editing job. I find myself wondering if Somtow was uncertain of what he wanted to name the young Icelandic student who won a tour on the Enterprise for winning an essay contest (Speaking of unrealistic--after the failure of the Enterprise-D, did Starfleet not decide that it was too dangerous to have children on board ship?). This is because I found the following three spellings: "Engvig", "Envig", and even "Envgvig". The fact that neither Somtow nor the editors rectified this glaring inconsistency is truly pathetic. Overall, this book merits only a 2.5, but because it can offer an engaging read at times, I kept it and gave it the 3-star rating.
Rating: 
Summary: Excruciatingly boring, slow and sloppy
Review: If you are a fan of the great ST works of Diane Carey, Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman. John Vornholt or any of a host of others similar in style, then you're going to hate this book. I read a typical ST novel in a weekend, but it took 3 weeks to read this one. Boring.
Rating: 
Summary: The View from the Comet's Tail
Review: It is as much a bane as a boon having to toil in a shared literary universe, especially in one as contrictive as Trek. If you are compelled to toss one of these things off for a quick buck without resort to pseudonym, one solution is to turn the main characters into generic spear-chuckers, investing instead in your guest characters. Another is to devise a culture so distinctive, it takes on the attributes of a character. Here, Somtow has done both. Not surprisingly, those who like their Trek straight and unadulterated may find themselves lost in space with this one. Those, however, who might be inclined to welcome the depiction of a world inspired by Hindu and other Asian cultural underpinnings will be amply rewarded. The funny, and maybe sad, thing here is that this novel could have worked quite well outside of the Trek universe and its often onerous literary restrictions.
Rating: 
Summary: rich and unusual -- a genuinely original star trek novel
Review: Many Star Trek novels deal in cliches or are just some other story remade with ST characters. This one presents a vividly imagined culture, a bit like India or some other exotic easterm country. The normal characters don't appear that much but the invented ones are complex and full of baroque motivations. The average ST novel reader might find the book weird, but it's definitely rewarding!
Rating:
Summary: Is this really a Star Trek story?
Review: My opinion of this book is that the author tried to work in some kind of connection with Star Trek just to get it published. If I wasn't told, and there weren't some Star Trek characters (poorly portrayed) then I wouldn't have known it was ST. It would have been better to develop the story better and publish it on it's own.
Rating:
Summary: Is this really a Star Trek story?
Review: My opinion of this book is that the author tried to work in some kind of connection with Star Trek just to get it published. If I wasn't told, and there weren't some Star Trek characters (poorly portrayed) then I wouldn't have known it was ST. It would have been better to develop the story better and publish it on it's own.
Rating:
Summary: Like all this author's books, it breaks the mold.
Review: People either seem to love this book or hate it. But this is true of all S.P. Somtow's books. I'm suprised to find him writing a Star Trek novel, but like his other works there's plenty of color, spectacle, lyrical writing, unusual imagery, and complex depictions of strange civilizations. I've noticed that when Somtow writes in a "borrowed" universe (like in his hilarious "V" novels and in his "Crow" book) there's often a twinge of irony. I think that a lot of people probably haven't noticed the satirical element in "Comet" ... that's what's escaping them.
Rating:
Summary: ST-TNG: Do Comets Dream
Review: Star Trek - The Next Generation: Do Coments Dream? written by S.P. Somtow is a quick fast paced book that gets right to the point. As the trailer states this book is about a comet that threatens the planet Thanet every five thousand years. Where life begins awew now, as Thanet has achieved space flight and warp capacity they call upon the Federation for help. This is an interesting story. I read it in one afternoon and enjoyed it. As I mentioned, this is a fast paced story. The book is divided into for distinct segments or parts: Part One: The Reluctant Ambassador
Part Two: The Machine that was Mortal
Part Three: The Mortal that was a Michine
Part Four: The Planet that Waited for Death Each of these parts are divided into chapters that have names of the subject of that chapter. This makes the reading fly by and there is interdispersed parts from the planet Thanet's Holy Panvivlion. The character development was very descriptive and you could picture the character in your mind as you read on in the book. The principle Star Trek characters are Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Data and Deanna Troi with some minor characters thrown in for spice, like Simon Tarses which I could see his character come to life in the book. All in all, you'll find the book an easy enjoyable read the action-adventure is not high, but the charater interplay was highly enjoyable making this a good change-of-pace book. The ending is a suprise, so I'm not going to say anything but... interesting. This is a solid 5 star story with real life scenarios making for a very believable story and the character dialog was very descriptive.
Rating: 
Summary: Don't waste your time with this one
Review: The book starts off well for the first 100 pages, as we learn about a xenophobic and highly religious race that wants to die by the means of a comet that arrives every 5000 years. It has a very strict caste system and a bunch of stuff is really messed up, but they are okay with it. The beginning reads much like a real Star Trek episode that you would expect from the 4th season (I got that feeling anyway). However, but the book is seperated into 4 parts, each clearly dealing with a new aspect/transition of the story, but the 3rd part is simply rubbish (Pages 130-200 basically). When I closed in on page 200, I decided this book was really bad. My reasons for not liking the book are not because of the canon/continuity (as some people have stated), but the book is just really poorly written past page 130. This section isn't polished and there is much confusion. The author uses "he thought" and "he said" all the time, never referring to who is saying what. Since everyone in that dragon machine is linked to the past and contains all these new parallel characters with no introductions, it's very mind boggling. I can't get over all the characters' names (which are up to 5 words long) and the actual language itself used in the book. It's as if every strange word begins with a 't' (except for that halluciation drink, that begins with a 'p') and they range from 8-20 letters long. It was very hard to understand what the heck the author was talking about half the time. I think using Data as a conduit for linking the past and the future worlds was never well stated or described and it's hard to build nice mental pictures. Many times people would move from one place to another and no explanation would be given. Other times people would be the mother or brother of someone else, but you'd find this out chapters later. The scenes where Deanna is connected with the boy in the comet are equally confusing. Most of the dialog never makes any sense and it keeps referring to all these proper nouns that have a very specific meaning. The problem is that they are only mentioned once and are never defined so you have no idea what the author is talking about. Then he mentions more specific religious items and figures as if we are supposed to be familiar with all this background material. I find that really hard to believe that anyone could know the background of these twin planets and their religion as well as the author just by reading any of this stuff. You'd have to read it 2 or 3 times unless you are Data himself. I believe this is a very mediocre piece of science fiction. I believe the author just used Star Trek: TNG as a launching pad for his crazy story in the first place. Pages 130-200 are just filled with rubbish. I don't know what the author or Pocket Books was thinking when they put the Star Trek label on this one. It's not even a real Star Trek story anymore... However, I did find it interesting that one advanced race built the comet and these biological machines and are using them to destroy the civilization, building an entire religion around it, but all the fluff and disconnected conversations and explanations talked about nothing. At leat I found the last 65 pages (part 4) was a lot better. The ending was actually pretty cool how everything was fulfilled and how the minor characters actually had a purpose, except for Envig that is - he was a useless character except for a convenient plot device in a few occasions at the beginning of the book. I would advise all to stay very much away from this one. I'm not sure all these 5 star votes are warrented. I too have written books and I know what's it like to have the publisher or friends hype the book. Many of them are also anonymous and that makes me wonder about their validity. This book really isn't worth your money. Try some other TNG or DS9 books instead, like A Stitch in Time, which is a great book.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting story, poorly executed
Review: The execution of the writing is simply bad. The prose has a lyrical quality to it that is off putting and the characters are flat and dull. I really had no sympathy for any of them since they were cardboard cut outs. Familiar Trek characters didn't seem themselves. And were barely focused on. The back cover copy sounded so interesting but the writing let the premise down. I could barely make it through the novel.
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