Rating: 
Summary: Uneven blend of stories
Review: An interesting combination of two different but related stories. The all consuming nature of prejudice and xenophobia is cleverly depicted in the "plague story" - 5/5, but the story about the consequences of breaking the prime directive was disappointing and predictable. The Villains were too unrepentently evil to be taken seriously. -2/5.
Rating: 
Summary: Predictable Plots, Bad Charachterization, inconsistant
Review: Death of Princes is two stories, both rather mediocre on thier own, and even more mediocre mixed together. When two stories are together as in this book, it's nice to at least have the book edited in an every-other-chapter format, unfourtunatly, there is no telling where the book will flip from one story to the next.There are also several inconsistancies. In the begining of the book, a refrence is made to one planet, and the fact that the low gravity and *thick* atmosphere make it easier for the bird decended inhabitants to fly. However, when an away team beams down, refrence is made to the uncomfortable moment in adjusting to the *thin* atmosphere, as if one were stepping out onto a mountaintop. In order to move the plot along, the author convieniently forgets about technology avalible, such as transporters and communicators, at key moments. Technical plausibility consistant with the show and technology does not exist in this book. As others have noted, Dianna Troi is not Dianna Troi at all....I'm not sure who took her body over, but she speaks and acts totally unlike herself, as do many of the charachters. Riker and Barclay even *gloat* at the evil bad guys towards the end of the book. In both stories the 'bad guys' are just too illogical, or too evil to be belivable.
There are far better books out there in the TNG series to read.
Rating:
Summary: Predictable Plots, Bad Charachterization, inconsistant
Review: Death of Princes is two stories, both rather mediocre on thier own, and even more mediocre mixed together. When two stories are together as in this book, it's nice to at least have the book edited in an every-other-chapter format, unfourtunatly, there is no telling where the book will flip from one story to the next. There are also several inconsistancies. In the begining of the book, a refrence is made to one planet, and the fact that the low gravity and *thick* atmosphere make it easier for the bird decended inhabitants to fly. However, when an away team beams down, refrence is made to the uncomfortable moment in adjusting to the *thin* atmosphere, as if one were stepping out onto a mountaintop. In order to move the plot along, the author convieniently forgets about technology avalible, such as transporters and communicators, at key moments. Technical plausibility consistant with the show and technology does not exist in this book. As others have noted, Dianna Troi is not Dianna Troi at all....I'm not sure who took her body over, but she speaks and acts totally unlike herself, as do many of the charachters. Riker and Barclay even *gloat* at the evil bad guys towards the end of the book. In both stories the 'bad guys' are just too illogical, or too evil to be belivable.
There are far better books out there in the TNG series to read.
Rating: 
Summary: The best ST:NG book I've read in a long time.
Review: For the most part I found this book to be very interesting and exciting (especially the assassination story). There were however two things that didn't make sense to me - 1. I couldn't accept Deanna as some kind of undercover agent (has she ever done anything like that in the series or movies?) 2. Why didn't Riker and the others get sub-cutaneous locators so that they could have been beamed off of Grell's island? It might have presented a problem if they were caught and the locators discovered, but the risk of being caught was greater if they had to carry Maria Wallace.
Rating:
Summary: The best ST:NG book I've read in a long time.
Review: For the most part I found this book to be very interesting and exciting (especially the assassination story). There were however two things that didn't make sense to me - 1. I couldn't accept Deanna as some kind of undercover agent (has she ever done anything like that in the series or movies?) 2. Why didn't Riker and the others get sub-cutaneous locators so that they could have been beamed off of Grell's island? It might have presented a problem if they were caught and the locators discovered, but the risk of being caught was greater if they had to carry Maria Wallace.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: I enjoyed both the stories; they were both interesting and never got boring. The two separate stories didn't bother me; the only exception was near the book's end, where one planet's name is used when the other should be.
Rating:
Summary: Good stories, POOR characterizations, THIN follow-though
Review: I feel kind of funny giving this a "bad" review seeing how so many others loved the book. But... I love Star Trek. Big fan. These two stories were wonderful, as the other reviewers pointed out. Yet, the author, sadly, could NOT capture the characters at all. Mr. Peel had Picard worrying about silly things he'd never worry about regarding his relationships with his crew. All the characters, exept perhaps for Beverly, said things completely out of character--almost charactures of themselves. The feministish comments by Deanna and her cohort were thin and ... cliche. In fact, there was a lot of cliched dialog in this novel. A lot like a really bad first season episode. In all other books I've read with Deanna having a big part in the story along with Riker, she's always known when he's in trouble, instead, Mr. Peel has her coming off a (perfectly flawless... no conflict at all) mission and dialing up chocolate when Riker was in trouble. Even if the author could have convinced me that the characters wouldn't worry about Riker and his party, I still was unable to believe Deanna, even without her Imzadi connection to Riker, would so flippantly not worry about Riker being on a dangerous mission--especially since Barclay was along for the ride. The fact that Deanna's "powers" played so little part in the novel may have tickled the editor to no end, but it's NOT Deanna. Mr. Peel's characterization of Deanna, above all was not convincing, no matter how you slice it. The ONLY other author who has written Deanna even more poorly was Peter David in _Q-In-Law_. Another thing, as I breifly noted, these missions went off too easily and were solved too easily. In the hands of a more skilled author this could have been a perfect duology. The extra space would have given the author more time to fleshout the story and bring on more conflict. There was little conflict--everything fell too neatly together like a poorly written episode. The villans were supremely one dimensional. The feminist statment being made by the author was thin and one dimensional. The stories were really good--they had big potenial. None of that "Data saves the Universe" ... nor was there much hint of the diplomatic storyline that became so awefully popular with Simon & Schuster publishers a few years ago. You know the one, Picard and the crew are sent in to solve a dipomatic stalemate and everyone gets captured. SNORE. I must say, I might have been spoiled lately, reading incredible Star Trek novels by more than competent authors who know the Star Trek universe like JRR Tolkien knew Middle Earth. This may have made this particular novel seem worse than it is to me. But, sad to say, even _The Last Stand_ stands head and shoulders above this thin novel. All in all, I'm afraid, it could have been so much better in the hands of someone more skilled and knowelgeable in ST. A good diversion, but little else. FYI: These are some of the best novels I've read recently--ST:NG Maximum Warp duology is superior, as is the ST:DS9 trilogy Millenium (There was no "Dallas-last-season's-only-a-dream ending" as one might believe with the type of plot line involved, and I was heartily impressed by that and many other finer points.) I have also become hooked on the DS9 "after the finale" books, that so far, have been written by some superb authors--including the Bashir Section 31 novel.
Rating:
Summary: Good stories, POOR characterizations, THIN follow-though
Review: I feel kind of funny giving this a "bad" review seeing how so many others loved the book. But... I love Star Trek. Big fan. These two stories were wonderful, as the other reviewers pointed out. Yet, the author, sadly, could NOT capture the characters at all. Mr. Peel had Picard worrying about silly things he'd never worry about regarding his relationships with his crew. All the characters, exept perhaps for Beverly, said things completely out of character--almost charactures of themselves. The feministish comments by Deanna and her cohort were thin and ... cliche. In fact, there was a lot of cliched dialog in this novel. A lot like a really bad first season episode. In all other books I've read with Deanna having a big part in the story along with Riker, she's always known when he's in trouble, instead, Mr. Peel has her coming off a (perfectly flawless... no conflict at all) mission and dialing up chocolate when Riker was in trouble. Even if the author could have convinced me that the characters wouldn't worry about Riker and his party, I still was unable to believe Deanna, even without her Imzadi connection to Riker, would so flippantly not worry about Riker being on a dangerous mission--especially since Barclay was along for the ride. The fact that Deanna's "powers" played so little part in the novel may have tickled the editor to no end, but it's NOT Deanna. Mr. Peel's characterization of Deanna, above all was not convincing, no matter how you slice it. The ONLY other author who has written Deanna even more poorly was Peter David in _Q-In-Law_. Another thing, as I breifly noted, these missions went off too easily and were solved too easily. In the hands of a more skilled author this could have been a perfect duology. The extra space would have given the author more time to fleshout the story and bring on more conflict. There was little conflict--everything fell too neatly together like a poorly written episode. The villans were supremely one dimensional. The feminist statment being made by the author was thin and one dimensional. The stories were really good--they had big potenial. None of that "Data saves the Universe" ... nor was there much hint of the diplomatic storyline that became so awefully popular with Simon & Schuster publishers a few years ago. You know the one, Picard and the crew are sent in to solve a dipomatic stalemate and everyone gets captured. SNORE. I must say, I might have been spoiled lately, reading incredible Star Trek novels by more than competent authors who know the Star Trek universe like JRR Tolkien knew Middle Earth. This may have made this particular novel seem worse than it is to me. But, sad to say, even _The Last Stand_ stands head and shoulders above this thin novel. All in all, I'm afraid, it could have been so much better in the hands of someone more skilled and knowelgeable in ST. A good diversion, but little else. FYI: These are some of the best novels I've read recently--ST:NG Maximum Warp duology is superior, as is the ST:DS9 trilogy Millenium (There was no "Dallas-last-season's-only-a-dream ending" as one might believe with the type of plot line involved, and I was heartily impressed by that and many other finer points.) I have also become hooked on the DS9 "after the finale" books, that so far, have been written by some superb authors--including the Bashir Section 31 novel.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent book!
Review: I really like this book. The two stories were balanced really well, and I enjoyed the crime/mystery scenario surrounding the plague storyline. Buy it ... if you like Star Trek books with lots of character interaction, dealing with alien races and a story line that keeps you guessing. Don't buy it ... if you like lots of action, space battles and things getting blown up.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book!
Review: I really like this book. The two stories were well told and balanced each other well. I especially like the element of mystery that was added to each story, which kept me hooked and I couldn't put the book down. I like the way this book keeps you guessing right until the end. Of the two stories, I think the plague scenario was the better, and although I liked the 'Iomides' one, I found it a little too predictable. However, I found that both stories were done realistically, and you could almost see Picard and Riker trying to cope with their seperate missions. I would recommend this book to all other Trekkies, and anyone else who likes that kind of story. A really good book.
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