Rating: 
Summary: Maybe knocking off Captain Calhoun...
Review: ...was what this scenario needed. I've never been entirely happy with the Excalibur series--maybe all the books being by the same author made it creatively inbred or something. But now with the Ramboesque Calhoun gone and the ship blown up, we get the chance to see the crewmembers as individuals rather than unmatched parts in a clattering machine--they tended to spend more time interacting badly with one another like kids in the backseat on a long trip than functioning as the "home team" in each previous story. This book brings out the best in some of the "segments" of the now-scattered crew. Like the nerdy McHenry and the stolid Zak Kebron functioning as an interstellar Simon & Simon team, their differences causing bickering but paradoxically making them add up to more than the sum of their parts. We see Soleta, a not always logical Vulcan, as a "daddy's girl" to an almost human extent, while her father steps outside his own Vulcan sternness enough to cherish her as the person she really is rather than what conventions dictate than she "should be". With her warmth, plus her gift for understated irony, this lady has a personality to die for. Our old friend Q even shows up in a cameo role toward the end, and you'll notice in one of his lectures a similarity to what God told Job in the Bible. I'm almost hoping this bunch never gets back together on a single ship again--finally, after several books, the dysfunctional Excalibur shipmates are starting to get interesting.
Rating: 
Summary: Requiem for a Dog
Review: Hey, I like the Excalibur series. I find Peter David's writing style fun, easy to digest, and generally quite creative. But this book is horrible! Peter has lost passion for these characters and now seems obligated, in order to continue to draw paychecks, to put Excalibur's crew in situations not unlike those of the '60's Superman comic book series. Really Peter, the entire silly episode with Kebron and McHenry was hardly of 'Q' quality. Why didn't you just expose them to red kryptonite instead? And though I found Soleta's story mildly interesting, it was drawn out and became predictable - like a 60's comic book. How about the Si Cwan & Kalinda part of the book? Two words - who cares? And you didn't even end their adventure in this book. Two more words - how rude! God help me, but I'm reading book #10 in this series, and it's even worse! In it Peter takes an easy road by just rehashing and trashing old Star Trek characters and ideas. I'm sorry folks, but book #10 will be where I quit reading about Excalibur and anything "creative" by Peter David. Pocket Books...whatever you're paying Mr. David, it's much too much!
Rating: 
Summary: New Frontier Spin-offs, Part 1
Review: I always liked Peter David's New Frontier books... It was so at least until I began reading his latest creation, the trilogy "Excalibur". I think I speak on behalf of many readers when I say this new book titled "Requiem" is a major disappointment. Let me show you where my opinion comes from. The situation at the beginning of the book can't be more dramatic: USS Excalibur is destroyed; the captain is presumed dead; the surviving crew must find new ways of living. So far so good. Former collegues from the ship meet at a bar and discuss the events of the last month. The first annoyance of this book is the fact that the author uses all his skills to conceal the reasons for the catastrophe aboard Excalibur, an extremely stupid way to build up suspense for the following books. After dinner everybody goes his or her own way. "Requiem" tells the stories of the Vulcan science officer Soleta, helmsofficer McHenry, security chief Kebron and Ambassador Si Cwan and his sister. All those plots are completely independant from each other and take place in different regions of space. All in all only Soleta's voyage could convince me and saved this book one additional star. This storyline deals in an intensive way with Soleta's heritage as half-Vulcan and half-Romulan and her being the product of sexual abuse of her Vulcan mother by a brutal Romulan spy. Questions concerning Soleta's identity are really intriguing and make us think about our own background and our place in the world. I particularly like remembering those scenes where the heroine confronts her fears concerning her Romulan genes and their negative effects on her personality. All other of those "spin-off" plots are rather bad. The McHenry/Kebron storyline is a nice character study which turns out to be quite senseless at the end. The only aspect the reader keeps in mind is the mystery around McHenry's true personality. He is probably more than he seems... The story about Si Cwan is, from my point of view, simply a means to fill some pages. Maybe it will become important in the coming books, although I rather doubt it. This Si Cwan stuff presented a mistake to me David makes frequently: he introduces situations and people without giving them any background. Since the reader doesn't know anything about them, he doesn't care, and that makes a book boring. "Requiem" is a rather bad book. I hope the continuation ("Renaissance") will be better. If you should feel the temptation to know my opinion about "Renaissance", please feel welcome to read my next review.
Rating: 
Summary: More Like A Comic Book
Review: I am a big fan of Peter David. He's one of the best Trek writers because of his wide knowledge of the Trek universe and love for the characters that inhabit it. His "New Frontier" series started with a big bang, interesting plots and characters spiced up with quirky humor and inside jokes. But unfortunately with each new book that careful balance starts to disappear. No substance, just comic-book style gimmicks. This is highly evident in his latest book "Requiem". The Romulan plot with Lt. Soleta was great, the one saving feature of the book. But everything else detracts. Anything dealing with Si Cwan might as well have been a complete blur. While an intriguing X-Files tribute totally collapsed with a tired, old cameo and an incredible revelation about Lt. McHenry that just makes you roll your eyes.
Rating:
Summary: More Like A Comic Book
Review: I am a big fan of Peter David. He's one of the best Trek writers because of his wide knowledge of the Trek universe and love for the characters that inhabit it. His "New Frontier" series started with a big bang, interesting plots and characters spiced up with quirky humor and inside jokes. But unfortunately with each new book that careful balance starts to disappear. No substance, just comic-book style gimmicks. This is highly evident in his latest book "Requiem". The Romulan plot with Lt. Soleta was great, the one saving feature of the book. But everything else detracts. Anything dealing with Si Cwan might as well have been a complete blur. While an intriguing X-Files tribute totally collapsed with a tired, old cameo and an incredible revelation about Lt. McHenry that just makes you roll your eyes.
Rating:
Summary: Good, with a few quibbles...
Review: I waffled a bit over whether to give this one 3 or 4 stars. I finally went with 4 on the strength of the Soleta plot. To start at the beginning, Peter David created a series called "New Frontier." An alien captain, three characters who were cameo's on The Next Generation, and the rest of the crew made up from his fertile imagination. They are put aboard the USS Excalibur, and sent into Thallonian space. In book eight, the last line of the story takes us, with no explanation, to "five minutes before the Excalibur blew up." Ack. The first foible of this book is the very manipulative way we are kept out of the loop as to what happened to the USS Excalibur, and further, Captain Calhoun specifically. The second foible is that the crew scatters, which is fine, but the B-story of McHenry and Kebron, despite revealing some really interesting and tantalizing tidbits about McHenry, read like a joke. A bad joke. X-Files meets a Circus Act. For all that those two are two major concerns, the plot with Soleta exploring her mixed racial history was just phenomenal. The amount of intruigue that Peter David managed to slide between only about a third of the book was just a treasure to read. If the book had focused entirely on Soleta, I would have been a happy man. Instead, the more awkward bits with Kebron and McHenry had me groaning, and I was tempted to skip passages (but didn't). Still, exploring a crew in their "downtime" is a new side to the Star Trek universe we've not really seen explored often, aside from the occasional Risa episode of DS9 and TNG. This was handled rather well. A must-read for Soleta, but otherwise, just a fair book.
Rating:
Summary: Good, with a few quibbles...
Review: I waffled a bit over whether to give this one 3 or 4 stars. I finally went with 4 on the strength of the Soleta plot. To start at the beginning, Peter David created a series called "New Frontier." An alien captain, three characters who were cameo's on The Next Generation, and the rest of the crew made up from his fertile imagination. They are put aboard the USS Excalibur, and sent into Thallonian space. In book eight, the last line of the story takes us, with no explanation, to "five minutes before the Excalibur blew up." Ack. The first foible of this book is the very manipulative way we are kept out of the loop as to what happened to the USS Excalibur, and further, Captain Calhoun specifically. The second foible is that the crew scatters, which is fine, but the B-story of McHenry and Kebron, despite revealing some really interesting and tantalizing tidbits about McHenry, read like a joke. A bad joke. X-Files meets a Circus Act. For all that those two are two major concerns, the plot with Soleta exploring her mixed racial history was just phenomenal. The amount of intruigue that Peter David managed to slide between only about a third of the book was just a treasure to read. If the book had focused entirely on Soleta, I would have been a happy man. Instead, the more awkward bits with Kebron and McHenry had me groaning, and I was tempted to skip passages (but didn't). Still, exploring a crew in their "downtime" is a new side to the Star Trek universe we've not really seen explored often, aside from the occasional Risa episode of DS9 and TNG. This was handled rather well. A must-read for Soleta, but otherwise, just a fair book.
Rating: 
Summary: At last!!!!!!
Review: I waited and waited and waited to find out if there was ever going to be more books like this. Then out of the blue, when I'd given up hope and left the crew of the Excaliber for gonners....Two new ones jumped right out at me off the shelf and demanded I buy them. Best thing I ever did. Peter David has taken us so many places and done so many things with these characters and I for one was glad that they didn't all perish. Soleta's quest was humourous, but also gut wrenching. Mark and Zak's predicament had me guessing all the way through. As for Si Cwan and his sister....I don't know what to think of their problems. But we all know that everything will turn out well...As long as the ship doesn't blow up again...
Rating:
Summary: THIS BOOK ROCKS.
Review: I've been a Star Trek fan since I was two, and let me tell you if you are too you have to get this book and the other books of this series. In this book Peter David masterfully spins interesting tales about Soleta and her father, Kebron and McHenry's misadventures on an alien world, and Si Cwan and Kalinda's dealing with the death of one of their beloved teachers.In this book we also meet another infamous Star Trek villian, who in a way reveals another mystery about McHenry and his strange abilities. Kudos to Requiem, but I can't wait for Renaissance and Restoration.
Rating:
Summary: Could this be the best Star Trek book series ever?
Review: I've followed the Pocket Books Star Trek publishing program for twenty years since Vonda McIntyre's "The Entropy Effect." Many of its hundreds of books have been pretty good. Some have been great. A lot have been less-than-average. But page-for-page, no one Trek writer has entertained me as much as Peter David, and none of Peter David's Trek books have inspired so much enthusiasm in me as his "Excalibur" novels. Filled with characters (mostly) of his own creation, unfettered by a writer's bible or much of the complicated Trek continuity, these twelve (so far) novels have proven to be my ultimate favorites in Trek books, and the two newest are better than ever. I've mentioned in other Trek book reviews that I heartily applaud any attempt to focus on characters other than "the big three" of each TV series (c'mon, I can't be the only Chekov fan out there!) so the whole concept of the Excalibur books and their non-TV cast crew has been most enjoyable. David takes this concept one step further in "Requiem" and its sequel "Renaissance": after the destruction of the Starship Excalibur and the apparent death of Captain Mackenzie Calhoun, the crew breaks up to follow their own adventures. David deftly mixes three subplots: Soleta searching for her hated father, McHenry and Kebron on a funny "X-Files" type investigation which leads them into conflict with a previously-established Trek character, and Si Cwan and Kalinda search for the murderer of their teacher. Nearly every chapter ends with a decent hook or cliffhanger, showing David could write a compelling TV episode that might at least keep us tuned through the commercials! Why are these among the best Star Trek novels ever? The characterization is, in a mere dozen books, incredible--David takes time and effort to get us inside the heads of his Starfleet crew, to the point where I know much more about most of them than many of the "Voyager" characters. His dialogue is entertaining, brisk, and best of all *fun* to read: David has a keen ear for the way people talk--with sarcasm and humor. The action is fast-paced. And best of all, the characters *grow* and *learn* through the book, throughout the series. Soleta's quest surprises us as much almost as much as it does her, mostly for the reason that I can't think of the last time a Trek character has "grown up" and discovered something so major about themselves since DS9's "In the Pale Moonlight" episode. David's not above throwing in a shocker of characterization once in a while (what *is* the mysterious connection between McHenry and a long-standing Trek nemesis?)--it wouldn't be a Trek novel without surprising revelations. In short, Rick Berman could do worse than to hire Peter David as story editor and consultant for the next Trek series: no one quite brings humanism to "Star Trek" like Peter David.
| 
