Star Trek: The Next Generation: Maximum Warp: Book One

Rating:
Summary: Not Even Spock
Review: Not even the legendary Mr. Spock can save what amounts to half a book, what amounts to less than half a story. There is nothing wrong with a series of books that all contain complete segments, I have little patience with a story that is abbreviated and for all practical purposes stops in the midst of a final sentence.

This is the first TNG book I have read. It would be unfair to judge anything other than this partial book, and at present I am reading the second and final portion. This book is not only too brief at 203 pages, it is far too ambitious in its attempt to have a variety of storylines, multiple ships, captains, and species all swirling around in too small a space. The book does not have the room to do any of the individual tales and sub-plots justice, and makes a hash of the attempt.

Mr. Spock is one of my favorite characters in Star Trek and science fiction in general. He has an incredibly long history in the various series, and a long term relationship with Captain Picard as well. Fans will recall that it was through Picard's cooperation that Spock's father was able to complete his final ambassadorial assignment, and again through Picard that Spock and his father would come to learn about each other.

The book even drops bits about Admiral Quinn to fill space, brings Deep Space 9, and even Captain Janeway and Voyager in to this far too busy construct. Perhaps the author will in some manner bring this all together in the final book. If he does it will be a remarkable recovery. Based only on this book I would recommend that readers start with other series, specifically, "The Dominion War", as it is so prominently and repeatedly mentioned in this book.

Rating:
Summary: A weak premise leads to an unremarkable story
Review: The first half of the "Maximum Warp" duology is a minor dissapointment.

The story is based around an unoriginal concept about spatial disruptions that suddenly appear out of nowhere, causing ships to go wrecked as energy can't get transformed from one form into another in the disruption field to enable any kind of mechanical function. Curiously (and unexplainedly) enough, the phenomenon doesn't appear to effect any non-mechanical transformation of energy.

This causes strain between the Romulans and the federation, as they both suspect the disruptions as a new and powerfull weapon.

The book highly resembels Dave Galanter and Greg Brodeur's earlier Voyager novel Battle Lines in it's concentration on action instead of plot and characterization, wich ultimately leadst to rendering the book unrealistic.

This can be seen especially in the field of characterization. The characters feel familiar enough, and the duo writes them talentedly, but there are times in the plot that would absolutely require heavy and deep exploration of one or more characters, but don't contain any. And speaking of characters, Spocs inclusion in the story is as unjustified as it can get, as he has absolutely nothing to do and appears to be there only to fill the pages with his presence and comments that any other characters could have expressed. This I call a true waste of potential, wich appears to be the only real theme of the story.

The book succeeds in offering good science and sufficiently interesting original characters, though, and works at least somehow as a baggage of entertainment.

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