Rating: Summary: Only for the very technical Review: If this book were some technical science book, it would be pretty good. It introduces many interesting theories. But as a science-fiction novel, it is HORRIBLE!!! There is absolutely no character development at all, and the characters that we do know (basically the Enterprise crew), they are written like they are someone else. The authors just mention people here and there for the convenience of the story. They also mislead you in the synopsis by mentioning the Borg, when the Borg have nothing to do with the story. In fact, I got this book thinking that I would come upon some great revelation about the Star Trek universe...instead I have become more confused. What worse about this book (but I guess good from a marketing point of view) is that the book does not end...leaving room for a sequel. This really isn't a book, there is no beginning, no climax, and especially no end. No questions were answered. All you get is a bunch of technical information, which is not bad if that is what you were expecting. So if you like that kind of stuff... then this book is not half bad. But if you don't, definitely don't get this book.
Rating: Summary: OK, but dull. Review: If you like that kind of technical/ factual Star Trek then this book won't disappoint. It has a really good concept - did the Borg really create the Dyson Sphere? - and is well written. But any one who likes lots of action and excitement in their ST books, then my advice is: do not buy this book! Maybe its just me, but I thought this book had too much scientific stuff and too little going on. The characters were the only thing going for a book that was way too short (it had less than 200 pages!). The book had two very talented writers but still reads like it was written in a rush to finish before a deadline. If you read it you'll probably end up really confused, as half of the crew's decisions don't seem to make any sense at all. It's the kind of book that gets read once and then never again. I give it two stars - one for being a Star Trek book and the other for good descriptive/factual writing.
Rating: Summary: You Are All Diseased! Review: Maybe I should have titled this review "Butchered by a Maniac" but in spite of what Pocket books did to it, it is still one of the few Trek novels in recent years to treat the readers as if they have some intelligence, and to rise to the original vision Gene R. Most of the others completely lack Dyson's sense of wonder and mystery. Like a couple of other readers, I too had a chance to read the original version of this book, the version actually approved for publication by Paramont, at the Ryetown SF convention, a couple of weeks before it came out on the stands. Somewhere between Pellegrino's reading and publication, some editor at Pocket, probably in an effort to bring Dyson Sphere down to the standard of mediocrity to which all Trek novels must aspire these days, stripped out the book's central theme: the breakaway of Captain Jean-Luc Picard from the Federation's prime directive, as surely as he had broken away from the Borg collective. Threads of this theme were - almost schitzophrenically, left intact: Picards statement: "To hell with our orders," when the Federation, evilly, insists that he abide by the rules and let billions - perhaps trillions, die. Picard still interprets his orders "creatively", and the Horta still ultimately break away from the federation completely, and in disgust. If these parts of the story were left intact, why not the whole story of Picard's personal anguish? Why were some of the most amazing descriptions of that space ship built out of living animals removed? That scene put chills through me when I heard it read at the conference! Why was almost everything that made you really care about these characters removed? Still - I guess Pellehrino and Zebrowski get the last laugh. The Star Trek butchers seem never to have noticed that all the Horta were named after Babylon 5 characters!
Rating: Summary: Childish. Review: More hard science than we're used to in Star Trek novels, which is fine. And these guys seem to know their science. BUT. The book is poorly written, the characters are cardboard cut-outs, the plot is thin, the philosophy is weak, and the ending is trite.
Rating: Summary: Intriguing science, mediocre fiction Review: No doubt about it...this is the only star trek book I've read where I've needed to actually think more than usual. If you're looking for the action, humor, and suspense that many of the other books have, go get another novel because you won't find any of that in here. I'm very surprised that nobody in any of the reviews I've read so far mentioned the Afterword section of this book, which is an intriguing explanation of the science needed to actually build spaceships that can get close to warp speed (specifically, 92 percent of lightspeed). Pellegrino does a very good job of addressing many of the design technicalities in layman's terms as to why space travel might actually BE possible based on Gene Roddenberry's original vision of the Wagon Train in space. If you find the science of space travel intriguing, this book does a very good job of tying those concepts into a star trek scenario. If you're out for entertainment, look elsewhere. Definitely more for the scientific minded than the sci-fi minded.
Rating: Summary: No plot, no character development, no story. Disappointing. Review: No plot, no character development, no story, no nothin. The authors obviously know their science, as displayed in the long, technical and largely irrelevant suffix to the book, but even the scenes of great destruction aren't that vividly described. (See Greg Bear's "Eon" for that!) Avoid this book.
Rating: Summary: Absolutely the WORST book I've ever read Review: Not only will I NOT read any more books by those 2 authors but I won't read anymore StarTrek books because they need to learn to check these books out before they release them
Rating: Summary: Forget It! Review: Someone at Pocket Books must have owed these authors a favor. I can think of many writing hopefuls that could have done a better job on this book. I believe someone had a deadline crunch and it had to go to press. This book stands out as the most dissapointing ever. If these authors want a sequel; edit the work, or hire a third writer to make the story readable. It's too bad an editor let this get past his desk. This one could have been great. It should be developed into a giant novel series of at least three books. These authors are capable of better work. This is where the editor should have done their job.
Rating: Summary: ST-TNG: Dyson Sphere Review: Star Trek-The Next Generation: Dyson Sphere written by Charles Pellegrino and George Zebrowski is a good adveture story but has a few leaps in logic. When I read this story about a Dyson Sphere... for those of you who don't know what a Dyson Sphere is it's a Ringworld, which is only a ribbon cut out of the equator of a sphere. It gets it's name from Freeman Dyson who first came up with the idea and effectively uses all of the energy from it's central star. There are Type I, II, and III versions where a Type III is a total sphere and incorporates a huge land mass, approximately two hundred million kilometers across, with a surface area that would exceed that of a quarter-billion worlds. I know that this sounds like a farfetched idea, but it could be plausible, but I wonder about the mass of the sphere affecting the mass of the sun which is at the central core. Enough of this posturing, this iss a story about one of the most astounding discoveries in the Federation. If I'm not mistaken Montgomery Scott crash landed on it and was later found caught up in a transporter loop. This book seems to have bits and pieces cut out of the story as there are leaps in logic, but the hardcore Trekker will over look some of these discretions, but it seems irritating. I liked the story as a neutron star approaches on a collision course and Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the U.S.S. Enterprise crew are there to save the Dyson Sphere and the many sentient species from total destruction. The only reason I gave this book a 3 star rating was because I felt that there were missing parts that needed to be present to make a better continuity otherwise the story was excellent and the ending is something to behold.
Rating: Summary: This book was absolutely horrid Review: The lack of action, or a relatively forward-moving plot aside, this book made out the much heralded crew of the Enterprise to be no more than cardboard cutouts, one-dimensional versions of the characters meticulously developed during the show's run. The way they are brought off is an insult to every writer (script and book-wise)who has ever added a bit more realism to the Next Generation characters. It seems to be written simply as an engine to promote the authors' ideas about a fictitious object, with little regard for the work that has come before them, and where the work could lead. I thought the portrayal of the Horta was interesting, but highly unlikely given the time frame (100 years) in which they were to have supposedly gained all this intelligence. My only reason for even finishing the book was that I blew nearly 6.00 on it, after tax. What a waste. Simply awful.
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