Doomsday World (Star Trek The Next Generation, No 12)

Rating:
Summary: The Whole is not Greater than the Sum of its Parts
Review: Doomsday World is by no means a bad Trek novel. Ordinarily, it would be entitled to the standard three stars that decent Trek novels are awarded. Unfortunately, the promise of having some of Trek's greatest novelists (Carter, David, and Friedman) teaming together falls way short of the mark. With few exceptions, each of their individual Trek novels have been several cuts above the norm; that Doomsday World never rises above the average makes the result all the more disappointing.

There are some good moments, including Worf saving the day with a barrage of phaser fire (then griping that if he'd been allowed to blast away when he'd wanted to they could have avoided a host of problems) and an amusing, if out of place, Monty Python reference ("What's the average air speed of an unladen swallow?" Geordi asks a bartender).

If you are going to read this one, do it because it's a Trek novel, not because of who the authors are . . . .

Rating:
Summary: The Whole is not Greater than the Sum of its Parts
Review: Doomsday World is by no means a bad Trek novel. Ordinarily, it would be entitled to the standard three stars that decent Trek novels are awarded. Unfortunately, the promise of having some of Trek's greatest novelists (Carter, David, and Friedman) teaming together falls way short of the mark. With few exceptions, each of their individual Trek novels have been several cuts above the norm; that Doomsday World never rises above the average makes the result all the more disappointing.

There are some good moments, including Worf saving the day with a barrage of phaser fire (then griping that if he'd been allowed to blast away when he'd wanted to they could have avoided a host of problems) and an amusing, if out of place, Monty Python reference ("What's the average air speed of an unladen swallow?" Geordi asks a bartender).

If you are going to read this one, do it because it's a Trek novel, not because of who the authors are . . . .

Rating:
Summary: Needed to be cooked longer and stirred more...
Review: I had great hopes for this book when I saw the list of authors who had worked on it. Unfortunately, it may be that too many chefs spoiled a stew that needed to be cooked longer and stirred more.

The authors reveal in the forward that the story was prepared piecemeal and then put together and edited - sort of an assembly line technique of writing. While promising in theory, in practice this process has its problems. The story doesn't blend and it can be confusing. It is possible to detect the very different writing styles of the authors from one section to the next and it creates a sense of disjointedness. Adding to this is the occassional awkward transition from one scene to the next - from one author to the next. For example, the Enterprise is in route to the planet and the next time it is mentioned it is already in orbit and fighting a battle. When did the Enterprise arrive?

While each one of these authors is a craftsman in their own right, together their different styles tend to clash (like listening to Pavarotti and Clapton at the same time). More editing may have produced a harmony but as it stands I think I prefer the individual craftsman's effort over mass-production.

On the upside, the plot is pretty good if somewhat predictable and it can be somewhat humorous at times. The concept of the "Doomsday World" apparatus and how it worked was inspired.

"Doomsday World" is a marked contrast to the the outstanding collaborative effort "The Disinherited" - an original series entry written by Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman and Robert Geenberger.

Maybe it was Carmen?

Rating:
Summary: And then they were four
Review: Other reviews have focused on the fact that it took four writer to write this book. So what? It's no giant novel, but it's still a goo story with interesting bit players. The planet's many secrets have fun conclusions, and the characters are well written. I would expect this one would have made a better episode than novel, so try to imagine the visuals. I, for one, would like to see the dueling ambassadors again.

Rating:
Summary: Not as bad as I expected;
Review: This book was written by Carmen Carter, Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman, and Robert Greenberger in concert. I expected a book written by committee to be sincerely bad. The four authors in question are all good enough to rescue this book from that fate, but almost any book by any one of them is better than this one.

Frankly, I thought that the concept was weak; I've read and enjoyed other "shared world" books, notably the "Thieves' World" series and the "Wild Cards" series, but in this case, ALL writing in the Star Trek universe already has all the advantages of such a concept, and I think that, left to themselves, we'd probably have gotten a novel at least as good as this one from EACH of these writers in the time it took us to get this one from the four of them.

The one possible reason for writing a novel this way is that it is potentially more fun for the authors than writing solo. I can see no other reason for the concept. Hopefully, having gotten this out of their systems, they'll go back to doing what they do best: writing solo.

Rating:
Summary: Carmen, Peter, Michael, and Robert spawn a superweapon.
Review: This time it takes for authors to comprise a story about the Enterprise versus an ancient superweapon.

I have read this one (or one very much like it) before. Be warned of deja-vu beams.

Rating:
Summary: STNG #12 - Doomsday World - This one could've been better!
Review: What do you get when you have a Star Trek The Next Generation novel written by the likes of Carmen Carter, Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman and Robert Greenberger? What I and everybody else who reads Star Trek novels were expecting was an outstanding novel that is exciting, enlightening, highly thought provoking and just plain fun to read. Unfortunately, while this novel is well worth reading, it doesn't quite live up to the expectations one might place on it given the caliber of the authors involved. After years of reading Star Trek novels, I believe I can definitely discern who wrote at least a couple of the parts. In "Doomsday World" we as Star Trek readers have the precursor to many of the outstanding duology's, trilogies and mini series that have been written since.

The premise:

A long dead race known as the Ariantu built an artificial world named Kirlos. That planet is now home to many different Federation and K'vin Hegemony races that have lived together peacefully for many years. Kirlos is also home to many different archaeological treasures and Captain Picard and the Enterprise have been sent to help uncover them. Once there, Captain Picard assigns Data, Worf and Geordi to the away team but upon arrival they soon find themselves cut off from the Enterprise and they're now the prime suspects in several terrorists' attacks. What follows from there is an interesting and intriguing plot that if it were written by any one of these fine authors independently, would've been an exceptional story, however, with the many "hands in the cooking pot," it comes off as somewhat disjointed.

Despite some of the problems with this particular novel, I would still definitely recommend it as good Star Trek reading for the casual or die hard fan alike. {ssintrepid}

Rating:
Summary: STNG #12 - Doomsday World - This one could've been better!
Review: What do you get when you have a Star Trek The Next Generation novel written by the likes of Carmen Carter, Peter David, Michael Jan Friedman and Robert Greenberger? What I and everybody else who reads Star Trek novels were expecting was an outstanding novel that is exciting, enlightening, highly thought provoking and just plain fun to read. Unfortunately, while this novel is well worth reading, it doesn't quite live up to the expectations one might place on it given the caliber of the authors involved. After years of reading Star Trek novels, I believe I can definitely discern who wrote at least a couple of the parts. In "Doomsday World" we as Star Trek readers have the precursor to many of the outstanding duology's, trilogies and mini series that have been written since.

The premise:

A long dead race known as the Ariantu built an artificial world named Kirlos. That planet is now home to many different Federation and K'vin Hegemony races that have lived together peacefully for many years. Kirlos is also home to many different archaeological treasures and Captain Picard and the Enterprise have been sent to help uncover them. Once there, Captain Picard assigns Data, Worf and Geordi to the away team but upon arrival they soon find themselves cut off from the Enterprise and they're now the prime suspects in several terrorists' attacks. What follows from there is an interesting and intriguing plot that if it were written by any one of these fine authors independently, would've been an exceptional story, however, with the many "hands in the cooking pot," it comes off as somewhat disjointed.

Despite some of the problems with this particular novel, I would still definitely recommend it as good Star Trek reading for the casual or die hard fan alike. {ssintrepid}

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyable. But proof too many cooks spoil the broth.
Review: With four of the top Star Trek writers combining on one book, I expected a GREAT book. I didn't get it. It seems that like in team sports, having the biggest names doesn't necessarily guarantee the best results. Chemistry is important, and it is missing here. Not that the book is terrible mind you. In parts, it is quite good. It's just that if you have never read a book by these authors before, there are many others that are far superior to this one. "The Rift" and "The Captain's Daughter", written by David and based on the original crew, "Imzadai", "Imzadi II", "Q-In-Law", "Q-Squared", "A Rock And A Hard Place" and "Vendetta", written by David and based on the Next Generation Crew; and "The Siege" by David and "Saratoga" by Michael Jan Friedman and based on the Deep Space Nine crew are all superior to this book.