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Summary: ST: DS-9 The Laertian Gamble
Review: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, The Laertian Gamble written by Robert Sheckley is a Dr. Julian Bashir main character book. As Dr. Bashir gambles at Quark's gaming tables things start to go wrong in the TREK universe. Suns go nova, planets lose their atmosphere and the cause and effect is hard to understand.But, of course, there is a bizarre Laertian science called the Complexity Theory that is connected to Bashir's gambling. As Bashir tries to stop, the Laertian warfleet appears and literally forces Bashir to continue. If that wasn't enough, Major Kira and Dax are on the planet Laertes and must battle their way through chaos and danger making for an intertesting story. The story is quite simple, but the book is complex in that it is written in a choppy-manor. Some readers will find it difficult to read, but don't lose faith keep reading as the story is wonderful if not more to the fantasy side of TREK than actual TREK. This is another story where the principles in the story must correct a wrong, keeping the Federation, if not the whole universe from utter destruction. I found rereading the book makes more sense than just your initial scan of the plot and storylines. The Laertian Complexity Theory is simular to or quite like the Theory of Chaos, but Dax and Kira seem to do well with the problems that they face. I enjoyed the book more the second time I read it... even though the writing style is choppy, the story was good. Remember this is early DS-9 so the characters aren't as fleshed out as they should be. Nor, are their roles and styles of action layed out or defined. All in all, the storyline was well-thoughtout, but the writing could have been written a little better... where was the editor?
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Summary: How bad can a book be?
Review: The answer to this question is very bad. The plot could have turned into a worthwhile story, but the actual writing is terrible and the characterisation is off by a mile. The ending seems to have been stuck in as though the author had run out of ideas. Do NOT read this book!
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Summary: This book is very poorly written. Don't waste your time!
Review: The Laertian Gamble is the story of a beautiful (of course!), mysterious alien woman who arrives at Quark's Place on DS-9 to gamble. When she is barred from the gaming tables because of her moderate telepathic abilities, she enlists the help of Dr. Bashir to gamble as her proxy. He begins to win and nothing, it seems, can stop his streak of luck. The story has some interesting possibilities, but it is so poorly written, I doubt that it was actually even edited by the publisher! There are 73 ridiculously short chapters of about a page and a half each. With lines like, "She sneered at him, her beautiful mouth twisted into an ugly sneer", I honestly believe my 9-year-old could have put together a more coherant and believable story! Please, Mr. Scheckley, listen to your editor
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Summary: Really, really bad
Review: The Laertian Gamble quickly turned out to be the worst book I had ever read. With a stupid storyline and writing so daft you could throw a stick through it, it is not recommended.
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Summary: A truly brilliant book
Review: The more I read this book, the more I love it. Robert Sheckley is a truly brilliant writer. His writing style is extremely enjoyable, and the scenes on the planet Laertes are the most hilarious I've ever read. It's sad to see that some people are too ignorant to appreciate such talented, well-established authors like Robert Sheckley, and Michael Jan Friedman.
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Summary: Michael Jan Friedman could've wrote this, it's that bad!!!
Review: The only Star Trek book that is as low as this one is Vengeance, by Dafydd Ab Hugh. The idea of the story is halfway decent, but Sisko is way too bendable. Why didn't he call in Starfleet, instead of let them bully him around like that????? And Robert Sheckley must be an amataeur author, because these are some of the worst errors I've ever seen. Don't read this.
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Summary: Very good, but some parts i could have skipped
Review: The parts about Kira and Dax were exeptionally good, but the gambling parts got old REAL soon. If you like Julian and Kira and Dax you will like this book. I would recomend it.
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Summary: Bashir on a roll!
Review: The plot is intriguing, but parts of this book drag on. I think that Sheckley did a good job with Kira, Dax, and Bashir characterizations. This book has some pretty funny scenes in it. You will keep reading just to figure out how the author resolves the interesting plot. Altogether a fun read.
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Summary: Bashir on a roll!
Review: The plot is intriguing, but parts of this book drag on. I think that Sheckley did a good job with Kira, Dax, and Bashir characterizations. This book has some pretty funny scenes in it. You will keep reading just to figure out how the author resolves the interesting plot. Altogether a fun read.
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Summary: Good idea - falls flat
Review: This book had a great idea, but fell flat on its face with it. I tried as hard as I could to get into the story, but I just couldn't. The idea of Dr. Bashir being forced to gamble by the Laertians was very funny, and the idea of "the more he wins, the more things go wrong" was cool and intriguing. But the story was packed full of unbelievable - and sometimes stupid - things. One of the things that makes Star Trek so fun is how everything is almost believable - you think, maybe warp drive could be possible, or transporters. And everything in a book should be in line with the rules of the Star Trek universe. But this book absolutely did not care about those rules and was totally unbelievable, and therefore didn't seem like Star Trek at all. The "Complexity Theory" was just a way to explain everything, and it didn't even do that well. An ornithopter - bird shaped flying machine - is an interesting thought, but it fits more in a fantasy story than in Star Trek. Same with the Chaos Machine - they didn't know what they were building and they didn't know what parts they needed, but they just "felt" what they needed and built the machine. That's even crazier when you find that it's Dax building the machine - she wouldn't build anything that way, even if it were possible. Not to mention that the Chaos thing was actually sentient when they were done. And there were more totally weird ideas that would never, ever, happen in Star Trek. Also, the continuity was bad in the book. At first, Marlow is stocky and balding. Next, he is frail and has a "mane of iron-gray hair"! The writing style was juvenile and jumpy, and the characterization was way off - when there was any characterization at all. There was also another terribly annoying thing - the chapter divisions. In a 275 page Star Trek novel, there are usually between 10 and 20 chapters. Well, in The Laertian Gamble - there are 73 chapters! That's around 4 pages per chapter! Instead of each chapter being made of different sections, each section was a chapter! It was absurd and incredibly hard to read. Lastly, the conclusion was terrible. It left almost everything it had started hanging. You didn't find out what happened to anybody, really, and it was very unsatisfactory. Still, if you think the idea is interesting, like I did, try reading it, and try to ignore the bad writing and plot devices in favor of the idea. But definitely, do not put this book on the top of your to-read list.
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