The Laertian Gamble (Star Trek Deep Space Nine, No 12)

Rating:
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.

Rating:
Summary: Words alone cannot describe my hatred for this book
Review: This is a truly hateful book, mixing complete ignorance of the subject with sub-standard comedy. Ripping ideas from numerous other books (Dax gets into an ornithopter at one point!) and with pointless asides ("I have a Doubler!" "You are crafty!" Yes? It's never mentioned again)

Rating:
Summary: Laertes, the new planet, was exactly like Earth?!?
Review: This story about DS9 was really fake. I think Julian and Quark were not themselves. There were so many typos. The Gama Quadrent's new species-the Laertians, are exactly like humans!? Don't read this book, it was extremely boring and fake.