Rating: 
Summary: An Exercise in Frustration
Review: The story for this book could've been quite promising--the Enterprise is an accidental victim of a clay-like enemy whose destructive instinct for survival causes Starfleet to opt for the Enterprise's destruction. I will be blunt--the editor more than the author would seem to me to be at fault for this book not working as it might have worked. There are sloppy errors in typing, not to mention Trek lore, to be found here--not the least of which, Data uses contractions on several occasions. A more "Trek-geek" related error finds the story taking place between the episodes "The Game" and "Unification Part I" according to the book's stardate, and yet Data remembers things that happened during the episode where Geordi and Ro are "out of phase" which didn't occur till much later in the 5th season. Okay, geek mode off. I wouldn't have minded that error because it's so ... wel, as I said, Trek-geekish...but Data's lack of contractions is a basic part of his character. Also, some of the frustration is thrown David Bischoff's way as well. He spends pages and pages developing a character who is sure to save the day--I can't say did save it because these frustrations caused me to toss the book aside two-thirds in--which makes for slow going for the overall story...and yet, the news of Starfleet's decision to whack our beloved Enterprise is delivered in a summary paragraph, with no actual dramatization at all! It was almost an afterthought--as if to say "Oh yeah, and they got to the starbase and by the way, the admiral there decided it would be best to blast the Enterprise to smithereens with a photon torpedo spread..." (Not a quote, but it might as well be.) Rarely do I not finish a book, and I gave this one plenty of chances to get better. I've heard the ending is better...but after a while, I just decided no ending would make up for the chore reading this book became for me. I only stopped short of giving it one star because of the fact that the story could've been better-told, and because the idea itself was quite good. <Sigh> Ah well, next Trek novel...?
Rating: 
Summary: Little tiny errors marr this book.
Review: This book is very interesting,to say the least, but that doesn't quite cut it. As you get in to the book, you find yourself thinking more about the climax than what you're reading at the moment.It just gets too murky and boring. The "mud/clay" monster is very cool,I must admit, and this book vaguelly reminds me of a much creepier trek book; J.M. Dillard's "Bloodthirst", aka.in both books, an away team lands on a remote science planet, and finds the most of the rescearch team dead, and ones still alive are not able to talk about what happened for one reason or another, and the crew must find out what they're hiding, or the Federation will be destroyed.
Rating: 
Summary: Not bad; not great.
Review: This is, by and large, a middle-of-the-road "Star Trek: The Next Generation" novel. On the plus side, it is pretty well written, with, mostly, dialogue and characters handled well, and a fairly novel basic idea. It also has an interesting non-regular character who it attempts to give a semi-main role, an eighteen year old daughter of members of the crew who is recovering from autism with some help from Counsellor Troi. On the down side, while that whole sub-plot and character was a fair attempt to bring the subject of autism to our attention, it seemed rather artificial and just tacked on to the real story; it could have been excised without really affecting anything.
Not at all a bad book, but not really as good as it could have been, either.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty good
Review: This novel was quite well done, even though there were small errors here and there. It is interesting to find out how the crew members would feel if they were going to be separated - I like the chapter that is made up of each one's point of view. The rather over-used plot base of "evil aliens taking over" was actually done quite well. I really enjoyed the conclusion. This is a good, solid story.
Rating:
Summary: Pretty good
Review: This novel was quite well done, even though there were small errors here and there. It is interesting to find out how the crew members would feel if they were going to be separated - I like the chapter that is made up of each one's point of view. The rather over-used plot base of "evil aliens taking over" was actually done quite well. I really enjoyed the conclusion. This is a good, solid story.
Rating:
Summary: A QUICK READ
Review: This would have been a good one to put on the TV series. Found a few errors...but overlooked them. The idea of the crew getting separated was appealing. The end of the book reminded me of the final TV episode where Picard joins his crew in a recreational activity. I recommend this to TNG fans...although...I wish Worf was more involved.
Rating:
Summary: STNG #25 Grounded - An interesting premise gone awry!
Review: With "Grounded" the author, David Bischoff came up with an exceptional premise but when it came to the execution of this premise the author's efforts seemingly fall flat. When choosing a Star Trek novel from any of the particular series to read one generally believes that the author "knows" that series and the canon involved in it and if not, the editor will keep them on track. This seemingly did not happen with "Grounded" which, did not entirely detract from the story itself but distracts the average fan of the episode. I do not normally like picking apart a Star Trek novel for the minor inconsistencies with known canon that an author and editor have either forgotten or chosen to ignore; therefore I will only mention these aspects but not go into detail on each and every one of them in this review.The cover art for grounded is actually one of the best covers to date, with the standard pictures of the primary characters for the story and some very good background art. The premise: The Enterprise answers a distress call from a remote science station. The Enterprise herself soon becomes infected with a mysterious alien life form which starts feeding on her and transforming inorganic materials. The great starship begins to disintegrate and Captain Picard is ordered to abandon her in the hopes of not infecting other ships. Captain Picard and crew now find themselves in a race against time as they must find a way of saving the Enterprise before she is lost and the crew is scattered about the fleet to fill other positions. While I wouldn't highly recommend this novel as one of the best stories in Star Trek fiction it is certainly not the worst of them and I would recommend it to complete ones library of Star Trek novels and as a mildly interesting early STNG novel. {ssintrepid}
Rating:
Summary: STNG #25 Grounded - An interesting premise gone awry!
Review: With "Grounded" the author, David Bischoff came up with an exceptional premise but when it came to the execution of this premise the author's efforts seemingly fall flat. When choosing a Star Trek novel from any of the particular series to read one generally believes that the author "knows" that series and the canon involved in it and if not, the editor will keep them on track. This seemingly did not happen with "Grounded" which, did not entirely detract from the story itself but distracts the average fan of the episode. I do not normally like picking apart a Star Trek novel for the minor inconsistencies with known canon that an author and editor have either forgotten or chosen to ignore; therefore I will only mention these aspects but not go into detail on each and every one of them in this review. The cover art for grounded is actually one of the best covers to date, with the standard pictures of the primary characters for the story and some very good background art. The premise: The Enterprise answers a distress call from a remote science station. The Enterprise herself soon becomes infected with a mysterious alien life form which starts feeding on her and transforming inorganic materials. The great starship begins to disintegrate and Captain Picard is ordered to abandon her in the hopes of not infecting other ships. Captain Picard and crew now find themselves in a race against time as they must find a way of saving the Enterprise before she is lost and the crew is scattered about the fleet to fill other positions. While I wouldn't highly recommend this novel as one of the best stories in Star Trek fiction it is certainly not the worst of them and I would recommend it to complete ones library of Star Trek novels and as a mildly interesting early STNG novel. {ssintrepid}
Rating:
Summary: STNG #25 Grounded - An interesting premise gone awry!
Review: With "Grounded" the author, David Bischoff came up with an exceptional premise but when it came to the execution of this premise the author's efforts seemingly fall flat. When choosing a Star Trek novel from any of the particular series to read one generally believes that the author "knows" that series and the canon involved in it and if not, the editor will keep them on track. This seemingly did not happen with "Grounded" which, did not entirely detract from the story itself but distracts the average fan of the episode. I do not normally like picking apart a Star Trek novel for the minor inconsistencies with known canon that an author and editor have either forgotten or chosen to ignore; therefore I will only mention these aspects but not go into detail on each and every one of them in this review. The cover art for grounded is actually one of the best covers to date, with the standard pictures of the primary characters for the story and some very good background art. The premise: The Enterprise answers a distress call from a remote science station. The Enterprise herself soon becomes infected with a mysterious alien life form which starts feeding on her and transforming inorganic materials. The great starship begins to disintegrate and Captain Picard is ordered to abandon her in the hopes of not infecting other ships. Captain Picard and crew now find themselves in a race against time as they must find a way of saving the Enterprise before she is lost and the crew is scattered about the fleet to fill other positions. While I wouldn't highly recommend this novel as one of the best stories in Star Trek fiction it is certainly not the worst of them and I would recommend it to complete ones library of Star Trek novels and as a mildly interesting early STNG novel. {ssintrepid}
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