Rating: 
Summary: Great Book
Review: The Valiant tells the story of Picard taking command of the Stargazer. The story begins with the crew of the Valiant from the original series Star Trek episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and fills in information on what happened to that crew. Jump 300 years ahead to the Trek era just preceeding The Next Generation. Decendants of survivors of the Valiant appear to warn the Federation of a potential enemy on the other side of the galatic barrier. The Stargazer and crew are dispatched to see if the threat is real. The ship is attacked and the captain is killed and first officer incapacitated and Picard has to take over. Picard has to deal with a mutiny, a damaged ship, gain trust of the crew he now commands, deal with a Kelvin, and the new threat to the Federation. If you like space battles and action there is plenty in this book. We see characters that first appeared in Friedmans Star Trek book Reunion and their character development in this book helps explain their actions in the previous book. For fans of Star Trek this book is a must.
Rating:
Summary: STNG - The Valiant
Review: What an interesting book. I truly enjoyed reading this one and let me tell you why.We start out reading as to what happened to the U.S.S.Valiant and her crew... of course we all know what hapened when Kirk and his crew found that bouy with the warning. Well this gets into more detail as to what happened and the crew's struggle to survive. Captain Carlos Tarasco's decision to destroy the Valiant. Now, some might say this is a little like the Gary Mitchell episode but we have the same author and he is giving us a little more background. Now that ends Book 1 and we now proceed to Book 2. Now, this is where the meat of the story is. We have a good look into the making of Jean-Luc Picard Number Two on the U.S.S. Stargazer. We have Starfleet sending the Stargazer to the galactic barrier to investigate a new threat to the Federation, aliens called the Nuyyad. Starfleet gets this information via a couple of descendants from the ill-fated Valiant crew. The Stargazer picks up one of the survivors at Starbase 209 and her name is Santana. Now comes the interesting play... can the crew trust this newly found person? Capt. Ruhalter puts Picard in the position to find out... much to the dismay of the XO Leach. We find the making of Picard's character here... the Capt. grooming a younger officer... and the insecurity of the junior officer in his convictions. But, alas, as the Stargazer passes through the barrier the Capt dies and the XO is in a deep coma. Now we see true character of Picard begin to blossom. Jean-Luc finds that he is the highest ranking officer after crossing the galactic barrier. The Stargazer picked up a Kelvan prior to crossing the barrier to help fight the newly found Nuyyad as they have had prior knowledge of the Nuyyad's ship design and fighting capabilities. We find out that the Magnians (Valiant descendants) distrust the Kelvans. Not only that but most of the Stargazer crew distrusts the Magnians. So Picard is now trying to get the crew behind him as well as he can... but we have saboteur aboard. So we have the rather unorthodox but clever Picard trying to hold all of this together. He tells Capt. Ruhalter that Santana can be trusted over the objection of the XO. Next Picard takes the Stargazer to the Magnians' homeworld instead of back through the barrier and home jeopardizing the crew and the ability to warn Starfleet. Knowing that a trap was set after getting to Magnia, Picard still trusted the Magnians and beamed aboard several more from the planet and gave them access to strategic systems and allowed their mental powers to be enhanced. Picard also removed the safeguards from the phaser technology... taking out a single enemy installation. All of this interplays with the making of the character of what we know to be Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Mutiny, sabotage, all around distrust and a common enemy dig deep into well of Jean-Luc Picard's character. A good fast read and background information. Read it and enjoy.
Rating:
Summary: STNG - The Valiant
Review: What an interesting book. I truly enjoyed reading this one and let me tell you why. We start out reading as to what happened to the U.S.S.Valiant and her crew... of course we all know what hapened when Kirk and his crew found that bouy with the warning. Well this gets into more detail as to what happened and the crew's struggle to survive. Captain Carlos Tarasco's decision to destroy the Valiant. Now, some might say this is a little like the Gary Mitchell episode but we have the same author and he is giving us a little more background. Now that ends Book 1 and we now proceed to Book 2. Now, this is where the meat of the story is. We have a good look into the making of Jean-Luc Picard Number Two on the U.S.S. Stargazer. We have Starfleet sending the Stargazer to the galactic barrier to investigate a new threat to the Federation, aliens called the Nuyyad. Starfleet gets this information via a couple of descendants from the ill-fated Valiant crew. The Stargazer picks up one of the survivors at Starbase 209 and her name is Santana. Now comes the interesting play... can the crew trust this newly found person? Capt. Ruhalter puts Picard in the position to find out... much to the dismay of the XO Leach. We find the making of Picard's character here... the Capt. grooming a younger officer... and the insecurity of the junior officer in his convictions. But, alas, as the Stargazer passes through the barrier the Capt dies and the XO is in a deep coma. Now we see true character of Picard begin to blossom. Jean-Luc finds that he is the highest ranking officer after crossing the galactic barrier. The Stargazer picked up a Kelvan prior to crossing the barrier to help fight the newly found Nuyyad as they have had prior knowledge of the Nuyyad's ship design and fighting capabilities. We find out that the Magnians (Valiant descendants) distrust the Kelvans. Not only that but most of the Stargazer crew distrusts the Magnians. So Picard is now trying to get the crew behind him as well as he can... but we have saboteur aboard. So we have the rather unorthodox but clever Picard trying to hold all of this together. He tells Capt. Ruhalter that Santana can be trusted over the objection of the XO. Next Picard takes the Stargazer to the Magnians' homeworld instead of back through the barrier and home jeopardizing the crew and the ability to warn Starfleet. Knowing that a trap was set after getting to Magnia, Picard still trusted the Magnians and beamed aboard several more from the planet and gave them access to strategic systems and allowed their mental powers to be enhanced. Picard also removed the safeguards from the phaser technology... taking out a single enemy installation. All of this interplays with the making of the character of what we know to be Captain Jean-Luc Picard. Mutiny, sabotage, all around distrust and a common enemy dig deep into well of Jean-Luc Picard's character. A good fast read and background information. Read it and enjoy.
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