Rating: 
Summary: Sad "Resolution " to a once fresh book series
Review: Peter David's latest New Frontier novel is sadly the worst of the series. Like DS9's only hardcover "Warped", this much- anticipated tome was very poor both in prose style and plot. It was actually painful to read for its many fannish and cutesy phrases. I was an avid follower of the New Frontier series and even created the web's most elaborate New Frontier website, but after this latest book I may remove the site. The characters of Shelby and Calhoun are supposed to be senior Starfleet officers, but they act like regular folks "just like you and me." If a book were written in which the captain of a modern Naval vessel talked and acted like Shelby does in this book, it would be high-camp. That example is exactly what Gene Roddenberry encouraged prospective Trek writers to do in 1966 - imagine the story and dialogue in modern times. Also, the words spoken by all of the characters in this latest New Frontier novel are so colloquial, that it is hard to believe that the adventures are supposedly happening in the future. If the distracting prose weren't enough, the book's two plots were far too thin and uninteresting to warrant a full novel, yet alone a hardcover. I am also tired of every other chapter flipping back and forth between the two sub-stories. This clever little device to force some suspense only irritates. The Calhoun "western" sub-plot, rather than being akin to "High Noon" is more in the vein of a bad episode of television's "The Rifleman." Finally, the "big" enemy that Calhoun must face is a petty bureaucrat and an out-of-town gunslinger whose desire to kill Calhoun is painted in such broad strokes that one recalls the days of watching Saturday morning western serials - the bad ones, I mean. I sure hope the next book is better. I suggest you save your money and I recommend instead any Star Trek book by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, William Shatner and also the excellent DS9 novel "A Stitch in Time" by Andrew (Garak) Robinson.
Rating: 
Summary: Calhoun Lives! (Of course...)
Review: The only thing I didn't like about this book, is the seeming *four years* it took for the book come out in paperback. I read entirely too many books to read them in hardback and this one shouldn't have come out in hardback, anyway. It's a good book, an amusing book, I like Calhoun, but it's not a $25.00 book. As a graduate student, I only spend that much on textbooks under extreme duress. So my complaint is with Paramount and Simon Shuster. Now that the book is out in paperback, what are you waiting for -- buy it already!!!
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