Dreadnought! (Star Trek, No 29)

Rating:
Summary: Tne best!!!
Review: I love this book!!! It is the probably the best Star Trek novel I've read so far. The beginning was a little slow, but once it picked up, I couldn't put the book down. The characters are great! I began to feel a certain bond with them. A few parts of the book even brought tears to my eyes. I will certainly buy the sequel!

Rating:
Summary: Star Trek at its Best
Review: I loved Dreadnought the moment I picked it up off the bookshelf nearly a decade ago. I have read it about thirty times and I, too, wished I was Piper. Unlike some other novels which attempt to minimize Star Fleet into a future U.S. military, Dreadnought keeps the truth of Trek right on track - Starfleet is NOT a military organization as we know it, not based on fighting, but on exploration, science, and of course, human beings at their best. Please read this novel. Carey really knows her stuff.

Rating:
Summary: childhood inspiration
Review: I read this book and Battlestations for the first time when I was in Junior High. They were my favorite two star trek books for a long time and still rank right up there. Before Voyager, Piper was the epitome of Star Trek Women. I wanted to be her. I think these two books are great and really let female readers get into the star trek universe in a way we can't reading about captain kirk chasing skirts.

Rating:
Summary: Piper's one of the best
Review: I really loved this novel. Lt. Piper is a wonderful character, and like many reviewers have said, I wanted to be her, too. The characterization is excellent, and her friends Merete, Scanner, and especially Sarda, are fascinating and fun. Piper gets thrown into a serious situation before she can even report to her station aboard the Enterprise, and she deals with it very well. She is not shown as a perfect heroine, but as a young woman who makes mistakes but does her best. The plot was well done, and the book was exciting, suspenseful and had lots of action with great character development, too!

Rating:
Summary: Piper's one of the best
Review: I really loved this novel. Lt. Piper is a wonderful character, and like many reviewers have said, I wanted to be her, too. The characterization is excellent, and her friends Merete, Scanner, and especially Sarda, are fascinating and fun. Piper gets thrown into a serious situation before she can even report to her station aboard the Enterprise, and she deals with it very well. She is not shown as a perfect heroine, but as a young woman who makes mistakes but does her best. The plot was well done, and the book was exciting, suspenseful and had lots of action with great character development, too!

Rating:
Summary: An entertaining entry
Review: In my reviews of Classic Star Trek novels, it must be understood that I adhere to the original canon as invisioned by Gene Roddenberry, and not the "Star Trek" universe accepted by Rick Berman and company.

I generally rate a classic novel thus:

Adherence to Canon -- does this novel adhere to the vision of the original Star Trek?

In this case, pretty much so.

Believability (within the confines of 23rd century Star Trek viability) -- is this novel well-plotted and well written? Can I picture this novel or imagine myself in it?

Yes. Definitely.

Coherence and Consistency -- does this novel internally consistent? Is it consistent with other Star Trek
novels by the same author? Is it consistent with what is known of the CLASSIC Star Trek universe?

Yes, as well as with a sequel.

Mitigating Factors -- pluses or minuses which dramatically affect the enjoyment of this book

The book is fun. Not particularly brilliant, but fun. Certainly one to bring to the beach or to the pool for an afternoon diversion.

Rating:
Summary: Not very good.
Review: On the plus side, this novel had an interesting main character, a young command trainee fresh out of Starfleet Academy, and we only see Kirk, Spock, and the rest of the crew through her eyes. This was an interesting and novel approach for a Star Trek novel.

Unfortunately, the main plot was NOT a novel and interesting one; it was that old, beaten-to-death standby of a Starfleet admiral gone rogue. What is it with Starfleet; does it have a requirement that ANYBODY promoted to admiral MUST be a psychotic sociopath? Is it against policy to promote sane, rational people beyond the rank of captain? You'd think so, given how often this plot shows up in one form or another.

Further, Ms. Carey continues her tendency to have the occasional rather questionable word choice; the example that comes to mind here is the use of the word "sniggering" when she clearly means "niggling".

Not completely worthless, nor even close to being the worst Star Trek novel out there; still, it's even farther from the best.

Rating:
Summary: Star Trek at its Best
Review: This book is so bad, I wish I spent the time watching Ricki Lake instead. Lt Piper is characterized as some lost little kid who gets overwhelmed by emotions when she should just be doing her damn job. This is a classic example of an author who either does not care or does not have the talent to write a good story, and instead tries to insert some 1990's "human drama" in the pages. Please leave this crap somewhere else. I realize that most trekkies have been no nearer to a real military mindset than their local airshow, but please do not insult the rest of us by insinuating that cowards (Piper) turn into heros in the end. Sell it to Spielberg, not me. All that this shows is that the author has not taken the time to develop a compelling story that can be driven by plot instead of emotion.

Listen to this line of pure garbage from page 15 "I cleared my throat and packed back my hair in a gesture that was too feminine, suddenly aware that my nonregulation backcombs had failed to keep the layered, honey-brown strands out of my face." You expect this from a first project in creative writing class - I dont want to read (and pay for) this crap in a supposedly developed novel.

I only kept reading this drivel in the hope that Piper would be killed in the end. No such luck, they make her a hero. I love Star Trek, but after reading this book, I will never read anything by Diane Carey again, and am reluctant to pick up another Trek novel. These novels cheapen what is otherwise a franchise that excites the imagination.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic story of Star Fleet's worst internal cue attempt
Review: This is a remarkably different book taken from the perspective of a newly minted starship crewman thrust into the middle of a tangled web of intrigue and treason. The Federation, under direction of Vice Admiral Rittenhouse, has undertaken the building of the most powerful battleship the galaxy has ever seen. This ship is stolen by a supposed group of terrorists who, instead of threating mass destruction, claim they have stolen the ship as a last desperate bid for peace. Kirk, with the wet-behind-the-ears Piper in tow, chases off after the dreadnought. One by one, little anomalies in the conduct of Vice Admiral Rittenhouse and the passionate pleas of the dreadnought's crew bring to light a terrible plot to forcefully unify the galaxy at any cost. Piper, pushed through situation after situation, discovers the truth, escapes from Rittenhouse, and reaches the dreadnought. There, she, her Vulcan friend Sandra, and a crew of students and desk officals must meet the threat head on, as Rittenhouse takes a desperate gamble to annilate the dreadnought, destroying those aboard and their knowledge of his plan. Kirk, seeing through Rittenhouse (aided by a rather impromptu arrest of Kirk himself and several of his officers by Rittenhouse) comes to the aid of the dreadnought in defiance of all orders, and he and Piper togeather face a fleet of the Federation's best starships in desperate combat for the fate of the galaxy. The edge of the seat excitement and clever story line make this book a hit in itself, but Piper herself is the real star. I felt like chearing when she overcame her doubts, took command of the dreadnought, and faced death to defend what she believed in. She embodies the spirit of Star Trek, and at the same time reminds us that all heros are at bottom ordinary people.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating alternate viewpoint into the Star Trek World
Review: This novel describes what happens when "terrorists" steal a new ship, the Star Empire, on the eve of her maiden voyage. A new character, Lt.Piper, is introduced, along with a group of her friends from the Academy, and is required by Kirk to find out why the "terrorists" stole the new ship. Along the way, we learn about an ambitious admiral who wants to use the ship to get rid of the Klingons, Romulans, etc., a new friendship between a human and a Vulcan, and how an untested officer can "think outside the box" and defeat the admiral and his cohorts.

One intriguing item was the presence of the Gorn officer aboard a Federation starship: When did the Gorn become Federation allies--was that event after the TOS episode "Arena"?