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Gulliver's Fugitives (Star Trek The Next Generation, No 11)

Gulliver's Fugitives (Star Trek The Next Generation, No 11)

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Rating: 4 stars
Summary: STNG #11 - Gulliver's Fugitives - A good early STNG novel!
Review: Given the complexity and thought provoking nature of this particular novel it is hard to believe that this is not only the only Star Trek novel written by this author is it the only novel one can find written by Keith Sharee. I found this novel to be in very good keeping with Gene Roddenberry's principals and ethos of Star Trek as it tells a well told tale that is capable of the "suspension of disbelief" within the Star Trek universe as it is a real future possibility and reminds one of Hitler's attempts to do the same.

The premise:

The Enterprise finds itself on the mission to find the USS Huxley, a starship that has been missing for over ten years, what they did not expect to find is a forgotten human colony named Rampart. Here is where the story takes an unexpected twist as this colony of humans has sought fit to ban fiction of any sort and it is considered to be the ultimate crime. As history proves proper, whenever there is a government that bans something harmless, or proves itself a dictatorship in any way, there is an underground movement and ultimately a civil war. It is that civil war in which Captain Picard and the crew of the USS Enterprise suddenly find themselves inextricably in the middle of and must find an acceptable way of extricating themselves and solving this planet's problems...

What follows is certainly one of the better early Star Trek The Next Generation numbered novels that is well worth the time to locate and read for you will certainly not be disappointed. I highly recommend this early STNG novel to any and all Star Trek fans, casual or die hard alike! {ssintrepid}

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Standing up for creativity!
Review: I believe that as consumers of mass media, we all value our freedom to choose to read, watch, or listen to whatever we desire. But what would happen if the planet we call Earth became a totalitarian state where the expression of creativity is utterly forbidden? That is the premise of "Gulliver's Fugitives."

In the first Next Generation audio book ever made, read by Jonathan Frakes (Riker), the away team encounters an underground movement of individuals, much like that found in the movie "Demolition Man", who seek to restore the imagination to its proper place of value. This story is an excellent take on censorship and First Amendment issues.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: very good
Review: I really think "Gulliver's Fugitives" is one of the better novels of the lot. IMO it wipes the floor with about 95% of all ST novels.

Actually, it's one of the very few 'message' novels in the whole bunch. This is a book about the power of man's imagination and his right to dream. Imagination as one of the most powerful forces that man possesses. It's full of delightful references to mythology and literature. This author sure knows his classics.

And since Star Trek is often called a modern myth, I'm pretty sure the author actually intended this novel to be about Trek fans and their right to like the series without being ridiculed, as sadly often is the case.

These are the kind of messages that Star Trek has always stood for, and it's something that nearly all of the novels have forgotten. Really, there are only a few which have that kind of messages ("Spartacus" & "Metamorphosis" come to mind). I read this book when it first came out, nearly 10 years ago, and I don't remember much of the goings-on, but that powerful statement is still strong in my memory. Sure, it was not very easy to read and I do understand that it could be confusing if you don't recognise all the references. But some effort on the reader's part reveals lots of stuff that really is very interesting food for thought. So, have your "ABC of Mythology" and "Encyclopedia of Literature" near at hand and read this one...

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: very good
Review: Some of the best Star Trek episodes were usually 20th century social commentary thinly disguised as 23rd/24th century science fiction. Gulliver's Fugitives continues that same ST storytelling as social commentary tradition.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Another wacky adventure
Review: This story has many different moiving parts--a bit more than most STNG novels. The author attempts to tie everything together at the end but falls just short of being a really neat story. I wouldn't read it again but find myself no worse off for reading it once.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Another wacky adventure
Review: This story has many different moiving parts--a bit more than most STNG novels. The author attempts to tie everything together at the end but falls just short of being a really neat story. I wouldn't read it again but find myself no worse off for reading it once.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Improper thinking will be punished
Review: When I read this NG novel I expected another run of the mill story with the politically correct message. I was very surprised and wrong about my assesment by the back cover. In this one any creativity or wrong thinking is fatal. A lost starship crashes on this planet only for it's captain to survive. His mind was wiped of any reference to Starfleet and his former life. While I know the major characters would not meet their demise....it's was very exciting to see how Picard escaped the mind wipe intact. The scenes with the all knowing "one eye" cameras/assault units were the best. Especially when Geordi and Wes had to figure out how they worked.

It would have played well as a television episode. A lot of the novels are very often superior to the TV scripts and this was one of them.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Thought provoking in a different sense
Review: Which is a shame, because the basic idea had potential: Star Trek meets Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451". And the writing wasn't completely hopeless; as the story progressed, I did find myself caring what happened next, and moved by the fate of the characters. But there were too many flaws for a high rating; the entire subplot of Deanna Troi's visions/hallucinations was superfluous and pointless, and the concept that the planetary culture that the Enterprise was in conflict with could have provided as much of a challenge as they did required too much supension of disbelief for my taste.

Not the worst Star Trek book I've ever read by a long shot, but definitely on the weak end of the scale.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Not quite literature
Review: While I thought the 1984-ish culture was an interesting (and impossible) one, the story gets bogged down in psychadelics as Troi and others hallucinate mythological creatures. The surprise at the end makes for a good (and again, highly unlikely) climax, and the supporting characters are fun, if superfluous. A good little romp, but you'll have to suspend disbelief a little more than usual.


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