Customer Reviews

The Q Continuum: Q-Space (Star Trek The Next Generation, Book 47)

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Imagine yourself a superior being with cosmic powers living out just another typical boring day, with nothing new to do. It's just another day to basically count off as you live out each and every new day of eternity. You might say that this day is going to be another dud-that is until a starship, known as the "Enterprise", is about to do something stupid-break through the Outer Galactic Barrier. The being with these advanced traits is called Q, simply Q. He is part of what is known as the Q continuum-a realm where other infinite beings with godlike powers, also called Q, call their home and coexist. Now, the problem with this certain Q is that he is one who basically has "been there, done that." He needs to find something to occupy his time, so naturally this "trickster" bothers the primitive mortals of time and space. The story begins with captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the Enterprise, helping the renowned professor Faal to complete the final chapter of his experiment. This scientist from the nearby planet of Betazed is determined to finish his life's work before a sickness known as Iverson's disease claims his life for good. His work involves a warhead that will create a wormhole in the Outer Galactic Barrier, a gaseous wall at the edge of the galaxy, to see what is on the other side of this obstacle. Naturally Q shows up at the time of imminent discovery and plans on halting Enterprise's plans without immediate explanation. It isn't until long after Picard demands an explanation as to why the Outer Barrier exploration shouldn't be continued, that Q zaps him out of the ship right in mid-battle. This leaves his first officer William T. Riker to take sudden control of a damaged ship while handling a misunderstood battle with an alien species known as the Calamarain. During the time of attack, Q is showing Picard a long and unnecessary journey through the life of his apparent egotistic self, which doesn't necessarily answer the captain's question right away but does offer some lovely scenery and insight to Q's past and origin. I found this book greatly enjoyable, humorous, and not to mention exciting. I could honestly say that I was glued to each and every word. And when this book seemed to be slow, along came an interesting twist of plot and character. But be warned. Those who have not seen the show before will most likely find some aspects not to mention characters confusing and foreign to them. But I do believe the author, Greg Cox, did do a good job of mentioning flashbacks of the previous shows to keep the readers well informed and up to date. Keep in mind that this is merely book one of three and there are more things that have yet to be explained. And I do believe it was necessary to make this a three part book, for it allows breathing room for the reader to understand completely what was just read as well as to anticipate an interesting turn of events soon to come. I will most likely find myself buying the remaining two parts of this trilogy and I invite any other fan of the Star Trek series and Q to do the same as well.

Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Continuum: Q-Space written by Greg Cox is an action adventure book written about the Q Continuum. The prime characters are Q and Jean-Luc Picard as Q hijacks Captain Picard on an untimate adventure with, of course, under currents to save the universe. But, this book is the set-up for a trilogy and as such works to give us some of the little known information of the mysterious realm of Q's past and we learn a few of Q's secrets.

I've always believed that Q choses Jean-Luc Picard because Picard acts like a conscience to mitigate Q's consummate outrageousness... a kind of lightening rod for all of Q's transgressions. Well, we are not disappointed here, as we find Q as a youth was rather mislead, but Q's mind has more than his usual pranks in store for Picard.

As the Enterprise and her crew prepare to breach the galactic barrier with the help of a brilliant Betazed scientist where Q's enemy lurks, this galactic story begins and takes us on a wild ride of odyssey into Q's past with the reader and Captain Jean-luc Picard in tow. There are ties with the TV series throughout the book to bring a tighter knit to the novels and the series. As the author tells the tale, the reader is propelled into the Q Continuum with "O" and the Calamarain all are omnipotent with a varing degree of omniscient power.

Greg Cox does a good job capturing Q, not as good as Peter David, but nevertheless you can get into the character flow of Q. As this book is the set-up, I hope we will receive further explaination of Q's past.

It actually took me months to read the book through, but that doesn't make it less interesting, fascinating, flattering... than it is. Q is one of the best characters, and having him show his past to us...! Well, hello, I say!

This is actually one of the best stories I have ever read on Star Trek, and the fact that Q is the main character (also my favorite character) makes it all the better. Q's past is as flattering and interesting as I expected it to be. Having him admit that he made mistakes that took a BIG influence on the whole system was a real revelation.

My recommendation: Read it!

What can I say... This book is GREAT! I wasn't into reading Star Trek books till my friend bought met his book for christmas a few years ago.. It Sat on my bookshelf forever, till 6 months ago i finally read it. 6 months later, I'm almost done with Q-Zone(The second book in the trilogy) and I have Q-Strike ordered and on the way in anticipation of finishing Book 2.

Book 1(Q-Space, this book) starts off with the Enterprise-E picking up an esteemed beta-zed scientist called Lhem-fal. The experiment, cross the galactic barrier. Once the Enterprise approaches the barrier, however, the familiar Calamarain launch an assault on the enterprise, trying to prevent the Enterprise from reaching the barrier. Shortly after, Q and his wife/son pay a visit to the enterprise, and not too long after, Q abducts Picard and takes him on a journey through time in space to relive Q's childhood(Not like any other childhood you will ever read about, I guarantee). Meanwhile, on the Enterprise, Riker must deal with the growing calamarain threat.

I have enjoyed Q-space, as I got some more insight about Q's existence and his or their history. However, something prevented me from really enjoying this story - probably lenght of story and too much 'reference' of old events. Of course I love to recall/newly know those events, but it is sometimes stressful for me, unfortunately. Some of the 'next generation' story is worth reading 2 books or watching 2 hours , but I still love to watch one well-organized program. Hope another 2 books make me more comfortable. To note; 4 stars consists of 3 for this book and 1 for expectations for another two.

I feel that this book was great. I love star trek and just love Q even more. This was a great book. It goes into the history of the Q. But it also keeps up with the present with Riker in comand of the ship. Great...Great.. a must read, pick up all three books.

This entire trilogy is a gold mine for those of us who are fascinated by Q. Unfortunately, it is probably not going to appeal to those who find Q annoying, or those looking for a classic Picard-centered adventure.

This first book is really primarily set-up, weaving the story around which Q's revelations about himself, the Continuum, and his own past will be based. However, it is still definitely worthwhile reading, since Cox comes up with a great way of "prodding" Q to share these details with Picard (and, by extension, with the readers).

I was expecting a lot from this trilogy, but I found the story stretched beyond measure to fill up 3 books, the characterization very flawed (how could Mrs Q not realize that her son was in danger until the last minute??, that's just an example), and the interaction between characters very poor. The Enterprise crew was just there to play host but to what? The Q family was more like a weird offshot of the Addams family than a group of omnipotent beings. It was all played for laughs and the ending was more of a relief than a letdown simply because by that time I had grown tired of the whole thing and glad that it was finally over. What a charade! Thumbs definitely down.

I enjoyed this series of books although I found it to be a little long winded at times. It could have been knocked down to two books instead of three. Overall I thought it was a good story. It gave a history of Q, and The Q, that help us to understand him ,and them, a little more. I was amazed at how many old story lines from the movies and the series he was able to bring together. If I had to comment on anything on the writing it would be the abundance of grammatical errors there were in all three books. I know that errors occur, especially if your on a roll, but aren't there supposed to be editors and proof readers to catch these. This has nothing to do with the story itself but I found soo many errors that I had to reread sentences to see if I read it wrong in the first place and I found this distracted me from the story. In the end I did enjoy the trilogy and would recommend it for all Q fans.

I am a great fan of the ST:TNG and series and of the character Q as he is humourous and gives me valuable insights on the course humanity is taking. However, this book, to be was an utter disappointment. For starters, this book began with a utterly incomprehensible prolouge, a pattern that continues throughout the book. Sure, Greg Cox is making a spirited effort to provide the reader with a sense of mystery but confusing the reader is going more than one step too far. To put things brusquely, this book is a bloody rip-off because not only does it only provide with one-third of a so-called Q-story, it floods with unnecessary crap with the beginning of the story, the long winded appearance of Q and his wife and child and nonsense like that. The book constantly features inane flashbacks to previous Next-Gen episodes or movies. Cox has also not been able to capture the style of the Next-Gen series. To improve his work, I suggest he take a tip of two from the one, who is, in my opinion, the best Next-Gen writer there is, the legendary Peter David. I will not read the next two books in this series unless there is a collected edition of the 'Q-series'. For a good TNG novel concerning Q, read Peter David's Q-squared or his Q-in-law, which I have also reviewed.