Customer Reviews

Here There Be Dragons (Star Trek The Next Generation, No 28)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As far as numbered trek books go, this one stands up. I commend Mr. Peel for his great work in creating a story which blends fantasy into trek universe, without missing the action, humor and very nice character development. Once you get past the first two chapters it is very difficult to put this book aside.

The story begins with Enterprise on a scientific survey mission near a supposedly impenetrable nebulae cloud. To their surprise a federation pleasure vessel appears from within the cloud and fires on them and sets itself to self-destruct. Just before the ship is destroyed, Enterprise manages to save who claims to be a federation agent. The agent convinces Picard that there is a planet inside the cloud inhabited by humans (from 13th century Germany) and dragons to which a bunch of crooks organize illegal dragon hunting parties. Seeing this as a serious breach for Prime Directive, Picard decides to go in to capture the criminals; it does not seem to be easy...

Along their way Picard and friends meet crooked businesmen, a miserable town led by a sadistic duke, duke's noble knight, a would-be 13th century philosopher, a magician, and a dragon; YES a dragon!

What I like most about the story is that it does not revolve only on Picard; instead almost every member of the Enterprise - from Data to Ro, Riker to even Lt.Barclay - gets his/her share of adventure and bravery and the author manages to keep the completeness of the book. The story gets more and more interesting as you turn each page with sword duels, poisons, dungeons; the leveraging tension is accompanied by good humor - especially Worf's attitude towards his dress is just great fun.

Overall a great fun -and quick- read and I recommend it!

Star Trek - The Next Generations: Here There Be Dragons written by John Peel is a well-written action-adventure novel written about a Preserver developing world that is hidden inside a tachyon cloud, where the only access is through a tunnel generated by Preserver technology, that is being exploited by a group of interplanetary trophy hunters. The events in this story take place before the sixth-season episode "Rascals."

This planet is right out of Earth's 13th-century Germany where they believe in the force of arms, ritual combat, honor, and glory. And because of the Prime Directive, now, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the Starship Enterprise have to set things right. This book takes you on an adventurous read where Captain Picard, Data, Ro and a member of a security detail beam to the surface of the planet and investigate. Of course things do NOT go as planned and this adds to the mystery and intrigue of the story. After a while, William Riker and Deanna Troi also beam down to the planet's surface where they follow-up leads as to the whereabouts of the smugglers.

The book goes back and forth between two main storylines with the addmixture of some minor storylines until you get all the main characters involved into the story proper. When reading this book you'll tend to think ahead of the story, but be careful the Enterprise and her crew experience some major roadblocks and impediments along the way making this story a complete adventure.

There is only one fight seen with the indiginous dragon species on the planet involving Captain Picard and it is well-written. These beasties are huge, eighteen feet tall and sixty feet long, with long talons equiped with claws that can cut prey in half with one pass and... if that isn't enough these dragon-lizards have armored hide with large sharp saw-edged teeth.

The story has an ending that has a few surprises and the reader will be engrosed in the story till the ending. All in all, the story is a solid 5 stars and this book is a keeper that you'll want to read again at a later time.

I have read many Star Trek books, and "Here There Be Dragons", without a hint of doubt, is among my top 5 favourites. First of all, as the title implies, there is a certain amount of fantasy pertaining to this book, though not truly fantasy with wizards and feys and such. But it is set in a fantastical medeival Germany, with a Herr Grable, a scholar, ignorant villagers, dragons; the whole lot! John Peel did a fantastic job in intertwining Star Trek science fiction and fantasy, which I must commend greatly on his behalf. Masterfully done, Mr.Peel! "Here There Be Dragons" is really a book worth purchasing, and I highly suggest it to all readers, not just Trekkies.

John Peel did an excellent job with this story! The book takes the crew of the Enterprise to a world set in medieval Germany. To get to this world, they use the services of a Federation Security Agent who knows the way through a secret tunnel that traverses a tachyon-full nebula. Apparently, the planet's occupants were put there by the Preservers...and is also home to dragons. Picard and his crew find out that trophy hunters are after these dragons and must stop them from breaking the Prime Directive. Of course, the away team gets into trouble while seeking out these criminals. Picard and security officer Miles are sold into slavery while Ro is taken to a castle to serve the duke and his weird ways. Meanwhile, Riker and Deanna get into trouble as well with the local black magician.

If you like action and humor, Star Trek style, read this book. I consider it one of the best of the first 30 Star Trek:TNG books. Peel involves all characters and while the away team is on the planet's surface, the Enterprise gets attacked. So read it already!

This book is rated 10 by me because it is the best that I have ever read, this book has everything that there should be in a book, humor, logic, very well descriptions, (you feel like your there), and action. This book will provoke a huge emotianal responce from you, it truly is for the Trekkies, so if you want to read an adventure that should have been a movie, should have been in the hall of fame, and the author should be given a Nobel prize, then read "Here There Be Dragons" (Star Trek, the Next Generation, No 28) by John Peel. Live Long And Prosper.

I don't know about anyone else, but I loved this book! I loved the Middle Ages, so...
Of course, that's just me :::rolls eyes::: Apparently other people don't agree. I loved how Worf had to stay on the ship with honorablely oriented humans running around on the planet and he was itching to go down there and he finally went down as--- well, you read it and laugh at him!!! (I don't like Worf) N-E-way, it is my favorite TNG book so far.

Kat

interesting writing, easy to read. Story not so great...some of the predicaments the crew got into were interesting and graphically mature/dark (unlike the show). Too many subplots, it was the first time in my life I actually skipped sections... like Worf being mad he couldn't go down to the planet was boring and had no point.

This is a story that does quite a good job of including most of the elements that go into making Star Trek: The Next Generation interesting: good action, interesting ideas, excellent characterizations. It's not a particularly deep novel, even by the standard of Star Trek novels, but as a good, fast-paced story, it is excellent. It would have made a good episode.

This book is written in a B-grade movie style. The characters are depicted in exaggerated fashion. The author never goes over the top in his depictions, but Worf comes rather close. The way it is done is still quite entertaining. The general writing is good. The descriptions are quite vivid and the combat scenes detailed and clear. The setting is epic: Enterprise goes inside of a stellar cloud, a feat made possible by Preserver technology. The action, in contrast, is swords and sorcery style. Riker and Troi investigate a medieval town and accompanying castle, while Picard and Data face off against a dragon. Then the Preserver element comes in for the sorcery section. It's definitely an unusual style of story, but interesting and fun reading.

Being as nearly as much a fan of fantasy fiction as I am of Star Trek fiction, I found the premise of this novel to be quite an interesting and appealing one. "Here There Be Dragons" is the first of only three Star Trek titles for author John Peel which is too bad in a way as I found all three of them to be quite well written stories. It would be nice to see this author make another visit to the genre.

This author has a great writing style that is very fluidic and the story is very fast paced, full of action, intrigue and adventure. This story also possesses something that many Star Trek novels either never attempt to do or attempt and fall flat on which is carrying more than a couple subplots into an extraordinary and surprising conclusion.

The cover art for this novel is a bit better than the standard fare; two of the main characters and a medieval castle with "dragons" flying over it.

The premise:

The Enterprise is investigating an interstellar cluster and suddenly receives news that a planet with a human colony on it is inside the cluster. Here is where the Preservers come into play considering at this point that humans hadn't made it "this" far into deep space and when these humans came to this planet they did not possess the technology to penetrate the tachyon field of the interstellar cluster.

What is more shocking than the human presence here on this extraordinary planet is that the humans are living is a world of knights and serfs lifted right out of medieval times, dragons included. Captain Picard and crew soon learn that interstellar trophy hunters have been raiding this planet as well. Soon after beaming down to the planet, Picard, Riker, Data and Ro become embroiled in a web of intrigue and murder and are taken prisoner. They must escape their captors and stop these interstellar hunters before they use their ancient weapon to destroy the Enterprise.

What follows from there is, as stated above, one of the best written and intriguing numbered Star Trek titles to date. I highly recommend this novel to any and all fans of the genre! {ssintrepid}