Customer Reviews

Intellivore (Star Trek: The Next Generation, No. 45)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Boy did this sucker have potential. A planet that feeds off of intelligence. With a great title (and cover to boot), a very interesting plot, and Picard and Data as the main heros here, I thought there would be nothing to disappoint.

Diane Duane commences on a languid note, introducing her Holodeck motif immediately. She uses the Holodeck better in subsequent scenes. I've always loved comparing Picard, Captain of a Starship, to a captain of a seafaring vessel.

Two other starships are brought in to aid in tracking this mysterious shifting predator. That's about all the excitement that happens. Deaths are treated as nuisances. The dialogue is supremely dry and everyone speaks as if voiced as one person. Two attempts are made at humor, near the end of the book, and are devastatingly timed. When operating a starship under attack, succinctness, I should think, would be of the essence. The captain does not joke with (in this case) her XO while attempting evasive or offensive maneuvers. Perhaps this wouldn't have been so bad had the captain and her XO established a joking relationship earlier, but nary a word was spoken between them beforehand.

I highly recommend the well-written books of Michael Jan Friedman and Peter David over this contractual bilge.

Given the immense popularity and overwhelming acclaim that author Diane Duane received for "Dark Mirror," my anticipation for this numbered Star Trek The Next Generation novel was pretty high. Upon reading it though, I found the book to be good but lacking in a few areas. While Diane Duane's usual good style of writing is there where the premise is clear and executed well and the pace is steady but the characterizations are off and the overall feel of "Intellivore" is that much goes unsaid which is quite unfortunate.

The cover art for this novel is pretty much standard fare for when the novel was published.

The Premise:

In true Star Trek fashion author Diane Duane takes the Enterprise into a no win situation when several ships and colonies mysteriously disappear into a Great Rift that is outside of Federation territory. Captain Picard leads the Enterprise and two other Federation starships to investigate this mystery and what they discover can only be described as epic in its scope...

What follows from there is a fairly good numbered novel in the STNG line that I would definitely recommend to any and all fans of good Star Trek fiction despite the minor faults I earlier described. {ssintrepid}

This book was both good and bad. It was good because it was sort of a new idea and it was very creatively written. I had the hardest time reading it though, it was incredibly "wordy" and the book just didn't seem to "flow."

I can't even say anything about the book because I don't remember it. Go figure....And I just read it a couple days ago. Better luck next time.

I usually love the Star Trek novels written by Diane Duane very much, but this book will be the exception from the rule. All the books I own from her are Star Trek TOS novels and I recommend them all warmly (her Rhiannsu books are wonderful as well as "Spock's World" and "Wounded Sky") This is the first TNG novel I have read from her and as far as I am concerned she should really stick to TOS. This book doesn't work on so many levels. For one thing she isn't in touch with the TNG characters. None of them sound the way they should and are really out of character. The initial story idea sounds very promising and interesting but unfortunately absolutely nothing really happens in the book and the storyline isn't explored in any way that is interesting. I should have been warned after reading the first few pages. They already didn't feel right. Ms. Duane I respect you very much and I do think that you are one of the best Star Trek writers out there, but it looks like this is only true for TOS. Sorry, but I really can't give more then two stars for this dud.

This was a very good story, but not a great one, even by the standards of mass market genre fiction. Diane Duane herself has done better. Which is not to say that the book isn't worth reading; if you want a good, fairly fast-paced action novel with a bit of interesting inter-character interplay, this will fill an afternoon's reading just fine. But if you want one of the rare Star Trek books that actually grip you and won't let go, or one of those that make you think, this one isn't it. It looked for a while like it might be; the colony ship full of people who worship the concept of a life-free universe being threatened and needing rescue was interesting, but the contradictions inherent in that concept weren't explored to their full potential. (If they'd been brought back from their apparent fate, would they have appreciated the fact or resented it? We'll never know.) Similarly, the conflict between self-preservation and non-interference was also largely glossed over; Picard usually agonizes over such philosophical questions more. Still, well-written and generally enjoyable.

Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the Enterprise-D are called on to aid a science vessel captained by an old friend. They are to check out reported ship and colony disappearances in a remote, empty part of the galaxy.

Joined by a third Federation starship, they try desperately to unravel the mystery, cutting through the legends to find the truth about a powerful enemy that steals the very minds of its victims.

I have only ever read one other Trek novel, but I am glad I decided to get "Intellivore." It is edge-of-your-seat suspense that moves quickly along like a great, expanded t.v. episode.

The three captains, who take center stage, are well-written characters. You come to know and care about the two "guest captains" and hope for their success, and feel the pain of their losses.

This was a great read. I only gave it an 8 because I haven't read alot of other stories to compare it to, and because of a few odd phrases author Diane Duane had coming out of character's mouths that d

The central plot for this book is more like something in the Original Series: the Enterprise encounters an interstellar monster and must destroy it. The author really created an epic foe for the Enterprise. Her writing is on her as usual high level. The descriptions of scenes and events are very clear. The action scenes are very clear and vividly described, and make for exciting reading. The language the characters use is a little strange though. This author just gets a bit too poetic when writing for the Next Generation crew. On a somewhat similar note, one flaw I found in this book was that the tension level, considering the magnitude of the enemy the Enterprise is facing and some of the things it does, was definitely lacking. Diane Duane showed in Dark Mirror that she could create a very tense, creepy atmosphere, but for some reason she neglected to do so here. Part of that flaw is her treatment of the monster's victims. Either they are people that we have little sympathy for, or their deaths are held at a distance from the reader, as though deliberately not to have too much impact. Instead, we get too little. On the plus side, this book also describes the lifestyle and some of the work of Starfleet's dedicated deep space explorers, which I found very interesting. All in all this is a very entertaining and well written book. A ghost story just should have been spookier, that's all.

This isn't one of the best TNG books i've read, but it's far from the worst. I think that it took the author awhile to get to the point of the story, and I struggled reading it.

I have read numerous Star Trek books and this is, by far, the worst one I have ever read. The book is way too slow and wordy. I had to force myself to finish it, thinking it could only get better, unfortunately, it never did.