Customer Reviews

Laertian Gamble

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(13)

 

 

The Laertian Gamble is the story of a beautiful (of course!), mysterious alien woman who arrives at Quark's Place on DS-9 to gamble. When she is barred from the gaming tables because of her moderate telepathic abilities, she enlists the help of Dr. Bashir to gamble as her proxy. He begins to win and nothing, it seems, can stop his streak of luck. The story has some interesting possibilities, but it is so poorly written, I doubt that it was actually even edited by the publisher! There are 73 ridiculously short chapters of about a page and a half each. With lines like, "She sneered at him, her beautiful mouth twisted into an ugly sneer", I honestly believe my 9-year-old could have put together a more coherant and believable story! Please, Mr. Scheckley, listen to your editor

The answer to this question is very bad. The plot could have turned into a worthwhile story, but the actual writing is terrible and the characterisation is off by a mile. The ending seems to have been stuck in as though the author had run out of ideas. Do NOT read this book!

The Laertian Gamble quickly turned out to be the worst book I had ever read. With a stupid storyline and writing so daft you could throw a stick through it, it is not recommended.

This is a truly hateful book, mixing complete ignorance of the subject with sub-standard comedy. Ripping ideas from numerous other books (Dax gets into an ornithopter at one point!) and with pointless asides ("I have a Doubler!" "You are crafty!" Yes? It's never mentioned again)

This story about DS9 was really fake. I think Julian and Quark were not themselves. There were so many typos. The Gama Quadrent's new species-the Laertians, are exactly like humans!? Don't read this book, it was extremely boring and fake.

Good (sort of) story, but badly written.. Also, the writer appears to get fed up thinking out a way to actualy get from situation a to situation b, and simply invents a 'Chaos Machine' which is total stupid and fixes everything..

Could Robert Sheckley have got it any more wrong? From the situations he puts the characters in, to the dialogue, to their reactions; it just gets worse and worse. Bashir has never seemed so one-dimensional, Sisko so laid-back. A Ferengi priest? Please! A truly stupid book, if you enjoy DS9 at all, it will annoy you on every page. I only gave it one star because Amazon wouldn't let me give it zero. Avoid.

This is, without a doubt, the WORST Star Trek novel ever.

There's no character development, and the plot is just plain stupid. The setting is inconsistent with the Star Trek universe. Sheckley stages arguments between Dax and Kira in which, partway through, the two inexplicably switch sides--without acknowledgement of any kind, leaving the impression that the author simply forgot which character had voiced which opinion. There's no real surprise there, though, as he didn't portrayed Dax and Kira as nearly identical characters rather than as distince individuals with rich and unique backgrounds. By the last few pages, I really expected Bashir to wake up and inform the readers that the whole unbelievable, awkward plot had been just a dream--a lame literary device, to be sure, but one that would have been far better than leaving the reader irritated with the author's utter inability to write Star Trek characters in a Star Trek universe.

So why did I even finish it? The book only took a couple hours to read (about twice as long as watching an episode on commercial television), and halfway through I felt I'd rather see it through than lay it down unread. I didn't gain anything by that choice, though, other than demonstrating that it usually takes rather a lot for me to put a book down when I know I can finish it in another hour.

Lame, lame, lame. If I could give this zero stars and still have the rating count, I would.

I think that this book is intended to be something of a spoof, sort of like John Ford's "How Much For Just The Planet", original series #36. If so, the fact that I'm not CERTAIN that this is true is a good indication that it failed miserably. On the other hand, if it WAS intended to be taken as a serious story, it fails even more miserably. Many of the characters (notably Kira and Sisko) are unrecognisable, simply ciphers carrying the names of the characters we know, but with none of their personality. The story is choppy, entirely composed of chapters three pages long or less. The plot (Quark is in danger of being bankrupted by a lucky gambler) has been done before, and done better. The psuedoscience bafflegab is even sketchier and less plausible than usual (and in a world where instantaeous matter transport and faster than light travel are both commonplaces, that's saying a lot). And the ending is contrived, as are several of the plot twists.

All in all, give this one a pass. It has very little to recommend it.

Someone once told me that this book is better the second time you read it. I have to agree. The first time I read it, it was so convoluted and I was totally confused about Complexity theory. The second time wasn't so bad. The premise is very interesting, but unfortunately it falls flat.

A big problem is how choppy the dialogue is. Either the author is trying to write at a 5th grade level or he just doesn't have a clue how to write for Star Trek. None of the characters in the book speak like they should be speaking. The entire thing seems forced.

If your a Trek completist and happen to already have the book, I'd give it another read. Otherwise, there are A LOT better Trek novels to read.