Customer Reviews

Q&A (Star Trek: The Next Generation)

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

 

 

After the not especially memorable start to the new post-Nemesis TNG era in Death in Winter and Resistance Q&A gives the series the kick it needs and finally shows us what a great TNG novel can be. Q & A, a Q story, or indeed The Q story, as the book tries, and very much succeeds, in tying every Q story together. The Qish elements of this book are perfect, Q feels very much like Q, and the way all Q's appearances are tied together is brilliant. DeCandido does a great job making the Enterprise feel inhabited and introduces two new big characters; Second officer Miranda Kadohata and chief of security Zelik Leybenzon. These two were about the only parts of the novel I didn't enjoy, I found both quite annoying. While T'Lana was a pest to the Enterprise crew in Resistance, there was something endearing about her, and that continues to be in Q & A. Kadohata and Leybenzon on the other hand, despite all the best efforts to flesh out their characters and establish them as unique and interesting people just didn't have anything that made them stand out and say "look at me, I'm interesting".

DeCandido also manages to make the Trekverse feel much bigger (something really lacking in Resistance) with some brief appearances from characters from all over the galaxy. These short bits of story added a lot of interest and make use of DeCandido's (and others') previously established characters and settings without them seeming out of place or in need of more explanation. All in all Q & A is a very clever, witty and thoroughly enjoyable book.

As the second book in "The Next Generation" relaunch in the books, this novel was far better than the first, "Resistance." To be honest, the plot wasn't entirely fresh or new; it's the end of the universe as we know it and Picard and the Enterprise are the only ones who can save it ... along with Q. On that note, the book is just average for me as a reader because after this many years of Star Trek, it's hard to come up with a novel that does anything new with that premise. And once its executed, I was left wondering "So that's it?" What earned another star in this review was the way the author handled the characters. It was clear that Decandido is very familiar with this cast of characters and there really wasn't a moment that seemed off or poorly handled. Decandido also did well with integrating the new characters that'll fill the Enterprise's roster, planting the seeds for what will hopefully be a dynamic group of characters.

What I felt weakened the book or plot is the lack of development of the true protagonist, being the planet the Enterprise is investigating. It was as if they ran into it which triggers the events that consume a good portion of the novel. The planet, the inhabitants of the planet and Q all have a big part in all of this ... but that's cut short by the end and we're left, as readers, with more questions at the conclusion than we had at the beginning. This novel, premise wise, is supposed to explain why Q has taken such an interest in Picard and his ship. The explanation given (and perhaps this is supposed to be the case with the plot) seems far too simple. Plus, the action and TNG plot is interupted by cameos galore showing what's happening across the universe in relation to the situation at hand; from Elizabeth Shelby (New Frontier), The Malon (Star Trek: Voyager), Ferengi in the Gamma Quadrant (Deep Space Nine), Klingons (I.K.S. Gorkon), Romulans (Star Trek: Nemesis), Riker and Troi (Titan) ... they all didn't come together and add something to the plot, they seemed to be distracting and thrown in to add something to an average plot. It was nice getting a glimpse of all the "who's who" in the Star Trek universe but as a book that's supposed to continue to re-launch "The Next Generation" and focus on the Picard and Q association, it seemed out of place and more like a gimmick than literary point. And add on that at the end when there's a touch of the TNG episode "Parallels" and "All Good Things ..." when we have multiple Enterprises and cameos by everyone from Wesley Crusher to Yar to even Data and Lore ... it seems like something added to wow the readers and make the book seem "cool" rather than sticking to and fleshing out the main premise. If you take away the gimmicks and stick the plot, it's nothing more than an average, slightly above fan-fic level, book.

Still, stacked up against other novels that have come out lately in Star Trek, it's good. I don't think it's the greatest novel written, even the best novel featuring Q (that would, in my opinion be either Q-Squared or the novel where Lwaxana Troi and Q meet). There were too many cameos for it to really be a full-on "Next Generation" novel. For the universe to be in jeopardy and coming to an end, the way to go about saving it seemed far too easy and I hate, as a TNG fan, to think that Q's interference and interest with Picard and crew comes down to the events of this novel. I would have liked to have seen the planet of interest and those responsible for building it be fleshed out, but we don't get that luxury. In all, you probably won't be let down by the book. It's not perfect but no novel is. Check it out for yourself.

The omnipotent being called "Q" has been testing and meddling with the Enterprise and her crew since their first mission. When Q shows up again while the Enterprise is investigating the planet Gorsach, the Captain Picard tells the crew to simply ignore Q. But Q is there to tell them that the end of the whole universe is approaching. And that they're the cause.

Bouncing back and forth between post-Nemesis timeframe and different times amongst the Q Continuum began a bit confusingly. But we soon discover that the scenes with the Q are instances just before each time Q visits the Enterprise, starting with Encounter at Farpoint and leading up to the "present day."

The majority of the novel is a lot of build up to "the end of the universe" that was somewhat anti-climatic. And the whole mystery behind Gorsach wasn't explained enough to my liking. But we do get a deeper look into the Q Continuum and the background behind each of Q's encounters, leading up to this cataclysmic event. And as Q is one of my all-time favorite characters from the Star Trek universe, I thoroughly enjoyed reading a Trek novel that revolved around Q rather than the seemingly ever-present Borg. Q&A is humorous, fun and a refreshingly light-hearted break from some of the latest darker and heavier Trek novels.

Been a while since I read Star Trek novels, but my friend got me a couple as a present and I've read both of them ("Resistance" and now "Q&A") in the span of two weeks. Maybe minor SPOILERS.

After going through Q&A, it seems to have the same problem as Resistance. The premise of "Q" being involved in a book is usually pretty exciting. I was curious what the authors could pull out this time. However, the story sort of dragged along with millions of cutovers to other people with Q popping up intermittenly. There are some funny moments (as usual) with Q's interaction with the crew.

However, the setup (while a little dragged) was ok, the climax and ending were (to me at least) a big "HUH" moment. Maybe I was just reading the book to late to grasp all the details, but I felt letdown at the end.

All in all, the book is not terrible and if you're a fan of Q, it's worth a look. But maybe you need to keep your expectations low.

This book is awesome. It is a great story about the one character I love the most in TNG: Q. It is a good ride and how DeCandido weaves together stories using past stories and show episodes is incredible. Although you don't have a know about past stories and episodes to enjoy this book. It can stand on it own for all those that have never read or seen a show/movie. I great story overall.

After reading Death in Winter previous to this novel, I found the authors use of verbal description somewhat lacking and less colorful in Q&A. And K.R.A.D. is a nice guy, I don't mean that to sound criticizing, I have talked to him on several occasions on trekbbs.org so I was hoping for a very full and entertaining story.

Well, with what started to be a lower-level reading prose, I found myself quickly hooked on the action and suspense of the novel. I generally didn't like the Q stories, unlike some reviewers here, because if they were really all that powerful, then why didn't they act like it? But I think with this one, it was well-suited. The author kept me on the edge of my seat, wanting more action, wondering what would happen next, especially with the out-of-Starfleet characters that appeared in this novel, which we won't likely see again. I thought this was a very nice addition to the Enterprise-E storyline and I immediately went and started reading the next book after this great story.

Is this is what Trek fiction has come to then perhaps the books need a hiatus too. What do you get in Q & A? If you've read Resistance and Death in Winter, you know the drill:

*episode retellings. Ok, they aren't as pointless as the last few books, but this is an incredibly annoying recurrence that seems to mask the real problem - namely, that these authors are having a tough time coming up with anything truly original. However, for those who've SEEN these episodes, and everyone reading these books has, then it all becomes pointless after a while - almost like never ending clip shows.

*mysteries that barely register a pulse. So what we have here is a not so interesting mini version of Rendezvous with Rama with a mysterious planet that somehow must determine the fate of the universe as we know it. Other than a few small investigations and the appearance of a wild critter or two, the mystery remains pretty inconsequential. Boring, actually. Insufferably boring, actually.

*never-ending story lines diversions that go absolutely nowhere. As with Death in Winter, we are introduced to a whole series of irrelevant characters with no past, very little present, and absolutely no future whose only purpose is to bore the reader to no end and increase the page count. Ironically, you can easily skip over these sections and miss absolutely nothing in the plot.

*perhaps the absolute worst ending of any Q novel ever written, in which the author neatly explains Q's involvement with the entire series as being a succesful attempt to fight off (spoiler coming) boredom. yawn.

All this said, Q & A is a step up from both Death in Winter and Resistance (though that's not saying much), and some of the character moments are on target. Unfortunately, though, this is a rather lame and unchallenging book and pales in comparison's to Peter David's Q novels.

Surely somebody can do better than this!

As a big fan of Q, I was super excited when this one finally came in the mail. The beginning was perfectly paced, with a well times Q entrance. The idea of the crew ignoring Q was absolutely hilarious as it did such a good job at shutting him up. I did enjoy the preludes/epilogues to the previous Q episodes but the overall story of each meeting being part of some grander plan? Great idea but not so well executed. I think the plot had one too many holes in it. And although the post-Nemesis crew was believably and well done, I think this was by far my least favorite Q book. I don't believe I'll read it again, but I did think it was a worthwhile purchase.

This book is not quite as good as "Resitance" and doesn't pick where it left off. I believed that it would, but that wouldn't come later until Peter David's "Before Dishonor". This book does a good job of catching up with the crew members that passed away in "Resistance" and with showing Picard's ire with Q. Overall the book is good- but the next installment is much better.

A Sound Novel For the TNG Fan

My first reaction is simply "Wow!" I have to admit that while I had been looking more towards Resistance, I was let down by it for a couple reasons. The first reason was that I couldn't comprehend Picard ever choosing to be reassimilated as Locutus under any circumstances. There were still options they didn't bother to consider, and ultimately the only reason he chose this course was because the Borg now attack on sight. Does this mean that engaging a hostile enemy is such a huge risk that it makes more sense for the captain to try to infiltrate rather than simply taking them on? It was a brash move that made very little sense to me.

The second reason I didn't love Resistance was that it left me wondering who in the heck was going to round out the command crew of the post-Nemesis Enterprise. Sure, we got to meet T'Lana in that book, but it didn't seem like a true re-launch, where we would get to see the new cast of characters as they interacted with each other for the first time. That novel should have been the pilot for what is essentially Star Trek TNG: Phase II, but I don't feel that we really got that until Q&A; which brings me to the novel I'm actually discussing in this review.

I have to admit that I went into Q&A fearful that it would be another retread, much like Resistance. Is it possible that the TNG well has actually gone dry? I read the teaser text inside the front cover, which described Q getting kicked out of the Continuum, and I rolled my eyes and wondered why I was even bothering with this. Q was originally kicked out of the Continuum in the third season episode Deja Q. As it turns out, the teaser text was just a flashback to one of the better Q episodes, and the rest of the novel was not a retread of a previous story.

So let's get down to it.

The Good: it finally deals with Data's death in a way that felt real. In particular, Geordi had to deal with Data's replacement coming aboard, and it became apparent that he was not handling the death of his best friend all that well, even all these months later. I kept wondering if they were going to use Q to restore Data, since he has the power to do so. I'm not going to ruin that surprise with this review, though I will say that a character or two portrayed on-screen by Brent Spiner make an appearance.

We also finally get to meet the new members of the new command staff. I think they did a good job adding two distinctly new personalities, neither of which seem like old characters that we've seen before in any of the other iterations of the Trek franchise. I had feared that they would go with Trek's tendency to overdo the diversity and include either a pair of females or bring in new or obscure alien species that end up being hard to imagine. I'm pleased that neither of these scenarios played out the way I expected them to, and I'm actually interested in seeing more of them in action.

The new second officer is a human female of Japanese/European heritage named Miranda Kadohata. She was handpicked by Data to be his replacement as Second Officer when he was to be promoted to First Officer. According to her back story, she served aboard the Enterprise-D where she worked in the science department and reported to Data. The fact that she knew Data and was familiar with many of the other crew members of the Enterprise helped her integrate into the command structure while simultaneously providing us with an outsider and insider perspective of the characters we know and love. The bit that is really unique about this character is that she's a career mother. While Star Trek has featured mothers before, this is the first time that we see things from the mother's perspective as she goes about her career while husband and family are left behind off the ship. There are no children on the Enterprise-E!

The other character came as a bit of a surprise. Zelik Leybenzon is a very flawed human with a receding hairline and a cheesy mustache. He takes an almost standoffish position towards the other officers, Geordi LaForge in particular, and his methods of motivating those under his command immediately appear harsh and heavy-handed. Miranda Kadohata at one point refers to him as a wanker. But, he was selected by Worf, who served with him during the Dominion War, so Picard allowed the appointment, despite the fact that the guy never even went through Starfleet Academy. We get to know Zelik Leybenzon fairly well by the end of the novel, and despite his flaws, I'm actually looking forward to seeing more of him in future novels.

The Bad: Too much space in the book was wasted on pointless cameos. Riker and Troi are shown aboard the Titan. Donatra, the Romulan who arrived to help the Enterprise against the Scimitar in Nemesis also made an appearance, as did a two-bit trader in the Gamma Quadrant, and some radiation dumping alien from a mildly interesting episode of Voyager. Multiple pages were written around each of these secondary characters, and by the end, the repetition became rather annoying.

The most ambitious aspect of the novel was to take every Q episode and frame it within the context that everything Q had done over the years as a means to prepare Picard for the events of this novel. Although this was well executed, I felt that this had a profound effect upon the series, and might be reaching just a bit much for a story that is not canon (in case you're wondering, no Star Trek novels are canon).

Conclusion: So why was I wowed? In the end it wasn't the story itself, but the execution; DeCandido did the right things at the right times in this novel, and it was a definite page turner. He spent a great deal of time dealing with the interpersonal issues aboard the Enterprise, which I think is something that was needed in light of all the changes that had occurred in Nemesis. He didn't just gather the characters in one place and then send them on a mission, he had them meet, rub each other the wrong way, and build up some dramatic tension between them. We then have the joy of watching those tensions play out throughout the course of the novel.

Once we move beyond that, the middle portion of the book does an excellent job discovering the nature of the issue, all the while amusing us with Q's antics. Again DeCandido does an excellent job of portraying Q as he appeared in Next Generation. I didn't feel like I was watching Q as filtered through an author's voice; he felt authentic, and he was definitely more true to form than he was in his Voyager appearances.

Finally the ending seemed a bit surreal, but it's a Q novel and that's expected. There isn't much I can say about it without giving up too much of the novel, but I will say that I found the chaos and sense of risk and wonder just as satisfying as All Good Things.

Overall, it isn't a perfect book, but it's a very good book. It's one of the better Next Generation books I've read, and unlike the A Time to.... series, the pervading sense of gloom finally seemed to be lifted. It is exactly what I was hoping for from a Next Generation relaunch book, and unlike most of the books I tend to read, I could actually see myself reading this one again.

Four out of five stars.