Customer Reviews

Q-Strike (Star Trek The Next Generation, Book 49)

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

After a decent opener, a flat sequel, this third installment is the best of the bunch.

Though it is much more action packed than the last, and the main characters are all reunited once again to fend off a common threat, it somewhat lacks the humor (from Q's dialouge) of the 1st book.

What I really enjoyed was more of the background of the main villian/s and their lore in past Star Trek moments. It is really neat to see how tightly alligned some of these books in comparison to the Star Trek Universe can be.

I was expecting a bit more of the Continuum to rear their heads as the trilogy implies, but not really. Also, after done with all three, I'm not sure I learned anything spectacular about the Continuum and thier origins.

All in all, Mr. Cox I believe redeemed himself with this book as number 2 was a let down.

Enjoy, and I look forward to more Q antics.

After starting well in book one, and then slowly down to a crawl in book two,book three lets loose with some of the best story telling in the book series! Q faces an enemy more powerful than himself (a storyline touched on in Peter David's incredible "Q-Squared"), but this time he is trapped aboard the Enterprise and must play a sadistic game of "Hide and Seek" against his enemy, O. The storyline involving the female Q and baby q was equally gripping, as they faced the Betazoid professor now enhanced by the Galactic Barrier (as happened to Gary Mitchell in the original series episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before"). The story races along incredibly well, and makes up for the horrible sluggishness of the second book in the series. Definitely not one to miss!

Star Trek: The Next Generation - The Continuum: Q-Strike written by Grex Cox is the concluding part of the trilogy called the Continuum. As Riker heads for the "safty" of the outer fringes of the galactic barrier to escape the Calamarain, as the Enterprise is in grave circumstances, with psychokinetic energy of the barrier battling the Enterprise crew, as the shields are modified to absorb this energy; and the Q going to war with O and Jean-Luc Picard is still along for the transcendental ride through the galaxy with Q.

This book does grab you and it does keep you interested as to how will this Q-ish nightmare of cosmic war will end, as Jean-Luc Picard completes this strangest of all experiences through demensions... will the galaxy be doomed. As ancient conflicts resume between powerful enemies... Picard is now in the middle and the consequences are existence itself.

This book wraps-up some of the loose ends that Q has created and has a rather Picard solution to it. As this third installment of the trilogy was the best of the lot, you will find that the narrative to be the best, also. All in all, with the surpreme challenge at hand, who better to trust the galaxy's fate... none other than Captain Jean-Luc Picard.

While I like an occasional StarTrek novel, this one reads like a waste of time, and not only because I can't quite get into suspension of disbelief where humandoids normally oversmart superpowerful dieties. I could not bring myself to care for the story much

Aparently Cox decided he had explain every undefined mystery in the star trek universe! From the dinos, to the barier on the inner and outer part of the galaxy, to why Q hangs around with humans, and even people from TOS! That's the only thing I can complain about, his obvious need to stop watching Star Trek for a few days. The book was good, but the cover was better! How come we can't review the cover?

Well, these three books are the first that I've read from any of the Star Trek novels. I think they were great! I finished all three books in two days, and I want more. A lot of you seem to claim that this trilogy was not good, and that an author named Peter David is much better. I don't see how that's possible because this series was so good. A lot of the reviewers claim that it was too drawn out with details and Star Trek tv show references, and I just say, "so what?" If you don't like the references, just skip over them, although I don't see how it's so hard to read a couple more pages. A great trilogy!

I liked this trilogy -- the story was interesting and kept me looking forward to what would happen next. But the pacing did seem kind of slow at times -- for example, the Enterprise's situation remains largely unchanged from the middle of the first book until the beginning parts of the third book. The books themselves were not self-contained -- it was almost like the publisher got to a certain number of pages and ended each book rather than letting the story dictate where to make the breaks. I did really like the tying together of past Treks which Peter David usually does so well in his Treks. Tying apsects from the original series, including Star Trek V (which I had previously thought impossible), with some elements of TNG into a Q story was very satisfying to me. I also thought Greg Cox did an excellent job portraying Q's sarcastic personality and his interactions with Picard are as good as I've ever seen. There are also some aspect of Voyager in there as well. And this was probably the most troubling to me: By and large, this story takes place after the events from "The Q and the Gray". On TNG, by and large, Q is seen as a super-interloper who forces the regular characters to examine themselves and humanity. In Voyager, he is seen as a super-being who has his own personal problems. The Q in this trilogy is the Voyager's portrayal of Q rather than TNG. There is no introspection or growth for humanity, but rather our heros helping Q fix up his own screw-ups before it threatens the galaxy. I don't necessary have a large problem with that -- I did like Q's appearances on Voyager -- it's just something to be aware of and to me, especially in a "saga" like a trilogy, I think it should be more than just an adventure story.

This was a fun read, but not as thoroughly entertaining as I thought it would be. The story started off well with the first book. Cox has Q's voice down pat (the older Q that we are familiar with that is), and the inclusion of Q (Q's wife seen in the Voyager episode "The Q and the Grey") and q (their baby) was very entertaining.

Moving into the second book, the story slows down a lot. Overall the story is interesting, but not absorbing. I found that I had trouble focusing on it, but I can't say for certain why that was. The background on the Tkon Empire is interesting as is the previously unseen history of Q.

The third book, of course, wraps up the story. Despite the grave struggle that Picard, Q, and company went through to resolve things, I didn't feel the excitement of it all. Again, I can't put my finger on any particular reason, but the series was a bit of a disappointment, though it was still fun.

There are three major problems with the Q Continuum series:

The first is too much of a reliance on references to events in past episodes of the TV series. An occasional reference is OK but these books, especially the first one, are littered with them. There are so many of these that it becomes distracting. It is a great way to take up space and make the book longer, but it does nothing for the story since the people reading these books are already Star Trek fans and are already familiar with all of these events.

The second problem is spotty editing. This has been a problem with Star Trek novels, especially the Voyager books, but this series is, in this respect, the worst that I have read so far. The problems are mainly in the form of entire words missing from sentences, or duplicate words. One or two such mistakes in a 275-page book may be understandable, but when there are as many as there are here it just becomes distracting. There are 32 such occurrences in the third book alone!

The third problem that I had with the series is that even near the end of the second book Picard was asking himself why Q had brought him on the journey and what it had to do with the barrier. This is ridiculous. The reason is obvious to the reader as soon as 0 commits his first transgression and Picard would have probably figured it out even before that. To think that he still didn't know after all that he had seen is stretching believability.

But in the end this is an entertaining story and if you are a fan of Q then you should like it very much. They're not the best Trek books out there, but they are worth reading.

Ugh.

Let me repeat that: UGH.

This boring, drawn out conclusion to a boring, drawn out trilogy was actually worse than its two predecessors, which I thought was impossible. It is tedious, repetitive, preachy, transparent and UNORIGINAL. The characters were cardboard cutouts repeating lines we've all heard before, repeating behaviors we've seen a thousand times.

Q reached his hiatus as an enigmatic, occasionally benevolent, and inherently chaotic character -- like a cross between Loki and Obi-Wan Kenobi -- in "ST: The Next Generation." Q has been in decline ever since, becoming a neutered, pathetic character on "Voyager." This book is the final insult.

Q is showing NONE of the DEVELOPMENT he received on TNG's "Tapestry" and "All Good Things" and Peter David's masterfully written "Q-Squared" and "Q-In-Law," having become a gross parody of the chaotic mentor of the Enterprise. The worst part is, I *REALLY LIKE* Q.

Just not like this.

The bitter joke of the whole thing is I was entirely willing to give the trilogy a chance. I read all three over the course of three weekends, hoping for it to stop dragging along and get going.

As I read, I kept waiting for it to get better.

And waiting. And waiting.

By the end of the third book, I was disgusted. I'm tempted to never read this author again, and I am VERY turned off to any new Q books, if they're going to be like this.

For Q stories, I guess I'll have to go back and re-read "Q-Squared" and "Q-In-Law," then go watch "All Good Things" and "Tapestry."

It had such potential.

What a shame.

As a strong fan of Star Trek it is a rare occasion when I have to read a book in short nibbles rather than simply consume it in one or two sittings. That was my pattern when reading the first two books in the trilogy and this one completed the circle. It is based on an explanation of the barrier at the edge of the galaxy and why Gary Mitchell is changed into a godlike creature when the Enterprise encountered it in "Where No Man Has Gone Before." In the previous installments we learn that it has been constructed by the continuum to keep a powerful and vicious super being outside the galaxy where he can do no harm.
In this episode, a scientist aboard the Enterprise has a plan to poke a hole in the barrier and the gaseous Calamarain, who know the reason for the barrier, are battering the Enterprise in an attempt to prevent it. The powerful creature manages to pass through the barrier and get aboard the Enterprise, where its goal is to destroy Q. In doing so, it manages to install super powers and a hint of madness in the scientist and his son. It is up to Picard and the crew of the Enterprise to find a way to defeat the powerful creature before it destroys the only thing standing its way, Q.
The problem with the story is that the powerful creature has demonstrated that it can easily subdue the Calamarian and it took the power of the entire continuum to defeat it. Yet, when it returns and its level of insanity is supposedly making it even more powerful, the combination of Q, Picard and the Calamarain are able to defeat the being. It is all powerful on one page, yet rather easily humbled on another. Picard's physical involvement in defeating the powerful being is absurd to say the least.