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3.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent action, serious logical flaw in the plot, November 18, 2006
This review is from: The Romulan Prize (Star Trek The Next Generation, No 26) (Paperback)
In this tale, the Romulans have developed a plan to seize the Enterprise and engage in actions that would lead to a war against the Federation. Valak is a Romulan commander who is also a scholar, where his specialty is human behavior. The Romulans have created a new class of warship, far more powerful than anything they have had before. The Praetor has selected Valak to command the first of the new class of warships in a mission to not only capture the Enterprise but also investigate a planet in the neutral zone. According to Federation records, the planet is under strict quarantine; no Federation ship is to visit it.
For reasons unknown to both the Romulans and Picard, a long-lost Federation ship is in orbit about the planet. The Romulans succeed in their daring plan to capture the Enterprise and both ships go to the planet. The situation does not conform to the initial appearance, as the planet is in fact a hollow sphere with living quarters inside. A very advanced civilization constructed it as a space ark, but there seems to be no one living on it. That turns out to be false, the original tenants and survivors from the Federation ship live in the ark.
The Enterprise crew plot to retake their vessel while simultaneously trying to learn all they can about the ark. Since there are landing parties in the ark and Federation people on both ships, the action moves from location to location. The story ends with the original inhabitants of the ark, who are shape shifters, restoring control of the Enterprise to Picard, keeping the Romulans prisoners, moving the ark out of the neutral zone and embarking on a plan to infiltrate the Romulan Empire. The infiltrators will try to influence it away from their warlike ways. It is a somewhat unsatisfying ending, because there is one severe logical flaw.
When the original Federation ship arrived at the ark, the inhabitants would have learned all about the Federation and the fact that the ark is in the neutral zone. A quarantine imposed by the Federation would keep Federation ships away, but it would be only a matter of time before the Romulans investigated. Once they realized that a Federation ship was in orbit about the planet, the Romulans would consider it an act of war and react accordingly. Since the ark is capable of moving at warp drive, it would have been a simple matter for them to move it out of the neutral zone to a more remote location and prevent the possible outbreak of an interstellar war. Therefore, while I enjoyed the action, the ending was unsatisfactory.
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1.0 out of 5 stars
Boring Villians, Bad Editing, July 2, 2009
This review is from: The Romulan Prize (Star Trek The Next Generation, No 26) (Paperback)
Trek's most boring Romulans ever and a painfully slow pace make this a real funkiller. Lots of extremely distracting oversights in editing, such as the narrator retelling the same bits of barely relevant backstory each time we switch to a different group of characters. Or like the first chapter when Picard cancels red alert twice within a few pages. I think this went to print before the final draft was ever proofed. I stopped 80% through because I actually didn't care how it turned out. Don't waste your time.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent trek book!, August 31, 1999
By A Customer
This review is from: The Romulan Prize (Star Trek The Next Generation, No 26) (Paperback)
Overall, one of the absolute best trek books I've read. It has a mixture of awesome action and suspense and mystery. The characters are well written and stick closely to the show, and the premise keeps you guessing until the end. A definite must read for trekkers, and for those who haven't read trek books, read this one first!
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