Customer Reviews

The Romulan Stratagem (Star Trek The Next Generation, No 35)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book brings back one of the most interesting villians to grace the Next Generation . . .Sela! Having only made brief appearences during the TNG seres, it was a real treat to find out more about the fascinating daughter of the late Tasha Yar. The story starts out a little slow, but it quickly builds into a page turning plot. Look for some great scenes involving Data and Sela. Two phasers up on this one

Star Trek-The Next Generation: The Romulan Stratagem written by Robert Greenberger is a Captain Jean-Luc Picard vs. the Romulans book. In this book the Romulan Picard is pitted against is an old nemisis Commander Sela. There is a fleshing out of the Sela character in this book. This book fills in some of the gaps in logic for the Sela character making for an interesting read.

This book's premiss starts out as a routine mission to an unexplored planet near the Klingon/Romulan border called Eloh. The Elohsians are negotiating for membership in the Federation, but the Romulans have interest in Eloh as well. When Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise arrive at Eloh with a diplomatic team they find Commander Sela there trying to convince the Elohsians to join the Romulan Star Empire.

Faced with a decision, Picard must find a way to convince the Elohsians that joining the Federation is a much better choice, but with the Romulan involved treachery, deciet, and guile are the standard. Sela is Tasha Yar's daughter as she has appeared in previous TNG television series and we know she can be a worthy advisary, and she has her sights on Eloh.

There is a sub-plot with Data/Sela as Data must form an uneasy alliance with Sela making for an interesting plot twist. Twists and turns abound in this book as Picard trys not to lose a strategic advantage, as Sela trys not to lose the planet Eloh to the Federation as a stratedic stronghold so close to the Star Empire.

Mystery, intrigue, and action-adventure abound in this book as the author gets the Romulans right with deciet, deception, and guile.

I have read perhaps 100 or more ST books...some great, some not. I only read this one because I wanted to fill in the gaps concerning Sela (Denise Crosby), the enigmatic Romulan commander who was the daughter of an alternate timeline Tasha Yar. I must say that Mr. Greenberger did an admirable job capturing the essence of these TNG characters, especially considering this was his first Star Trek novel to have authored alone. Still, the story itself was a little lacking in action and plot. Not a bad ST book, just not a great one either.

This is a solidly above-average Star Trek novel, with a very interesting and worthwhile plot, more cerebral and less standard than most, while still maintaining enough drama and action to suit most tastes. It has excellent characterizations, good pacing, and is reasonably if not superbly well-written, with only a few of the sort of proofreading errors that I generally complain of (and those somewhat more subtle and with words that are easier to mistake than some books make: "complementary" colors, rather than "complimentary", which might even be arguably correct, although it seems wrong to me; "diverted" instead of "averted"; "breath" used as a verb, rather than "breathe"; "peaked" her curiosity instead of "piqued"; bombing "sights", rather than "sites" (twice in three pages). Not a bad count, compared to many mass-market paperbacks. The other reason I have for not granting it five stars is that I found the subplot with Ro Laren to be pretty irrelevant and unnecessary to the main storyline, if not completely without interest, and thought that it was not really concluded very well. But the main storyline mostly made up for that with a VERY interesting and plausible ending.

This story is of a type more often found in the Original Series: the Federation and one of its enemies are competing directly for the allegiance of a newly star-faring civilisation, the Elohsians. Both sides try to show their best features, with the Romulans of course doing their bit to sabotage the Enterprise crew. The premise is really good but the author fails to make a good story out of it. Much of the early book is taken up with conferences and banquets and such, where the Romulans and the Elohsians do their best to needle and provoke the Enterprise crew, and they in turn do their best not to show how irritated they generally are. I don't know whether it's excess empathy with the crew, but I did not enjoy these scenes any more than they generally do. The Elohsians are also rather arrogant and conceited. You expect and get that from the Romulans too, and both together were too much. The book later moves on to explosions and some fighting, and this reveals that the author's writing style is just too flat, too uninteresting for the events he is presenting. To top it all off, there is a sub-plot involving Ro Laren, intended mostly for comic relief. It has long winded scenes too, and the humorous events do not make up for the amount of time spent getting to them, let alone provide a good counterpoint to the rest of the book. While some of the book is good, overall the entertainment value is just too low to be worth reading.

This was the first Star Trek book that I have ever read. I Loved it!! I felt I had a bond with the characters. Robert Greenberger is awesome. I felt like I was part of the story. Getting beamed down with the Away Team and meeting a new race of people. My wife thought I was going to far when I began saluting her and calling her Number 1. I'm hooked on Star Trek now!!!

The Romulans were the main villians on the Next Generation and are by far the best enemy the Federation has ever had! This book is interisting and has some real fine points in it. Highly recommened for any Star Trek Fan!

The Enterprise is called on a diplomatic first contact mission to a world which has only recently achived a world government after ages of war amongst themselves. However, when they arrive they find a Romulan warbird orbiting the planet and discover the inhabitants are entertaining both the Federation and Romulan Empire as possible allies as they step into the interstellar community.

A few days into negotiations, terrorist atacks on the planet implicate Geordie LaFordge, and possibly the Romulans in a plot to use force to sway the decision of the planet's leadership. Data, investigating the atacks, forms an alliance with Commander Selar, infamous daughter of Tasha Yar, for the purpose of investigating the attacks and clearing both Federation and Romulan involvement.

Meanwhile, Ensign Ro Laren has a young suitor who she's trying to let down easy as Commander Riker gives advise on wooing a woman to him, not knowing who he's wooing. An interresting sub-plot which brings some humor to break up the intense negotiations going on. Altogether a good, though not spectacular, book worth the time to read.

"The Romulan Stratagem" is author Robert Greenberger's first solo Star Trek novel and if you read the author's notes at the beginning of the book, you'll see that it was a labor of love for him to write this novel and it paid off extremely well. What I find surprising about this novel is that it was released as a paperback because I truly believe it had earned a hardback release.

I found Robert Greenberger's writing style to be extraordinarily well paced and his knowledge of Star Trek in general shows on the pages, his characterizations are "spot on" and his usage of guest characters in the story is beyond reproach. I especially liked his usage of Ensign Ro Laren, one of STNG's best non regular characters. "The Romulan Stratagem" clearly puts this author in my top ten Star Trek authors list.

The cover art for this novel is above average for the time in which this novel was published.

The premise:

The Enterprise is on a mission to the planet Eloh, which is dangerously close to the Klingon/Romulan border, to negotiate its potential Federation membership. Upon arrival though, a Romulan Warbird shows up and it's commanded by Commander Sela and she's there to "negotiate" with the Elohsians as well, hoping that they will soon join the Romulan Star Empire.

A series of fatal incidents brings suspicion upon both delegations and Data must form an uneasy alliance with Sela in order to prove the innocence of the Enterprise; at stake is this strategic stronghold, vital to the Federations vigilance of the Romulan Star Empire.

I highly recommend this novel to any and all fans of Star Trek fiction. Author Robert Greenberger's work with this novel deserves all the praise that is possible for it. {ssintrepid}

Now we know who the weak link in the TNG novel "Doomsday World" was. Is The Romulan Strategem a completely terrible work? No, it's not. But it barely passes, and here are some of the reasons why. First, the packaging. Yes, I know that Greenberger is not responsible for how the editors assemble the book, but be warned: 1) Ro's role is both minimal and stupid; 2) there is no "threat to the Federation" despite the exclamation points at the top of the front cover; 3) as we've come to expect with Trek novels, the infamous "back of the book" is both misleading and preemptive - there isn't much of a Sela/Data "alliance," and what there is of it occurs two-thirds into the book. Way to not give anything away, editors.

Second, the poor editing. There are just plain mistakes throughout. One particularly frustrating example: Data sees Geordi standing in a corner at a party, a party where, we are told, there are no chairs. Three paragraphs later both Data and Geordi are sitting down! Such sloppiness is aggravating and unacceptable. (A disclaimer: should you find any typos or other mistakes in this review, remember that *I* am not a professional!)

Third, the [bad]sub-plot. Ro has to play nursemaid to a teen-age boy who develops a crush on her. Oh, what sheer unadulterated joy . . . .

Fourth, lots of annoying little details. For example, Picard mentions Edgar Allen Poe early on, and suddenly everybody, including Worf, is reading Poe. Poe-lease!

Fifth, constant thoughts by Picard of how beautiful Sela is. Sorry, folks, but a hotty Sela is not.

The only saving graces here are a sympathetic leader of the alien planet at issue, and an ending that is other than the usual good guys always win. Buy it used, if at all!