Customer Reviews

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Before Dishonor

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(17)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(24)

 

 

I was very, very disappointed with this story, and frankly angry that I read it. Picard and Janeway, who are treated as heroes in most of Star Trek, are treated horribly here. A mutiny on the Enterprise has been done before, and should be unthinkable by an author who truly respects these characters. It seemed like all Peter David cared about was making them the butt of jokes. It just wasn't funny.

Shockingly enough, especially from a writer as talented as Peter David, Before Dishonor is one of the more bizarre books ever written in the Trek universe. Bizarre because David's tone, which is always so incredibly involving and perfect for the Trek universe, somehow goes completely off-kilter. Witness:

*a heck of a lot of people die in this book. Yet, for some reason, David plays it like a joke. I guess it really hit home to me when Admirals are betting on the end of the world, an entirely inappropriate exchange whose inclusion defies explanation.

*the Vulcan is a bigot. What other explanation is there? T'Lana, one of the more disgraceful characters ever to populate the Trek universe, is a bigot - she hates emotion, and she hates Klingons, and she hates being wrong. Ok, I can handle this is an ordinary Vulcan, but in a Star Fleet Officer? No. Unless we've returned to Enterprise again.

*mutiny becomes a laughing matter. Even more bizarre, new officers take it upon themselves to seize the ship and imprison fearless Picard and Spock and all the rest. None of this made any sense, especially in the context of the characterizations in Q & A (note - David has said in a published interview that he was never given a copy of Q & A before writing this book).

*dumb people abound. All you can say after reading Resistance and Death in Winter and Q & A is that we are totally doomed if these people are running the Federation. It was so bad it was painful.

*incomplete characters. A lady Q who appears for reasons unknown (one supposed that other Q wasn't finished in the stuff in Q & A), and Spock shows up and security officers run here and there, and unlike other David novels these guys and gals become card-board characters after a while. Heck, David even manages to dispatch Janeway into Boredom Borgdom before an interesting character study can emerge. Finally, William Wallac....ah, M. Calhoun makes an appearance to remind readers to buy a different series than this miserable book.

*the world (universe) that we know is at risk. First Resistance, then Q & A, and now this - for pete's sake, how many times can the EXACT same premise be told and still be entertaining? Heck, couldn't the writers at least do every OTHER book as a world/universe at risk story instead of EVERY single time?

But sure, there are a couple good moments, perhaps highlighted by an entertaining 'what happens when Worf gets phasered bit' but even then there is no way in Hades that Worf 'accidentally' hits a woman. It just wouldn't happen.

Don't get me wrong - the book moves quickly, the action is fast paced, and there are assorted moments of mirth. However, mirth and end of the world as we know it don't usually mix, and it seems pretty obvious that Darkness of the Light took priority over this hack job.

Of course, that's not such a bad thing - Darkness of the Light is a lot more interesting in the first 5 pages than this one is in the first 200, but what do you expect from Trek fiction these days? Fiction for adults?

Nope!

How sad.

First of all ... The Borg. Again. ZZZZZZZZZ

Second ... hate Voyager much? Cuz it certainly doesn't show in your writing ... NOT.

I have been a loyal Peter David fan for longer than I can remember. I've followed the New Frontier series from the beginning and I've bought many books I would never have looked twice at otherwise simply because Peter David was the author.

But this book was not just a let down, it was heart-breaking.

He's made it clear that he doesn't like Voyager. But the way he defiles it in this book is inexcusable.

He may hate Captain Janeway, but millions of Star Trek fans around the world love the character, as they do Picard and the rest of the captains. Killing her off while the potential for so many Voyager stories remains was not necessary for the storyline to be successful.

And having her killed off by an author who so clearly disliked the character was especially cruel to her fans - and we are many.

Kathryn Janeway's death should have been written by an author who loved her, or at the very least respected her a little bit. Christie Golden could write it and I could swallow it. But for Peter David to do it - I can't help but feel like he had no right to do it, and it was a rather cruel slap in the face to his fans who like Voyager, even though he does not.

I'm not sure I'll ever buy a Peter David book again.

What a shame. The death of a beloved character and loss of respect for one of my all time favorite authors.

Why'd ya have to go there, Mr. David? If this book is canon, then I think my days of buying Star Trek books are over as well. And I know I'm not alone here...

Where did it go wrong? This book was part of a great series of TNG stories set after Nemesis. So far, every book in the series had been great and captivated my attention. This book was written by my second favorite Trek book writer, Peter David. He has always managed to impress me with his writing and storytelling ability. So what made this book so bad?

Well, first off, this book has HORRID character development. Most side characters, some that have actually appeared in the series and some that appeared in previous books in the series, all act out of their established characters. Characters that have been made to be extremely loyal to Picard and trust in his judgment quickly commit mutiny at the first sign of his disagreement with Starfleet. First off, Picard has disobeyed Starfleet numerous times (including a couple times in this very series) and very few have disagreed. Also, mutiny is... very out of character for anyone who is supposed to be a Starfleet officer. It just wouldn't happen.

The story's dialouge is laughable, but not at its lame attempts to be comical. Peter David attempts to make popular culture jokes that just don't fight into the story and setting. When the largest borg threat over to face the federation comes baring down on Earth, all that some of the characters in the conflict can think about is how Pluto has been changed from a plant to a non-planet in the past-300 years, an attempt at a joke at Pluto's recent change. It just felt wrong.

Finally, the story itself is horrible and unbelievable. Peter David has the borg cube actually "eat" a pluto and other planets. A borg cube EATS a planet. WHAT!? Does anyone find that even remotely plausable? How the heck does that happen? A borg cube is a machine... How in world would by "EATING" a planet would it get bigger and more powerful. But apparently, Peter David thinks thats how it should work. But thats just the beginning of the horrible plot development. In the end, Peter David actually kills **SPOILER ALERT** Katheryn Janeway. I know that David disliked Voyager (to be honest, I never really liked it either, though I did enjoy the characters) but at the very least he should have left her death for a Voyager novel and not a Next Generation one. It was just his excuse to get rid of her. This not only just hurts this book, but it may result is a weaker lineup for future Voyager novels in the Voyager relaunch series, which I have also greatly enjoyed. **END SPOILERS**

This book does have a few redeeming values, but that are completely outweighed by its faults. Normally, this book would have gotten a two, because it has some redeeming value, but it gets a one because its author, David, should have been able to write something so much better, but ended up crashing and burning. At least the next book in the series "Greater Then the Sum" actually puts the series back on track and attempts to pick up the pieces of this lame excuse for a story. If you aren't following the TNG relaunch series religiously, save yourself the time and skip this book. The only reason to read this is so that you know what has happened in the story so as to understand the next books.

Peter David wrote Vendetta, the best Star Trek book ever. So I find it ironic that he has also written the worst one as well. This book was so boring, and pointless, that I felt angrier with every page I read. It was also painfully easy to predict what would happen at every plot point. What happened? Did he write it in one sitting? Did he forget about it until the day before it was due? Whatever the problem, this book just sucks. When I finished reading it, I left it where I sat. I feel bad for whoever picked it up.

This was the worst Star Trek book ever written. This very bizarre plot and completely outrageous ending is not worth the paper it is printed on. DO NOT GET THIS BOOK!!!!!

As a long time fan of Peter David's comic and novel work, I was really looking forward to this book. The characterizations are pretty spot-on, and the book moves at a brisk pace.

But Peter'you did not do right by Janeway.
You did not do right by Seven of Nine.

I recall seeing Star Trek: Nemesis, and the huge cheer that went up in the theater when Admiral Janeway appeared on screen (I think it was the only good feedback the audience gave.) Sadly, it just seemed like all Mr. David had was contempt for the Voyager characters in this novel.

There is a constant risk in Star Trek books (and films) of creating undesirable things that later works will have to take into consideration. Killing off key characters is obviously the most glaring example, but the introduction of a super weapon or an unbeatable enemy may make one book or film interesting but they can make later ones difficult or impossible.

Such super weapons or similar developments also have to make some sense within the Star Trek universe. The technology doesn't have to be explained by our current physics, but it does have to be consistent with the rest of Star Trek.

This is the greatest flaw of this book. Suddenly a Borg cube, all by itself, becomes somehow sentient, so that even with every drone gone, it can still assimilate visitors, and create its own queen. From now on, every book that takes up the Borg will have to incorporate this weird possibility.

Worse yet, veteran author Peter David commits the graver sin of killing off Kathryn Janeway. OK, first he allows her to become assimilated in this implausible manner, and then with the inevitable triumph of the good guys at the end, Janeway has passed beyond. The beyond is in the company of the Q Continuum, so conceivably they could send her back, but even Lady Q says that can't happen.

The best thing about this book is that it brings together Picard, Seven of Nine, and Spock. Their scenes together are memorable. Even offbeat starship captain Mackenzie Calhoun makes an appearance. But those scenes are nuggets during what seems to be the inevitable push to the conclusion where we know our heroes will save the Earth once again.

Not the best Star Trek book.

Peter David is an experienced and popular Star Trek author. In this book, however, the exaggeration of Borg capabilities and other gimmicks eclipses the rest of the story.

It turns out the Borg cube that is destroyed at the preceding novel has returned to life in a BIG way and proceeds to create havoc.

Picard, who is facing a mutiny on the Enterprise must deal with his own crew, his admirals, his ridiculous Vulcan counselor and oh yes ... the Borg - now lead by Janeway.

The ties to Star Trek TOS are interesting but only add to the noise.

I was also disappointed in the depiction of some of the characters. In this story, Janeway is a two-dimensional bureaucratic member of the admiralty and Seven has regressed to being as much Borg as human.

The story moves along well but relies too much on gimmicks - mind melding with the Doomsday weapon from STTOS, for example. I won't even mention the planet that is eaten by the Borg cube.

I seriously believe that this book needed the intervention of a good editor. Plot holes caused some problems that the fans will not let pass.

Some may find it hard to believe since this author has written other good work. This book is a soap twister. When the soap operas get boring, they take the good guys and make them bad and reverse the bad to good. This keeps everyone watching to see if what goes around really does, finally, come around.

The storyline is unbelievable. The borg are inconsistent and no one is going to buy that Janeway-turned-demonic plot. Rick Berman, Brannon Bragga and Joe Menosky worked on her character to the point that she was well laid in cement to be self sacrificing and loving with finest Starfleet leadership qualities. The best thing to do for this book is to make a sequel that explains that it really wasn't actually Janeway but rather a malevolent clone who got away with being an impostor, and work some surprise element in for the true Janeway to expose the fraud. Janeways fans will applaud that. The people who hated Janeway for some reason sort of liked this book. You are going to find the haters few and far between, though. I find it hard to believe that anyone would hate such a lovely, loving character with a strong constitution. To Each His Own. But for this book to succeed you need to fill the needs of the readers. The customer is always right. Bring on a sequel and clear up the nonsense.

I wouldn't spend any money on buying it. ( I got mine from a friend who complained so much that I wanted to see what all the fuss was about.)