Customer Reviews

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Genesis Force

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

 

 

This book-on-tape which seems to take place sometime during the next generation movies finds Worf in command of a small Klingon fleet resettling the colonists in wake of the Genesis wave. In this process they encounter a culture that has decided to preserve themselves in their orbital transporter network.

Tim Russ (Voyager's Tuvok) does an excellent job of portraying the full gauntlet of characters ranging from the out-of-favor scientist turned savior to the planet's genetically-perfect ruler to Worf and the Klingons.

The story brings back a few now-older characters like Worf's son Alexander and Jeremy (the kid that Worf took under his wing because he lead the away team that resulted in his mother's death). Both have ended up serving under Worf on the Klingon ship (Jeremy apparently through some sort of Federation exchange program). Unfortunately, the rest of the enterprise crew play a very minor role in the whole saga.

The story begins to pick up when the now-destroyed and supposedly lifeless planet appears to have life on it; moreover this life form seems to be able to shape-shift and nearly convinces the colonists to begin coming down in droves before the Klingons discover that the life forms are not what they appear.

The Klingons want to put everything on hold until they can figure out the mystery of the planet. In the interim, however, another mystery (which becomes Alexander's challenge) is formed when the planet's leader is killed and the heir-apparent and scientist-savior are the two leading suspects.

The colonists are not willing to wait (with the transporter systems failing and afraid of loosing lives) and begin a process that is supposed to re-terraform the planet. However, what they don't know apparently can hurt them and does.

It is amazing tale of how two very different scientific phenomenon come together to produce the story of Genesis Force. The first is the Genesis Force itself, which we first saw in the Original Star Trek Series, and anyone who follows the Trek series know this creates life from nothing. When it hits planet after planet where there is life, it destroys. Who unleashed this terrible force?

The Federation is looking into putting a stop to the Genesis Force doing any more damage while the Klingons go to the planet to try to help. In attempting to do so, they come up against a race whose scientific community wants to change the way their planet is ruled. So along with trying to reestablish life on the planet, they are up against a governmental overthrow.

The characters are very colorful from the ruling family to the Klingons and right down to the young scoundrel that ends up being the ruler of the new world as the story comes to an end. It tells of the murder of the ruler and the creatures created by the Genesis Force as well as the atmospheric conditions that must be fought in order to regain control of the planet and make it habitable again. There is even time in the book for a bit of a love interest between Geordi and Lea Brahms who we have seen in earlier stories of Star Trek. In the final attempt by the scientific community to create the same wonderful place they had before Genesis Force, they unleash a new force into the atmosphere on their devastated planet. The result is anything but what they wanted to create.

Tim Russ is the reader of this audio book. He reads the story with the fervor that only a person who has actually been a part of the Star Trek Series could give the book. He is able to inflect the words almost as perfectly as the character that played the original role. This is a must have for any Star Trek fan.

There is good science fiction out there. There are good Trek novels. This isn't them. This was awful.

It started out interestingly enough. The author explores in depth a number of characters on an non-Federation planet. We see a new culture, and new people. But even here there are a lot of missed opportunities. The culture is not delved into; we see few differences in culture other than what you might find on earth. Indeed, this culture is about as different from 20th century American culture as 20th century England is. It is written like a TOS episode, without a great deal of imagination.

The book goes downhill from there. There are few explanations for the events which follow. Characters are not believable, and amazingly flat. I have no idea why most of them did what they did. The Enterprise shows up at the last second, and I think saves the day, but there was no point to include them, other than that this is a Star Trek novel. There are scenes of amazing gruesomeness, which one does not usually find in a Trek novel or show- and there is no point to their inclusion. Except perhaps to claim to be cutting edge by being gruesome. I'm reading this novel, thinking that there are only about ten pages left- how are they going to satisfactorily resolve everything? Sure enough, they resolve everything- and it's anything but satisfactory. It's like there was a page limit, and the author realized that there were only ten pages to finish up the story, so lets come up with any old way to fix things.

The first half of the novel is in-depth; the second half rushed and confusing. I feel like I wasted an evening.

Although I am a fan of all the Star Trek TV series, I only read the occasional Trek book. If this book is typical or considered fine, I'm glad I haven't read more. The characters were flat, much of the dialogue bland - and this based on characters with rich, complex development from TV! I realize that authors' have limited liberty to work with the main characters from the series, but numerous times I nearly set the book aside out of disappointment. Spoiler Alert! Quick - how do we save Deanna from the monstrous serpent? How else: her empathic powers convince the beast "We are friends from long ago." Books such as this serve best as a bad example: here's how you don't do it. Although it's been many years since I read it, I'd recommend "Vendetta" over "Genesis Force" any day.

If you are a Star Trek fan, this is worth a listen. Personally, the best Star Trek Book to listen to is the New Frontier Anvil, however this is a good travel listen also.

Frankly, I would have been glad to see the whole "Genesis Device" concept die with "Star Trek III: The Search For Spock". The first two books in this series did a fair job of telling an interesting story resurrecting the concept, but the concept itself was already a moldering corpse even then. Book three had unquestionably passed the saturation point, and only a very well-told story with some very interesting characters saved this book from being a total waste of time and space; if the concept hadn't already been thoroughly played out, it would have been worth four stars, almost five. As it is, it ALMOST persuaded me to give it a third star, but I'm afraid that doing so might encourage the author to keep more "Genesis" stories coming. Please, please, please, let this concept die; it was ready to be put down twenty years ago.

Well,it's my OWN opinion...and nobody must agree with me...but why the writters almost always must(?)do strange or sometimes just stupid things with Alexander??It's disgusting.Why they couldn't do something like that with anyone else:-(?To add,this book have poor plots,and only merely describe the Aluwnans .There are my thinks after my first reading-maybe when I reach for this book again, I'll be in better mood,and will write here about "Genesis Force" sth more positive.

I thought this book was entertaining, and I did not feel at a disadvantage because I had never read a Star Trek book before. The plot was interesting, with some good twists. I thought the author was very creative in his use of futuristic conventions, while still leaving the storyline accessible to a non sci fi person.

When I picked up this book, I thought it would be about a new ship that was once again exploring the Genesis planets like in Star Trek III. However, I was MAJORLY DISAPPOINTED.

It is yet ANOTHER novel that is not needed for this story. There should have been only 2 books in this storyline. Once Maltz and Carol Marcus were gone (I'm not even going to whine about Saavik not being in this story!), then it should have ended nicely.

This novel seems very forced! "Let's mix in all the characters that were introduced in the earlier books, so we can call it Genesis!" There is NO EXCITEMENT and NO INTERESTING SUBPLOTS. I skipped through most of the story to only see how Picard's team handled this new adventure.

Save your money, folks! Discover the relaunch of Deep Space Nine and Voyager instead!

Genesis Force follows the aftermath of the Genesis Wave. Genesis Force is a bit darker than most Star Trek novels. It starts with a hellish scene of Worf leading Klingons in a rescue effort on a planet about to be struck by the genesis wave and the panic that has set in. We switch scenes to the planet of Aluwna. The remainder of the book tells the story of the effect of the genesis wave on the planet and the rescue and return of some of the citizens of that planet. Characters introduced in the other 3 books show up again as do some other familar faces. The book is well written and nicely paced The book has a dark tone and deals with hard mission. Its a bit different read and an excellent follow up to the other books and worth the price.