Customer Reviews

Star Trek: The Next Generation: Reunion

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
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The book is well-crafted, its characters -- both previously established characters and newly created ones -- well-developed and for the most part plausible, the exception being the "villain" of the piece, whose motivations are too cardboard and trite to be plausible. The dialogue works, and the plot, while it starts somewhat slowly, becomes compelling as the story moves along. Unfortunately, the ending is somewhat unsatisfactory; the story is, essentially, a detective murder mystery in Star Trek's clothing, and I do not feel that the answer to "whodunnit" had been adequately foreshadowed in the earlier storyline. In retrospect, there WAS some attempt at foreshadowing, but it simply didn't ring true when the actual would-be murderer was revealed.

Definitely a good read, but just as definitely flawed.

Reunion teams Picard with his former Stargazer crew to solve a murder mystery. One of the crew is picking off Enterprise crew members one by one. Picard and his staff must discover who the culprit is before the Enterprise is destroyed. Star Trek is hardly the place for a mystery. However MJF makes the book work with solid pacing and characterization. This book sets Friedman's Stargazer series into motion. We get to see interesting characters, prior to the Next Generation. I wish Friedman were still writing Trek fiction because his characters were always true to their TV roots.

In the new fiction all the interesting characters are gone! B4, Riker,Troi, are no longer part of the crew. They were replaced by characters that aren't quite as compelling to read.

As a consequence of one of them ascending the Daa'Vit throne, several members of Captain Picard's former crew aboard the Stargazer are on the Enterprise and traveling to the coronation. The Daa' Vit and Klingon Empires had been at war for some time before the interjection of the Federation caused a cessation of hostilities. Despite the years of peace, the hostility remains and it is very difficult for the Klingon Worf and the Daa' Vit Morgen to occupy the same room. All of their instincts are to fight to the death, yet Morgen is a Captain in Starfleet and a close friend of Picard so both of them must bury their instincts and learn to tolerate each other.
That tolerance must quickly be turned into a working relationship, as there is an assassin on board the Enterprise that is determine to kill Morgen. The assassin is extremely competent in the technical sense, able to reprogram a holodeck into a killing machine as well as reprogramming food synthesizers and also extremely skilled in hand-to-hand combat. The situation is made even worse by the Enterprise inadvertently entering a subspace slipstream that moves them along at warp 9.5 and seems impenetrable. A secondary subplot is the effort that Dr. Crusher must make to keep her dead husband from her thoughts, for Jack Crusher served on the Stargazer and was killed rescuing the ship.
The action is fast, furious and consistent with the usual actions of the Next Generation crew. All perform admirably, Worf is the gruff Klingon that puts duty over personal feelings, Geordi is a miracle worker in engineering and Riker manages to woo and bed a female. Picard's former shipmates prove to be quite talkative to the point of insubordination yet in general they are all appealing, their conversations are much more open and honest, something that the Enterprise crew cannot do given their positions. Of course, the Enterprise is saved, the assassin discovered and disarmed and Morgen ascends the throne and galactic peace is preserved.
Some of the best stories are those where you know the literary destination beforehand yet the path there is so engaging that the foreknowledge is rendered irrelevant. This is one such story.

Gates McFadden does such a great job reading this fine story that some time after hearing it, I was almost cetain that it was one of TNG's TV episodes, I could picture it so clearly in my mind. This is a "fill-in-the-blanks" type story in which we learn a bit about Picard's command of the Stargazer when his old senior staff joins him on the Enterprise-D. It's a great mystery as well, what with someone apparently trying to kill off Jean-Luc's old friends. Enjoy!

This audiobook is breathtaking in two ways, first there is a thrilling story about past, present and the unknown friends. Then there is the beautiful voice and reading of Gates McFadden who knows exactly how to keep the listener concentrated and thirsty. Her style of narration makes this novel not only intersting for tng fans but for a wide range of listeners. The story itself is fast, cute and funny at times though mostly thrilling and Ms McFadden underlines every suspense with her intonation. It's a good choice for a lazy night or a long trip. You'll not regret having listened to it.

Star Trek: The Next Generation Reunion written by Michael Jan Friedman is a Captain Jean-Luc Picard who-done-it mystery with flashbacks to his U.S.S. Stargazer days.

The author does a really good job at blending in the Stargazer part of the book to the general theme of the book. Long before Captain Jean-Luc Picard was Captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise he was the Captain of the legendary deep space exploration vessel the U.S.S. Stargazer. For an incredible twenty-two years the Stargazer was on an exploration mission. "Reunion" is an excellent adjunct for the for the author's Stargazer series of books ("The Valiant, Double Helix #6, Gauntlet, and Progenitor").

Friedman works his storytelling magic with Captain Jean-Luc Picard, Commander Rike, and Lt.Commander Data with the rest of the Enterprise crew together with the Stargazer to join forces to solve a murder. I found the book full of action-adventure and the prose moved with a fast-paced style. The character development is well-thought out and so is the plot. The ending is typical for a Freidman novel... that's all I'm going to say so I won't spoil it.

Past and present come together in this book and I'd recommend reading this book along with the others I mentioned above giving the reader a more rounded experience with the U.S.S. Stargazer characters. This is an excellent read and I would recommend it.

Reunion was the first look in novel form at Captain Picard's past, intermixed with his current life aboard the Enterprise. While I'm not especially into murder mysteries, the author does a wonderful job. We see here, many of the characters aboard the USS Stargazer that he continues to use in later works. The characters, in keeping with the authors style, are all very well thought out. In minor agreement with other reviewer's, I would have to say that the villain's motivations were not really well detailed. The story does move along very well and it has an excellent ending to it. Overall a very good book and I would suggest reading this one prior to reading the other Stargazer books. Thank you to the author for a very good read.