Customer Reviews

Tooth and Claw (Star Trek The Next Generation, No 60)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is one of the best Star Trek books I've read in a long time. It was one of those "can't put down, read in one sitting" novels for me. I found the Federation characters to be right on the mark (Riker was as damned arrogant and annoying as I found him to be on the television show - but that's a good thing...he was written true to character!) and the alien characters were interesting, especially the parts about their culture and their daleura and kaphoora.

One of the things I loved about this book was the kaphoora. It reminded me of things I've read about ancient cultures such as the native Americans and the way warriors in those cultures achieved manhood. It's nice to read a Star Trek novel that takes the characters out of their normal element (off saving the galaxy) and puts them in something foreign to them.

Hopefully, this won't be the last Star Trek novel that Ms. Durgin writes!

I must immediately add Doranna Durgin to my short list of favorite Trek authors, and I hope she writes a few more in this universe. Her writing style is casual and humorous ("Worf Lite," for example. Read the book to learn what that's about.), and she sticks very close to canon with her characters, particularly with Worf and Riker. But...that doesn't mean she's afraid to step out of the box and have Picard do something surprising and refreshingly *un*-diplomatic to get the job done. I was impressed.

I had a very nice time visualizing all three kinds of aliens and the various flora and fauna encountered on the great hunt the Tsorans called the "kaphoora." Add to that plot twists involving sabotage on many levels, and to *that* add Geordi's struggle with alien technology and another one of Data's goofy "experiments" in humanity, and you have a swift and entertaining Next Gen tale.

I'm not sure what fans of a TV show want in a book, but I have to say that if you want a good episode coupled with good writing, this is it. The author understands the characters, and replicates their habits effortlessly. I'd never read a media book if I didn't already like the show; T&C gives me the best of both worlds: a great TV episode along with imaginative writing. Highly recommended!

Tooth and Claw by Doranna Durgin is a book about the right of passage... boy to being a man set in the STNG genre. The author has an engaging writing style. She captures the cast and crew of the Enterprise and keeps them true to form.

William Riker has the "pleasure" of taking a rather arogant young prince on his first hunt in a game preserve called the
Legacy. The Legacy is protected by a technology of force fields and a technology dampening field so you are on your own to prove your worth. Riker pilots the shuttle Rahjah into the preserve and meets disaster as the dampening fields take their toll on the shuttle and it crash lands adding to the intrigue. Can the spoiled brat prince and his party work together with Riker to survive? Here lies the story... and the author takes us through the trials and tribulations of the adventure.

This is one of the better written STNG books and has good character follow through without the loss of true STNG character profile. Ms. Durgin has a gift for writing and has a book here about survival against the odds. Action adventure are found and the consequences for actions also abound. The development of the plot and the characters is well thought and played.

This is a good read and I found the story to be irrevocably tied to the natural world and its creatures.

I recommend reading and enjoying.

If you enjoy Star Trek books, you'll probably enjoy this one. It did a better-than-fair job of portraying the established characters, puts them in a situation that is novel and moderately interesting, and has them interact with a fairly interesting and well-thought-out alien culture. And if I could have done without Data being an annoying twit, that's pretty much par for the course; he was no worse here than he was in many of the TV episodes, especially the early ones. Still, somehow despite all of the positives that I have to say about it, it just didn't grab me enough to rate a five-star review; on a purely subjective basis, I drop it a star. Still, it was a pretty fair read.

Of course, if you don't like Star Trek stories in particular or genre fiction in general, you won't want to read this. But you already knew that before I weighed in with my opinion.

This book plays just like an episode from the standard plot. Diplomat crash lands with the Worf and Riker only to find they are stuck on a hostile world. It could have been filmed in Canada like most of the Stargate episodes. The characters, especially Worf play ture in this novel. I am surprised though, the author was never given a chance to make another one.

For all the bad Trek fiction I suffered thru, this author in paticular looks like she might have made a good trilogy or two with another story.

This is author Doranna Durgin's, an author who has established herself outside of Star Trek, one and only foray into the Star Trek universe so far and I would definitely have to say that it would be nice if she revisited Star Trek fiction again. Based on the premise stated on the back of the novel, my first impression of this novel, and prior to reading it was that it would be another bland numbered novel that would find difficulty in holding my interest.

Upon reading it though, that first impression couldn't have been further off. While I wouldn't class this novel as being among the tops in the numbered novel arena I would say that it was a very good novel with a very good story. The only reason I haven't given this novel five stars is that I truly would like to have given it four and a half stars as it is very good story that is just a cut above the rest of the numbered novels but not quite in the realm of exceptional numbered novels.

I found Doranna Durgin's writing to be very good. This story has very good pacing that doesn't drift off in unnecessary directions, the plot set up and execution is carried out very well and the characterizations are dead on perfect to include some humorous moments which are difficult to do in print but she does it well here.

The cover art for this novel is a cut above the older ones as at about this time it seems that the powers that be at Pocket Books decided to start giving a little more attention to this somewhat important aspect to the Star Trek line of novels.

The Premise:

Although it's not specifically stated, this story is placed on the Enterprise NCC-1701-D prior to the events of "Star Trek Generations." Captain Picard and crew finds themselves in another one of those precarious dilemma's as they find that in order to help the people of the planet Ntignano whose sun is going nova thanks to the intervention of extremists they must first deal with the Tsorans who control an extremely tricky space corridor that is vital to the evacuation of the Ntignano's planet.

The story breaks down into three subplots as Captain Picard must deal with the ruler of Tsoran in negotiations for important maps of the space corridor while Commander Riker finds that he must escort the Tsoran leaders son on a ritual hunt within the bounds of an extremely dangerous wildlife preserve that is surrounded by heavy shielding and at the same time Geordi is in the position of attempting to establish communications outside of that shielding...

All of which combines to make an extremely intriguing tale that is at times extraordinarily exhilarating especially along the lines of Commander Riker's sub plot.

I highly recommend this novel to any and all fans of Star Trek fiction as it is a very good novel that fits well into the genre! {ssintrepid}

This is well written and very entertaining. The descriptions are very clear and vivid. There is a lot of action. The dialogue is great and the personal interaction is wonderful, especially the private commentaries and evaluations the characters make of each other. Those characters are very well depicted. Also, the alien cultures are unusually well depicted. There is a definite feeling that the Fandrean culture has great depth and we and the characters are only seeing a little of it. The Tsorans on the other hand seem shallow, not for lack of author talent, but because they are so obsessed with prestige and appearance that their culture has lost some of its original depth and content. All in all, this is a great and very entertaining book.

I have about a trillion ST:TNG books on my shelf, but this one is easily one of the best. It it filled not only with excitement and humor, but also meaning. It shows the struggles of a young man coming of age, learning to think for himself. At the same time, it explores the nature of communication. As Durgin shows, communication is about far more than words--it is laden with cultural gestures and ways of thinking about the world.

And it does all of this without mangling our understanding of the TNG characters we've come to know. Durgin definitely has the gift for writing. I'd recommend this book to anyone who enjoys sci-fi, even if they've never seen an episode of Star Trek.

Major Star Trek book readers may enjoy this book. What could be more adventurous than Riker stuck in an alien jungle with dinosaur-like creatures, no phaser, and a gaggle of asinine aliens? To be honest, I thought the idea sounded fantastic.

Did Doranna Durgin pull it off? As an avid reader, and a fan of Star Trek books, I can't outright say she did a stellar job. I understand that writing books in a series previously created by alternate writers can be difficult. Believe it or not, Durgin doesn't really have trouble with this. The characters seemed believable.

What I didn't like was how the story was told, how it was handled, and the two alien races that are both on the insipid and uninteresting side.

The story is so convoluted, I couldn't comprehend what was going on at any given point. Also, Durgin constantly interrupts a good flowing sentence with speech-like ramifications, or corrections. For example, she will write a sentence, then follow it with, "Well, actually it was..." or "Well, almost, but..."; this is repeated countless hundreds of times (it's presumably Durgin's writing style, which I find too distracting for my tastes). (Not to sound like an English professor, but she overuses incomplete sentences as well.)

Durgin's characters will suddenly materialize in a building on a planet (?) then back on the Enterprise, or with different characters suddenly walking in when I thought they were miles away.

The two alien species are so undeveloped and poorly written that I had a difficult time remembering who was supposed to be short, who's son was whom, and at this very moment (having recently completed the book) I have no idea what technology was used to cause the sun to go nova, or who owns the technology or, more importantly, why anyone would do that to a sun, or why the technology wasn't used for a more intriguing purpose other than to possibly kill off an unintelligent race.

Why would any alien creature create a habitat that operates like a public zoo, one that is open only several times a day, with days-long interims between openings? And why did Durgin, being a wildlife illustrator, create creatures that were pathetically unoriginal? Picture a snake with hands. Or an elephant sized furry something with two tails. Every creature that had tails ended up always having two tails. The creatures were not well thought out. And the supposedly shy scavengers ended up hunting more than scavenging.

I think a fitting quote takes place between Worf and Riker: "Worf looked at him, seemed to consider and assess. 'Things have not gone well.' [Riker replies] 'You don't know the half of it" (163). This conversation occurs 63 pages after the first of the adventures.

Finally, something I've noticed in the dozen Star Trek books I've read so far: every TNG book is brimming with typos. Where are these editors? I do not hold this against Durgin, et al., nor do I count it toward my final rating. But I've become fed up with it.

I am writing a less-than-positive review as a common reader. In the world of Star Trek, this book is one of the few poorly written books I've run across, and the story had enough potential to keep me reading to the end. The book really gets good with 100 pages to go, and the last chapter is the best written until the last page (before it becomes convoluted and even Data's motif throughout the book is poorly explained).

Keep an eye out for etymology scattered throughout. The Latin word "ingenium" pops up, among others.