Doors into Chaos (Star Trek The Next Generation: Gateways, Book 3) (Paperback)

~ (Author) "THE FIRST THING they noticed was the stench..." (more)
Key Phrases: conn officer, core ships, tactical station, Marco Polo, Captain Picard, Mel Rosa (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

More than 200,000 years ago, the ancient Iconians created a network of interdimensional Gateways providing instantaneous transportation across unimaginable distances. Once known as the "Demons of Air and Darkness," the Iconians mysteriously vanished many millennia ago, never to return -- or so it was believed.

GATEWAYS
DOORS INTO CHAOS


Summoned to an emergency briefing at Starfleet Headquarters, Captain Jean-Luc Picard is stunned to discover that the legendary Iconians have returned at last, and are offering to sell the secrets of their advanced technology to the Federation. To prove their sincerity, they have reactivated their long-abandoned Gateways, but the results have been strife and chaos throughout the entire Alpha Quadrant. Now Picard and his crew must contend with feuding Klingons and Romulans as the captain seeks to discover the sinister truth behind the Iconians' unexpected rebirth!

About the Author

Together with Pocket Books Star Trek editor John J. Ordover, Robert Greenberger created the overall Gateways concept which forms the basis of the seven-part crossover series.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Star Trek (August 28, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743418565
• ISBN-13: 978-0743418560
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #442,714 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars I'm not sure I like Star Trek's "miniseries" kick, September 3, 2001

By	R. L. MILLER (FT LAUDERDALE FL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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If you narrow it down to just the two mass market paperbacks each month in the Trek series, what percentage of them are one book/ one story? Not many, I'm afraid--this seven-book cycle will turn out to be more than 1/4 of the annual GSTP (Gross Star Trek Product), and that's not counting other multi-book series within the Trek universe this year. It's a tendency towards grandiosity that's a step away from the old fashioned "space opera" format that made Trek the 35-year phenomenon which transcended the vast wasteland of TV where it has its roots--where boredom operates at tachyon speed. Okay, this book has a lot of the aspects that made TNG a success. Like Picard doing his usual thing of gaining the respect of cultures who think the Ferderation is otherwise populated by wusses. This trait in Picard makes him (don't you dare call me disloyal to Kirk!) the best skipper any Enterprise has ever had. We get to see Troi successfully command a ship in battle--being that I'm an admirer of hers, I like to see this strong but delightfully feminine woman get to prove she's more than just a shrink. And I get a kick out of watching her daddy's girl/ doting papa relationship with Picard. Worf shines here as a Federation statesman worthy of a Kissinger or Lodge--I like seeing him as more than just a skillful pair of hands with the bat'leth. But this whole idea of (blaring trumpet fanfare) "major sagas" is not what Star Trek is all about--why not leave that to descendants of Frank Herbert? Followers of Herbert and other "highbrow" SF have always sneered at Trek as being lightweight. Fine--I think of them as elitists and pseudo-intellectuals, got that? I've been a member of the Trek fanbase for all 35 years it's been around--why don't the people back in the real-life Trek Aitch-Cue listen to us like they used to. No more huge sagas! No more huge sagas! No more huge sagas! Or at least fewer of them, okay?

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A series again?, November 11, 2001

By	David Berger "dave305" (Boca Raton, FL) - See all my reviews

I have to agree that this trend toward series of books going through all the "Treks" is annoying. I have tended to not buy them even though I have a huge Star Trek book collection. I am a ST:TNG fan and do not enjoy reading the other series books as much. It seems like the publisher is trying to force me to read them in order to make sense of any single title.
I understand the marketing strategies here but I wish there were more stand alone titles in any single Trek series. Making me wait 6-8 months for a new title leaves me looking for other types of reading material and not Trek.
This book is okay but is a little to confusing for most of us. I recommend skipping it and waiting for a book you can sink your teeth into without 6 other for backround material.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars apparently the copy editor was sick that day..., September 11, 2001

By A Customer

"Doors into chaos" is right, but I don't think I'm thinking what they were thinking.

It gets three stars for being an OK story, but the grammar was so messy, so often, that I kept getting lost. I know about myself that I am a little picky about this sort of thing, so I try to forgive the first few typos and other similar errors I see in any given book, but this was a mess. There were run-on sentences I wouldn't have gotten away with in the sixth grade, sentence fragments that didn't even make sense, and commas run amok. Yow. It was so irritating I even stopped reading the story in the middle to email the publisher to complain, and it's not all that often I willingly put down a book midway. So. If you are willing to tolerate these errors (or wait til they get around to fixing them in another printing, perhaps?), it's a decent story, and it does start to make sense of the set of books, between which I had previously not seen the relationship, and it does have the advantage of being a Star Trek book. Your call.