Three (Star Trek: Stargazer, Book 3) (Mass Market Paperback)

Three has two different plot lines. An `A' story set board the Stargazer involving the twin sisters Gerda and Idun Asmund, the ships helm and navigation officers, and a `B' story involving the Stargazer's Pandrilite weapons officer Vigo. After dropping Vigo off at a research outpost on Wayland Prime, where he is to observe tests on a new type of phaser emitter, Stargazer has been sent to investigate an anomaly that has recently appeared in an area of space claimed by the Balduk, an extremely obnoxious race that is fiercely protective of their territory.

Without warning a transporter beam deposits a mysterious visitor onboard the Stargazer, a woman who appears to be in every way an exact duplicate of the Asmund twins. Determined to return their `guest' to her own universe the Stargazer must face off against the Balduk at extreme risk to the ship and crew. Meanwhile, on Wayland Prime, Vigo finds himself in the middle of a very nasty situation when a group of terrorists take over the facility, aided by one of his oldest friends.

Some readers of this series will probably find Three satisfactory and willing overlook the total predictability of the story. However, I found myself very disappointed that there wasn't much more to the story than already overused plot devises. While not one of the author's better efforts, Three does have a few things going for it.

One positive is the Balduk character Wutor Qiyuntor. The Balduk are a ridged and highly structured society. Through no fault of his own, Wutor has shamed himself in the eyes of his people and seeks redemption. I couldn't help but feel for Wutor and found myself hoping he would be able to recover his former position. As a race the Balduk are at times so preposterous that they are almost comical but the suspense of whether or not Wutor would achieve his goals was one element that kept the story interesting.

The plot moves quickly through the author's use of short scenes. The narrative is kept very simple, almost minimal. There are several amusing sly little references that have a little innocent fun at the expense of Picard and his future experiences on the Enterprise-D that many fans are sure to appreciate.

Picard himself plays only a minor roll in the overall story; the focus is much more on his crew and their reactions to their `visitor'.

Regrettably the positive elements of Three are unable to save it. A quarter of the way in it is glaringly obvious exactly how both plot lines will unfold. You keep hoping you're wrong and something else will happen but the story remains mostly unimaginative. The book reads like an expanded television episode, and disappointingly a mostly unoriginal episode.

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Such is the case with Friedman's entry into the on-going Trek novels with the Stargazer series. I wouldn't necessarily say that Friedman's Stargazer books are necessarily bad, but when compared to the stories being told by Peter David in the New Frontier series and the super work done by multiple authors in the DS9 relaunch, the Stargazer series isn't living up to expectations.

I will give Three some credit--it didn't make me want to hurl it against the wall like the past story in this saga did. That is probably damning by faint praise, but it saved the book and my walls a good deal of abuse.

The story is a pretty standard one. A mysterious woman who looks like one of the established set of twins--Gerda and Idun--mysteriously shows up on the Stargazer. Meanwhile, Vigo is meeting with an old mentor to see a new weapon design--that is until terrorists take over the base to try to start a revolution. Honestly, I've got to admit the Vigo plotline never really drew me in. It seemed to be a bit of a distraction from what was really interesting--the stranger from another universe who may or may not have her own agenda. (Of course, she does...and it's so heavy-handed in how it plays out over the course of the book. I will give Friedman credit that he tries to play a red herring in the book but it is so obvious as to be laughable).

Part of the problem with the book is it's too choppy. Friedman doesn't carry on a scene for more than two or three pages and that gets distracting after a while. Also, the ending comes a bit too quickly. It almost seems as if Friedman had a set page limit and tried to force an ending into it rather than allowing it to happen as a function of the plot.

So, why do I keep coming back to the Stargazer series, you ask. Honestly, I am intrigued by the concept of Picard as a young man who might make mistakes. Also, seeing the admiral who hates him so much and the lengths the admiral goes to keep Picard out of the limelight is intriguing.

And I keep hoping to find the type of storytelling that hooked me on Michael Jan Friedman's Trek novels to begin with. This book has moments of it, but they are too few and far between.

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