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Space - The final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise-
well you know the rest. As we left our hero, me, he was attempting to read 52
books in one year. In one month he got a resounding three books completed.
Not the best score but being sick for a week could account for some of it, but
that's beside the point. How far did he get in February? I'm writing this
paragraph on the 31st of January so how the hell should I know?
- Star Trek: A Time to Hate: Overall, Robert 'Bob' Greenberger's pieces to
the 'A Time To...' subset of Star Trek books have been strong. The only
real weak points here are much like the first part he tends to make
individual chapters that go on for over 40 pages. This is fine if you're the
type of person who reads at home which I have been known to do. However, to me
a typical Star Trek book is something I read on the bus for maybe 20-30 minutes
at a time. On the other hand he writes the most gripping Star Trek this side
of New Frontier. The second problem is those last three chapters just seemed
sort of tacked on. The main story is all but wrapped up. It's not
Greenberger's fault. The whole point of the series was to fill in the gaps
between 'Star Trek: Insurrection' and 'Star Trek: Nemesis'. The one real
problem was that if you've seen Nemesis you know what all of those major changes are,
so it's impossible to build suspense. You know Riker and Troi have to get
engaged. You know Riker will be offered command of the Titan. The only real
surprise is that for the last two books Picard may or may not have been running
a mission not for the villainous Section 31 rather than Starfleet.
Just for the record the next two books, by David Mack are not written by the
David Mack who draws Kabuki. No- this is the David Mack who writes Star Trek
books. Different people. A common mistake of which I'm sure both Mr. Mack and
Mr. Mack are tired of by now.
- Star Trek: A Time to Kill by David Mack: Willey's Log Stardate: 1123.5: The
Enterprise has finally discovered what happened to Bob Greenberger's chapter
breaks. David Mack stole them all. Long range sensors indicate there are
several cases where chapters in this book are a page and a half long. Not to
say they are a waste. The skydiving from space scene was kind of cool the
first time it happened. To make each of the six teams doing it into their own
chapter seems a bit repetitive and might not have had the same effect if it
had been one 12 page chapter. As for the story itself, Star Trek is generally
at its best when you can strip a situation of its sci-fi trappings and get to
some real world event or issue. It's hard to took at the original series
episode 'Balance of Terror' and not see Kirk as JFK and The Romulan Commander as
Khrushchev. Here you have a situation that has eerie similarities to
actions taken by the United States that led to the formation of many of today's
terrorist groups. Mack doesn't waste much time on subplots. It's almost all
action from start to finish. That's sort of a change of pace from the other 'A
Time To' books which seem to be trying to cover a lot of ground on character
development in order to fill in the four year gap. The cliffhanger, while
thrilling, does not quite pack the punch carried by 'A Time to Love' but still
has me waiting impatiently to start 'A Time to Heal'. However, it is currently
2:45 A.M., February 7th. I'm headed back to sleep and hoping I'm not arrested
by Fozzie Bear again. (It's a long story that is better off unexplained.)
- Star Trek: A Time To Heal by David Mack: Again, this is part of the subseries
that fills in the gaps between 'Star Trek: Insurrection' and 'Star Trek:
Nemesis'. Here the vague allegory to the Iraq war becomes completely transparent. Which means for Star Trek- even by the post DS9 era standard- it gets
dark. Mack uses an advantage that Star Trek books have had since they became
the huge interlocking behemoth they've become, since the New Frontier series
proved that could work. Many other writers have created a cast of side
characters and given them roles normally given to red shirts on television.
Only in the books they were allowed to grow a little bit- even to the point
where they were getting more page counts than the missing Commander Riker. The
brilliant part is that previous writers Vornholt, Ward, Dilmore and Greenberger
made you get to know and like these new cast members and some of them don't
make it back. I'm not saying who because that would somewhat ruin the impact.
It really helps Star Trek's overall anti-war message. Also- the quasi-Section
31 subplot that felt slightly tacked on to the end of Bob Greenberger's 'A Time To
Hate' is very much forgiven because this book sees it to its ultimate pay
off. Well played, Mr. Mack. Well played.
- Star Trek: A Time for War, A Time for Peace by Keith R.A, Decandido :
Finally- after nine books the reason this series was a nine book series and not
just several duologies becomes perfectly clear. Decandido works threads
started by Vornholt, Ward, Dilmore, Greenberger and Mack into a tapestry. Not
only that, but he ties up some plot points from several of his own series
including the I.K.S. Gorkon books and a Star Trek graphic novel he wrote at
Wildstorm. (I just got a copy on a DVD of almost every Star Trek comic ever
written. I haven't read it yet.) He almost effortlessly cleans up the rather
cluttered continuity path between the Star Trek universe created by the books
and the Paramount enforced status quo set up by Star Trek: Nemesis. He also
manages to get the ball rolling on Mangels and Martin's Titan book and the Riker,
Troi, Data, Crusher and La Forge less Next Generation novels. Again, like most
of the 'A Time To'... books, after the third one the last two chapters seemed
almost unnecessary. Though it was nice to see almost every major character from
Next Generation (save for the O'Brien family and Reg Barclay) gathered for Riker
and Troi's wedding. Some of the characters were in Nemesis and others who
couldn't have been either for monetary reason or actor's health issues. A fun
read all around.
And now a reprint interlude to some comics reviews. Why? I promise it
will all make sense, I swear by the great bird of the Galaxy.
X-Men/Star Trek: When I first heard about this comic I didn't buy it. I love
the X-Men. I was literally raised on Star Trek from the womb. I assumed just
from the cover that it was one of the worst comics imaginable. As these things
happen, I was at a used bookstore at the beach itching for some comics to read
at the beach house on a rainy day when I came across this bag of dog poop on
their buy 10 get five free rack. I had 14 comics and the only other things they
had that I didn't already own were issues of Youngblood so I was stuck with it.
At first I was too scared to read it. When I got through everything else in the
bag, I got to this one. I slowly strapped myself into the Clockwork Orange
machine and started reading. It was everything that I feared it would be. It
took two of my favorite stories: Star Trek's: 'Where No Man Has Gone Before' and
Chris Claremont's 'Proteus' epic and did things that should be investigated by
Elliot Stabler. I didn't think anything could possibly get any worse until...
X-Men/Star Trek: The Next Generation: ... which actually merges, via the amalgam
concept, the Star Trek and Marvel Universes. I guess we should have known it
was Tasha Yar and not Rachel Summers who prevented the murder of Robert Kelly.
Or that Captain Picard and Charles Xavier have similar voices. (This was
actually somewhat prophetic since this was about two years before the X-Men
movie.) The plot was almost like they crapped and puked in a blender, set it on
puree and expected us to drink. To make matters worse- you don't even get the
full story. No, they expected readers to go to their local book stores and buy
the novel: Star Trek: The Next Generation/X-Men: Planet X. Don't get me wrong-
I am a brave man. I can take pain. As a child, some neighborhood kids shot me
point blank in the ass with a B.B. gun. I am brave enough to have read not one,
but two Star Trek meets X-Men comics. I am not however stupid enough to waste
seven bucks to do it. Though if the editorial staff gave me $17 (seven for
the book and $10 for pain and suffering) I'd be tempted to read and review. And
yes, you can hold me to that.
That's what I said a few years ago. Back during the late lamented 'Did I
Get What I Paid For?: Don't Blame Me' challenge I received two requests for this
book. I refused. One reader offered me half my asking price and I told them
to jaH Qu'vatlh SoH'egh. All but the most geeky of you- go look it up. Unless
of course Sheryl looks it up and which case that joke will probably get cut.
Speaking of our briber in chief, she offered to try to find spare copies of
those damned near impossible to find Legion tabloid sized comics and I said no.
A friend that I drool over when she's not looking said that she couldn't read it
herself because the entire concept seemed to define bad but she might find
someone reviewing it entertaining. My only defense here is- I bought a lot of
Star Trek books and Amazon was giving some away for free within a certain price
range. This was a rare one I could afford that wasn't part of a series. Let's
review what it takes for me to endure something like this- cash- no. Rare
comics- don't even come close. Making a geeky woman laugh- totally worth it.
Nice to know I've got my priorities in order. Well without further ado-
- Star Trek: The Next Generation/X-men: Planet Xby Michael Jan Friedman:
I
went into this with the preconceived notion that for anyone to have chance of
making this even resembling good they'd have to get someone who has done great
Star Trek stories and great X-Men stories.
Off the top of my head- that maybe Chris ('Uncanny X-Men', Star Trek: Debt of
Honor) Claremont or Peter ('X-Factor', 'Star Trek: New Frontier') David. I
wish I could say that I was wrong. This book was released in late 1998.
Claremont was beginning one of his returns to the X-Books as well as working on
Fantastic Four. Peter David was writing about five comics a month and somehow-
probably by not sleeping- turning out four Star Trek: New Frontier books a
year. So they turned to Michael Jan Friedman. A man who has written some
really great Star Trek novels and comics. I probably wouldn't have read any
non canon Trek if it weren't for him. When he writes the Star Trek characters he
seems sure, steady and knows what he's doing. Anytime he writes the X-Men it
seems shakier than a trailer park's internet connection during a tornado. Worse
yet- when they interact with the Enterprise crew it throws their characters off
as well. The story doesn't work and it appears even Michael Jan Friedman knows
it. To his credit, he really does try. A writing professor once told me that
when writing science fiction and fantasy it doesn't matter how scientifically
unsound your story is, if you buy into it and project your energy into it you
should be able to carry the audience with you. Don't try to fake it because the
audience will know. Friedman fails on this and it is painful to read. The
scene with Xavier and Picard is amusing, especially since by that point the
casting of Xavier for the X-Men movie was all but decided by the fans. The
problem was it wasn't 'Drew Barrymore teaching E.T. to talk cute' but 'creepy
looking paintings of Mexican kids with really big eyes' cute. It makes you
sick. Then there is the epilogue with Q and Uatu that just comes out of nowhere
and really tries to excuse the whole book. If Shakespeare ever wrote a play
that he thought was crap, he would have least found a poetic way to do it.
Something like: 'If these shadows have offended, just think this an all is
mended.' Friedman's ending is basically his way of saying: 'Yeah, it's veq! I
tried- but in order to keep both masters happy I had to produce this instead.
I've got kids heading to college and I'm not exactly buried in work these days.
It's work for hire, go figure.' The biggest disappointment of all however, was
that I was really hoping that this would be the worst book I've ever read in my
entire life. It's not. There's still Hemingway's 'A Farewell to Arms'.
Be here next month of a month without Star Trek. See ya then.
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