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This month posed a lot of problems when choosing what to read. I have plenty of things in my boxes that I had not read. Many of them were even eligible for this year. (Basically any book I've owned that was at least ordered by December 31 of the prior year.) However many of them were either so long I couldn't finish them in the time allotted, were in a series where I obtained only the middle and last book of a trilogy or I just couldn't find a theme. So obviously the solution was to look at the books I had in my boxes for stuff I wanted to reread. I needed books that would allow me to reach my 52 Books for the year and keep that roughly 1/3 of my monthly readers who prefer themed months at bay for a while longer. Looking at those reread choices I noticed all but one of them were written by one author. In a series like this a bunch of rereads is basically filler for the lazy man whose creativity had PETERed out. If I was going to pad a column I was really going to PAD a column.
- Star Trek: The Next Generation - Q-In-Law By Peter David:
I adore Q episodes. Peter David has written some of the best Star Trek novels ever written. He's great with snarky sarcastic characters. That this one would turn out as anything less than hilarious, even with some mild but obvious tampering by Paramount's licensing department, would be astronomical. Especially when you add in the fact that you're getting not one but two of Star Trek: The Next Generation's fan favorite guests. That's right, it's Q meets Lwaxana Troi. Others had thought of it and somehow Pocket Books and Paramount were smart enough to get a writer with a knack for just bizarre and downright oddball comedy work his magic on it. As an added bonus you get one subplot (which would have been the main plot in any other writer's hands) which is more or less Romeo and Juliet as a comedy plus hysterical subplot involving Wesley Crusher. (Yes I know hysterical subplot and Wesley Crusher are two things you don't expect to go together.) Due to a few twists of fate, Wesley is given a slave girl who thinks he's just as awesome as the TNG writers really wished the audience thought he was.
- Q-Squared By Peter David:
This one I wanted to re-read for a reason. I had the flu sometime in 1995 and wound up reading the whole thing in about two and a half days. As I said in my Q-In-Law review, most of Peter David's Star Trek books are amazing. However this one goes a little beyond that. It's Peter David getting to be Peter David. His story mixes together pieces that are unbelievably dark with elements of complete random silliness. Who else would think of sneaking cameos by Winnie the Pooh into a story of transcosmic mayhem, reality hopping madness and the end of the multiverse. No one. This is the type of novel the non-canon Star Trek was made for. It combines the delightfully fannish (Q vs. Trelane) with intelligent storytelling and some very dirty jokes. I loved this book when I was fourteen years old and much like it's predecessor Q-In-Law, I love it more now.
- I, Q By John De Lancie and Peter David:
At least as of 1999, there were two non-canon writers who had gotten Q stories right. First there was John De Lancie (ST:TNG Annual #1, Q vs. Spock) who many might know from his many appearance on TV a certain alien with a one lettered name. Then of course, you have Peter David. The idea put these two together and you get something spectacular. The book is good. I'll give you that. It's funny in just the right places. It hits all the right notes. However, the expectations are too high. If you expect it to be more dramatic yet droll than De Lancie's "The Gift" you're going to come out disappointed. If you're expecting another Q-Squared or Q-In-Law, it's in the same vein but not quite there. It is enjoyable especially for the interplay between Picard and Q. However this might be a rare case where the audiobook (read by De Lancie) might actually be more entertaining than the print version. The book is fine if you have a day or two to kill. It's just a bit of a letdown compared to both men's rather extensive contribution to the character.
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