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1995-11-18
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TF01
3,Book Reviews
4,
STAR TREK - "THE ASHES OF EDEN" by William Shatner
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Reviewed by Marcus Priddey
--------------------------
Those of you that know me, or have read my articles will know that I
do not like James Kirk and that I am not particularly fond of William
Shatner either.
There are quite a few reasons for this which I shall not go into now,
but one of them is the fact that I think Shatner cannot act, so it is
with a certain amount of pleasure that I can inform you that he CAN
write.
"Ashes of Eden" starts off following events at the end of
"Generations" but then goes back in time to roughly six months before
the incident with the Nexus on the Enterprise-B.
The storyline is nothing new for Star Trek as it involves a
conspiracy, more specifically it continues with the conspiracy from
"The Undiscovered Country". It also deals with what happens to the
original Enterprise crew now that they have all retired, apart from
Sulu who commands the Excelsior.
Obviously the story concentrates on Kirk, but not to such an extent
that the other characters get sidelined. As you read the story
though, you start to think, or at least I did, whether you are
reading about Kirk's adventure, or is it Shatner? Certainly, reading
"Ashes of Eden", you can begin to see why William Shatner is the way
he is.
This is a good thing because you then wonder that maybe he's just a
regular guy like the rest of us and that the attitude he takes is
possibly just a front. If that's so then maybe if he would lower that
front, a lot more people like myself might not dislike him so.
Anyway, back to the book - this is the first book by William Shatner
that I have read (that includes the Tek novels) and it is well
written, maybe not on a par with full time writers, but still of very
high quality and certainly entertaining.
The other thing I particularly liked was his references to the past
movies and certain episodes in the classic series. Now some people
don't like this, but I happen to think that it shows a persons
knowledge of the show if they can occasionally slip a small reference
in.
The only thing I didn't like is that it is written in the same style
as his speech pattern, ie. lots of full stops. Like this. You see.
It... doesn't flow. BUT! You, get used to it.
On the whole, an entertaining read and a good yarn. If you like Kirk
and Shatner then you'll enjoy this. If, like me, you don't - try it.
You maybe pleasantly surprised like I was.
STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE 8 - "ANTIMATTER" by John Vornholt
------------------------------------------------------------
Reviewed by Tim Smith
---------------------
A tanker carrying antimatter destined for a new starship being built
on Bajor is hijacked by a terrorist group who escape through the
wormhole. Commander Sisko and Lieutenant Dax follow the terrorists
and infiltrate the group in a desperate attempt to recover the
precious cargo...
John Vornholt has written three previous Next Generation novels but
Antimatter is his first DS9 book. I have to say I was not impressed
by either of the two Next Generation books by Vornholt I have read.
My impression of John Vornholt's writing ability has not changed
after reading this tome.
There are so many things wrong with this book that it's difficult to
know where to begin to criticize it, but since I had to suffer
through all two hundred and seventy six pages for this review, you're
going to know about it! To begin with and indeed throughout the book,
Vornholt makes the classic mistake of making all sorts of technical
assumptions that any regular viewer of Star Trek knows are incorrect.
One example of this is the authors statement that Federation
antimatter is purer than anyone elses. What?! Even I know that
something is either matter or antimatter. There are no degrees of
purity. It's physically impossible!
Then there are the characters. Well, not exactly. There are a group
of people whose names are the same as those who appear in Deep Space
Nine, but that is where the similarity ends. All of the characters
suffer, but Dax has to be the one character who suffers the most.
According to Vornholt she likes nothing more than being alone in her
quarters reading technical manuals. Has he watched the show?
The plot drags along with the pace of a snail with a broken foot, and
made the whole effort incredibly difficult to read. However, the most
worrying thing about antimatter is the way in which the author uses
graphic descriptions of Dax in several passages, and an attack on her
that is described as rape. This style of writing is distasteful to
say the least and does nothing but debase both men and women.
I have to say that I cannot recommend this book in any way. Quite
frankly, if this is his best effort then I hope not to see another
Star Trek book written by John Vornholt. 0/10
STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE 9 - "PROUD HELIOS" by Melissa Scott
--------------------------------------------------------------
Reviewed by Tim Smith
---------------------
A mysterious cloaked ship, known as Helios is attacking ships on both
sides of the Cardassian/Federation border. Matters are complicated
when O'Brien and Kira are held hostage by the pirates and the
Cardassians arrive insisting on destroying Helios...
I had deep misgivings about this book. It seemed to have all the
ingredients necessary to make it a violent a blood soaked novel in
the tradition of "The Siege" and "Bloodletter". Well, what a surprise
Proud Helios turned out to be. What you get is a well crafted action
novel written in the same style as "Betrayal".
Let me get the criticism out of the way first. The book is supposedly
set during the shows third season. However, if you read one or two
passages (such as Keiko running the school) it seems to fit far more
comfortably into the shows first season. Another reason for thinking
this is the characterisation. The way Kira reacts, and the
relationship between Dax and Sisko is spot on for late first season.
The only other fault is so tiny and insignificant that I hesitate to
mention, but in the immortal words of Barry Norman, why not? At one
point during the novel, Sisko states that there are four hundred
people on board DS9, but the actual figure is two thousand (this has
been stated on an actual episode).
Enough of this petty criticism though. "Proud Helios" is a good story
told well. There are no graphic descriptions of violence, but the
plot grips from the first page and doesn't let go. There are two nods
to previous Trek episodes but whereas some other authors are blatant,
and thus not effective, Scott weaves into the plot beautifully. She
has really proven that you don't have to fill a novel full of
swearing and bloodshed to make an effective action book. "Proud
Helios" is an easy and exciting read and isn't it funny that all the
best Deep Space Nine books so far have all been written by women.
8.5/10
STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE - "WARPED" by K.W.Jeter
--------------------------------------------------
Reviewed by Tim Smith
---------------------
New holosuites installed on DS9 are causing havoc. Commander Sisko
and his crew investigate and discover a secret that could destroy the
entire universe.
"Warped" is the first Deep Space Nine hard cover to hit the shelves,
so you wouldn't be thought foolish for expecting something rather
special. Do you get it? In a word, no. Sure the book has an epic
feel to it, but that's about all that it has. You can definitely
tell that this is a novel by Jeter. Whilst not as violent as his
previous Deep Space Nine novel "Bloodletter", "Warped" is still a
book that dwells on disturbing subject matters, and certainly has a
nasty feel to it.
I know that there are some people who would say "So what?", and I
could understand (but not agree with) that opinion. However this is
not my only criticism of the book. The characters are only barely
recognisable as those in the television show, and as a general rule
neither act like or think like they should do. Several times in the
novel all of them (bar Quark) either decide not to tell anyone an
important piece of information, or take a course of action that
defies reason or logic.
The plot is the perfect example of style triumphing over content.
Just how the main villain is doing what he does is only explained in
a very superficial way, and why he is doing it is never explained at
all. For the reader to fully accept the plot requires great leaps of
logic and suspension of belief. Yeah, okay, I know I'm talking about
science fiction, but if the story doesn't have any reason to it, then
it is neither believable nor readable.
This is an improvement on "Bloodletter", but then virtually anything
would be an improvement on that book. At the end of the day "Warped"
is a missed opportunity. It goes nowhere, and you are left wondering
why you bothered in the first place.
4/10