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Didn’t Like It “Average novel unfolds at a clumsy pace with a plot borrowing from ST:TNG’s fourth season Clues and resembling Doctor Who’s Warrior’s Gate. Hambly unwisely dumps a load of new characters (with names that aren’t exactly easy to keep track of) unceremoniously offering little to distinguish them,...” see full review » see other reviews » |
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“Average novel unfolds at a clumsy pace with a plot borrowing from ST:TNG’s fourth season Clues and resembling Doctor Who’s Warrior’s Gate. Hambly unwisely dumps a load of new characters (with names that aren’t exactly easy to keep track of) unceremoniously offering little to distinguish them, despite the characters harboring some big differences amoung them. In contrast no detail is spared in describing both the Enterprise and the Nautilus as well as the scorched remains of the planet Tau Lyra III, often sacrificing potential character and plot development for exposition on the color of the wafers onboard the starship. Hambly infuses the book with several themes but few of them are explored fully, especially that of nearing the end of the five-year mission for the crew. Aside from a few mental notes in Kirk’s head, Hambley uses Nurse Chapel as the conduit for this theme, an odd choice indeed although making for some poignant moments as the obvious detachment from the core crew Chapel experienced in the show is repeated here, making her character a very sad one indeed. The scenario involving telepaths navigating starships through space and how they are bred is explained in a very muddled manner and I suspect that my watching of Warrior’s Gate has more to do with my grasping it then the author’s own explanations for it. Perhaps in an attempt to steer the book away from falling into the quicksand of fan-wank, very little of the future is revealed and little or no continuity is established between both times however Hambly sabotages the potential for a truly epic story, confining to the Enterprise and the other two ships. An apparent last-minute filler erupts in which Ensign Lao, a character which Hambly keeps trying to portray as some kind of heir to Kirk yet offers no evidence of, goes crazy with the knowledge of the future and tries to blow up the Enterprise in a manner convenient to padding out the novel (he can’t just blow the ship, he wants it to blow up when Kirk beams over allowing the obvious scenario of Kirk not beaming over). The finale in which the crew realize something has happened and they themselves have covered it up and their decision not to uncover it is laughable not only in that it seems such an atypical response for this crew, but also for it is the most suited to that of the TNG crew not this one. As the title implies the novel deals with crossroads both real and metaphorical, Hambly being more adept in portraying the crossroads of life that Nurse Chapel has arrived in rather then those in the rest of the story ”
Nick Fury wrote this review Sunday, May 3 2009. ( reply | permalink ) Was this review helpful? Yes | No
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