Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: By the Book (Star Trek Enterprise) by Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch ISBN: 0-7434-4871-5 Publisher: Star Trek Pub. Date: 01 January, 2002 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.4 (25 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: An enjoyable read.
Comment: I admit that this book isn't exactly stellar (pardon the pun). It's not a book that pushes the envelope or challenges my thinking. It didn't enlighten me, nor did I glean some great bit of knowledge from it.
However, I enjoyed it, from beginning to end. It was just entertaining - period. I think the authors did well considering that this is a fledgling series and is less than a year old. It must be tough to try and capture characters that are so unestablished. Especially when the reading audience is composed of Star Trek fans who are notorious for nit-picking and often consider themselves the continuity police. (Don't get me wrong here. I am a devoted Trekkie, and I mean no offense whatsoever.) It must be somewhat daunting to write for such a group, hmm?
The story was entertaining, and I liked the fact that the second alien race appeared so frightening and asthetically displeasing, but their peaceful nature forced the mostly human crew to see that the old saying is true. You can't judge a book by the cover.
I enjoyed this book, even if it wasn't earth-shattering or a literary masterpiece.
Rating: 4
Summary: Not a bad start for a companion to the series
Comment: A friend recommended this book to me a few weeks ago. I was a little surprised, since the series is still in its first season. I picked it up though, and was pleasantly surprised to find it written by a duo of authors who have written prior Star Trek works that I found quite good.
This novel reads very quickly, and does feel very much like it could have been an episode. I was quite surprised at how it was able to pull out elements from the "history" of the show -- most particularly the events from the episode "Strange New World" -- and how well those prior events fit into the plot of the novel. The interplay of the junior officers was quite interesting, but like prior reviewers, I found the early RPG sections of the book to be annoying in the sense that they took time away from the main characters and their thoughts on the mission ahead. Later in the book, though, the RPG sessions dovetail into the main story quite nicely.
I was a little shocked at how inept Captain Archer seemed to be. I realize that the events in the novel were supposed to take place just a few weeks after the Enterprise was launched, but it would seem that he would not have disregarded his staff's opinions as cavaleerly as he did. His interaction with T'Pol also seemed at odds with the truce he seemed to have struck with her. Perhaps this is more a function of my having watched episodes of the series that have taken place "after" the events of the novel.
It was nice to see Phlox, Sato, Reed and Merriweather playing integral roles in the resolution of the story. All too often in the show, one of these four gets shunted to the background. And the ultimate resolution between Archer and T'Pol seems to justify the iciness the reader endures in the earlier sections of the book.
Overall, this is a quick, but worthwhile read.
Rating: 4
Summary: Surprisingly good for the first in the series
Comment: You could criticize this book for its sometimes bland or inaccurate characterizations of the crew, but if you're a veteran reader of Trek books you won't, since you'll know to expect that in the early books of any of the series.
As I see it, the only flaw worth taking off rating-points for is that too much time is devoted to the story's secondary plot, which centers on a role-playing game, and quickly becomes rather boring.
By the end of the book, I almost wished I'd skipped over the chapters devoted to this, because the main plot, which centers around first-contacts with two species, had been a lot more entertaining than I would have expected from a first novel.
Unlike Michael Jan Friedman's "Kahless", in which two plots are almost ingeniously woven together, and yet could still be read effectively as seperate stories, the "role-playing game" plot here degrades into only slightly entertaining filler that could've easily been cut.
Even taking that into account, though, I can't justify a rating lower than 3 1/2 stars. The book is probably good enough to be considered a must-have by die-hard completist by readers who are determined to read the entire series.
As with all the Trek series, the books get better as the characters become more familiar to both readers and authors, so this one will pale in the light of later ones, but it should be recognized as a good first effort.
 |
Title: What Price Honor? (Star Trek Enterprise) by Dave Stern ISBN: 0743462785 Publisher: Star Trek Pub. Date: 29 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
 |
Title: Daedalus: Part One of Two (Star Trek: Enterprise) by Dave Stern ISBN: 0743471180 Publisher: Star Trek Pub. Date: 01 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
 |
Title: The Expanse (Star Trek: Enterprise) by J.M. Dillard, Rick Berman, Brannon Braga ISBN: 0743484851 Publisher: Star Trek Pub. Date: 01 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
 |
Title: Surak's Soul (Star Trek Enterprise) by J.M. Dillard ISBN: 0743462807 Publisher: Star Trek Pub. Date: 01 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
 |
Title: Shockwave (Star Trek Enterprise) by Paul Ruditis ISBN: 0743464559 Publisher: Star Trek Pub. Date: 01 October, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
