Maximum Warp, Star Trek #62/63
Author: Dave Galanter
Author: Greg Brodeur
Year: 2001
Abstract:
Something is devistating subspace throughout the known universe. Entire planets
are being destroyed, ships losing power for no reason, and the delicate alliance
between the Romulans and Federation could crumble at any time. Captain Picard
must join forces with an insidious enemy to find and destroy this anomaly.
| Advanced Mind | |
| Exploration/Quest |  |
| Military/Fighting | |
| Horror | |
| Magic | |
| Advanced Technology | |
| Time Travel/Alternate History | |
| Science | |
| Aliens/Beasties | |
| Contemporality |
Other books in this series:
None
Spectre's Review
This is a first. I don't usually review Star Trek books, and if I did, it would have
gone in the Star Trek section (which doesn't yet exist) anyway. However, the
quality of this book (two books, really) was far above the general Star Trek line.
I was quite pleased with the plot, outside of a couple of points I'll make later. The
literary quality of the book is quite high. I hate to knock the Star Trek series, but
quite often the quality of writing is sub-standard. They just want to get a new Star
Trek story out there, let the nerds' imaginations take over and be done without any
effort on quality.
The dialogue of the book really helped direct the flow of the plot. The dialogue was built to be almost transparent, to give you an idea of what's being said, thought, and acted out, but not drawing attention to the dialogue itself. That last statement might have been a bit odd, let me clarify. In many books, your attention is drawn to the dialog by phrases like "he said rudely' or 'she exclaimed with exasperation' or some such drivel. In Maximum Warp, we experience the inflections of the dialog via a combination of common sense and surrounding action (with the occasional exclamation point). It really did help someone like me, who is easily distracted by contradictions and imperfections, keep track of the story and have more fun.
I very much enjoyed the idea behind the plot. I like the idea of a mysterious device capabable of transcending the universe and surviving a collapse and rebirth of an entire universe. That's cool. I really liked how Picard was forced to pretty much take on a very evil character as a partner. I also enjoyed many of the fun little technologies brought to our attention.
Now, my beefs. The ending was far too perfect. It would have been much more realistic (oops, can I use realistic in conjunction with Star Trek?) had the Enterprise been actually destroyed. Instead, 'all the other Picards in all the other universes cancelled out every other one'. Lame. I know it's not the author's fault, as authors are sometimes 'strongly recommended' to change an ending. It would have been far more interesting had it been an alternative universe that wound up making the sacrifice first, thus saving all the other universes at their expense. Dealing with time, causality, and infinite similar universes, it's awfully hard to maintain technical accuracy and philosophical coherency.
I highly recommend these two books, even if you're not a great Star Trek fan. You're in for a fun ride.
Date posted: 2001 12 13
Spectre's Rating
Minus one for having the ending too perfect. Minus one for being forced to conform to
the Star Trek universe.