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Star Trek: The Next Generation #1
La nave fantasma
Ein unerklärliches Energie-Phänomen bedroht die Enterprise
1995: Ein unerklärliches Engergie-Phänomen zerstört einen russischen Flugzeugträger, tötet die Besatzung und verschwindet wieder von der Erde. Drei Jahrhunderte später wird die Enterprise von demselben Phänomen angegriffen. Es versucht, die gesamte Energie des Raumschiffes zu absorbieren. Counselor Troi empfängt zudem telepathische Nachrichten aus dem Inneren des Phänomens und ist überzeugt, dass es sich um die Seelen der russischen Seeleute handelt. Um wenigstens einen Teil der Enterprise-Crew zu retten, trennt Captain Picard den Rumpf von der Antriebssektion und stellt sich mit der Brückencrew dem Kampf.
1995: Ein unerklärliches Engergie-Phänomen zerstört einen russischen Flugzeugträger, tötet die Besatzung und verschwindet wieder von der Erde. Drei Jahrhunderte später wird die Enterprise von demselben Phänomen angegriffen. Es versucht, die gesamte Energie des Raumschiffes zu absorbieren. Counselor Troi empfängt zudem telepathische Nachrichten aus dem Inneren des Phänomens und ist überzeugt, dass es sich um die Seelen der russischen Seeleute handelt. Um wenigstens einen Teil der Enterprise-Crew zu retten, trennt Captain Picard den Rumpf von der Antriebssektion und stellt sich mit der Brückencrew dem Kampf.
235 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 1988
172 people are currently reading
1060 people want to read
About the author
Diane Carey
80 books122 followersDiane Carey also wrote the Distress Call 911 young adult series under the name D.L. Carey.
Diane Carey is primarily a science fiction author best known for her work in the Star Trek franchise. She has been the lead-off writer for two Star Trek spin-off book series: Star Trek The Next Generation with Star Trek: Ghost Ship, and the novelization of the Star Trek: Enterprise pilot, Broken Bow.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Carey
Diane Carey is primarily a science fiction author best known for her work in the Star Trek franchise. She has been the lead-off writer for two Star Trek spin-off book series: Star Trek The Next Generation with Star Trek: Ghost Ship, and the novelization of the Star Trek: Enterprise pilot, Broken Bow.
For more information, please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diane_Carey
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 239 reviews
January 18, 2024
Fun, fun, fun! Books like these are why I love science fiction, especially space operas!
February 16, 2019
I decided to start re reading some of the Star Trek books in between more serious reads.
Always a good idea, right? In Ghost Ship, by Diane Carey, the Enterprise is investigating a gas giant when strange phenomena start. As a new crew, the members are getting to know each other and quite a bit of introduction and introspecting is taking place.
The bad news? Diane Carey hadn't seen an episode yet as this was written (I believe) at some point before the series aired. It is amazing to me that she concocted this on, what I imagine, was not a lot of source material to go off of. She writes a great story but didn't quite get some of the personalities and relationships right - she really couldn't have though. The other bad news for me was that the first part of the book had nothing to do with the Enterprise, and for a series opener I don't think it's a great tactic.
That said, I liked the story and action. The introductions were basically good, although some of the events just had not happened yet (like Wesley wasn't an acting ensign until later on). My only main question and seeming plot hole was - who created the ghost ship?
If anyone here makes candles and wants to make me an evergreen and musk scented one called Riker, I will be your BFFL
Always a good idea, right? In Ghost Ship, by Diane Carey, the Enterprise is investigating a gas giant when strange phenomena start. As a new crew, the members are getting to know each other and quite a bit of introduction and introspecting is taking place.
The bad news? Diane Carey hadn't seen an episode yet as this was written (I believe) at some point before the series aired. It is amazing to me that she concocted this on, what I imagine, was not a lot of source material to go off of. She writes a great story but didn't quite get some of the personalities and relationships right - she really couldn't have though. The other bad news for me was that the first part of the book had nothing to do with the Enterprise, and for a series opener I don't think it's a great tactic.
That said, I liked the story and action. The introductions were basically good, although some of the events just had not happened yet (like Wesley wasn't an acting ensign until later on). My only main question and seeming plot hole was - who created the ghost ship?
If anyone here makes candles and wants to make me an evergreen and musk scented one called Riker, I will be your BFFL
March 8, 2025
A great start to the Next Generation series of tv tie-ins! A lot of great character work in here, Diane Carey always knew how to write a great Trek book!
November 27, 2012
Yes, the characters don't match the program. Dr. Crusher wasn't one to use her son as a catspaw, Wesley wasn't so incompetent, Yar didn't have enough hair to brush it out of her eyes, Riker didn't have this much discomfort with Data, Picard was rarely such a sour patch, and there's NO universe where Troi would be called a "mind slut" by the people of this future. They tended to be way more tolerant of each other.
Nevertheless, for never having seen the show, the author had a lot of interesting ideas. The soul-eating space monster is creepy. And once again: SHE'D NEVER SEEN THE SHOW. Think of it as a parallel universe where the USSR never fell, Riker dwells often on how his job is pointless, and Yar was Lithuanian.
Nevertheless, for never having seen the show, the author had a lot of interesting ideas. The soul-eating space monster is creepy. And once again: SHE'D NEVER SEEN THE SHOW. Think of it as a parallel universe where the USSR never fell, Riker dwells often on how his job is pointless, and Yar was Lithuanian.
November 27, 2020
3 1/2 STARS. I loved the ideas but the book got long into the emotional side of things.
April 18, 2024
Thirty-seven years. That’s how long it’s been since Star Trek: The Next Generation aired on television. I was a freshman in high school, and I recall watching the pilot episode “Encounter at Farpoint” with a giddiness and delight that I’m only slightly embarrassed about today.
The show was fun. I had grown up watching and loving the original series and going to all the movies with my parents, so when it was announced that a new Star Trek series would be airing, I was stoked.
I’ll be honest, though: I stalled out on the series near the end, and, in fact, I don’t think I ever watched the last couple seasons. I never watched the spin-off shows. Part of the reason was that, while I was away at college for four years, my interests had changed. I was less interested in Star Trek and science fiction in general. I was learning about philosophy and bongs and having college girls play with my—- Anyway, I lost interest in STNG.
It’s only now, at age 51, that I have decided to read some of those old STNG novels that I had packed away in boxes.
Diane Carey’s “Ghost Ship” was the first published STNG novel, way back in 1988. Rumor has it that she wrote the book before the show even aired, so she was basing her characterizations based solely on the early teleplays of the show.
Amazingly, the book is pretty decent. It starts out on the high seas on Earth in 1987, where an alien entity skims our planet and destroys a Russian aircraft carrier. Rather than kill the crew, though, the entity “absorbs” the crew’s life force—-their individual memories, thoughts, feelings, everything that essentially makes them human—-minus their physical bodies. For hundreds of years, their “souls” are essentially trapped on the alien spaceship/creature…
…Until Counselor Deanna Troi hears their pleas in deep space on board the Starship Enterprise. Weird apparitions start appearing on board the ship. For all intents and purposes, the Enterprise has become “haunted” with these lost souls. Are they trying to warn the crew? Or do they have something else in mind? When the ghost ship appears in space, will the Enterprise and crew suffer the same fate as the 20th-century Russian vessel?
Carey’s novel would have made a pretty exciting episode, and it certainly wets my whistle for reading more of these books, of which there are literally hundreds out there.
The show was fun. I had grown up watching and loving the original series and going to all the movies with my parents, so when it was announced that a new Star Trek series would be airing, I was stoked.
I’ll be honest, though: I stalled out on the series near the end, and, in fact, I don’t think I ever watched the last couple seasons. I never watched the spin-off shows. Part of the reason was that, while I was away at college for four years, my interests had changed. I was less interested in Star Trek and science fiction in general. I was learning about philosophy and bongs and having college girls play with my—- Anyway, I lost interest in STNG.
It’s only now, at age 51, that I have decided to read some of those old STNG novels that I had packed away in boxes.
Diane Carey’s “Ghost Ship” was the first published STNG novel, way back in 1988. Rumor has it that she wrote the book before the show even aired, so she was basing her characterizations based solely on the early teleplays of the show.
Amazingly, the book is pretty decent. It starts out on the high seas on Earth in 1987, where an alien entity skims our planet and destroys a Russian aircraft carrier. Rather than kill the crew, though, the entity “absorbs” the crew’s life force—-their individual memories, thoughts, feelings, everything that essentially makes them human—-minus their physical bodies. For hundreds of years, their “souls” are essentially trapped on the alien spaceship/creature…
…Until Counselor Deanna Troi hears their pleas in deep space on board the Starship Enterprise. Weird apparitions start appearing on board the ship. For all intents and purposes, the Enterprise has become “haunted” with these lost souls. Are they trying to warn the crew? Or do they have something else in mind? When the ghost ship appears in space, will the Enterprise and crew suffer the same fate as the 20th-century Russian vessel?
Carey’s novel would have made a pretty exciting episode, and it certainly wets my whistle for reading more of these books, of which there are literally hundreds out there.
April 27, 2021
As other reviewers have said, Diane Carey hadn't seen a single episode of TNG when she wrote this book, and it really shows. Riker loathes Data and is practically obsessed with Deanna. Geordie cusses like a sailor, is practically in love with Data, and resents everyone for using him only for the things he can see with his visor. Wesley is a dipshit. Picard seems to hate everyone and everything, will chew someone out on the slightest provocation, and doesn't feel comfortable with a blind guy driving his ship. Deanna is lonely because people think she is a "mind slut" and steer clear of her. Tasha is Yugoslavian.
Also, everyone is terrible at their jobs and no one has an ounce of self confidence.
Besides that, the book is just poorly written. It is full of huge, expository info dumps that tell us everything that someone is thinking. And the adjectives...holy cow: "his cocoa-dark head...her small mouth...his federal-blue eyes...her nymphic eyes...her exquisite body". Every time anyone did anything, Carey found a new way to describe a part of their anatomy. Also, at one point Tasha is compared to a Disney drawing. Do they still have Disney in the Star Trek universe?
If you want a good Star Trek novel, give this one a wide berth. If you want an unintentionally hilarious Star Trek novel, this might be up your alley.
Also, everyone is terrible at their jobs and no one has an ounce of self confidence.
Besides that, the book is just poorly written. It is full of huge, expository info dumps that tell us everything that someone is thinking. And the adjectives...holy cow: "his cocoa-dark head...her small mouth...his federal-blue eyes...her nymphic eyes...her exquisite body". Every time anyone did anything, Carey found a new way to describe a part of their anatomy. Also, at one point Tasha is compared to a Disney drawing. Do they still have Disney in the Star Trek universe?
If you want a good Star Trek novel, give this one a wide berth. If you want an unintentionally hilarious Star Trek novel, this might be up your alley.
January 27, 2011
I can't say that I'm the biggest Star Trek fan by any means. By that, I only really enjoyed "Star Trek: The Next Generation." Maybe it's because I was born in the early 80's, but for some reason I really can't get into Classic Trek, and I had a hard time really getting into "Deep Space Nine." Therefore, for me it's all about "The Next Generation." Seriously, I have all the episodes on DVD, I own all the comic books and now I've delved into the novels! I guess I'm a pretty big "The Next Generation" fan at the very least. I'm also big on details, as anyone can tell who have read my reviews.
As many other reviews have pointed out about "Ghost Ship" is that the story concept is pretty good, but the characters are all wrong. A few characters here and there seem to have been developed correctly, but it seems like that's all by chance. I did see someone mention somewhere that the author may not have even been able to see an episode of this new series before writing the book. I don't understand this, but when you analyze the release dates that kind of makes sense. The episode "Encounter at Farpoint" which was the first episode for "The Next Generation" came out in September, 1987 and the last episode aired on May, 1988. "Ghost Ship" was promptly released in June, 1988. This is way too soon to have been written after the season had finished being aired and would explain why nobody really acts like anybody on the show.
Here's my theory, you can take it or leave it. I think that Diane Carey only had character profiles available to her, pictures of the characters, a layout of the ship, and maybe the script for "Encounter at Farpoint". Either that or written into the character profiles were hints at what their future would be in terms of development. When she was commissioned to write the book she was given these things wrote the book and then the publishing house held it to be released promptly after the last episode aired. That's my theory; it's the only reason I can think why a writer could so drastically screw up the main characters of the show! In another review I saw that someone mentioned not to judge this author by this book, furthering my belief in my theory. Because this story is quite good and pretty original and if it wasn't a Star Trek book it wouldn't be so hard to read.
That being said, I struggled through this book. The characters were so inaccurate. The book was slow to get into, recounting some prequel that happened to a Russian ship in 1995. This was about twenty pages long before we ever got to hear from the crew of the Enterprise. This wasn't the greatest idea for the first novel to kick off this series. Mainly because I was starting to wonder if I was reading something in the Star Trek universe at all. Anyway, I'll go over the general plot and then critique the character flaws. Basically this alien ship/entity attacked a Russian ship in 1995 and somehow kept the souls/essences of those on board. The starship Enterprise encounters the same entity years later and now they are in danger of suffering the same fate. The entity is much more powerful than the starship and it almost seems like the Enterprise is doomed to share the same fate. The essences of the Russian crew begin to appear on the Enterprise, which is why we get the title "Ghost Ship". The Russian crew can talk to Troi, sort of, and the greater entity that is flying around the universe seems to be able to communicate with Data to a degree. This leaves the Captain and his crew in a sort of a quandary as to whether or not they should try to destroy the entity with all the "souls" on board. It's kind of an interesting premise and I will say, it's the only reason I finished reading the book. In terms of a time frame when this book takes place, I've narrowed down based on some given information. Since Wesley is an acting ensign and Tasha is still alive, then that means it takes place between episodes "Where No One has Gone Before" and "Skin of Evil," which is a good chunk of the season. Therefore we can all already figure out that the Enterprise survives in this book given that time constraint because this book was after the first season.
Okay, now that everyone knows what the book is about, those who would like to know what's wrong in detail can read further. I'll start off with Commander Riker. His character is probably the most flawed of the whole bunch. As I mentioned above the book is taking place after Wesley had become an acting ensign so we're about four to five episodes into the show at this point. Anyone who has seen Season One knows that the characters had already been pretty well developed at this point. Riker in "Ghost Ship" is like a bumbling fool. He constantly questions if he's good enough and seems unsure of his decisions. He constantly juggles with the purpose of a first officer on the ship; this is clearly not the Riker we know. He's overly prejudiced against Data and at one point blows up and starts yelling at Data about how he's not human. This sends Data into all these questions about himself ever desiring to try and emulate humans (more on this thought later). It's as if Carey latched on to one conversation Riker had with Data on the holodeck about being nervous on Data being a machine in the pilot episode. She really grasped at a straw that went nowhere, because by the time we got to the episodes where Wesley was an acting ensign Data and Riker were fast friends. There's literally no malice between the two. Riker also spends a lot of his time in this book angering the rest of the crew and making Geordi feel sad (more on that later). The only time I felt like I was reading about the real Will Riker was when he had a personal conversation with Troi near the beginning of the book, when he tells a story about his first assignment as first officer. It was a funny story and told in the very same manner Riker would tell it.
Picard was probably the second worst portrayed character in this book. Seriously if you get the first and second officers on the ship wrong, and they're pretty much the main characters then the book is already doomed. Here we see a Picard, like Riker, that really isn't sure of himself and questions his command decisions and questions his motives. This became painfully clear during Picard's introspective look at his decision to promote Wesley to an acting ensign. If Carey had known the circumstances of Wesley's promotion this question would have never come about! Picard goes on and on about how Wesley is inexperienced and the ability to do calculations aren't enough for such a fast promotion. When, if you had seen Wesley's self sacrifice and ability to make decisions, it would've been very obvious that Wesley's knowledge of the ship more than qualified him, which was the whole point! In another scene we see Riker pull Picard out of the way of harm and then Picard berates him for it. We see an overbearing captain pushing his crew around and a crew nervous to say anything to him with fear of disappointing their captain. This is not the Captain Picard we know! He's a great captain that cares deeply for his crew and he engenders such trust and confidence in his crew that they wouldn't hesitate to tell him anything! It was so frustrating watching the crew bumble around hesitating to tell Picard any of the information he needed for a command decision. To put the final icing on the cake at the end Picard makes the most hare-brained decision I could possibly think of. During the crisis he removes himself for fourteen hours to go into a sensory deprivation tank to help him make a better decision. Seriously, even if the end results were a more informed decision he would not remove himself from command of the enterprise when it was in danger. There's no way Captain Picard would cease commanding the ship for some sort of "experiment". He'd order someone else to do it and then listen to their report if it was really that necessary. I know the book was trying to set up a situation where it was only the captain's decision, but this was way too far reaching for me to get behind the logic.
On the note of Wesley, I may as well discuss that now. Here we don't see the child genius we got to know in the show. We see the genius that doesn't actually know how to work the ship nearly as well as he proves he can in the actual show. He clearly displays knowledge on how to configure the warp engines in "Where No One has Gone Before" and even during his first experience touring the bridge he displayed knowledge of the command seat and its functions. Therefore, in this book when Wesley asks commander Riker what the difference between a passive and active scan are, I can't help but slap my forehead. We're talking about a boy who managed to turn the ships tractor beam into a repulsor beam. How can he not know the difference between something that seems so elementary? Later in the book he is found working on an experiment with the antimatter, and seriously he displays knowledge on par with Data. So why even have him ask stupid questions? Further on that experiment it's presented to the reader that Wesley's experiment could have killed the entire crew the way that he was doing it. Wesley doesn't break rules in this fashion, he's smarter than that and we all know it.
Next I'll go over the other big blunder we'll call LaForge. He's incredibly over emotional and subject to frequent outbursts, especially when Riker is being prejudiced against Data. While LaForge probably shows the most emotion in most of the episodes, he doesn't have the same kind of outbursts. He is frequently out of order on the bridge and I can't conceive of a Captain Picard that would allow this kind of conduct, especially one that is portrayed apparently being harsher. Also, Geordi complains how people are abusing him constantly, like when Riker and Picard ask him to tell them what he sees in an instance. I found this incredibly out of sorts for Geordi's character since it never comes up in the show and he seems quite happy to help in such times. In the episode with the Edo "Justice" he is happy to look at the ship that is orbiting that planet and we never see him complain. I think Carey was latching onto a scene in sick bay where Geordi was talking to crusher about getting headaches, and his visor was the cause. For some reason Carey conceived that this would cause him great stress and malice towards his commanding officers, thinking they were taking advantage of him. This is just plain unrealistic for the LaForge we know. Furthermore in one particular case Geordi yells out "Christ!" in a situation of stress, but if I'm quoting my Star Trek correctly, not once is there any mention or suggestion that any members of the crew follow an Earth based religion. And later something is referenced as being Biblical. I know it sounds like a minute error; it really stood out to me because it's something so common in our language use today that it seems out of place to never hear it. The most we see of a religion on a regular basis is Worf observing specific Klingon rituals.
Troi's character was actually decently presented. Though she seems her emotions were out of control, but the author goes at lengths to explain her stress at getting herself under control. This doesn't pan out in conjunction with how she appears on the show. Also, what felt like another oddity was that she kept referring to Commander Riker as "Bill" when everyone else called him "Will". Strangely this actually appeared to be accurate. I revisited the first season because I really wanted proof that she called him Bill and in episode "The Naked Now" she does actually call him "Bill". I think the show eventually gave up on this and it only shows up in the first season. Interestingly the book does explain the origin of this pet name, but the show never tells the answer. Also they discuss her clothing as being skirted and that was only in the very first episode. They changed that idea after the pilot episode, but in the book she still clearly wears that. This furthered my theory that the author didn't have much to go on.
Let's not forget Tasha Yar. Her character was decently accurate in her personality, but her history was an absolute mess. When they were trying to figure out what the Russian ship was, Yar piped in that she was Lithuanian and recognized the names. This makes absolutely no sense because she grew up on some other planet and was abandoned by her parents. Her knowledge of those languages wouldn't have been known to her! I submit as further proof that in an episode, Data references the French language as being obscure. If French is obscure by this time frame then surely Lithuanian would've never made it in to common language on a remote and chaotic colony. Nor would Tasha know the relation of her language to Russian in that case! Curiously later in the novel Carey curiously references the fact that Yar grew up on that other planet, but makes no further mention of her national heritage. It's as if she was submitting the chapters as they were finished and couldn't go back and correct the mistakes reasonably.
Data's comments and personality were pretty accurate at first. Unfortunately I was less and less convinced of Data actually being Data as the novel went on. As the novel went on Data was having stronger and stronger illogical/emotional reactions to things. After Riker yelled at him and told him he wasn't human, Data had, what seems to be, extreme depression where he doesn't see the point in his emulating humans anymore. They also use language that is far too human to describe Data. In one particular instance Riker is standing over Data and it says "the muscles on the back of his neck" referring to Data. This makes absolutely no sense. Data doesn't have muscles on the back of his neck. Furthermore there was a constant reference to Data's beating heart and his pulse, this happens at one instance in sick bay! You have got to be kidding me. This is just absurd. Another instance that was wrong to me is that they bring up the fact that Data had been deemed a living creature by Starfleet. This doesn't make sense to me because then an episode in Season 2 aired where Data's "life" was questioned and put on trial for a final decision on the matter. This wouldn't have been possible if Starfleet had already decided Data was alive. The absurdities careen off and culminate in the final move where Data tries to get the entities attention in the book by flying out there in a shuttle craft to shoot it. In this fiasco Data's hand start shaking when he tries to disobey orders because his programming won't let him. Data wasn't made by Starfleet, and in other episodes he disobeys orders with quite a bit of ease when he feels it is a logical conclusion. Also his "heart" starts racing when faced with these decisions that conflict with orders. We all know Data isn't really designed this way where he gets nervous about breaking rules. For the final impossibility the creature does take Data's life essence. This is seriously impossible; it left behind a functioning machine husk with no personality. I really just don't think this is even remotely possible, I know the message is to walk away thinking Data is alive, but it doesn't hold up.
Dr. Crusher and Worf seemed to be the most accurate characters in here. Granted my feeling of this towards Worf's character is probably due to the fact that he doesn't have a major presence in this book. Crusher's character had the usual amount of emotional outbursts I typically expect from her in the show. Given how incredibly wrong she was in describing the other characters it feels more like these were slightly accurate by mere circumstance.
As you can see the story wasn't bad, but it was the development of the main characters that was incredibly false. Thus the book was nearly impossible for me to get into. This will be the case for any Star Trek fan I believe. We simply can't get into a crew that is bumbling and stumbling over each other at every turn. The bridge crew was so out of sorts that I wouldn't have trusted them to be in Starfleet let alone command the Federations flagship. This may have been the first book that launched nearly a hundred others in this ongoing novel series, but this is seriously the one fans and readers should skip. It's sad to say this and I wish I didn't have to, but I seriously must. The book is far too inaccurate to get behind and endorse.
As many other reviews have pointed out about "Ghost Ship" is that the story concept is pretty good, but the characters are all wrong. A few characters here and there seem to have been developed correctly, but it seems like that's all by chance. I did see someone mention somewhere that the author may not have even been able to see an episode of this new series before writing the book. I don't understand this, but when you analyze the release dates that kind of makes sense. The episode "Encounter at Farpoint" which was the first episode for "The Next Generation" came out in September, 1987 and the last episode aired on May, 1988. "Ghost Ship" was promptly released in June, 1988. This is way too soon to have been written after the season had finished being aired and would explain why nobody really acts like anybody on the show.
Here's my theory, you can take it or leave it. I think that Diane Carey only had character profiles available to her, pictures of the characters, a layout of the ship, and maybe the script for "Encounter at Farpoint". Either that or written into the character profiles were hints at what their future would be in terms of development. When she was commissioned to write the book she was given these things wrote the book and then the publishing house held it to be released promptly after the last episode aired. That's my theory; it's the only reason I can think why a writer could so drastically screw up the main characters of the show! In another review I saw that someone mentioned not to judge this author by this book, furthering my belief in my theory. Because this story is quite good and pretty original and if it wasn't a Star Trek book it wouldn't be so hard to read.
That being said, I struggled through this book. The characters were so inaccurate. The book was slow to get into, recounting some prequel that happened to a Russian ship in 1995. This was about twenty pages long before we ever got to hear from the crew of the Enterprise. This wasn't the greatest idea for the first novel to kick off this series. Mainly because I was starting to wonder if I was reading something in the Star Trek universe at all. Anyway, I'll go over the general plot and then critique the character flaws. Basically this alien ship/entity attacked a Russian ship in 1995 and somehow kept the souls/essences of those on board. The starship Enterprise encounters the same entity years later and now they are in danger of suffering the same fate. The entity is much more powerful than the starship and it almost seems like the Enterprise is doomed to share the same fate. The essences of the Russian crew begin to appear on the Enterprise, which is why we get the title "Ghost Ship". The Russian crew can talk to Troi, sort of, and the greater entity that is flying around the universe seems to be able to communicate with Data to a degree. This leaves the Captain and his crew in a sort of a quandary as to whether or not they should try to destroy the entity with all the "souls" on board. It's kind of an interesting premise and I will say, it's the only reason I finished reading the book. In terms of a time frame when this book takes place, I've narrowed down based on some given information. Since Wesley is an acting ensign and Tasha is still alive, then that means it takes place between episodes "Where No One has Gone Before" and "Skin of Evil," which is a good chunk of the season. Therefore we can all already figure out that the Enterprise survives in this book given that time constraint because this book was after the first season.
Okay, now that everyone knows what the book is about, those who would like to know what's wrong in detail can read further. I'll start off with Commander Riker. His character is probably the most flawed of the whole bunch. As I mentioned above the book is taking place after Wesley had become an acting ensign so we're about four to five episodes into the show at this point. Anyone who has seen Season One knows that the characters had already been pretty well developed at this point. Riker in "Ghost Ship" is like a bumbling fool. He constantly questions if he's good enough and seems unsure of his decisions. He constantly juggles with the purpose of a first officer on the ship; this is clearly not the Riker we know. He's overly prejudiced against Data and at one point blows up and starts yelling at Data about how he's not human. This sends Data into all these questions about himself ever desiring to try and emulate humans (more on this thought later). It's as if Carey latched on to one conversation Riker had with Data on the holodeck about being nervous on Data being a machine in the pilot episode. She really grasped at a straw that went nowhere, because by the time we got to the episodes where Wesley was an acting ensign Data and Riker were fast friends. There's literally no malice between the two. Riker also spends a lot of his time in this book angering the rest of the crew and making Geordi feel sad (more on that later). The only time I felt like I was reading about the real Will Riker was when he had a personal conversation with Troi near the beginning of the book, when he tells a story about his first assignment as first officer. It was a funny story and told in the very same manner Riker would tell it.
Picard was probably the second worst portrayed character in this book. Seriously if you get the first and second officers on the ship wrong, and they're pretty much the main characters then the book is already doomed. Here we see a Picard, like Riker, that really isn't sure of himself and questions his command decisions and questions his motives. This became painfully clear during Picard's introspective look at his decision to promote Wesley to an acting ensign. If Carey had known the circumstances of Wesley's promotion this question would have never come about! Picard goes on and on about how Wesley is inexperienced and the ability to do calculations aren't enough for such a fast promotion. When, if you had seen Wesley's self sacrifice and ability to make decisions, it would've been very obvious that Wesley's knowledge of the ship more than qualified him, which was the whole point! In another scene we see Riker pull Picard out of the way of harm and then Picard berates him for it. We see an overbearing captain pushing his crew around and a crew nervous to say anything to him with fear of disappointing their captain. This is not the Captain Picard we know! He's a great captain that cares deeply for his crew and he engenders such trust and confidence in his crew that they wouldn't hesitate to tell him anything! It was so frustrating watching the crew bumble around hesitating to tell Picard any of the information he needed for a command decision. To put the final icing on the cake at the end Picard makes the most hare-brained decision I could possibly think of. During the crisis he removes himself for fourteen hours to go into a sensory deprivation tank to help him make a better decision. Seriously, even if the end results were a more informed decision he would not remove himself from command of the enterprise when it was in danger. There's no way Captain Picard would cease commanding the ship for some sort of "experiment". He'd order someone else to do it and then listen to their report if it was really that necessary. I know the book was trying to set up a situation where it was only the captain's decision, but this was way too far reaching for me to get behind the logic.
On the note of Wesley, I may as well discuss that now. Here we don't see the child genius we got to know in the show. We see the genius that doesn't actually know how to work the ship nearly as well as he proves he can in the actual show. He clearly displays knowledge on how to configure the warp engines in "Where No One has Gone Before" and even during his first experience touring the bridge he displayed knowledge of the command seat and its functions. Therefore, in this book when Wesley asks commander Riker what the difference between a passive and active scan are, I can't help but slap my forehead. We're talking about a boy who managed to turn the ships tractor beam into a repulsor beam. How can he not know the difference between something that seems so elementary? Later in the book he is found working on an experiment with the antimatter, and seriously he displays knowledge on par with Data. So why even have him ask stupid questions? Further on that experiment it's presented to the reader that Wesley's experiment could have killed the entire crew the way that he was doing it. Wesley doesn't break rules in this fashion, he's smarter than that and we all know it.
Next I'll go over the other big blunder we'll call LaForge. He's incredibly over emotional and subject to frequent outbursts, especially when Riker is being prejudiced against Data. While LaForge probably shows the most emotion in most of the episodes, he doesn't have the same kind of outbursts. He is frequently out of order on the bridge and I can't conceive of a Captain Picard that would allow this kind of conduct, especially one that is portrayed apparently being harsher. Also, Geordi complains how people are abusing him constantly, like when Riker and Picard ask him to tell them what he sees in an instance. I found this incredibly out of sorts for Geordi's character since it never comes up in the show and he seems quite happy to help in such times. In the episode with the Edo "Justice" he is happy to look at the ship that is orbiting that planet and we never see him complain. I think Carey was latching onto a scene in sick bay where Geordi was talking to crusher about getting headaches, and his visor was the cause. For some reason Carey conceived that this would cause him great stress and malice towards his commanding officers, thinking they were taking advantage of him. This is just plain unrealistic for the LaForge we know. Furthermore in one particular case Geordi yells out "Christ!" in a situation of stress, but if I'm quoting my Star Trek correctly, not once is there any mention or suggestion that any members of the crew follow an Earth based religion. And later something is referenced as being Biblical. I know it sounds like a minute error; it really stood out to me because it's something so common in our language use today that it seems out of place to never hear it. The most we see of a religion on a regular basis is Worf observing specific Klingon rituals.
Troi's character was actually decently presented. Though she seems her emotions were out of control, but the author goes at lengths to explain her stress at getting herself under control. This doesn't pan out in conjunction with how she appears on the show. Also, what felt like another oddity was that she kept referring to Commander Riker as "Bill" when everyone else called him "Will". Strangely this actually appeared to be accurate. I revisited the first season because I really wanted proof that she called him Bill and in episode "The Naked Now" she does actually call him "Bill". I think the show eventually gave up on this and it only shows up in the first season. Interestingly the book does explain the origin of this pet name, but the show never tells the answer. Also they discuss her clothing as being skirted and that was only in the very first episode. They changed that idea after the pilot episode, but in the book she still clearly wears that. This furthered my theory that the author didn't have much to go on.
Let's not forget Tasha Yar. Her character was decently accurate in her personality, but her history was an absolute mess. When they were trying to figure out what the Russian ship was, Yar piped in that she was Lithuanian and recognized the names. This makes absolutely no sense because she grew up on some other planet and was abandoned by her parents. Her knowledge of those languages wouldn't have been known to her! I submit as further proof that in an episode, Data references the French language as being obscure. If French is obscure by this time frame then surely Lithuanian would've never made it in to common language on a remote and chaotic colony. Nor would Tasha know the relation of her language to Russian in that case! Curiously later in the novel Carey curiously references the fact that Yar grew up on that other planet, but makes no further mention of her national heritage. It's as if she was submitting the chapters as they were finished and couldn't go back and correct the mistakes reasonably.
Data's comments and personality were pretty accurate at first. Unfortunately I was less and less convinced of Data actually being Data as the novel went on. As the novel went on Data was having stronger and stronger illogical/emotional reactions to things. After Riker yelled at him and told him he wasn't human, Data had, what seems to be, extreme depression where he doesn't see the point in his emulating humans anymore. They also use language that is far too human to describe Data. In one particular instance Riker is standing over Data and it says "the muscles on the back of his neck" referring to Data. This makes absolutely no sense. Data doesn't have muscles on the back of his neck. Furthermore there was a constant reference to Data's beating heart and his pulse, this happens at one instance in sick bay! You have got to be kidding me. This is just absurd. Another instance that was wrong to me is that they bring up the fact that Data had been deemed a living creature by Starfleet. This doesn't make sense to me because then an episode in Season 2 aired where Data's "life" was questioned and put on trial for a final decision on the matter. This wouldn't have been possible if Starfleet had already decided Data was alive. The absurdities careen off and culminate in the final move where Data tries to get the entities attention in the book by flying out there in a shuttle craft to shoot it. In this fiasco Data's hand start shaking when he tries to disobey orders because his programming won't let him. Data wasn't made by Starfleet, and in other episodes he disobeys orders with quite a bit of ease when he feels it is a logical conclusion. Also his "heart" starts racing when faced with these decisions that conflict with orders. We all know Data isn't really designed this way where he gets nervous about breaking rules. For the final impossibility the creature does take Data's life essence. This is seriously impossible; it left behind a functioning machine husk with no personality. I really just don't think this is even remotely possible, I know the message is to walk away thinking Data is alive, but it doesn't hold up.
Dr. Crusher and Worf seemed to be the most accurate characters in here. Granted my feeling of this towards Worf's character is probably due to the fact that he doesn't have a major presence in this book. Crusher's character had the usual amount of emotional outbursts I typically expect from her in the show. Given how incredibly wrong she was in describing the other characters it feels more like these were slightly accurate by mere circumstance.
As you can see the story wasn't bad, but it was the development of the main characters that was incredibly false. Thus the book was nearly impossible for me to get into. This will be the case for any Star Trek fan I believe. We simply can't get into a crew that is bumbling and stumbling over each other at every turn. The bridge crew was so out of sorts that I wouldn't have trusted them to be in Starfleet let alone command the Federations flagship. This may have been the first book that launched nearly a hundred others in this ongoing novel series, but this is seriously the one fans and readers should skip. It's sad to say this and I wish I didn't have to, but I seriously must. The book is far too inaccurate to get behind and endorse.
July 8, 2024
Sheesh, was this awful. I mean, it's Star Trek, so I can't really "hate" it, per se...but it was dreadful. I'll give it some leeway, as it was essentially the first novel and may or may not have had the benefit of show/writing direction to help it, but...
...so, Riker is just fundamentally a racist against synthetic life. He shows just as much disdain for Data as he does for the ship's computer, or really any computer, and we are supposed to be appreciative of the fact that Data's attempt at self-sacrifice, *spoilers*, gives Riker an epiphany and he realizes how much of an ass he's been...but, just like the problem I have with the story of Rudolph, Data is already valid without needing to prove himself "useful" to the normies. The fact that it took such an extreme to get Riker to open his eyes just makes Riker that much worse. If Riker remained the Riker in this book, I'd fundamentally hate him as a character.
Geordi and Data also are acting like best friends as they would in later seasons, which I love, the Geordi-Data bromance makes me happy, but in watching the show, it really wasn't all that apparent in seasons one or two. So, whilst it seems in-character now, it wouldn't have seemed in-character then.
Also, Data is just weird in this book. He uses contractions like they're going out of style. Geordi told him that he should use slang when he talks to people to be less off-putting, and he's suddenly using "slang" in just about every conversation with everyone all the time - and I hate it. It's just so weird and unnatural. Along with his hurt feelings, his emotional swings, his moroseness, and the fact that he smiles at people all over the place. Who is this?!?
The antagonist is some kind of interdimensional robot space cloud that absorbs people's...um...well, not souls, because this is Star Trek...so, I guess their "disembodied minds," and preserves them forever as an act of compassion, maybe, as I guess it eats things which produce energy, but like only weapons and/or warp drives, or something...I don't really know...
I wasn't quite sure where the upside down Battlestar Galactica was going to come in, as it's clearly depicted on the cover, but I'm guessing it was supposed to be the little "research craft" that Riker took out for a rescue mission that was like maybe 3 pages long...maybe?? The picture conveys a sense of mass and size greater than that, but nothing else in the book conforms to that kind of design...
Also, Riker and Troi aren't together anymore because he left her to be on this 20-year Mission on the Enterprise...but she's now also on this mission...so, um...why are we not together? She also wants to quit, because she's overwhelmed and useless and etc., which seems to be a recurring theme from her as we shall see.
And Riker keeps sexualizing Tasha, which is weird, like thinking that if she wore more makeup he'd totally hit that. Or if she just smiled more she'd be prettier. He's such a fucking predator, and I hate him. Riker is so freaking cringey!! Ack!!!! Although, there was some background information about Tasha and her home world which I enjoyed...and she's Lithuanian, so there's that, I guess...
Wesley's also here, and he's annoying and I hate him, too. I never liked the boy-wonder, even when I was younger...I think I was 8 IRL when this show first aired, so you'd think I'd like the 16-year old; "he's just like me, mom"...but, nope.
Lastly, Picard is completely convinced that this space-cloud-robot-Ghostbusters-containment-unit-thing must be stopped otherwise it could prove a threat to the entire Federation, but it's also specifically stated that it hasn't been active since 1995...so, I think the 1995 to 2364 interval gives us a pretty big window to come up with a solution for any future encounters.
Okay, Nadienne, I hear you say, but what was good about it? Um...well...let's see...Tasha's back-story was a definite plus. There was a saucer separation, which is always nice to see. Oh, and...um, aside from his slang-throwing, I really liked Data in this book.
...so, Riker is just fundamentally a racist against synthetic life. He shows just as much disdain for Data as he does for the ship's computer, or really any computer, and we are supposed to be appreciative of the fact that Data's attempt at self-sacrifice, *spoilers*, gives Riker an epiphany and he realizes how much of an ass he's been...but, just like the problem I have with the story of Rudolph, Data is already valid without needing to prove himself "useful" to the normies. The fact that it took such an extreme to get Riker to open his eyes just makes Riker that much worse. If Riker remained the Riker in this book, I'd fundamentally hate him as a character.
Geordi and Data also are acting like best friends as they would in later seasons, which I love, the Geordi-Data bromance makes me happy, but in watching the show, it really wasn't all that apparent in seasons one or two. So, whilst it seems in-character now, it wouldn't have seemed in-character then.
Also, Data is just weird in this book. He uses contractions like they're going out of style. Geordi told him that he should use slang when he talks to people to be less off-putting, and he's suddenly using "slang" in just about every conversation with everyone all the time - and I hate it. It's just so weird and unnatural. Along with his hurt feelings, his emotional swings, his moroseness, and the fact that he smiles at people all over the place. Who is this?!?
The antagonist is some kind of interdimensional robot space cloud that absorbs people's...um...well, not souls, because this is Star Trek...so, I guess their "disembodied minds," and preserves them forever as an act of compassion, maybe, as I guess it eats things which produce energy, but like only weapons and/or warp drives, or something...I don't really know...
I wasn't quite sure where the upside down Battlestar Galactica was going to come in, as it's clearly depicted on the cover, but I'm guessing it was supposed to be the little "research craft" that Riker took out for a rescue mission that was like maybe 3 pages long...maybe?? The picture conveys a sense of mass and size greater than that, but nothing else in the book conforms to that kind of design...
Also, Riker and Troi aren't together anymore because he left her to be on this 20-year Mission on the Enterprise...but she's now also on this mission...so, um...why are we not together? She also wants to quit, because she's overwhelmed and useless and etc., which seems to be a recurring theme from her as we shall see.
And Riker keeps sexualizing Tasha, which is weird, like thinking that if she wore more makeup he'd totally hit that. Or if she just smiled more she'd be prettier. He's such a fucking predator, and I hate him. Riker is so freaking cringey!! Ack!!!! Although, there was some background information about Tasha and her home world which I enjoyed...and she's Lithuanian, so there's that, I guess...
Wesley's also here, and he's annoying and I hate him, too. I never liked the boy-wonder, even when I was younger...I think I was 8 IRL when this show first aired, so you'd think I'd like the 16-year old; "he's just like me, mom"...but, nope.
Lastly, Picard is completely convinced that this space-cloud-robot-Ghostbusters-containment-unit-thing must be stopped otherwise it could prove a threat to the entire Federation, but it's also specifically stated that it hasn't been active since 1995...so, I think the 1995 to 2364 interval gives us a pretty big window to come up with a solution for any future encounters.
Okay, Nadienne, I hear you say, but what was good about it? Um...well...let's see...Tasha's back-story was a definite plus. There was a saucer separation, which is always nice to see. Oh, and...um, aside from his slang-throwing, I really liked Data in this book.
July 14, 2024
3.75 stars
I'm joining Geordi on the Data Protection Squad
I'm joining Geordi on the Data Protection Squad
December 13, 2016
3.5 stars
Overall a good storyline, though I didn't always agree with the author's interpretation of character motivations/personalities. Picard was often a bit more brusque than on the show, Riker a great deal more biased, even Troi somewhat more... volatile than normal. However, this is a tale set at the beginning of TNG's run, so I guess it's to be expected for the characters to be slightly rougher, still somewhat unsettled in their roles and in their relationships to each other.
Other than that, a pretty fun, entertaining read. Having recently come off a binge of all seven seasons of the show, it was quite easy to picture the actors as the author described the characters and those characters moving about the Enterprise as the action of the novel moved forward.
Overall a good storyline, though I didn't always agree with the author's interpretation of character motivations/personalities. Picard was often a bit more brusque than on the show, Riker a great deal more biased, even Troi somewhat more... volatile than normal. However, this is a tale set at the beginning of TNG's run, so I guess it's to be expected for the characters to be slightly rougher, still somewhat unsettled in their roles and in their relationships to each other.
Other than that, a pretty fun, entertaining read. Having recently come off a binge of all seven seasons of the show, it was quite easy to picture the actors as the author described the characters and those characters moving about the Enterprise as the action of the novel moved forward.
October 6, 2022
This is a well-written adventure with a simple but still interesting story and an appropriately perplexing and terrifying space phenomenon. However, it's unlikely to be a Trekkie favourite simply because it has committed the cardinal sin of being written too early.
Everyone's a little out of character as we know them: Picard doesn't read much and is always in a bad mood; Data clearly experiences basic emotions including intimidation and sadness; Troi is still calling Riker Bill instead of Will and is somehow shamed by others for her abilities (??); Riker is a callous bully who never would have made it to his rank treating his subordinates that way; and so on.
But Diane Carey, who is a fantastic writer, has to be given some grace due to the fact that this book was printed in July 1988. TNG premiered in September 1987, and it takes some time to edit and publish a book, so this novel necessarily had to have been written either before the show had even aired or, at the very latest, while the first season was still airing.
During that first season, Picard was indeed more abrasive than he became soon after, Data was indeed more animated than he became soon after, etc., so we have to make some allowances here.
That said, there is one out of character moment - which a plot point that a section of the story hinges on - that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to me, even based on just the first two-part episode's interactions between Riker and Data. Further, I don't think that "twist" was even necessary as it didn't seem to go anywhere. Due to that section, I suspect that Riker fans will deeply dislike this book, though I quite enjoyed the first quarter or so, when we spent some time exploring Riker's professional insecurities.
Data fans, such as myself, will cringe quite a bit at the inconsistencies with the Data we know, but I still enjoyed watching his part in the adventure unfold.
Fans of the relationship between Data and La Forge are absolutely spoilt for choice here. The interactions between these two - and La Forge's internal monologues about them - shine. Whether you're a fan of their on-screen friendship or their fan fiction romance, you'll find a king's feast in these pages.
This book is just fun, and if you accept it as more of a "what if...?" rather than canon that's meant to match perfectly with the show as we know it, you might really have a good time!
If I was being a hardnose about canon, I couldn't go above a 2 - but also not below a 2 due to the excellent writing. But because I'm willing to read the book from the point of view of "what if the writers stuck with their original notes about each character and no one evolved" I can comfortably give it a 3.75. If I was rating on writing alone, it'd easily rate a 4.25. Diane Carey's prose is so easy to read.
Keep an open mind and give it a try!
Everyone's a little out of character as we know them: Picard doesn't read much and is always in a bad mood; Data clearly experiences basic emotions including intimidation and sadness; Troi is still calling Riker Bill instead of Will and is somehow shamed by others for her abilities (??); Riker is a callous bully who never would have made it to his rank treating his subordinates that way; and so on.
But Diane Carey, who is a fantastic writer, has to be given some grace due to the fact that this book was printed in July 1988. TNG premiered in September 1987, and it takes some time to edit and publish a book, so this novel necessarily had to have been written either before the show had even aired or, at the very latest, while the first season was still airing.
During that first season, Picard was indeed more abrasive than he became soon after, Data was indeed more animated than he became soon after, etc., so we have to make some allowances here.
That said, there is one out of character moment - which a plot point that a section of the story hinges on - that makes absolutely no sense whatsoever to me, even based on just the first two-part episode's interactions between Riker and Data. Further, I don't think that "twist" was even necessary as it didn't seem to go anywhere. Due to that section, I suspect that Riker fans will deeply dislike this book, though I quite enjoyed the first quarter or so, when we spent some time exploring Riker's professional insecurities.
Data fans, such as myself, will cringe quite a bit at the inconsistencies with the Data we know, but I still enjoyed watching his part in the adventure unfold.
Fans of the relationship between Data and La Forge are absolutely spoilt for choice here. The interactions between these two - and La Forge's internal monologues about them - shine. Whether you're a fan of their on-screen friendship or their fan fiction romance, you'll find a king's feast in these pages.
This book is just fun, and if you accept it as more of a "what if...?" rather than canon that's meant to match perfectly with the show as we know it, you might really have a good time!
If I was being a hardnose about canon, I couldn't go above a 2 - but also not below a 2 due to the excellent writing. But because I'm willing to read the book from the point of view of "what if the writers stuck with their original notes about each character and no one evolved" I can comfortably give it a 3.75. If I was rating on writing alone, it'd easily rate a 4.25. Diane Carey's prose is so easy to read.
Keep an open mind and give it a try!
March 16, 2024
The portrayal of the Enterprise crew was nothing like what I remember from television. In Ghost Ship, Riker is an a**hole, LaForge is a grouch, and Picard is too stern. Dr. Crusher, Wesley, Data and Troi are okay, but only just for Troi and Data.
Worf and Tasha Yar are secondary characters whose roles are limited in the story.
In the author's defense, the book was published in 1988; probably written as the shows first season aired. The author may have had only limited knowledge of the characters. If this was the case, then she nailed Wesley and Dr. Crusher - both characters in the novel paralleled those of the TV show.
Worf and Tasha Yar are secondary characters whose roles are limited in the story.
In the author's defense, the book was published in 1988; probably written as the shows first season aired. The author may have had only limited knowledge of the characters. If this was the case, then she nailed Wesley and Dr. Crusher - both characters in the novel paralleled those of the TV show.
October 21, 2021
Aunque el argumento de fondo me ha parecido interesante, el trato a los personajes de the next generation... algunos de ellos parecían haber cambiado de personalidad totalmente en esta historia y de ahí la puntuación fundamentalmente.
May 16, 2018
As this is the first novel based on The Next Generation, I’m happy to give it some slack.
The most obvious problem is the characteristics of the crew don’t quite match those of the tv series, though I’d imagine Carey only had scripts to go on at this point.
The story itself is enjoyable but starts to drag during in the second half of the book. It’s slightly unfortunate that a main plot point focuses on a soviet aircraft carrier being destroyed in 1995 - When in actual fact the Cold War ended in 1991.
A product of its time, I’d only recommend this to Star Trek fans who intend to read the whole series.
The most obvious problem is the characteristics of the crew don’t quite match those of the tv series, though I’d imagine Carey only had scripts to go on at this point.
The story itself is enjoyable but starts to drag during in the second half of the book. It’s slightly unfortunate that a main plot point focuses on a soviet aircraft carrier being destroyed in 1995 - When in actual fact the Cold War ended in 1991.
A product of its time, I’d only recommend this to Star Trek fans who intend to read the whole series.
June 14, 2018
This felt very much like the first season of the show, rough, which makes sense since it’s one of the early novels. The characters didn’t feel totally developed and I couldn’t get into the ways they were speaking and thinking. It didn’t feel right, like I know them better than themselves in this novel.
For instance, everyone kept saying Mr. Riker. I kept mentally correcting them to Commander Riker. I don’t think I ever heard Mr. Riker from the bridge crew. So, nit-picky? Sure, I probably am being harsh, but honest.
For instance, everyone kept saying Mr. Riker. I kept mentally correcting them to Commander Riker. I don’t think I ever heard Mr. Riker from the bridge crew. So, nit-picky? Sure, I probably am being harsh, but honest.
October 27, 2011
This was a great novel for the begining the the STTNG book series. I've read it a few times now and it holds up well after multiple readings. It's hard to believe it was written before the author had ever seen the show and had to work with only charachter sketches and a partial script of the Farpoint episode.
June 19, 2008
This is my favorite star trek book so far.
September 9, 2024
At first glance, this book isn't any good at all. And that's true at second glance too. Florid prose oozes from every scene, and almost nothing has a chance to happen, plot-wise, because the story keeps pausing (mid-conversation sometimes!) for characters to muse on the past and second- and third-guess every single thing they say and do. Sometimes I legitimately forgot what the question was because the answer came after a page of a character's internal dithering.
HOWEVER.
This is absolutely fascinating as a time capsule. According to Memory Alpha, the book was being written before the series had even launched, "and in some cases ahead of actual casting." (!!) In those cases, the author had to rely on the character descriptions in the series bible. In retrospect, I think Geordi was probably one of those characters, because other than him being blind and wearing the visor, we have no physical description of him. The characters haven't settled into themselves yet either. Riker is belligerent and is convinced Data isn't alive; Data can use contractions and is already having emotions; Yar is Lithuanian for some reason (??), and Picard is a stiff and fairly useless martinet who is always foisting the pressure off on the folks around him. Add that to the opening chapters that take place on a USSR nuclear sub in 1995 (heh...because this was written in 1987-1988, before the collapse of the Soviet Union), and this is worth reading for its background alone.
HOWEVER.
This is absolutely fascinating as a time capsule. According to Memory Alpha, the book was being written before the series had even launched, "and in some cases ahead of actual casting." (!!) In those cases, the author had to rely on the character descriptions in the series bible. In retrospect, I think Geordi was probably one of those characters, because other than him being blind and wearing the visor, we have no physical description of him. The characters haven't settled into themselves yet either. Riker is belligerent and is convinced Data isn't alive; Data can use contractions and is already having emotions; Yar is Lithuanian for some reason (??), and Picard is a stiff and fairly useless martinet who is always foisting the pressure off on the folks around him. Add that to the opening chapters that take place on a USSR nuclear sub in 1995 (heh...because this was written in 1987-1988, before the collapse of the Soviet Union), and this is worth reading for its background alone.
January 2, 2025
I decided I'm going to re-read (or read for the first time) the Star Trek: TNG books. I read quite a few from roughly 1995 to 1998 (something like a hundred) and I have great comfort food memories of curling up and reading the books. I know they aren't high literature but people worked hard on them and I love a good Enterprise story with some of my favorite characters.
That said, things get off to an interesting start in #1 Ghost Ship. The book was written by Diane Carey with only the series Bible as reference. She didn't know what the characters looked like and barely how they acted. Which is painfully obvious when every character yells at one another with immense apathy. Picard is an impatient blow hard, Riker hates Data and in turn Geordi hates Riker for hating Data. Wesley is a dumbass (I guess that isn't too different), Troi is called a Mind Slut, and Crusher harasses Picard at every turn. Yar is there, supposedly. Worf is probably the most accurate character portrayed, oddly.
The main story is fairly interesting and the big moral debate of the "episode" is euthanasia. The argument that ensues IS interesting but can't be taken too seriously because the people making the arguments are completely foreign, in hindsight, to what they should be.
That said, I enjoyed the book. It isn't great but it certainly is fun as a "what if" tale (like what if the Enterprise crew were all overdramatic crybabies that hated each other???).
That said, things get off to an interesting start in #1 Ghost Ship. The book was written by Diane Carey with only the series Bible as reference. She didn't know what the characters looked like and barely how they acted. Which is painfully obvious when every character yells at one another with immense apathy. Picard is an impatient blow hard, Riker hates Data and in turn Geordi hates Riker for hating Data. Wesley is a dumbass (I guess that isn't too different), Troi is called a Mind Slut, and Crusher harasses Picard at every turn. Yar is there, supposedly. Worf is probably the most accurate character portrayed, oddly.
The main story is fairly interesting and the big moral debate of the "episode" is euthanasia. The argument that ensues IS interesting but can't be taken too seriously because the people making the arguments are completely foreign, in hindsight, to what they should be.
That said, I enjoyed the book. It isn't great but it certainly is fun as a "what if" tale (like what if the Enterprise crew were all overdramatic crybabies that hated each other???).
February 20, 2021
I've been on a binge rewatch of the entire series and thought I'd try the books. I enjoyed this first title. The relationship among the crew is pretty rocky as this is very early on in their adventures aboard the Enterprise, and I would cringe every time Picard got annoyed at one of them. It's not really what I'm used to seeing on screen, but the building blocks of their characters are there. The threat was creative and suitably menacing. Stress-inducing at times, in fact, which I mean as a compliment. I could do without some of the sappy Riker/Troi moments, vague comments about their shared past. We get it. They were intimate. I feel like I was being beaten over the head with the proverbial hammer in that regard. Still, a well written and enjoyable read!
November 28, 2022
The author clearly only saw maybe the first episode of TNG before writing, and a lot of the characters (particularly Picard and Riker) are very different from how we come to know them. But tbh I admire how the author commits to a characterization & extrapolates based on partial data lol, even if it is jarring at times. And there's a lot of redundant waffling on how characters feel, which is better than the opposite of all action no substance, but concision is a gift. Then there's the ethical dilemma which goes HARD... all in all a mixed bag, but a solidly entertaining read.
May 11, 2024
Crew members mannerisms aren’t quite the same. Didn’t really understand the choice or reasoning for the slight differences from the show characters. but when you’re craving a “new episode” you haven’t experienced yet, I got over it pretty quickly lol
Notes:
Picard almost rude at times.
Riker was a huge dickhead through the first half of the book, especially to Data. He did come around in the end and realized he was being a jerk.
First time I’ve ever hear Riker called Bill and by Troi of all people. Lol
Notes:
Picard almost rude at times.
Riker was a huge dickhead through the first half of the book, especially to Data. He did come around in the end and realized he was being a jerk.
First time I’ve ever hear Riker called Bill and by Troi of all people. Lol
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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July 14, 2023This book was WILD. Not even sure I can give it a rating bc I honestly don’t know how to?? I have not watched first season TNG in a long time but was Riker this much of an asshole? Lord. & the plot felt like it should have wrapped up more quickly, & was there for philosophical debates on what is life, & euthanasia, which I really did not expect.
June 13, 2024
Riveting and fierce exploration of life and death
I read this because I'm a Star Trek fan, not because of working in healthcare. I can't tell you how surprised I was to find myself in the middle of a deep dive into medical ethics! It's rather magical to encounter a right to die exploration knotted into defining what is or is not life with a whisper of history, future, battles with enormous aliens (sort of) and amazing engineers. Enormously entertaining, highly recommended.
I read this because I'm a Star Trek fan, not because of working in healthcare. I can't tell you how surprised I was to find myself in the middle of a deep dive into medical ethics! It's rather magical to encounter a right to die exploration knotted into defining what is or is not life with a whisper of history, future, battles with enormous aliens (sort of) and amazing engineers. Enormously entertaining, highly recommended.
October 3, 2019
There's an interesting critter story here, but I couldn't really get into it because of how different the majority of the characters are to their on-screen personas - a limitation of when the book was written and the information available to the author, I think.
February 17, 2025
Want to read about contemplating what constitutes life? What constitutes consciousness? What death is and if one needs assistance from an impossible situation? Then this the Star Trek TNG for you. I quite enjoyed it and looking forward to the next book in the series.
August 11, 2024
Fun to spend time with the crew of the Enterprise
June 17, 2022
Hm... 2.5 en verdad, porque es Star Trek...pero da la sensación de que los personajes no son los mismos, como una especie de fanfic. Aun así, la historia ha estado bien.
July 13, 2014
Rounded down to 2 stars from 2.5.
This novel was written extremely early in the series, and the writer chose to (or was told to) focus intently on characterization and the inner lives of the crew, before anyone (including the author) really had access to much created canon. Now, after years of canonical development, this book is essentially an alternate universe branching off within the first couple of episodes of the show. If you're looking for the comfort and familiarity of the characters you know, don't look here. This is more entertaining as one author grappling with the Star Trek universe of 1987 to find a brand new culture and new community feel, and build new juicy characters with good friction between them, and making very different decisions than the show itself did.
Taken as an AU, it's... well, it's still a mixed bag, to be honest. Some characters that were still a damn dull blank slate by the end of the series (Deanna, Riker, Geordi) get meatier substance here than they ever got in canon. The unfolding action is described imaginatively; even internal monologues read as a bit cinematic. The plot is poignant and sometimes suspenseful. But everyone seems quite impulsive and short-tempered in general, and specifically put out by the mysteriousness of the entity they've encountered (which is odd for, ya know, explorers of deep space). The plot is a slow one, sometimes painfully slow, to make room for a great deal of internal reflection. One of my favorite motifs used on the show - the staff meeting about ethics - was painfully overwrought and uninspired here. And there was a singular absolutely disgusting comment made (by Deanna of all people) about people with disabilities.
This novel was written extremely early in the series, and the writer chose to (or was told to) focus intently on characterization and the inner lives of the crew, before anyone (including the author) really had access to much created canon. Now, after years of canonical development, this book is essentially an alternate universe branching off within the first couple of episodes of the show. If you're looking for the comfort and familiarity of the characters you know, don't look here. This is more entertaining as one author grappling with the Star Trek universe of 1987 to find a brand new culture and new community feel, and build new juicy characters with good friction between them, and making very different decisions than the show itself did.
Taken as an AU, it's... well, it's still a mixed bag, to be honest. Some characters that were still a damn dull blank slate by the end of the series (Deanna, Riker, Geordi) get meatier substance here than they ever got in canon. The unfolding action is described imaginatively; even internal monologues read as a bit cinematic. The plot is poignant and sometimes suspenseful. But everyone seems quite impulsive and short-tempered in general, and specifically put out by the mysteriousness of the entity they've encountered (which is odd for, ya know, explorers of deep space). The plot is a slow one, sometimes painfully slow, to make room for a great deal of internal reflection. One of my favorite motifs used on the show - the staff meeting about ethics - was painfully overwrought and uninspired here. And there was a singular absolutely disgusting comment made (by Deanna of all people) about people with disabilities.
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