What do you think?
Rate this book
Star Trek: The Next Generation
Ship of the Line
"Ship Of The Line" tells the story of the first voyage of the "U.S.S Enterprise(TM) " NCi1701-E, under the command of Morgan Bateson. Captain Bateson, a man from the 23rd century now living in the 24th, sees what no one else can see: that the Klingon Empire is building its forces and preparing to strike against the Federation. Seizing his one chance, Bateson takes the "U.S.S. Enterprise" on a mission to counter the Klingon threat, only to be thwarted by his enemy, a Klingon who has nursed a grudge against Bateson for decades. Standing in the way of Bateson's scheme and the Klingons' plan is Captain Jean-Luc Picard who, faced with the toughest decision of his career, must choose whether to take back command of the "U.S.S Enterprise" or let the torch pass to yet another next generation!
336 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 1997
40 people are currently reading
589 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
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 85 reviews
June 26, 2024
Takes itself WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY too seriously. The characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation are unrecognizable here. There's way too much of the author showing off her knowledge of of naval history -- not enough Star Trek.
Congrats to Diane Carey for sucking all of the joy out of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Congrats to Diane Carey for sucking all of the joy out of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
April 26, 2015
In the TNG episode "Cause and Effect" the Enterprise barely avoids a catastrophic impact with the USS Bozeman, commanded by Captain Bateson (as played by Kelsey Grammer.) In "Ship of the Line" Diane Carey follows up on that brief cameo with a novel length Down Periscope/Next-Gen crossover staring Captain Bateson (as played by Lt. Cmdr. Thomas 'Tom' Dodge (as played by Kelsey Grammer.)) Only it's not nearly as fun as that description implies.
He's a captain who drinks rum on the bridge, argues with people, and would probably smoke cigars if the author thought she could get sneak it in among all the love for the coast guard she's worked into the story.
The dialogue feels, at its best, off, and at its worst the characterizations feel completely weird. There's a part where Picard is feeling mopey because of the loss of the Ent-D and Riker gets him to man up for his *big secret mission* by watching a couple of episodes of the Original Series on the holodeck. This does the trick and he's ready to face the b-plot of revisiting the TNG episode where he was tortured. I would call it inconsequential but the A-plot is no better, with an ancient Klingon out for revenge against Bateson.
Even on the scale of Star Trek tie-in fiction this is a piece of crap.
He's a captain who drinks rum on the bridge, argues with people, and would probably smoke cigars if the author thought she could get sneak it in among all the love for the coast guard she's worked into the story.
The dialogue feels, at its best, off, and at its worst the characterizations feel completely weird. There's a part where Picard is feeling mopey because of the loss of the Ent-D and Riker gets him to man up for his *big secret mission* by watching a couple of episodes of the Original Series on the holodeck. This does the trick and he's ready to face the b-plot of revisiting the TNG episode where he was tortured. I would call it inconsequential but the A-plot is no better, with an ancient Klingon out for revenge against Bateson.
Even on the scale of Star Trek tie-in fiction this is a piece of crap.
January 17, 2019
For the most part, I was disappointed in Ship of the Line. As a sequel to one of my favorite episodes, it fails on nearly every level. There were interesting aspects to Captain Bateson's story, but for the sheer amount of Trek lore that the author gets wrong, and how much of it just doesn't fit with Star Trek, I'm afraid I have to give poor marks to this novel. It pains me to do so, as I really wanted to like this one, but unfortunately it was not to be.
By the way, for a much better (in my opinion) follow-up to "Cause and Effect" and the crew of the Bozeman, check out Christopher L. Bennett's Department of Temporal Investigations: Watching the Clock.
Full review: https://www.treklit.com/2019/01/SotL....
By the way, for a much better (in my opinion) follow-up to "Cause and Effect" and the crew of the Bozeman, check out Christopher L. Bennett's Department of Temporal Investigations: Watching the Clock.
Full review: https://www.treklit.com/2019/01/SotL....
May 24, 2013
I couldn't even get through this book. It was just so depressing. Everyone was cranky and at each other's throats the whole time; sometimes it barely even felt like Star Trek. Conflict is the essence of story-telling of course, but this was relentless. It made all the characters unlikable, including ones that I've loved since I was a child.
It's especially disappointing because the premise is a great one - it takes some rich left-over threads from the series and spins a new yarn from them. It just wasn't any good.
It's especially disappointing because the premise is a great one - it takes some rich left-over threads from the series and spins a new yarn from them. It just wasn't any good.
December 27, 2015
Dreadful nonsense with terribly cliched Klingon motivations and unlikely (read: no SoD) events involving deus ex machina time travel. I don't think I've ever read a Trek book quite this bad before, was surprised, because I know I've read Diane Carey before. What is this rubbish, anyway? I regret buying the hardcover and hanging onto it for so many years before reading it. Really just a throw-away story that should have been rejected by the publisher.
October 23, 2022
Despite all the low ratings, I gave this one a try. Well, I'm sorry to say I should have listened to the ratings. I read this for a challenge, otherwise, I might have bailed on it.
April 14, 2014
This book takes up where we left off with the STNG episode "Cause and Effect." What happens to the Bozeman and her crew ninety years into the future? Diane Carey provides an entertaining look at her vision of this. Not only that, but she cleverly works in Captain Kirk and a couple of TOS episodes as well. She even provides some finality to a different STNG episode as part of this adventure. All of this serves to provide the reader with her own insights on the characters of Picard, Riker, and Kirk in particular.
This is an imaginative read and a real page turner filled with much excitement and adventure. If there is any down side, it is that the author seems to take too many pains to describe the thinking/emotions of the characters in virtually every piece of dialogue. This can be distracting at times, but not enough to reduce the rating.
STNG fans will love this book.
This is an imaginative read and a real page turner filled with much excitement and adventure. If there is any down side, it is that the author seems to take too many pains to describe the thinking/emotions of the characters in virtually every piece of dialogue. This can be distracting at times, but not enough to reduce the rating.
STNG fans will love this book.
April 14, 2011
Too obsessed with the traumas of the captain of the Bozeman (at the expense of the Enterprise crew), too mired in (incorrect) continuity, and too self-important. It tries to reach the level of Diane Carey's previous masterpiece, "Best Destiny"...and it doesn't come close.
February 9, 2014
meh. A convoluted jumble that tries to connect multiple plot lines from different versions and eras. doesn't really hold together. I kept waiting to care about one or more of the plot lines...didn't happen.
September 8, 2016
An underwhelming book that handles its themes in simplifying and rather silly ways. Very much different and a lot weaker than what Trek literature usually has to offer.
July 13, 2018
Hmm. I’ve read and enjoyed Carey in the past, but on so many levels this one didn’t work for me. I realize any review is entirely subjective -- but after spending some considerable time on Goodreads lately, one can’t help but notice that the vaster majority of reviews posted here are extremely subjective, which means it's kosher to go with the flow. So here goes.
When I read a Trek novel, I want to read a Trek novel. When I want to read a sea story about salty seadogs on tallships, I pick up Alexander Kent or C.S. Forrester -- a tale of Jack Aubrey, perhaps. And I don’t think the blend of the two fiction streams works. Carey clearly wanted to write about the US Coast Guard off the New England shores, but (educated guess) what she knew she could sell was a Trek novel. So she overlaid nineteenth century maritime lingo -- and characters that would be more at home in Moby Dick -- atop the ST universe. And it doesn’t work, any more than it would work if a writer took language and characters from the curricle racing scene, circa 1820, and laid them over today’s Formula One racing world. The graft is … awkward.
Red flags fluttered up the mast before the half-title page, where Carey mentions that all quotes are taken from Forrester’s Hornblower books. O…kay. Fair enough. ST is known, onscreen, to occasionally hark back to the days of iron men in wooden ships. The problem, Carey did it to much, too often, in the opening chapters. I found it rubbing me the wrong way, which put me in an unreceptive state of mind for what followed --
Starfleet officers who slug neat rum on the bridge, on duty?? Captain Spock accepting a shot of this rocket fuel -- on duty?! Referring constantly to a military ship’s First Officer as the ‘first mate,’ when this is a merchant marine term, and semi-slang into the bargain? Before page 20, AG wasn’t a happy camper. The character of Capt. Morgan Bateson is drawn from a ST:TNG episode, so pivoting a novel around him is doable to a degree. How well it works depends on how effectively the writer “sells” the idea. If I’m going to spend the first 20% of a Trek novel reading about the author’s own characters almost to the exclusion of the characters I love from the shows, this author has to make me like those people, care about them; and Carey didn’t. In fact, I found myself being annoyed by Bateson and his crew. The portrayal of the Klingon contingent is another sore spot. To be sure, Kingons are damned hard to write credibly, but Carey’s Klingons are caricatures, cartoons.
Part Two begins with a forward skip in time, when Bateson runs into Picard and his team, and I find myself with more problems. The characterizations are “off” by a country mile … Picard doesn’t speak that way. The only way to recognize Riker is by the name tag. About here, I started to speed-read, which is always a bad sign.
The plot skips forward yet again, to the time after the Enterprise-D went to her death, and before the launch of Enterprise-E. Here, we find the Starfleet brass-hats making decisions so loopy, I can’t suspend my disbelief any longer. I won’t get into plot spoilers, because it’ll blow the rest of the book for you, but…
It’s a quick read, thank gods. Lumpy, incredibly self-indulgent, with poor characterization throughout, iffy dialog, and a plotline that’s visibly contrived. Bottom line: Carey should have written a book about the US Cost Guard off the shores of New England, sold that, then written another Trek book on an entirely different subject. She’d probably have come up with two decent books instead of a hodgepodge that was impossible to enjoy, at least for me.
Alas, AG’s rating: 2 stars at best, and if I’m feeling uncharitable, 1. Urk.
When I read a Trek novel, I want to read a Trek novel. When I want to read a sea story about salty seadogs on tallships, I pick up Alexander Kent or C.S. Forrester -- a tale of Jack Aubrey, perhaps. And I don’t think the blend of the two fiction streams works. Carey clearly wanted to write about the US Coast Guard off the New England shores, but (educated guess) what she knew she could sell was a Trek novel. So she overlaid nineteenth century maritime lingo -- and characters that would be more at home in Moby Dick -- atop the ST universe. And it doesn’t work, any more than it would work if a writer took language and characters from the curricle racing scene, circa 1820, and laid them over today’s Formula One racing world. The graft is … awkward.
Red flags fluttered up the mast before the half-title page, where Carey mentions that all quotes are taken from Forrester’s Hornblower books. O…kay. Fair enough. ST is known, onscreen, to occasionally hark back to the days of iron men in wooden ships. The problem, Carey did it to much, too often, in the opening chapters. I found it rubbing me the wrong way, which put me in an unreceptive state of mind for what followed --
Starfleet officers who slug neat rum on the bridge, on duty?? Captain Spock accepting a shot of this rocket fuel -- on duty?! Referring constantly to a military ship’s First Officer as the ‘first mate,’ when this is a merchant marine term, and semi-slang into the bargain? Before page 20, AG wasn’t a happy camper. The character of Capt. Morgan Bateson is drawn from a ST:TNG episode, so pivoting a novel around him is doable to a degree. How well it works depends on how effectively the writer “sells” the idea. If I’m going to spend the first 20% of a Trek novel reading about the author’s own characters almost to the exclusion of the characters I love from the shows, this author has to make me like those people, care about them; and Carey didn’t. In fact, I found myself being annoyed by Bateson and his crew. The portrayal of the Klingon contingent is another sore spot. To be sure, Kingons are damned hard to write credibly, but Carey’s Klingons are caricatures, cartoons.
Part Two begins with a forward skip in time, when Bateson runs into Picard and his team, and I find myself with more problems. The characterizations are “off” by a country mile … Picard doesn’t speak that way. The only way to recognize Riker is by the name tag. About here, I started to speed-read, which is always a bad sign.
The plot skips forward yet again, to the time after the Enterprise-D went to her death, and before the launch of Enterprise-E. Here, we find the Starfleet brass-hats making decisions so loopy, I can’t suspend my disbelief any longer. I won’t get into plot spoilers, because it’ll blow the rest of the book for you, but…
It’s a quick read, thank gods. Lumpy, incredibly self-indulgent, with poor characterization throughout, iffy dialog, and a plotline that’s visibly contrived. Bottom line: Carey should have written a book about the US Cost Guard off the shores of New England, sold that, then written another Trek book on an entirely different subject. She’d probably have come up with two decent books instead of a hodgepodge that was impossible to enjoy, at least for me.
Alas, AG’s rating: 2 stars at best, and if I’m feeling uncharitable, 1. Urk.
June 10, 2020
This book is set between the Star Trek movies Generations and First Contact, and explores the doubts that Captain Picard has on taking command of the newly built starship, the Enterprise E.
The story also focuses on Captain Morgan Bateson and his team, who were thrown forward in time in the TNG TV episode “Cause and Effect”.
Throw in a sub-plot with some Cardassians, a bitter Klingon general, and you have a lot of reading!
I found the book enjoyable, even if the writing around Bateson and his crew was, at times, a little rambling for me. There were also too many sub-plots and threads. During the middle of the book, I wasn’t sure what the story arc was, but all became clear at the end.
This book was an interesting way to explore a number of characters and threads introduced in the TNG series. If you’re a hard core Star Trek fan, then you’ll enjoy reading this.
The story also focuses on Captain Morgan Bateson and his team, who were thrown forward in time in the TNG TV episode “Cause and Effect”.
Throw in a sub-plot with some Cardassians, a bitter Klingon general, and you have a lot of reading!
I found the book enjoyable, even if the writing around Bateson and his crew was, at times, a little rambling for me. There were also too many sub-plots and threads. During the middle of the book, I wasn’t sure what the story arc was, but all became clear at the end.
This book was an interesting way to explore a number of characters and threads introduced in the TNG series. If you’re a hard core Star Trek fan, then you’ll enjoy reading this.
May 16, 2020
*Groans*
I should have learned my lesson from the books published for the Resident Evil series- transferring a tv show or video game into a book never works well.
There are some (minor) interesting things about this book, but overall this books reads like fanfiction- and mediocre fanfiction at that. One wonders whether the author ever watched much Star Trek, or just enough to glean the basics. There were times I was convinced that the book was just a vehicle for the author to display here knowledge of maritime history and to publish quotes from the Horatio Hornblower series of books.
Someone might get something out of it, but I didn't.
I should have learned my lesson from the books published for the Resident Evil series- transferring a tv show or video game into a book never works well.
There are some (minor) interesting things about this book, but overall this books reads like fanfiction- and mediocre fanfiction at that. One wonders whether the author ever watched much Star Trek, or just enough to glean the basics. There were times I was convinced that the book was just a vehicle for the author to display here knowledge of maritime history and to publish quotes from the Horatio Hornblower series of books.
Someone might get something out of it, but I didn't.
February 22, 2025
Hey, remember that time the Enterprise was doing a time loop thingy and at the end Kelsey Grammar showed up? Well this is a sequel to that. We get detail of how the Gramm-man ended up in that time loop and what him and his crew are all about. I think Carey did a good job creating a new crew and I could see the captain being played by Grammar.
Anyway after he’s brought into the future, Captain Bateson (Grammar) ends up captaining the Enterprise E for its shakedown cruise, much to the chagrin of Riker who’s been assigned as first officer. Will Bateson’s old fashioned prejudices be the undoing of the Enterprise? Will Bateson’s old Klingon nemesis get his revenge?
Meanwhile Picard has been sent to face his old tormenter, Gul Madred, and bring starfleet prisoners back. At the same time he decides to review some of Captain Kirk’s missions through the holodeck, to help decide what to do after the destruction of the Enterprise D.
The Picard B plot is by far the stronger narrative and gives good insights into both Kirk and Picard. The Bateson story is definitely weak. The villains are extremely lame and the ending negates everything that’s happened up till then. It probably would’ve been better if this was split into two novels, one where Bateson and crew could get a proper story of their own and one where Picard deals with Madred and the aftermath of Generations.
Despite weak plotting this is still a good trip to the Trek universe and it is interesting to see the first mission of the Enterprise E. I’ll bump up a Star because it seems everyone else reviled this novel and I want to up its average.
Anyway after he’s brought into the future, Captain Bateson (Grammar) ends up captaining the Enterprise E for its shakedown cruise, much to the chagrin of Riker who’s been assigned as first officer. Will Bateson’s old fashioned prejudices be the undoing of the Enterprise? Will Bateson’s old Klingon nemesis get his revenge?
Meanwhile Picard has been sent to face his old tormenter, Gul Madred, and bring starfleet prisoners back. At the same time he decides to review some of Captain Kirk’s missions through the holodeck, to help decide what to do after the destruction of the Enterprise D.
The Picard B plot is by far the stronger narrative and gives good insights into both Kirk and Picard. The Bateson story is definitely weak. The villains are extremely lame and the ending negates everything that’s happened up till then. It probably would’ve been better if this was split into two novels, one where Bateson and crew could get a proper story of their own and one where Picard deals with Madred and the aftermath of Generations.
Despite weak plotting this is still a good trip to the Trek universe and it is interesting to see the first mission of the Enterprise E. I’ll bump up a Star because it seems everyone else reviled this novel and I want to up its average.
June 7, 2019
A story that spends way more time following up on a few one-off characters from TNG than it does telling an actual story. In fact, most of the action is far too short and most of the boring stuff is too long. If you like generic Trek fiction, this is the definition of that.
March 21, 2022
I finished reading last night the Star Trek: The Next Generation novel, “Ship of the Line” (1997), by Diane Carey. This is one of literally hundreds of Star Trek novels that I bought when they first came out. (I basically was collecting all of the Star Trek novels from the mid or late 1980s until 2010 or so, carefully making sure I never missed buying one to have them all, with the intention of reading them eventually. Well, eventually finally came for “Ship of the Line”.)
Why, of all of the hundreds of Star Trek novels would I pick “Ship of the Line” to read at this time? Well, the most recent Star Trek novels that I’ve read have for the most part been tied into the current Paramount+ television series “Star Trek: Discovery” and “Star Trek: Picard”. I also recently read a more recent Star Trek (The Original Series) novel, “Agents of Influence”, by Dayton Ward. After several nonfiction books, I was ready to jump back into some Star Trek fiction again and this time I was feeling like a bit of “The Next Generation”. However, I still had to narrow that down so I decided to start with novels immediately following the film “Star Trek Generations” so that I’d be reading the stories that take place after the television series and after the launch of the U.S.S. Enterprise-E.
Which brings me finally to talking about “Ship of the Line”. It’s touted right on the cover as “The First Voyage of the Starship Enterprise 1701-E!” And it is, I suppose. But it’s more other things than that.
An aside. Diane Carey wrote over thirty Star Trek novels (both original novels and tv episode novelizations) from 1986 to 2001. She was a very popular Star Trek author during this period, especially for her Original Series novels “Final Frontier” (1986; not to be confused with the film, “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier”) and “Best Destiny” (1992), both of which I recall enjoying very much.
Carey’s non Original Series Star Trek novels, however, could be a bit more hit or miss, and, unfortunately, “Ship of the Line” is more miss than it is hit. While a Star Trek: The Next Generation novel, it spends the first part of the book back in the era of Captain Kirk, Spock, and the U.S.S. Enterprise (as depicted in the 1980s films), detailing what Captain Morgan Bateson and his crew of the U.S.S. Bozeman were doing (fighting it out with some Klingons, it turns out) just prior to travelling through a temporal anomaly, transporting them eighty years into the future and catching them in an endlessly repeating temporal causality loop, colliding again and again into the U.S.S. Enterprise-D, destroying the latter vessel (as seen in the Next Generation episode, “Cause and Effect”).
It is a bit interesting to learn more about Bateson and his crew (although Carey writes Bateson as basically a Star Trek version of actor Kelsey Grammar’s Frasier Crane character; Grammar played Bateson in his brief scene in “Cause and Effect”), but the conflict with the Klingons was a bit old hat even back in 1997 when “Ship of the Line” first came out.
Then, at a climactic moment in the battle with the Klingons, they get transported into the era of Captain Picard and the U.S.S. Enterprise-D. We see a few scenes detailing this (including a recreation of the moment they both see each other for the first time over their viewscreens, just after breaking the repeating “loop”.
Next comes another time just to the *main* time period of this book, which is about a year after “Star Trek Generations”. Picard, Riker, and the rest of the crew are on duty but not assigned to a ship in the aftermath of the loss of the Enterprise-D. There is some question as to who the about to be sent on her shake down cruise, U.S.S. Enterprise-E’s, captain will be, whether Captain Picard, Riker, or... Well, it turns out to be neither of those two. Picard is sent instead on a mission into Cardassian space to recover captured Starfleet officers (prisoners of war). Riker is assigned to serve as first officer aboard the Enterprise-E for its shakedown cruise. And the captain assigned to the Enterprise-E is none other than Captain Morgan Bateson, having been working behind the scenes on the development and construction of this new ship. Riker, resentful that the new ship has been given to Bateson, the same man who had come through to their century just a few years prior, over Captain Picard and himself, begrudgingly accepts his orders. The rest of the former Enterprise-D bridge crew get split up. Data, La Forge, and Troi to the Enterprise-E (although Bateson, a man from an era without official ship counselors, insists on Troi serving as a member of the ship’s medical staff and not as a counselor).
Dr. Crusher and Worf go with Picard on his mission to Cardassia. However, we don’t really see much at all of Crusher or Worf for most of the book. (Worf is at this time serving on Deep Space Nine and Picard says they will be “borrowing” him from Captain Sisko. Once they get into Cardassian space, though, we only see Worf and Crusher briefly during one key scene and neither speaks.) Instead, once Picard boards a private (non Starfleet) ship on their mission into Cardassian space, the novel starts jumping from them, back to the Enterprise-E, and, third, to the Klingons seeking revenge on Bateson. The Picard portions take place mostly on a holodeck aboard the merchant vessel where, undergoing doubts as to his continuing to serve as a captain in Starfleet due to the loss of a second ship under his command (first the U.S.S. Stargazer, then the Enterprise-D), Picard takes Riker’s advice and spends time watching two incidents that occurred aboard the original U.S.S. Enterprise, Captain James T. Kirk in command. The holo Kirk, based on later interviews with the real James Kirk, is programmed to not only recreate what happened in those incidents for Picard but also to answer any questions Picard might have into what Kirk was thinking and feeling at the time. A training hologram for future Starfleet Academy cadets and officers.
Picard observes Kirk first during an encounter with a hostile cloaked Romulan ship in the Neutral Zone (original television series episode “Balance of Terror”), and then, second, after Kirk had been accidentally split into two separate versions of himself due to a transporter accident (“The Enemy Within”). Over the course of the chapters covering Picard’s time on the holodeck observing and interacting with holo Captain Kirk, he comes to whatever necessary realization necessary to get out of his funk and lead the mission to retrieve the prisoners of war from the Cardassian, Gul Madred (the same Cardassian interrogator who tortured Picard in the episode, “Chain of Command Part II”).
I’m not going to go into specifics here about Picard’s scenes with Madred and his rescue of the Starfleet officers Madred had been putting through war exercises (other than to say that these scenes are strangely short and not very interesting. Picard’s confrontation with Madred is made into a very tiny part of everything else going on in this novel when it should have been a novel of its own (and written by someone better attuned to the Next Generation characters than Carey was). And, again, Crusher and Worf are pretty much non existent other than as set dressings. (“Two humans, one male and one female, and a tall Klingon beamed in.” That sort of thing.)
I’m also not going to go into great detail here about Riker’s bickering with Bateson aboard the Enterprise-E, the Klingons hijacking the ship, and Bateson, Riker, and Montgomery Scott’s (yes, “Scotty” is aboard, too, at Bateson’s request) retaking the ship with unarmed and nonlethal “guerilla” tactics (other than to say that is gets rather silly the ways they are able to outwit dozens of Klingon warriors).
There are some interesting scenes in this novel, however, I must admit that it is not an older Star Trek novel that ages well, largely due to the writing style of Diane Carey. First off, her strength is clearly the characters of the original Star Trek series (Kirk, Spock, McCoy, etc.), not Picard, Riker, Data, La Forge, and company. Her depictions of Picard and Riker therefore seem way off base at times, even for how the characters were being portrayed in 1997. The thing that seems the most out of character are the scenes where Picard is observing Kirk on the
holodeck. I’ve seen many readers call into question these scenes of Picard having to learn from the mighty James T. Kirk how to be a Starfleet captain (despite Picard having been shown to be an excellent captain over the course of the seven seasons of Next Generation), and I have to agree with them.
Riker fares a bit better than Picard but still has moments when he seems way out of character. (For one thing, he acts like he does not understand how Klingons think and fight, conceding to Bateson’s greater experience with Klingons of his time. Riker, though, spent an entire episode of Next Generation, “A Matter of Honor”, serving as first officer aboard a Klingon ship, something not mentioned once, I don’t think.) And the rest of the Next Generation regulars get very little “screen time”, especially once the Klingons hijack the ship. (Kudos for the way they incapacitate Data, though.)
Of course, things end just as one would predict. Riker and Bateson retake control of the Enterprise-E. Then, Bateson cedes command of it to Picard. Then another time jump to the opening scenes of the film “Star Trek: First Contact”, when the Enterprise-E is put on the sidelines while the rest of a fleet of Starfleet ships attempt to stop of Borg ship from reaching Earth. One of those ships confronting the Borg is the U.S.S. Defiant (commanded by Worf). And another, according to dialogue heard in the film, is the Bozeman. The novel gives the impression that this is the U.S.S. Bozeman II, commanded by Bateson. As in the film, Picard listens to the battle over the coms for a few minutes and then takes them, against orders, back to Earth to assist in the fight. End of “Ship of the Line”.
To be honest, the scenes where Carey recreates actual scenes from the tv episodes and movies, although not that many, are probably the best ones in this book. And the first part of the book aboard the Bozeman prior to their going through the temporal anomaly are interesting, aside from Carey’s predilection to insert old time naval terminology and history in from time to time, even when it seems forced to do so. And I also did enjoy some of the debating of old ways versus new ones between Bateson and Riker. However, the already stated mischaracterizations of Picard and Riker, the stereotypical “must destroy them to claim a glorious reputation” Klingons, and the built up to but then quickly resolved Cardassian prisoner of war camp sub plot all make this at best an bit less than average Star Trek: The Next Generation novel. I would have given it two and a half stars out of five on GoodReads but they don’t allow half stars, so I had to give it a two star rating.
(P.S.: Another thing I found a bit “off” was the use of the term “destroyer” as a type of vessel Starfleet would commission. Picard himself announces that Bateson’s newly assigned ship, a destroyer, would be rechristened the U.S.S. Boseman II. These days, I would find it very surprising to hear the writers have Picard or anyone else in Starfleet refer to one of their ships as a “destroyer” class vessel, preferring to use much less military sounding terms because Starfleet, while pseudo military in regards to its command structure, is almost always depicted in newer Trek television shows, movies, and tie-in fiction, as an organization with exploration, support, and defense as its core reasons for being. I can’t really fault Diane Carey specifically for this, though, as much of the Star Trek tie-in fiction of the 1980s and 1990s described Starfleet in more military like terms (destroyers, frigates, etc.), thanks largely to the popularity of Nicholas Meyer’s “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”, in which Meyer intentionally emphasized naval military elements in how Starfleet vessels like the Enterprise operated. Carey, though, as I already stated, loved to insert naval terminology and anecdotes more so than most other Star Trek novelists, though, due to her own personal background as a historic sailing ships hobbyist.)
Why, of all of the hundreds of Star Trek novels would I pick “Ship of the Line” to read at this time? Well, the most recent Star Trek novels that I’ve read have for the most part been tied into the current Paramount+ television series “Star Trek: Discovery” and “Star Trek: Picard”. I also recently read a more recent Star Trek (The Original Series) novel, “Agents of Influence”, by Dayton Ward. After several nonfiction books, I was ready to jump back into some Star Trek fiction again and this time I was feeling like a bit of “The Next Generation”. However, I still had to narrow that down so I decided to start with novels immediately following the film “Star Trek Generations” so that I’d be reading the stories that take place after the television series and after the launch of the U.S.S. Enterprise-E.
Which brings me finally to talking about “Ship of the Line”. It’s touted right on the cover as “The First Voyage of the Starship Enterprise 1701-E!” And it is, I suppose. But it’s more other things than that.
An aside. Diane Carey wrote over thirty Star Trek novels (both original novels and tv episode novelizations) from 1986 to 2001. She was a very popular Star Trek author during this period, especially for her Original Series novels “Final Frontier” (1986; not to be confused with the film, “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier”) and “Best Destiny” (1992), both of which I recall enjoying very much.
Carey’s non Original Series Star Trek novels, however, could be a bit more hit or miss, and, unfortunately, “Ship of the Line” is more miss than it is hit. While a Star Trek: The Next Generation novel, it spends the first part of the book back in the era of Captain Kirk, Spock, and the U.S.S. Enterprise (as depicted in the 1980s films), detailing what Captain Morgan Bateson and his crew of the U.S.S. Bozeman were doing (fighting it out with some Klingons, it turns out) just prior to travelling through a temporal anomaly, transporting them eighty years into the future and catching them in an endlessly repeating temporal causality loop, colliding again and again into the U.S.S. Enterprise-D, destroying the latter vessel (as seen in the Next Generation episode, “Cause and Effect”).
It is a bit interesting to learn more about Bateson and his crew (although Carey writes Bateson as basically a Star Trek version of actor Kelsey Grammar’s Frasier Crane character; Grammar played Bateson in his brief scene in “Cause and Effect”), but the conflict with the Klingons was a bit old hat even back in 1997 when “Ship of the Line” first came out.
Then, at a climactic moment in the battle with the Klingons, they get transported into the era of Captain Picard and the U.S.S. Enterprise-D. We see a few scenes detailing this (including a recreation of the moment they both see each other for the first time over their viewscreens, just after breaking the repeating “loop”.
Next comes another time just to the *main* time period of this book, which is about a year after “Star Trek Generations”. Picard, Riker, and the rest of the crew are on duty but not assigned to a ship in the aftermath of the loss of the Enterprise-D. There is some question as to who the about to be sent on her shake down cruise, U.S.S. Enterprise-E’s, captain will be, whether Captain Picard, Riker, or... Well, it turns out to be neither of those two. Picard is sent instead on a mission into Cardassian space to recover captured Starfleet officers (prisoners of war). Riker is assigned to serve as first officer aboard the Enterprise-E for its shakedown cruise. And the captain assigned to the Enterprise-E is none other than Captain Morgan Bateson, having been working behind the scenes on the development and construction of this new ship. Riker, resentful that the new ship has been given to Bateson, the same man who had come through to their century just a few years prior, over Captain Picard and himself, begrudgingly accepts his orders. The rest of the former Enterprise-D bridge crew get split up. Data, La Forge, and Troi to the Enterprise-E (although Bateson, a man from an era without official ship counselors, insists on Troi serving as a member of the ship’s medical staff and not as a counselor).
Dr. Crusher and Worf go with Picard on his mission to Cardassia. However, we don’t really see much at all of Crusher or Worf for most of the book. (Worf is at this time serving on Deep Space Nine and Picard says they will be “borrowing” him from Captain Sisko. Once they get into Cardassian space, though, we only see Worf and Crusher briefly during one key scene and neither speaks.) Instead, once Picard boards a private (non Starfleet) ship on their mission into Cardassian space, the novel starts jumping from them, back to the Enterprise-E, and, third, to the Klingons seeking revenge on Bateson. The Picard portions take place mostly on a holodeck aboard the merchant vessel where, undergoing doubts as to his continuing to serve as a captain in Starfleet due to the loss of a second ship under his command (first the U.S.S. Stargazer, then the Enterprise-D), Picard takes Riker’s advice and spends time watching two incidents that occurred aboard the original U.S.S. Enterprise, Captain James T. Kirk in command. The holo Kirk, based on later interviews with the real James Kirk, is programmed to not only recreate what happened in those incidents for Picard but also to answer any questions Picard might have into what Kirk was thinking and feeling at the time. A training hologram for future Starfleet Academy cadets and officers.
Picard observes Kirk first during an encounter with a hostile cloaked Romulan ship in the Neutral Zone (original television series episode “Balance of Terror”), and then, second, after Kirk had been accidentally split into two separate versions of himself due to a transporter accident (“The Enemy Within”). Over the course of the chapters covering Picard’s time on the holodeck observing and interacting with holo Captain Kirk, he comes to whatever necessary realization necessary to get out of his funk and lead the mission to retrieve the prisoners of war from the Cardassian, Gul Madred (the same Cardassian interrogator who tortured Picard in the episode, “Chain of Command Part II”).
I’m not going to go into specifics here about Picard’s scenes with Madred and his rescue of the Starfleet officers Madred had been putting through war exercises (other than to say that these scenes are strangely short and not very interesting. Picard’s confrontation with Madred is made into a very tiny part of everything else going on in this novel when it should have been a novel of its own (and written by someone better attuned to the Next Generation characters than Carey was). And, again, Crusher and Worf are pretty much non existent other than as set dressings. (“Two humans, one male and one female, and a tall Klingon beamed in.” That sort of thing.)
I’m also not going to go into great detail here about Riker’s bickering with Bateson aboard the Enterprise-E, the Klingons hijacking the ship, and Bateson, Riker, and Montgomery Scott’s (yes, “Scotty” is aboard, too, at Bateson’s request) retaking the ship with unarmed and nonlethal “guerilla” tactics (other than to say that is gets rather silly the ways they are able to outwit dozens of Klingon warriors).
There are some interesting scenes in this novel, however, I must admit that it is not an older Star Trek novel that ages well, largely due to the writing style of Diane Carey. First off, her strength is clearly the characters of the original Star Trek series (Kirk, Spock, McCoy, etc.), not Picard, Riker, Data, La Forge, and company. Her depictions of Picard and Riker therefore seem way off base at times, even for how the characters were being portrayed in 1997. The thing that seems the most out of character are the scenes where Picard is observing Kirk on the
holodeck. I’ve seen many readers call into question these scenes of Picard having to learn from the mighty James T. Kirk how to be a Starfleet captain (despite Picard having been shown to be an excellent captain over the course of the seven seasons of Next Generation), and I have to agree with them.
Riker fares a bit better than Picard but still has moments when he seems way out of character. (For one thing, he acts like he does not understand how Klingons think and fight, conceding to Bateson’s greater experience with Klingons of his time. Riker, though, spent an entire episode of Next Generation, “A Matter of Honor”, serving as first officer aboard a Klingon ship, something not mentioned once, I don’t think.) And the rest of the Next Generation regulars get very little “screen time”, especially once the Klingons hijack the ship. (Kudos for the way they incapacitate Data, though.)
Of course, things end just as one would predict. Riker and Bateson retake control of the Enterprise-E. Then, Bateson cedes command of it to Picard. Then another time jump to the opening scenes of the film “Star Trek: First Contact”, when the Enterprise-E is put on the sidelines while the rest of a fleet of Starfleet ships attempt to stop of Borg ship from reaching Earth. One of those ships confronting the Borg is the U.S.S. Defiant (commanded by Worf). And another, according to dialogue heard in the film, is the Bozeman. The novel gives the impression that this is the U.S.S. Bozeman II, commanded by Bateson. As in the film, Picard listens to the battle over the coms for a few minutes and then takes them, against orders, back to Earth to assist in the fight. End of “Ship of the Line”.
To be honest, the scenes where Carey recreates actual scenes from the tv episodes and movies, although not that many, are probably the best ones in this book. And the first part of the book aboard the Bozeman prior to their going through the temporal anomaly are interesting, aside from Carey’s predilection to insert old time naval terminology and history in from time to time, even when it seems forced to do so. And I also did enjoy some of the debating of old ways versus new ones between Bateson and Riker. However, the already stated mischaracterizations of Picard and Riker, the stereotypical “must destroy them to claim a glorious reputation” Klingons, and the built up to but then quickly resolved Cardassian prisoner of war camp sub plot all make this at best an bit less than average Star Trek: The Next Generation novel. I would have given it two and a half stars out of five on GoodReads but they don’t allow half stars, so I had to give it a two star rating.
(P.S.: Another thing I found a bit “off” was the use of the term “destroyer” as a type of vessel Starfleet would commission. Picard himself announces that Bateson’s newly assigned ship, a destroyer, would be rechristened the U.S.S. Boseman II. These days, I would find it very surprising to hear the writers have Picard or anyone else in Starfleet refer to one of their ships as a “destroyer” class vessel, preferring to use much less military sounding terms because Starfleet, while pseudo military in regards to its command structure, is almost always depicted in newer Trek television shows, movies, and tie-in fiction, as an organization with exploration, support, and defense as its core reasons for being. I can’t really fault Diane Carey specifically for this, though, as much of the Star Trek tie-in fiction of the 1980s and 1990s described Starfleet in more military like terms (destroyers, frigates, etc.), thanks largely to the popularity of Nicholas Meyer’s “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan”, in which Meyer intentionally emphasized naval military elements in how Starfleet vessels like the Enterprise operated. Carey, though, as I already stated, loved to insert naval terminology and anecdotes more so than most other Star Trek novelists, though, due to her own personal background as a historic sailing ships hobbyist.)
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 19, 2022
Many things to enjoy in this story, a temporally displaced Captain Bateson and his crew, Picard using a holodeck program to learn leadership strategies from Captain Kirk, Picard facing down Madred, his Cardassian Torturer. But I felt the end came too abruptly.
June 1, 2024
Ship of the Line is billed as “The First Voyage of the Starship Enterprise 1701-E.” This would put it right after the events of Star Trek: Generations where (uh…spoiler alert, I guess) Riker crashed the ship and Data was overcome with emotion after finding his cat, alive in the wreckage.
This cuts to the ensuing years when Picard is no longer the Captain and the Enterprise-E is commissioned for a shakedown voyage with her new skipper, Captain Morgan Bateson.
If you are a Trekker, you will understand how this book synthesizes small one-off characters from various episodes and puts them along long-timers, Next Generation (TNG) regulars and at least one character from The Original Series. (TOS)
You would recognize Captain Bateson from the one episode where the TNG crew had been trapped in a time loop. He is the unfortunate captain they find at the end of the episode who has been stuck in the loop for almost 90 years, played by none other than Frasier actor Kelsey Grammer. So, this is the image you have in your head and in fact his face is on the cover (I wonder if he gets royalties for that?) And that Star Trek has many avenues by which a person could be and have been displaced from their own time, we also see Scotty…who as fans know, had placed himself in a transporter loop to survive into the day of TNG…
Three years after Bateson’s rescue from the Expanse, or the Rift, or the Loop or whatever the hell we are calling it…he is more or less up to speed with TNG times….
But Bateson is old school, coming from a time when the Klingons were still the enemy. And in fact, before being lost in a time loop, he had battled Klingon commander, Kozara…who (due to the longer life spans of Klingons) is still alive in the TNG era…
Picard is commissioned on a secret mission to Cardassia (keep up) where we run into Madred (There are Five lights) and oh hey, Spock makes a cameo, too.
And away we go…
Tensions are laid bare as Bateson’s old school mind meets the more enlightened crew of the Next Generation. Nominally, this is a TNG story, but it is apparent that everyone is going to get a mention. Riker tries to appeal to Bateson’s sense of reason as he implores him to hold off on a hopeless attack on the Klingon commander who has spent the last 90 years living with his dishonor of losing in battle to Bateson. But as the Klingon proverb tells us, revenge is a dish best served cold…and it is very cold in space.
One of the small joys of reading something like this is that you imagine a writer seeking a challenge of using the smallest bits from many sources and many episodes and having fun with it. These are considered “Lost Years” because they do not have a movie between Star Trek: Generations and Star Trek: First Contact (And why would they?). Thus…. we have these books.
Fun fiction for the casual as well as hardcore fan.
This cuts to the ensuing years when Picard is no longer the Captain and the Enterprise-E is commissioned for a shakedown voyage with her new skipper, Captain Morgan Bateson.
If you are a Trekker, you will understand how this book synthesizes small one-off characters from various episodes and puts them along long-timers, Next Generation (TNG) regulars and at least one character from The Original Series. (TOS)
You would recognize Captain Bateson from the one episode where the TNG crew had been trapped in a time loop. He is the unfortunate captain they find at the end of the episode who has been stuck in the loop for almost 90 years, played by none other than Frasier actor Kelsey Grammer. So, this is the image you have in your head and in fact his face is on the cover (I wonder if he gets royalties for that?) And that Star Trek has many avenues by which a person could be and have been displaced from their own time, we also see Scotty…who as fans know, had placed himself in a transporter loop to survive into the day of TNG…
Three years after Bateson’s rescue from the Expanse, or the Rift, or the Loop or whatever the hell we are calling it…he is more or less up to speed with TNG times….
But Bateson is old school, coming from a time when the Klingons were still the enemy. And in fact, before being lost in a time loop, he had battled Klingon commander, Kozara…who (due to the longer life spans of Klingons) is still alive in the TNG era…
Picard is commissioned on a secret mission to Cardassia (keep up) where we run into Madred (There are Five lights) and oh hey, Spock makes a cameo, too.
And away we go…
Tensions are laid bare as Bateson’s old school mind meets the more enlightened crew of the Next Generation. Nominally, this is a TNG story, but it is apparent that everyone is going to get a mention. Riker tries to appeal to Bateson’s sense of reason as he implores him to hold off on a hopeless attack on the Klingon commander who has spent the last 90 years living with his dishonor of losing in battle to Bateson. But as the Klingon proverb tells us, revenge is a dish best served cold…and it is very cold in space.
One of the small joys of reading something like this is that you imagine a writer seeking a challenge of using the smallest bits from many sources and many episodes and having fun with it. These are considered “Lost Years” because they do not have a movie between Star Trek: Generations and Star Trek: First Contact (And why would they?). Thus…. we have these books.
Fun fiction for the casual as well as hardcore fan.
August 21, 2010
While she doesn't write much Trek these days, Diane Carey used to be one of the top TOS authors. She really gets the Kirk/Spock/McCoy dynamic, and she writes the characters exactly as they should be written. However, while any TOS novel with her name on the cover is pretty much a guaranteed good read, her first and only (I believe) Next Gen novel is just not so good. She doesn't get the TNG cast dynamic that well, and the plot itself is just meh.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
April 28, 2012
Odd one this, for the first 40 pages its an old trek story! When the Enterprise crew finally turn up, its not for long. Picard does get some nice scenes, even the ones on the holodeck with Kirk. It just feels very disjointed, like the author is happier with classic trek.
December 29, 2016
Mediocre writing and a worthless plot with no payoff. The stakes were high…until they weren't.
July 10, 2019
Wow, there are some harsh reviews of this book, and I really think they're uncalled for. Was this the best Star Trek novel I've ever read? No. It wasn't even the best Diane Carey Star Trek novel I've ever read. There were some little pieces that were strangely out of place and personal to the author--you'll see if you read it--and parts could have fit together better, but those weren't fatal flaws.
This book followed the interactions of the crew of the Enterprise after the destruction of the Enterprise-D, as seen in the movie Star Trek Generations, as well as a major part of the book following Captain Morgan Bateson, first encountered in the ST:TNG episode Cause and Effect.
Granted, it's hard not to read the book and be hearing and picturing Captain Frasier Crane--not the author's doing, of course--but I actually found the character rather well developed. He's a man out of place and time, trying to take his experience as a Starfleet captain and make it work decades after his time. He's dealing with a difficult situation largely of his own creation, but he's also a man of integrity who admits his mistakes and respects those around him, even those who disagree with him strongly. I actually found his character admirable if frustrating at times.
We also have a crossover between other characters from the different generations of Star Trek, and that was enjoyable, too. With that said, I saw two major flaws to this book. One is that it rehashed too much of the original series, literally reciting some scenes word for word. Most people who would read a Star Trek novel are serious fans, so I'd think most, like me, know those scenes intimately. No need to rehash them line by line to make the connection to other, relevant observations being made by Captain Picard.
The second thing is that the biggest turning points of the novel, including the final big battle, felt rushed as compared to the rest of the book. This key part got short shrift and was resolved a bit too easily.
For all of that, I enjoyed this book. Not perfect, but it was an enjoyable read. I was tempted to give it a higher star rating, because I think some of those 1-star rants of prior reviewers are borderline malicious. But that's not what this site is supposed to be about, so I won't weight my rating. Goodreads says 3 stars means I "Liked It" so that's what I selected, because I liked it!
This book followed the interactions of the crew of the Enterprise after the destruction of the Enterprise-D, as seen in the movie Star Trek Generations, as well as a major part of the book following Captain Morgan Bateson, first encountered in the ST:TNG episode Cause and Effect.
Granted, it's hard not to read the book and be hearing and picturing Captain Frasier Crane--not the author's doing, of course--but I actually found the character rather well developed. He's a man out of place and time, trying to take his experience as a Starfleet captain and make it work decades after his time. He's dealing with a difficult situation largely of his own creation, but he's also a man of integrity who admits his mistakes and respects those around him, even those who disagree with him strongly. I actually found his character admirable if frustrating at times.
We also have a crossover between other characters from the different generations of Star Trek, and that was enjoyable, too. With that said, I saw two major flaws to this book. One is that it rehashed too much of the original series, literally reciting some scenes word for word. Most people who would read a Star Trek novel are serious fans, so I'd think most, like me, know those scenes intimately. No need to rehash them line by line to make the connection to other, relevant observations being made by Captain Picard.
The second thing is that the biggest turning points of the novel, including the final big battle, felt rushed as compared to the rest of the book. This key part got short shrift and was resolved a bit too easily.
For all of that, I enjoyed this book. Not perfect, but it was an enjoyable read. I was tempted to give it a higher star rating, because I think some of those 1-star rants of prior reviewers are borderline malicious. But that's not what this site is supposed to be about, so I won't weight my rating. Goodreads says 3 stars means I "Liked It" so that's what I selected, because I liked it!
November 10, 2023
I was going to write a lengthy review, detailing everything that disappointed me in this book, but I have wasted enough of my life on “Ship of the Line” already, and will keep my review short.
Diane Carey has written many Star Trek novels and novelizations prior to writing Ship of the Line. As such, she should know the Star Trek lore better than what is on display here. I am not talking about lore that was introduced on screen after 1997 (the year the book was published), but well establish “facts” of the Star Trek universe (for instance, there is no Klingon Neutral Zone in the TNG era). The flagrant lack of knowledge of the lore on display here is an insult to the fandom. (Where is the female officer standing next to Bateson, as seen on screen in “Cause and Effect”?)
Ignoring the errors, the story promises to be exciting but instead is dull and plodding. Chapter after chapter, Picard is on the holodeck reliving the TOS episodes Balance of Terror and the Enemy Within; while Riker is trying to save the Enterprise E from Klingons, with most of the action happens off screen. The TNG crew are relegated mostly to background characters, which is fine, they are not necessarily needed. However often times, Picard and Riker are not behaving like they should. Worse, the alien races are portrayed strangely; the way the crew get the Enterprise E from the Klingons is an insult to the fan’s intelligence.
I did like how the author portrayed the new characters, especially Captain Bateson. For this reason I give the book two stars instead one one.
Bottom line, if you are a fan of Star Trek, especially TNG, you will be irritated at best, angered at worst. Don’t waste your time.
(Turns out this review was lengthy after all!)
Diane Carey has written many Star Trek novels and novelizations prior to writing Ship of the Line. As such, she should know the Star Trek lore better than what is on display here. I am not talking about lore that was introduced on screen after 1997 (the year the book was published), but well establish “facts” of the Star Trek universe (for instance, there is no Klingon Neutral Zone in the TNG era). The flagrant lack of knowledge of the lore on display here is an insult to the fandom. (Where is the female officer standing next to Bateson, as seen on screen in “Cause and Effect”?)
Ignoring the errors, the story promises to be exciting but instead is dull and plodding. Chapter after chapter, Picard is on the holodeck reliving the TOS episodes Balance of Terror and the Enemy Within; while Riker is trying to save the Enterprise E from Klingons, with most of the action happens off screen. The TNG crew are relegated mostly to background characters, which is fine, they are not necessarily needed. However often times, Picard and Riker are not behaving like they should. Worse, the alien races are portrayed strangely; the way the crew get the Enterprise E from the Klingons is an insult to the fan’s intelligence.
I did like how the author portrayed the new characters, especially Captain Bateson. For this reason I give the book two stars instead one one.
Bottom line, if you are a fan of Star Trek, especially TNG, you will be irritated at best, angered at worst. Don’t waste your time.
(Turns out this review was lengthy after all!)
June 27, 2020
I recently re-watched the TNG episode Cause and Effect, and thought it would be a delicious idea to know what happened to a ship and its crew thrown so far forward in time. A quick search online turned up 'Ship of the Line', and I thought I'd give it a shot.
And, then, half way through, I put the book down.
Ship of the Line is a quick read, I'll give it that much. Some of this is the pacing of the dialogue-rich narrative; some of this is me speed-reading, hoping the book would get better. This book had too many ideas, too many subplots, too many characters.
I had high hopes for the chapters focused on Bateson and crew and the Bozeman, a Trek equivalent of an Age of Sail clipper or a US Coast Guard cutter. But God! It felt like these were characters several centuries out of their own time! To me it felt like the author was beating me over the head with her knowledge of sailing. This, and the stark disregard for continuity with the TV episode turned me off immediately.
Characterizations of the TNG crew were off across the board. It especially bothered me that Troi and Crusher were given so little to do compared to the rest of the crew.
I actually found the chapter on the Cardassian prisoners most intriguing -- the whole concept -- but at this point I was pretty much done.
I've read that Carey did TOS stories well. I am most attached to 90's Trek, having grown up when DS9 and Voyager were on the air. So maybe this was not her strong suit and I am not her target audience. But it really felt like I was reading something that wasn't meant to be a Star Trek story, but got shoehorned into the universe for *reasons*.
And, then, half way through, I put the book down.
Ship of the Line is a quick read, I'll give it that much. Some of this is the pacing of the dialogue-rich narrative; some of this is me speed-reading, hoping the book would get better. This book had too many ideas, too many subplots, too many characters.
I had high hopes for the chapters focused on Bateson and crew and the Bozeman, a Trek equivalent of an Age of Sail clipper or a US Coast Guard cutter. But God! It felt like these were characters several centuries out of their own time! To me it felt like the author was beating me over the head with her knowledge of sailing. This, and the stark disregard for continuity with the TV episode turned me off immediately.
Characterizations of the TNG crew were off across the board. It especially bothered me that Troi and Crusher were given so little to do compared to the rest of the crew.
I actually found the chapter on the Cardassian prisoners most intriguing -- the whole concept -- but at this point I was pretty much done.
I've read that Carey did TOS stories well. I am most attached to 90's Trek, having grown up when DS9 and Voyager were on the air. So maybe this was not her strong suit and I am not her target audience. But it really felt like I was reading something that wasn't meant to be a Star Trek story, but got shoehorned into the universe for *reasons*.
March 10, 2019
While the side plots are interesting, there are too many of them in this book, which manages to cover many years and characters in the ongoing Star Trek saga. The main premise is based on the Star Trek Next Generation episode 118 “Cause and Effect.” The Enterprise is caught in a time loop, repeating actions where they collide with another Federation ship that is from the past. After a great deal of debate, the crew of the Enterprise is able to break out of the loop and avoid the other ship, the “Bozeman” under the command of Captain Morgan Bateson. The Bozeman entered the time portal during a deadly battle with a Klingon ship and reappeared 90 years in the future.
The opposing Klingon commander is disgraced and spends decades trying to recover his honor. He then makes one more attempt to restore his good name by taking over the latest version of the Enterprise after it was destroyed in the events of the feature film “Generations.” There is a significant reference to the Next Generation episode “Chain of Command” as well as extensive virtual conversations between Captains Picard and Kirk, referencing the two episodes of the original series “The Enemy Within” and “Balance of Terror.”
All of this makes for a complicated story with many threads, none of which is really dominant. To me, the high points of the book are the virtual conversations between Kirk and Picard, where Kirk explains his reasoning and emotions as he brings the Enterprise through extremely difficult circumstances. Compared to these plot threads, the rest of the book is rather dull.
The opposing Klingon commander is disgraced and spends decades trying to recover his honor. He then makes one more attempt to restore his good name by taking over the latest version of the Enterprise after it was destroyed in the events of the feature film “Generations.” There is a significant reference to the Next Generation episode “Chain of Command” as well as extensive virtual conversations between Captains Picard and Kirk, referencing the two episodes of the original series “The Enemy Within” and “Balance of Terror.”
All of this makes for a complicated story with many threads, none of which is really dominant. To me, the high points of the book are the virtual conversations between Kirk and Picard, where Kirk explains his reasoning and emotions as he brings the Enterprise through extremely difficult circumstances. Compared to these plot threads, the rest of the book is rather dull.
October 9, 2024
What is This Book About? Taking place after the events of Star Trek: Generations, the Enterprise D is destroyed and Picard is without a ship. Commanding the newly commissioned Enterprise E for a shakedown cruise is Captain Bateson, a time-stranded Starfleet officer from the twenty-third century. Upon his arrival in the twenty-fourth century, Bateson was able to secure his rank as a starfleet captain, with the affirmation and support of Captain Picard. Bateson and his crew has had years to acquaint themselves with the twenty-fourth century, but as they’re given a chance to reassert their careers as part the Enterprise E’s shakedown crew, an old rivel from the twenty-third century is going to rear its face and threaten the shaky peace that still exists in the alpha quadrant.
My Review: This was an intriguing book that offered a brilliant story taking place between the Star Trek films Generations and First Contact. I also loved that this book delved into the life of Captain Bateson as his legacy was mostly dropped after he was first introduced in a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode. I mean, he was played by Kelsie Grammer, the premise and acting surely deserved its own series. Regardless, this is a fun read that follows two different missions that converge unto each other before the crew of the new Enterprise E and the Bozeman set sail to engage the Borg.
Three Words that Describe this Book: sci-fi, action, adventure
Give This A Try if You Like… The Articles of the Federation, Thrawn
My Review: This was an intriguing book that offered a brilliant story taking place between the Star Trek films Generations and First Contact. I also loved that this book delved into the life of Captain Bateson as his legacy was mostly dropped after he was first introduced in a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode. I mean, he was played by Kelsie Grammer, the premise and acting surely deserved its own series. Regardless, this is a fun read that follows two different missions that converge unto each other before the crew of the new Enterprise E and the Bozeman set sail to engage the Borg.
Three Words that Describe this Book: sci-fi, action, adventure
Give This A Try if You Like… The Articles of the Federation, Thrawn
September 22, 2024
As many have noted, the book leans HEAVILY into the nostalgia factor and takes itself way too seriously. I wonder, is that really such a bad thing?
There were bits I absolutely loved - the holodeck sequences with Kirk, the inner turmoil of Picard, a newly sentimental Data and the spirit of Bulldog Bateson (a capture that caught audience's attention with 1 minute of screen time in one TNG episode)
That being said, there were parts that were absolutely unrecognizable. Riker was done the most injustice - the authors conveniently forgot that he led the fight against the Borg and served as the first Starfleet officer on a Klingon ship. Instead we got a puppy dog first officer.
The worst was the botched ending and the subplot with Cardassia which were really poorly written. The author clearly had a fascination with eighteenth century naval command and it shows, but a lot of disrespect to the TNG was done at it's expense. Not least of which was the insinuation that the TNG era commanders were weak and had no idea how to deal with challenges and conflict. The Klingon ending felt pretty rushed as well, could have been written far better
All in all, some parts great and some meh. 3/5
There were bits I absolutely loved - the holodeck sequences with Kirk, the inner turmoil of Picard, a newly sentimental Data and the spirit of Bulldog Bateson (a capture that caught audience's attention with 1 minute of screen time in one TNG episode)
That being said, there were parts that were absolutely unrecognizable. Riker was done the most injustice - the authors conveniently forgot that he led the fight against the Borg and served as the first Starfleet officer on a Klingon ship. Instead we got a puppy dog first officer.
The worst was the botched ending and the subplot with Cardassia which were really poorly written. The author clearly had a fascination with eighteenth century naval command and it shows, but a lot of disrespect to the TNG was done at it's expense. Not least of which was the insinuation that the TNG era commanders were weak and had no idea how to deal with challenges and conflict. The Klingon ending felt pretty rushed as well, could have been written far better
All in all, some parts great and some meh. 3/5
July 24, 2023
I'm not sure why this novel gets low raitings. Ship of the Line is heavy with Carey's homage to the Hornblower style Naval novels, but I have to say I enjoyed it.
The beginning was a little rough, and Picard's romp with past captains was mainly filler, but the meat of this novel really provides the Trek fan with alot to like.
Also, and this is important; 3 very important TNG loose ends from Season 5 and 6 are nicely tied up in its pages.
Bateson who appears at the end of Cause and Effect is supposed to be center stage, and does hold much of the narrative, but Scotty gets some light after Relics ends abruptly, and Picard's fandango from the Chain of Command two parter is revisited as well.
This was probably the best Trek novel I have read in a long time.
Did I speed read through some, yes.
Was it perfect, no.
The beginning was a little rough, and Picard's romp with past captains was mainly filler, but the meat of this novel really provides the Trek fan with alot to like.
Also, and this is important; 3 very important TNG loose ends from Season 5 and 6 are nicely tied up in its pages.
Bateson who appears at the end of Cause and Effect is supposed to be center stage, and does hold much of the narrative, but Scotty gets some light after Relics ends abruptly, and Picard's fandango from the Chain of Command two parter is revisited as well.
This was probably the best Trek novel I have read in a long time.
Did I speed read through some, yes.
Was it perfect, no.
June 18, 2019
On one hand, this was interesting; on the other, predictable. One hand, kind of original, on the other, yet another book bringing back stuff from previous series that isn't very original. On one hand, it did keep my interest, but on the other, it was kind of boring. Hmm, it sounds like I can't figure out where I fall with this. LOL The idea of looking at how a 23rd to 24th century time traveling Starfleet crew has handling things and almost was the crew of the newly built (pre-ST8 Borg mission) Enterprise-E was the interesting part, but I guess the execution to me wasn't as much so. In the end, it was okay for a listening once, but not one to revisit later.
May 14, 2017
Enjoyed this trip down memory lane with a look into how Captain Morgan Batesman adjusted to his jump into the future from one of my favorite Next Gen episodes. While Diane Carey certainly knows her Trek, she does jump around a bit with the plots and scenes and vessels. This is a must read for any die hard fan and I am surprised it took me this long to download it!
Displaying 1 - 30 of 85 reviews