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Star Trek: The Next Generation #46
To Storm Heaven
When Lelys, ambassador of the plague-ridden colony planet of Orakisa, approaches the Federation seeking help for her dying world, the U.S.S. Enterprise speeds to the rescue. Captain Picard and his crew escort the Orakisan delegation to its long-lost sister-world, Ne'elat, where the ambassador and the Away Team are initially welcomed, but then endangered. As the Enterprise officers make their way through a web of planet-wide intrigue, time is running out the people of Orakisa and the inhabitants of their sister-worlds as well.
276 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published December 1, 1997
8 people are currently reading
354 people want to read
About the author
Esther M. Friesner
264 books711 followersEsther M. Friesner was educated at Vassar College, where she completed B.A's in both Spanish and Drama. She went to on to Yale University; within five years she was awarded an M.A. and Ph.D. in Spanish. She taught Spanish at Yale for a number of years before going on to become a full-time author of fantasy and science fiction. She has published twenty-seven novels so far; her most recent titles include Temping Fate from Penguin-Puffin and Nobody's Princess from Random House.
Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in Asimov's, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Aboriginal SF, Pulphouse Magazine, Amazing, and Fantasy Book, as well as in numerous anthologies. Her story, "Love's Eldritch Ichor," was featured in the 1990 World Fantasy Convention book.
Her first stint as an anthology editor was Alien Pregnant By Elvis, a collection of truly gonzo original tabloid SF for DAW books. Wisely, she undertook this project with the able collaboration of Martin H. Greenberg. Not having learned their lesson, they have also co-edited the Chicks In Chainmail Amazon comedy anthology series for Baen Books, as well as Blood Muse, an anthology of vampire stories for Donald I Fine, Inc.
"Ask Auntie Esther" was her regular etiquette and advice column to the SFlorn in Pulphouse Magazine. Being paid for telling other people how to run their lives sounds like a pretty good deal to her.
Ms. Friesner won the Nebula Award for Best Short Story of 1995 for her work, "Death and the Librarian," and the Nebula for Best Short Story of 1996 for "A Birth Day." (A Birth Day" was also a 1996 Hugo Award finalist.) Her novelette, "Jesus at the Bat" was on the final Nebula ballot in the same year that "Death and the Librarian" won the award. In addition, she has won the Romantic Times award for Best New Fantasy Writer in 1986 and the Skylark Award in 1994. Her short story, "All Vows," took second place in the Asimov's SF Magazine Readers' Poll for 1993 and was a finalist for the Nebula in 1994. Her Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novel, Warchild, made the USA TODAY bestseller list.
She lives in Connecticut with her husband, two children, two rambunctious cats, and a fluctuating population of hamsters.
Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in Asimov's, Fantasy & Science Fiction, Aboriginal SF, Pulphouse Magazine, Amazing, and Fantasy Book, as well as in numerous anthologies. Her story, "Love's Eldritch Ichor," was featured in the 1990 World Fantasy Convention book.
Her first stint as an anthology editor was Alien Pregnant By Elvis, a collection of truly gonzo original tabloid SF for DAW books. Wisely, she undertook this project with the able collaboration of Martin H. Greenberg. Not having learned their lesson, they have also co-edited the Chicks In Chainmail Amazon comedy anthology series for Baen Books, as well as Blood Muse, an anthology of vampire stories for Donald I Fine, Inc.
"Ask Auntie Esther" was her regular etiquette and advice column to the SFlorn in Pulphouse Magazine. Being paid for telling other people how to run their lives sounds like a pretty good deal to her.
Ms. Friesner won the Nebula Award for Best Short Story of 1995 for her work, "Death and the Librarian," and the Nebula for Best Short Story of 1996 for "A Birth Day." (A Birth Day" was also a 1996 Hugo Award finalist.) Her novelette, "Jesus at the Bat" was on the final Nebula ballot in the same year that "Death and the Librarian" won the award. In addition, she has won the Romantic Times award for Best New Fantasy Writer in 1986 and the Skylark Award in 1994. Her short story, "All Vows," took second place in the Asimov's SF Magazine Readers' Poll for 1993 and was a finalist for the Nebula in 1994. Her Star Trek: Deep Space Nine novel, Warchild, made the USA TODAY bestseller list.
She lives in Connecticut with her husband, two children, two rambunctious cats, and a fluctuating population of hamsters.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
January 20, 2014
2.5 stars
While it has an interesting premise, the plot has some major holes, inconsistencies, and confusions.
And why does Geordi have to fall head over heels every time? Couldn't he just be fond of a girl for once?
While it has an interesting premise, the plot has some major holes, inconsistencies, and confusions.
And why does Geordi have to fall head over heels every time? Couldn't he just be fond of a girl for once?
May 13, 2014
This was a run-of-the-mill TNG story. I think it kept my attention for most of the time, but there were some distracting mis-steps (a "Lt. Riker" mention for Will and Data calling Worf "sir" at one point). There were also some fairly large character mistakes (I won't spoil), but I'll just say as much as the crew talks about the Prime Directive in the book, they certainly don't follow it (or, at least, debate how/if it would apply). Also, there is an odd "keeping information secret" in the story, where all the characters just are supposed to trust the other characters' plans without asking questions. That's laziness to prevent the reader from knowing and be surprised, but it's used so often, that it is ridiculous. The ending is so out-of-whack, my potential three dropped to a two. The characterizations and story were okay, so this is certainly readable and doesn't deserve a one, but, suffice to say, there are better TNG books out there.
September 19, 2012
I really want to give this book 4 stars, but there are some annoying things in there.
First the shift in attitude of Udar Kishrit is totally unbelievable.
The romance an heartbreak of Geordi is also unbelievable and not consistent with his character accroding to canon. Yes I know the books aren't canon but if you write about existing ST characrters you should stay true to canon and if you won't then invent your own characters.
On a plus I loved the Tribble-who-battles-with-honor. But maybe that is just my love of little fury creatures.
First the shift in attitude of Udar Kishrit is totally unbelievable.
The romance an heartbreak of Geordi is also unbelievable and not consistent with his character accroding to canon. Yes I know the books aren't canon but if you write about existing ST characrters you should stay true to canon and if you won't then invent your own characters.
On a plus I loved the Tribble-who-battles-with-honor. But maybe that is just my love of little fury creatures.
December 15, 2012
Plot: 3stars
Characters: 3 stars
Style: 2 stars
Pace: 2 stars
Rummaged a bunch of the TNG books in a raid on a friend's collection. I'd read a lot of them when I was a teenager, but while I remembered my favorites, there were a bunch I didn't recognize. Doesn't mean I never read them, but any I recognize when I'm reading I'll just mark read instead. I figured since it doesn't generally matter what order these are read in, I'll just read whatever sounds appealing at the time. I don't remember the other books head hopping so much. We'll see, I'm going to read a bunch of them.
Characters: 3 stars
Style: 2 stars
Pace: 2 stars
Rummaged a bunch of the TNG books in a raid on a friend's collection. I'd read a lot of them when I was a teenager, but while I remembered my favorites, there were a bunch I didn't recognize. Doesn't mean I never read them, but any I recognize when I'm reading I'll just mark read instead. I figured since it doesn't generally matter what order these are read in, I'll just read whatever sounds appealing at the time. I don't remember the other books head hopping so much. We'll see, I'm going to read a bunch of them.
April 27, 2023
Fifty pages in...and I gave up. It was already dull wallpaper up to that point...but then we hit Worf and the hamster...and my brain simply shut down. I was looking forward to finally polishing off the numbered TNG novels once and for all...but I wasn't expecting to be so disappointed. Moving on...
April 30, 2012
Geordi's B plot was not convincing or believable. The storyline had potential but it takes an awful long time to get going. The only bright spot was the C plot with Worf and the Hamster, that bit was very good. Shame about the rest of the book.
January 7, 2012
It was so dull that my eyes fell off while reading and I had to reattach them with chewing gum and MacGyver tape.
July 5, 2012
Has an interesting premise, but an annoying Geordi romance and generally poor writing ruin most of the fun.
January 24, 2020
Couldn't finish, which I am very sad to say - this is not only the first Trek novel I failed to finish (and I have powered through some stinkers in my time!), but I am also a fan of Esther Friesner's writing, usually. Freisner is extremely funny, but this is not one of her comedies. Two things in particular jolted me out of this book, one technical and one fundamental:
1. There's talk of beaming someone from one planet to another, directly (site to site transport). Even for Trek's crazy fictional science, that's impossible, and sloppy writing. They never do that in Trek except for the "transwarp beaming" from the Kelvin timeline, and this novel predates those films by many years, so clearly Friesner didn't do some very basic homework. To me this is right up there with people who claim to be avid Trekkies and then give the wrong hand gesture for the Vulcan salute. Basic Trek fandom 101!!
2. The more serious matter: part of the Enterprise mission in this novel becomes hearing grievances of aliens on one planet who complain that their religion is being practiced by other aliens on a neighboring planet, and the neighboring aliens are *gasp* GETTING IT WRONG! And they must be stopped! ...AND PICARD AGREES TO THIS. Not only is this an egregious offense against the letter AND spirit of the Prime Directive, it's frankly a shocking attitude for the writer to take. Who is she, or Picard, or anyone else for that matter, to get offended by someone else's practice of a shared religion, let alone attempt to go and try and stop them??!! Sure, there is real-world precedent aplenty (Catholics vs Protestants for instance), but Trek is supposed to be beyond such things. The moment the alien complained about their neighbors, Picard should have shut the whole argument down... but he doesn't. He agrees something must be done. Total. Fail. Shame on you, Esther.
1. There's talk of beaming someone from one planet to another, directly (site to site transport). Even for Trek's crazy fictional science, that's impossible, and sloppy writing. They never do that in Trek except for the "transwarp beaming" from the Kelvin timeline, and this novel predates those films by many years, so clearly Friesner didn't do some very basic homework. To me this is right up there with people who claim to be avid Trekkies and then give the wrong hand gesture for the Vulcan salute. Basic Trek fandom 101!!
2. The more serious matter: part of the Enterprise mission in this novel becomes hearing grievances of aliens on one planet who complain that their religion is being practiced by other aliens on a neighboring planet, and the neighboring aliens are *gasp* GETTING IT WRONG! And they must be stopped! ...AND PICARD AGREES TO THIS. Not only is this an egregious offense against the letter AND spirit of the Prime Directive, it's frankly a shocking attitude for the writer to take. Who is she, or Picard, or anyone else for that matter, to get offended by someone else's practice of a shared religion, let alone attempt to go and try and stop them??!! Sure, there is real-world precedent aplenty (Catholics vs Protestants for instance), but Trek is supposed to be beyond such things. The moment the alien complained about their neighbors, Picard should have shut the whole argument down... but he doesn't. He agrees something must be done. Total. Fail. Shame on you, Esther.
April 18, 2018
I have to say I was a bit surprised with this book as I didn't have the highest expectations of it as it seemed a pretty run-of-the-mill Star Trek novel but I think a few things make it rise above the rest. First off, the main crew each has a prominent moment or role and Worf's is probably the funniest of all as he tries to get a rid of Alexander's hamster. The story was fairly interesting as it deals a bit with the conflict of the Prime Directive and exploitation of one society over another. I liked the characters introduced and the story flowed well. My only two complaints would be the story popping back and forth between referring to Data and "Mr. Data" and have people think of him as "Mr. Data" which kind of bothered me more than it should have. Also some of the weird names that were introduced were harder to follow at times.
May 24, 2024
Pretty great writing, but I find Geordi’s love interest very off putting. Why on earth was Geordi so in love after just a couple of days? Why didn’t Riker or Picard put the kibosh on it? That whole part of the plot felt pretty unrealistic. I also through that the motivation of the primary diplomat felt… off. Why was he so angry? And quick to side with one party? Besides these narrative gaps, however, it was great writing and the plot was otherwise pretty gripping.
August 3, 2017
A pretty standard TNG book with Prime Directive influences, but this one is worth reading for the scenes between Worf and the hamster!
May 27, 2012
A bit unoriginal but still interesting tale about a plausible totalitarian society and its interaction with our familiar characters.
April 17, 2017
Judging on some of the reviews, I started To Storm Heaven expecting the worse; what I ended up finding was something just slightly better than that.
The Enterprise is hosting three envoys from the Skerrian colony of Orakisa, on a desperate search for a plant which will cure their people of a deadly disease ravishing their original homeworld of Skerris IV. In a bid to find the plant, the Enterprise arrives at another Skerrian colony world, Ne'elat, whose people are harboring a dark secret.
While much is made of the high-stakes mission to find the life-saving n'vashal plant in the first few chapters, this is almost entirely dropped once the story gets into the meat of the book: a diplomatic entanglement between two colony worlds, one repressing the other. While Picard, Geordi and Troi's initial foray to Ne'elat is rather pedestrian and routine, the subsequent Away Team to sister planet Ashkaar managed to hold my interest. Riker, Data and Troi blending in with the natives of an agrarian society is pretty fun, and I enjoyed seeing the Away Team tread so cautiously to avoid blowing their cover or contaminating the culture. While not outstanding, the characterisation was by no means the worst I've seen in a Trek novel, and Friesner manages to capture the voice of the characters quite nicely on several occasions.
Subsequent revelations of the Ashkaaran's psionic abilities pave the way for some action and intrigue, setting a nice pace for the book's middle-section. Unfortunately, the plot never really leaves the mould of a rather standard by-the-numbers episode of TNG. Indeed, there are times where To Storm Heaven could have happily felt at home slotted between a string of mediocre first season episodes.
Unfortunately, the author makes the cardinal sin of trying to shoehorn in a dreaded Geordi Romance Subplot to add some heart. Even in the series this almost always fails ("Aquiel", I'm looking at you), so when Friesner has Geordi declaring his love for Ashkaarian native Ma'adrys after only a few scenes together, she's instantly added a whole load of dead-weight to a novel that is already struggling with a somewhat pedestrian plot. Needless to say the romance goes nowhere, only serving to introduce a series of cringeworthy scenes and a bizarre ending where Geordi (just after again confessing his undying love) refuses to accompany Ma'adrys to the transporter room to say goodbye. Yup, safe to say by this point Friesner was regretting starting this subplot!
The final few chapters of diplomatic haranguing are slightly contrived, with the inevitable 180 degree about turn from the book's primary antagonist, Udar Kishrit, coming as no surprise at all. Oh, and there's the bizarre notion that Geordi invites a group of 9 highly psionic beings on to the Enterprise without getting any permission from Picard whatsoever... and it's never even mentioned, even said beings almost kill half the Ne'elatian delegation.
While definitely possessing any number of flaws and gaps in logic, To Storm Heaven isn't as offensive as I feared and carries more than enough to keep you engaged until the end.
The Enterprise is hosting three envoys from the Skerrian colony of Orakisa, on a desperate search for a plant which will cure their people of a deadly disease ravishing their original homeworld of Skerris IV. In a bid to find the plant, the Enterprise arrives at another Skerrian colony world, Ne'elat, whose people are harboring a dark secret.
While much is made of the high-stakes mission to find the life-saving n'vashal plant in the first few chapters, this is almost entirely dropped once the story gets into the meat of the book: a diplomatic entanglement between two colony worlds, one repressing the other. While Picard, Geordi and Troi's initial foray to Ne'elat is rather pedestrian and routine, the subsequent Away Team to sister planet Ashkaar managed to hold my interest. Riker, Data and Troi blending in with the natives of an agrarian society is pretty fun, and I enjoyed seeing the Away Team tread so cautiously to avoid blowing their cover or contaminating the culture. While not outstanding, the characterisation was by no means the worst I've seen in a Trek novel, and Friesner manages to capture the voice of the characters quite nicely on several occasions.
Subsequent revelations of the Ashkaaran's psionic abilities pave the way for some action and intrigue, setting a nice pace for the book's middle-section. Unfortunately, the plot never really leaves the mould of a rather standard by-the-numbers episode of TNG. Indeed, there are times where To Storm Heaven could have happily felt at home slotted between a string of mediocre first season episodes.
Unfortunately, the author makes the cardinal sin of trying to shoehorn in a dreaded Geordi Romance Subplot to add some heart. Even in the series this almost always fails ("Aquiel", I'm looking at you), so when Friesner has Geordi declaring his love for Ashkaarian native Ma'adrys after only a few scenes together, she's instantly added a whole load of dead-weight to a novel that is already struggling with a somewhat pedestrian plot. Needless to say the romance goes nowhere, only serving to introduce a series of cringeworthy scenes and a bizarre ending where Geordi (just after again confessing his undying love) refuses to accompany Ma'adrys to the transporter room to say goodbye. Yup, safe to say by this point Friesner was regretting starting this subplot!
The final few chapters of diplomatic haranguing are slightly contrived, with the inevitable 180 degree about turn from the book's primary antagonist, Udar Kishrit, coming as no surprise at all. Oh, and there's the bizarre notion that Geordi invites a group of 9 highly psionic beings on to the Enterprise without getting any permission from Picard whatsoever... and it's never even mentioned, even said beings almost kill half the Ne'elatian delegation.
While definitely possessing any number of flaws and gaps in logic, To Storm Heaven isn't as offensive as I feared and carries more than enough to keep you engaged until the end.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews