Anthony Stewart Head Books

This book has two parts to it, each told quite well; one is a fleshing-out of the backstory of "The Valiant", as hinted at in the original series second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", the story of the ship that preceded the Enterprise through the galactic barrier and ran into its own problems with its own "Gary Mitchell", a crewman who developed godlike psi powers and a psychotic god-complex. The other is the first "Stargazer" story, the story of how a young Jean-Luc Picard came to be its captain. As I say, both stories were quite well-told, with excellent characterization, pacing, action, and drama. If there is a flaw, it is that there was a bit too much of a tendancy for things to be settled in a shoot-'em-up fashion, which is contrary to the usual style of the "Next Generation" series, but I suppose that between the fact that it's a younger Picard and the fact that sometimes, the opposition just IS implacably hostile and deadly and can only be dealt with bloodily, that can be accepted. The only other comment I have -- and I'm not entirely sure whether it's a complaint or a compliment -- is that there was an obvious plot-complication hanging over the story from almost the beginning, and it was never used. In a way, I'm glad; it was so obvious that it's something of a mark of creativity that it was ignored; on the other hand, I'm a little disappointed, because it would have been interesting to see how it played out. (Sorry; I can't give details without making for an unforgivable spoiler. If you've read the book and can't figure out what I'm referring to, feel free to e-mail me and I'll explain.)

I enjoyed the parts regarding the S.S. Valiant, but the later part of the book simply didn't work for me. Except for Picard, who we of course know quite well from the series, the other characters were flat and uninteresting. We never find out what is motivating the alien attackers and they are the cardboard cutout enemy-of-the-week, boring. The whole "adversarial" situation with the 1st Officer also just struck me as odd and wrong, and was just not developed correctly or fleshed out beyond being another cardboard enemy for Picard.

Started in ST:TNG Reunion and continued in The Valiant, Gauntlet, and Progenitor, this particular novel is incredible. It was superior to Gauntlet and about even with Reunion. I loved the Original Series elements and the flashback to the Valiant's last mission. I was slightly confused as to the effects of Greyhorse's syrum on the psychic humans, but all in all, this story is a must-read cover-to-cover.

I enjoyed this book very much. I liked finding out how the character of Picard became the person, and the captain, we see today.

It was very enlightening to see the way that he looked for a balance between the command style of his captain and the first officer of the Stargazer in terms of developing his own style. He wasn't as reckless as his captain, but neither was he as "by the book" as the first officer. He saw what and what not to do, which is something many of us, including myself, have learned in our own lives.

One reason I give this four stars is because of something that is true of all "Star Trek" books. The authors of these books count upon the fact that you've watched the show (in this case "Star Trek: The Next Generation") and thus eliminates the need for setting up the characters, since there is already a "history" behind them. We already know who they are and what they've done.

A similar "biography" that I would recommend is "Mosaic," which looks at the history of the character of Janeway. While I was not a huge fan of "Voyager" (the stories were a bit weak), this book was also very enjoyable, giving insight as to how the character developed and why they act and think they way they do.

If a Star Trek novel reader has ever picked up and read a Star Trek novel written by Michael Jan Friedman before and are about to pick up another, they're usually guaranteed one of the better Star Trek novels and STNG The Valiant is no exception to that rule. Given that he is the most prolific of the many Star Trek writers and has written within the many different series, he has a fair amount of knowledge and experience he brings to the page and it clearly shows throughout his stories. Of interest is that when this story was published, it was published under the series name of Star Trek The Next Generation, but since the release of the Stargazer novels, it is now listed as the second in the Stargazer series, right behind "Reunion."

In "The Valiant," MJ Friedman draws from several on screen plots and his past novels to create an exceptional USS Stargazer story, depicting events aboard that small vessel in a timeframe when Captain Picard was Commander Picard and he was the second officer. Combining the crew he created in his previous Stargazer novel "Reunion" and a small amount of the plot line he used in the "My Brother's Keeper" trilogy, he deftly crafts an excellent tale surrounding the events that lead to Jean Luc Picard becoming one of the youngest to ever make Captain in Starfleet. Of note is the great crew he's created to surround Picard on board the Stargazer. Each and every character is well thought out and gets appropriate time within the story without detracting from the main plot events.

The premise:

The Valiant

In the beginning of this exceptional story, we're taken some three hundred years in Starfleet history to when the SS Valiant is thrown beyond the galactic barrier and is trying to make her way back home through the galactic barrier. The SS Valiant is first mentioned in The Original Series episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before." Unfortunately for Captain Tarasco, who captain's the SS Valiant; their failed attempt to cross the barrier results in several casualties and in particular one crewman begins to exhibit "godlike" powers and loses all compassion for human life, thinking of his fellow humans more as bugs than his equals. This leaves Captain Tarasco with few options.

USS Stargazer

The Stargazer, captained by Captain Ruhalter with Commander Jean Luc Picard as second officer is summoned to Starbase 209. Upon arrival, they receive their mission briefing which encompasses two "descendants" of the SS Valiant who claim that they're ancestors, some three hundred years ago, were the crew of the Valiant and they "did" survive to form a colony on the other side of the barrier. These two descendants bring with them warnings of an invasion into Federation territory by a species that lives on the other side of the galactic barrier known and the Nuyyad.

With plenty of skepticism to spare, the Captain and crew of the USS Stargazer head out for the galactic barrier with one of the descendants on board and a Kelvan advisor aboard to determine the truth in this warning and hopefully deal with it accordingly.

What follows is an exceptional story detailing the events surrounding how Commander Jean Luc Picard became Captain Picard, in command of the USS Stargazer. Along with this, one of the better aspects of the novel is the authors setting up the events in "Reunion" with reference to his Chief Medical Officer Carter Greyhorse.

The Audio Tape:

Read by Anthony Stewart Head - While this is no replacement for reading the actual and full story it makes for a good three hour distraction when cruising down the highway.

I highly recommend this Star Trek novel to any and all fans of the series for it is definitely one of the better Trek stories in print. {ssintrepid}

This book is little more than a vehicle for Greg Cox to demonstrate his knowledge of political and cultural history of the late 20th century, as well as his knowledge of the Star Trek universe. Khan and Gary Seven (with faithful sidekicks Roberta and Isis) tromp through world history a la Forrest Gump except with an agenda. Allegedly, their agenda is the same, to help humanity survive into the 21st century, although Khan already shows signs of being the anti-hero we know from episode and movie. How he goes from being so idealistic, if ruthless, being exiled on the Botany Bay is a question left to Volume II, which I may find the patience to read one day.

Filled in the gaps that the series left out. It referenced many other episodes as well.

yes, this is star trek book, and the author, Greg cox is a trekkie who realy knows the show well.
the book itself is written really well and the story is just great.
the story itself is about khan, one of the many genetically engineered supermen who try to take over the world during the 90's and who battled captain kirk in the original episode "space seed" and the second star trek movie, and how a undercover agent from another planet and his earth-born assistant try to stop the human race from destroying itself.
great buy for anyone who was a fan of "space seed" or the wraith of khan.

Let me start by saying I am a fan of Star Trek. I've seen the moives and most of the shows (all series). I have not read any of the Star Trek books, before now at least.

"Wrath of Khan" is one of my all-time favorite movies and "Space Seed" is one of the better Star Trek TV episodes. So when I saw there were some books about the Eugenics Wars and Khan I was intrigued. And, after reading them, rather disappointed.

The books were written well enough. They are fast paced and easy to read. The back story with Kirk and the Enterprise are actually enjoyable and my favorite part of these books. Greg Cox shows time and time again, and again, and again, and again, he knows his Star Trek. And that is part of the problem.

It seems in every chapter there is some reference to something Star Trek but not directly related to Khan. And, in every other chapter, he seems to connect the current event in the book to some event in either one of the TV series or movies. It gets old, fast. It is like he has to keep reminding us he knows his Star Trek. Whenever I pondered Khan in the past, I never once thought of zombies, the Borg, or immortals. Here, I seem to encounter these odd ball things more then Khan.

This leads to another thing that bothers me - the focus of the book. It is not Khan, as one might expect. But it is really Ms Kennedy and Seven (and the cat) that the books focus on. Khan is there, of course, and the plot does deal with him and his schemes. But he is relegated to a single dimension character - a villain only worthy of one of the Brosnan James Bond films.

And that is what these books are like - bad spy novels with space death rays, micro spy gadgets, and teleporters. And it is more like the Eugenics COLD War. I understand that Space Seed had set the Eugenics Wars in the 1990s and that poses a problem. But I would rather have read an alternate history or somehow explained that the dating of the Eugenics was incorrect. Granted, Cox does a good job of mixing in real world events, but the story still ends up flat.

Going into this, I was hoping for story that could develop Khan's character instead of turning him into a shallow one. I had hoped Cox could do what Lucus couldn't do with Darth Vadar and that is come up with a compelling story for one of the archetypical villains of post modern sci-fi. But he didn't.

And though I dislike the books, there seems to be a good number of positive reviews of the books. I found them to be misleading. It is possible these reviewers did actually like the novels. And after reading the books, I think I can present a little test for other people to see if they would like the books. Here it is: If you liked the Star Trek episode with Seven and this *cat* and you think that style of episode fits well with Khan, you will like this book. If you used a laser etcher to remove the Seven episode from the DVD that contains it, you will not like this book.

When I saw the title, I was excited. I had seen the TOS "Space Seed" episode and ST II:Wrath of Khan... so I thought... "hey, that would be a cool buy!"

It's not!

This book is not about Khan... but about some laughable character: Gary Seven. I REPEAT!!!... 90+% of this book is ***NOT*** about Khan!!!

Bull!

IF I would have wanted to read about Gary 7 (laughable, just plain laughable!!!), I would have bought a book about him... but I did not want to know about this j@ck-off! I wanted to read about Khan!... ooops... wrong book, I guess!

As a book summary:

Page 1-300+ No mention of Khan (0%)
Page 300-400 Very Little Khan (10-20%)
Page 400+ Some Khan (but VERY campy!)

Bull... pure, deceptive bull!

TRASH!