Maximum Warp Book One: Dead Zone (Star Trek The Next Generation, No 62)

Interstellar civilization depends on the twin blessings of warp travel and subspace communications. But now an unknown force is disrupting subspace throughout the galaxy, creating "dead zones" in which advanced technology will not function. Ships are stranded in space, unable to communicate. Colonies are losing life support. Governments can no longer negotiate with their allies -- or their enemies. Worse yet, the dead zones are proliferating at a geometric rate. Unless a solution is found, the entire Alpha Quadrant may be doomed to a new dark age!

in the wake of the Dominion War, a tenuous peace exists between the Federation and the Romulan Empire. The uneasy alliance is strained to the breaking point, however, by the enigma that is destroying subspace. Now Captain Jean-Luc Picard and Ambassador Spock must join forces with an infamous Romulan war criminal in a desperate attempt to find the source of the disruption -- even if it means sacrificing the very peace they hope to save!

Whether you agree that this 2 book tale is enjoyable will largely depend on how much familiarity you are willing to accept. The end is filled with phrases like, 10 dimensional type IV civilizations, base matter energy is inescapable, and the theory of oscillating universes. What made this jargon work for me was that it was information and theory that was primarily explored by Data and Mr. Spock, with Data exceeding Mr. Spock's ability for reasons that were interesting. It was a different spin on why Data is different, and not just for the obvious reasons.

I gave book #1 3 stars, and I have given this book 4. Together they are somewhere between 3.5 and 4 stars, and again, how much of the material reminds you of another Trek episode may decide how much you like these books and how you would rate them. Many of the sub-plots of the book were hastily brought to conclusion, and many were very questionable as to why they were needed at all, but as the author introduced them in book #1 he had no choice but to either conclude them or leave them unfinished. The book closed with a great quote from Albert Einstein, People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.

This is not a set I would start out with, but if you plan to work your way through the dozens of books in the Trek anthology, you will come across these eventually, and like others I have read they do recall and refer to other adventures of crews in the past.
February 01, 2003

This is the first TNG book I have read. It would be unfair to judge anything other than this partial book, and at present I am reading the second and final portion. This book is not only too brief at 203 pages, it is far too ambitious in its attempt to have a variety of storylines, multiple ships, captains, and species all swirling around in too small a space. The book does not have the room to do any of the individual tales and sub-plots justice, and makes a hash of the attempt.

Mr. Spock is one of my favorite characters in Star Trek and science fiction in general. He has an incredibly long history in the various series, and a long term relationship with Captain Picard as well. Fans will recall that it was through Picard's cooperation that Spock's father was able to complete his final ambassadorial assignment, and again through Picard that Spock and his father would come to learn about each other.

The book even drops bits about Admiral Quinn to fill space, brings Deep Space 9, and even Captain Janeway and Voyager in to this far too busy construct. Perhaps the author will in some manner bring this all together in the final book. If he does it will be a remarkable recovery. Based only on this book I would recommend that readers start with other series, specifically, "The Dominion War", as it is so prominently and repeatedly mentioned in this book.
January 30, 2003

The first half of the "Maximum Warp" duology is a minor dissapointment.

The story is based around an unoriginal concept about spatial disruptions that suddenly appear out of nowhere, causing ships to go wrecked as energy can't get transformed from one form into another in the disruption field to enable any kind of mechanical function. Curiously (and unexplainedly) enough, the phenomenon doesn't appear to effect any non-mechanical transformation of energy.

This causes strain between the Romulans and the federation, as they both suspect the disruptions as a new and powerfull weapon.

The book highly resembels Dave Galanter and Greg Brodeur's earlier Voyager novel Battle Lines in it's concentration on action instead of plot and characterization, wich ultimately leadst to rendering the book unrealistic.

This can be seen especially in the field of characterization. The characters feel familiar enough, and the duo writes them talentedly, but there are times in the plot that would absolutely require heavy and deep exploration of one or more characters, but don't contain any. And speaking of characters, Spocs inclusion in the story is as unjustified as it can get, as he has absolutely nothing to do and appears to be there only to fill the pages with his presence and comments that any other characters could have expressed. This I call a true waste of potential, wich appears to be the only real theme of the story.

The book succeeds in offering good science and sufficiently interesting original characters, though, and works at least somehow as a baggage of entertainment.

After all this the book still feels mediocore and cheap, and it leaves the reader with a feeling of being underestimated.

book II: Forever Dark

After the first "Maximum Warp" book, the second half of the duology starts off really promisingly.

The story holds together much better than in the forst book, there are more interesting siuations and even some sufficciently deepened character moments with both new and familiar characters.

But soon starts the downhill as plot gives it all away to action as long and uneventfull space battles and other action-packed scenes take over the story, the plot gets predictable and characterization is forgotten.

The ambitious but messy ending of the book ruins it all, as it stumbles on sci-fi clichés and overly melodramatic climax.

Leave the "Maximum Warp" duology to the bookstore and maybe borrow it from the library. It's not worth your money.
April 02, 2002