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Edit History for Just my two cents...

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by igamenaked
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This post has been edited 1 time(s). Prior versions are displayed from the original.

Original message modified Jul 19, 2004 @ 20:01:
Topic: Just my two cents...
First off, welcome me... the long-time lurker who finally decided to create an account and make a post.

With that being said, here are my two cents on this book, and the whole series in which it spawns from.

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I love the "A Time To..." series, and this is coming from someone whom was once a huge fan, but now nothing more than a casual follower. I'd even go as far as saying I dislike the TNG cast, having seen what a bit of character development could do (DS9), and having to hear Picard or Data's voices in every damned PC game that ever was called "Star Trek...".

This series however, returns to the root of Star Trek... the characters. "A Time To Be Born" and "A Time To Die", the first two novels in the series of nine, sets the stage wonderfully. Picard and crew become the "tainted" ship after having to take the blame for the Federation after a terrible tragedy. The "super clean" TNG we have known all along becomes the "new DS9" when junior officers start jumping ship, senior staff start questioning their futures, and Picard is slapped on the wrist in front of the entire Federation he has saved countless times. I was never a fan, nor had any negative feelings towards the Wesley Crusher character, so take it from a neutral party when I say the way his return was scribed is brilliant, well-executed, and entertaining.

"A Time To Sow" and "A Time To Harvest" took the series one step further... these books are twice as good as the first two! Doctor Crusher finally gets some well-deserved time in the spotlight, something that many of the fans of the movies have begged for. The new Chief Of Security on the Enterprise-E is another well-written addition to the crew; I only wish we had a chance to see her live and on screen.

So, to summarize... the first four novels are gold... read them; some of the best Trek novels I have read.

Then comes "A Time To Love", which I'm but a chapter away from finishing. After reading this article on TrekWeb I can see why it took me some time to get into this book... Robert Greenberger used to write and edit comics? The writing style in "A Time To Love" is choppy, most noticable around character's speaking parts. It seems entire conversations will go on without any indication of who is saying what line, not even a "she said" or "Picard said" to help identify the exchange. This writing style is fine in comics, when pictures are included and dialog is clearly linked to characters via a bubble, but this is a novel. Normally it wouldn't be hard to pick out who is saying what, each TNG character has a very distinct way of presenting themselves in dialog, but not here. Robert Greenberger has a really hard time nailing the way these well-established characters speak, their mannerisms; it's like I'm reading something other than a Star Trek novel. The story in "A Time To Love" started off slow, but I'm starting to enjoy it, all the aforementioned problems aside, but I'm kinda dreading having one more novel in the series left by this author before I can move on. Here's hoping that the series returns to the glory of the first four novels after "A Time To Hate".

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