Star Trek: The Next Generation: Nightshade [Mass Market Paperback]

The real problem is that, if the reader is familiar with Ms. Hamilton's "Anita Blake" series, he or she comes to this book expecting something truly exceptional, and that isn't at all what he or she gets. This book was published only a year before "Guilty Pleasures", the first in the "Anita" series, but the quality here is decades behind the quality in that book. Some of the problem, admittedly, is that we are working with established characters here, none of which is Anita Blake, and much of the delight to be found in that series comes from the portrayal of that very delightful character. Perhaps Ms. Hamilton would do better if she wrote a novel set in the period before Tasha Yar died, and wrote from Lt. Yar's perspective, as she does from Anita's. The characters are similar enough that she might truly be able to bring Tasha to life. But in this story, none of the characters, established or new, has a tenth of the spark that one finds in Anita Blake. It's unsettling to think that someone who could create such a dynamic character is a one-trick pony. Hopefully, she's grown as a writer in the last 12 years.

The cover art for this particular novel is pretty much the standard fare for the earlier STNG novels in which a picture of the two primary characters for the novel are plastered on the cover.

The premise:

The planet Oriana has suffered through two hundred years of civil war and is now dying because of it. Finally realizing what they have wrought for themselves, the two warring factions seek peace at the negotiation tables and the Federation is asked to mediate. In comes Captain Picard and the Enterprise. Captain Picard, Lieutenant Worf and Counselor Troi beam down to the planet to begin the negotiations.

Just as Captain Picard and his team begin negotiations the Enterprise is called away on another urgent mission. Now alone on the planet, Captain Picard and his team must continue their negotiations for peace between the two warring factions but he is then accused of murder and Lieutenant Worf must continue the negotiations.

Worf and Troi now have to find a way of stopping the violence between the two warring factions to include those who do not wish for the negotiations to succeed and find a way of vindicating Captain Picard.

What follows from there is, as stated above, one of the better early STNG novels that I'd highly recommend adding to your Star Trek library. It would be nice to see this author make a revisit to this genre. {ssintrepid}

I found the book to be captivating and mildly fascinating as a planetary war on Oriana, which has gone on for two hundred years, has finally come to a negotiation for a settlement. After the planet's biosphere has been devastated and the people are dying. Picard, Worf, and Troi are beamed down to Oriana, but soon find that the Enterprise is called away leaving them all alone to settle the conflict. After this set up, the book takes off and Picard is accused of murder and Worf is left in charge of the negotiations. Throughout the book we see the Worf/Troi relationship begin to flower bringing them closer to one another, but the overlying problem of planetary war looms and to avert a planet-wide disaster, Worf has to negotiae the peace between the two warring factions.

Worf has Troi to fall back on, but together they unravel the truth. This is a well told story with a narrative that flows and the character development between Worf and Troi is excellent. I enjoyed this story as the main thrust of the story fell on someone else other than Captain Picard; and the Enterprise was away on another mission, which left the characters to their own resources to solve this potential disaster.

If you like Worf and Troi this is the book for you as both characters begin to explore a relationship and problem solving together.