After my successful encounter with the tie-in book acting as a prequel to the new Picard TV series on Amazon, and feeling some nostalgia for the world of TNG I enjoyed during its run, I went in search of books that might bring back some of that old “magic” and also fill the hiatus between the last TNG movie Nemesis and the current TV show. My search brought me to this novel that was indicated as focused on that time period and also on the most interesting adversary ever created in the Star Trek universe: the Borg. The book promised to bring the old enemy back, so I decided to take the plunge in the hope of connecting once again with a narrative arc that, highs and lows notwithstanding, had managed to capture my imagination in the past.
In Resistance we encounter a Captain Picard having to adjust to a series of changes in his command staff: Riker, the former first officer now promoted to captain, and his wife Counselor Troi, have moved to their own ship; Worf, the best candidate for the position of XO is reluctant to take the post; a new Vulcan counselor has been assigned to the Enterprise; and the loss of Data, whose sacrifice saved them all, still feels very painful. On top of all this, Picard hears again his connection to the Borg and the voice of the collective, which was not completely vanquished and is now working toward the creation of a new queen and the resurgence of the assimilation program.
Compelled to act quickly, Picard contravenes Starfleet’s orders and heads to intercept the Borg cube before the queen can be activated, and when the first attempt at destroying her fails, chooses a dangerous path to prevent the possibility of a new, devastating invasion.
While the main theme for this novel looked promising, this story unfortunately did not completely deliver on that promise, mostly because it did not add anything new to the concept of this detached enemy following directives like a computer, without personal or emotional motivations. Worse, the plot seems like a mere rewrite of the script for First Contact, with the addition of some outlandish notions bordering on the absurd, like the premise that to build a new queen a male drone is subjected to a special treatment that turns it from male to female. I’m still puzzling over this, since it’s established in canon that Borg drones are captured and assimilated beings – both male and female – and that their inclusion in the collective does not change their gender and at most makes it irrelevant to the hive mind’s goals.
If the writing is good enough and the pacing adequately sustained, the story falters in the plentiful descriptions of characters’ thoughts and feelings with an abundance of telling vs. showing that soon becomes tedious and spoils the overall effect. Not to mention that some of the characters’ decisions feel out of place, namely Picard’s disturbing solution for boarding the cube without raising the alarm: in consideration of his past trauma at the hands of the Borg, it goes against everything we have seen so far about his PTSD.
There are however some positive elements in Resistance, the most significant being the look into Worf’s personality as he still labors under the weight of guilt for the failure of a previous mission: the reasons for not wanting to accept the position of first officer come straight from his psychological makeup and past history, and help to shed more light into what makes him tick. And the newly-minted Counselor T’Lana is a promising addition to the team – should she remain as a canon character and be further developed, of course – because her nature as a Vulcan and her posting as a counselor dealing with the crew’s emotions could lead to interesting developments.
When all is said and done, Resistance ended up being something of a letdown after my successful experience with The Last Best Hope, even though I acknowledge that at least the action scenes held my attention and the book was a fast, diverting read. Still, it had a little “paint by the numbers” flavor that did not completely agree with me, although it did not stop my search for more interesting and promising books: as this “quest” is undergoing during a difficult moment in everyone’s life, I feel in great need of some optimistic stories and I have to admit that Star Trek, even in its direst visions, always had the power to offer at least a glimmer of hope. And a vision, no matter how idealistic, of a better future is exactly what everyone needs when finding themselves in dire straits…
So, can anyone advise me on some good titles to read in the Star Trek tie-in universe? 😉
My Rating:
Oh too bad. I was excited when I read the title of this book, as I love the fraught relationship between Picard and the Borg. I hope others have some good recs for you!
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It’s my hope as well: since watching the new Trek series I’ve become a little nostalgic and need to stay in that world a little more… 🙂
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Ha sorry! I don’t like reading about Star Trek even if I loved watching the TV show as a kid so, so ,so long ago!
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Tie-in books rarely work perfectly for me, but I will still keep looking! 😉
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I’ve read two Star Trek novels, and they both felt aged. One was by Joe Haldeman, and definitely not as good as I would have expected from him. I can only recommend it to hardcore fans of both the old sf and Star Trek. If you want to take a risk, “Prime Directive” by Judith Reeves-Stevens and
Garfield Reeves-Stevens was at least decent 🙂
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Oh, thank you! Duly noted 😉
It must have been a huge disappointment to pick a book written by Haldeman and to find it was not up to his usual standards…
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It wasn’t terrible, but I see his Forever War as one of the hard sf classics, and this was so so, and rather aged (title is Planet of Judgement)
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Haha, I’ve been getting the Star Trek tie-in itch too, and just the other day I was eyeing my copy of Star Trek – Discovery: Dead Endless. Maybe you might want to look into that one! In the last few years, the tie-in industry has seen a “renaissance” of a sort, where the quality has really improved and they also started tapping big name authors to write them. I don’t know how old Resistance is, but in general I tend to stay away from older tie-ins because this was before they actually started putting effort into them 😛
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Good to know! Resistance is indeed a little dated, since it was published in 2007. I will follow your advice and look at the more recent offerings, especially if they have been written by some of those “big name” authors. Thank you for the advice!! 👍 😁
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I am sorry that this fell a little flat – I hope you find a more satisfactory “Star Trek” read:)
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I’ve been pointed in the right direction so… there’s hope yet! 😉
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Oh good:) Best of luck with the next attempt.
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Off, sorry to hear that – I’m afraid it’s a common ailing of many franchise books, though – most of them are very paint-by-the-numbers (which is I usually steer clear of them! ;))
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I usually try to avoid them too, but recently I needed to… refresh my acquaintance and books seemed a valid alternative to the various shows’ reruns 🙂
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It’s a shame this didn’t work out for you but at least it’s not dampened your desire to keep reading Star Trek books.
Lynn 😀
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There are TONS of them: I’m bound to find a good one among them… 😉
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So, one of my friends Krista is a HUGE Trek fan and has read a TON of tie-in novels. Feel free to hit her up on twitter for recs (tell her Lisa sent you): https://twitter.com/kristadb1
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Thank you! I will certainly do! 👍 👍
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This is the preconceived opinion I usually have with TV/movie tie-ins and I’m sorry to hear this one didn’t live up to your needs/expectations! I am, however, glad that you still found a couple of things to appreciate in this one. Great honest review as always, Maddalena! 🙂
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Thank you! While it’s true that I’ve rarely found some tv tie-in books that were truly good, being an incurable optimist I keep looking in the hope of striking gold… 😉
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