Rift

Pike was never developed in the series. Why would such a talented author waste his time on him? But Peter David is a nice writer. So I read it to the end. If A character isn't developed in the series it must be in the book. This did not occur. It really did not work. A book to miss.

As is usually the case with Peter David, the writing style is excellent; as usual, he manages to tell an exciting action-based story without losing his sense of humor, which is rare. As an added bonus, this story has its beginning in the time of Captain Pike, just after the events in "The Menagerie"; after a chapter or two, we move forward to a standard original-series story, set at some point after the fourth movie. ("The Voyage Home")But while the story is exciting, a good read, with action, pacing, and characterization that is all one could ask for, it is, ultimately, a lightweight novel. Which is not necessarily a bad thing; that's going to be true of most stories in any protracted series. They can't ALL be world-beaters; this one is a good light-reading episode with just a hint of the deeper thought-provoking concepts that make some Star Trek stories great. Not enough to be great itself, but just enough to be very good.

This was definitely not one of Peter David's best, but I can't help but feel if it had been authored by anyone else - except maybe Michael Jan Friedman, who I also admire - I would have probably enjoyed it more because my expectations would not have been as high. It was humorous in parts and was still better than a lot of the material being churned out today, but still doesn't touch his Q books or even his DC Comics work.

My subject-line basically covers it. :-) I liked this book, as I figured I would since Peter David is an excellent writer. If you want to read a good ST book though, I would definitely recommend Peter David's "Q Squared" -- THAT one knocked my socks off!

It makes a change to have Captain Pike in a startrek novel. You get to know what he is like as a starship captain. The crossover to captain Kirk is smooth and the aliens are not as hostile as most startrek aliens.

This was the first Star Trek book I ever read, afterwords I was hooked. I loved this book, it wasn't filled with useless technical jargon. The Rift, is a big 'hole' you go through to get to get to a highly developed planet. This Rift is like the story of Briggadoom, it will disappear and it only reappears every 30 years. You find a love a commadoore and of the head of the planet. They met the during the first time Christopher Pike went to the planet. There is a good portion of historical background, which is very accurate. Spock is shown in both the past with Pike and the future with Kirk. I would recommend this book to eryone, it's worth any afternoon.