Tooth and Claw

This is well written and very entertaining. The descriptions are very clear and vivid. There is a lot of action. The dialogue is great and the personal interaction is wonderful, especially the private commentaries and evaluations the characters make of each other. Those characters are very well depicted. Also, the alien cultures are unusually well depicted. There is a definite feeling that the Fandrean culture has great depth and we and the characters are only seeing a little of it. The Tsorans on the other hand seem shallow, not for lack of author talent, but because they are so obsessed with prestige and appearance that their culture has lost some of its original depth and content. All in all, this is a great and very entertaining book.

I have about a trillion ST:TNG books on my shelf, but this one is easily one of the best. It it filled not only with excitement and humor, but also meaning. It shows the struggles of a young man coming of age, learning to think for himself. At the same time, it explores the nature of communication. As Durgin shows, communication is about far more than words--it is laden with cultural gestures and ways of thinking about the world.And it does all of this without mangling our understanding of the TNG characters we've come to know. Durgin definitely has the gift for writing. I'd recommend this book to anyone who enjoys sci-fi, even if they've never seen an episode of Star Trek.

I'm not sure what fans of a TV show want in a book, but I have to say that if you want a good episode coupled with good writing, this is it. The author understands the characters, and replicates their habits effortlessly. I'd never read a media book if I didn't already like the show; T & C gives me the best of both worlds: a great TV episode along with imaginative writing. Highly recommended!

This is one of the best Star Trek books I've read in a long time. It was one of those "can't put down, read in one sitting" novels for me. I found the Federation characters to be right on the mark (Riker was as damned arrogant and annoying as I found him to be on the television show - but that's a good thing...he was written true to character!) and the alien characters were interesting, especially the parts about their culture and their daleura and kaphoora. One of the things I loved about this book was the kaphoora. It reminded me of things I've read about ancient cultures such as the native Americans and the way warriors in those cultures achieved manhood. It's nice to read a Star Trek novel that takes the characters out of their normal element (off saving the galaxy) and puts them in something foreign to them.Hopefully, this won't be the last Star Trek novel that Ms. Durgin writes!

Durgin manages to keep the characters intact without making them stupid. Fascinating plot, cool writing. Loved it.