Q-Squared

[cornerofmadness]

Q-Squared by Peter David

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I have lost track of how many years this one on my shelves and then I started and DNFed a few years back. I am not entirely sure why but the beginning was rather slow. However, once I got past that, it is an interesting idea and David did an excellent job in roping in all the Q-like episodes into this. Obviously from the cover art alone you know it's going to have Q and Trelane. It also works on the whole multiverse idea as well and we have for the bulk of the book two tracks (delineated by track A or B in the chapter headers)

One is the main ST:TNG storyline where Q is 'godfather' more or less to Trelane and he's trying to help the boy's parents to rein him in. Now this makes a lot of sense to me that Trelane is a young Q. He had much the same powers when facing Kirk and his crew. The other track is one where Jack Crusher didn't die and he's the captain with Picard as second in command (and an equally alternate history for ALL the main characters even Data)

The problem Q faces is Trelane is not progressing well. He's stuck in a narcissistic, child-like mind set where he's the greatest and Q (and his parents) are trying to deny him what is rightfully his. To that end, you can imagine what harm a mentally unstable Q could do.

So while we bounce back and forth between the two tracks (and later more) as Q fights to stop his young charge before he does irreparable harm to the universe, the story lines progress. There are some really interesting ideas explored in the Jack Crusher storyline. Other major plots from both original Trek and next gen are woven into this so again, David did his homework and made it feasible.

It was, however, a tad overly long. At the end of the day, it was a decent read and glad I finally read it.



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Comments

[suzume]

Yeah, I sort of remember liking this set of three? books when I read them some years ago. (I read MANY Star Trek novels in a couple of years in the past- back when I was in college maybe?)

[cornerofmadness]

I didn't t realize this was that old until I noticed it was foxed and I looked and I'm dang this is a couple decades old. It wasn't bad at all

[suzume]

Yeah, I as I recall, I felt pretty much the same way.