Review: Star Trek: Picard: Rogue Elements (Star Trek: Picard #3), by John Jackson Miller, 2021

Rogue Elements by John Jackson Miller
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

Star Trek: Picard: Rogue Elements (Star Trek: Picard #3), by John Jackson Miller, 2021

Synopsis:

Starfleet was everything for Cristóbal Rios—until one horrible, inexplicable day when it all went wrong. Aimless and adrift, he grasps at a chance for a future as an independent freighter captain in an area betrayed by the Federation, the border region with the former Romulan Empire. His greatest desire: to be left alone.

But solitude isn’t in the cards for the captain of La Sirena, who falls into debt to a roving gang of hoodlums from a planet whose society is based on Prohibition-era Earth. Teamed against his will with Ledger, his conniving overseer, Rios begins an odyssey that brings him into conflict with outlaws and fortune seekers, with power brokers and relic hunters across the stars.

Exotic loves and locales await—as well as dangers galore—and Rios learns the hard way that good crewmembers are hard to find, even when you can create your own. And while his meeting with Jean-Luc Picard is years away, Rios finds himself drawing on the Starfleet legend’s experiences when he discovers a mystery that began on one of the galaxy’s most important days…

 

Review:

What a dump-truck-on-fire of a novel this was. I tried hard to like the book, and I even almost abandoned it several times, but I had to plow through it because I wanted to get to know more of Rios' backstory and how he came to be the captain of his starship of La Sirena. Considering these novels in the Picard book trilogy are to be regarded as canon, I had a certain level of expectation. But this author did the character Rios and the Star Trek franchise some grave disservice. 

The author reduced Rios into a wise bumbling fool who can't catch a break and is always a victim of circumstance. Such a shame and waste of opportunity to bring Rios to life with a rich backstory. Instead, we get the one-trick pony slapstick humor repeatedly throughout the book, minor characters with no dimensions who we will probably never hear of again, and the Iotians.

I rate this book 1.5 star out of 5.

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Review: The Last Best Hope (Star Trek: Picard #1), by Una McCormack, 2020

The Last Best Hope by Una McCormack
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Last Best Hope (Star Trek: Picard #1), by Una McCormack, 2020

The book follows Picard from the first moment he learns about the Romulan supernova, all the way through his eventual resignation from Starfleet after the synth attack on Mars — the final scene in the book takes place just moments before Picard and Raffi discuss his resignation in “The End is the Beginning.”

2019 Comics Countdown #1 and #2 by Kirsten Byer seems to be the blueprint for this novel. Between reading the comics and watching Season 1 of Picard, I wasn't sure how much I would get out of this book, so I set my expectations accordingly. To my delight, I enjoyed this read quite so. If the comics were the skeleton, then this book is the meat that thoughtfully fleshes out the characters and fills in the details the television show expects us to accept. I feel the author truly captures Picard's essence yet transforms him into the much older Picard character depicted on the television show. If I had read this book before season 1 of Picard, the depiction of the older Picard wouldn't have been so jarring and easier for me to accept. Another brilliant move by the author was to explain Raffi Musiker's relationship with Picard in a manner that allows us, the reader, to understand her motivations and experiences when she was a Starfleet officer. How she came to call him JL and her position as Picard's new "number one" on the USS Verity was handled carefully and just as craftily.

I rate this 4.8 out of 5 stars.

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The Valiant (Star Trek: The Next Generation), by Michael Jan Friedman, 2000

The Valiant (Star Trek: The Next Generation), by Michael Jan Friedman, 2000

USS Stargazer’s latest tour of duty, second officer Lt Commander Jean-Luc Picard, is ordered to investigate the rumors of an alien species, the Nuyyad, that is reportedly planning to invade the Federation.

The Captain of the ship dies during a battle, while his first in command enters a coma, leaving Jean-Luc Picard acting captain. After a subset of the crew fails to mutiny, Picard solidifies his role as the leader of the and captain of the ship. They finally head off across to the Galactic Barrier to investigate the Nuyyad, Magnians, and Kelvans.

Once they arrive at the destination, Picard deals with a human race capable of telepathy, like Mitchell from TOS, some saboteurs, and an all out battle with an alien star base. In the end, Picards proves triumphant and earns the permanent commendation of Captain of the USS Stargazer.

This book is not what I expected. I went into this book thinking I can get through it fairly leisurely and without much attention to the details. This book read much like other Star Trek books in such that it read like a tv episode. What made this a bit different is the amount of backstory and subplots compressed into such a small amount of space. I  found myself frequently backtracking and examining how the current events relate to the previous ones and how they would be relevant to the upcoming  ones.

I think the story could be expanded and layered; building a stronger connection from one plot to the next. It might also be easier to follow.

My rating: ★★☆☆☆ (2 out of 5 stars) - It was okay.

http://memory-beta.wikia.com/wiki/The_Valiant