Reviews

The Battle of Betazed by Susan Kearney, Charlotte Douglas

nullandvoidlibrary's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark

4.0

jazzypizzaz's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

Pleasantly surprised how good this was! Good pacing and characterization - I love the focus on Deanna and Lwaxana and everything Betazed. I had been worried about Vaughn as I resent him in DS9 relaunch, but he's relatively unobtrusive in this context.

navithefairy's review

Go to review page

adventurous emotional medium-paced

5.0

lefthandedmatt's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

This light book is a quick and easy read. It's enjoyable enough but lacks any kind of depth and certainly attempts to tell a story with more emotional punch than it actually manages (which is ironic,
considering the resistance's final tactic here). Characters are a bit all over the place and don't maintain much consistency - in particular, Vaughn changes personality depending on the scene and Lwaxana Troi didn't ever feel like the character portrayed on screen by Majel Barret.

There's also a clear attempt to create a rip-off version of Hannibal Lector who is not menacing for a second and doesn't add to the story in any meaningful way. The entire plot surrounding him seems like it could have gone in a far more sensible direction.

But it manages to also be exciting and moves with a good pace making it difficult to get bored. There's also a nice mini-crossover with some DS9 characters. It just reads more like fan fiction than a professional novel. The book ends extremely suddenly and we don't get to experience the big event that happens at the end, rather just being told about it after it's over.

sleeplessrivers's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

birdmanseven's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

I've always loved Troi and this book really gave her a chance to shine as a character.

We take a deep dive into all things Next Generation in a special episode of the All the Books Show: https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/episode-230-picard-and-the-next-generation

caris's review

Go to review page

adventurous emotional tense fast-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

An interesting insight into the Dominion War outside of DS9 and the role the Enterprise crew played in it. 
I remember watching DS9 and being really sad when they said that Betazed had come under occupation and then it was never mentioned again, so it was great to read about what (could have) happened. Alongside this, this book (finally) offers some insight into Betazoid culture which TNG never did, which I have always longed for. 

I bought this book years ago after reading a review that likened it to The Silence of the Lambs (even though I hadn’t seen the film at that time) and there are definitely parallels to that in a few scenes between Deanna and Tevren, but it never goes full into this. I was slightly disappointed that we didn’t see more of these horror/thriller elements, but honestly, a step-by-step rehash of Silence would have been tiresome so whatever.
More...