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A review by jaycatt7
What Lay Beyond by Keith R.A. DeCandido, Diane Carey, Robert Greenberger, Susan Wright, Peter David, Christie Golden
2.0
Much like the series it concludes, the quality of these stories was mixed. Each novella provides the ending of one of the unfinished novels that made up books one through six.
The Kirk closer was not awful, but it felt lackluster and obvious compared to the first part of the story.
The Keller conclusion I actually liked, even if the ending came completely out of left field.
The DS9 exploration of Kira's journey was just as good as the preceding novel. Easily the strongest concluding story.
I can't really judge the Voyager novel since I didn't read it, but its conclusion was silly.
I also didn't read the Calhoun and Shelby book, for which the concluding novella makes me glad. Pretty sure M'k'n'z or whatever would have been laughed out of the room by the D&D players in Stranger Things. I basically skimmed this one to see if it had any impact on the larger story, and the only hint that it might was never picked up again. Apparently Chekhov didn't carry a phaser.
The TNG conclusion was about as shoddy as the TNG novel, if you could call it that. We see the return of Incompetent Riker and Badass Troi, though not the recurrence of Nervous Data. The reprised bad guys from a Voyager episode never actually turn on anybody. Yawn. And most of the "action" is Picard playing Space Jesus to a planet full of NPCs from Ocarina of Time. Completely lackluster.
So for the series as a whole.... The DS9 novel and novella were decent. The Kirk novel was fun and the Keller book was ok. I kind of regret wasting my time on the rest of it. I always liked TNG, which is why it hurts to see it done so badly.
And even if the writing had been up to snuff and the stories had been solid, this "buy the 7th book to read the endings to the first 6!" gimmick needs to die.
The Kirk closer was not awful, but it felt lackluster and obvious compared to the first part of the story.
The Keller conclusion I actually liked, even if the ending came completely out of left field.
The DS9 exploration of Kira's journey was just as good as the preceding novel. Easily the strongest concluding story.
I can't really judge the Voyager novel since I didn't read it, but its conclusion was silly.
I also didn't read the Calhoun and Shelby book, for which the concluding novella makes me glad. Pretty sure M'k'n'z or whatever would have been laughed out of the room by the D&D players in Stranger Things. I basically skimmed this one to see if it had any impact on the larger story, and the only hint that it might was never picked up again. Apparently Chekhov didn't carry a phaser.
The TNG conclusion was about as shoddy as the TNG novel, if you could call it that. We see the return of Incompetent Riker and Badass Troi, though not the recurrence of Nervous Data. The reprised bad guys from a Voyager episode never actually turn on anybody. Yawn. And most of the "action" is Picard playing Space Jesus to a planet full of NPCs from Ocarina of Time. Completely lackluster.
So for the series as a whole.... The DS9 novel and novella were decent. The Kirk novel was fun and the Keller book was ok. I kind of regret wasting my time on the rest of it. I always liked TNG, which is why it hurts to see it done so badly.
And even if the writing had been up to snuff and the stories had been solid, this "buy the 7th book to read the endings to the first 6!" gimmick needs to die.