Book review
Written by Keith R.A. DeCandido
Pocket Books paperback
Release date 1 November 2007

As the end of the universe approaches, the crew of the Enterprise-E are visited by a very familiar nuisance...

Veteran Star Trek novelist Keith R.A. DeCandido sets himself no small task with this month’s installment in the Star Trek: The Next Generation relaunch. He incorporates every appearance of Q within the Star Trek series – up to and including the novels – into a tapestry that explains exactly why he’s acted the way he has in tormenting Jean-Luc Picard over the years.

It’s the sort of book that can only be written with the benefit of hindsight, creating a masterplan out of numerous different production teams’ ideas and finding a throughline in some unexpected places.

Initially you wonder why it takes so long for Q to arrive on board the Enterprise, but the scene setting is necessary to reacquaint the reader with the various events in the Q/Picard history. It’s also a good opportunity for DeCandido to flesh out the new arrivals on the Enterprise. It’s going to be a very different command crew to the one we’ve become (over)familiar with, and the changes in personnel are creating a new dynamic very quickly.

Once Q arrives, it’s the cue for the end of the universe in a scene that’s oddly reminiscent of Gary Russell’s sixth Doctor novel Spiral Scratch, resolved in the most unlikely, yet logical manner. Peter Quentin

VERDICT: 8/10

Although the Picard/Crusher ‘romantic’ scenes have yet to ring true with me, no matter the author, this is a well-characterised novel.

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