Reunion

Written like a solid episode of TNG, with all our familiar ensemble cast, accompanied by the remaining crew of Picard's earlier ship, The Stargazer. We get more details and resolution around Jack Crusher's life and death, and observe the interplay within that original crew amidst the resolution of 3 plots, one entirely diplomatic, one actiony/murder mystery/assassination, and one with the Romulans!

Of course, this is a book I've read many times before, but it's one of Michael Jan Friedman's better ones. The Stargazer crew is an interesting bunch of characters, and meeting them and seeing glimpses of a young Picard are really the best parts of the book. (The best scene in the book-- and indeed, perhaps the best scene Friedman ever wrote-- is Pug Joseph's confession to Wesley.) The B-plot about a subspace anomaly and some random Romulans is pretty forgettable, but the A-plot of the (attempted) murder mystery is executed well, aside from the fact that the crew doesn't actually investigate the attempt, but just sits tight and hopes no one gets murdered. Crusher cracks it in the end thanks to a chance comment in an old letter from show more Jack, but by that point the murderer's kidnapped Picard, so what's the point? (I wonder how much the impact of this book has been diluted in this modern age, where we've had almost a dozen books detailing the adventures of the 'gazer crew. These small glimpses used to be all we had; now they seem somewhat insignificant. Though I do wish the proper 'gazer series had depicted the mission of exploration described in this book, rather than stopping just before it.) show less

I very solid piece of Star Trek fiction, that manages to give all of the characters good scenes and something to do, which doesn't seem to be very easy to do. Plus, it's a mystery, which is a genre that I love.

Reunion is an entertaining and fast paced, murder-mystery-detective novel involving the crew of Captain Picard's old ship, the Stargazer, and his current crew on the Enterprise. Friedman manages to capture the personalities of well known and new characters fairly well and write an entertaining story at the same time. We also learn how Jack Crusher actually died.

Rating: 3.5 stars

A murder mystery set on the Enterprise. The background is a reunion of the surviving officers from the Stargazer, Capt. Picard's first command. A good book for filling in some Star Trek history and a decent mystery, though the technology gaps in Star Trek are a bit obvious in this one.

The sexist lecherism is driving me nuts. And I wish there had been chronology or world-building notes... but it turns out that the referential allusions weren't to anything canon anyway... so confused. Not liking this one.
---
It did get better. All the nits are available to pick, like characters sometimes doing things out of character, and too much focus on new(ish) characters, and too much high drama. But it was fine.

Onward!

This is my favorite Star Trek book. Michael seems to genuinely love these characters and writes a compelling story to explain some of the history between the Captain, the Crusher family, and the crew of the Stargazer. This book is a lot of fun.