We’re still early into The Next Generation novel series, this is only the ninth in the series. Set in the second season, while the third season was just getting underway on television, the book had to be written while the second season was in production. And that means not everything was going to work as viewers and authors were still getting used to all the characters and the storytelling style, which the series hadn’t quite found yet.

So how do you write a Star Trek novel when you’re still learning the characters? Put them in a situation where they don’t have their memories, and anything happening on the Enterprise is fairly familiar, in this case a strange virus is at work.

This Friedman’s first Next Gen book, and his second Trek book to date, but he would go on to write a number of them becoming very prolific. And no doubt, I’ll enjoy them, but this one, it never clicked for me, and I was never able to get into it.

The Enterprise tracks a missing ship to an alien world. The ship is crewless, the planet protected by an energy barrier, and the away team that went over to the ship, led by Captain Picard on a personal mission, has gone missing, along with Geordi, Worf and Doctor Pulaski.

The away team’s memory is wiped and they are forced to fight in bloody battles, all for the entertainment of the masses of the planet. These conflicts are the opiate for the masses, blinding them to their own problems, and the control the rulers have over them.

With Riker and one of the Enterprise’s other doctors trying to figure out how to deal with the strange virus, as well as figure out how to rescue their crew members, Picard and the others must survive the battles they find themselves in.

Worf seems out of character here because he isn’t as blood lust-filled as we know him to be when it comes to battle, and for some reason he’s believes that he is a a bit of a coward.

It’s obvious that we’re early in the book series, the characters aren’t those we know yet, the stories aren’t what the series, and even the novels, I hope, will become. This one was a bit laborious for me, and right up to the end of the noveI couldn’t find a way to get into the story. I know these characters, and they really weren’t themselves, partly because of the memory loss, and partly because the show was still so fresh and they were still being discovered.

I have no doubt I will grow to love Friedman’s work, but I didn’t enjoy this one at all.

So let’s boldly go and see what is next in the Human Adventure!