Tag Archives: paperback

Darkest Hour by Jenny Carroll (2001) – BR00031 (2004) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The PolyBlog
March 28 2004

Plot or Premise

Suzannah is a mediator — she helps ghosts move on from this plane to the next. But when she’s not embracing her sixth sense, she’s earning money as a staff babysitter at a hotel/resort and dreaming about Jesse who haunts her current home. Then she meets trouble in the form of spoiled brat Jack who can also see ghosts, but doesn’t know that ghosts are actually real and is instead three steps away from a nervous breakdown. Suze has to help him figure out his own role with ghosts, at the same time that she tries to figure out more of the mystery with Jesse’s past life.

What I Liked

I really liked the idea of finding newbies who don’t know what they are supposed to do when it comes to ghosts — hey, didn’t they see the movie? I also still like the fact that Suze can actually interact with the ghosts (i.e., fight with them). The backstory for Jesse was cool, and knowing that Suze can move to another plane at least temporarily is really a good omen for future books. The interesting addition of negative mediators to counter-balance the good mediators is very Tru Calling-ish, and we’ll have to see how that plays out in future books.

What I Didn’t Like

Some of the repeated teenage angst might sit well with teenage readers, but it gets really repetitive fast for older readers.

The Bottom Line

Oh, no, it’s ghosts again!

Note: Also published under the title Young Blood.

Shadowland by Jenny Carroll (2000) – BR00030 (2004) – 🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸

The PolyBlog
March 7 2004

Plot or Premise

Susannah is a mediator, a la the Sixth Sense, helping ghosts resolve their earthly problems so they can depart. She lived a life of school problems and adventure in New York, hung out with her visiting dead father’s ghost, and got in trouble with the law. Then Mom married a guy from California and they moved in with the new family — a new stepdad and three new stepbrothers. And her first day of school? She finds out that her school’s principal, a priest, is also a mediator. She’s not alone! Ever!

What I Liked

The introduction of a character who can physically interact with ghosts is great, and the introduction of Susannah to the ghost Jesse who has been haunting her new bedroom for the last 150 years is actually funny. There are lots of humourous bits as she moves into the new school and meets the resident bully — a rejected popular girl who committed suicide over a boy and who now wants to exact revenge on him.

What I Didn’t Like

Some of the clichés used around the vengeful ghost are a bit much and the constant injuries to various people while the mediator skates through uninjured are rather exaggerated.

The Bottom Line

She sees dead people.

Note: Also published under the title I Love You To Death.

Double or Nothing by Peter David (1999) – BR00026 (2001) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
March 4 2001

Plot or Premise

This is the fifth in the series about a vengeful attack on the universe by an “unknown” assailant who uses biological weapons to wipe out races in the Federation. This book puts Riker on the Excalibur, dealing with Shelby et al; Mackenzie on a secret undercover mission to infiltrate the assailant’s lair; and, Picard undercover to do the same thing, eventually linking up with Mackenzie.

What I Liked

There are a series of one-liners with Shelby and Riker that are occasionally funny, Mackenzie’s infiltration is really interesting at the start and his character is great, and there is an interesting interplay between Admirals at one point.

What I Didn’t Like

The Riker and Shelby section is not very well-written, Mackenzie’s infiltration becomes repetitive at the end, and when Picard and he link up, it makes little to no sense for most of it. However, my real problem with this story is the sequencing…up until now in the series, you haven’t known why the assailant is doing what he is doing, or even who it is. This one reveals all, and the motives are kind of a cliché. The New Frontier portion stays true to form while the rest of the interactions with The Next Generation universe is more of a caricature than reality.

The Bottom Line

Readable.

The Mist by Dean Wesley Smith and Kristine Kathryn Rusch (1998) – BR00025 (2001) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
March 4 2001

Plot or Premise

This is the third in the series dealing with the bar called “The Captain’s Table”, a bar only for Captains across time and space. Sisko is in need of some rest, so he visits Bajor and finds the bar. And finds that the interesting aspect of the bar is that everyone gets to tell a tale. His tale is of a group known as The Mist. Centuries before, the Mist shifted themselves and their worlds out of normal space into a phased sub-space. Having left normal space behind, they have been excluded from the trials and tribulations of the Federation, the Klingon Empire, the Romulans and the Cardassians. However, they lure Sisko into their space to help them fight an apparent revolt by subversives who are going to phase-shift DS9 and use it in Mist space to attack other worlds.

What I Liked

The story is interesting enough, particularly some of the new-to-the-Star-Trek-universe characters, and good involvement of the Klingons.

What I Didn’t Like

The story jumps back to “normal” time too often to show the bar, when the story Sisko is telling is far more interesting. The characters and Klingon involvement are good, but are either not well-integrated in the main plot or just not developed enough. Plus, Kira comes off as some cartoonish clone of her real character.

The Bottom Line

Worth a read but not a “must read”.

The First Virtue by Michael Jan Friedman and Christie Golden (1999) – BR00023 (2001) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
March 4 2001

Plot or Premise

This is the final in the series of six Star Trek books dealing with an assault with biological weapons on the Federation. This book takes the reader back to the time of Picard as Captain of the Stargazer and adds Tuvok and Jack Crusher to the series. Picard is assigned diplomatic duties for a system on the verge of war. Working together with Tuvok and Crusher, they quickly realize that the war is being primed by someone, but they’re just not sure who. Tuvok and Crusher go undercover and they form the majority of the story.

What I Liked

Tuvok’s and Crusher’s undercover antics are interesting reading, and represent a solid addition to Tuvok’s background.

What I Didn’t Like

Crusher’s character is only superficially developed, as is the character of the man who eventually becomes the assailant for the other five books.

The Bottom Line

Not the best in the series.