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laraleecupcake's review
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
frakalot's review
3.0
"Some good points, some bad points. Oh, but it all works out." - 'Cities' by Talking Heads
This book is a mad, mad holodeck adventure and I thought it did a fair job of emulating this type of episode. It was wild and fun but tried to maintain a core lesson... That experience is the best way to learn.
I've grown to love holodeck episodes over the years. When I first watched TNG/DS9/VOY these episodes used to irk me but the more I've come to know the Starfleet crews the more fun they've seemed. Perhaps as I've grown up I've realised the important character building and concept testing that they provided.
There's a reference to the Trill with a description that is light years off what we know about them but that's excusable since they were a very underdeveloped concept during TNG.
I'm a pro-Wesley Trekkie and I didn't mind the objective he was driven by in this story but I thought he was both unnecessarily dismissive of the potential for the existing holodeck command program and unnecessarily exaggerating the difficulty of creating Boogeymen.
The term exologist seemed like a misspelling of exobiologist but I really didn't care about any other grammatical issues.
This was a fun story that I thought would easily fit in with other TNG episodes.
This book is a mad, mad holodeck adventure and I thought it did a fair job of emulating this type of episode. It was wild and fun but tried to maintain a core lesson... That experience is the best way to learn.
I've grown to love holodeck episodes over the years. When I first watched TNG/DS9/VOY these episodes used to irk me but the more I've come to know the Starfleet crews the more fun they've seemed. Perhaps as I've grown up I've realised the important character building and concept testing that they provided.
There's a reference to the Trill with a description that is light years off what we know about them but that's excusable since they were a very underdeveloped concept during TNG.
I'm a pro-Wesley Trekkie and I didn't mind the objective he was driven by in this story but I thought he was both unnecessarily dismissive of the potential for the existing holodeck command program and unnecessarily exaggerating the difficulty of creating Boogeymen.
The term exologist seemed like a misspelling of exobiologist but I really didn't care about any other grammatical issues.
This was a fun story that I thought would easily fit in with other TNG episodes.
octavia_cade's review
1.0
There's no getting round it. This is a Wesley Crusher story and I can't fucking stand Wesley Crusher. My sister and I used to watch The Next Generation when we were kids, and we'd heard there were badges out there that said "Nuke Wesley" and we wanted some. Badly. (How is it that the show-runners did so badly with him, where only several years later Jake Sisko was such a well-written, well-rounded kid? Whatever caused the learning curve for character among the show's staff, good.)
In this book, Wesley is convinced he needs holodeck training to better his chances of being captain one day, so he programmes a made-up species of opponent, because none of the Federation races are challenging enough for his special self, big-headed brat that he is. The result is the Boogeymen of the title, childhood fears of his that manifest in irritating ways. (At one point the Boogeymen turn into ninja and kidnap him. It's exactly as ridiculous as it sounds.) And the holodeck malfunctions, as it always fucking does - and I dislike malfunctioning holodeck stories, if only half as much as I dislike Wesley Crusher, so this book is the perfect storm of suck for me - and of course "Captain" Crusher has to step up, and if only he'd fallen down a turbolift shaft instead.
I do appreciate that Troi steals Wesley's thunder in the end by coming up with a solution so simple that the paperclip mascot from Microsoft Word could have thought of it, but it is nowhere near enough for me to tolerate the rest of the book. And look, if I were indifferent to Wesley this still wouldn't be a story that appealed to me - it would likely only rate two stars - but as I said: I can't stand him. I really can't.
In this book, Wesley is convinced he needs holodeck training to better his chances of being captain one day, so he programmes a made-up species of opponent, because none of the Federation races are challenging enough for his special self, big-headed brat that he is. The result is the Boogeymen of the title, childhood fears of his that manifest in irritating ways. (At one point the Boogeymen turn into ninja and kidnap him. It's exactly as ridiculous as it sounds.) And the holodeck malfunctions, as it always fucking does - and I dislike malfunctioning holodeck stories, if only half as much as I dislike Wesley Crusher, so this book is the perfect storm of suck for me - and of course "Captain" Crusher has to step up, and if only he'd fallen down a turbolift shaft instead.
I do appreciate that Troi steals Wesley's thunder in the end by coming up with a solution so simple that the paperclip mascot from Microsoft Word could have thought of it, but it is nowhere near enough for me to tolerate the rest of the book. And look, if I were indifferent to Wesley this still wouldn't be a story that appealed to me - it would likely only rate two stars - but as I said: I can't stand him. I really can't.
birdmanseven's review
2.0
I think the author did a noble job of trying to rehabilitate the character of Wesley Crusher, but it didn't change the fact that I was reading a book about Wesley Crusher.
For more on this, tune in to my special interview with author Mel Gilden for the All the Books Show: https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/episode-221-interview-with-mel-gilden
For more on this, tune in to my special interview with author Mel Gilden for the All the Books Show: https://soundcloud.com/allthebooks/episode-221-interview-with-mel-gilden
bdplume's review
2.0
The character bits worked, but for me the plot left something to be desired. The combo of a “holodeck gone wrong” story and an “unexplored part of the brain” trope was just a bit much, coupled with the strange aliens that I think I would have liked without all the rest.
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